Category: uncategorised

This weeks assignment will introduce you to Planview Projectplace, a tool used throughout the world by organizations to manage projects. If you have not used ProjectPlace in a different class already, please be sure to watch the videos introducing you to the software and how to use the different features.

Note if you have not already, please follow the steps in week 1 for requesting access to Planview ProjectPlace. After you request access, you will be e-mailed instructions to set up an account. Follow the prompts to establish a password. Remember, any support you need with logging in or with the software should be done via

1. For this project, be sure to follow all the instructions carefully as well as review all the videos (including the assignment video specific to this assignment). You will create a project in ProjectPlace and begin building a WBS (including the execution deliverables you had from your prior discussion). Note do not re-use a project from another course. Be sure each course you create unique projects as to not plagiarize your past work.
2. Log into using your school e-mail and the password you created. The lo
3. Watch the following videos:
4. Introducing
6. Project Assignment 1 Video

1. Review the following text instructions:
4. Next create a Workspace.
5. From the My Overview page, scroll down to the Workspaces section and choose Create
6. Choose the template UniversityPPM Template
7. For the name of the project populate your full name then hyphen your course code
8. (Example: Alivia Smithson – BADM-636)
9. Populate the current date in the Project Start Date field
10. In the Department field, choose the applicable course you are in
11. This should open up a new Workspace screen. If not choose Workspaces from the top Menu to open it up.
12. Directly under the Project Name (your name), under where it says Short Description – click in there and write 2-3 sentences describing the purpose/scope of your project (in essence a scope statement based on the project you selected in step 1 above). You may also upload a custom avatar if you wish.
13. Next click on Members on the top menu, Click invite. Search for your course instructor and add them as a member by clicking Send.
14. Congratulations you have now created a project workspace! Feel free to familiarize yourself with the different areas of the workspace!
15. Next, we are going to add in our project WBS. (Be sure to follow the steps in the assignment video which include):
16. Navigate to the Plan page to add in deliverables/activities
17. Adding your project as the first line to your Plan.
18. Add in the major deliverables under your project as initiate, planning, execute, monitor/control, and close.
19. Under Initiate, add in one (1) sub-deliverable
20. Under Planning, add in at least five (5) sub-deliverables
21. Under Execution, add in the deliverables based on your prior discussion post. Expand on them if applicable so that you have at least five (5) sub-deliverables under Execution.
22. Under each of your sub-deliverables, add at least two activities per deliverable, which is the action of the work needing to be completed.
23. At this time, you do not need to add sub-deliverables for the monitor/control and close deliverables.
24. Next add in dependencies for all the activities (note you only have to add these into any activity that doesnt have sub-activities). When you do this, create at least two of your deliverables to be completed in parallel. Be sure all activities except the first have a predecessor and all have a successor. You can check this by making sure all work packages have an arrow going into and out of them. Change the color of the parallel activities to the color purple to make them standout from other activities.
25. Next update your durations so that your project is four months long. If your actual project was more/less, just adjust for the purpose of the assignment so your total project is exactly four months long (120 days).
26. Finally, take a screen snip of your WBS and of the Gantt chart created. Add these within a word document and submit them to your instructor for grading. Note be sure the WBS/Gantt chart is fully expanded and the duration and start dates are viewable. You may need to take multiple screen shots if needed.

Initial Postings:

Read and reflect on the assigned readings/videos for the week. Respond to both the below:

1. Based on the different concepts covered, choose one topic area to explore further. Conduct online research related to that topic across at least two articles. Post a summary (2-3 paragraphs) of these learnings to further educate your peers on the subject.
2. Provide a graduate-level response to one of the following questions:
3. Why is the critical path method important to determining the length of a project?
4. What are some techniques related to schedule compression that a PM could use to help reduce the length of a project?
5. Why might having extra lead/lag time be beneficial or hurtful to a project?

Your post must be substantive and demonstrate insight gained from the course material. Postings must be in the student’s own words – do not provide quotes nor use ChatGPT or other tools to write on your behalf!

Your initial post should be at least 450+ words and in APA format (including Times New Roman with font size 12 and double spaced). Post the actual body of your paper in the discussion thread then attach a Word version of the paper for APA/Plagiarism review.

Module Overview:

When controlling the project schedule, the Project Manager will focus on reviewing variances as related to the schedule baseline to actual performance. If performance begins to vary from the baseline, then different tools may be deployed to get the project back-on track. These tools may include reviewing the critical path and revisiting leads/lags of the project, completing what-if scenarios, and deploying schedule compression and leveling techniques.

Module Objectives:

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

1. Students will use various tools such as what-if scenarios and critical path for project performance purposes.

Learning Materials:

Study the following learning materials this week:

• Take a moment to review

Recap of the Critical Path

The critical path of the project identifies the sequence of activities/tasks which represents the shortest possible duration to complete the project. Those activities on the critical path will have no float time, thus any delays to those activities will cause a delay in the project. The activities that are computed to have float time can delay up to the maximum amount of float without delaying the project. This only works when you have parallel streams of work with different members working on different activities. As if your project is just one long sequential project, then all the activities are on the critical path. Understanding the critical path is important as it allows the Project Manager the ability to understand what activities can be delayed without impacting the schedule, or where possible contingency float may want to be proactively added in. It also gives an opportunity for the Project Manager to review with the team to see if more opportunities exist to do work in parallel to reduce the length of the project.

Take a moment to review

What-If Scenarios

What-if scenarios is a technique that the Project Team can use to help identify how variables and potential changes could influence the constraints of the project. The team will typically run through hypothetical conditions and elaborate how it may harm or benefit the project typically via some form of brainstorming session. This is often used as an additional tool for risk assessment.

Take a moment to read through

Schedule Compressions & Leveling

There are multiple techniques for compressing the schedule down if the Project Manager is faced with the challenge to reduce the schedule, while maintain the scope of the project. Note these options may though adjust resource requirements. Some options include:

• Crashing the schedule, where we add resources to critical activities in order to shorten the schedule
• Fast-tracking, where we overlap or start work on multiple activities at the same time. Note though this only works effectively if the project has resources to support and may lead to other project challenges.
• Resource leveling involves redistributing resources to ensure maximum efficiency.

Take a moment to review the following videos related to schedule compressing:

Leads & Lags

You should have learned about Leads and Lags during project planning, as they help with building out the schedule. They are important as a component of project control as they are often areas where the Project Manager needs to monitor to ensure they are not becoming excessive or being taken advantage of, which later in the project could cause a shift in the critical path.

• Lead is the amount of time a successor task can start before its predecessor is finished. You can use Leads to overlap tasks if needed.
• Lag is the amount of time that must pass before a successor task can start after the predecessor task has completed. These purposely cause delays between tasks, which are useful to help manage dependencies or possible bottlenecks. They are also used as a contingency at times to account for the possibility of delays with tasks.

There may be times when a task can start prior to the predecessor finishing. For example, if a quality assurance team can start reviewing data imported into a new software system prior to all the data being loaded, then we can adjust a lead time to permit that. This in-turn can help reduce the overall project time.

Please read the following articles:

References

Project Management Institute. (2021). A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK guide) (7th ed.). Project Management Institute.

Read Case 10.1, “The Blue Skye Project” at the end of the Chapter 10 , and respond to the following questions:

Garth Hudson was a 29-year-old graduate of Eastern State University (ESU) with a B.S. degree in management information systems. After graduation, he worked for seven years at Bluegrass Systems in Louisville, Kentucky. While at ESU, he worked part-time for an oceanography professor, Ahmet Green, creating a customized database for a research project he was conducting. Green was recently appointed director of Eastern Oceanography Institute (EOI), and Hudson was confident that this prior experience was instrumental in his getting the job as information services (IS) director at the Institute. Although he took a significant pay cut, he jumped at the opportunity to return to his alma mater. His job at Bluegrass Systems had been very demanding. The long hours and extensive traveling had created tension in his marriage. He was looking forward to a normal job with reasonable hours. Besides, Jenna, his wife, would be busy pursuing her MBA at Eastern State University. While at Bluegrass, Hudson worked on a wide range of IS projects. He was confident that he had the requisite technical expertise to excel at his new job.

(Rest of case not shown due to length.)

1. If you were Hudson, how would you respond to the director?
2. What mistakes did Hudson make?
3. What are the lessons to be learned from this case?

HERE IS THE CASE STUDY:The Blue Sky Project*

Garth Hudson was a 29-year-old graduate of Eastern State University (ESU) with a BS degree in management information systems. After graduation, he worked for seven years at Bluegrass Systems in Louisville, Kentucky. While at ESU he worked part time for an oceanography professor, Ahmet Green, creating a customized database for a research project he was conducting. Green was recently appointed director of Eastern Oceanography Institute (EOI), and Garth was confident that this prior experience was instrumental in his getting the job as information services (IS) director at the institute. Although he took a significant pay cut, he jumped at the opportunity to return to his alma mater. His job at Bluegrass Systems had been very demanding. The long hours and extensive traveling had created tension in his marriage. He was looking forward to a normal job with reasonable hours. Besides, Jenna, his wife, would be busy pursuing her MBA at Eastern State University. While at Bluegrass, Garth worked on a wide range of IS projects. He was confident that he had the requisite technical expertise to excel at his new job.

Eastern Oceanography Institute was an independently funded research facility aligned with Eastern State University. Approximately 50 full- and part-time staff worked at the institute. They worked on research grants funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United Nations (UN), as well as research financed by private industry. There were typically 7 to 9 major research projects under way at any one time, as well as 20 to 25 smaller projects. One-third of the institutes scientists had part-time teaching assignments at ESU and used the institute to conduct their own basic research.

FIRST YEAR AT EOI

Garth made a point of introducing himself to the various groups of people upon his arrival at the institute. Still, his contact with the staff was limited. He spent most of his time becoming familiar with EOIs information system, training his staff, responding to unexpected problems, and working on various projects. Garth suffered from food allergies and refrained from informal staff lunches at nearby restaurants. He stopped regularly attending the biweekly staff meetings in order to devote more time to his work. He only attended the meetings when there was a specific agenda item regarding his operation.

The IS staff at EOI consisted of two full-time assistants, Tom Jackson and Celeste Jackson. They were supported by five part-time student assistants from the Computer Science Department. Celeste Jackson was assigned full-time to a large five-year NSF grant aimed at creating a virtual library of oceanographic research. Celeste worked out of the project leaders office and had very little interaction with Garth or Tom. Garths relationship with Tom was awkward from the start. He found out, after the fact, that Tom thought he would get the job as director. They never talked about it, but he sensed tension the first couple of months on the job. One of the problems was that he and Tom were totally different personalities. Tom was gregarious and very talkative. He had a habit of walking around the institute after lunch, talking to different scientists and researchers. Often this led to useful information. Garth, on the other hand, preferred to stay in his office, working on various assignments, and ventured out only when called upon. While Garth felt Tom was not on top of the latest developments, as he was, he respected Toms work.

Page 395

Last month the system was corrupted by a virus introduced over the Internet. Garth devoted an entire weekend to restoring the system to operation. A recurring headache was one of the servers, code-named Poncho, that would occasionally shut down for no apparent reason. Instead of replacing it, he decided to nurse Poncho along until it could be replaced. His work was frequently interrupted by frantic calls from staff researchers who needed immediate help on a variety of computer-related problems. He was shocked at how computer illiterate some of the researchers were and how he had to guide them through some of the basics of e-mail management and database configuration. He did find time to help Assistant Professor Amanda Johnson on a project. Amanda was the only researcher to respond to Garths e-mail announcing that the IS staff was available to help on projects. Garth created a virtual project office on the Internet so that Amanda could collaborate with colleagues from institutes in Italy and Thailand on a UN research grant. He looked forward to the day when he could spend more time on fun projects like that.

THE BLUE SKY CONVERSION PROJECT

The Blue Sky conversion project began in earnest four months ago. Ahmet Green returned from Washington, D.C., with grim news. The economic downturn was going to lead to a dramatic reduction in funding. He anticipated as much as a 25 percent reduction in annual budget over the next three to five years. This would lead to staff reductions and cutting of operating costs. One cost-cutting measure was moving IT operations to the cloud. Ahmet had first proposed the idea to Garth after attending a meeting with several directors of other institutes who faced similar financial challenges.

The basic strategy was to move all of the institutes databases, software, and even hardware to a private cloud. Staff would use their current PCs to simply access more powerful machines over the Internet. These powerful machines could be partitioned and configured differently according to the needs of research staff, giving each staff member his or her own virtual machine (VM). Staff could also access, use, and share virtual servers over the Internet as needed. Garth worked with the institutes accountant on a cost/benefit analysis. From their standpoint it made perfect sense. First, the institute would not have to replace or upgrade aging computers and servers. Second, the institute would enjoy significant IT savings, since they would pay for only IT resources actually used. They would not have to make any major IT capital expenditures. Third, cloud computing would provide the scientists greater flexibility by accessing desired resources or software from anywhere at any time. And finally, once the system was up and running, the institute would no longer need the services of at least one full-time IT worker. Ahmet decided to name the project Blue Sky to put a positive spin on the conversion.

At first the associate directors balked at the idea. Some had a hard time conceptualizing what cloud computing meant. Others were worried about security and reliability. In the end they reluctantly signed off on the project when given alternative cost-cutting initiatives. Garth assured them that cloud computing was the wave of the future and setting up or accessing virtual machines on the cloud was as simple as setting up or accessing their G-mail account.

The conversion project would be completed in stages. The first stage was selecting a provider. The next stage was migrating non-mission critical information to the cloud. The next stages would entail migrating each of the six big grant projects in waves to the cloud. The final stage would focus on the remaining smaller projects. Training would be an integral part of each stage. The institute would maintain a back-up for all the data until six months after complete conversion. After that the cloud service provider would be responsible for backing up the data.

Page 396

At first Tom was excited about the project. He was savvy enough to realize that this was the future of computing and he was intrigued with how the whole system would work. His feelings soon changed when he started thinking about the potential ramifications for his job. He asked Garth more than once what the department would look like after the conversion. Garth replied vaguely that they would figure it out once the system was up and running.

A task force was formed, headed by Garth, to select a cloud service provider. Garth was surprised by how many choices there were. Plans and cost structures varied considerably. After much deliberation the committee narrowed the choices to three. The first two were among the bigger providers in the industry, VMWARE and Microsoft. The third choice was a relatively new company, OpenRange, which offered a cheaper solution. Tom argued that even though the bigger providers would cost more, they were a much safer bet. Garth responded that he had confidence in OpenRange and cutting costs was the primary goal behind the project. In the end, Garth persuaded the committee to choose OpenRange. Not only would cost be significantly cheaper, but OpenRange would help in training the personnel. Garth liked this idea; training was not his strength, and he wasnt looking forward to holding senior scientists hands through the process.

It took Garth and Tom six weeks to identify noncritical data. Garth worked on the back end while Tom met with staff to identify noncritical information. The motto was when in doubt, leave it out. The actual migration only took a couple of days. Training proved to be more problematic. The staff sent by OpenRange appeared to be straight out of college. While enthusiastic, they were inexperienced in the art of getting older staff to accept and use new technology. Many trainers had the habit of simply doing things for the staff instead of showing them how to do it themselves. It all came to a head when a power outage at the OpenRange storage system shut down and disrupted operations at the institute for 36 hours.

Ahmet held an emergency meeting. Garth reported that the power outage occurred in North East India and that OpenRange was expanding their back-up systems. Several members argued that the institute should switch to one of the bigger providers. When this came up, Garth looked at Tom and was relieved when he remained silent. In the end, Ahmet announced that it would be too costly to switch providers and Garth and his staff would have to make the conversion work. Tom stepped forward and volunteered to manage the training. Everyone agreed that the institute should hire three more part-time assistants to help the staff with the transition.

Garth worked behind the scenes, coordinating with his counterparts at OpenRange and planning the conversion of the next segment of the project. Tom worked closely with the OpenRange trainers and refocused their attention on teaching. Resistance was pretty high at first. Tom used his personal contacts within the institute to rally support for the change. He persuaded Garth to change the conversion schedule to begin with those projects in which the leads were most supportive of the change. Training improved and Tom created some useful training materials, including short videos on how to access the virtual machines.

One problem that occurred early in the process involved a graduate research assistant who mistakenly hit the wrong commands and terminated her virtual machine instead of logging off. This resulted in complete loss of that machines data in the cloud. Fortunately, the institute had back-up and Tom was able to recover the work. Collaborating with some programmers at OpenRange, Tom wrote a program that triggered a pop-up message on the screen, warning users not to terminate their virtual machine when logging off.

Page 397

CLOSING OUT THE BLUE SKY PROJECT

It took almost a year to complete the Blue Sky project. After the rocky beginning things went relatively smoothly. Acceptance was slow, but Tom and his staff worked with the staff to demonstrate how the new system would make their work easier. Two student assistants were always on call to address any problem or question. Garth spent most of his time interacting with the OpenRange counterparts and rarely ventured out of his office. He had his student assistants collect information from staff so he could configure the new virtual machines to exactly match staff needs. He put in long hours so that customized databases would work in the new environment. This proved to be a very difficult task and he was quite pleased with his work. Twice OpenRange experienced momentary power shortages at their server facility, which disrupted work at the institute. Garth was happy to report that OpenRange was breaking ground on an alternative server system in Ukraine.

When the institute conducted a retrospective (project review) on the Blue Sky project, some still questioned the choice of OpenRange as a cloud service provider but praised Toms work on helping the staff make the transition. Despite the criticism over the choice of OpenRange, Garth felt good about the project. The system was up and running and the staff was beginning to enjoy the flexibility it provided. Besides, the institute would achieve real savings from the new system.

Soon after the retrospective, Garth was surprised when Ahmet walked into his office and closed the door. Ahmet began by thanking Garth for his work on the project. He then cleared his throat and said, You know, Garth, one of the consequences of Blue Sky is reducing our IT staff. Celeste is needed for the data library project. So it comes down to you or Tom. Frankly, there is general agreement among the associate directors that Tom is essential to the institute. I know this might come as a surprise to you, and before I make a decision I want to give you a chance to change my mind.

If you were Garth, how would you respond to the director?

What mistakes did Garth make?

What are the lessons to be learned from this case?

Requirements:

• There is no minimum or maximum required number of pages. Your analysis will be considered complete if it addresses all the question components outlined above.
• Use of proper APA formatting and citations. If supporting evidence from outside resources is used, those must be properly cited. A minimum of 3 – 5 sources (excluding the course textbook) from scholarly articles or business periodicals is required.
• Include your best critical thinking and analysis to arrive at your justification.
• Approach the assignment from the perspective of the senior executive leadership of the company.

Assigned Readings:

Chapter. 9 Reducing Project Duration

Chapter. 10 Being an Effective Project Manager

Initial Postings: Read and reflect on the assigned readings for the week. Then post what you thought was the most important concept(s), method(s), term(s), and/or any other thing that you felt was worthy of your understanding in each assigned textbook chapter.Your initial post should be based upon the assigned reading for the week, so the textbook should be a source listed in your reference section and cited within the body of the text. Other sources are not required but feel free to use them if they aid in your discussion.

Also, provide a graduate-level response to each of the following questions:

1. Which of the eight traits/skills associated with being an effective project manager is the most important? The least important? Why?
2. It is possible to shorten the critical path and save money. Explain how.

[Your post must be substantive and demonstrate insight gained from the course material. Postings must be in the student’s own words – do not provide quotes!]

[Your initial post should be at least 450+ words and in APA format (including Times New Roman with font size 12 and double spaced). Post the actual body of your paper in the discussion thread then attach a Word version of the paper for APA review]