These are some typical questions based on the first two chapters in the book. Remember to get the full marks for each questions you need to write five paragraphs for each question. Each paragraph should explain the point you are trying to make and then explain why it is important to project managers. So for example the barriers to effective communication might be five paragraphs like
1) Time zones are one of the key barriers to communication in multi-national projects. This makes communication difficult as the working period of different team members may not overlap and the remote working can make it difficult for the project to build trust between team members. Project managers can overcome this by organising face to face startup meeting of key project team members or by using on-line conferencing facilities to build relationships.
Five more like that and you should get full marks.
So the questions for this week are, please complete any two from the questions below.
1) List and describe five functions that a project office can perform?
2) Describe five typical responsibilities of a project sponsor?
3) Describe five situations in which portfolio management would be appropriate?
4) List and describe five activities that take place during handover and closeout?
5) Describe five different types of project reviews?
6) Describe five advantages of adopting a structured method?
7) Explain the benefits of project governance?
Hello Paul, please find answers below to Question 1 & 2. (Sorry just asking a basic question – Do we need to re-write the entire question in the exam before starting the answer, or just the reference to the proper Question number will be sufficient?)
Q1. The five functions that the office can perform are:
1. Assurance of the project manager and team
2. Administrative support and guidance
3. Collection, Analysis and Reporting of Project Information
4. Be the home of the project management community
5 Continuous Improvement and Centre of Excellence
The functions are described as below:
1. Assurance of the project manager and team –
a. Go through the procedures in the project management plan and make sure they are being adhered to
b. Undertake role in the phase gate reviews and other reviews to ensure that the benefits are on target to be realised.
2. Administrative Support and Guidance –
a. Be responsible for the configuration management activities
b. Have experts in the areas of risks, planning and estimates in the order to guide the project managers.
c. Support the project manager during absences
d. Be involved in the entire meetings cycle – arranging meetings, issue agendas and minutes, follow up notes from the meetings, re-arrange meetings if required.
3. Collection, Analysis and Reporting of Project Information-
a. Collate and Tabulate the timesheet and other accounting information from the team and report them to the project manager and sponsor
b. Attend the specialist workshops liket he risk workshop and gather detailed information
c. Maintain a schedule for providing various reports to the project manager and sponsor- can schedule to provide it weekly, monthly or quarterly basis.
4. Be the home of the project management community –
a. Be responsible for allocating a project manager to a project
b. Be responsible for the professional development and trainings
c. Where project office has expert resource in the project management field, provide coaching and mentoring to the project managers
5. Continuous Improvement and Centre for Excellence-
a. Make sure that all the lessons learnt from the project are properly documented.
b. Act as a repository for the strategic implementation not only for the project but also for the portfolio. This is also referred to as the EPMO – Enterprise Project Management Office.
Q2. the five responsibilities of a project sponsor are:
1. A project sponsor owns the business case and is also responsible for the realisation of the benefits. As the sponsor is the owner of the business case, any changes to the business subsequent to the agreement of the original business case will be required to have approval from the sponsor. The changes can then be commuincated to the project managers and users. Sponsors role is benefits focused, thus he is responsible for proper identification of benefits and managing them throughout the life cycle. There after he will be responsible for realisation of benefits.
2. A project sponsor chairs the steering group. This group is made of senior managers and peers of the sponsor. The steering group will provide the delegated authority to the sponsor who will then ensure that the group is kept up to date on any progress or proceedings and will make sure that they are aware of all risks and issues that might emerge into the project.
3. A project sponsoor is also responsible for arbitrating between different user communities. While different users require different things, it will be the sponsor and not the project manager who will be called upon to arbitrate.
4. A project sponsor helps the project manager to manage key stakeholders. A project manager may not be given complete authority to deal with all the stakeholders for example journalists. Thus the project manager has to seek advise, guidance and support of the sponsor.
5. A project sponsor helps identify key strategic and business riskd. They will be responsible to manage these risks and will ensure that any risks in the project are eradicated at the concept phase, before proceeding to the definition and implementation phase.
Natasha I love your answer, it shows good understanding and sufficient detail to get the marks in the exam
Nuitisha
This answer below is not so good. For each paragraph try to describe what the function, why it is important and then provide an example.
1) One of the functions of a project office is support to administrative duties such as the configuration management process. This is an important function for the project office because many project need one centralised team to coordinate the changes made by the different design teams in a project. An example of configuration management support a project office team can provide is support for the configuration library, checking documents in and out as a result of approved change requests.
Five more like this and you should get good marks. I am think of making a video about this structure for answering the questions. Do you think this would help?
For example
Q1. The five functions that the office can perform are:
1. Assurance of the project manager and team
2. Administrative support and guidance
3. Collection, Analysis and Reporting of Project Information
4. Be the home of the project management community
5 Continuous Improvement and Centre of Excellence
The functions are described as below:
1. Assurance of the project manager and team –
a. Go through the procedures in the project management plan and make sure they are being adhered to
b. Undertake role in the phase gate reviews and other reviews to ensure that the benefits are on target to be realised.
2. Administrative Support and Guidance –
a. Be responsible for the configuration management activities
b. Have experts in the areas of risks, planning and estimates in the order to guide the project managers.
c. Support the project manager during absences
d. Be involved in the entire meetings cycle – arranging meetings, issue agendas and minutes, follow up notes from the meetings, re-arrange meetings if required.
ANS 6:
A. Having a structured method in the project and programmes of an organisation ensure consistency across the organisation. This is important as it allows senior management to review and understand preformances of different areas of the business and having similar templates and outputs makes the review process easier. For example in Selex ES the monthly board reviews different programmes and each programme presents is reports in a similar manner to allow easier understand and decisions to be made.
B. Having a structured method allows the clear roles and responsibilities to be identified and issued. This makes it clear when team roles and responsibilities are allocated and are recognised across the business. For example a Project Engineering Lead in a team is clear as the lead engineer for the project’s technical delivery. And is accepted across the business
C. Having a structured method allows gates and reviews points to be held through a project life cycle. This is crucially important as it allows steering boards and senior management to take stock of the project and to make GO/NO decisions through key points in the project. For example at the handover and closeout phase the customer and sponsor will be involved to go through the acceptance testing of the final product before release.
D. A structured method encourages teams to strive for continuous improvements that can be deployed easier across a number of projects and programmes. This is important as it ensure good practice is easily flowed across a company. For example lessons learnt from one project on managing a certain supplier can be made easily available for other project to refer to when they come to manage the same supplier at a later date.
E. Finally a structured method allows project information to be easily archived and for other projects and functions to access this information is required. This is important to allow similar projects to understand the successes and pitfalls past projects went through. A structured method would allow for a strong change control process ensuring all changes are properly captured and base lined in an easily access system.
ANS4:
((Draw Handover diagram))
A. Inform relevant stakeholder and team of entering handover and closeout phase.
B. Prepare final documentation and product for release and for project closeout.
C. Release final product and complete fine handover and closeout
D. Close project and hold post project review
E. Hold benefits realisation review.
A. The project manager will inform all the stakeholders that the project is entering the final phase and will inform the team as well. This will allow the stakeholders to be prepared and informed. The team will plan the final stages, ensure all risks are identified and mitigated and any problems raised and closed.
B. The team will prepare for release of the product to the customer and sponsor. This involves final testing and final inspection and preparing documentation for handover.In conjuction the Pm and team will prepare for closeout by reading documentation for archiving and filling out the necessary documentation.
C. The decision for release is made. The product undergoes final acceptance testing the Customer/ops representatives. This will produce a snagging list. The Team will agree a plan to complete the remaining scope of work with the sponsor.
D. The team works to complete the final snagging list and complete the final handover of the product with all the docuementation and configuration library. The project is now closed and all cost centre are closed, staff is released and a PPR is held. To ensure what went well and measure the project against the success criteria.
E. The benefits realisation review is held to ensure if the products delivered the intended benefits. This review is scheduled before the project is closed to ensure the focus remains and the stakeholders aware of the importance of the benefits review.