PROJECT MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT

This assessment item consists of two parts. Both parts must be completed in order to complete this
assessment item.

Part 1 (40 marks)

Part 1 Task

Your task for this part of the assessment item is to answer the following two questions. Each
question will carry equal (20 marks) and your answer for each question should be around 1000
words:

> Identify five common project risk strategies employed to address threats that your project may
face. Give an example of each.
> Projects are often completed late. Describe the techniques you would use as a project manager to
improve the accuracy and reliability of your project schedule.

> In responding to the above points, be sure to:

> Critique project theory based on your experience and understanding. This is important don't just
"regurgitate" the theory
> Provide examples, data or other relevant information to support your discussion. Examples can be
from work experience, research, study group experience, for example. They should demonstrate the
theoretical points you are asserting in the questions.

Part 2 (60 marks)

> Background

> As a consultant you have been asked by the Global Retail Solutions Group (GRS) to develop an
implementable project plan for a point of sale and stock control system for a proposed chain
(DSE) of retail outlets . You have been supplied the following information, information not available
maybe assumed, this will be a competitive bid targeting the dual goals of quick implementation and
low cost.

> DSE is an aggressive player in the growing DIY electronics market with a plan to open a chain of
retail outlets to further their growth in the market. Outlets will be located in major cities in seven
states. The larger cities will have more than one store. Critical to sales is monitoring sales and stock
turn to ensure adequate stock is available when demanded. Each store will be responsible for day-
to-day operations, however, there is a strong central management structure at the national level.
The services provided by the organization include volume buying to gain discounts, pricing,
merchandising strategies, and consolidation of performance reporting for the corporate
management.

> The Information Systems Department at DSE's corporate office has been given the assignment to
develop a transaction processing system that will apply modern RFID code scanning at the point of
sale and provide automatic inventory control. The system will also relieve the store personnel of the
tedious task of generating sales and performance reports as required by the head office.

> An earlier project has successfully defined the store level hardware that will be used at the points
of transaction plus the communications network that will connect the stores with the state offices.
This hardware consists of standard PCs plus the scanning equipment and any other specialized
interface hardware needed. The communications facility consists of a polled network and will be
based on dial-up lines from the head office to the individual stores. The stores have no requirement
to communicate with each other.

> At this point in time, consider yourself a consultant who has to bid for the software development
piece of the project upon which this system is based. You will have access to several DSE employees
to execute the various tasks that your project proposal will guide to a successful conclusion.

> You have selected Microsoft Project as a software tool to assist in the development of your
proposal.

> Five major activities have been defined, each of which contains a number of tasks. The tasks have
been defined such that each task requires only one resource. Since there is a limit to the number of
resources available to the project, a resource will probably be assigned several tasks throughout the
duration of the project. However, for best efficiency the team has decided that it is best to schedule
the completion of one task before the next task is started by the same resource. Your project design
has divided the work into sufficiently small increments that this strategy can be successfully applied.

> Since the software development is being done on standard platforms with standard operating
environments and well-known development tools, there are no restrictions on the assignment of
resources to tasks. This means that you can reassign tasks among your resource pool as required to
make the most efficient schedule.

> From the information supplied by DSE (below) you have to develop a design for the project. Your
next task is to transfer the entire design to Microsoft Project so that you can clearly establish a
timeline for the project based on detailed planning and costs associated with your preferred choice
including resource utilisation. A concise business proposal including outputs from Microsoft Project
will be required to make your case.

> Transaction processor

> User Interface - Driver code to display individual transaction data, including item name and price to
both the customer and the operator. Richard - 3 days
> Peripheral Interface - Driver code to accept input data from the UPC scanner, scale and keyboard.
Richard - 2 days
> Price Look-up - Inter-process communication to send item identification to the database and
retrieve price information. Elizabeth - 3 days
> Order Control - Application code to accumulate item totals, accepting multiple quantities and
calculating total price. This module also assigns items by tax category and maintains a total for each
tax rate. Elizabeth - 10 days
> Payment Resolution - Application code to accept cash and debit transfers as payment for the order
total. Note: Requires communications facilities with banking network. Harry - 4 days Transaction
Resolution - Application code to update inventory, accumulate sales amounts, account for taxes
collected by category. Harry - 5 days
> Receipt Printing - Application and driver code to print itemized receipt for cash sales and
authorization form for debit transactions. Richard - 4 days

> Price and inventory file
> Database Design - Schema design to include full description of each item and associated data to
support price look-up and inventory management functions. Also includes tax rate by category and
application of specific state tax rules. Sam - 5 days
> Database Access Library - Library applications that accept queries from the transaction processor
and return data requested by the transaction. Includes inventory adjustment based on sale
quantities. Jenny - 12 days
> Database Maintenance Library - Library applications that accept and apply price updates, add new
items, change tax categories and update inventory status with new receipts. Ellie - 12 days
> Database Report Generation - Library applications that support database search for specific input
criteria for product movement studies etc. Sam - 10 days

> Inventory management

> Daily Status Report - Application code to search the database for all items that have been flagged
as low stock status, sorted by supplier and displayed on a PC in the store manager's office. Elizabeth
- 5 days
> Item History Report - An interactive query transaction to display on the manager's terminal the
sales pattern for a selected item over the last two months. Jenny - 4 days
> Order Generation - Application code that accepts as input a specific item and returns the economic
lot quantity and other pertinent vendor data. Also allow the manager to select and process an order
to replenish stock. Harry - 7 days
> Order Communication - Application code that collects the decisions made in the Order Generation
process and prepares an order for transmission to the head office. Harry - 3 days
> Receipt Processor - Application code that accepts input from the receiving dock via either scanner
or keyboard to signal the receipt of stock. Richard - 3 days
> Inventory Update - Application code access the database library to update quantities in stock after
receipt of shipments. Richard - 5 days

> Communications

> Banking Network Interface - Driver code to initiate connection to local transaction switch and
submit account and charge amount. Includes confirmation transaction and error recovery. Elizabeth
- 7 days
> State Network Interface - Driver code to control incoming calls from the head office on the dial-up
network. Handles automatic answer, message transfer in block mode and error recovery. Harry - 12
days
> Communications Command Interpreter - Application code to recognize incoming requests from the
head office for various store performance reports. Jenny - 5 days
> Report Generator - Applications code to respond to a request from the communications interface
to generate specific reports and return data as a file for sending to the state office in block mode.
Each report is saved at the store and may be sent during the same communications session as the
request or in a later session. Ellie - 10 days

> Documentation

> Help for Transaction Processor - Richard - 5 days,
> Help for Price and Inventory Modules - Jenny - 5 days
> Help for Inventory Management - Harry - 5 days
> Help for Communications - Ellie - 5 days

> Alpha test

> This test is conducted by a resource obtained from the head office. The objective is to verify that
all of the functions are operational and that the results of each transaction are accurate and reliable.
Barry - 20 days
> Developer support is provided as follows: Richard - 5 days, Jenny - 7 days, Harry - 6 days, and Ellie -
5 days
> Beta test
> This test is to be conducted by actual users in several of the retail outlets. No development
resources are allocated to this test. The duration of the test is 60 days.

> Start roll-out

> This milestone marks the completion of the project. The rate at which the product is actually
installed and delivered to operating personnel depends on the availability of resources and plans
from the individual stores. Each of these is the possible subject of a project plan.

> Resource costs
> $/hour
> $/hour
> Richard
> 200
> Elizabeth
> 100
> Jenny
> 100
> Ellie
> 90
> Harry
> 100
> Outside Contractors - Sam
> 200
> Barry
> 100
> Transfer pricing - other internal resources
> 120
> Part 2 Task
> You are required to present your project plan to the project sponsor that shows how you propose
to implement this project. As a minimum you should provide your plan as a business report including
typical plan components such as objectives and goals, risk assessment and other elements you feel
are important to support this project, and required to obtain approval from the project sponsor.
> You must also incorporate, as a minimum, the following specific project software outputs:
> project summary
> gantt chart
> cash flow/budget
> network diagram
> resource sheet, and
> any other content you feel is appropriate.
> The assignment will be marked on the basis of the sponsor's understanding of how you plan to
complete this project in the most effective manner. This means value for money, timeframe,
presentation, understanding of your approach and consistency and accuracy of the plan.

> As you prepare your report, don't forget to format the software so that reports (eg. Gantt chart)
are easy to read and can be handled (ideally on 1 page) as part of a meaningful project plan.

> You are presenting your plan to the project sponsor who needs to understand your project plan,
have confidence in you as the project manager and have the appropriate supporting documentation
to back up your approach.
> Rationale
> This assessment task covers topics 1 to 9 and has been designed to ensure that you are engaging
with the subject content on a regular basis. More specifically it seeks to assess your ability to:

> demonstrate how a practicing project manager actually applies project management skills,
methods, techniques and tools ;
> use an industry standard project management software tool (Microsoft Project);
> apply project management skills, methods, techniques and tools to a real world problem typical of
a project manager;