Sikkim Manipal Online mba

ASSIGNMENT DRIVE WINTER 2013
PROGRAM MBADS/ MBAFLEX/ MBAHCSN3/ MBAN2/ PGDBAN2
SEMESTER II SUBJECT CODE & NAME
BK ID B1632 CREDIT & MARKS 4 CREDITS , 60 MARKS
Q.No Criteria Marks Total Marks
1 Write short notes on
ï‚· Project break-even point
ï‚· Need for project planning
ï‚· Project type organization
ï‚· Rules for network construction
ï‚· Project break-even point
ï‚· Need for project planning
ï‚· Project type organization
ï‚· Rules for network construction
10 (2.5 marks each) 10

2 Describe and compare the project appraisal methods NPV and IRR with example? Which
one is better method in estimating returns on investment in a particular project?
Description and comparison of NPV and IRR
Analysis and inference of which is a better
method
5
5
10
3
Microsoft Project AMS
The company
AMS is a global business and IT consulting firm to the government, financial services, and
communications industries. AMS applies both proprietary and partner technologies and
provides solutions through business consulting, system integration, and outsourcing.
Founded in 1970, AMS is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, and has offices worldwide.
The company has approximately 6300 employees.
The challenge
Several years ago, AMS developed an internal project management system called Project
in a Box. Based on Lotus Notes, the homegrown system was becoming inefficient and
costly to operate, particularly because it was designed as a standalone, non-collaborative
product. When a new consulting project was set up, a new instance of the database was
created, leading to a chaotic system with literally hundreds of separate databases.
Without any kind of centralised information sharing, it was difficult to use information from
one project on another project. The system also prevented AMS’s managers from viewing
companywide metrics, such as project completion rates and whether projects were being
completed on time and on budget. AMS’s executives needed a system to allow them to
have a portfolio view of the health of the company’s projects in progress. A collaborative
project management system would allow AMS managers to:
ï‚· Measure project performance and Earned Value Metrics (EVM) allowing for
improvements in on-time and on-budget delivery to customers
ï‚· Standardise processes
ï‚· Understand the impact of task dependencies within complex projects
ï‚· Share information across different product lines
The strategy
Many AMS project managers were already using Microsoft Project as a desktop
application, developing project plans and Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) on their
individual PCs. However, these individual installations were not networked together and
did not feed critical project performance information to executives.
Therefore, in October 2002, when AMS began the vendor selection process for a
company-wide project management solution, Microsoft Project was the natural choice,
both because many internal users were already experienced with the application’s
scheduling and planning functionality and because Microsoft offered the best price point.
In March 2003, AMS chose Microsoft as its project management software vendor and
began a pilot programme. In June 2003, AMS selected the public sector product
engineering group as the first department to begin the pilot programme. AMS divided this
initial pilot programme into four distinct phases:
ï‚· Phase 1: In early July, AMS installed Microsoft Project for and trained 15—20 project
managers working on a common product line.
ï‚· Phase 2: In late August, AMS expanded the installation to 170 people in another
product line within the same group.
ï‚· Phase 3: In late September, AMS rolled out Project’s decision support capabilities to
ten executives, allowing them to mine data for reporting purposes.
ï‚· Phase 4: If the pilot is successful, AMS will expand the Project programme to 4,000
users company wide in a staged rollout.
Key benefit areas
With the pilot programme well under way, AMS is already seeing benefits from Microsoft
Project. The system has helped AMS to meet its goal of creating a more collaborative
project management system that allows managers to view metrics and create schedules
with a view of resources across projects and across the entire organisation. The
collaborative nature of Microsoft Project Server allows team members, team leaders, and
project managers to complete EVM reporting more quickly, leading to more available time
for billable hours. The quantifiable benefits from the Microsoft Project deployment include:
ï‚· Productivity gains from automated weekly reporting process. Consultants and
developers now spend less time each week creating weekly status and performance
reports, leading directly to more time available for billable hours.
ï‚· Productivity gains from automated EVM analysis. Team leaders and project managers
now spend less time processing and analysing status and performance reports from
team members, allowing them to also have more time available for billable hours.
ï‚· The Microsoft Project deployment also allows AMS project managers to get a better
sense of project status metrics in real time. This leads to fewer project budget and cost
overruns, because project managers can quickly make adjustments to keep projects
profitable.
Key cost areas
The largest cost area for AMS’s deployment of Microsoft Project was the software license
cost, making up 63% of the total cost of the project. Other cost areas over the 3-year
period included consulting, training, ongoing maintenance, and personnel costs
associated with the everyday use of the system.
Lessons learnt
Overall, AMS’s Microsoft Project implementation went smoothly. AMS’s managers
attribute the project’s success to their careful planning and staged pilot programme
approach. AMS’s managers recommend that companies considering similar
implementations should not underestimate the change management necessary to make
Microsoft Project work effectively. Project managers, especially those without PMI
certifications, will often need to undergo training on how to build effective WBS’s, how to
plan and schedule complex projects, and how to adjust WBS’s to changing project
conditions.
A successful Microsoft Project implementation also requires a high level of communication
between team members and project managers. This is especially important with regard to
communicating the inputs, steps, expected output, and dependencies of complex
business processes.
AMS’s managers also recommended that companies carefully look at their internal
processes for building WBS’s, especially the ones for complex projects that require more
than 500 tasks. Some of AMS’s projects contained upwards of 2500 tasks, which was
well above Microsoft Project’s practical limit of 500 tasks for a single project.
Calculating the ROI
Nucleus Research analysed the costs of software, personnel, consulting, and training over
a 3-year period to quantify AMS’s investment in Microsoft Project. Direct and indirect
benefits were also quantified over a 3-year period. Direct benefits quantified included
productivity gains for both team members and team leaders when creating EVM reports.
Because AMS was an early adopter and because it agreed to participate in trade shows
and in marketing ventures, the company received consulting services from Microsoft at no
cost, though AMS did use internal consultants for a portion of the implementation.
Companies currently considering Microsoft Project for similar enterprise implementations
must take consulting costs into account when evaluating potential ROI. Benefits not
quantified because of the early stage of AMS’s Project deployment included reduced
project budget and schedule overruns. However, Nucleus recommends that companies
considering Microsoft Project evaluate this potential benefit.
Source: http://nucleusresearch.com/library/microsoft-roi/d134.pdf
What difficulties were encountered by AMS while dealing with information transfer
problem in the company? What strategy is used by AMS for dealing with this
problem?
ï‚· Listing of difficulties encountered
ï‚· Evidence of the strategy used
ï‚· Analysis of the strategy
ï‚· conclusion
ï‚· 3
ï‚· 2
ï‚· 3
ï‚· 2
10
4 Form the above case how did the solution help the managers, project teams and the
company.
Benef its of the solution to managers ,
project team and company
Conclusion
9 (3 marks each)
1
10
5 What are the key steps involved in purchase cycle?
Definition of purchase cycle
Listing of the steps involved in the purchase
cycle
Summarisation of each step
1
2
7
10
6 Discuss the concept of quality and project quality management.
ï‚· Definition of quality
ï‚· Overview of project quality management
ï‚· Summarization of project quality
management process
1
3
6
10
*A-Answer
Note —Please provide keywords, short answer, specific terms, specific examples and marks
break – up (wherever necessary)
Note —Answer all questions. Kindly note that answers for 10 marks questions should be
approximately of 400 words. Each question is followed by evaluation scheme
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