Internet Exercises

Chapter 9 - Project Management

1. Discuss some of the beneficial aspects of the Gantt Chart (http://www.netmba.com/operations/project/gantt/).

2. Visit these sites on work breakdown structures (WBS) – site 1 (http://www.netmba.com/operations/project/wbs/), site 2 (http://www.hyperthot.com/pm_wbs.htm) and site 3 (http://www.pmforum.org/docs/wbsrules.htm) – and discuss what it is, and when WBS is appropriate to use and when it is not. Also discuss its benefits in the project management process.

3. Visit these sites on CPM (http://www.netmba.com/operations/project/cpm/) and PERT (http://www.netmba.com/operations/project/pert/) and discuss the differences between the two, their strengths and their limitations.

4. Visit this site of the responsibility assignment matrix (http://www.nnh.com/ev/ram2.html) and discuss how it is developed and its usefulness in the project management process.

5. Earned value analysis (EVA), also called earned value management (EVM) is one of the most popular new quantitative tools in project management. Visit these two sites – site 1 (http://www.acq.osd.mil/pm/evbasics.htm) and site 2 (http://www.cio.noaa.gov/itmanagement/evaslides.ppt) – and discuss what EVA is, why it is useful and how it is used.

6. Visit this site on Enterprise Project Management (http://www.microsoft.com/office/project/prodinfo/epm/overview.mspx) and discuss what it is and why it might be beneficial to some companies (but not others).

7. Visit the Project Management Institute web site and access the link to PM Network Online. Download one of the featured articles related to project management and write a brief summary.