Running Head: UNIT 3: SCOPE, TIME, and COST MANAGEMENT

Unit 3:Scope, Time, and Cost Management 9

Running Head: UNIT 3: SCOPE, TIME, AND COST MANAGEMENT

Unit 3: Scope, Time, and Cost Management

Dale Henderson

Kaplan University

Professor Chad McAllister

IT511: Information Systems Project Management

June 24, 2013 Unit 3:Scope, Time, and Cost Management 9

Unit 3: Scope, Time, and Cost Management

1. Explain project scope management in terms of its processes.

Project scope management is the work that is or is not going to be done, it gives the

team and stakeholders understanding what products that will be produced and the processes

the project team will use to produce them, it is what defines and control the project

knowing what work is to be done and what work will not be done (Schwalbe, 2011).

There are five processes that work with the project scope management and they are:

(1) Collecting requirement which defines and documents and the tasks of which products

are produced within the project as well as the many processes used in creating them. (2)

Defining the scope which requires examining the project charter, requirements documents,

and organizational process assets to produce a scope statement, adding more information as

requirements are produced and change request are approved. (3) Creating the WBS is

subdividing the deliverables into smaller chunks that are more manageable components. (4)

Verifying scope is the formalizing acceptance of the deliverables within the project.

Stakeholders, such as customer and sponsors for the project, inspect and accept the

deliverables during this process. If the deliverables are not accepted, the customers or

sponsor usually request changes. (5) Controlling the changes to the project within the entire

life of the project, these scope changes are a challenge for information technology because

they influence the team the ability to meet project time and cost goals, so project managers

must make sure they weigh the costs and benefits of scope changes (Schwalbe, 2011).

2. Compare and contrast the five approaches for creating work breakdown structures.

The five approaches of creating a WBS are: Unit 3:Scope, Time, and Cost Management 9

1. Using guidelines: It is very important to follow guidelines if they exist because, many

organizations have their own guidelines so it is important to see if the organization you

are working for have their own guidelines and many organization use the U.S

Department of Defense (DOD) for example (Schwalbe, 2011).

Many organizations will have their own guidelines in creating a WBS through

guidelines and templates develop through Microsoft Project 2007 or whatever of

version they might be using at their organization, so again check with the organization

to see what guidelines they are using.

2. The analogy approach: In this approach you are using a similar project’s WBS as a

starting point. This similar WBS will give a starting point for defining the scope for the

new projects and developing costs estimates, some organizations will keep and archive

repository of WBS and other project documentation on file to help people working on

projects. Microsoft Project and many other software tools include sample files to assist

in creating WBS’s and Gantt charts, examining these files will help people understand

different ways to create a WBS.

3. The top-down approach: A conventional approaches that for a construction of a WBS.

Starting with the largest items and is than broken down into lower items, this process

refines the work into greater and greater levels of detail. After the process is finished,

all resources should be assigned at the work package level. This approach is best suited

to project managers who have vast technical awareness and a big picture perspective

4. The bottom-down approach: This approach as many specific tasks are identified by

team members related to the project as possible. The members than aggregate the tasks

and organize them into summary activities, or higher levels in the WBS. Instead of Unit 3:Scope, Time, and Cost Management 9

using guidelines for creating a WBS or viewing similar projects, they could and more

than likely will by listing detailed tasks they think will need in order to create the

application after that has been completed they will put these detailed task in categories,

then they group these categories into higher level categories. Some people have found it

helpful that writing all possible tasks down on notes and placing them on a wall will

help them see all the work required for the project and develop logical groupings for

performing the work. This approach can be time consuming, but it will be an effective

way to create a WBS. This approach is used a lot by project managers for projects that

represent entirely new systems or approaches to doing a job, or to help create buy-in

and synergy with a project team (Schwalbe, 2011).

5. The mind-mapping approach: This is a technique that uses branches radiating out from

a core idea to structure thoughts and ideas. Instead of writing tasks down in a list or

immediately trying to create a structure for tasks, mind-mapping allows people to write

and even draw pictures of ideas in a nonlinear format. This gives a more visual, less-

structured approach to defining and then grouping task can unlock creativity among

individuals and increase participation and morale among teams. Mind-mapping is

popular among project managers and can be used in WBS s using the top-down or

bottom-up approach (Schwalbe, 2011).

3. Explain project time management in terms of its processes.

Project time management is defined and in simplest terms that involves the process to

ensure timely completion of a project and probably one of the most important aspects of a

project. Seams simple? But in fact it is not as simple as it seems, there are six main

processes involved to in the project management plan and they are: Unit 3:Scope, Time, and Cost Management 9

1. Defining activities: The activities that are identified that must be performed by team

members and stakeholders to produce the project deliverables. An activity or task is an

element of work normally found on the WBS that has an expected duration, a cost and

resource requirements. The main outputs are activity list, activity attributes, and

milestone list.

2. Sequencing activities: Identifying and documenting the relationships between project

activities. The main outputs include project schedule network diagrams and project

document updates.

3. Estimating activity: Is the process of estimating how many resources people,

equipment, and materials a project team should use to perform activities. The main

outputs are activity resource requirements, resource breakdown structure, and project

document updates.

4. Estimating activity durations: Is the process of estimating the number of work periods

that are needed to complete individual activities. The outputs are activity duration

estimates and project document updates.

5. Developing the schedule: The process of analyzing activity sequences, activity resource

estimates, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule. The outputs are

project schedule, a schedule baseline, schedule data, and project document updates.

6. Controlling the schedule: This process controls and manages changes to the project

schedule. Outputs include work performance measurements, organizational process

assets updates, change requests, project management plan updates, and project

document updates. Unit 3:Scope, Time, and Cost Management 9

4. Formulate the steps for creating a critical path analysis.

Many projects fail because they do not meet the schedule expectations in the Critical

Path Analysis, which is a network diagramming technique used to predict total project

duration. The critical path is a series of activities that determine the earliest time by which

the project can be completed. It is the longest path through the network diagram and has the

least amount of slack and float. Slack or float is the amount of time an activity may be

delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date (Schwalbe, 2011).

The first step that must be done is to develop a network diagram, which in turn

requires a good activity list based on the WBS, these will include all the tasks within

included in the project and estimates on the duration of each task

The next step is to know what order these task will be accomplished. Task

dependencies is how this is done there are four dependencies and they are as listed below

Dependency Description Finish-to-start (FS) A relationship where the “from” activity must finish before the “to” activity or successor can start. Start-to-start (SS) A relationship in which “from” activity cannot start until the “to” or successor is started. Finish-to-finish (FF) A relationship where the “from” activity must be finished before the “to” activity or successor can be finished. One task cannot finish before another finishes. Start-to-finish (SF) A relationship where the “from” activity must start before the “to” activity can be finished. This type of relationship is rarely used. Unit 3:Scope, Time, and Cost Management 9

Next the task or drawn out on some form of paper, whiteboard or anything else that is

available at that time, usually paper though. The project manager will usually be the one

doing this he or she will make sure it goes by. The diagram will have the entire task

required on it for the project and this drawing will have arrows which are connected to

nodes to illustrate the sequence of activities, a node is the starting and ending point of an

activity. All that is drawn is put into the network diagram and is all the work that must be

performed to complete the project.

Next step is to make sure the tasks that are being performed are assigned to member of

the team who can perform and complete the task they are assigned to. The longest path or

path containing the critical tasks is what is driving the completion date for the project.

Slack time can be assigned to people with less experience. Slack time is the amount of time

an activity can be delayed without delaying a succeeding activity or the project finish date.

The critical path is the shortest path to complete a task and projects are always changing

and that means critical paths can change also, so it is always important to monitor it at all

times.

5. Explain project cost management in terms of its processes.

Project cost management is basically to complete the project with in the budget that

has been agreed on. Many projects fail because the client or organization ran out of money

and it is the responsibility of the project manager that it is under the budget and there are

three processes and they are:

1. Estimating costs: The process of coming up with an approximation or estimate of

the costs of resources needed to complete the project. Outputs are activity cost

estimates, basis of estimates, and project document updates. Unit 3:Scope, Time, and Cost Management 9

2. Determining the budget: The process allocating the overall estimate to individual

work items to establish a baseline for measuring performance. The outputs are

cost performance baseline, project funding requirements and project document

updates.

3. Controlling costs: The process of controlling changes to the project budget. The

main outputs are work performance measurements, budget forecasts,

organizational process asset updates, change requests, project management plan

updates, and project document updates.

6. Compare and contrast the three basic types of cost estimating using the dimensions of

accuracy, speed, and purpose.

Type of Cost Estimate Accuracy Speed Purpose Rough order of magnitude -50 percent to +100. Not a The estimate time range can 3 Provides an estimate of what

(ROM) very accurate estimate a very or more years prior to project the project will cost.

wide open range completion Budgetary estimate -10 to +25 percent more Completed 1 to 2 years prior Is used to allocate money into

accurate than an ROM to project completion an organization budget.

estimate. Definite Estimate -5 to +10 percent. The most Completed 1 year or less prior An accurate estimate of project

accurate of the 3. to project completion. costs. Much more detailed

budget.

References: Unit 3:Scope, Time, and Cost Management 9

Schwalbe, K. (2011). Information Technology Project Management (6 ed.). Boston: Cengage

Learning.

Reference The Project Management Hut. (2013). Retrieved June 24, 2013, from WBS Training - What art

the project management benefits?: http://www.pmhut.com/wbs-training-what-are-the-

project-management-benefits Unit 3:Scope, Time, and Cost Management 9

Sap Help Portal. (n.d.). Retrieved June 24, 2013, from What is a Work Breakdown Structure?:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_45b/helpdata/en/4c/225bd746e611d189470000e829fbbd/c

ontent.htm

Schwalbe, K. (2011). Information Technology Project Management (6 ed.). Boston: Cengage

Learning.