Questions and Answers of Project Management

What are the four types of approaches to project management? Explain briefly and draft a diagram.
What are the advantages of Agile? What are the disadvantages of Agile?
How does Praxis integrate Agile into its project management approach?
Why does the project manager need to think beyond the project as captured in a number of the approaches?
Why does ISO 21500:2012 appeal to organisations that have limited pro ject management experience?
What are the 10 knowledge areas within the PMI Body of Knowledge?
What do all the methodologies have in common in relation to knowledge?
What factors influence the selection of one approach over another approach?
What type of project(s) is the Lean Six Sigma approach best suited for?
What tools exist to assist in the selection of a project management approach?
(a) Break into small groups and identify at least two real-life examples of projects in which:(i) The scope and technology are well known.(ii) The scope is well known, but the technology is less well
What are the Scrum roles and key expectations of each role?
What are the Scrum artefacts, and what content does each contain?
What are the Scrum events, when do they take place and what is the purpose of each event?
How could Scrum be integrated with predictive project management techniques?
What does MoSCow mean and how is it used?
What is the purpose of the Kanban or visual management board?
How long does a daily Scrum take?
How long would a sprint review take for a two-week sprint?
What's the relationship between an epic, increment, sprint and tasks?
What's the format for writing the front of story card?
What does INVEST stand for?
What is a burndown and burnup chart used for?
What is sprint velocity and how can it be leveraged in sprint planning?
What type of problems are Scrum (Agile) projects best suited for?
What approach provides for the scalability of Scrum?
What are the three key elements of a DevOps environment?
For the class project (or a project of your choosing), consider how the Scrum approach would be applicable (or not) to the project. Create a list of eight points as to why you believe Scrum 'would'
For the class project, apply the MoSCow prioritisation technique to the requirements you have identified at the initiation stage of the project. What does this tell you about the requirements that
Consider the Scrum roles and identify who would take on these roles if your project was to be managed with the Scrum approach. Comment on whether they have the correct skills to take on the role you
What would you consider to be the right length of sprint for your project? Discuss with your group and present your discussion to the wider class.
Carry out an Internet search to find more examples of project success and failure. From your search, are there any common themes in each? What are the implications of success and failure in each case?
How successful are government contracting arrangements? How do these compare, for instance, with the arrangements BAA had with their suppliers in the construction of T5 at Heathrow (Project
What is the role of ‘brainstorming’ and how might it be used to greatest effect?
What are the major inputs to the decision-making process and how might these be best harnessed to ensure that the decision-making process is effective?
What are the basic forms of systems model?Give an example of each and their role in a project environment.
How might the tools outlined in this chapter reduce the risk in decision-making?
Was the last Olympic and Paralympic Games a success? Carry out a search of the news of the time and the relevant websites to identify the characteristics of the project management that led to the
In what you are doing at the moment, which parts are ‘project’ and which are ‘ongoing or repetitive operations’?
Identify five managers that have the title ‘project manager’ and another five that are project managers but don’t carry the title. Do you notice any differences in their roles?
Select a sector of interest. For this sector, identify the likely pressures on project managers and the implications for them as a result of these.
Find examples of projects that fit into each of the categories of project – ‘first-timers’, ‘as...but...s’, and ‘painting by numbers’. Briefly discuss how the category
Consider the definitions of ‘project’ provided by each of the professional bodies. What are the similarities and differences?
Does it matter what we call a project?
Identify a personal project that you have completed in the recent past – this may be a piece of coursework, a DIY project, etc. Consider the way in which the project was planned, carried out, the
Identify the criteria for success or failure of the projects that you discussed in question 1 and question 2.Data From Question 1Identify a personal project that you have completed in the recent past
Why is it necessary to define the complexity of a project?
Why is it necessary to consider the continuous improvement of the processes by which projects are carried out?
Write a commentary on the Bodies of Knowledge, and how they could relate to your own work environment both now and in the future.
Explore the possibilities for gaining professional qualification and recognition in project management, through both APM and PMI. How well would these fit with your own intentions regarding your
You have been asked to advise the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics team on running the Games. Firstly, is this a project or a programme, and why?
What are the impacts at a project level of poor strategy processes?
Do a web search and identify the mission statements of some organisations that you know. Would you recognise that mission statement from the experience that you have of that organisation?
Why is an aggregate project plan beneficial for an organisation that pursues a number of projects at the same time?
Compile a list of project roles based on one of the project management standards (PMI, APM or PRINCE2). Which is the most important role in your view for the success of a project?
Consider the last Olympics and Paralympics and identify the list of major stakeholders. How did the Games ‘project’ perform for each of these stakeholders?
Why should ‘ethics’ be a non-tradeable entity?
Why should the plan be viewed as a value-adding activity?
From a project with which you are familiar, how might providing gates and gate criteria have helped in its management?
Should the activities in a project be run sequentially or concurrently? Choose a project and analyze the options for the outline plan.
You have been put in charge of organizing a group trip to visit a company in Japan which has expertise that you and your group are interested in finding out more about. Identify the constituent
Discuss why graphical techniques for displaying plans are superior to verbal statements.
Describe what is meant by ‘precedence’ and illustrate your answer with an appropriate example.
Why is there a need for a new consideration – such as through APT?
What are the constraints in projects? How would you recognize them?
Carry out estimating on some tasks that you do regularly – the trip to work or place of study, for instance. Compare your estimates with the times you actually take. What do you notice about your
What is the evidence for student syndrome?How might you encourage people to move away from such behavior?
Where should buffers be placed? Using an example of a personal project, show how the use of a buffer would help.
What happens to a constraining resource when it is required by more than one project at any one time?Which project should it be working on?
If one project has a large buffer remaining, but another has depleted its buffer, what action could be taken to help the project with the least buffer?
Holyrood (again). How did this project go so massively over its original budget? A cost overrun of 10 per cent, for instance, suggests that natural variation was present – it is not unreasonable. A
The purchase of new office furniture for a boardroom has caused conflict between two factions within a company. One faction argues that the company should buy modern furniture, which will cost £24
What is ‘quality’?
For the project you have identified, how in practice can you manage the perceptions of a key stakeholder of the project? What will be the aspects of the core and peripheral product that you could
Investigate the application of ISO 9000 in an organization with which you are familiar. What are the implications of the standard for that organization? How does this application compare with the
Carry out a web search of companies to see if you can find their quality policy and any relevant quality documentation. What do you notice about the procedural documents?
What is risk?
Which other stakeholders would have an interest in the level of risk that a project presents?
The Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 devastated many organizations. For an organization or industry with which you are familiar, consider whether better risk management could have helped, or were the
Briefly list the other ways in which an organization may be structured.
Why is the subject of organizational structure so important?
Using Belbin’s character profiles, indicate which of these you feel best applies to you. You may like to apply this to a group in which you are working by then analyzing each other’s
From your analysis in (4), show what strategies you are going to use to keep yourself on track to the targets you have set for yourself.
Compare the work of the major thinkers on motivation.What influence has each had on modern management?
What is monitoring and control in the context of project management?
Why is making progress visible so important?
How do measures of conformance and performance differ?
Carry out an internet search for examples of earned value being used in practice. What are the limitations of this technique?
Should all projects have control systems?
Select a project with which you are familiar – an assignment or some other piece of work that you have done. How could such a project be controlled better were you to do it again?
Google ‘digital dashboards’ and review some of the products available. How useful would you rate these as being, in project environments?
Consider the way that you make purchases for yourself. How do you decide from whom to buy? Are there examples of your personal purchasing where you have frequented a particular business and formed a
What are the likely trade-off issues in the purchasing decision, and how would you resolve these?
How is the Internet changing the role of the purchasing function? Carry out a search of software vendors and investigate the kinds of features that are being offered here. What are the possible
What is the responsibility of organizations to their suppliers? How might it extend beyond just paying the bill?
Supply chains are complex and can involve many parties. How might you factor in emergencies such as pandemics into your choices of suppliers?
Discuss the statement made by Price in the introduction to this chapter that people are risk-addicted. How do you feel about this personally?
Select a problem with which you have been involved, and use the Ishikawa/fishbone diagram to structure the causes of the problem. Indicate what you feel to be the biggest causal factor.
Show the activities that must be completed during the final phases of a project.
Construct an audit questionnaire of management performance, which could be given to members of a project team. Test this on someone who has managed you. What areas would you suggest for improvement?

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