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    Spring / February 2012

    Master of Business Administration

    Master of Business Administration-MBA Semester II

    MB0049 Project Management

    (Book ID: B1138)

    Assignment

    Submitted by: Kusumlata Ahuja

    Roll No: 52115243

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    MB0049 Project Management - 4 Credits (Book ID: B1138)

    et - 1

    Q1. Define project management. Discuss the need for project management.

    Answer:Project Management It is an art of controlling the cost, time, manpower, andhardware and software resources involved in a project.

    Project Management Knowledge Areas refer to various techniques needed to manage projects,the practical methodologies adopted in formulating a project and managing the resources whichwould affect the project completion. Relationship with other management disciplines is essentialfor a project to be successful. Supporting disciplines include law, strategic planning, logistics,human resource management and domain knowledge.

    Need for Project Management

    Project management is necessary because it helps an organisation execute a projectsuccessfully by:

    a) Preventing Project Failure: A project requires huge investments which should not gowaste. A loss in any project would have direct or indirect impact on the society. Project

    management helps an organisation prevent failures in projects.b) Controlling Project Scope: Scope of the project activity may undergo a change. Project

    management helps an organisation define and control project scope.

    c) Improving understanding: Lack of understanding of the project among the participantsleads to failure. Project management helps participants understand the project and itspurpose.

    d) Managing Risks: A project is vulnerable to various risks. A project is affected if thetechnology used is changed during the course of project execution. Similarly changes ineconomic conditions may affect a project. Project management is very useful in assessingand mitigating such risks.

    e) Managing Project Problems: Consequences of ignoring project related problems canbe very serious. Project management helps in identification and communication ofproblem areas.

    Project process categories

    Q2. What is meant by risk management? Explain the components of risk

    management.Answer: Risk Management: Risks are those events or conditions that may occur and whoseoccurrence has a harmful or negative impact on a project. Risk management aims to identifythe risks and then take actions to minimise their effect on the project. Risk management entailsadditional cost. Hence risk management can be considered cost-effective only if the cost of riskmanagement is considerably less than the cost incurred if the risk materialises.

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    Components:The important components in risk management are shown below:

    Risk management components

    a) Risk Assessment Identify the possible risks and assess the consequences by means ofchecklists of possible risks, surveys, meetings and brainstorming and reviews of plans,processes and products. The project manager can also use the process database to getinformation about risks and risk management on similar projects.

    b) Risk Control Identify the actions needed to minimize the risk consequences. This isalso known as risk mitigation. Develop a risk management plan. Focus on the highestprioritized risks. Prioritization requires analyzing the possible effects of the risk event incase it actually occurs. This approach requires a quantitative assessment of the riskprobability and the risk consequences. For each risk, determine the rate of its occurrenceand indicate whether the risk is low, medium or of high category. If necessary, assignprobability values in the ranges as prescribed based upon experience. If necessary assigna weight on a scale of 1 to 10.

    c) Risk Ranking Rank the risk based on the probability and effects on the project; forexample, a high probability, high impact item will have higher rank than a risk item with amedium probability and high impact. In case of conflict, use judgment.

    d) Risk Mitigation Select the top few risk items for mitigation and tracking. Refer to a listof commonly used risk mitigation steps for various risks from the previous risk logsmaintained by the project manager and select suitable risk mitigation step. The riskmitigation step must be properly executed by incorporating them into the projectschedule. In addition to monitoring the progress of the planned risk mitigation steps,periodically revisit the risk perception for the entire project. The results of this review arereported in each milestone analysis report. To prepare this report, make fresh riskanalysis to determine whether the priorities have changed.

    Q3. Discuss the various steps in project monitoring and control.

    Answer: Project Monitoring and Control: Any project aimed at delivering a product or aservice has to go through phases in a planned manner in order to meet the requirements. It isvery important to measure the performance of the current status of the project at anytimeagainst its planned version. This helps to tackle any unexpected deviation in time, efforts andcost. It is possible to work according to the project plan only by careful and close monitoring ofthe project progress.

    t requires establishing control factors to keep the project on the track of progress. The resultsof any stage in a project, depends on the inputs to that stage. It is therefore necessary tocontrol all the inputs and the corresponding outputs from a stage. This is achieved throughdevising proper controls for every stage.

    A project manager may use certain standard tools to keep the project on track. The projectmanager and the team members should be fully aware of the techniques and methods to rectifythe factors influencing delay of the project and its product. It is important for all stakeholders toknow the impact of the changes in any parameters to the overall project. The various stepsnvolved in monitoring and controlling a project from start to end are shown in figure

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    Steps for monitoring and control

    Preliminary work:The team members understand the project plans, project stage schedule,progress controls, tracking schedules, summary of the stage cost and related worksheets. Allthe members have to understand the tolerances in any change and maintain a change controlog. They must realise the need and importance of quality for which they have to strictly follow aquality review schedule and frequently discuss the quality agendas. They must understand thestage status reports, stage end reports, stage end approval reports.

    Project Progress:The members must keep a track of the project progress and communicatethe same to other related members of the project. They must monitor and control projectprogress, through the use of regular check points, quality charts, and statistical tables; controlthe quality factors which are likely to deviate from expected values as any deviation may result

    n changes to the stage schedule. The project manager ensures that these changes are madesmoothly and organises review meeting with the project management group. Thus all themembers are aware about the progress of the project at all times. This helps them to plan welln advance for any exigency arising due to deviation from planned schedule.

    Stage Control:The manager must establish a project check point cycle. For this, a suitablestage version control procedures may be followed. The details are to be documented stage wise.Project files have to be timely updated with appropriate version control number and revisionstatus should be maintained for each change. Team members are identified who will exercisecontrols at various points of the project.

    Resources: Plan the resources required for various stage of the project well in advance.Communication is the key. Brief both the project team and the key resources about the

    objectives of every stage, planned activities, products, organisation, metrics and the projectcontrols. This increases the visibility into the project performance and hence a quality controlcan be achieved. Allocating a right resource at the right place and the right time willsignificantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the resource.

    Quality Control:This is very important in any project. It is a tool which helps in tracking theprogress of various parameters at any stage of the project. A project manager may use astandard quality control or customise according to the requirements. Quality control is possiblef the project members follow the quality charts and norms very strictly. It is also important forall the project team members to know the importance of such quality checks and should have agood visibility into project performance.

    Schedule Quality Review: Conduct quality reviews at regular intervals. It is recommendedthat quality review be scheduled at the beginning of the stage and also at the ending of everystage. This helps the project manager and team members to plan well in advance for anyunforeseen deviation.

    Agenda for Quality Review: Create and distribute a quality review agenda specifying theobjective, products, logistics, roles, responsibilities and time frame. This increases the

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    effectiveness of the review and also reduces the time gap.

    Conduct Quality Review: Conduct the quality review in a structured and formal manner.Quality review should focus on product development and its quality factors. Focus on whether itmeets the prescribed quality standard.

    Follow Up: Revise the complete quality review product status from In-progress to QRComplete. Follow up the actions planned in strict manner which ensures conformity to thestandards.

    Review Quality Control Procedure: Verify that the quality objectives for each product are

    appropriate and that all participants are satisfied both with the process and its outcome. This isto ensure that all the stakeholders of the project are in conformity of control procedures.

    Q4. What is Project Management Information System (PMIS)? What are the majoraspects of PMIS?

    Answer: Project Management Information System (PMIS): An information system ismainly aimed at providing the management at different levels with information related to thesystem of the organisation. It helps in maintaining discipline in the system.

    An information system dealing with project management tasks is the project management

    nformation system. It helps in decision making in arriving at optimum allocation of resources.The information system is based on a database of the organisation. A project managementnformation system also holds schedule, scope changes, risk assessment and actual results.

    The information is communicated to managers at different levels of the organisation dependingupon the need. Let us find how a project management information system is used by differentstakeholders.

    The four major aspects of a PMIS are

    a. Providing information to the major stakeholders

    b. Assisting the team members, stakeholders, managers with necessary information andsummary of the information shared to the higher level managers

    c. Assisting the managers in doing what if analyses about project staffing, proposed staffing

    changes and total allocation of resourcesd. Helping organisational learning by helping the members of the organisation learn about

    project management

    Usually, the team members, and not the systems administrators of the company, develop agood PMIS. Organisations tend to allocate such responsibility by rotation among members with awell designed and structured data entry and analytical format.

    Q5. What is PERT chart? What are the advantages of PERT chart?

    Answer: PERT stands for Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review Technique. It is a popular

    project management model designed to analyse and represent the tasks involved in completinga given project. It also helps in identifying the minimum time required for completing the totalproject.

    A number of activities make a project. Due to technological necessities, some activities can beperformed only after some others have been completed. Some activities are independent ofsome other set of activities.

    Different activities have different duration for their completion. Some projects are big and anumber of clearly distinguishable stages or milestones are identified. Since some activities runconcurrently, there are possibilities that one set of activities end up early and have to wait forsome other activities to proceed further. This means that there are more paths from thebeginning to the end, and one of them takes more time than the others. We call that criticalpath. A PERT chart helps us to follow the critical path. Let us become familiar with the PERTchart.

    A PERT chart is a graphic representation of a projects schedule, showing the sequence of tasks.t also shows the tasks that can be performed parallely, and the critical path of tasks which has

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    direct impact on the project schedule. The tasks in the critical path must be completed as perschedule in order for the project to meet its completion deadline. The chart can be constructedwith a variety of attributes, such as:

    Earliest and latest start dates for each task

    Earliest and latest finish dates for each task

    Slack time between tasks

    A PERT chart for a seven-month project with five milestones (10 - 50) and six activities (A - F).

    Sample PERT chart

    You need to be familiar with some conventions while preparing a PERT chart.

    Advantages of PERT chart

    Avoid unrealistic timetables and schedule expectations

    Understand the dependencies

    Identify and shorten tasks that are bottlenecks

    Focus attention on most critical tasks

    Document an entire project or a key phase of a project

    Q6. Write brief notes on the following: (i) Re-engineering and (ii) Re-structuring?

    Answer:

    (i) Reengineering: -This is a process by which managers redesign a bundle of tasks into rolesand functions so that organisational effectiveness is achieved. By doing so dramaticmprovements in critical measures of performance like cost, quality and service are expected.There will be a radical rethink about the business processes adopted.

    A business process may be of any activity like inventory control, product design, ordersprocessing, and delivery systems. No reference is taken to the existing process and an entirely

    new process is adopted.

    The following rules for reengineering are effective:

    ) Make changes with the outcome in mind not the tasks that result in them.

    i) Make the users of the results of the process effect the change.

    ii) Let the people on the spot decide on the solution decentralise.

    (ii) Re-structuring :- Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act ofreorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purposeof making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Other reasons forrestructuring include a change of ownership or ownership structure, demerger, or a response toa crisis or major change in the business such as bankruptcy, repositioning, or buyout.Restructuring may also be described as corporate restructuring, debt restructuring and financialrestructuring.

    Executives involved in restructuring often hire financial and legal advisors to assist in the

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    transaction details and negotiation. It may also be done by a new CEO hired specifically to makethe difficult and controversial decisions required to save or reposition the company. It generallynvolves financing debt, selling portions of the company to investors, and reorganizing orreducing operations.

    The basic nature of restructuring is a zero sum game. Strategic restructuring reduces financialosses, simultaneously reducing tensions between debt and equity holders to facilitate a promptresolution of a distressed situation.

    MB0049 Project Management - 4 Credits (Book ID: B1138)

    et - 2

    Q1. What are the various phases of project management life cycle? Explain

    Answer:The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish theprojects goals or objectives. Irrespective of the complexities of the project, a life cycle of aproject consists of

    a) Understanding the scope and objectives of the project

    b) Formulating and planning various activities

    c) Executing the project

    d) Monitoring the project and controlling the project resources

    Phases of Project Management Life Cycle

    The various phases in project management life cycle are

    Analysis and evaluation

    Marketing

    Design

    Inspecting, testing and delivery

    Post completion analysis

    Phases of project management lifecycle

    Analysis and Evaluation Phase: It starts with receiving a request to analyse the problemfrom the customer. The project manager conducts the analysis of the problem and submits adetailed report to the top management. The report should consist of what the problem is, waysof solving the problem, the objectives to be achieved, and the success rate of achieving thegoal.

    Marketing Phase: A project proposal is prepared by a group of people including the projectmanager. This

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    proposal has to contain the strategies adopted to market the product to the customers.

    Design Phase: Based on the inputs received in the form of project feasibility study, preliminaryproject evaluation, project proposal and customer interviews, following outputs are produced:

    System design specification

    Program functional specification

    Program design specification

    Project plan

    nspecting, Testing and Delivery Phase: During this phase, the project team works underthe guidance of the project manager. The project manager has to ensure that the team workingunder him implements the project designs accurately. The project has to be tracked ormonitored through its cost, manpower and schedule.

    The tasks involved in these phases are:

    Managing the customer

    Marketing the future work

    Performing quality control work

    Post Completion Analysis Phase: After delivery or completion of the project, the staffperformance has to be evaluated. The tasks involved in this phase are:

    Documenting the lessons learnt from the project

    Analysing project feedback

    Preparing project execution report

    Analysing the problems encountered during the project

    Q2. Write brief note on project planning and scoping.

    Answer: Project Planning and Scoping: Before you create a project plan, you need to definethe project scope. A project scope provides the information that you need to complete theproject plan.

    The purpose of project planning and scoping is to first identify the areas of the project work andthe forces affecting the project and then to define the boundaries of the project. In addition, thescoping has to be explicitly stated on the line of the project objectives. It also has to implicitlyprovide directions to the project. The planning and scoping should be such that the projectmanager is able to assess every stage of the project and also enabling the assessment of thequality of the deliverable of the project at every stage.

    First, let us list the steps involved in project scoping. These steps include:

    ) Identifying the various parametric forces relevant to the project and its stages

    i) Enabling the team members to work on tools to keep track of the stages and therebyproceed in the planned manner

    ii) Avoiding areas of problems which may affect the progress of the project

    v) Eliminating the factors responsible for inducing the problemsv) Analysing the financial implications and cost factor at various stages of the project

    vi) Understanding and developing the various designs required at various stages of theproject

    vii) Identifying the key areas to be included in the scope through various meetings,discussion, and interviews with the clients

    viii) Providing a base and track to enable alignment of project with the organisation and itsbusiness objectives

    x) Finding out the dimensions applicable to the project and also the ones not applicable tothe project

    x) Listing out all the limitations, boundary values and constraints in the projectxi) Understanding the assumptions made in defining the scope

    After completing the project scoping, you can start your project plan. Project planning involvesthree processes as shown in the figure

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    Project planning processes

    Let us now list the steps involved in each process of project planning.

    a) The identification process The main steps in the identification process of any projectare:

    i) Identifying initial requirements

    ii) Validating them against the project objective

    iii) Identifying the criteria such as quality objectives and quantitative requirements forassessing the success of both the final product and the process used to create it

    iv) Identifying the framework of the solution

    v) Preparing a template of the frame work of solution to illustrate the project feasibility

    vi) Preparing relevant charts to demonstrate the techniques of executing the project and itsdifferent stages

    vii) Preparing a proper project schema of achieving the defined business requirements forthe project

    viii) Identifying training requirement

    ix) Making a list of the training program necessary for the personnel working on the project

    x) Identifying the training needs of the individuals working in various functions responsiblen the project

    xi) Preparing a training plan and a training calendar

    xii) Assessing the capabilities and skills of all those identified as part of the projectorganisation

    b) The review Process The main steps in the review process of any project are:

    i) Establishing a training plan to acquaint the project team members with themethodologies, technologies and business areas under study

    ii) Updating the project schedule to accommodate scheduled training activities

    iii) Identifying the needs for review and reviewing the project scope

    iv) Reviewing a project with respect to its stages and progress by preparing a plan for the

    review, fixing an agenda to review the project progress and keeping the reports ready fordiscussion about stage performance

    v) Reviewing the project scope, the objective statement, the non conformances in theproject stages and identifying the need to use the project plan

    vi) Preparing a proper project plan indicating all the requirements from start to finish of theproject and also at every stage of the project

    vii) Preparing a checklist of items to be monitored and controlled during the course ofexecution of the project

    c) The analysis process The main steps in the analysis process of any project are:

    i) Comparing the actual details with that in the plan with reference to project stages.

    ii) Measuring various components of the project and its stages frequently to control theproject from deviating and also monitor the performance.

    iii) Deciding how the task, the effort and the defects are to be tracked, what tools to beused, what reporting structure and frequency will be followed at various stages.

    iv) Identifying the preventive and corrective steps to be taken in case of any variance

    v) Performing root cause analysis for all problems encountered.

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    f all the above steps are performed, scoping and planning become effective and the idealoutcome are achieved.

    Q3. What is Return on Investment (ROI)? Explain its importance?

    Answer: Each Project Management Review meeting starts with an introduction of the membersalong with the agenda and guidelines of the meeting. The remainder of the review meetingfocuses on six categories of information general overview, status of action items from priorreview, project status, product status, issues and risks, project unique information.

    The project status category focuses on the management approach used for the project. Thisncludes schedule, cost, decision, points, ROI, funding status among others.

    ROI

    Return on Investment (ROI) is the calculated benefit that an organisation is projected to receiven return for investing money, time and resources in a project. Within the context of the reviewprocess, the investment would be in an information system development or enhancementproject.

    ROI information is used to assess the status of the business viability of the project at keycheckpoints throughout the projects life-cycle. ROI may include the benefits associated with

    mproved mission performance, reduced cost, increased quality, speed, or flexibility, andncreased customer and employee satisfaction.

    ROI should reflect such risk factors as the projects technical complexity, the agencysmanagement capacity, the likelihood of cost overruns, and the consequences of under or non-performance. Where appropriate, ROI should reflect actual returns observed through pilotprojects and prototypes.

    ROI should be quantified in terms of money and should include a calculation of the break-evenpoint (BEP), which is the time (point in time) when the investment begins to generate a positivereturn. ROI should be re-calculated at every major checkpoint of a project to see if the BEP isstill on schedule, based on project spending and accomplishments to date.

    f the project is behind schedule or over budget, the BEP may move out in time; if the project isahead of schedule or under budget the BEP may occur earlier. In either case, the information ismportant for decision-making based on the value of the investment throughout the project life-cycle.

    Any project that has developed a business case is expected to refresh the ROI at each keyproject decision point (that is, stage exit) or at least yearly.

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    Project management review categories

    Q4. Discuss the role of effective data management in the success of projectmanagement.

    Answer: The Role of Effective Data Management in the Success of ProjectManagement: Data management consists of conducting activities which facilitate acquiringdata, processing it and distributing it. Acquisition of data is the primary function.

    To be useful, data should have three important characteristics timeliness, sufficiency andrelevancy (as shown in figure). Management of acquisition lies in ensuring that these aresatisfied before they are stored for processing and decisions taken on the analysis.

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    Characteristics of useful data

    There should be data about customers, suppliers, market conditions, new technology,opportunities, human resources, economic activities, government regulations, politicalupheavals, all of which affect the way you function. Most of the data go on changing becausethe aforesaid sources have uncertainty inherent in them. So updating data is a very importantaspect of their management. Storing what is relevant in a form that is available to concernedpersons is also important. When a project is underway dataflow from all members of the teamwill be flowing with the progress of activities. The data may be about some shortfalls for whichthe member is seeking instructions. A project manager will have to analyse them, discoverfurther data from other sources and see how he can use them and take decisions. Many times

    he will have to inform and seek sanction from top management.

    The management will have to study the impact on the overall organisational goals andstrategies and convey their decisions to the manager for implementation. For example, Bill ofMaterials is a very important document in Project Management. It contains details about allmaterials that go into the project at various stages and has to be continuously updated as allmembers of the project depend upon it for providing materials for their apportioned areas ofexecution. Since information is shared by all members, there is an opportunity for utilising someof them when others do not need them. To ascertain availability at some future point of time,nformation about orders placed, backlogs, lead times are important for all the members. Aproper MIS will take care of all these aspects. ERP packages too help in integrating data from all

    sources and present them to individual members in the way they require. When all these aredone efficiently the project will have no hold ups an assure success.

    Measuring and Managing Success

    Project Managers are the key persons on whom top management depend upon for accurateperiodic reports about the project. So the managers are continually concerned about themeasurable aspects of the project in progress. Not all facts will show a measure of success of aproject.

    The facts reported may not mean anything to the management. Therefore metrics used should

    be answering fundamental questions, the answers to which will be responsive to the needs ofthe top management. Metrics are important when predicting and controlling the outcome ismportant. We know what to correct, when to correct and how much to correct the factors thataffect the measurement.

    Measuring is for the purpose of effecting corrections as project is progressing. Both the end-

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    deliverables and the execution process have to be measured. The former is done to make surethat they support the business objectives. The latter is performed to make sure that theprocesses are running as predicted.

    Let us now look at some metrics and find out their meanings, measurements and benefits:

    On the same lines we have the following metrics for the project execution:

    Schedule Estimate

    Cost estimates

    Staff productivity

    Average time to repair

    The top management may determine which of the metrics they would like to use to measureefficiency, which they can communicate to the client also. Then the project manager will set upsuitable reporting systems and analyse the progress accordingly. Success is the culmination ofall measuring activities which brings satisfaction to all stakeholders. Lessons learnt should bethe guiding factors for future projects.

    Q5. What is Project risk management? Explain its significance.

    Answer: Risk is an inherent part of any project. You cannot neglect the potential impact of riskn the project. Risks can be at any stage of the project life cycle and create impact based on it.n simple words, project risk can be defined as the possibility that something may go wrong, orat least not turn out as planned. Risks are different for each project, and risks change as aproject progresses.

    n any project, it is difficult to assess the quantum of risks involved. Therefore careful planningwill result in minimising the risk in a project. The formulation of a project is based on theestimates of the past data available with the project management team. The data may havebeen from the recorded information about past projects executed successfully or from the

    experience of the project management team members.

    Project risk management is all about the systematic process of identifying, analysing, prioritisingand responding to risk by applying risk management principles and controlling the probabilityand/or impact of unfortunate events at the project level. It attempts to maximise the probabilityand consequences of positive events and to minimise the probability and consequences ofadverse events. The goal is to prevent or reduce risk in a cost-effective manner withoutcompromising quality or harming the mission or timeline.

    You discussed earlier that risk may be associated at all stages of a project life cycle. The earlierthe risks are identified, lesser is the impact and easier is the mitigation. By contrast, risks can

    be more difficult to deal with and more likely to have significant negative impact if they occurater in a project.

    Risk probability is simply the likelihood that a risk event will occur. On the other hand, riskmpact is the result of the probability of the risk event occurring plus the consequences of therisk event. Impact, in simple terms is defined as how much the realised risk is likely to hurt.

    The propensity (or probability) of project risk depends on the projects life cycle, which includesfive phases: initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. While issues can occur atany time during a projects life cycle, issues have a greater chance of occurring in earlier stages

    due to unknown factors.

    The relationship of risks and their probability across the project life-cycle process is illustrated inthe following figure. As the figure explains, the probability of the occurrence of the risk is highern the initial stage and least in the closing stage. The greater area in pink signifies a greaterprobability of occurrence of risk.

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    Hence, it is important to adapt to these risks and be flexible enough to tackle them. Wediscussed about the probability of the risk occurring at various stages of the project life cycle. Inthe later section, you will learn about the impact created by these risks at each stage.

    Q6. Write brief note on project management application software?

    Answer: SupportSoftware Having learnt the basics of application software; you would have afair idea of how and to what extent project management processes could be automated.However, the challenge of making things work remains unchanged. While software vendors

    are confident of making it work, two yawning gaps still remain:1. Business processes which are not covered in such software

    2. Integration of multi vendor supported software applications

    The enterprise is normally in a dilemma whether to look at the same vendors to support suchcustomisation or not. This normally works out too expensive for their comfort or within theirtight budgets. Several software vendors have seized the opportunity with offerings thatsubstantially fill these gaps effectively at a fraction of the costs quoted by the major vendors.The other carrot which these vendors offer is a unilateral transfer of the facility to customisethemselves which is seen as a huge advantage. The various support software that may be usedfor managing projects are: 1. ARROW 2. FEDORA 3. VITAL 4. PILIN 5. MS EXCHANGE SERVER2003

    The ARROW Project: It is a consortia of institutional repository solution, combining opensource and proprietary Software .Arrow is preferred support software because it: Provides aplatform for promoting research output in the ARROW context Safeguards digital informationGathers an institutions research output into one place Provides consistent ways of findingsimilar objects Allows information to be preserved over the long term Allows information frommany repositories to be gathered and searched in one step Enables resources to be shared,while respecting access constraints Enables effective communication and collaborationbetween researchers The vision of project ARROW: The ARROW project will identify and testsoftware or solutions to support best practice institutional digital repositories comprising e-

    prints, digital theses and electronic publishing. ARROW project wanted to be a solution forstoring any digital output. Their initial focus was on print equivalents such as thesisand journalarticles among others. It provided solution that could offer on-going technical support anddevelopment past the end of the funding period of the project.

    Fedora: ARROW wanted a robust, well architected underlying platform and a flexible object-oriented data model to be able to have persistent identifiers down to the level of individual data

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    streams. It accommodates the content model to be able to be version independent. Since thebeginning of the project ARROW has worked actively and closely with Fedora and the FedoraCommunity. The ARROW projects Technical Architect is a member of Fedora Advisory Boardand sits on Fedora Development Group. This association is reinforced by VTLS Inc. VTLSPresident is a member of Fedora Advisory Board and VITAL Lead Developer sits on FedoraDevelopment Group

    VITAL: VITAL refers to ARROW specified software created and fully supported by VTLS Inc. builton top of Fedora. It currently provides: 1. VITAL Manager 2. VITAL Portal 3. VITAL Access Portal

    4. VALET Web Self-Submission Tool 5. Batch Loader Tool 6. Handles Server (CNRI) 7. Googlendexing and Exposure 8. SRU / SRW Support 9. VITAL architecture overview

    VITAL is part of creative development of ARROW institutional repositories. VITAL has thefollowing features:

    1. Inclusion of multimedia and creative works produced in Australian universities

    2. Limited exposure nationally or internationally

    3. Addition of annotation capability

    4. Inclusion of datasets and other research output not easily provide din any other publishingchannel

    5. Being developed in conjunction with the DART (ARCHER) Project

    6. Exploration of the research-teaching nexus tools that will allow value added services forrepositories

    7. Integration with or development of new tools that will allow value added services forrepositories (for instance the

    creation of e-portfolios or CVs of research output of individual academics)

    PILIN Persistent Identifiers and Linking Infrastructure