IENG300 Assignment # 2 Solution

Lebanese International University School of Engineering Department of Industrial Engineering Summer 2014 IENG300 – Engineering Project Management

Assignment # 2 Solution Exercise 5.2: (15 points) Below is a project WBS with cost apportioned by percents. If the total project cost is estimated to be $600,000, what are the estimated costs for the following deliverables?

a. Design? b. Programming? c. In-house testing?

$240,000 $120,000 $240,000

What weaknesses are inherent in this estimating approach? a. Requires good and realistic historical data. b. If total cost estimate is off, all other costs will be off. c. Project must be very similar to past projects for sub-deliverables to be useful.

IENG300 – Engineering Project Management

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Case Study: Sharp Printing, AG (15 points) 

At this point what would you do if you were the project manager? Let us start by examining the current case and then proposing immediate actions. Current state:  The laser printer is a high-profile, strategic project to increase revenue.  Time to market is important.  It is reasonable to assume the bottom-up estimate is more accurate than the initial macro estimate. Immediate actions:  Lauren needs to quickly inform top management of the discrepancy between the macro estimate and the WBS estimate.  Lauren should be prepared with a plan of action for any preferred plan of action she has to offer.



Was top management acting correctly in developing an estimate? It is apparent that senior management made a judgment call based on inadequate or faulty information. Senior management should not have been in the estimating business.



What estimating techniques should be used for a mission critical project such as this? Although it is easy to suggest estimating down to the work package level, there are mission critical projects where time is critical and cost can only be carefully controlled. I have witnessed more than one time critical project in which cost control was completely abandoned. Still, it is hard to beat bottom-up estimates if time permits and cost is important.

IENG300 – Engineering Project Management

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Exercise 6.4: (15 points)

Activity A is a burst activity. Activities D and H are merge activities.

IENG300 – Engineering Project Management

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Exercise 6.7: (15 points) Air Control Company

IENG300 – Engineering Project Management

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Exercise 6.14: (15 points) .

IENG300 – Engineering Project Management

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Exercise 7.3 (10 Points):

In this case there may be many risks that could be identified. Here are some of the most common and typical ones:

Event Referees fail to show up Fighting

Error

Abusive parents

Inadequate parking Not enough teams Injury

Response Mitigate - Contact referees night before games Mitigate - Train referees on how to diffuse potentially violent situations/publicize stiff penalties for fighting Mitigate - Recruit seasoned referees and assign best referees to most important games Transfer - Assign responsibility to coaches to manage Mitigate - Level game schedule Mitigate - PR campaign Accept

IENG300 – Engineering Project Management

Contingency Referee(s) on call who can fill in Referees, game officials, and coaches intervene

Have a tournament czar who adjudicates appeals

Referees empowered to penalize team and dismiss parents Shuttle service Collapse age groups Contact ER in advance, setup field communication system

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Case Study: Peak LAN Project (Chapter 7 – Page 239) (15 Points): a) Potential Risks  Compatibility Problems: Since we are extending pre-existing networks with new hardware and software, there is a risk that some old configuration and pre-existing equipment might not communicate properly with the new operating systems (windows 7 and server 2008) and new hardware.  System Speed/Crashes: Overwhelming the system with top of the line products like Windows Vista and new antiviruses does not necessary mean a faster system. Also, some new security patches and firewall configuration complexity might slow down sharing resources in the network.  User backlash: people usually avoid changes. Installing, for instance, a new OS like windws 7 which has so many new features and tasks might make some users lost and uncomfortable; therefore, more complaints are going to be submitted to the director.  Hardware malfunctioning: ordering wrong parts, damaging a device, or purchasing defective parts are always a concern and it could happen at any time. b) Risk assessment form Risk Event Compatibility problems

Likelihood 3

Impact 4

System Slow/Crashes

2

User backlash Hardware malfunctioning

3 1

Detection Difficulty 2

When Setup

5

4

Start-up

2 3

5 4

Post-installation Installation

c) Risk response matrix Risk Event Compatibility problems

Response Mitigate: Test prototype

Contingency Plan upgrade old equipment

Trigger Old devices not communicating

Responsible Jamal

System Slow/Crashes

Mitigate: Test prototype

Reinstall OS/reconfigure Anti-viruses and firewall

system stays sluggish

Jad

User backlash

Mitigate: Prototype demonstration/FAQ guidelines

Increase staff support

Call from Labs' director

John

Equipment malfunctions

Mitigate: Select reliable vendor Transfer: Warranty

Order replacement

Equipment Fail

Jamal

IENG300 – Engineering Project Management

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