8) Who are the key stakeholders in a project? How can stakeholder help the success of a project?

     Project stakeholders are the people who are involved in or somehow affected by the project. Project sponsor, project team, upper management, users, customers - are all examples of project stakeholders. The key project stakeholders are the stakeholders who have serious power and abilities to influence the project's outcome. Key stakeholders have to be identified for each project individually, but most obvious key stakeholders are senior management and project sponsor. 

    Key stakeholders such as senior management, using their high position in the company, can help the success of the project by speeding up the execution of some tasks performed by other departments such as paperwork by legal department, financial documents by finance department, and etc.

    Not only the key stakeholders, but the users of the system, can help the success of the project by cooperating in requirement gathering and then during the testing of the new system.

7) Briefly describe the strategic planning process; including the SWOT analysis. Which method do you think businesses use most when identifying IT project? Why?

     Strategic planning determines long-term goals by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of an organization, opportunities an threats, future trends and demand for new products and services. Strategic planning involes SWAT analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats  analysis.
    After identifying strategic goals the next step is to  identify potential projects.  That can be done by using project selection methods that fall into three categories:

1. Benefit measurement methods
2. Constrained optimization methods
3. Expert  Judgment.

     In my opinion, most of the businesses use benefit measurement methods such as Net present value analysis, Return on investment, and Payback analysis because these methods present with some actual numbers that can be calculated and used to compare different projects, and estimate the financial success or inevitable failure of a potential project.

6) Describe the triple constraint. What are the three components and what is the relationship between them.

The triple constraint refers to the three inputs that govern the ability to deliver a project. The three commonly agreed upon constraints are budget, time, and scope. They are often drawn in a triangular shape to represent the relationship between them. This triangular arrangement helps to represent that any adjustment to one of these factors will have an impact on the other two. This relationship will become clearer with examples. Let’s start with definitions:

Budget – the allowed funds (money) that can be used to complete the project. This includes all sub-categories that which money can be spent to complete the project. The most common resources are materials and human capital. In construction, the budget might be constrained on physical building materials. In software engineering it is most often spent on human capital (i.e. software developers) and is generically referred to as resources. Many projects will use a combination of physical materials and human resources.

Time – strictly speaking this is the amount of time needed to complete the work. This can be provided either as a deadline (time-constrained) or can be developed as a duration (calculated based on scope and available resources.) Very often in the corporate environment, the project manager is given a deadline by which the project needs to be delivered. In this common case, the project manager (PM) will work ‘backwards’ from the deadline to complete the project, which is often troublesome for many reasons which will be explained in later posts.

Scope – this is merely what needs to be delivered. Alternatively this can be described as scope of work, the deliverable,a product or requirements. The final project can deliver something tangible such as a building, computer software or designs to build a new line of clothing. Or, at the completion of the project completion there may be something intangible such as new processes for patient protocol in a doctor’s office.

The relationship among the three is that when one component increases one or the two other components must decrease for the project to succeed as planned.

5) Either from your own experience or by searching the Internet, describe a well-planned and executed project. Describe a disastrous project. What were some of the main differences between these projects?

   A well planned project is one that meets or exceeds its cost, scope and time. An example of a well planned project starts with a kickoff meeting to bolster the morale of the team as well as to lay out the scheduled plans to enable the project to come into fruition. Undoubtedly, there may be hinders or complex changes that may deviate the project from any of its constraints even with planning. It is an important skill to expect such things and negotiations with the sponsors or team members to come to a compromise in an organized manner. Success also comes when all of the team members are doing the best of their abilities to complete the project with the given resources alloted and it is the responsibility of the project manager to do so.

   On the other hand, disastrous projects can happen if order and communication is not kept. For example, a bad project manager may not properly communicate certain problems or requirements to its appropriate team member or even the sponsor. Failed projects can also happen if the team is not competent enough or not putting enough effort towards the goal. This can often lead to more time, money or diminished overall quality of the project.

4) Define globalization, outsourcing, and virtual teams and describe how these trends are changing IT project management.

Globalization allows you to connect with anyone around the globe. Outsourcing, when a company gets goods from another source. Virtual Teams is a group of people who correspond as a team from across the world using technology. These trends have become extremely common because the world has become so advanced and so many countries are so interwoven because of offshoring deals that are made between them.

3) Briefly describe what happens in each of the five project management process groups (initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing). What types of activities are done before initiating the project?

     Project management inolves five main process groups: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing processes. These processes take place at the every stage of the project life cycle.
    Before starting an initiating process it is very helpfull to perform some pre-initiation tasks such as:

• Determine the scope, time, and cost constraints
• Identify the project sponsor
• Select the project manager
• Develop a business case
• Discuss with project  manager the process and expectations for managing the project
• If necessary, divide the project into smaller projects

    During the initiating process a project or project phase is defined and authorized. An output from initiating process is a project charter.
    Planning process involves devising and maintaining a project management plan that coordinates information from all other plans (scope management plan, procurement management plan, and etc.) Output from the planning process includes a project scope statement, a project schedule, a work breakdown structure, and etc.
     Executing process involves coordinating people and resources in order to achieve planned results. The main outcome of this process group is the actual performed work .  
      During the monitoring and controlling process project's progress is monitored and measured to ensure that projects meets its deadlines and objectives. The main outcome from this process is performance report.
      The closing process represents a process group with processes that are performed to formally terminate and conclude all tasks and activities of a project. Deliverables from this process mainly include formal acceptance of the work and closing documentation (project report, lessons-learned report).

2) Research information about the PMP certification and list at least 2 websites / articles URL’s that describe the requirements. What are the benefits of a PMP certification? Do you think it is worthwhile for project managers to get certified? Explain briefly.

The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is highly sought out by employers seeking Project Managers. According to http://www.pmcertificationrequirements.com/2011.html , candidates must pass a 200 question, 2 hour exam. This is in accordance to having a “A four-year degree (bachelor’s or the global equivalent) and at least three years of project management experience, with 4,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education or a secondary diploma (high school or the global equivalent) with at least five years of project management experience, with 7,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education”. As noted in http://www.pmi.org/Certification/Project-Management-Professional-PMP.aspx . Having this credential is worthwhile since it will reflect a more sense of professionalism and authority above other potential job candidates as well as being paid up to 10% more in salary.