Assignment 1

NAME Usman Naveed
ROLL No. B -21653

SUBMITTED To. SIR Ali Agha
SUBJECT. Project Management
Submition Date 21/03/2021
Q-1: Suppose the scope triangle were modified as follows: Resource
Availability occupies the center, and the three sides are Scope, Cost, and
Schedule. Interpret this triangle as if it were a system in balance. What is
likely to happen when a specific resource on your project is concurrently
allocated to more and more projects? As project manager, how would you
deal with these situations? Be specific.
A project is a sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities that have one goal or
purpose and that must be completed by a specific time, within budget, and according to
specification
 An activity is a defined chunk of work.  The activities in a project must be unique. 
Connectedness implies that there is a logical or technical relationship between pairs of
activities.  Projects must have a single goal.
 Projects have a specified completion date.
 Projects also have resource limits, such as a limited amount of people, money, or machines
that are dedicated to the project.
 A program is a collection of related projects. Unlike projects, programs can have many
goals.
Five Constraints  The following five constraints operate on every project:  Scope  Quality
 Cost  Time  Resources
Scope  Scope is a statement that defines the boundaries of the project. It tells not only what
will be done but also what will not be done. In the information systems industry, scope is
often referred to as a functional specification. In the engineering profession, it is generally
called a statement of work.
Quality  The following two types of quality are part of every project:  Product Quality 
Process Quality
Cost  The dollar cost of doing the project. It is best thought of as the budget that has been
established for the project. The first consideration occurs at an early and informal stage in the
life of a project.
Time  The client specifies a time frame or deadline date within which the project must be
completed. To a certain extent, cost and time are inversely related to one another. The time a
project takes to be completed can be reduced, but costs increase as a result.
 Time is an interesting resource. It can’t be inventoried. It is consumed whether you use it
or not.
Resources  Resources are assets such as people, equipment, physical facilities, or inventory
that have limited availabilities, can be scheduled, or can be leased from an outside party
Scope Triangle as a System in Balance Scope and Quality Resources
Managing the Creeps

 Scope Creep Scope creep is the term that has come to mean any change in the project that
was not in the original plan. Change is constant. To expect otherwise is simply unrealistic.
 Hope Creep Hope creep happens when a project team member falls behind schedule but
reports that he or she is on schedule, hoping to get back on schedule by the next report date.
 Effort Creep Effort creep is the result of the team member working but not making
progress proportionate to the work expended.
 Feature Creep Closely related to scope creep is feature creep. Feature creep results when
team members arbitrarily add features and functions to the deliverable that they think the
client would want to have.
Applying the Scope Triangle  The scope triangle will have at least two major applications:
 Scope Change Impact Analysis  The major application of the scope triangle is as an aid in
the preparation of the Project Impact Statement. This is a statement of the alternative ways of
accommodating a particular scope change request of the client.  Problem Resolution  The
scope triangle enables you to ask the question, ‘‘who owns what?’’ The answer will give you
an escalation pathway from project team to resource manager to client. The client and senior
management own time, budget, and resources. The project team owns how time, budget, and
resources are used.
The Importance of Classifying Projects
 Establishing a Rule for Classifying Projects  Characteristics  Type  Clarity and
completeness of goal – (Not discussed now)
Characteristics  Many organizations choose to define a classification of projects based on
such project characteristics as the following:  Risk —Establish levels of risk (high, medium,
and low).  Business value— Establish levels (high, medium, and low).  Length— Establish
several categories (such as 3 months, 3 to 6 months, 6 to 12 months, and so on).  Complexity
—Establish categories (high, medium, and low).  Technology used— Establish several
categories (well-established, used occasionally, used rarely, never used).  Number of
departments affected— establish some categories (such as one, a few, several, and all).  Cost
Q-2: Where would you be able to bring about cost saving as a program manager for a
company? Discus these using the standard project constraints.
Proper Estimates for Sound Project Cost Management
It may sound like ABC stuff in managing project costs, but many projects that go over-budget
can trace their problems back to the initial planning stages. Either the project manager
underestimated the number of hours a project would take, or he allowed the client to shave
off too many hours in order to lower the price and make the sale.
When you build a proposal, take extra care in estimating your project hours. If possible, pad
the estimate to give your team a little wiggle room in case things go wrong. If the client
pushes back and tries to reduce the project cost, make sure they understand that less hours
may mean an unfinished project.
Choosing Right People is Key to Managing Costs
Not everyone is right for every task. Even though you try to hire well-rounded team
members, there will always be areas where one outperforms the rest. Know your team’s
strengths and weaknesses. Be familiar with their work habits and attitudes, so that you can
accurately predict how long it will take someone to do a particular task.
This doesn’t just apply to saving on project costs, either. If you find that you’ve got extra
hours, you might be able to assign a task to a newer team member as a learning experience.
It’ll take a bit longer, but you’ll have given him valuable on-the-job training.
Project Control via Earned Value Analysis
Many project managers rely on the “planned vs. actual” system, which can predict how
timely a project is, but says nothing about budget management. Earned Value Analysis is a
much more effective method. It uses three factors: cost, schedule, and scope, in order to
predict completion dates, future team performance and the likely end cost.
The system isn’t all too hard to adopt. Many project management tools use Earned Value
Analysis as a standard project control feature, and automatically generate reports based on the
data that your team puts in (hours billed, tasks, project schedule, etc. The reports can give you
a priceless snapshot of how things stand in terms of project cost and schedule performance.
Less important things come second
When one of your team members gets bogged down in a task, ask yourself this question: “Is
it essential to the project as a whole?” Many project managers employ the “critical path”
method, where there is a “chain” of tasks that are an absolute requirement for the project to
be considered complete. If the problem is for a secondary (or even tertiary) task, you may be
better off shifting to something else and coming back to it later—even if it means setting a
whole chain of secondary tasks aside.
Q-3: Discuss ways in which scope creep occurred on project with which you
have been associated. Was the project manager able to reverse scope
creep? Is it possible to reverse scope creep? Defend your yes or no answer.
What is Scope Creep in Project Management?
We all know that scope defines the work required in a project. And that managing scope is
part and parcel of a project manager's role, especially once the project is underway and scope
creep begins to rear its head. Which brings up the question: what is scope creep in project
management?
What is Scope Creep?
Scope creep (sometimes known as “requirement creep” or even “feature creep”) refers to how
a project’s requirements tend to increase over a project lifecycle, e.g. what once started out as
a single deliverable becomes five. Or a product that began with three essential features, now
must have ten. Or midway through a project, the needs of customers change, prompting a
reassessment of the project requirements. Scope creep is typically caused by key project
stakeholders changing requirements, or sometimes from internal miscommunication and
disagreements. This post tackles several ways it creeps up on projects along with tips on how
to nip it in the bud. While it might result in project delays, roadblocks, or going over budget,
scope creep is not necessarily a bad thing. Remember that change is inevitable. Customer
needs do change over time and delivering a project that answers their needs often means
altering the scope. Scope creep is therefore a reality that every good project manager expects
and plans for.
How to Manage Project Scope
Changes to scope can be either uncontrolled, resulting in scope creep, or controlled, resulting
in documented changes to the project requirements. Managing scope creep then boils down to
controlling those changes in scope via a change control process. This involves:
 Monitoring the project's status and baseline scope
 Comparing actual work performance measurements with the baseline scope using
variance analysis: "How different is the current project from the original plan?"
 Determining the cause and the degree of the changes found
 Deciding on change requests, i.e. whether corrective or preventive action is needed
 Managing all change requests and recommended actions (whether corrective or
preventive actions) via the Perform Integrated Change Control process
 If approved change requests affect the project's overall scope and cost baseline, then
the scope statement, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and/or cost baseline is
updated and sent out to stakeholders. In short, all changes are processed, documented,
and communicated properly.
Examples of scope creep

In order to avoid scope creep, it’s important to consider some concrete project scope creep
examples.
Consider a company that is launching a new type of phone case next month. The company
has meticulously planned the product launch from start to finish. However, over the course of
development, the CEO and exec team decide they want to add a ring light, battery pack and
other elements to the case. This requires the project team to spend considerable additional
time on this product, which in turn affects the product’s final launch date and the attendant
revenue.
In a particularly famous real world example of scope creep, we look to Denver International
Airport (DIA) and its experience with attempting to create a fully automated baggage
handling system, which was plagued by scope creep that involved over 2,000 design changes.
These design changes were, in part, a result of not including relevant parties in the planning
stages and ignoring fundamental project concerns. The scope creep during the DIA baggage
automation project meant the project finished 16 months late and more than 250% over
budget.
But while DIA’s attempt at automating baggage ultimately failed, there are key lessons to be
learned from one of the most well-known project creep examples.
From this example, future project managers will hopefully be reminded of the importance of
communicating with all stakeholders from the initial phases, heeding expert warnings about
potential obstacles that could impact timeline and budget, and breaking projects into smaller
chunks using achievable project milestones.

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NAME Usman Naveed

ROLL No. B -21653

Managing the Creeps

Examples of scope creep

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