8) Can recent college graduates expect to be project managers right away? What is a typical career path for a project manager?

No. Project Management is a skill best cultivated and mastered through on-the-job experience and real-life scenario project situations. Good project managers not only know the fundamental lessons learned but also acquire the discipline through experience. Job description for a project manager can vary by industry and by organization, but most project managers perform similar tasks regardless of these differences. 

7) Many information technology project managers come from senior technical positions. What can you do to help them transition into a project management role?

First and foremost, project management is a discipline. It is not an intuitive skill. You must study and understand the fundamental rules to project management. Understanding the fundamental discipline will assist in transitioning into a project management role. 

To help someone transition into a project management role one needs to assist that individual with their leadership skills, such as deciding what method of development their project will need, what the life cycle of the current project is estimated to be, and figuring each goal in the project so as to organize the teams after viewing the necessities of each goal required by the project. At the same time they should learn to be constantly vigilant of the three project constraints of project management, which are the scope, cost, and time required for the project. 

6) The Good Project vs. the Bad Project

The Good: The National Ignition Facility Project

A great example of excellent project management skills is the National Ignition Facility (NIF) Project, which won the 2010 Project of the Year Award, an honor granted by the Project Management Institute (PMI).
The NIF project was the largest scientific construction project completed by the US Department of Energy, resulting in the world’s largest and most powerful laser system. It was done by a highly competent team of government, academic, and industrial partners.

Some of the reasons for the project’s success are:

- The team established a well-designed completion criteria for the project, which was followed almost to the 

   letter;
- The establishment of a good technical cost and schedule-based line;
- They developed new technologies based on existing ones, relying on a thorough and extensive research;
- The focus of the project was to make sure the new technology will be implemented for 30 years, so the     

   team made sure everything was working properly and that it met the requirements to maintain longevity;
- The team set working groups with members from different organizations, collaborating to solve problems;

- The project was designed to comply with the Systems Engineering Organization’s precise specification and 

   tolerance standards.

In sum, the success of this project was thanks to good communication and collaboration skills between stakeholders, and to a very detailed project plan based on thorough research and innovations.

Sources: PMI's 2010 Winner / NIF website


The Bad: California DMV Project

In 1987, California’s DVM started a project intended to revamp the driver’s license and registration systems. The goal - though unclear - of the project was to transfer over 70 million user records into a new relational database. 6 years and $45 million dollars later, the project was deemed a failure, so it got shut down by the state authorities. 

Some of the reasons given for its demise are:

- The team did not have enough knowledge and understanding of the new technology;

- There was no correlation between the technology’s capabilities and the agency’s goals;

- Procurement restrictions required the agency to use a specific hardware platform, without possibility to 

  explore other kinds;

- No support or trust from the DMV technical community or from the executive management;

- Poor planning and poor design specifications, given the objectives of the project were unclear. 

The Standish Group issued a report in which the DMV project was given 10 out of 100 success points, which means the project was doomed to fail from the start. These are the criteria they used to measure the success, and the points awarded:

This project’s failure was caused by poor planning and lack of support. I don’t understand how it remained open for 6 years. Given that the DMV didn’t know what it wanted as a result, plus handing the project to a dysfunctional and demotivated team, it’s not surprising that this project is considered one of the biggest failures in the field.

Sources: University at Albany Publication / The Standish Group Report

5) Process groups- how much time and money is typically spent on projects in each of the process groups? Assume you have one year and $100,000 to spend.

The project management process groups are:

1) Initiating activities, which include defining and authorizing a project or project phase;

2) Planning activities include devising and maintaining a workable scheme to ensure that the project addresses the organization's needs;

3) Executing activities involves coordinating people and other resources to carry out the various plans and create the products, services, or results of the project or phase; 

4) Monitoring and controlling activities is regularly measuring and monitoring progress to ensure that the project team meets the project objectives;

5) Closing activities involves formalizing acceptance of the project and project phase and ending it efficiently. Closing- 2%, around $2,000 and 1 week time spent; Monitoring and Controlling- 4%, $4,000 and 2 weeks’ time spent; Executing (clearly requiring the most resources, money and time spent)- 82%, $82,000 and around 10 months’ time spent; Planning- 11%, $11,000 and around 6 weeks’ time spent; Least amount of resources and money is the Initiating Process- around 1%, $1,000, and about 3 to 4 days’ time spent. 

4) Some of the adaptive approaches to developing systems (like agile) are becoming more popular. Are they better or more appropriate than prescriptive approaches in most cases? Why or Why not?

Adaptive approaches are usually better than prescriptive approaches because they offer more flexibility in the development of the project. This approach allows for team members to share their advances, and for updates and changes to be made to the project. Furthermore, the adaptive approach is especially useful in an environment where the technology is frequently changing and the requirements of a project can change at any moment, and the project need to be improved and adjusted accordingly.

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

Strategic planning is an analytical process where the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, (four things also well-known as SWOT analysis) of a company are studied, providing key information to intelligently identify and select potentially successful projects.  

SWOT analysis:

- Strengths: Strengths must focus on what the company can do with its internal resources.

- Weaknesses: Weaknesses can include any area in which the company lacks strength.

- Opportunities: external chances to make greater sales or profits in the environment.

- Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business.

I personally think that companies focus on weaknesses to be able to make positive changes in order to improve a project, and to not make the same mistakes in future projects. 

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

A triple constraint consists of balancing scope, time and cost goals.  This helps project managers to manage projects in a more successful and effective way by taking a disciplined approach. 

Scope is what work will be done in the project in order to benefit the project, the sponsor(s), and consumers relating to the product of service. 

Time is how long the project manager and their team need to be able to finish the expectations for the project by creating specific time frames for every part of the project. 

Cost is the budget provided from stakeholders towards the project. It’s necessary to for project managers to know what their cost will be so that they can work out what they can or cannot do within the project.

The relationship between scope, time, and cost is indisputable when it comes to the success of a project, because one can’t work without the other. Project managers should know what goal is more important for the project in order to accommodate the other two goals according to the project’s main need.  For instance, if a person is given a project to bake 1000 cookies in one day, their main goal would be “time”; therefore, the baker would need to accommodate the other goals to finish the 1000 cookies within the given time frame.