Meaning of Baseline and Reviewing Process of Baseline from MB0033 Assignment

The question is the part of Project Management of MB0033 assignment of SMU MBA. It is – “What is meant by baseline? How is it reviewed?” You already have gotten many assignments in this category such as - Deming’s philosophy relevant to Project Management, How can risks be prioritized in a Project Management, Main Considerations in Planning P2M, significance of reviewing ROI and Introduction to ScMo Supply Chain Monitoring. Now, you will get a new assignment about “What is meant by baseline? How is it reviewed?”

The Baseline created can be used to compare the original project plan with actual events and achievements. This will display the days required for each task and project phase. For actual operating instruction phase refer the Microsoft project user handbook.

After creating a baseline, if the project has begun, it is necessary to enter actual dates that tasks are being completed and the resource utilization used to complete them. Again review different views and the cost and summary tables before proceeding to the next section. Return to the entry view of the Gantt chart before proceeding.

At times people and equipment can become assigned more work then they can complete in normal working hours. This is called over allocation. Project can test for this condition and reschedule (or level) their workload to accommodate completing tasks during a normal day.

After a baseline has been established and the project has begun, it is desirable to determine if task are being accomplished on time and/or if cost over runs are occurring.

Project has many different built-in reports and has the capability building custom reports and exporting data to other MS office applications for integration into other reporting venues.

Significance of Reviewing ROI and Explain Return on Investment for MB0033 MBA Assignment

It is the question of Project Management of MB0033 assignment of SMU MBA. The question is – “What is the significance of reviewing ROI? Explain in detail.” We already have discussed on many assignments in this category such as - Deming’s philosophy relevant to Project Management, How can risks be prioritized in a Project Management and Introduction to ScMo Supply Chain Monitoring. Now, I am going to present my theory on ROI (Return on Investment) for MB0033 MBA assignment of SMU.

Return on Investment (ROI) is the calculated benefit that an organization is projected to receive in return for investing money (resources) in a project within the context of the review process. The investment would be in an information system development or enhancement project. ROI information is used to assess the status of the business viability of the project at key check points throughout the project’s life-cycle.

ROI may include the benefits associated with improved mission performance, reduced cast, increased quality, speed, or flexibility, and increased customer and employee satisfaction. ROI should reflect such risk factors as the project’s technical complexity. The agency’s management capacity, the likelihood of cost overruns, and the consequences of under – or non-performance where appropriate, ROI should be reflect actual returns observed through pilot projects and prototypes.

ROI should be quantified in terms of dollors and should include a calculation of the break-even point (BEP) which is the date when the investment begins to generate a positive return. ROI should be re-calculated at every major checkpoint of a project to see if the BEP is still on schedule, based on project spending and accomplishments to date. If the project is behind schedule or over budget, the BEP may move out in time; if the project is ahead of or under budget the BEP may occur earlier. In either case, the information is important 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 fresh the ROI at each key project decision point (i.e. stage exist) or at least yearly.

Main Considerations in Planning P2M MBA MB0033 Assignment of SMU

The question has been taken from Project Management of MB0033 assignment of SMU MBA. The question is – “What are the main considerations in planning P2M? Give relevant examples.” There are already many assignments in this category - Deming’s philosophy relevant to Project Management, How can risks be prioritized in a Project Management and Introduction to ScMo Supply Chain Monitoring.

Some of the considerations for effective program management are given below:

Focusing on the various strategic initiatives taken up for multiple projects and the issues related to benefits and risks.

Bringing about the attention of management to a defined set of benefits, which are understood immediately, which are understood immediately, which are managed thought the implementation and at completion.

Helping to management to set priorities, choosing options and allocate resources.

Setting up mechanisms to measure and ensure that the projects making contributions for realizing expected business benefits.

Leading the organization on the path of ‘where it’ and ‘where it wants to be’. Ensuring that the effects of the programme driven changes are coordinated, the transitions are successfully managed. The operations are effective and efficient.

The objective sought to be achieved and the methods which are adopted and the activities that are going to be undertaken i.e. the process include the following steps.

Preparing and maintaining a set of activities and the workflow that is to be followed and identifying business areas responsible for different stage in the above:

The marketing sure that the priorities that the above generate are relevant and the projects are run on the basis of their impact on the business in a whole:

The Process has to incorporate all the important aspects which are to be addressed during implementation and management of the projects. It is important to identify all factors and incorporate resources – men, material, technology and time, so that their provision can be planned.

How Can Risks Be Prioritized In A Project Management? MB0033 Assignment of MBA for SMU

This is Project Management question of MB0033 assignment of SMU MBA. The question is – “How can risks be prioritized in a Project Management? Give any suitable example.” In this category, we already have discussed about Deming’s philosophy relevant to Project Management.

To identify risks, we must first define risk. Risks are potential problems, ones that are not guaranteed to occur. When people performing risk identification they often start by listing known problems. Known problems are not risks. During risk identification, you might notice some problems. If so, just move them to a problem list and concentrate on future potential problems.

Risk identification can be done using a brainstorming session. The brainstorm typically takes 13-30 minutes. Be sure to invite anyone who can help you think risks. Invite the project team, customer, people who have been a similar projects, and experts in the subject area of the project, limit the group size to nine people. In the brainstorming session, people call out potential problems that they think could hurt the project. New ideas are generated based on the items on the brainstorm list. A project manager can also use the process to refer to a database of risk obtained from past.

The information obtained from such databases can help the project manager to evaluate and asses the nature of the risk and its impact on he project. Also to a great extent the judgment of the project manager based upon his post experience comes very handy in dealing with risks. Another important method is to generate alternative solution or methodology to deal with risk. Generate solution by means of group review meetings or a brainstorm session.

During the brainstorm, consider the following items:

Selection of weak areas in a project, such as unknown technology being used or to be used:

Things, that is critical or extremely important to the effort, such as the timely delivery of a vendor’s database software, creation of translators, or a user interface that meets the customer needs.

Introduction to ScMo Supply Chain Monitoring for MB0033 Assignment of SMU MBA

The question of MB0033 assignment of SMU MBA is – “Explain the structure of the documentation systems as required by supply chain monitoring. What is the significance of documentation? How does it help a manager?”

The intent of this document is to define the structure of the documentation system, its content, and the method generation and to attain common documentation of all standard process of Odette. The documentation is valid for the SCM-group of Odette. The Documentation system is internet based to provide immediate access to current, up-to-date process documentation. The system allows users to manage through graphical structures to relevant documentation and process which were created with the ARIS – Tousled.

The process pro document action system serves the following objectives:

1) Present standard process to be adhered to across the industry, and in so doing secure their correct application.

2) Offer a central location of all process and system related information – from customizing documentation to working guidelines.

3) Allow flexible and quick adaptation in case of process changes or enhancement and provide the update information immediately.

4) Present the standard process in the intranet, where users can look up the current process whenever necessary.

5) Availability at every working location.

Defining the process documentation system the content of the process documentation system includes the area supply chain management from the Odette supply chain management group. The system includes graphical process documentation, in the form of process chains, as well as the entire range of documentation related information is attached to each documentation level, where it can be in the form of a single documentation or a link to further documentations or other process chains.

The process Documentation System gives, according to its objectives, an overview and a detailed view of the relevant process for SCMo. The process gives the information as to which activities are dome and by whom, when the activities are done and which systems and information support those activities. Easy system operation is achieved though the use of top-down navigation and the availability of a search index.

Concept of Concurrency in High Technology Development from MB0033

This question is, “Explain the Concept of Concurrency in High Technology Development.” This is an assignment question of Sikkim Manipal University MBA MB0033. It is a solved assignment of SMU MBA question. We already have discussed about Deming’s Philosophy relevant to project management and characteristics of project. Now, you will get the answer of – “Concept of Concurrency in High Technology Development”.

As the application of technology has become critical for the survival of organization it has become imperative for organizations to initiate measures for the development of high technology to be ahead of competition. No doubt, there are many specialized research and development firms which offer their expertise to their client’s problems. However, their services are available to the competitors and many technologies developed by the company’s own research personnel cannot be shared with outsiders. So the strategy would be utilize the services of external resource to the extent they are suitable for out purpose, but with a strong base of R and D of our own. This will really differentiate the best. The following give some guidelines in the form of rules which help organization to be strong in this area.

Build concurrency into every activity:

Building concurrency into every activity is essential to reduce the development cycle time and to counter the technology obsolescence. Many of the tasks that are normally done in a serial fashion can be done in parallel by synchronizing the flow of information. The practices of the concurrent engineering where the design of the product and all its associated processes are carried out simultaneously based on team work and participation. Would not only help in reducing the development cycle time, but also improves the product functionality with regard to requirements. Concurrency can be accomplished in many ways both for product development as well as technology transfer, user evaluation and production.

Deming’s Philosophy Relevant to Project Management from SMU MBA MB0033

This question is, “State the principle of Deming’s philosophy relevant to Project Management. Explain how each one is applicable in Management?” This is an assignment question of SMU MBA MB0033.

We can consider the five steps –DMAIS – as generic for any system of a journey towards excellence – it is highly relevant in project management for the simple reason that all the steps give out in detail the steps to be taken and that they will ensure readiness for the next. Verification of implementation is possible with checklists which can be prepared and used by employees at all levels. The team members can be given training to follow them. We will consider them one by one.

Define: This step requires that what is sought to be achieved is identified in all its detail. The step requires that what is going to make:

a) Benchmark –The standards achieved by the best in the industry. Our product is set to meet them

b) Customer Requirement

c) Process Flow Map – Activities that take place to result in the product at the end of them.

d) Quality function deployment – This tool compares the quality characteristics in our product with those is our competitors’ and their relative importance to the customer. To achieve them, we find the technical specifications we have to incorporate in our product.

e) Project management plan – This includes the materials, men, activities, schedules, milestones etc.

f) Measure – Measuring the outcomes of the activities.

g) Data collection – Data about the work that is done and compare as to how it corresponds with that is required

h) Defect metrics – The deviations that are in the effective position of the work whether they are acceptable or can they be rectified

i) Sampling – If the volumes are high, select a few of them and inspect them to see whether the entire batch is acceptable

2) Analyze – Use the data on measures to perform analysis.

Tools can be used:

a) Cause and effect diagrams – also called Fishbone Diagrams.

b) Failure mode and effect analysis FMEA

c) Root cause analysis

d) Reliability Analysis

3) Improve – Measures to remove the defects found earlier are implemented for improving the process

4) Standardize – When improvements have become consistent, the methods adopted are standardized.

Various Characteristics of a Project and Importance from MB0033 Assignment of MBA

You have to solve the question, “What are the various characteristics of a project? What is the importance of each characteristic? Give examples.” This is an assignment question of SMU MBA. The MBA assignment question is related to Project Management MB0033.

Project is a program of non-routine work bringing about a beneficial change.

Characteristics of project management:

a) Resource requirement: During the course of executing the project, it is seen that the resource requirement increase from start to an intermediate stage of the project. It further increases at rapid rate and becomes constant while the project is during it’s so to 95% progress stage. Thereafter the resources requirement decreases to zero i.e. when the project comes to finish. Refer the characteristic chart.

b) Funds: The requirement of funds to complete execution of the project also follows the same trends as that of the resources. The two are more or less proportional. Refer the characteristic chart.


c) Probability of completion: The probability of completing the project can be estimated based upon the normal distribution curve. In the initial stage of the project the probability of completing the project is low though not zero. It gradually increases and as the project approaches finish the probability of completing the project tends to become 100% Refer the characteristic chart.

d) Risk: The risks involved in the project effecting its completion time are high at the initial stages and low at the later stages of the project. Refer the characteristic chart.


e) Design changes: The project during the course of its progress may be subjected to changes because of some external factors. The influence of such external factors on the project may result in changes in the design of the project though not very often. It is observed that such changes.

Importance of project Management projects may be completed with one or more of the following: -

Stretched deadlines
Over stressed team
Wasted resources
Unmet customers’ functional requirements
Overshot budget

A good project management methodology provides a framework for the process.

It provides guidelines for the execution of the project that greatly increases the chances of the project being successful, and therefore provides value to the project.

Some of the steps of a good project management are –

Define the project
Reduce it to a set of manageable tasks
Obtain appropriate and necessary resources
Build a team to perform the project work
Plan the work and allocate the resources to the tasks.

Examples of project –

a) commissioning a new industrial unit
b) Construction of a house
c) Setting up at an office
d) Developing a technology
e) Launching a new product in the market