Project Management

Unit 15

Unit 15

Case Studies and Practical Exercises

Structure: 15.1 Introduction Learning objectives 15.2 Practical Case Study No. 1 15.3 Practical Case Study No. 2 15.4 Practical Case Study No. 3 15.5 Exercises 15.6 Summary 15.7 Bibliography

15.1 Introduction
After gaining the fundamental knowledge of project management, it is important for you to attempt converting your study into a practical mode. This unit provides you with an opportunity to convert concepts into practical project working models. In this unit, therefore, you will understand a few case studies related to project management. You will also attempt some practical exercises for putting these structured concepts into standardised formats and analyse them. For this purpose, a few practical examples have been provided with generic input data, typical of such projects. Learning Objectives By the end of this unit, you should be able to: Analyse a case Apply the concepts learned in previous units into structured Project Management Documents. Analyse key options to freeze on acceptable key project management practices. Describe the way an interface between Project Data and a complex IT integrated PM System can be developed.

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15.2 Practical Case Study No. 1

Table 15.1: Development of an ERP system for a Pharmaceutical Company in XYZ country Modules available Modules to be developed Sales, Financials, Inventory, and Purchase (estimated as 40% of Total Content).

Production-Planning-Control, Manufacturing, Quality Control, Warehousing (50% of Total Content) Modules to be offered later as addon HR (available), Maintenance (to be developed) Budget indication from customer 45,000 US$ Manpower estimate New development Customisation of available modules Schedule First phase of implementation Completion Payment Terms Advance Against submission of compliance document Against completion of phase I Against completion of phase II Against completion of add-ons At the time of handing over Penalty General 30 man months 10 man months Within 3 months Within 7 months. 10% 15% 35% 20% 10% 10% 5% for every month of delay 1) Third party software budget limit is 10,000 US $ 2) Any additional software expenditure is to be borne by the vendor 3) Cost of travel to be borne by the vendor but free guest house accommodation, transport and boarding will be provided 4) System Administrator and Data Administrator will be provided by the company

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15.3 Practical Case Study No. 2

Table 15.2: Development of a Television Media Control System for Germany Description 1) The system is required by a media solutions company in Germany who is an intermediary between a Television Content Development Studio Company and a TV Broadcasting Company. 2) System requirement covers a Remote Device Solution controlling Delivery of Media Programmes in Real Time Mode from the archives of the Media Centre to the TV Stations based on a day to day programme schedule. Length and duration of the Programmes should be modified based on the time slots with gaps for local commercials which vary geographically. System should also provide slot for local interruptions like news capsules and emergency announcements. 3) Vendor can recommend suitable technology. However, preference is for Modular Solutions of CISCO. Prevailing back end systems are BORLAND and LINUX. Price is 45 US $ per hour with a gross margin of 40%. 20,000 Euros as advance 10,000 Euros on submission of a Study Report and Proposal 20,000 after installation of solution at the Control 10,000 Euros after installation at the media centre 20,000 Euros after installation at the TV Station 40,000 Euros after system integration and handing over

Commercial Terms First Phase

Second Phase Third Phase Fourth Phase

15.4 Practical Case Study No. 3

Table 15.3 Development of a new Healthcare product by a Pharmaceutical Company for Treatment of Hypertension Available Basic Bulk Drug Formulation, Blenders and Additives (estimated as 80% of Total Material Content) Herbal Extracts (30% of Total Content) USFDA has rejected the earlier product

To be developed Basic Problem

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Present Status

MOU has been signed with a leading Research and Development centre in India which has developed the Extract. Nearly 80% of the non-compliance factors in the USFDA Rejection Report have been taken care of.

Schedule and Cost Estimated time for completion of research Estimated cost for completion of research Estimated time for completion of clinical trials Estimated budget for completion of clinical trials General hints 4 Months

500,000 US $

6 months

800,000 US$

Competitors offer two varieties of products one for primary Hypertension Symptoms and the other for advanced Symptoms. The latter is priced at five times the former USFDA Rejection Report refers to points which are valid for the Advanced Symptoms version alone Time cycle required for generation of a Market Research Report is two months and cost for such a report is 90,000 US$.

15.5 Exercises
1. Try some of these exercises to build your proficiency with starting the scheduling process. (Use the MS project software) a) Go into the project information dialog box and set either your start date or your finish date. b) Go to options dialog box and change your time unit labels. c) Start with the tools drop down menu and change the default unit for duration of your project from days to weeks. d) Find the way to change the default working hours and set them for your project.

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2. You have started a new project and want to be sure all the underlined scheduling elements are properly set. You also want to understand the effects of these elements yourself. Try the following: a. Open the project file and change the way project displays start and end dates so that you can also see time values. b. Set the project start time to 7 am. Then set that task default stop time to 7 am. Notice how many tasks change to a 7 am start time. c. Change the standard base calendar to set working time for Monday through Friday at 7am. Notice if the start fields for the remaining tasks change. d. The task reduce lab scale product requires special scheduling since the lab is exclusively reserved for Research and Development department on Mondays. Create a base calendar named lab marking Mondays as non working day and assign it to a special calendar task and duration of 10 days from April 3, 2007 to April 13, 2007 at 4 pm. Notice if this new task impacts the schedule and try to think of a reason. 3. Try these exercises to further build your proficiency in working with resources and costs. a. Define some of the resources for your project on the assign resources dialog box. b. Go to a couple of materials resources in the resource sheet. c. Create a couple of material resources in the resource sheet. d. Use the resources information dialog box to show that one of your resources will not be available during the first month of your project. e. Go to the cost tab of the resources information dialogue box and show a 5% increase in the standard rate and overtime rate for a resource one year from now. 4. Start a new project document to experiment with and create three tasks named fixed units task, fixed work tasks and fixed duration task. Create two resources named work resources and material resources. Then conduct a series of experiments by assigning a resource to one of the tasks. After each assignment, review how the project reacted to the assignment and then undo the assignment before making the next assignment.

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For each resource and task contribution add the following assignments: a) Assign the name only and see how project uses default values. b) Assign the name and a unit value other than 100%. c) Assign the name and a work value. d) Assign the name, units and work.

15.6 Summary
After completing this unit you would have learnt to expand various concepts into structured Project Management Documents. You would have also learnt to analyse key options and freeze on acceptable key project management practices. This unit has described the ways as to how an interface between Project Data and a complex IT integrated PM System can be developed.

15.7 Bibliography
1. Project Management for Business and Technology : Principles and Practice, 2nd edition, Authors - John M Nicholas, Prentice Hall India. 2. The Project Management Handbook- For engineers, construction professionals, and business managers, Tata Mc Graw Hill, AuthorsUddesh Kohli and K K Chitkara. 3. Corporate Software Project Management, Dream tech Press, author Guy W Lecky Thompson. 4. Text book of project management, Mac Millan India Ltd., Authors-P Gopalakrishnan and V E Rama Moorthy.

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Bibliography
1. Eugene F. Brigham and Michael C. Earnhardt, Finance Management, 12th Edition, Cengage Learning, 2007. 2. Prof. Prasanna Chandra, Finance Management, 7th Edition, Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Ltd. 3. Khan and Jain, Basic Financial Management, 2nd Edition, Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Ltd., 2005. 4. I. M. Pandey, Financial Management, 9th Edition, Vikas Publishing House New Delhi, 2005. 5. Shashi.K. Gupta and Neeti Gupta, Financial Management, Kalyani Publishers, 2005. 6. Dr. M. K. Rastogi, Financial Management (a planning and control approach), USP, 2010.

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