IGNOU MBA MS-52 Solved Assignments 2010Course Code Course Title Assignment Code Coverage : : : : MS-52

Project ManagementMS-52/SEM-I/2010 All Blocks

Note: Please attempt all the questions and send it to the Coordinator of the study Center you are attached with 1) Describe the important phases of a project life cycle.

Solution: This is the initial phase of any project. In this phase information is collected from the customer pertaining to the project and the requirements are analyzed. The entire project has to be planned and it should be done in a strategic manner. The project manager conducts the analysis of the problem and submits a detailed report to the top project justification, details on what the problem is a method of solving the problem, list of the objectives to be achieved, project budget and the success rate of completing the project. The report must also contain information and the project feasibility, and the risks involved in the project. Project management life cycle is the integrated part of management. It is attach with project responsibility or failure of a project. For the MBA assignments it is the most valuable chapter in production management. The important tasks of this phase are as follows: Specification Requirements Analysis (SRA): It has to be conducted to determine the essential requirements of a project in order to achieve the target. Feasibility study: To analyze whether the project is technically, economically and practically feasible to be undertaken. Trade off analysis: To understand and examine the various alternatives which could be considered. Estimation: To estimate the project cost, effort requires for the project and functionality of various process in the project. System design: Choose a general design that can fusil the requirements. Project evolution: Evaluate the project in terms of expected profit, cost and risks involved marketing phase. A project proposal is prepared by a group of people including the project manager. This proposal has to contain the strategies adopted to market the product to the customers.

Design phase: This phase involves the study of inputs and outputs of the various project stages. Execution phase: In this phase the project manager and the teams members work on the project objectives as per the plan. At every stage during the execution reports are prepared. Control Inspecting, Testing and Delivery phase during this phase. The project team works under the guidance of the project manager. The project manager has to ensure that the team working under his, implements the project designs accurately, the project manager has to ensure ways of managing the customer, perform quality control work. Closure and post completion analysis phase upon satisfactory completion and delivery of the intended product or service the staff performance has to be evaluated. Document the lessons from the project. Prepare the reports on project feedback analysis followed by the project execution report. The phase which involve in the above are: The preparation stage involves the preparation and approval of project outline, project plan and project budget. The next stage involves selecting and briefing the project team about the proposals followed by discussions on the roles and responsibility of the project member and the organization. The project management life cycle: A Life cycle of a project consists of the following: Understanding the scope of the project Establishing objectives of the project Formulating and planning various activities Project execution and Monitor and control the project resources =========================================================== 2) Discuss the various methods of financial evaluation of the projects. Make a comparative analysis of these methods.

Solution: The various methods of financial evaluation of the projects refer to an assessment of the viability, stability and profitability of a business, sub-business or project. It is performed by professionals who prepare reports using ratios that make use of information taken from financial statements and other reports. These reports are usually presented to top management as one of their bases in making business decisions. Based on these reports, management may: * Continue or discontinue its main operation or part of its business; * Make or purchase certain materials in the manufacture of its product; * Acquire or rent/lease certain machineries and equipment in the production of itgoods; * Issue stocks or negotiate for a bank loan to increase its working capital; * Make decisions regarding investing or lending capital; * Other decisions that allow management to make an informed selection on various alternatives in the conduct of its business. Financial analysts often assess the firm's: 1. Profitability - its ability to earn income and sustain growth in both short-term and longterm. A company's degree of profitability is usually based on the income statement, which reports on the company's results of operations; 2. Solvency - its ability to pay its obligation to creditors and other third parties in the long-term; 3. Liquidity - its ability to maintain positive cash flow, while satisfying immediate obligations; Both 2 and 3 are based on the company's balance sheet, which indicates the financial condition of a business as of a given point in time. 4. Stability- the firm's ability to remain in business in the long run, without having to sustain significant losses in the conduct of its business. Assessing a company's stability requires the use of both the income statement and the balance sheet, as well as other financial and non-financial indicators. [edit] Methods Financial analysts often compare financial ratios (of solvency, profitability, growth, etc.): * Past Performance - Across historical time periods for the same firm (the last 5 years for example), * Future Performance - Using historical figures and certain mathematical and statistical techniques, including present and future values, This extrapolation method is the main source of errors in financial analysis as past statistics can be poor predictors of future prospects. * Comparative Performance - Comparison between similar firms. These ratios are calculated by dividing a (group of) account balance(s), taken from the balance sheet and / or the income statement, by another, for example : n / equity = return on equity Net income / total assets = return on assets Stock price / earnings per share = P/E-ratio Comparing financial ratios is merely one way of conducting financial analysis. Financial ratios face several theoretical challenges:

* They say little about the firm's prospects in an absolute sense. Their insights about relative performance require a reference point from other time periods or similar firms. * One ratio holds little meaning. As indicators, ratios can be logically interpreted in at least two ways. One can partially overcome this problem by combining several related ratios to paint a more comprehensive picture of the firm's performance. * Seasonal factors may prevent year-end values from being representative. A ratio's values may be distorted as account balances change from the beginning to the end of an accounting period. Use average values for such accounts whenever possible. * Financial ratios are no more objective than the accounting methods employed. Changes in accounting policies or choices can yield drastically different ratio values. * They fail to account for exogenous factors like investor behavior that are not based upon economic fundamentals of the firm or the general economy (fundamental analysis) Financial analysts can also use percentage analysis which involves reducing a series of figures as a percentage of some base amount For example, a group of items can be expressed as a percentage of net income. When proportionate changes in the same figure over a given time period expressed as a percentage is know as horizontal analysis. Vertical or common-size analysis, reduces all items on a statement to a common size as a percentage of some base value which assists in comparability with other companies of different sizes Another method is comparative analysis. This provides a better way to determine trends. Comparative analysis presents the same information for two or more time periods and is presented side-by-side to allow for easy analysis. =========================================================== 3) Solution: What are the different organization structures recommended for project organization and what are their advantages and disadvantages?

=========================================================== 4) Explain the use and advantages of squared networks in Project Management with the help of an example.

Solution: Project Management involves defining the tasks to be performed, scheduling the tasks and developing the planning documentation needed to guide the work and the workers. Allocating budget for each task and assigned people to each task are additional planning functions that are not treated in this Project Planning series. I treated assigning people to tasks in the postings on Team Dynamics and I will treat budgeting in a later posting because I believe its an important enough cause of project failures to deserve its own article. A big mistake inexperienced project leaders make is scheduling tasks before the tasks are defined. Inexperienced project leaders try to combine these two planning steps by listing the tasks to be performed and working out a schedule for the list. Defining tasks should be done first, at least for complex projects, because its just not obvious how tasks should be sequenced and structured as will be explained below. Defining tasks means defining the inputs, the outputs and the tasks the outputs support. Just having a list of tasks does not mean that the inputs, outputs and the work needed to turn inputs into outputs are understood. It should be obvious that schedules constructed without such understanding are not likely to be executable without numerous corrections. N-Squared diagrams are a simple but effective way to define tasks, determine the optimum sequencing of tasks and quickly see which tasks can be done in parallel to maximize lead and lag times. A detailed description of how to construct and interpret NSquared diagrams for project tasks is found in my book blog. =========================================================== 5) Draw the project diagram from the information given below. Also identify the critical path and determine the project completion time. Task M Precedence J,L Time (Hours) 14 Solution: Coming soon . =============================================================== =============================================================== ===============================THE END======================== 16 11 14 9 12 10 30 19 11 7 40 9 A B A C B D B E D F D G H I G J K L K

E,F G

H,I C