PROJECT MANAGEMENT & CONTROL

SECTION A
Q1 Describe briefly the aspects of a business environment that needs to be monitored as well as the
dimensions along which a firm may appraise its strengths and weaknesses for identifying investment
opportunities.
Ans Project management is an organised venture for managing projects, involves
scientific application of modern tools and techniques in planning, financing,
implementing, monitoring, controlling and coordinating unique activities or task
produce desirable outputs in accordance with the determined objectives with in the
constraints of time and cost.
CHARACTERISTICS OF PROJECT
(1) Objectives : A project has a set of objectives or a mission. Once the
objectives are achieved the project is treated as completed.
(2) Life cycle : A project has a life cycle. The life cycle consists of five stages
i.e. conception stage, definition stage, planning & organising stage,
implementation stage and commissioning stage.
(3) Uniqueness : Every project is unique and no two projects are similar. Setting
up a cement plant and construction of a highway are two different projects
having unique features.
(4) Team Work : Project is a team work and it normally consists of diverse
areas. There will be personnel specialized in their respective areas and
co-ordination among the diverse areas calls for team work.
(5) Complexity : A project is a complex set of activities relating to diverse
areas.
(6) Risk and uncertainty : Risk and uncertainty go hand in hand with project. A
risk-free, it only means that the element is not apparently visible on the
surface and it will be hidden underneath.

METHOD OF RANKING
Two approaches are available for determining which project to
accept and which projects
to reject : (i) the method of ranking, and (ii) the method of
mathematical programming.
This section discusses the method of ranking ; the following
section discusses the
method of mathematical programming.
Q2 What is Project Implementation Schedule? How it is important ? What information is required for
preparing the project implementation schedule?
Ans Project implementation must be carefully planned, managed and monitored if activities are to be successfully
implemented on schedule and produce the intended outputs and outcomes.
The submission of concise reports to donors in line with the schedules specified in agreements is essential to maintain
donors confidence and possibilities for further funding. The WCO is responsible for preparing reports but all reports,
technical and financial, must be cleared by HQ-HAC before being shared with donor representatives. (This is necessary to
ensure that all information, particularly financial information, is correct according to the contribution agreement.) Only
certified financial reports issued from HQ should be submitted to donors.
As soon as donor funding becomes available:

Develop a detailed project implementation work plan, see Panel 7-4.

Designate a project officer to manage the financial aspects of project (including donor reporting).
If the entire project proposal is not funded, review the planned strategy and adjust the project design specifying
the objectives that can be met.
Prepare a log-frame if the original project proposal did not include one.
Once the detailed work plan is established, re-check the budget. If costs were under-estimated, request additional
funds or adjust activities within budget limitations.
These aspects are particularly important if (as is often the case) the field office project manager was not involved in the
drafting of the project proposal that led to the donor grant.
To avoid misunderstandings and disallowed costs, the project officer must familiarize her/himself with the donors
requirements including: obligation and disbursement deadlines, reporting requirements and formats, allowable, restricted
or disallowable items, marking requirements and/or other specific donor requirements related to the grant.
For further guidance, see SOP 13.3 which also includes a sample procurement plan.
Panel 7-4 Contents of a project implementation work plan
The project implementation work plan should:
list all activities necessary for the completion of the project and specify the time frame
within each is to be completed, the outputs expected and who is responsible;
include a staffing plan (listing of the staff required during specific periods adjusted to the
funds available and allowing time for recruitment);
include a procurement plan for the purchase and delivery of supplies and equipment
including local and international purchases (allowing time for placing orders, customs
clearance, etc.);
specify the contracts to be prepared, and when, and requirements for any training and
public information activities;
specify the administrative and logistic support required from the country office and agree
arrangements for that support with the Operations Manager/AO;
include the dates by which particular reports have to be submitted to the donor.
During project implementation

The Emergency Programme Manager and project officer must:

Establish agreements with NGOs or others partners contributing to the project using the standard format for an
agreement with an NGO in Annex C8. (Note that the agreements have to be signed in HQ by ADG-HAC.)
Provide copies of the approved project proposal and donor agreement(s) to all WHO staff working on the project,
both administrative and technical. (Ignorance of requirements, roles and responsibilities is not a justifiable explanation for
poor project execution.)
Ensure that all project staff are aware of WHO/UN contracting procedures as well as their own benefits,
entitlements, requirements and responsibilities.
Ensure that sufficient trained and experienced administrative staff are available to complement the work of
technical and medical officers (to enable the latter to focus their attention on their technical responsibilities).
Closely monitor progress of all activities against the work plan. If the project is running behind schedule, find out
whether the donor is amenable to a no-cost-extension. (Note that most donors will not approve a no-cost-extension on a 3month project.)
Be ready at all times to make project records, both technical and administrative, available to the WR and to
regional and HQ emergency staff who make periodic visits to field sites and prepare project monitoring reports.
Prepare reports for donors as required. Clear them with HQ-HAC before sharing them with donor representatives
at country level.
Prepare a mid-term progress review and report, as required. If multiple donors have responded to an appeal, avoid
reporting the same information on two different projects.
Prepare financial reports as described in SOP 13.5 in accordance with the grant agreement provisions. Do not
provide reports to donors outside official reporting periods unless specifically requested. Do not provide reports to one
donor to another even for information purposes.
Financial aspects

Keep track of all obligations and expenditures by detailed budget line (normally using a simple spreadsheet for
financial tracking).
Ensure that all expenditures conform to approved budget line items (otherwise they may not be accepted by the
donor). Request the donor's agreement to revise the budget, if necessary, in advance.
Keep copies of all receipts to support expenditure reports.
Review staff cost estimates regularly and work with the RO (BUD) to make necessary adjustments. This is
important to avoid either unspent balances at the end of the project or over-expenditures.
Adjust packing, freight and insurance estimates as soon as invoices are received.

Liaise regularly with Operations Manager/WCO Finance unit to ensure adequate levels of funds in the imprest bank
account to cover expected expenditures.
Identify issues that may cause a deviation from the approved project and, if necessary, alert the WR/Programme
Manager to negotiate a project amendment with the donor, in writing, at least 30 days before the project grant completion
date.
Monitor unliquidated obligations and ensure the timely liquidation of all project expenditures.

Q3 What are replacement decisions? Explain three components of the cash flow stream of a replacement
decision.
Ans In replacement analysis, the defender is an existing asset; the challenger is the best available replacement candidate.
The current market value is the value to use in preparing a defenders economic analysis. Sunk costspast costs that cannot be
changed by any future investment decision should not be considered in an economic analysis.Two basic approaches to analyzing
replacement problems are the cash-flow approach and the opportunity-cost approach. The cash flow approach explicitly
considers the actual cash-flow consequences for each replacement alternative as it occurs. Typically, the net proceeds from the sale
of the defender are subtracted from the purchase price of the challenger. The opportunity-cost approach views the net proceeds
from the sale of the defender as an opportunity cost of keeping the defender. That is, instead of deducting the salvage value from
the purchase cost of the challenger, we consider the salvage value an investment required in order to keep the asset.
Economic service life is the remaining useful life of a defender (or a challenger) that results in the minimum equivalent annual
cost or maximum annual equivalent revenue. We should use the respective economic service lives of the defender and the
challenger when conducting a replacement analysis.
Ultimately, in replacement analysis, the question is not whether to replace the defender, but when to do so. The AE method
provides a marginal basis on which to make the year-by-year decision about the best time to replace the defender. As a general
decision criterion, the PW method provides a more direct solution to a variety of replacement problems with either an infinite or a
finite planning horizon or a technological change in a future challenger.
he role of technological change in asset improvement should be weighed in making long-term replacement plans: If a particular
item is undergoing rapid, substantial technological improvements, it may be prudent to shorten or delay replacement (to the extent
where the loss in production does not exceed any savings from improvements in future challengers) until a desired future model is
available.

Q4.What is Performance review and control in respect of the projects? What are advantages of
conducting it? What problems are encountered in performance review and how can they be overcome?
Ans Managing the team is one of the most critical aspects of project management.

This involves not only managing internal staff

but also managing any customer personnel and subcontractors assigned to the project team.
Key aspects of effective people management include:

delegating responsibility for work assignments and witnessing the commitment of each team member,

building co-operative working relationships and ensuring effective communications among all members of the project
team,

monitoring team morale and taking action to correct problem areas,

providing effective performance review and appraisal to motivate staff and facilitate career development.
The subprocesses are:
Set Up Standards and Procedures for Team Performance As a key element in ensuring a quality project, make sure that team
members have been involved in the development of common standards and procedures for anything that impacts the general
conduct of the team.

Assign Responsibilities Meet with the individuals responsible for each work package to review objectives and assign
responsibility. Make sure there is a common understanding and commitment to the end-products that each person is to produce,
the quality requirements for each end-product, the standards and procedures to be followed, and the cost estimates and schedule
that each person is being asked to commit to.
Meet with Team Conduct weekly or bi-weekly meetings with team leaders to review issues, share experiences, and resolve
problems and concerns. Make sure that team leaders hold similar meetings with their team members, and that identified issues are
recorded, communicated, and followed through to closure. blems with leniency and strictness:
The leniency bias crops when some raters have a tendency to be liberal in their rating by assigning higher rates consistently.
Equally damaging one is assigning consistently low rates.
2. Problems with central tendency:
Some raters appraise all the employees around the middle point of the rating scale and they avoid rating the people higher or
lower level.
They follow play safe policy because of answer ability to management or lack of knowledge about the job and person he is rating
or least interest in his job.
3. Problems with personal prejudice:
If the rater dislikes any employee, he may rate them at the lower end and this may distort the rating purpose and affect the career
of these employees.
4. Problems with halo effect:
To minimizing the halo effect, you should appraise all the employees by one trait before going to rate on the basis of another trait.
A person outstanding in one area tends to receive outstanding or better than average ratings in other areas as well, even when
such a rating is undeserved
5. Problems with recent performance effect:
In general, raters remember the recent appraisal of the employee and they usually follow appraisal results last time.
Related documents

Performance appraisal examples

Purpose of performance appraisal
Performance appraisal procedure
Performance appraisal methods

Communicate Project Information On a small project, effective communication may require nothing more than routine, informal,
interaction among the team. On a project with multiple sub-projects and/or a distributed project team, a more formal
communications program will be required to address the needs of all stakeholders in the project.

SECTION B
Case study on Dilemma of Project Manager

1. Prepare a detailed report with reference to the points secretary asked you in paragraph 1 above.
Ans On a project with multiple sub-projects and/or a distributed project team, a more formal communications program will be required to address th

needs of all stakeholders in the project.

2. List out similarities between the two projects and dissimilarities.

Ans

Human genetic variation is the genetic differences both within and among populations. There may be multiple variants of any given gene in the human

population (genes), leading to polymorphism. Many genes are not polymorphic, meaning that only a single allele is present in the population: the gene is then said t
be fixed.[1]

No two humans are genetically identical. Even monozygotic twins, who develop from one zygote, have infrequent genetic differences due to mutations occurring
during development and gene copy number variation.[2] Differences between individuals, even closely related individuals, are the key to techniques such as genetic
fingerprinting. Alleles occur at different frequencies in different human populations, with populations that are more geographically and ancestrally remote tending to
differ more.

Causes of differences between individuals include the exchange of genes during meiosis and various mutational events. There are at least two reasons why geneti
variation exists between populations. Natural selection may confer an adaptive advantage to individuals in a specific environment if an allele provides a competitive
advantage. Alleles under selection are likely to occur only in those geographic regions where they confer an advantage. The second main cause of genetic variation
is due to the high degree of neutrality of most mutations. Most mutations do not appear to have any selective effect one way or the other on the organism. The main
cause is genetic drift, this is the effect of random changes in the gene pool. In humans, founder effect and past small population size (increasing the likelihood of
genetic drift) may have had an important influence in neutral differences between populations. The theory that humans recently migrated out of Africa supports this.

The study of human genetic variation has both evolutionary significance and medical applications. It can help scientists understand ancient human population
migrations as well as how different human groups are biologically related to one another. For medicine, study of human genetic variation may be important because
some disease-causing alleles occur more often in people from specific geographic regions. New findings show that each human has on average 60 new mutations
compared to their parents.[3][4] Apart from mutations, many genes that may have aided humans in ancient times plague humans today. For example, it is suspected
that genes that allow humans to more efficiently process food are those that make people susceptible to obesity and diabetes today

3.List out the activities required immediately. You can imagine data and figures wherever necessary.
Ans A record of most calls made in the U.S., including the telephone number of the phones making and receiving the call, and how
long the call lasted. This information is known as metadata and doesnt include a recording of the actual call (but see below). This
program was revealed through a leaked secret court order instructing Verizon to turn over all such information on a daily basis. Other
phone companies, including AT&T and Sprint, also reportedly give their records to the NSA on a continual basis. All together, this
is several billion calls per day.
Assignmt c
1)d
2)b
3)d
4)d
5)c
6)d
7d
8)c
9)c
10)d
11)b
12)a
13)d
14)c
15)a
16)a
17)c
18)a
19)b
20)b
21)d
22)b
23)a

24)c
25)d
26)a
27)c
28)c
29)a
30)a
31)d
32)a
33)d
34)a
35)b
36)c
37)d
38)d
39)a
40)a