MBA – II SEM

Project Management- MB0033

MB0033

Registration No:520922527
 MBA – II SEM
Financial Management - MB0033
Set – 1

Q1. Define Project Management, resource, process and project cycle. Explain the life-cycle of a
project?

Answer: Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring
about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. It is sometimes conflated with program
management, however technically a program is actually a higher level construct: a group of related and
somehow interdependent projects.
A project is a temporary endeavor, having a defined beginning and end (usually constrained by date, but can be
by funding or deliverables, undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, usually to bring about beneficial
change or added value. The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast to business as usual (or operations),
which are repetitive, permanent or semi-permanent functional work to produce products or services. In practice,
the management of these two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development
of distinct technical skills and the adoption of separate management.
Resources: In project management terminology, resources are required to carry out the project tasks. They can
be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else capable of definition (usually other than labour)
required for the completion of a project activity. The lack of a resource will therefore be a constraint on the
completion of the project activity. Resources may be storable or non storable. Storable resources remain
available unless depleted by usage, and may be replenished by project tasks which produce them. Non-storable
resources must be renewed for each time period, even if not utilized in previous time periods.
Process: A project Management process is the management process of planning and controlling the
performance or execution of a project.
Input
Input
Process Process
Output
Project Management Process

Traditionally, project management includes a number of elements: four to five process groups, and a control
system. Regardless of the methodology or terminology used, the same basic project management processes will
be used.

The project development stages

Major process groups generally include:
• Initiation
• Planning or development
• Production or execution
 • Monitoring and controlling
• Closing

Initiation

The initiation processes determine the nature and scope of the project. If this stage is not performed well, it is
unlikely that the project will be successful in meeting the business’ needs. The key project controls needed here
are an understanding of the business environment and making sure that all necessary controls are incorporated
into the project. Any deficiencies should be reported and a recommendation should be made to fix them.
The initiation stage should include a plan that encompasses the following areas:
• Analyzing the business needs/requirements in measurable goals
• Reviewing of the current operations
• Financial analysis of the costs and benefits including a budget
• Stakeholder analysis, including users, and support personnel for the project
• Project charter including costs, tasks, deliverables, and schedule

Planning and design

Planning Process Group Activities

After the initiation stage, the project is planned to an appropriate level of detail. The main purpose is to plan
time, cost and resources adequately to estimate the work needed and to effectively manage risk during project
execution. As with the Initiation process group, a failure to adequately plan greatly reduces the project's chances
of successfully accomplishing its goals.
Project planning generally consists of
• determining how to plan (e.g. by level of detail or rolling wave);
• developing the scope statement;
• selecting the planning team;
• identifying deliverables and creating the work breakdown structure;
• identifying the activities needed to complete those deliverables and networking the activities in their
logical sequence;
Executing

Executing Process Group Processes

Executing consists of the processes used to complete the work defined in the project management plan to
accomplish the project's requirements. Execution process involves coordinating people and resources, as well as
integrating and performing the activities of the project in accordance with the project management plan. The
deliverables are produced as outputs from the processes performed as defined in the project management plan.

Monitoring and controlling

Monitoring and controlling consists of those processes performed to observe project execution so that potential
problems can be identified in a timely manner and corrective action can be taken, when necessary, to control the
execution of the project. The key benefit is that project performance is observed and measured regularly to
identify variances from the project management plan.

Monitoring and Controlling includes:

• Measuring the ongoing project activities (where we are);
• Monitoring the project variables (cost, effort, scope, etc.) against the project management plan and the
project performance baseline (where we should be);
• Identify corrective actions to address issues and risks properly (How can we get on track again);
• Influencing the factors that could circumvent integrated change control so only approved changes are
implemented

In multi-phase projects, the monitoring and controlling process also provides feedback between project phases,
in order to implement corrective or preventive actions to bring the project into compliance with the project
management plan.

Project Maintenance is an ongoing process, and it includes:

• Continuing support of end users
• Correction of errors
• Updates of the software over time
Monitoring and controlling cycle

In this stage, auditors should pay attention to how effectively and quickly user problems are resolved.
Over the course of any construction project, the work scope may change. Change is a normal and expected part
of the construction process. Changes can be the result of necessary design modifications, differing site
conditions, material availability, contractor-requested changes, value engineering and impacts from third parties,
to name a few. Beyond executing the change in the field, the change normally needs to be documented to show
what was actually constructed. This is referred to as Change Management. Hence, the owner usually requires a
final record to show all changes or, more specifically, any change that modifies the tangible portions of the
finished work.

Closing

Closing includes the formal acceptance of the project and the ending thereof. Administrative activities include
the archiving of the files and documenting lessons learned.
This phase consists of:
• Project close: Finalize all activities across all of the process groups to formally close the project or a
project phase
• Contract closure: Complete and settle each contract (including the resolution of any open items) and
close each contract applicable to the project or project phase
Resources: In project management terminology, resources are required to carry out the project tasks. They
can be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else capable of definition (usually other than labour)
required for the completion of a project activity. The lack of a resource will therefore be a constraint on the
completion of the project activity. Resources may be storable or non storable. Storable resources remain
available unless depleted by usage, and may be replenished by project tasks which produce them. Non-storable
resources must be renewed for each time period, even if not utilised in previous time periods.
Q2. What are the roles and responsibilities of a project manager?

Title Role
Project Manager The person responsible for developing, in conjunction with the
Project Sponsor, a definition of the project. The Project
Manager then ensures that the project is delivered on time, to
budget and to the required quality standard (within agreed
specifications). He/she ensures the project is effectively
resourced and manages relationships with a wide range of
groups (including all project contributors).
The Project Manager is also responsible for managing the work
of consultants, allocating and utilising resources in an efficient
manner and maintaining a co-operative, motivated and
successful team.
Responsibilities

• Managing and leading the project team.

• Recruiting project staff and consultants.
• Managing co-ordination of the partners and working groups engaged in project work.
• Detailed project planning and control including:
• Developing and maintaining a detailed project plan.
• Managing project deliverables in line with the project plan.
• Recording and managing project issues and escalating where necessary.
• Resolving cross-functional issues at project level.
• Managing project scope and change control and escalating issues where necessary.
• Monitoring project progress and performance.
• Providing status reports to the project sponsor.
• Managing project training within the defined budget.
• Liaison with, and updates progress to, project steering board/senior management.
• Managing project evaluation and dissemination activities.
• Managing consultancy input within the defined budget.
• Final approval of the design specification.
• Working closely with users to ensure the project meets business needs.
• Definition and management of the User Acceptance Testing programme.
• Identifying user training needs and devising and managing user training programmes.

Q4. What is Risk Management? How can Risks be prioritized?

Risk management may be classified and categorized as:

1. Risk assessment and identification The assessment and identification focuses on enumerating possible risks
to the project. Methods that can aid risk identification include checklists of possible risks, surveys, meetings and
brainstorming and reviews of plans, process and work products. The project manager can also use the process
database to get information about risks and risk management on similar projects.

2. Risk prioritization – focus on the highest risk. Prioritization requires analyzing the possible effects of the
risk event in case it actually occurs. This approach requires a quantitative assessment of the risk probability and
the risk consequences. For each risk rate the probability of its happening as low, medium or high. If necessary,
assign probability values in the ranges given for each rating. For each risk, assess its impact on the project as
low, medium, high or very high. Rank the risk based on the probability. Select the top few risk items for
mitigation and tracking.

3. Risk Control: The main task is to identify the actions needed to minimize the risk consequences, generally
called risk mitigation steps. Refer to a list of commonly used risk mitigation steps for various risks from the
previous risk logs maintained by the PM and select a suitable risk mitigation step. The risk mitigation step must
be properly executed by incorporating them into the project schedule. In addition to monitoring the progress of
the planned risk mitigation steps periodically revisit project. The results of this review are reported in each
milestone analysis report. To prepare this report, make fresh risk analysis to determine whether the priorities
have

Risk Analysis
The first step in risk analysis is to make each risk item more specific. Risks such as, “Lack of Management buy
in,” and “people might leave,” are a little ambiguous. In these cases the group might decide to split the risk into
smaller specific risks, such as, “manager Jane decides that the project is not beneficial,” “Database expert might
leave,” and “Webmaster might get pulled off the project.” The next step is to set priorities and determine where
to focus risk mitigation efforts. Some of the identified risks are unlikely to occur, and others might not be
serious enough to worry about. During the analysis, discuss with the team members, each risk item to
understand how devastating it would be if it did occur, and how likely it is to occur. For example, if you had a
risk of a key person leaving, you might decide that it would have a large impact on the project, but that it is not
very likely. In the process below, we have the group agree on how likely it thinks each risk item is to occur,
using a simple scale from 1 to 10 (where 1 is very unlikely and 10 is very likely). The group then rates how
serious the impact would be if the risk did occur, using a simple scale from 1 to 10 (where 1is little impact and
10 is very large). To use this numbering scheme, first pick out the items that rate 1 and 10, respectively. Then
rate the other items relative to these boundaries. To determine the priority of each risk item, calculate the
product of the two values, likelihood and impact. This priority scheme helps push the big risks to the top of the
list, and the small risks to the bottom. It is a usual practice to analyze risk either by sensitivity analysis or by
probabilistic analysis. In sensitivity analysis a study is done to analyse the changes in the variable values
because of a change in one or more of the decision criteria. In the probability analysis, the frequency of a
particular event occurring is determined, based on which it average weighted average value is calculated.
Each outcome of an event resulting in a risk situation in a risk analysis process is expressed as a probability.
Risk analysis can be performed by calculating the expected value of each alternative and selecting the best
alternative.

Ex: Now that the group has assigned a priority to each risk, it is ready to select the items to mange. Some
projects select a subset to take action upon, while others choose to work on all of Project the items. To get
started, you might select the top 3 risks, or the top 20%, based on the priority calculation.

Q5. What is project management knowledge area? Explain briefly PMIS.

PROJECT INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure that the various elements of the
project are properly coordinated. It consists of:

• Project plan development—integrating and coordinating all project plans to create a consistent,
coherent document.
• Project plan execution—carrying out the project plan by performing the activities included therein.
• Integrated change control—coordinating changes across the entire project.

PROJECT SCOPE MANAGEMENT

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the
work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully. It consists of:

• Initiation—authorizing the project or phase.

• Scope planning—developing a written scope statement as the basis for future project decisions.
• Scope definition—subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable
components.

PROJECT TIME MANAGEMENT

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure timely completion of the project.
It consists of:

• Activity definition—identifying the specific activities that must be performed to produce the various
project deliverables.
• Activity sequencing—identifying and documenting interactivity dependencies.
• Activity duration estimating—estimating the number of work periods that will be needed to complete
individual activities.

PROJECT COST MANAGEMENT

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to ensure that the project is completed
within the approved budget. It consists of:

• Resource planning—determining what resources (people, equipment, materials) and what quantities of
each should be used to perform project activities.
 • Cost estimating—developing an approximation (estimate) of the costs of the resources needed to
complete project activities.
• Cost budgeting—allocating the overall cost estimate to individual work activities.

PROJECT HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to make the most effective use of the
people involved with the project. It consists of:

• Organizational planning—identifying, documenting, and assigning project roles, responsibilities, and

reporting relationships.
• Staff acquisition—getting the needed human resources assigned to and working on the project.
• Team development—developing individual and group skills to enhance project performance.

PROJECT RISK MANAGEMENT

Risk management is the systematic process of identifying, analyzing, and responding to project risks. It includes
maximizing the probability and consequences of positive events and minimizing the probability and
consequences of adverse events to project objectives. It includes:

• Risk management planning—deciding how to approach and plan the risk management activities for a
project.
• Risk identification—determining which risks might affect the project and document their
characteristics.
• Qualitative risk analysis—performing a qualitative analysis of risks and conditions to prioritize their
effects on project objectives.

PROJECT PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to acquire goods and services to attain
project scope from outside the performing organization. It consists of:
• Procurement planning—determining what to procure and when.
• Solicitation planning—documenting product requirements and identifying potential sources.
• Solicitation—obtaining quotations, bids, offers, or proposals, as appropriate.
Q6. List out the macro issues in project management and explain each.

a) Evolving key success factors (KSF) upfront: In order to provide complete stability to fulfilment of
goals, one needs to constantly evaluate from time to time, the consideration of what will constitute the
success of completing a project and assessing its success before completion. The KSF should be
evolved based on a basic consensus document (BCD). KSF will also provide an input to effective exit
strategy (EES). Exit here does not mean exit from the project but from any of the drilled down
elemental activities which may prove to be hurdles rather than contributors.
b) Empowerment Title (ET): ET reflects the relative importance of members of the organisation at three
levels.
i) Team members empowered to work within limits of their respective allocated
responsibilities the major change from bureaucratic systems is an expectation from theses
members to innovate and contribute to tome and cost.
ii) Group leaders are empowered additionally to act independently towards client expectation
and are also vested with some limited financial powers.
iii) Managers are empowered further to act independently but to maintain a scientific balance
among time, cost, expectation and perception, apart from being a virtual advisor to the top
management.
a) Partnering Decision making (PDM): PDM is a substitute to monitoring and control a senior with
better decision making process with work closely with the project managers as well as members to plan
what based can be done to manage the future better from past experience. The key here is the active
participation of members in the decision making process. The ownership is distributed among all
irrespective of levels the term equally should be avoided here since ownership is not quantifiable. The
right feeling of ownership is important.
The PD process is made scientific through:

i) Earned Value management system (EVMS)

ii) Budgeted Cost of work scheduled (BCWS)
iii) Budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP)
iv) Actual cost of work performed (ACWP)

a) Management by exception (MBE): “No news is good news”. If a member wants help he or she
located a source and proposed to the manager only if such help is not accessible for free. Similarly a
member should believe that a team leaders silence is a sign of approval should not provoke comments
through excessive seeking of opinions. In short leave people alone and let situation perform the
demanding act. The bond limit of MBE can be evolved depending on the sensitivity of the nature and
size of the project.
MBA – II SEM
Financial Management - MB0033
Set – 2

1. Providing adequate resources is key to productivity – comment.

Key elements of a Productivity Improvement Program:
1. Obtain Upper Management Support. Without top management support, experience shows a PIP likely will
fail. The Chief Executive Officer should issue a clear, comprehensive policy statement. The statement
should be communicated to everyone in the company. Top management also must be willing to allocate
adequate resources to permit success.
2. Create New Organizational Components. A Steering Committee to oversee the PIP and Productivity
Managers to implement it are essential. The Committee should be staffed by top departmental executives
with the responsibilities of goal setting, guidance, advice, and general control. The Productivity Managers
are responsible for the day-to-day activities of measurement and analysis. The responsibilities of all
organizational components must be clear and well established.
3. Plan Systematically. Success doesn't just happen. Goals and objectives should be set, problems targeted and
rank ordered, reporting and monitoring requirements developed, and feedback channels established.
4. Open Communications. Increasing productivity means changing the way things are done. Desired changes
must be communicated. Communication should flow up and down the business organization. Through
publications, meetings, and films, employees must be told what is going on and how they will benefit.
5. Involve Employees. This is a very broad element encompassing the quality of work life, worker motivation,
training, worker attitudes, job enrichment, quality circles, incentive systems and much more. Studies show a
characteristic of successful, growing businesses is that they develop a "corporate culture" where employees
strongly identify with and are an important part of company life. This sense of belonging is not easy to
engender. Through basic fairness, employee involvement, and equitable incentives, the corporate culture and
productivity both can grow.
6. Measure and Analyze. This is the technical key to success for a PIP. Productivity must be defined, formulas
and worksheets developed, sources of data identified, benchmark studies performed, and personnel assigned.
Measuring productivity can be a highly complex task. The goal, however, is to keep it as simple as possible
without distorting and depreciating the data. Measurement is so critical to success, a more detailed analysis
is helpful.

2. Explain the relevance of work breakdown structure in determine responsibility area. Explain
in detail GDM and its key features?

The Global delivery model (GDM) is adopted by an industry or business such that it has a capability
to plan design, deliver and serve to any customer or client worldwide with speed, Accuracy, Economy
and reliability.

The key features of GDM are:-

 a) Standardization: Ingenious design and development of components and features which like to
be accepted by 90% of worldwide customer. Global standard of design focusing on highly
standardized method and processes of manufacture or development. Adopt block-and-socket
concept with minimum adaptable or connection.
b) Modularization: Product or solution split up into smallest possible individual identifiable
entities, with limited individuals functioning capability but powerful and robust in
combination with other modules.
c) Minimum customization: Minimum changes or modifications to suit individual customers.
d) Maximum micro structuring: splitting of the product modules further into much smaller entity
identifiable more through characteristics rather than application features. Approach through
standardization of these microbial entities even across multiple modules. Application of these
microbial entities to rest within multiple projects or products or even as add-ons suit belated
customer needs.

3. What do you understand by Resource Smoothing? What is the significance of reviewing

ROI?
Resource smoothing is part of the resource levelling process. In itself, resource smoothing is the process that,
not withstanding any constraints imposed during the levelling process, attempts to determine a resource
requirement that is "smooth" and where peaks and troughs are eliminated. For example, even if 7 units of a
given resource are available at any one time, utilizing 5 of these units each week is preferable to 4 one week, 7
the next, 2 the next and so on. Even if there is no limit to the amount of any one resource available, it is still
desirable that resource usage is as smooth as possible. Given that the resource requirements of those activities
on the critical path are fixed, some order or priority needs to be established for selecting which activity and
which particular resource associated with this activity should be given priority in the smoothing process. In
determining which activity should be given priority, a subjective judgment should be made about the type of
resource (or resources) associated with each activity; priority should be given to the activities whose resources
are considered to be most important. Beyond this consideration, activities should be ranked in order of total
work content and total float or slack available for that activity. A useful device for prioritizing is to consider the
ratio of total work content/total float remaining and give priority to activities with the highest value of this ratio.
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 checkpoints throughout the project’s lifecycle. ROI may include the
benefits associated with improved mission performance, reduced cost, 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 reflect actual returns observed through pilot projects and
prototypes.ROI should be quantified in terms of dollars and should include a calculation of the breakeven point
(BEP), which is the date when the investment begins to generate a positive return. ROI should be recalculated at
every major checkpoint of a project to se 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 schedule 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 lifecycle.
Any project that has developed a business case is expected to refresh the ROI at each key project decision point
(i.e., stage exit) or at least yearly.

If the detailed data collection, calculation of benefits and costs, and capitalization data from which Return on
Investment (ROI) is derived was not required for a particular project, then it may not be realistic or practical to
require the retrofit calculation of ROI once the project is added to the Review portfolio. In such a case, it is
recommended that a memorandum of record be developed as a substitute for ROI. The memorandum should
provide a brief history of the program, a description of the major benefits realized to date with as much
Quantitative data as possible and a summary of the process used to identify and select system enhancements.
Some of the major benefits experienced by sites that installed the information system that would be important to
include in the memorandum are: a) Decommissioning of mainframe computers
b) Reduction/redirection of labour
c) Elimination of redundant systems
d) Ability to more cost effectively upgrades all sites with one standard upgrade package.
In each case above, identify the specific site, systems, and labour involved in determining the cited benefit.
Identify any costs or dollar savings that are known or have been estimated. The memorandum will be used as
tool for responding to any future audit inquiries on project ROI. For the Project Management Review; it is
recommended that the project leader replace the text on the ROI document through
(1) A note stating which stage of its cycle the project is in;
(2) A bulleted list of the most important points from the memorandum of record; and
(3) A copy of the memorandum of record for the Review repository.
In subsequent Reviews of the information system, the ROI slide can be eliminated from the package. There is
one notable exception to this guidance. Any internal use software project in the maintenance phase of its
lifecycle that adds a new site or undertakes an enhancement or technology refresh that reaches the cost threshold
established by Standard will need to satisfy capitalization requirements. It requires all agencies to capitalize
items acquired or developed for internal use if the expected service life is two or more years and its cost meets
or exceeds the agency’s threshold for internal use software. The standard requires capitalization of direct and
indirect costs, including employee salaries and benefits for both Federal and Contractor employees who
materially participate in the Software project. Program managers are considered to be the source of cost
information for internal use software projects. If capitalization data is collected for the project in the future, the
project would be expected to calculate and track its ROI.

4. Explain the concept of concurrency in High Technology Development.

Always aim one step higher in performance usually; high technology development has a long gestation period.
By the time the product is perfected, it might have become obsolete. This necessitates that the period be
shortened. The other alternative is to make technology development futuristic i.e. keeps the aim or target one
step beyond what is required. Combination of both will yield better results. Using principles of concurrent
engineering, we can start building components as developed and assembling on ad hoc basis and testing them
and making changes taking into consideration any new requirements. Every effort to make the product
Contemporary will improve the competitive advantage. 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.

5. What are the main utilities of an ERP package?

Integration is Key to ERP Systems
Integration is an exceptionally significant ingredient to ERP systems. The integration between business
processes helps develop communication and information distribution, leading to remarkable increase in
productivity, speed and performance.

The key objective of an ERP system is to integrate information and processes from all functional divisions of an
organization and merge it for effortless access and structured workflow. The integration is typically
accomplished by constructing a single database repository that communicates with multiple software
applications providing different divisions of an organization with various business statistics and information.

The Ideal ERP System

An ERP system would qualify as the best model for enterprise wide solution architecture, if it chains all the
below organizational processes together with a central database repository and a fused computing platform.

Manufacturing

Engineering, resource & capacity planning, material planning, workflow management, shop floor management,
quality control, bills of material, manufacturing process, etc.

Financials

Accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets, general ledger, cash management, and billing
(contract/service)
Human Resource

Recruitment, benefits, compensations, training, payroll, time and attendance, labour rules, people management

Supply Chain Management

Inventory management, supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, claim processing, sales order
administration, procurement planning, transportation and distribution

Projects

Costing, billing, activity management, time and expense

Customer Relationship Management

Sales and marketing, service, commissions, customer contact and after sales support

ERP Systems Improve Productivity, Speed and Performance

Prior to evolution of the ERP model, each department in an enterprise had their own isolated software
application which did not interface with any other system. Such isolated framework could not synchronize the
inter-department processes and hence hampered the productivity, speed and performance of the overall
organization. These led to issues such as incompatible exchange standards, lack of synchronization, incomplete
understanding of the enterprise functioning, unproductive decisions and many more.

For example: The financials could not coordinate with the procurement team to plan out purchases as per the
availability of money.

Implementation of an ERP System

Implementing an ERP system in an organization is an extremely complex process. It takes lot of systematic
planning, expert consultation and well structured approach. Due to its extensive scope it may even take years to
implement in a large organization. Implementing an ERP system will eventually necessitate significant changes
on staff and work processes.

• Consulting Services - are responsible for the initial stages of ERP implementation where they help an
organization go live with their new system, with product training, workflow, improve ERP's use in the
specific organization, etc.
• Customization Services - work by extending the use of the new ERP system or changing its use by
creating customized interfaces and/or underlying application code. While ERP systems are made for
many core routines, there are still some needs that need to be built or customized for a particular
organization.
The ERP implementation process goes through five major stages which are Structured Planning, Process
Assessment, Data Compilation & Cleanup, Education & Testing and Usage & Evaluation.

1. Structured Planning: is the foremost and the most crucial stage where an capable project team is
selected, present business processes are studied, information flow within and outside the organization is
scrutinized, vital objectives are set and a comprehensive implementation plan is formulated.
2. Process Assessment: is the next important stage where the prospective software capabilities are
examined, manual business processes are recognized and standard working procedures are constructed.
3. Data Compilation & Cleanup: helps in identifying data which is to be converted and the new
information that would be needed. The compiled data is then analyzed for accuracy and completeness,
throwing away the worthless/unwanted information.
Advantages of ERP Systems

There are many advantages of implementing an EPR system. A few of them are listed below:

• A perfectly integrated system chaining all the functional areas together

• The capability to streamline different organizational processes and workflows
• The ability to effortlessly communicate information across various departments\
 • Improved efficiency, performance and productivity levels
Disadvantages of ERP Systems

While advantages usually outweigh disadvantages for most organizations implementing an ERP system, here
are some of the most common obstacles experienced:

• The scope of customization is limited in several circumstances

• The present business processes have to be rethought to make them synchronize with the ERP
• ERP systems can be extremely expensive to implement
• There could be lack of continuous technical support
Q6. Explain three levels of SCMo documentation. Explain PILIN.
It is possible today to establish a system aligned with an organization supply chain. It can be an add-on to
existing ERP systems.
The main objectives are:
i. Prevention of stock-out and over supply
ii. Early warnings, elimination of bull-whip effect
iii. Optimized allocation in bottleneck situations due to network-wide inventory and demand
transparency.
The main principles behind is the integration of supply chain participants, exchange of demand and inventory
information, transparency & visibility of inventories and demands for multi-level supply chain. It also
eliminates time lags in the information flow and ensures synchronization of demand information. SCMo set up
(initialisation): The main steps for the set are;
a) Determination of the potentially critical part of the supply network criteria.
b) Mapping of structures a) high shortage risk and effect, long lead and reaction times, high total
inventory cost, frequent engineering changes.
Main features- The main features of such systems are:
i. Releases and Interactions Planning- it is a simple way to create project plan.
ii. Dashboard- It is a quick project status reporting tool.
iii. To-Do lists_ Identify and list the integrated assignments
iv. Integrated QA_ Bug tracking, test cases management, user story-to-bugs traceability, QA stats
and charts.
v. Time Tracking- Create more accurate estimate of time.
A typical iteration plan methodology
a) Add release (iterations will be generated automatically)
b) Add user stories
c) Assign user stories on iterations (control team velocity)
d) To plan next iteration just assign required user stories and control remaining velocity units.
e) View assigned tasks and bugs
f) Change bugs status
g) Add spent time
h) Spent time report could be added form To-do list. To simplify time calculation today’s time shown in
the form.
i) Bugs status could be changes right from the To-do list as well. So developer spends less time on
frequent actions.
PILLIN

Growing realization that sustainable identifier infrastructure is required to deal with the vast amount of digital
assets being produced and stored within universities. PILIN is a particular challenge for e-research communities
where massive amount of data are being generated without any means of managing this date over any length of
time. The broad objectives are to:

I. Support adoption and use of persistent identifiers and shared persistent identifier management services
by the project stakeholders.
II. Plan for a sustainable, share identifier management infrastructure that enables persistence of identifiers
and associated services over archival lengths of time.
III. Deploying a worldwide site consolidated solution for exchange sever 2003 at Microsoft.
IV. Pictures
V. Using Microsoft exchange server 2003 to consolidate more than 70 messaging sites worldwide into
seven physical locations.