QUESTION ANSWERS

Section A

Ans1. The basic difference between efficiency and effectiveness is that efficiency refers to how optimally a particular task is being performed by the person, on the other hand effectiveness means how valuable the outcomes are and doing the optimal task. Efficiency is defined as the ability to operate in a productive and energy potent manner. Effectiveness means to do appropriate work. For example, efficiency of a marketing person can be measured by how optimal the targeting is done to generate leads along with using minimal investment for marketing and effectiveness of a sales person can be calculated in terms of number of sales generated by the employee.

Ans2. Recurring expenses (RE) are the general ongoing/regularly occurring expenses required for operating a company’s main area of business. It includes cost of fixed expenses and income of employees and workers. Non-Recurring Expenses (NRE) are one-time or exceptional expenses that a company does not incur on an everyday basis. These are the costs that occur at irregular intervals and therefore sometimes difficult to predict. For example, for a cloth manufacturing company, electricity bill of the factory is RE as it needs to paid every month as long as the business is running whereas investment on machinery purchase is NRE as this is a one-time expenditure for the company.

Ans3. Stakeholders analysis is important to focus the resources and energy in the right direction so that one can assure high performance after clearly understanding the value of the efforts on people of interest. To ensure a successful completion of a project, the needs and concerns of the stakeholders must be addressed. For example, in a bakery shop, the stakeholders are the customers, employees and owner of the shop. To ensure a successful business, all the stakeholders’ interests need to be taken into account. For instance, any decision regarding introducing a new product or changing the recipe for the existing product, the customers preference needs to be taken into account and thereby stakeholders’ analysis.

Ans4. Tacit knowledge is referred as know-how and is difficult to express or transfer to another person. It refers to skills and abilities of the person that is achieved through experience. Explicit knowledge, on the other hand, can be easily transferred to another person and can be optically expressed. Even though both types of knowledge influence supply chain performance, tacit knowledge have a significantly higher effect than explicit knowledge (Schoenherr, Griffin & Chandra, 2014).

Ans5. The project management approach selected was agile. It is the approach which focuses on consigning highest value against organisations priorities in a given time and budget. It is an iterative approach of project management to deliver a particular project throughout its life cycle (Association of Project Management, 2020). The process of agile can be performed by breaking into several stages and involving constant interaction with stakeholders.

This approach constantly evaluates the cost and time constraints. It gives instant feedback and look at real time delivery matrix like Gantt charts and spreadsheets. Also, it provides better quality and transparency as gives an opportunity to be involved throughout the project.

However, agile methodology also has its drawbacks. It’s often challenging to predict efforts like cost, resources and time that are required at the beginning of the project. Documentation often becomes less detailed and can easily get side-tracked with no finite end as there is not a clear vision as to what the project will appear in the end.

Section B

Ans1. The tasks that belong to the critical path are

Performing market survey, this is to ensure what are the needs of the market without which one cannot move further in the project. Also, developing project proposal to have a proper background of how the work needs to be done. In elaboration, to analyse requirements and develop technical and test plan are critical for the project. In construction, critical paths are to develop software a and module software b along with their integration. Their completion is critical as these tasks are what the entire project is based for, these needs to be completed within deadline so that project can be completed on time (Project Engineer, 2020). In transition, critical task is to launch prototype to then finally release the project team.

Ans2. Problems in this Gantt chart are

Without completion of peer review, software a and b are integrated even though it is a predecessor.

Software has not been developed according to the chart but is integrated later on with b this needs to be rectified.

Module software B is also shown not fully completed yet but integration with b is shown complete.

The days allotted for construction are less than what the tasks in that area will require.

The chart is less descriptive by itself. The bars must be colour coded accordingly.

Ans3. Tasks that must be taken into account to avoid cost of nonconformance are trial and test of the final product before delivering to the customer this will improve the goodwill of the company in the long run, customer care service provided at all times for the product so that queries of the customers can be solved easily and build brand loyalty, streamlined supplier quality program to have a better understanding of consumer needs, timely return management and corrective action plan must be taken as quickly as possible for efficient efforts on the part of company.

Ans4. Risks associated with project and their mitigation

Scheduling – One of the major risks is delaying the project completion. To mitigate, it is important to stick to the timeline given for each task and to focus on the critical tasks first so that project delay can be avoided (Articles of Software Interviews Events Resources Books, 2019)

Software – Another risk associated is of software technicality.

Since the product is used by the end consumer for this it is important that the company maintains a proper customer care service.

Hardware – Risk of some hardware need repair or replacement. To mitigate this risk, it is important that all the necessary hardware products are available in the market so that consumer can easily replace. It is also necessary to have repair shops located in every locality.

Approval of test plan – If the test plan is not approved then the project might be delayed, for this it is important to make sure that the test plan be revised accordingly and quickly.

Budget – The company needs to make sure that the project remains within decided budget. To ensure this it is important to make a separate budgeting team who will make necessary targets for the project.

Referencing

Articles of Software interviews events resources books. (2019). Visualisation of Risks and Uncertainties. Retrieved from https://pmtips.net/article/visualization-of-risks-and-uncertainties

Association of Project Management. (2020). What is Agile Project Management? Retrieved from https://www.apm.org.uk/resources/find-a-resource/agile-project-management/

Project Engineer. (2020). Determining the critical path. Retrieved from https://www.projectengineer.net/tutorials/project-scheduling/determining-the-critical-path/

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