MG6088 SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

UNIT V

MG6088 Software Project Management

UNIT V
STAFFING IN SOFTWARE PROJECTS

Managing people – Organizational behavior – Best methods of staff selection –

Motivation – The Oldham-Hackman job characteristic model – Ethical and
Programmed concerns – Working in teams – Decision making – Team structures –
Virtual teams – Communications genres – Communication plans.

PART A
1) Define the term virtual team. (Nov/Dec 2018)
Or
Define virtual team. (APR/MAY 2018)
Answer:
 A virtual team (also known as a geographically dispersed team, distributed
team, or remote team) is a group of individuals who work across time, space
and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of
communication technology.

2) What is the role of Ethics in project Management? (Nov/Dec 2018)

Or
What is the role of ethics in project management? (APR/MAY 2018)
Answer:
 Project management, ethics plays a significant role in day-to-day interactions
and behaviors. Ethics enables stakeholders, employees, vendors, and
taxpayers to sleep at night knowing project management professionals
(PMPs) are held to strict and high standards when they make decisions or act
on their behalf to execute on projects.
Ethics plays a critical role in PM in these primary ways:
• It elevates the profession and raises future standards.
• It increases the faith and trust others bestow.
• It imprints on individual moral mindsets and behaviors.
• It improves business relationships at all levels.
• It promotes fair decision making.
• It reduces project risks.
• It provides a greater chance of success.

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• It reduces anxiety and stress and ultimately turnover in projects.

3) Define the terms: Storming, Forming. (APR/MAY 2019)

Answer:
Storming: At this stage, the team addresses the problems they are going to solve
and how they are going to function as a unit. Team members will become more
open with each other as they express their own ideas and thoughts and will often
confront the project manager about certain aspects of the project.
Forming: The initial stage is the forming stage. At this point, team members are
generally concerned about their role in the team and who calls the shots. As a
project manager, you will have a dominant role in team building and people will be
looking to you for guidance and reassurance. This stage can be relatively short in
comparison to the other stages and may only last a meeting or two.

4) Write the use of formal structure. (APR/MAY 2019)

Answer:
 Better control of financial, physical, and human resources.
 Improved customer relations.
 Shorter development times.
 Lower costs.

5) What is Motivation? (NOV /DEC 2017)

Answer:
 Motivation is the word derived from the word ’motive’ which means needs,
desires, wants or drives within the individuals. It is the process of stimulating
people to actions to accomplish the goals. In the work goal context the
psychological factors stimulating the people’s behaviour can be -
 Desire for money
 Success
 Recognition
 Job-satisfaction
 Team work, etc

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6) Outline the strategies for risk reduction can be adopted for the
following software project Risk: Personnel (staffing) Shortfalls. (NOV /DEC
2017)
Answer:
 Staffing with top talent
 Key personnel agreements
 Team-building
 Training
 Tailoring process to skill mix
 Walkthroughs

7) Write the significance of Oldham- Hackman job characteristic model.

(APR/MAY 2017)
Answer:
 Skill variety- one or more of the offerings available from a variety of
organizations
 Task variety- enhance Key words
 Task significance- autonomy, and feedback from the job
 Autonomy- for Consulting & Software Companies
 Feedback- submit your comments and suggestions

8) Define software reliability. (APR/MAY 2017)

 Software Reliability is the probability of failure-free software operation for a
specified period of time in a specified environment. Software Reliability is
also an important factor affecting system reliability.

9) How do you select the right persons for the job?

 There is no perfect answer, but the interview process can be a tremendous
help if you use it effectively. In order, the key steps to finding the right
person to fill a position in your company include:
 Determining your need to hire a new employee.
 Conducting a thorough job analysis.
 Writing a job description and job specification for the position based on the
job analysis.
 Determining the salary for the position, based on internal and external equity.

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 Deciding where and how to find qualified applicants.

 Collecting and reviewing a fair amount of applications and resumes and then
selecting the most qualified candidates for further consideration.
 Interviewing the most qualified candidates for the position, based on the job's
description and specification.
 Checking references and Hiring the best person for the job.

10) List the various models of motivation.

Answer:
 The Taylorist model
 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
 Herzberg’s two-factor theory
 The expectancy theory of motivation

11) What is Taylorist model?

Answer:
 Taylor had a simple view about what motivated people at work - money. He
felt that workers should get a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, and that
pay should be linked to the amount produced (e.g. piece-rates).
 Workers who did not deliver a fair day's work would be paid less (or nothing).
Workers who did more than a fair day's work (e.g. exceeded the target)
would be paid more.

12) What is “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?

Answer:
 Physiological Needs - attention turns to safety and security
 Security or Safety Needs- Calculation, Domain, Consulting,
 Affiliation or Social Needs - Developing New Programs
 Esteem Needs- needs for esteem can become dominant
 Self-actualization Needs - include symmetry

13) State Herzberg’s two factor theory.

 Job satisfaction by Herzberg and his associates found two sets of factors about
a job

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 Hygiene or maintenance factors - which can make you dissatisfied if they are
not right for example the level of pay or the working conditions
 Motivators - which make you, feel that the job is worthwhile, like a sense of
achievement or the challenge of the work itself.

14) What are the factors to be considered in the Oldham-hackman job

characteristic model?
Answer:
 Skill variety- one or more of the offerings available from a variety of
organizations
 Task variety- enhance Key words
 Task significance- autonomy, and feedback from the job
 Autonomy- for Consulting & Software Companies
 Feedback- submit your comments and suggestions

15) Define Job Enlargement.

Answer:
 Job enlargement expands job horizontally.
 It increases job scope; that is, it increases the number of different operations
required in a job and the frequency with which the job cycle is repeated.
 By increasing the number of tasks an individual performs, job enlargement,
increases the job scope, or job diversity.

16) Define Job Enrichment.

Answer:
 The job holder carries out that are normally done at a managerial or
supervisory level.
 With programmers in a maintenance team they might be given authority to
accept requests for changes that involve then five day’s work without the
need for their manager’s approval.

17) What are the measures to reduce the disadvantages of group

decision making?
Answer:
 The cooperation of a number of experts.

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 The problem is presented to the experts.

 The experts record their recommendations.
 These recommendations are collated and reproduced.
 The collect responses are recirculated.

18) What are the various stages of development of a team?

Answer:
 Forming: The members are the group get to know each other and try to set up
some ground rules about behavior.
 Storming: Conflicts arise as various members of the group try to exert
leadership and the group’s methods of operation are being established
 Norming: conflicts are largely settled and feeling of group identity emerges
 Performing: The emphasis is now on the tasks at hand.
 Adjourning: the group disbands
 Storming: The Second Stage of Group Development.

19) Define Chief Programmer Team.

Answer:
 In this team organization, a senior engineer provides the technical leadership
and is designated as the chief programmer.
 The chief programmer partitions the task into small activities and assigns
them to the team members. He also verifies and integrates the products
developed by different team members.

20) Define the mixed control team organizations.

Answer:
 The mixed team organization, as the name implies, draws upon the ideas
from both the democratic organization and the chief-programmer
organization.
 This team organization incorporates both hierarchical reporting and
democratic set up.
 The democratic arrangement at the senior engineer’s level is used to
decompose the problem into small parts.
 Each democratic setup at the programmer level attempts solution to a single
part.

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 Thus, this team organization is eminently suited to handle large and complex
programs.
 This team structure is extremely popular and is being used in many software
development companies.

21) Define a team. (Nov/Dec 2019)

Answer:
A project team is a team whose members usually belong to different groups, have
different functions and are assigned by the project manager to activities for the
same project. Usually project teams are only used for a defined period of time.
They are disbanded after the project is deemed complete.

22) What is ethics? (Nov/Dec 2019)

Answer:
Many be none talk about trust, ethics, appropriate behavior and professional
conduct. Project management ethics is an essential ingredient
while managing projects. According to PMI (Project Management Institute),
“Ethics is about making the best possible decisions concerning people, resources
and the environment.

PART B
1) Do staff selection relate with Quality of product? Justify with
appropriate reason. (Nov/Dec 2018)

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Or
Describe the best methods of staff selection and its merits and demerits.
(APR/MAY 2017)
Answer:
THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS
 It must be stressed that often project leader have little choice about the people
who will make up their team.
A GENERAL APPROACH
 Create a job specification: advice is often needed as there could be legal
implications in an official document.
 Create a job holder profile: it is used to construct a profile of the person needed
to carry out the job.
 Obtain applicants: an advertisement would be placed, either within the
organization in the trade.
 By giving the salary, location, job scope and any essential qualification, the
applicants will be limited to the more realistic candidates.
 Examine cvs: these should be read carefully and compared to the job holder
profile nothing is more annoying for all concerned than when people have cvs
which indicate clearly that they are not eligible for the job and yet are called for
interview.
 Selection techniques are aptitude, personality test and the examination of
sample of previous work. Any method must test specific qualities detailed in the
job holder profile .interviews are the most commonly used method.
 An interview might be of a technical nature where the practical expertise of the
candidate is assessed.
 Other procedures: references will need to be taken up where necessary and a
medical examination might be needed.
Steps:
 Initial Contact from the Client - Based on the requirement, we assign the right
recruitment consultant from day one that runs with the job until completion.
1. Job Specification – First steps are all about information gathering and
ensuring we receive a detailed job specification - if there is no job description
available your recruitment consultant will work with you to understand the role
profile and selection criteria.

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2. Detailed brief - Arras then understands the finer details of a job - the key
drivers, ways of working and organizational ethos, the personality and softer skills
needed for the job. All these details are shared with the candidate at shortlist
stage to give them a fuller picture of the job.
3. Timescales and Process – By outlining the recruitment timescales and
preferred interview process with you; 1st, 2nd, 3rd interviews or assessment
Centre, we can plan and manage expectations throughout the process with the
shortlisted candidates. We aim to try and avoid those recruitment frustrations like
waiting ages for feedback and interview short listing.
4. Search and selection – The term used is essentially the activities we perform
to find the ideal candidates for the job. We encourage candidates to register with
us - this is where most of our placed project management candidates originate
from. The next step is to advertise on the project management job board. We then
use a selection of methods both online (job boards, social media etc.) and offline
(networking groups, press etc).
5. Arras One-to-One interview – There is an initial screening project
management interview with the recruitment consultant for each candidate for
each role we recruit for. We have never shortlisted a candidate for a client without
carrying out this interview - this works for both parties; we understand more about
a candidates skills, experiences and suitably for the job whilst informing about the
company and the opportunity they are being interviewed for.
6. Short listing – Following the project management interview candidates are
asked if the role is something that they would like to pursue. Arras People only
forward details of candidates to our clients when given expressed permission to do
so. When in agreement, the consultant will send the candidate CV and an
individual profile of skills, experience and capability for the job.
7. Interview management – Once the client has reviewed the CV and profile
candidates are notified when feedback is available. If a candidate is unsuccessful
at this stage, the consultant will give feedback. Feedback obviously comes back in
varying degrees of detail but we share everything we know. All candidates
selected to attend an interview will be contacted by the consultant straight away
with the details. With each interview, the consultant will arrange for an interview
preparation session, helping candidates get ready for the interview by sharing
details about the type of interview, who will be interviewing and any hints and tips
which will be useful for that particular job and client. Interview preparation

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sessions are carried out for each interview - regardless of how many stages. If
interviews include a presentation – the consultant will walk through and review
that.
8. Offers – Each consultant at Arras is here to represent candidates through to the
offer and negotiation stage. Following the successful interview candidates are
contacted with feedback and the pending offer. By working closely with the Arras
consultant, candidates can be assured that the offer stage is managed effectively
and smoothly to completion.
9. Start – When details of offers and start dates are finalized, the Arras consultant
remains in touch throughout. Arras will follow up with brief calls to make sure you
are happy in your new job.

2) What are two types of decision- making? Discuss on rational Decision

making approach. (Nov/Dec 2018)
Answer:
Decision making
 Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes(cognitive
process) resulting in the selection of a course of action among several
alternative scenarios.
 Decisions can be categorized as being
a) Structured
b) unstructured
Structured
 relatively simple,
 routine decisions
 Follows straightforward way.
Unstructured
 More complex.
 Often a degree requiring of creativity.
 Another way of categorizing decisions is by the amount of risk and
uncertainty that is involved.
Basic Decision making Model
 rational-economic model
 Satisfying model.
Rational-economic model

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 It is the basis of classical economics.

 Decision making has a complete knowledge.
 Tries to purchase goods at the lowest possible tries.
Satisfying Approach
 Sensible people follow this approach.
 Representations are used to get a general idea of prices.
 Some mental obstacles to good decision making
Faulty heuristics
 Heuristics mean rules of thumb. Rules of thumb can be useful but there are
dangerous
 They are based only on the information that is to hand and this can be
misleading.
 They are based on stereotype.
Escalation of commitment
 This refers to the way that once you have made a decision it is increasingly
difficult to alter it even in the face of evidence that it is wrong.
Information overload
 It is actually possible to be presented with too much information so that you
“cannot see the wood for the trees”.
Group decision making
 With a project team, different specialists and points of view can be brought
together.
 Decisions made by the team as a whole are more likely to be accepted than
those that are imposed upon it.
 Research shows that groups are better at solving complex problems where
the members of the group have complementary skills and expertise.
 The meeting allows them to communicate freely and to get ideas accepted.
 Groups are less effective when dealing with poorly structured problems, will
need creative solutions.
 Brainstorming technique have been developed to help groups in this
situation but research shoe s that people often come up with more ideas
individually than in a group.
 Where the aim is to get the involvement of end users of a computer system,
then prototyping and participatory approaches such as Joint Application
Development (JAD) might be adopted.

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Obstacles to good group decision making

 The group decision making has some disadvantages:
• It is time consuming.
• It can in some cases stir up conflicts within the group.
• Decisions can be unduly influenced by dominant members of the
group.
 People in groups often make decisions that carry more risk than where they
have to make the decision on their own. This is known as the risky shift.
Measures to reduce the disadvantages of group decision making
 One method of making group decision making more efficient and effective
is by training members to follow a set procedure.
 The Delphi technique endeavors to collate the judgments of a number of
experts without actually bringing them face- to-face.
 Given a problem, the following procedure is carried out:
 the co-operation of a number of experts is enlisted
 the problem is presented to the experts;
 the experts record their recommendations;
 these recommendations are collated and reproduce
 the collected responses are recirculated
 the experts comment on the ideas of others and modify their
recommendations.
 If the leader detects a consensus. Then the process is stopped, otherwise
the comments are recirculated to the experts.
 The big problem with the approach is, the experts could be geographically
dispersed hence the process will be time consuming. What developments in
information technology would be of particular assistance to use of the Delphi
technique'.
 Team Heeding:
Team’s success depends upon individuals performance . However efficient an
individual person may be unless the ‘heeding’ attitude is established in every
member of the team , the team cannot succeed.
Some practices are effected in IT companies to bring in the ‘Team heeding
attitude’. They are
Egoless programming

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Programmers by nature are analytic minded and seek perfection . in doing so

for many years, develops an ego that whatever they do are perfect and does
not take criticism in the right perspective.
Chief Programming
When a project is big , a large number of programmers are involved and
communication between them eats away most of their productive time. To
avoid this brooks suggested this model
Extreme programming
XP an agile technology introduces the concept of constant involvement of
customer with the development team and its manager. This way the customer
programmer contacts and there by their understanding improves.
SCRUM
The word SCRUM is taken from the game rugby where everyone in the team
pushing together with a common understanding.
In the scrum process , similar to chief programmer approach, a chief architect
defines in the initial phase
 Overall architecture
 Release date
 Desired features

3) Explain Hackman and oldham job characteristics model. (NOV /DEC

2017)
(APR/MAY 2018) (NOV/DEC 2019)
Answer:
 The job characteristics model, designed by Hackman and Oldham, is
based on the idea that the task itself is key to employee motivation.
Specifically, a boring and monotonous job stifles motivation to perform
well, whereas a challenging job enhances motivation.
 Variety, autonomy and decision authority are three ways of adding
challenge to a job. Job enrichment and job rotation are the two ways of
adding variety and challenge.
 It states that there are five core job characteristics (skill variety, task
identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback) which impact three
critical psychological states (experienced meaningfulness, experienced
responsibility for outcomes, and knowledge of the actual results), in turn

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influencing work outcomes (job satisfaction, absenteeism, work

motivation, etc.).
 The five core job characteristics can be combined to form a motivating
potential score (MPS) for a job, which can be used as an index of how
likely a job is to affect an employee's attitudes and behaviors.
 Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics theory proposes that high
motivation is related to experiencing three psychological states whilst
working:
 Meaningfulness of work: That labor has meaning to you, something that
you can relate to, and does not occur just as a set of movements to be
repeated.
 This is fundamental to intrinsic motivation, i.e. that work is motivating of
itself (as opposed to motivating only as a means to an end).
 Responsibility: That you have been given the opportunity to be a
success or failure at your job because sufficient freedom of action has
given you. This would include the ability to make changes and
incorporate the learning you gain whilst doing the job.
 Knowledge of outcomes: This is important for two reasons. Firstly to
provide the person knowledge on how successful their work has been
which in turn enables them to learn from mistakes. The second is to
connect them emotionally to the customer of their outputs, thus giving
further purpose to the work (e.g. I may only work on a production line,
but I know that the food rations I produce are used to help people in
disaster areas, saving many lives).
 Oldham and Hackman suggest that the satisfaction that the job gives is
based on 5 factors. They are
 Skill variety: - the number of different skills that the job holder has the
opportunity to exercise.
 Task identity: - the degree to which your work and its results are
identifiable as belonging to you.
 Task significance: - the degree to which your job has an influence on
others
 Autonomy: - the discretion you have about the way you to the job.
 Feedback: - the information you get back about results of your work.

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Methods of improving motivation

 Set specific goal: These goals need to be demanding and yet acceptable
to staff.
 Involving staff in the setting goal helps to gain acceptance for them
 Provide feedback :Not only do goals have to be set but staff need
regular feedback about how they are progressing
 Consider job design: Jobs can be altered to make them more interesting
and give staff more feeling of responsibility.
Various measurements of job design:
 Simplification of Job:
 In job simplification jobs are broken in to very small parts as in
assembly line operations and work can be done by same individual
repeatedly and it will increase productivity and proficiency of individual.
 Job Enlargement:
 Job enlargement expands job horizontally. It increases job scope; that is,
it increases the number of different operations required in a job and the
frequency with which the job cycle is repeated. By increasing the
number of tasks an individual performs, job enlargement, increases the
job scope, or job diversity.
 Job Rotation:
 Job rotation is the systematic and planned rotation of individuals in
predetermined jobs (other than their own) so they can gain additional
knowledge or skills. It is done quite a bit for developing managers
(because they need to be familiar with operations overall) and also used
with others who want to advance to a new role or become more
knowledgeable in their current job role.
 Job Enrichment:

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 The job holder carries out that are normally done at a managerial or
supervisory level. With programmers in a maintenance team they may
given authority to accept requests for changes that involve then five
day’s work without the need for their manager’s approval. It is different
from job enlargement (which focuses on increasing the number of tasks
a job holder is responsible for performing more work /tasks to do).

4) How to deal with Ethical and Programming Concerns in software

project Management? (APR/MAY 2018)
Answer:
 Ethics relates to the moral obligation to respect the rights and interests of
others – goes beyond strictly legal responsibilities
 Three groups of responsibilities:
 Responsibilities that everyone has
 Responsibilities that people in organizations have
 Responsibilities relating to your profession or calling
Organizational ethics
 There are some who argue that ethical organizational ethics are limited:
 Stockholder theory (e.g. Milton Friedman). An employee’s duty is to the
owners of the business (which often means the stakeholders) above all others –
although legal requirements must be met.
 Competitive relationships between businesses.
 Competition may cause you to do things that could have a negative impact on
the owners or employees of competitive businesses
Uniform Treatment
 One example of organizational ethics is the uniform treatment of all employees.
Small business owners should treat all employees with the same respect,
regardless of their race, religion, cultures or lifestyles. Everyone should also
have equal chances for promotions.
 One way to promote uniform treatment in organizations is through sensitivity
training. Some companies hold one-day seminars on various discrimination
issues. They then invite outside experts in to discuss these topics.
 Similarly, small company managers must also avoid favoring one employee
over others. This practice may also lead to lawsuits from disgruntled
employees. It is also counterproductive.

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Social Responsibility
 Small companies also have an obligation to protect the community. For
example, the owner of a small chemical company needs to communicate
certain dangers to the community when explosions or other disasters occur.
The owner must also maintain certain safety standards for protecting nearby
residents from leaks that affect the water or air quality. There are state and
federal laws that protect people from unethical environmental practices.
Business owners who violate these laws may face stiff penalties. They may also
be shut down.
Financial Ethics
 Business owners must run clean operations with respect to finances, investing
and expanding their companies. For example, organizations must not bribe
state legislators for tax credits or special privileges. Insider trading is also
prohibited. Insider trading is when managers or executives illegally apprise
investors or outside parties of privileged information affecting publicly traded
stocks, according to the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
 The information helps some investors achieve greater returns on their
investments at the expense of others. Executives in small companies must
strive to help all shareholders earn better returns on their money. They must
also avoid collusive arrangements with other companies to deliberately harm
other competitors.
Considerations
 A small company's organizational ethics can also include taking care of
employees with mental illnesses or substance abuse problems, such as drug
and alcohol dependency. Ethical business owners help their employees
overcome these types of problems when possible.
 They often put them through employee advisor programs, which involves
getting them the treatment they need. Employees may have issues that lead to
these types of problems. Therefore, they deserve a chance to explain their
situations and get the help they need.
Professional ethics
 Professionals have knowledge about the technical domain that the general
public does not. Ethical duty of the expert to warn lay people of the risks

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involved in a particular course of action. Many professions, or would be

professions, have codes of conduct for their members.

5) What is virtual team? Discuss how to successfully build and manage

virtual team. (NOV /DEC 2019)
Answer:
A virtual team, sometimes referred to as a Geographically
Dispersed Team (GDT), is a group of individuals working on a project who use
electronic communication technology to meet from various work base locations.
... Members of the project management team have complimentary goals and
skills.
A virtual team (aka “virtual workgroup”) is a group of people who participate
in common projects by making collaborative efforts to achieve shared goals and
objectives. These people perform tasks and jobs in a virtual work environment
created and maintained through IT and software technologies.
A virtual team as a "group of people who work independently with shared
purpose across space, time, and organization boundaries, using technology to
communicate and collaborate.".
Example of a Virtual Team
Company A, a plane manufacturer, is facing heavy pressure from competitors.
To address the issue, Company A brings in experts from the United States,
Canada, Asia, and Europe to collaborate together and create a new innovative
plane design.
Strategies to successfully build a virtual team that can be
implemented instantly.
1. Define work systems.
2. Establish multiple communication tools.
3. Schedule regular meetings.
4. Have clear and detailed deliverables.
5. Make sure work hours overlap.
6. Create a professional work environment.

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7. Choose (video) calls over chatting and emails.

8. Find the right people to work with.
9. Establish a meritocratic system.
10. Use project management tools.
1. Define work systems.
Different people have different ways of going about tasks. Setting
standards can shorten the time needed to achieve the desired result. By
setting standards and defining repeatable work systems, the team has
generally less questions and gets a feeling for how long certain tasks
should take. These work systems need to be both standardized to allow
for maximum effectiveness and tailored to allow the necessary freedom to
complete the task at the best of one’s ability.
2. Establish multiple communication tools.
The benefits of establishing multiple communication tools is two-fold. First
of all, your team has a way to communicate something that is urgent to
the right person immediately. Secondly, it unifies processes such as what
to use for conference calls, screen recordings, and so on. It is clear what
tool is used for what, which contributes to creating that internal feeling of
togetherness.
3. Schedule regular meetings.
Scheduling briefings at the same time on the same weekday contributes
to creating a routine. Routines provide the team with something they are
used to and familiar with. That in return puts the team at ease and
reduces stress. Video calls are one of the best ways to maximize
efficiency because they recreate the routine office feeling remote teams
are missing out on.
4. Have clear and detailed deliverables.
Simply telling somebody to do something is usually not the popular way to
go about managing teams. Micro-managing isn’t either which is why some
managers avoid giving instructions with too many details.
Based on my experience, it is better to provide more detailed descriptions
of the tasks with examples of what the final result should look like. Give
the team the freedom to execute it than less instructions and having to
deal with potential misunderstandings.

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5. Make sure work hours overlap.

Regardless of what time zones your team members are in, it is
recommendable to have at least three to four hours a day where most of
the team is online at the same time. Even if some of the team members
are unlikely to need each other to complete their tasks, being online at
the same time brings the team closer together and is the quickest
problem solving solution there is.
6. Create a professional work environment.
Professional attire and a distraction-free work environment are part of any
corporate culture. Additionally, setting professional standards contributes
to being efficient and puts people in the right mindset.
7. Choose (video) calls over chatting and emails.
With Skype and email being available at everyone’s fingertips, it is
tempting to chat and send a quick email whenever there is something to
discuss. This can easily lead to misunderstandings. With virtual teams,
video calls or at least regular calls are more than a way to avoid
misunderstandings. They connect the team members on a more personal
level.
8. Find the right people to work with.
Not everyone is cut out for remote work and not everyone fits the team
personality-wise. There are quite a few professional personality tests out
there, and they can be a great way to determine whether someone is the
right fit is still to ask yourself whether you are sure about that person or
not. If you are not, it is usually best to move on to the next candidate.
Additionally, double checking all references is a must to make sure you
know as much as possible what you are getting yourself into.
9. Establish a meritocratic system.
Meritocracy -- or the process of rewarding and recognizing people based
on their skills -- stimulates people to work harder and better. Make sure to
set up reward systems to keep your team motivated and to better
pinpoint the team members that can take on more responsibility.
10. Use project management tools.
Project management tools can be ideal to keep track of deadlines. They
also send alerts and reminders for deadlines and give you a quick daily,
weekly or monthly overview of what needs to be done, by who, and when.

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Things like Google Docs can still be a great addition and the same is valid
for time tracking applications.

6) What is a team? Discuss the types of team structures. (NOV /DEC 2017)
Or
Explain different types of team structures used in the project
management. (APR/MAY 2017)
Answer:
Team structures
 Team structure addresses the issue of organization of the individual
project teams.
 There are mainly three formal team structures:
 Chief programmer,
 Democratic, and
 The mixed control team organizations
 Chief Programmer Team

 In this team organization, a senior engineer provides the technical

leadership and is designated as the chief programmer.
 The chief programmer partitions the task into small activities and
assigns them to the team members.
 He also verifies and integrates the products developed by different
team members.
Advantage
 The chief programmer provides an authority, and this structure is
arguably more efficient than the democratic team for well-understood
problems.
Disadvantage

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 However, the chief programmer team leads to lower team morale,

since team members work under the constant supervision of the chief
programmer.
 This also inhibits collective and their original thinking.
 The chief programmer team is subject to single point failure since too
much responsibility and authority is assigned to the chief programmer.
 Since the chief programmer carries out many tasks individually, there is
a danger of information overload on the chief programmer
 Democratic Team

 The democratic team structure, as the name implies, does not enforce
any formal team hierarchy. Decisions are taken based on discussions,
where any member is free to discuss with any other matters.
 Typically, a manager provides the administrative leadership. At different
times, different members of the group provide technical leadership.
Advantages:
 The democratic organization leads to higher morale and job
satisfaction.
 Democratic team structure is appropriate for less understood problems,
since a group of engineers can invent better solutions than a single
individual as in a
chief programmer team.
 A democratic team structure is suitable for projects requiring less than
five or six engineers and for research-oriented projects. For large sized
projects, a pure democratic organization tends to become chaotic.
 The democratic team organization encourages egoless programming as
programmers can share and review one another’s work.
Disadvantages:
 Consequently, it suffers from less man-power turnover

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 The mixed control team organizations

 The mixed team organization, as the name implies, draws upon the
ideas from both the democratic organization and the chief-programmer
organization. This team organization incorporates both hierarchical
reporting and democratic set up.
 The democratic connections are shown as dashed lines and the
reporting structure is shown using solid arrows.
 The mixed control team organization is suitable for large team sizes.
 The democratic arrangement at the senior engineer’s level is used to
decompose the problem into small parts.
 Each democratic setup at the programmer level attempts solution to a
single part. Thus, this team organization is eminently suited to handle
large and complex programs.
 This team structure is extremely popular and is being used in many
software development companies.

7) i).Explain the stages of recruitment process. (9M) (APR/MAY2019)

Answer:
Recruitment refers to the process of identifying and attracting job seekers
so as build a pool of qualified job applicants.
The process comprises five related stages, viz
(a) planning,
(b) strategy development,
(c) searching,
(d) screening,
(e) evaluation and control.

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 The ideal recruitment program is the one that attracts a relatively larger
number of qualified applicants who will survive the screening process and
accept positions with the organization, when offered.
 Recruitment programs can miss the ideal in many ways: by failing to attract
an adequate applicant pool, by under/over selling the firm, or by
inadequately screening applicants before they enter the selection process.
Recruitment Planning
 The first stage in the recruitment process is planning. Planning involves
the translation of likely job vacancies and information about the nature
of these jobs into a set of objectives or targets that specify (a) number,
and (b) type of applicants to be contacted.
 Number of Contacts: Organizations, nearly always, plan to attract most
applicants than they will hire. Some of those contacted will be
uninterested, unqualified, or both.
 Each time a recruitment program is contemplated; one task is to
estimate the number of applicants necessary to fill all vacancies with
qualified people.
Strategy Development
 Once it is known how many and what type of recruits are required,
serious consideration needs to be given to
a) make or ‘buy’ employees;
b) technological sophistication of recruitment and selection devices;
c) geographic distribution of labor markets comprising job seekers;
d) sources of recruitment; and
e) sequencing the activities in the recruitment process.
 ‘Make’or ‘Buy’: Firms must decide whether to hire less skilled
employees and invest on training and education programs, or they can
hire skilled labor and professionals.
 Essentially, this is the ‘make’ (hire less skilled workers) or ‘buy’ (hire
skilled workers and professionals) decision.
 Organizations which hire skilled labor and professionals shall have to
pay more for these employees.
 ‘Buying’ employees has the advantage in the sense that the skilled
labor and professionals can begin the work immediately and little

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training may be needed. But the high remuneration that the skilled
workers and professionals demand may outweigh the benefits.
 How to Look: How to look refers to the methods of sources of
recruitment. There are several sources and they may be broadly
organized into (a) Internal, and (b) External
 Internal recruitment seeks applications for positions from those who are
currently employed. Internal sources include present employees,
employee referrals, former employees and former applicants.
 External sources far outnumber the internal methods. Specifically,
sources external to a firm are professional or trade associations,
advertisements, employment exchanges, college/university/institute
placement services, walk-ins and write-ins, consultants, contractors,
displaced persons, radio and television, acquisitions and mergers, and
competitors.
Searching
 Once a recruiting plan and strategy are worked out, the search process
can begin. Search involves two steps (i) source activation, and (ii)
selling.
 Source Activation: Typically, sources and search methods are
activated by the issuance of an employee requisition. This means that
no actual recruiting takes place until line managers have verified that a
vacancy does exist or will exist.
 If the firm has planned well and done a good job of developing its
sources and search methods, activation soon results in a flood of
applications and/or resumes.
 Selling: A second issue to be addressed in the searching process
concerns communications. Here, organizations walk a tightrope. On one
hand, they want to do whatever they can to attract desirable applicants.
On the other, they must resist the temptation of overselling their
virtues.
Screening
 Screening of applications can be regarded as an integral part of the
recruiting process, though many view it as the first step in the selection
process.

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 Even the definition on recruitment excludes screening from its scope.

However, screening is included in recruitment for valid reasons. The
selection process will begin after the applications have been scrutinized
and shortlisted.
 Hiring of professors in a university is a typical situation. Applications
received in response to advertisements are screened and only eligible
applicants are called for an interview.
 Interview is conducted by a selection committee comprising the Vice-
Chancellor, Registrar and subject experts. Here, the recruitment
process extends up-to screening the applications. The selection process
commences only later.
 The purpose of screening is to remove from the recruitment process, at
an early stage, those applicants who are visibly unqualified for the job.
 Effective screening can save a great deal of time and money. Care must
be exercised, however, to assure that potentially good employees are
not lost and that women and minorities receive full and fair
consideration and are not rejected without justification.
 In screening, clear job specifications are invaluable. It is both a good
practice and a legal necessity that applicants’ qualifications be judged
on the basis of their knowledge, skills, abilities and interests required to
do the job.
 The techniques used to screen applicants vary depending on the
candidate sources and recruiting methods used Interviews and
application blanks may be used to screen walk-ins.
 Campus recruiters and agency representatives use interviews and
resumes. Reference checks are also useful in screening.
Evaluation and Control
 Evaluation and control is necessary as considerable costs are incurred
in the recruitment process. The costs generally incurred are:
1. Salaries for recruiters.
2. Management and professional time spent on preparing job description,
job specifications, advertisements, agency liaison, and so forth.
3. Cost of advertisements or other recruitment methods, that is, agency
fees.
4. Cost of producing supporting literature.

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5. Recruitment overheads and administrative expenses.

6. Costs of overtime and outsourcing while the vacancies remain unfilled.
7. Cost of recruiting suitable candidates for the selection process.
 Questions should always be asked as to whether the recruitment
methods used are valid and whether the recruitment process itself is
effective.
 Statistical information on the cost of advertisements, time taken for the
process, and the suitability of the candidates for consideration in the
selection process should be gathered and evaluated. However, exercises
seem to be seldom carried out in practice.
ii).Describe the methods for improving motivation. (4M) (APR/MAY2019)
Answer:
Increase motivation as a project manager:
1. Set realistic goals.
2. Be direct.
3. Conduct weekly or monthly review sessions.
4. Praise small victories.
5. Walk the walk.
6. Supply feedback from the start.
7. Provide incentives.
8. Highlight the benefits of the work.
9. Find ways to foster strong relationships among all members
10. Give them each a chance to shine.

Set realistic goals. This is a common and obvious tip, but a great one.
Beginning a project can be exciting and it’s hard not to get carried away.
If a detailed agenda is not set from the start, team members could be
doing extra, unnecessary work leading to derailment of the project’s
timeline.
Be direct. After you have set realistic goals for the project, make sure
expectations about the workload and due dates are clear and everyone is
in agreement.
Conduct weekly or monthly review sessions. If your team members
know that every Friday they will all be sitting down together to discuss
progress, they will be more apt to follow deadlines and stay motivated to

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do their part. Make sure to ask for feedback – good or bad. Doing so
ensures that your team knows you view them as equals when you listen to
and consider their opinions.
Praise small victories. If you are working on a long term project, break
it up by praising the small victories – go out for lunch, dinner, coffee, or
drinks at the end of the day.
Walk the walk. Let your team members know you are contributing just
as much as they are even if your work isn’t as visible. It’s important they
know you aren’t simply managing.
Supply feedback from the start. Don’t implement review sessions
halfway through the project. Instead, prepare feedback from day one to
avoid giving it after something goes wrong. This way, your team won’t be
discouraged after negative feedback because they knew from day one
they would be receiving feedback throughout the entire project no matter
what.
Provide incentives. While this isn’t always possible, increasing
incentives such as compensation rarely fails to inspire more motivational
drives.
Highlight the benefits of the work. Outlining the benefits of a project
generates deeper appreciation and commitment to the work. Also, when
members understand the intentions behind the project, they connect to it
more easily.
Find ways to foster strong relationships among all
members. Having a team that can function well outside of the office is
irreplaceable. When they care for each other on a level deeper than being
co-workers they will be willing to put more effort into their roles.
Give them each a chance to shine. You know that your success also
depends on the success of your team. Figure out a way to allow each
member the opportunity to be in the spotlight. Knowing they have this
chance will motivate them to put forth their best work.

8) i).State and explain the categories of group tasks. (9M)

(APR/MAY2019)
Answer:

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 Task grouping is where you put related tasks together. Yep, it’s that easy.
You simply make sure that similar tasks, that are related in some way,
appear together as task groups.
 Task groups are useful for lots of reasons. It’s commonly acknowledged now
that multitasking is not a good idea. You are more productive if you can be
focused on one task, or at least one ‘theme’ of tasks – like invoicing – for a
period of time.
 You lose focus if you switch between tasks that are unrelated, such as
spending five minutes answering an email on a particular project issue, then
updating your project schedule, then taking a call about a different project,
and then typing minutes that relate to another project.
 It’s better, and more productive, to stick to one type of activity. The more
you can group your tasks, the easier it is to see what you have to do in that
area and stay focused to get the work done.
Task Grouping Strategies
 The strategy you use for grouping tasks will depend on the software and
process you are using. There are a number of different ways to group
tasks. For example:
a) By creating a work breakdown structure (WBS), showing tasks and
their hierarchical relationships
b) By resource, so all tasks being carried out by the same person or
team are grouped
c) By schedule position, so all tasks being carried out in the same time
period are grouped
d) By priority, with tasks of similar priority grouped together
 And you can probably think of other ways that would make logical sense
for grouping tasks on your projects. You may find that you use different
strategies for grouping tasks on the same project, but at different times.
 For example, you may start out with a WBS but need to group tasks by
department for reporting purposes so that the resources in that team
can easily see the entirety of work allocated to them.
 If you consider task grouping on a large scale, what we are really talking
about is program and portfolio management.
 Program management is putting together a group of related projects
with similar outputs to deliver a common goal.

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 Portfolio management is grouping together related projects and

programs to provide an easy way to manage disparate activities across
the organization.
 Business achieve their strategic objectives by running projects.
 Projects are comprised of many tasks.
 Tasks can be categorised into three main groups, this blog defines those
groups.
Project Management Task Types Defined
The three main task types that exist in project management are:
 Fixed Work Tasks
 Fixed Duration Tasks
 Fixed Units Tasks
Each of these three will now be discussed in more detail.
Fixed Work
A fixed work task has a fixed amount of work. As an example:
The estimate to paint a room is 40 hours of effort. The work content is
therefore 40 hours. Let’s assume an 8 hour working day:
 If there is 1 person on the task it will take 40 hours. (5 days duration)
 If there are 2 people on the task it should take 40 hours (20 hours
each) but completed in half the duration. (2.5 days duration)
 If there are 4 people on the task it should still take 40 hours (10 hours
each), and completed in a quarter of the duration – providing there are
enough paintbrushes, ladders, paint pots etc. (just over a day’s
duration)
In all of these examples, the work – 40 hours – does not change – it is
fixed. The duration will change depending in the number of resources.
There is often a diminishing return on adding extra workers – if we had
100 painters, there would be chaos, and the job would not be finished in
24 minutes!
Note that the cost should remain the same. Paying 1 person for 40 hours
is the same as paying 4 people for 10 hours of work (providing people are
paid just for the work done, and have other work to do when not required!
This will be true when resources ‘book time’ to a particular project.)
Care should be taken to consider the task and the effect of adding more
resource.

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Writing software code may be a 40 hour task for 1 person. However, if two
people are assigned to the task, then they have to talk, communicate,
agree variables, and test that their finished software operates successfully
together. This may increase the work content to 50 hours (adding extra
cost), but two people working on a 50 hour task (25 hours each) should be
quicker than 1 person working on a 40 hour tasks.
Fixed Duration
A fixed duration task has a fixed duration no matter how many resources
are applied to it. Examples include:
 Concrete Drying
 Electrical or chemical soaking tasks
 Paint drying
 Transportation
The duration of these tasks cannot be reduced by adding more resources,
as they are ‘Fixed Duration’ tasks. They have a set time that they must
take before completion.
Fixed Units
These tasks require a set number of resources in order to take place.
 A lecture requires at least one lecturer and at least 1 student
 Setting up a machine may need one operator and 1 quality inspector
 A task may require a room booking and certain people to be present
These tasks will also have a work (effort) content and duration – but need
the resources to be present to take place.

ii). Mention the measure to reduce drawbacks of group decision making.

(4M) (APR/MAY2019)
Answer:
Diffusion of Responsibility
One possible disadvantage of group decision making is that it can create a
diffusion of responsibility that results in a lack of accountability for
outcomes. In a sense, if everyone is responsible for a decision, then no
one is. Moreover, group decisions can make it easier for members to deny
personal responsibility and blame others for bad decisions.
Lower Efficiency

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Group decisions can also be less efficient than those made by an

individual. Group decisions can take additional time because there is the
requirement of participation, discussion, and coordination among group
members. Without good facilitation and structure, meetings can get
bogged down in trivial details that may matter a lot to one person but not
to the others.
Groupthink
One of the greatest inhibitors of effective group decision making is
groupthink. Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within
a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity results in
an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. By isolating
themselves from outside influences and actively suppressing dissenting
viewpoints in the interest of minimizing conflict, group members reach a
consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints.
Loyalty to the group requires individuals to avoid raising controversial
issues or alternative solutions, and there is a loss of individual creativity,
uniqueness, and independent thinking.
The Manager’s Role in Group Decisions
The manager’s role in group decision making is to create a supportive
context for the group.
 One method of making group decision making more efficient and effective
is by training members to follow a set procedure.
 The Delphi technique endeavors to collate the judgments of a number of
experts without actually bringing them face- to-face.
 Given a problem, the following procedure is carried out:
 the co-operation of a number of experts is enlisted
 the problem is presented to the experts;
 the experts record their recommendations;
 The big problem with the approach is, the experts could be geographically
dispersed hence the process will be time consuming. What developments in
information technology would be of particular assistance to use of the Delphi
technique'.
 Team Heeding:

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Team’s success depends upon individuals performance . However efficient an

individual person may be unless the ‘heeding’ attitude is established in every
member of the team , the team cannot succeed.
Some practices are effected in IT companies to bring in the ‘Team heeding
attitude’. They are:
Egoless programming
Programmers by nature are analytic minded and seek perfection . in doing so
for many years, develops an ego that whatever they do are perfect and does
not take criticism in the right perspective.
Chief Programming
When a project is big , a large number of programmers are involved and
communication between them eats away most of their productive time. To
avoid this brooks suggested this model
Extreme programming
XP an agile technology introduces the concept of constant involvement of
customer with the development team and its manager. This way the customer
programmer contacts and there by their understanding improves.
SCRUM
The word SCRUM is taken from the game rugby where everyone in the team
pushing together with a common understanding.
In the scrum process , similar to chief programmer approach, a chief architect
defines in the initial phase
 Overall architecture
 Release date
 Desired features

9) For software project, draw an activity chart with task dependency

table. Derive critical path for completion of the project . Based on Task
dependency diagram allocate resource and derive Activity chart.
(Nov/Dec 2018)
Answer:
Activity chart with task dependency table:

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Calculate Critical Path

There are 6 steps to the Critical Path Method:
1. Divide the project into tasks
2. Estimate duration
3. Create the network diagram
4. Draw initial Gantt (bar) chart
5. Perform resource levelling
6. Compress the schedule (if necessary)

The arrows indicate the sequence of activities. We'll mark the Earliest
Start (ES) time to the left of the activity, and the Earliest Finish
(EF) time to the

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right.:

Mark the Start Time (S) to the left and right of the first activity. Usually,
this would be 0.
Now mark the Earliest Start (ES) time of each activity. This is given by
the largest number to the right of the activity's immediate predecessor
(i.e. its Earliest Finish time, or EF).
If the activity has two predecessors, the one with the later EF time would
give you the ES of the activity.

The EF of an activity is given by its Earliest Start time (ES) and its duration
(t), i.e. ES + t.
Thus, if an activity's ES is 20 and will last for 10 days, its EF will be 30.
Mark all these figures in the flowchart.

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The longest path will be the “critical path”.

The final figure to the right of the last task in the sequence will give you
the minimum time the project will take to finish.

Based on Task dependency diagram allocate resource and derive Activity

chart.

10) What are the functions in traffic light- Controller method? With the
help of software project management, how will you solve the problem?
(Nov/Dec 2018)
Answer:
DATA COLLECTION
 Managers will try to break down long activities into more
controllable tasks of one or two weeks’ duration. However, it will still

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be necessary to gather information about partially completed

activities and, in particular, forecasts of how much work is left to be
completed. It may be difficult to make such forecasts accurately.
 Where there is a series of products, partial completion of activities is
easier to estimate.
 Counting the number of record specifications or screen layouts
produced, for example, can provide a reasonable measure of
progress.
Partial Completion Reporting
 All organizations use standard accounting systems with weekly
timesheets to charge staff time to individual jobs. The staff time
booked to a project indicates the work carried out and the charges
to the project. However, it does not, tell the project manager what
has been produced or whether tasks are on schedule.
 It is therefore common to adapt or enhance existing accounting
data collection systems to meet the needs of project control. Weekly
time sheets, for example, are frequently adapted by breaking jobs
down to activity level and requiring information about work done in
addition to time spent.
 Figure 6.3 illustrates a typical example of such a report form, in this
case requesting information about likely slippage of completion
dates as well as estimates of completeness. Asking for estimated
completion times frequently should be avoided as this may affect
the importance of the originally scheduled targets.

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Risk Reporting
 One method overcoming the objections to partial completion
reporting is to avoid asking for estimated completion dates, but to
ask instead for the team members’ estimates of the likelihood of
meeting the planned target date. One way of doing this is the traffic
light method. This consists of the following steps:
 Identify the key elements for assessment in a piece of work (first
level)
 Break these key elements into constituent elements (second level)
 Assess each of the second-level elements on the scale green for ‘on
target’, amber for ‘not on target but recoverable’, and red for ‘not
on target and recoverable only with difficulty’
 Review all the second level assessments to arrive at first level
assessments
 Review first and second level assessments to produce an overall
assessment
 Each activity is broken into a number of component parts and
deciding whether a further breakdown is needed and get the team
members to complete a return at the end of each week.

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 Traffic-light assessment highlights only risk of non-achievement; it is not

an attempt to estimate work done or to quantify expected delays.
Following completion of assessment forms for all activities, the project
manager uses these as a basis for evaluating the overall status of the
project. Any critical activity classified as amber or red will require
further consideration and often leads to a revision of the project
schedule. Non-critical activities are likely to be considered as a problem
if they are classified as red, especially if their entire float is likely to be
consumed. The same is illustrated in Figure 6.4.

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