Software exam for advanced system architect project management

Today is September 6, 2023. There are only 58 days until the advanced soft exam. Come on!

concept

Temporary nature: means that each project has a clear start time and end time. Temporary nature also means that the project is one-time.

Project selection

1. Project goals and motivations
   • Conduct basic research
   • Conduct application research and development
   • Provide technical services
   • product users
   • Market demand
   • Policy Guidance
   • Technological development
2. Project value judgment
3. Project selection and determination
   • Choose projects with core values
   • Evaluate selected projects
   • Project prioritization
   • Various ways to conduct assessment projects
   • Choose the right solution with balance
4. Preliminary investigation
   • Preliminary needs analysis
   • Basic situation of the enterprise
   • Management methods and basic data management status
   • Current system status
5. Feasibility Analysis

risk

Risk has the following characteristics: objectivity, contingency, relativeness, sociality, and uncertainty.

The four elements of risk: event, cause, consequence and probability of occurrence.

Coping strategies for negative risks or threats: avoid, transfer, mitigate, accept
Coping strategies for positive risks or opportunities: exploit, improve, share, accept

Tools and techniques for risk identification:

• SWOT analysis: strength, weekness, weakness, opportunity, threat

Charter

The project charter includes:

1. Summary project description and project product description
2. Project purpose or reason for approving the project, i.e. why this project is to be done
3. The overall requirements of the project, including the overall scope and overall quality requirements of the project
4. Measurable project goals and associated success criteria
5. The main risks of the project, such as the main risk categories of the project
6. Overall milestone schedule
7. overall budget
8. Project approval requirements, that is, who should make what approvals during the planning, execution, monitoring and closing of the project
9. Delegated project manager and his/her responsibilities and authorities
10. The name and authority of the sponsor or other person who approved the project charter

Feasibility Analysis

Feasibility analysis is a task that must be carried out at the beginning of any project investment, construction or major reform. Project feasibility analysis is a process of analysis, evaluation and decision-making on a multi-factor, multi-objective system.

Feasibility studies are usually analyzed from four aspects: economic feasibility, technical feasibility, legal feasibility and user feasibility.

economic feasibility

Also called investment income analysis or cost-benefit analysis, it mainly evaluates the construction cost, operating cost and possible economic benefits after the project is completed. For most projects, only when the construction costs can be controlled within the budget acceptable to the enterprise, the project is likely to be approved for implementation. The consideration of economic benefits is very broad and can be divided into direct benefits and indirect benefits, tangible benefits and intangible benefits, one-time benefits and non-one-time benefits, quantifiable benefits and non-quantifiable benefits, etc. In the early stages of system development, since user requirements and candidate system solutions have not yet been determined, it is impossible to accurately estimate costs. Therefore, the economic feasibility analysis at this time can only roughly estimate the costs and benefits of the system and determine whether the construction of the information system is worthwhile.

technical feasibility

Also known as technology risk analysis, the research object is the functions and performance that the information system needs to achieve, as well as the technical capability constraints. Technical feasibility is mainly demonstrated by considering the following issues:

• Technology: Whether the existing technical capabilities and the development status of information technology are sufficient to support the realization of system goals.
• Resources: Whether existing resources (such as employees with technical skills, the company's technology accumulation, component libraries, software and hardware conditions, etc.) are sufficient to support the implementation of the project.
• Goals: During the feasibility study stage, project goals are relatively vague, so technical feasibility is best carried out simultaneously with the definition of project functions, performance, and constraints. During the feasibility study stage, it is possible to adjust project goals and select feasible technical systems, but once the project enters the development stage, any adjustments will mean more expenses. Technical feasibility is not just a demonstration of whether it is achievable by technical means, but actually includes technical feasibility under current resource conditions. Practice has proved that if you only consider the technical implementation means and ignore the current resource conditions and environment of the enterprise, and get overly optimistic results in the technical feasibility analysis, it will lead to catastrophic consequences for later project implementation. Regarding the choice of technology, some companies prefer new technologies, while others prefer to use mature technologies. Decisions must be made based on the actual situation of the project (for example, development environment, developer quality, system performance requirements, etc.), but the general recommendation is to use mature technologies as much as possible and introduce advanced technologies cautiously.

legal feasibility

Also known as social feasibility, it has a relatively broad content. It needs to demonstrate the reality of information system construction from social factors such as policies, laws, ethics, and systems. For example, the system developed conflicts with national laws or policies, uses unrecognized encryption algorithms in the field of government informatization, uses protected technologies or components of other companies in products without permission, etc. Such a project is simply not feasible in terms of legal feasibility.

User feasibility

Also known as implementation feasibility, it evaluates the feasibility of the system from the perspective of information system users, including the enterprise's administrative management and work system, the quality and training requirements of users, etc. It can be subdivided into management feasibility and operational feasibility:

• Management feasibility. Management feasibility refers to analyzing the feasibility of system construction from the perspective of enterprise management. Projects that are not supported by supervisors will generally fail. Middle and senior managers have great resistance, so it is necessary to wait and actively do ideological work to create conditions. In addition, we must also consider whether the management methods are scientific, whether the time is ripe for the corresponding management system reform, whether the rules and regulations are complete, etc.
• Operational feasibility. Operational feasibility, also known as operational feasibility, refers to the degree and ability of the analysis and measurement information system to work effectively in a certain environment and be easily used by users. For example, there are data collection and data quality issues after the ERP system is built, and corporate staff do not have enough IT skills. Although these problems have nothing to do with the system itself, if not evaluated, it is likely that the information system that has been built with huge investment will be useless. Operational feasibility also requires the evaluation of various impacts of the system, including the impact on existing IT facilities, impact on user organizations, impact on existing business processes, impact on location, impact on expenditures, etc. If a certain impact will change the user's current situation too much, these factors need to be further discussed and communicated with the user to propose a suggested solution. Otherwise, once the system is built or even during the construction process, it will be vigorously opposed by users, who will resist using the system.

Project feasibility study is divided into preliminary feasibility study and detailed feasibility study. The former can form a preliminary feasibility report; the contents of the two are roughly the same; small projects generally only do the latter, and the former can be omitted; the latter method: investment estimation method, incremental benefit method.

scope management

Scope Planning->Scope Definition->Create WBS->Scope Confirmation->Scope Control

Scope management is to determine the boundaries of the project, that is, to determine what work should be done in the project and what work should not be included in the project. This process is used to ensure that project stakeholders have a common understanding of the products or services that will be the outcome of the project, and of the processes identified to develop those products.
WBS, work breakdown structure, decomposes the overall project or main deliverables into several sub-projects that are easy to manage and control. The sub-projects need to be further decomposed into work packages. Continue this process until the entire project has been broken down into manageable work packages that add up to the total work scope of the project. The purpose of creating a WBS is to specify the scope of the project and establish a scope baseline. Specifically, its main purposes and uses are as follows:

• Clearly and accurately state the project scope so that project team members can clearly understand the nature of the task and the direction in which they need to work.
• Assign personnel to each independent unit and specify the corresponding responsibilities of these personnel to determine the technical and human resources required to complete the project
• For each independent unit, estimate the time, cost and resource requirements to improve the accuracy of the estimate
• Establish a common foundation for planning, budgeting, scheduling and cost control and establish the baseline for project progress measurement and control
• Link project work to the project's financial accounts
• Clearly define the boundaries of the project to facilitate the division and assignment of responsibilities, implement the project goals into specific tasks from top to bottom, and assign these tasks to individuals or organizations inside and outside the project to complete.
• Determine work content and work sequence. The work content can be viewed graphically, and anyone can clearly identify the project stages and work units, and adjust and control them based on the actual progress.
• Estimate the overall and process cost of the project
• Helps prevent demand contagion. When users or other project stakeholders try to add functionality to the project, adding the corresponding work to the WBS makes it easy for them to understand that the related costs and schedule must also be changed accordingly.

cost management

The cost management process includes: cost estimation, cost budgeting and cost control. The meaning of cost budgeting is to allocate the total cost estimate to various activities and work packages to establish a cost baseline. A cost estimate is an approximate estimate of the funds required to complete project activities.

CV, Cost Variance, cost deviation = Earned Value (EV) - Actual Cost (AC)
When CV is positive, it means that the actual labor (or cost) consumed is lower than the budget value, that is, there is a surplus or the efficiency is high; when CV is equal to zero When CV is a negative value, it means that the actual labor (or expenses) consumed exceeds the budget value or exceeds the budget.

Cost-benefit analysis

Concepts involved:

1. cost
   • Fixed costs: do not vary with output
   • Variable costs: vary with output
   • Mixed costs:
   • Direct costs: directly invested in the project
   • Indirect costs: allocated to the project
2. income
   • tangible benefits
   • intangible benefits
3. Profit and loss critical analysis
4. net present value analysis
5. payback period

Profit and loss critical analysis

Sales volume = fixed cost + variable cost + profit
Sales volume = fixed cost + variable cost
Break-even point sales volume = total fixed cost / (sales unit price - unit variable cost)
Break-even point sales volume = total fixed cost / (1-Total variable costs/sales revenue),

net present value analysis

Present value: P = F/(1+i)^n
The actual value after converting the current present value n years later. Net present value
:
NPV=∑(CI-CO)(1+i)^-t

payback period

Static investment payback period: How many years does it take to balance the deficit without considering the interest rate?
Dynamic payback period: How many years does it take to balance the deficit when considering interest rates

Investment recovery rate = 1/investment self
- recovery period = Net investment income/investment cost × 100% = 100% + net present value rate
Internal rate of return = discount rate when the net present value is equal to 0

time management

Includes the management processes necessary to get projects completed on time. The processes in project time management include: activity definition, activity sequencing, activity resource estimation, activity duration estimation, schedule planning, and progress control.

SV, Schedule Variance, schedule deviation = planned time of completed project - actual time of completed project.
When the schedule deviation is negative, it means that the schedule is lagging; when the schedule deviation is equal to zero, it means that the actual situation is consistent with the plan. When the progress deviation is positive, it means that the progress is ahead of schedule.

tool

PDM

PDM, Precedence Diagramming Method, also known as activity-on-node (AON), is used in the critical path method and is one of the most commonly used methods to describe project schedule network diagrams. Rectangles are nodes, representing project tasks, and arrows connecting these nodes represent dependencies between tasks.

PDM has 4 dependency and predecessor relationships, as follows (before: represents the predecessor task: after: represents the follow-up task):

• (Pre)Complete - (Post)Start (FS type, finish-start): The completion of the predecessor task leads to the start of the subsequent task
• (Pre) completion - (post) completion (FF type, finish-finish): The completion of the predecessor task leads to the completion of the subsequent task
• (pre) start - (post) start (SS type, start-start): The start of the predecessor task leads to the start of the subsequent task
• (Pre) start-(post) completion (SF type, start-finish): The start of the predecessor task leads to the completion of the subsequent task

Among the above relationships, the finish-start pattern is the most commonly used task relationship, and the start-end pattern is the least commonly used task relationship. Usually, the activities of each node have the following times: earliest start time (ES), latest start time (LS), earliest end time (EF), and latest end time (LF).

Gantt

Gantt charts, also known as horizontal bar charts and bar charts, use bar charts to display the internal relationships of projects, schedules, and other time-related system progress over time. Named after the proposer, Mr. Henry Laurence Gantt.

According to different contents, Gantt charts are divided into five forms: plan chart, load chart, machine idle chart, personnel idle chart and schedule chart.

Advantages: Gantt charts are intuitive, simple, easy to create, easy to understand, and can clearly indicate the start and end time of each task. They are generally suitable for relatively simple small projects and can be used for any level and progress control of WBS. , Resource optimization, preparation of resource and cost plans.

Disadvantages: It cannot systematically express the complex relationships between the various tasks included in a project, and it is difficult to perform quantitative calculations and analysis, as well as plan optimization, etc.

critical path method

The critical path method is a schedule network analysis technique used when formulating schedules. The critical path method performs forward and reverse analysis along the project schedule network route to calculate the theoretical earliest start and completion dates of all planned activities. Latest start and finish dates, regardless of any resource constraints

Total slack (slack time): The maneuver time of the activity without delaying the total construction period. The total time difference of an activity is equal to the difference between the latest finish time and the earliest finish time of the activity, or the difference between the latest start time and the earliest start time of the activity

Free time difference: The maneuver time of an activity without affecting the earliest start time of the immediately following activity.

• For an activity with successor activities, its free time difference is equal to the minimum value of the difference between the earliest start time of all successor activities minus the earliest completion time of this activity.
• For activities that have no successor activities, that is, activities with the network plan end node as the completion node, the free time difference is equal to the difference between the planned duration and the earliest completion time of this activity.

For activities in the network plan with the end node as the completion node, the free time difference is equal to the total time difference. In addition, since the free time difference of an activity is a component of its total time difference, when the total time difference of an activity is zero, its free time difference must be zero, and there is no need to perform special calculations.

PERT chart

Used to find the project critical path slack time.
Critical path: the longest path that can complete the entire project.
Slack time: the time when a task can be idle without affecting the total construction period.

• Earliest start time: The sum of the longest input streams before the start point of a certain project
• Latest start of test: critical path - the distance from the starting point to the final end point of the entire project
• Earliest end: The sum of the longest input streams before the end point of a certain project
• Latest end: critical path - the distance from this end point to the final end point of the entire project

Slack time = latest start – earliest start ② – ①
slack time = latest end – earliest end ④ – ③
slack time = critical path – the longest path of the required activity

Progress management

Progress management: The management process required to ensure that the project is completed on schedule.

Schedule management process:

Activity definition:
In order to obtain the lowest deliverables in the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), a series of activities must be performed. The process of identifying and documenting these activities is activity definition.

Basic requirements for WBS decomposition:

1. The WBS work package is controllable and manageable and cannot be too complex.
2. Task decomposition cannot be too detailed. In general, the tree structure of WBS should not exceed 6 layers.
3. Each work package must have a deliverable
4. Each task must have clearly defined completion criteria
5. The WBS must facilitate the allocation of responsibilities

Activity Resource Estimation: Determining which resources will be used, in what quantities, and when. This process works closely with cost estimating.

Activity duration estimate: that is, workload estimate.

Commonly used methods: expert estimation, three-point estimation method, function point estimation, top-down estimation, bottom-up estimation. The three-point estimation method is commonly used, and its formula is:

Develop a schedule:
Critical path method (CPM): It is the longest path in the entire path of the project and the shortest time for project completion. There can be multiple critical paths, but the more critical paths there are, the greater the project risk. Ask for time from the critical path and ask for resources from the non-critical path.

Total time difference [ie: slack time]: The maneuver time of the activity without delaying the total construction period. The total time difference of an activity is equal to the difference between the latest completion time and the earliest completion time of the activity, or the difference between the latest start time and the earliest exam time of the activity.

Progress Control

Analyzing conditions:

• Is it a critical activity?
• Is the deviation greater than the total time difference?
• Is the deviation greater than the free time difference?

Two methods:

• Rush work: increase resources, work overtime or add people
• Quick follow-up: activities are executed in parallel

Quality Control

Quality management realizes its management functions through quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement in the quality system.

There are seven basic quality tools in quality management: flow charts, cause-and-effect diagrams, inspection charts, Pareto charts, histograms, control charts, and scatter diagrams, also known as 7QC tools, which are used in PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) ) to solve quality-related issues within the framework of the cycle:

• Flowchart: Process diagram that helps understand and estimate the quality costs of a process
• Cause-and-effect diagrams: fishbone diagram, fishbone diagram, Ishikawa diagram (inventor: Kaoru Ishikawa), Ishikawa diagram, why-why analysis diagram, investigate the root cause of the problem, decompose the cause of the problem statement into discrete branches, and help identify the problem the main or root cause of
• Inspection Chart: Calculation sheet, checklist for collecting data, conducting inspections to identify defects
• Pareto chart: special vertical bar chart, 80/20 rule, probability distribution, identifying a few important causes of most problems
• Histogram: Use numbers and the relative height of the bars to indicate the most common causes of problems and show the number of occurrences of a specific situation.
• Control charts: Determine whether a process is stable or has predictable performance
• Scatter plot: Also called a correlation diagram, it shows the relationship between two variables. The closer the data points are to a certain slope, the closer the relationship between the two variables.

Management tools

Project management tools are used to assist software project management activities. Usually project management activities include project planning, scheduling, communication, cost estimation, resource allocation and quality control. A project management tool usually focuses on one or a few specific management links without providing all-inclusive support for management activities.

Project management tools have the following characteristics:

1. Cover the entire software life cycle
2. Provide multiple effective means for project scheduling
3. Use estimation models to estimate software costs and effort
4. Supports management of multiple projects and sub-projects
5. Determine the critical path, slack time, lead time and lag time
6. Assist in communication between project team members and project tasks
7. Automatic resource balancing
8. Track resource usage
9. Generate fixed format reports and tailored project reports

Cost estimating tools are a typical project management tool.

Responsibility

RAM, Responsibility Assignment Matrix, a structure that links the project organizational breakdown structure (OBS) and the work breakdown structure (WBS) to help ensure that each component of the project work scope is assigned to a person or A certain team. RAM shows the connections between work packages or activities and project team members. RAM ensures that only one person is responsible for any task , thereby avoiding confusion and ensuring that everything is managed by someone. At the same time, the project team, as a temporary organization, does not support idle people. RAM makes it clear that all project team members have something to do during the project. A typical application of RAM is RACI (Execute, Responsible, Consulting and Informed) to assign work to individuals or groups. RAM is a tool for planning human resource management processes.

CATCH COLD

• Who is responsible (R = Responsible), that is, the role responsible for executing the task. He/she is specifically responsible for controlling the project and solving problems.
• Who approves (A = Accountable), that is, the role that is fully responsible for the task. Only with his/her approval or signature can the project proceed.
• Who is consulted (C = Consulted), a person who has the information or abilities needed to complete the project.
• Who to inform (I =Informed), that is, the person who has the privilege and should be notified of the results in a timely manner, but there is no need to consult him/her or seek opinions.

RACI models often use RACI tables to help discuss and communicate various roles and related responsibilities. The RACI diagram is just one type of RAM. The project manager can also select leaders, resources or other applicable words to allocate project responsibilities according to the needs of the project. If the team is made up of internal and external personnel, a RACI diagram is particularly important to ensure that roles and expectations are clearly demarcated.

project scope statement

Tools and techniques used in the scope validation process:

• examine
• group decision making techniques

The inputs to the project scope definition are:

• Project Charter. If the project charter or initial scope statement is not used within the project executing organization, the same information needs to be further collected and developed to produce a detailed project scope statement
• project scope management plan
• organizational process assets
• Approved change request

Project scope is what the project stipulates to do in order to achieve the project objectives and deliver a specific product or service. In information system projects, product scope refers to the functions that the information system product or service should contain, and project scope refers to the work that must be done in order to deliver the information system project. Product scope is the basis of project scope, product scope definition is a measure of information system requirements, and project scope definition is the basis of production project planning. The product scope description is an important part of the project scope statement.

preliminary scope statement

The initial project scope statement is developed based on information provided by the sponsor or sponsor and is further refined by the project management team during the scope definition process. content include:

• Project and scope goals
• Product or service needs and features
• Project requirements and deliverables
• Product acceptance criteria
• project boundaries
• Project constraints
• Project assumptions
• initial project organization
• Risk initially defined
• progress milestones
• Initial breakdown of project work
• Preliminary magnitude cost estimates
• Project configuration management needs
• Approval requirements

detailed scope statement

The primary deliverable of scope definition is the scope statement, which details the project's deliverables and the project work that must be done to produce those deliverables. The project scope statement establishes a common understanding of the project scope among all stakeholders, describes the main goals of the project, enables the project team to make more detailed plans, guides the project team's work during project implementation, and provides a basis for evaluating whether it is Provides a baseline for whether changes or additional work required by the client are within the scope of the project. The contents are as follows:
(1) Objectives of the project. Including achievement goals and binding goals.
(2) Product scope description. Describe the characteristics of the product, service, or outcome that the project promises to deliver.
(3) Project deliverables. Includes the project's products, services, or results, as well as ancillary outputs such as project management reports and documents.
(4) Project boundaries. Boundaries strictly define what is part of the project and what is outside the scope of the project.
(5) Product acceptance criteria. The process and principles for acceptance of deliverables are clearly defined.
(6) Project constraints. Describe and list specific constraints related to the scope of the Southwest Equity Group that will affect the selection of the project team.
(7) Project assumptions. Describe and list specific assumptions related to the project scope and the potential impact on the project if these assumptions do not hold.

PMO

The Project Management Office (PMO) is an organizational department that standardizes project-related governance processes and promotes the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and technologies.

A PMO's responsibilities can range from providing project management support services to directly managing one or more projects. There are several different types of PMOs with varying degrees of control and influence over projects, such as: supportive, controlling, and directive. The PMO obtains data and information from the company's strategic projects, conducts comprehensive analysis, and evaluates the extent to which the projects serve strategic goals.

The PMO establishes links between project portfolios, programs, projects and company evaluation systems (such as the balanced scorecard). In addition to being managed centrally, the projects supported and managed by the PMO are not necessarily related to each other. The specific form, functions and structure of the PMO depend on the needs of the organization. In order to ensure that the project meets the organization's business objectives, the PMO may have the authority to serve as an important stakeholder and key decision-maker during the life cycle of each project, to make recommendations, and to suspend the project or take other actions as necessary. In addition, the PMO may also be involved in the selection, management, and deployment of shared or dedicated resources.

One of the primary functions of the PMO is to provide support to project managers in a variety of ways, including (but not limited to):

• Manage the shared resources of all projects under the PMO's jurisdiction;
• Identify and develop project management methodologies, best practices and standards;
• Guidance, coaching, training and supervision;
• Monitor compliance with project management standards, policies, procedures and templates through project audits;
• Develop and manage project policies, procedures, templates, and other shared documents (organizational process assets);
• Coordinate communication across projects.