SOLVED: Submit Requirements Traceability Matrix, WBS and Risk/Quality Assessment

September 20, 2020
SOLVED: Submit Requirements Traceability Matrix, WBS and Risk/Quality Assessment

Submit Requirements Traceability Matrix, WBS and Risk/Quality Assessment (Due on 15th June 2020 (Strict Deadline))

Part A. Create the Requirements Traceability Matrix for your selected project:

The requirements traceability matrix is an extremely important tool for the project. Requirements define customer expectations and the traceability matrix allows the team to follow each requirement through the Project Mgmt. Life Cycle (PMLC). The team elicits requirements from the customer and then moves the requirement through design, development, testing and implementation. This tool helps the team to audit the project as well during the PMLC, and take a litmus test, “Are we delivering what the customer has requested?”, thereby avoiding costly rework and unwanted change requests. Additionally, the traceability matrix assists the team in analyzing the impact of changes to requirements during the project.

You want to provide the appropriate level of detail while maintaining a reasonable number of requirements since you will base your planning and scheduling on these requirements.  While there is no minimum or maximum number of requirements, the expectation is that most students will have somewhere between 3-7 high level requirements which will then be used as the basis for the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). 

At a minimum, you should identify several high level requirements, functions, and features. 

You can approach requirements in one of two ways: 

  1. Using a Simple Sentence format that outlines the high-level parent requirements and then breaks these down into multiple user requirements, which then flow into system requirements. 

  1. Creating User Stories.  In this format, you will have high-level requirements known as Epics and in each Epic you will have multiple User Stories that follow the formatted language: “As a ROLE, I need a FUNCTION, so that I can, BUSINESS VALUE” 

Prepare your requirements documentation and upload it using the link below. You may use any format you would like including: (Word document, Excel worksheet, Visio diagram, drawing tool). 

Remember, your requirements should represent ALL of the deliverables in your project. 

Requirements-Tracability-Matrix

Part B. Create the WBS for your selected project:

The WBS is an important planning tool because it assists the project team in breaking down large, complex buckets of work into smaller, more manageable activities and tasks. In turn, it helps to produce more accurate estimations of duration and work effort and makes it easier for the project manager to measure the progress of the project.

Using the handout posted in the Additional Resources section of this unit, create a WBS for your selected project.  At a minimum, you should identify Summary tasks, Detail tasks, and Milestones. You should also include project mgmt. deliverables and tasks.

You want to provide the appropriate level of detail while maintaining a reasonable number of tasks since you will be expanding on the same project schedule. While there is no minimum or maximum number of tasks, the expectation is that most students will have somewhere between 50 - 100 tasks in their WBS which will then be imported into Microsoft Project next week. 

Your WBS should be presented in an Excel format only.

WBS

C. Risk & Quality Assessment:

The Risk Report is a project document that is vital to project integration and quality efforts. It is an input to the Direct and Manage Project Work, Monitor and Control Project Work, Perform Integrated Change Control, Close Project or Phase, Manage Quality and Manage Communications processes. It is an output of the Identify Risks process.

The Risk Report presents information on sources of overall project risk, together with summary information on identified individual project risks. The risk report is developed progressively throughout the project.

For this assignment, write an initial planning assessment of your project as it pertains to risk and quality. What are the sources of overall project risk and critical points of quality delivery? Which are most important across the spectrum of stakeholders? What are the actions (reflected in the WBS) that will be taken to ensure risk is managed and quality expectations are met?

Please determine the format to be used. The reader should come away with the sense that potential areas of concern for your project have been considered and taken into account when determining the scope and schedule of the project. Your artifact(s) may include tabular and / or narrative information. Possible supporting representations and perspectives might include: Risk Breakdown Structure, Risk Register, Quality Metrics List, Stakeholder Register / Power Grid.

Risk-Assessment

Draft (Due on 27th June 2020)

This is your opportunity to submit a version of your MS Project Plan for review prior to submitting it for a grade.  Please refer to the assignment directions in the next assignment (Described below),  Also refer specifically to the rubric for this draft assignment.

After your draft plan is created, review the criteria outlined in the rubric. Your instructor will return constructive feedback related to areas of improvement to be addressed prior to final submission.

Create a Microsoft Project file (.mpp) and build out the Project Plan:

Before you import your WBS from the prior assignment into MS Project,  you must set up your Microsoft Project Options (this information is covered in Chapter 2 of the Ambriz textbook): 

  1. From the File tab (which takes you to the Backstage), select "Options" and then "Schedule" - verify that the settings on that tab are correct for your project and work environment. Change the scheduling options so that all tasks are Auto Scheduled and that the default Task Type is set to either Fixed Duration or Fixed Work. You want to use the dynamic scheduling capabilities of MS Project. Select whether or not you want to schedule the project from the start date or the end date (regulatory requirements and events that have non-negotiable deadlines should be scheduled from the Project End Date). 

  1. Create a calendar for your project or make necessary modifications to the Standard calendar to include any revised schedule days, holidays or non-working days. 

  1. From the Project Tab, select Project Information and set the Start Date of your project. This can be the actual start date of your project or you can select a fictitious start date if you don't know exactly when the project is going to start. Select the appropriate Calendar for your project based on step 2. 

  1. On the File tab in the Backstage view, click on Info. From the right side of the window, select Project Information, Advanced Properties. On the Summary tab, enter the Title of your project, your name and a brief description in the Comments box. Your project name will now appear in the project plan as your Zero Task / Project Summary Task.

Using the Work Breakdown Structure that your created in the last assignment, enter your Summary Tasks and Detail Tasks into Microsoft Project. During this exercise, you may identify additional tasks that you didn't initially think of or you may decide to move things around a bit. That is perfectly acceptable and common when you start building the schedule. It is a living, breathing document and does change throughout the course of planning. Use the Indent Task/Outdent Task buttons on the Task tab to create the hierarchy of your WBS. If you want to turn on the WBS numbering scheme, right-click the column to the right of where you want that column to appear, select Insert Column and select WBS from the list of available columns. Chapter 3 of the Ambriz book includes a lot of detailed information about entering tasks into Microsoft Project. 

STEPS: 

  1. Estimation:  

Once you have thoroughly decomposed the project's WBS by breaking larger tasks into smaller, manageable tasks you can continue to the next step which is estimation.

Using one of the techniques presented in the reference material (your textbooks or the videos), estimate the effort required to complete each task. Determine for each task what the duration and work effort is. Pages 175 - 187 in Ambriz discuss the differences and the relationship between duration and work. If you need to display the Work column in Microsoft Project, right-click the Duration column, select Insert Column and select Work from the list of available columns. Enter your estimates into your Microsoft Project schedule. Remember, don't assign estimates to Summary tasks, the time necessary to complete the Summary task is based on the estimates of the Detail tasks that roll up to the Summary task. 

  1. Dependencies:  

Create appropriate dependencies between your tasks. What tasks control other tasks?

Use the Link button on the Task tab (or the predecessor and successor columns) to create dependencies between tasks. Double click the arrow between the tasks to change the dependency type. You should be attempting to use a mixture of the dependency options offered in the software including: Finish to Start (FS), Start to Start (SS), Finish to Finish (FF), and Start to Finish (SF). Add Lag or Lead ( Negative Lag) time where appropriate. 

Try to avoid adding constraints to tasks. Instead add deadline reminders where necessary. Tasks should have a "Start As Soon As Possible" constraint (default constraint) in order for the software to show the project team the impact of changes to the plan. 

Chapters 5 and 6 of the Ambriz book includes a lot of information on linking tasks in Microsoft Project. 

Project Management Schedule

  1. Resources:   

Build out the project Resource Sheet and assign all resources to tasks. 

Add resources to your project using the resources sheet. Please define all type of resources including Work, Material and Cost. At a minimum, complete the following fields for each human resource: Resource Name, Type, Initials, Max, Std. Rate, Base (Calendar). You can choose to use role names or birth names. For other resource types, complete Cost/Use. Once the resources have been added to the project file, assign those resources to the tasks that you defined in the project schedule. Multiple resources can be assigned to the same task if appropriate but first consider if the task should be broken down into smaller tasks and assigned to individual resources. Resources should not be assigned to Summary level tasks. Chapters 7 and 8 of the Ambriz book include step-by-step instructions for completing these tasks. 

Once resources have been assigned to all Detail tasks you may find that some resources have been identified by the software as over-allocated. There is a red icon in the Indicator Column and in the Resource Sheet view the resource is red. Before the plan can be optimized and baselined, it will be necessary for you to address these over-allocations by having the software fix the over-allocations (Resource Leveling feature) or by manually adjusting the plan to alleviate the over-allocations (Resource Usage view). 

Resources-Sheet.

  1. Optimize and Baseline the Project Plan: 

a. When you are satisfied that over-allocated resources have been eliminated, you can then begin to review the plan and analyze it for any areas where changes can be made that will optimize the schedule for time and cost.

Using schedule optimization strategies, decide which steps you want to take to attempt to shorten your project finish date and decrease project costs. Update your Microsoft Project Schedule accordingly. Through this process you may create new over-allocated resources. If you do, address those over-allocations. Chapter 9 of the Ambriz book includes step-by-step instructions for optimizing your project schedule. 

  1. Baseline the Project Plan:  

When you are satisfied that you have done your best to create the most efficient plan possible, save the baseline for the project plan so that you have a point in time to measure progress against. 

Grant-Chart

Submit Your Quarterly Management Status Report (Final Submission) Due 25/7/2020

Step 1: Update the Project Plan

You now have an optimized project plan and the baseline is set. Execution can begin! In order to track progress (plan vs. actuals) you need to pick a regular update period and be consistent in making status updates to the plan. Best practices for updating the project plan as well as the mechanics of making updates can be found in the Ambriz book, Chapter 10, Updating. Additionally, for the assignment you may also refer to the step by step instruction guide, Step-by-Step Microsoft Project Updates.pdf

The project manager is responsible for making status updates to the plan and using these updates to construct a story to relay the progress of the project to senior leadership via regular status update reports. Make the following updates to your plan to prepare for your quarterly status report.

a) You have started your project and one week has passed. You receive a status report from everyone and all tasks are on schedule. You need to update the project schedule to reflect this status update.

b) At the conclusion of the second week, one of the early project tasks is 90% complete. Another task is started but is going to require an additional 5 days of duration (or 40 hours of work). A third task was completed. You need to update the project schedule to reflect these updates.

c) A Hurricane went through your area and the office was closed for 3 days. You need to update the project schedule to reflect this work stoppage.

d) After these changes, continue to update the plan for 3 more weeks as on schedule.

Step 2:  Perform Change Management

During week 6, after a customer demo or update meeting, the customer notifies you that they have an additional requirement that is outside of the scope of the approved requirements document.  

As discussed in class, an essential element of every Project Management Plan (PMP) is the Change Management Plan.  The Change Control Process needs to be documented and communicated to all stakeholders at the outset of the project.  Its purpose is to maintain transparency throughout the Project Management Life Cycle (PMLC) and to assess the value of any proposed change request as it relates to the project’s scope, cost, resources, quality and risk. According to PMI's 2018 Pulse of the Profession survey, 52% of projects experienced scope creep. 

You are now challenged with evaluating a Change Request (CR). You will use the CR template to describe the request, to prioritize the request, to analyze the request as it relates to impacts on your project’s scope, budget, resources, quality and risk.  You will also need to consider what consequences there would be to non-implementation of the change.  As an additional challenge, the you must consider how the current, baselined schedule and budget can be optimized to accommodate the change (refer to goals outlined in the rubric). 

Change-Request

Step 3:  Quarterly Management Status Report

At the end of the quarter, you must prepare a PowerPoint presentation for the Quarterly Management Status Meeting.  Giving timely, effective updates on the progress of your project is essential to keeping stakeholders in the loop.  Reporting at upper management levels is a skill that every project manager must learn.  In executive forums the key to effective communication requires the correct level of detail.  This presentation is a summary of the key aspects and milestones of the project and offers a high level overview of risks, timeline, budget, accomplishments and next steps. 

Quarterly-management-Status-Report

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