Appreciation
Thank you for taking the time to teach, educate, help and befriend us this semester. I sincerely appreciate the time you spent in planning and reviewing our class lectures and recommending strategies for achieving the most energetic and interesting moments. Your advice is and was very helpful and gave me a new perspective on available opportunities that have now become my objectives in life. I especially appreciate your offer to connect me to others in your network. I plan on following up with the contacts you emailed me right away. I will also use the online networking resources you recommended to further my job search.
Any additional suggestions you may have would be welcome. Again, thank you so much for your help. I and on behalf of the class greatly appreciate the assistance you have provided.
This can only be answered by one sentence, Everything that the course had to offer, though they were some chapters that were of more interest to me than others but it was all significantly simplified and exampled by Our lecture. THANK YOU, MADAM MASITA.
What do you dislike most about the course?
To my honest opinion, the class timing, but that is explainable since our lecturer is a part-timer and has to attend her full-time job over the working hours.
What are your proposed suggestions to improve the course delivery and content?
If you had more time, what do you wish you had done differently for the course?
HEHEHE….The mid-term exam. For I had made mistakes on that exam that I still regret.
Chapter 7-Project Cost-Management
The objective of this chapter is to inform us on what cost-management is and what is its best practices. Traditionally Project cost-management is a weak area for IT projects, hence making project managers strive to improve their ability to deliver projects within approved budgets. This ability is achieved on three main processes:
- Cost budgeting- This involves the allocation of the project cost estimate to individual work items over time. A WBS is a required input to the cost budgeting process since it defines the work items. An important goal is to produce a cost baseline that will be efficient.
- Cost estimation-This is the process where a manager should take very serious if they want to complete projects within a budget constraint. It is important to know the types of cost estimates, how to prepare cost estimates, and typical problems associated with IT cost estimate.
- Cost control- Many organizations around the globe have problems with cost control, because it monitors all the other cost-processes listed above.
Chapter 8-Project Quality Management
Eminence, superiority, excellence are words that pop into our head when we talk or hear about Quality for it is what every IT project manager aspires for, why because efficiency and appearances are what the business world is built on. Project quality management ensures that the project will satisfy each single need of which the project was undertaken and intended for. Quality management also has these main processes:
- Quality planning- This is identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and how, when and why a project manager should make sure he/she satisfies them.
- Quality assurance- This is when the project manager is periodically evaluating the overall project performance to ensure the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards.
- Quality control- Quality control is when we are monitoring specific project results to ensure that they comply with the relevant quality standards.
Chapter 9-Project Human Resource Management
Human resources is a term used to refer to how people are managed by organizations. The field has moved from a traditionally administrative function to a strategic one that recognizes the link between talented and engaged People, Projects and organizational success.
Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of a project’s most valued assets - the people working on it (the project) who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the Project.
Project human resource management identifies the processes required to make the most effective use of the people involved with a project. There are two main processes in project human resource:
- Human resource planning- this is acquiring the project team, developing the project team, managing the Project team.
- Organization planning- is to a Organize Plan by identifying, documenting, and assigning Project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships, project organizational charts, work definition and assignment process, responsibility assignment matrixes, resource histograms.
Chapter 10-Project Communications Management
Communication is a process of transferring information from one entity to another. Communication processes are sign-mediated interactions between at least two agents which share a repertoire of signs and semiotic rules. Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs".
Communications management is the systematic planning, implementing, monitoring, and revision of all the channels of communication within an organization; it also includes the organization and propagation of new communication directives connected with an organization in achieving the project objectives.
In project communication management, time is the most important element that is used to create a good communication channel between the project team and the stake-holders. Another purpose of project communications management is to ensure timely and appropriate generation, Collection, dissemination, storage, and disposition of project information. In order to achieve the above listed purposes we have to see through that the following process are followed:
- Communications planning
- Information distribution
- Performance reporting
- Managing stakeholders
Chapter 11-Project Risk Management
Risk concerns the expected value of one or more results of future events. Technically, the value of those results may be positive or negative. However, general usage tends focus only on potential harm that may arise from a future event, which may accrue either from incurring a cost or by failing to attain some benefit.
As most people say and believe that in any project there is a certain amount of risk that is assured and can/can not be mitigated. As project managers we should have certain knowledge on how to handle and manage risk. Project risk management is the art and science of identifying, analyzing, and responding to risk throughout the life of a project and in the best interests of meeting project derivable and objectives. There are 6 processes to follow in project risk management. They are:-
- Risk management planning
- Risk identification
- Qualitative risk analysis
- Quantitative risk analysis
- Risk response planning
- Risk monitoring and control
Chapter 12-Project Procurement Management
Procurement is the acquisition of goods and/or services at the best possible total cost of ownership, in the right quality and quantity, at the right time, in the right place and from the right source for the direct benefit or use of corporations, individuals, or even governments, generally via a contract, or it can be the same way selection for human resource. Based on the consumption purposes of the acquired goods and services, procurement activities are often split into two distinct categories. The first category being direct, production-related procurement and the second being indirect, non-production-related procurement hence creating the need for project procurement management. This involves:-
- Planning purchases and acquisitions
- Planning contracting
- Requesting seller responses
- Selecting sellers
- Administering contracts
- Closing contracts
