What ISO-21502-Lead-Project-Manager Questions and Answers feature?

Scenario:

Mallebare is an American company which designs and manufactures gaming accessories. Apart from keyboards, mice, and controllers, the company also manufactures high-quality headsets for which it is widely known. Recently, upon the request of numerous gamers, the company decided to manufacture mousepads too. For this project, Luke, the CEO of the company, assigned Ross, a senior designer of the company, as the project manager, whereas Smith, a senior engineer, was assigned as project sponsor. In addition, Luke stated the project should be complete within three months, as the company is aiming to promote the mousepads in a major gaming tournament. Lastly, Luke required them to utilize the guidelines of ISO 21502 to manage the project.

Initially, Ross mobilized the team and held a meeting with them to discuss and develop the project plan. He asked the team members to ensure that major functional aspects of the project are covered in the project plan and to identify any issue that might arise throughout the project life cycle. Ross explained that this request comes as a result of the tight deadline of the project and the team must develop a concise plan. Ross added that the plan will not be changed in any circumstance and will be followed in detail.

Following that, Ross and the team discussed the engagement of all relevant stakeholders throughout the project. Ross used a power/interest matrix to categorize all stakeholders in four different groups, where the tournament organizers were categorized as stakeholders with low interest but high power in the project. On the other hand, end users, the gamers, were categorized as stakeholders with high interest and high power in the project, so the project team created a survey to determine their needs and requirements.

Moreover, Ross was aware of the importance of effective communication for the success of the project. Therefore, he developed a communication plan which would ensure that each individual involved in the project gets the right information in a timely manner. The plan indicated that ad hoc discussions would be conducted in more complex and personal cases, whereas notes and text messages would be used for transmitting simple and factual information. Ross claimed that this model had been successful in previous projects conducted by the company because it allows faster processing of information and includes natural use of language. In addition, Ross determined that a relationship among project team members needs to be established to ensure productive work.

Question:

According to scenario 6, Ross categorized the tournament organizers as stakeholders with low interest but high power in the project. Based on the power/interest matrix, how should Ross manage tournament organizers?

Scenario:

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, DND is one of the largest worldwide automakers. It first gained global recognition after introducing a sports car, which quickly became highly demanded by sports car lovers around the world. Alec Law, the CEO of DND, and his management team recently decided to embark on a new project, i.e., the production of alternative fuel cars, which would use an alternative fuel source instead of traditional petroleum fuels, as the other cars of the company do, in order to promote sustainable and low-carbon transportation. For the implementation of this project, the company decided to follow the guidelines of ISO 21502 on project management.

During the development of the project governance framework, the company took into account several factors, including, among others, the legal context of stakeholders. In the project governance, the company also included oversights on the management frameworks and the project life cycle. In order to determine the project life cycle, the external environment was considered, including information on studies that related to similar projects. In addition, the company decided to separate this project governance from its overall governance.

Moreover, the company developed a project organization, where the roles, responsibilities, and authorities in the project were defined. In addition, the responsibilities of the project office and project assurance, among others, were defined. The project organization also included a customer representative. Once the project organization was developed and approved by the project board, it was communicated only to the project team.

As the project was entering its design stage, the project board made a change in the structure of the project organization since one of the work package leaders had resigned from the project in order to be involved in another project of the company.

Question:

According to scenario 1, the project board made a change in the project organization structure after the project entered the design stage. Is this acceptable?

Scenario:

Tricko is a clothing manufacturer headquartered in Milano, Italy. The company was founded in 2010 by Mario, a famous Italian fashion designer. Over the last few years, the company has seen immense growth and now has a chain of stores across multiple European cities. Following industry trends, the top management of Tricko concluded that the company should establish an online store. As such, they required Lily, an experienced IT engineer, to develop a brief for this potential project. After several meetings and discussions, the top management approved the project brief and assigned Lily as the project manager. For this project, she was instructed to use the guidelines of ISO 21502 on project management.

Lily initiated the project by mobilizing the project team, which included four web developers, two network engineers, and one systems analyst. In order to ensure that every team member is fully aware of their roles and responsibilities, Lily developed team performance domains which would link each project activity with the individuals responsible for undertaking it. She explained to the team members that it is important to clearly understand their roles and responsibilities, considering that the team composition cannot be reassessed or revised once the project plan is authorized to be executed. In addition, Lily defined in a document the project’s contribution to the overall objectives of Tricko, which reflected the relevant project requirements and their associated acceptance criteria.

Following that, Lily worked with the project team to discuss project costs. She suggested the team initially establish cost estimates only for the first phase of the project and then for the entire project. In addition, she required cost estimates to be expressed in currency valuations and in labor hours. One of the network engineers suggested that each team member should provide an estimate, and then the team should reach an agreement for a joint estimate. On the other hand, one of the developers suggested establishing an estimate for the costs after the closure of the project, such as advertising and promotion costs. Lily agreed with their suggestions and asked them to provide a total estimate as soon as possible.

Based on the total estimate provided by the project team, Lily developed the project budget and created a list of project activities, divided them into smaller items, and assigned a budget for each item.

Question:

Scenario 5 states that Lily required them to express the costs in labor hours and currency valuations. Is this acceptable?