UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2018/2019
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY/ BUSSINESS IT/ APPLIED COMPUTING
BIT2305 ICT PROJECT MANAGEMENT BBIT204 IT PROJECT
MANAGEMENT/BAC
FULL TIME/PART TIME/DISTANCE LEARNING
DATE: AUGUST, 2019 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE (Compulsory)
a) The success of an IT project is often judged on its closeness to the originally agreed
scope, cost and duration.
i) What is the difference between project and business success? (2 Marks)
ii) Give TWO common project success criteria (2 Marks)
b) Suggest TWO reasons why it is considered that accurate estimating for IS projects is
difficult. (4Marks)
c) Explain how you would use a Work Breakdown Structure to develop an estimate
showing effort and cost, for a Project. (4 Marks)
d) Describe FOUR differences between “management” and “leadership”. (4Marks)
e) If the scope of a project increases, what decisions would a project manager have to
consider about the other elements of the Project Triangle? (4Marks)
f) The dependencies between 12 tasks are listed below:
Draw the network, (6 Marks)
g) Draw a work breakdown structure for the manufacture of a wooden toycar. Limit the size
to four levels of detail (4 Marks)
QUESTION TWO
a) You have been appointed as project manager for a successful company creating online
training courses. The software infrastructure for the company is crucial to its future
growth. Until recently the company has outsourced its software development work to a
number of consultants. Your appointment represents a decision to carry out all future
development in-house. You have been asked to recruit four other people to create a team
that will be responsible for identifying business opportunities and developing the IT
infrastructure to support the company. Identify a role for EACH of the FOUR people you
will recruit. This will include a job title, a brief description of the role and the skills
required to fulfil it
(8 Marks)
b) Scope Creep is of considerable concern on many IT projects as it has the potential to lead
to less than satisfactory project outcomes. Most IT project managers are keenly aware of
the need to manage scope creep well and employ a range of techniques to this end.
i)Describe what is meant by Scope Creep and explain how it can lead to unsatisfactory
outcomes on an IT project. (4 Marks)
ii) Describe two techniques that an IT project manager could use to minimise the
likelihood of Scope Creep on their project. Use examples to illustrate how each of these
techniques would work. (4 Marks)
iii) Discuss whether software development projects are more susceptible to Scope Creep
than other types of projects. Make sure you explain your reasoning. (4 Marks)
QUESTION THREE
Activity Optimistic time Most likely time Pessimistic time Immediate
predecessor
a) Using the table above answer the following questions
i) Construct the project network and calculate the forward and backward pass. (5Marks)
ii) Find the expected duration and the variance of each activity. (8 Marks)
iii) Find the critical path and the expected project completion time. (2 Marks)
b) Compare and contrast network techniques and Gantt charts (5 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR
a) Cost monitoring is used in project progress monitoring and control. In relation to project
monitoring explain the following terms and their respective formulaes:
i) Planned Value (PV) (3 Marks)
ii) Actual Cost (AC) (3 Marks)
iii) Schedule Performance Indicator (SPI) (3 Marks)
iv) Earned Value (EV) (3 Marks)
v) Cost performance Index (CPI) (3 Marks)
b) You are the project manager for a software development project. Your CPI drops to 0.93
when one of your key developers suddenly falls ill. To make up for your affected work, you
have decided to outsource it to a vendor. Describe the most appropriate cause of action to
resolve the problem. (5 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE
a) Assume that the size of a moderate software product has been estimated to be 40,000 lines of
source code. Assume that the average salary of software engineers be ksh. 12,000/- per month.
Determine the effort required to develop the software product , the nominal development time
and cost. (8 Marks)
b) The project feasibility study presented to senior management must always contain a detailed
cost justification for any proposed computer system. Categorise and provide examples of costs
and benefits that would appear in such a report (6 Marks)
c) IT project managers can employ a number of management styles. Two such styles are known
as “autocratic”, which is often preferable when most of the project staff are new to a project,
and “democratic”, where most of the project staff are more experienced and are able to
contribute to the decision-making process. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each
of these styles.
(6Marks)
