UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2018/2019
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY/ BACHELOR OF BUSINESS IN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT2305 ICT PROJECT MANAGEMENT BBIT204 IT PROJECT
MANAGEMENT/BAC
FULL TIME/PART TIME/DISTANCE LEARNING
DATE: DECEMBER, 2018 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 THREE common project success criteria (3 Marks)
b) Suggest TWO reasons why it is considered that accurate estimating for IS projects is difficult.
(4 Marks)
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”. (4 Marks)
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? (4 Marks)
f) The constraints governing the jobs are as fo1lows:
A and B are start jobs; A controls C, D and E; B controls F and J; G depends upon C; H
depends on D; E and F control I and L; K follows J; L is also controlled by K; G, H, I and
L are the last jobs. Draw the network, (8 Marks)
g) Define the term project management (2 Marks)
h) Why do we carry out monitoring and control on a project? (3 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 inhouse. 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
(10 Marks)
b) Draw a work breakdown structure for the manufacture of a bicycle. Limit the size to four
levels of detail (8 Marks)
c) What is the purpose of a post project review? (2 Marks)
QUESTION THREE
a)
i) Construct the project network and calculate the forward and backward pass. (6 Marks)
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)
iv) Construct a Gantt chart (4 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR
a) At a given point in a project, the budgeted cost of work performed was £250,000, the
actual cost of work performed was £370,000 and the budgeted cost of work scheduled
was £225,000.
i) What would be the schedule variance? (3 Marks)
ii) What would be the cost variance? (3 Marks)
iii) Briefly explain the purpose of performing the above calculations. (4 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. (4Marks)
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. (4Marks)
iii) Discuss whether software development projects are more susceptible to Scope Creep
than other types of projects. Make sure you explain your reasoning. (2Marks)
QUESTION FIVE
a) Explain the difference between project management and line management (4Marks)
b) How do you overcome communication barriers in a project (4Marks)
c) Describe the functions carried out by a project office (4 Marks)
d) Describe the roles of the client, sponsor, project manager and a supplier (4 Marks)
e) What are the four main types of estimating techniques and what is their approximate degree of
accuracy? (4Marks)
