Month: May 2008

Risk transference includes shifting the consequence of a risk and responsibility for its management to a third party

Fallback plans are developed for risks that have a high impact on meeting project objectives, and are put into effect if attempts to reduce the risk are not effective

Utility rises at a decreasing rate for a risk-adverse person. In other words, when more payoff or money is at stake, the person gains less satisfaction from the risk, or has lower tolerance for the risk.

Risk mitigation reducing the impact of a risk event by reducing the probability of its occurrence

A risk-seeking person prefers outcomes that are more uncertain and is often willing to pay a penalty to take risks.

Risk factors describe numbers that represent the overall risk of specific events, based on their probability of occurring and the consequences to the project if they do occur

A probability/impact matrix lists the relative probability of a risk occurring on one axis on a chart and the relative impact of the risk occurring on the other.

Quantitative risk analysis numerically estimating the effects of risks on project objectives

A decision tree is a diagramming analysis technique used to help select the best course of action in situations in which future outcomes are uncertain.

Brainstorming is a technique by which a group attempts to generate ideas or find a solution for a specific problem by amassing ideas spontaneously and without judgement

Risk sharing allocating ownership of the risk to another party

Risk response planning taking steps to enhance opportunities and reduce threats to meeting project objectives

Delphi technique is used to derive a consensus among a panel of experts who make predictions about future developments

Flow charts is a diagram that shows how different parts of a system interrelate? For example, many programmers create these to show programming logic

A risk register is a document that contains results of various risk management processes, often displayed in a table or spreadsheet format

Qualitative risk analysis involves prioritizing risks based on their probability and impact of occurrence

Risk exploitation doing whatever you can to make sure the positive risk happens

Top Ten Risk Item Tracking establishing a periodic review of the project’s most significant risk items with management and, optionally, with the customer

Monte Carlo analysis simulates a model’s outcome many times to provide a statistical distribution of the calculated results

A risk management plan summarizes how risk management will be performed on a particular project

Progress reports describe what the project team has accomplished during a certain period.

If a team of three people are working together on one particular project task, they have three communications channels. If you add two more people to their team, you would have ten communications channels.

Performance reporting involves collecting and disseminating performance information, including status reports, progress measurement, and forecasting

Forecasts predict future project status and progress based on past information and trends

Communications planning involves determining the information and communications needs of the stakeholders

Project archives are a complete set of organized project records that provide an accurate history of the project.

Status reports addresses where the project stands in terms of meeting scope, time, and cost goals

The body of the e-mail should be as clear and concise as possible and you should always reread your e-mail before you send it is a guideline that will help you use e-mail more effectively

Lessons-learned report is a reflective statement documenting important things the project team has learned from working on the project

Information distribution involves making needed information available to project stakeholders in a timely manner

Project team members may become stagnant or develop Groupthink if there are no conflicting viewpoints on various aspects of a project.

Running Effective Meetings:
– Determine if a meeting can be avoided
– Define the purpose and intended outcome of the meeting
– Determine who should attend the meeting
– Provide an agenda to participants before the meeting
– Prepare handouts and visual aids, and make logistical arrangements ahead of time
– Run the meeting professionally
– Build relationships

Managing stakeholders involves managing communications to satisfy the needs and expectations of project stakeholders and to resolve issues

Because communication is so important on projects, every project should include a communications management plan, which is a document that guides project communications

As the number of people communicating increases above three, the number of communications channels increases rapidly.

When using the smoothing mode, the project manager de-emphasizes or avoids areas of differences and emphasizes areas of agreement

Managers who are very competitive or autocratic in their management style might favor forcing mode approach to conflict handling

Withdrawal mode is the least desirable conflict-handling mode, because project managers retreat from an actual or potential disagreement

An issue log is a tool to document and monitor the resolution of project issues.

When using the confrontation mode, project managers directly face a conflict using a problem-solving approach that allows affected parties to work through their disagreements

Most information technology products cannot reach 100 percent reliability, but stakeholders must define what their expectations are.

Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) addresses software engineering, system engineering, and program management

Performance addresses how well a product or service performs the customer’s intended use

Projects that use Six Sigma principles for quality control normally follow a five-phase improvement process called DMAIC, which stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control

process adjustments corrects or prevents further quality problems based on quality control measures

The cost of evaluating processes and their outputs to ensure that a project is error-free or within an acceptable error range is called appraisal cost

American industry did not recognize the theories of Demming until Japanese manufacturers started producing products that seriously challenged American products, particularly in the auto industry

Fitness for use means a product can be used as it was intended

User acceptance testing is an independent test performed by end users prior to accepting the delivered system

Rework often results in requested changes and validated defect repair, resulting from recommended defect repair or corrective or preventive actions. It can be very expensive, so the project manager must strive to do a good job of quality planning and quality assurance to avoid this need.

A control chart is a graphic display of data that illustrates the results of a process over time

Functionality is the degree to which a system performs its intended functions

Ishikawa is best known for his 1972 book Guide to Quality Control. He developed the concept of quality circles and pioneered the use of fishbone diagrams

Normal distribution is a bell-shaped curve that is symmetrical regarding the mean or average value of the population (the data being analyzed)

In project quality management,quality control involves monitoring specific project results to ensure that they comply with the relevant quality standards while identifying ways to improve overall quality.

Organizations that successfully implement Six Sigma principles have the ability and willingness to adopt two seemingly contrary objectives at the same time is a principle of Six Sigma.

Benchmarking generates ideas for quality improvements by comparing specific project practices or product characteristics to those of other projects or products within or outside the performing organization

Quality assurance process of project quality management involves periodically evaluating overall project performance to ensure that the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards

Integration testing occurs between unit and system testing to test functionally grouped components

External failure cost refers to a cost that relates to all errors not detected and not corrected before delivery to the customer