Chapter Exercises | IT Project Management: On Track from Start to Finish, Third Edition

Exercise 1

In this exercise you will complete a Work Breakdown Structure. To assist you in the WBS and the research phase, questions will prompt you to complete the work decomposition. In addition, you can use the exercise solution at the end of this chapter as a guide to complete the WBS.

You are the IT project manager of a network upgrade project. The network will consist of 187 workstations, 5 servers, and 17 network printers. The network will be segmented through switches. The 187 workstations and printers will be on one segment and the servers on the other.

The 4 servers on the network will be replaced with 4 new Windows 2003 Servers; 3 servers will be domain controllers and the rest will be mail servers.

In addition to the creation of the network infrastructure, each workstation will be replaced with a new PC. Each PC will be configured identically with Windows XP and will use DHCP to receive its IP address.

Complete this table to begin the creation of the WBS:

Question	Answer
Are there any major deliverables within this project?

What are the deliverables you see?(Hint: There are at least three.)

In what order should the phases take place, and does it matter at this point of the WBS? Why or why not?

Which components are within the first deliverable ?

Which components are within the second deliverable?

Which components are within the third deliverable?

How do you break down the components within the first major deliverables into work packages? Break down a few.

Do your work packages conform to the 8/80 Rule?

Can you identify activities from each of the deliverables that can happen in tandem with other work packages?

What method(s) can you use to roll out the Windows XP OS to the workstations?

Which task needs to be completed first: the installation of the workstations or the installation of the servers? Why?

How long would you estimate the entire project will last?

How many team members are required to complete this installation? Why?

What method would you use to communicate with your team members?

What method would you use for your team members to report their progress to you? Why did you choose this method?

Exercise 2

In this exercise you will use Microsoft Project 2003 to build a WBS. This exercise is based on the possible solution to Exercise 1 and will walk you through each step to create the WBS in Microsoft Project.

Open Microsoft Project 2003 and, if necessary, click the View menu and choose Gantt chart.
Click File and choose Save. Name the file Network Upgrade and click Save.
Click in the first cell under the column heading Task Name.
Type Phase 1: Network Infrastructure and press ENTER. Note that the duration and the start and finish dates are also completed automatically. Those will change as you add more tasks .
In the second cell under Task Name, type Creation of network map and press ENTER.
Note that you are now in the third cell under the column heading Task Name. Type the following tasks and press ENTER after each one:
- Installation of CAT5e cable
- Installation of RJ-45 wall jacks
- Termination and testing of each cable
- Installation and testing of patch panel
- Installation and testing of network switch
You should now have six entries below phase 1. Click on the second entry and drag your mouse over the tasks to highlight the activities. On the Formatting toolbar, locate the green arrow pointing to the right. This is the Indent button. Click it once to indent the highlighted tasks under the first phase. The tasks should align under the phase 1 entry.
Now you will edit the duration of each task. Click in the duration cell for the task called Creation of Network Map. Type 3d and press ENTER. You should now see the 3d changed to 3 days and the duration of phase 1 expanded to 3 days.

Use the following table to enter the remaining information to reflect the length of each of the tasks in the project.

Task	Duration
Installation of CAT5e cable	5 days
Installation of RJ-45 wall jacks	1 day
Termination and testing of each cable	2 days
Installation and testing of patch panel	1 day
Installation and testing of network switch	1 day

Great! Now the actual start of the whole project needs to be changed to reflect the true start and end dates for each task. From the Project menu, choose Project Information. Within the Project Information dialog box, set the Project Start date to March 6 and then click OK to adjust the calendar start date for the whole project to reflect the start date for each of the tasks.
Some of the tasks you ve assigned within the first phase cannot begin until others have finished. For example, the first task, creating the network map, must be completed before the installation of the CAT5e cable can start. To reflect this within the WBS, you will link the tasks. Click the first task within phase 1, the task to create the network map. Click and drag down one cell to also select the second task, installing the CAT5e cable.
Now that both tasks are highlighted, click the Link Tasks symbol, represented by a chain icon, on the Standard toolbar. Notice how the start date for the installation of the CAT5e cable has been adjusted to begin when the first task ends.
The installation of the wall jacks cannot start until at least some of the cables have been situated throughout the office. Schedule this task to begin a few days after the start of the cable installation. You can do this by changing the start date to March 15. Notice how a calendar icon appears next to this task? This represents an explicitly set start date for the activity.
The next task, the termination and testing of each cable, can t begin until the wall jacks have been installed. Create a link between task 4 and 5 by highlighting them and using the Link Tasks command.
Now set the start date of the patch panel installation to coincide with the end of the cable installation. You can do this by creating a link to the two tasks. Because the tasks are not located directly next to each other, you will have to select them independently. Click task 3 first. Hold your CTRL key down and then click task 6. Click the Link Tasks symbol to link the two tasks together.
Now create a link between the installation and the testing of the patch panel to the last task, the installation and testing of the network switch.
In the middle of the project management screen, a gray dividing bar separates the tasks you ve entered and how they look in a Gantt chart. Click and hold the dividing bar and drag it to the left to open a larger view of the Gantt chart.
The chart you are viewing is the start of the WBS for this project. You ve not assigned users to complete the tasks or the remaining phases, but it s still very impressive. Hover your mouse over the black duration bar at the top of the chart. See how it gives the details on the project? Hover your mouse over any of the blue boxes to see a description of the task.
On the View taskbar, or from the View Menu, choose Calendar to see how the tasks look mapped out day-by-day. Click the Gantt chart view again.
Save your work, as you will be using this project in the next exercise.

Exercise 3

In this exercise you will continue with the Network Upgrade project you created in the previous exercise. Now that you have entered the task for the first phase, you will need to add resources to complete the project. Resources can be tools, components, and team members.

Confirm that the Network Upgrade project is open. If it is not, open it from the location you saved it in.
Click the Resource Sheet icon or choose Resource Sheet from the View menu.
In the cell directly under the column heading Resource Name, type Henry Mikev and press TAB.
Note that the Type of resource is Work, which means it is measured in hours. Press TAB.
The material label represents the type of material being used. Leave this field blank by pressing TAB.
Change the initials to HM, if necessary, and press TAB.
In the Group field, type Full Time and press TAB.
In the Max units field, leave the value at 100% and press TAB.
Set the standard rate to 43.78 and press TAB.
Set the overtime rate to 65.67 and press TAB.
Leave the Cost Per Use field blank, as Mike does not bill a fee per each usage. (Consultants may have a set fee for each appearance, but full-time employees do not.)
Leave the Accrue At value set to Prorated and press TAB.
Leave the Base Calendar value set to Standard and press TAB.

You ve just entered the first resource for this project. Enter the following information as seen here:

Resource Name	Group	Std Rate	Ovt. Rate
Sally Dehority	Full Time	25.76	38.64
Mary Watkins	Full Time	43.24	64.86
Sam Arnold	Full Time	23.00	34.50
Mike Murran	Consultant	130.00	195.00
Sherri Webstein	Consultant	120.00	180.00
Cody Hyatt	Electrician	80.00	120.00

Excellent! You ve just entered the project team members and their associated rates. You will now begin to assign tasks to users. Change back to the Gantt Chart view.
Within the Gantt Chart view, your screen is split between the graph of the Gantt chart and the view of the Gantt chart entries. Arrange your screen so that you can see most of the Gantt chart entries by dragging the divider bar to the right of the screen.
On the task called Creation of Network Map, follow the row all the way to the right until you see the column heading Resource Names . You will now assign a resource to this task.
Click in the cell under the Resource Names column heading. Click the drop-down arrow in the cell and choose Sam Arnold. Notice Sam Arnold has been assigned the task in both views of the Gantt chart.
Now you will assign four people to the installation of the CAT5e cable. To do so, move down one cell and click the drop-down arrow. Choose Henry Mikev and then type a comma and a space to separate the additional names. Choose Mary Watkins, Mike Murran, and Cody Hyatt by typing a comma and a space between each name. After Cody, simply press ENTER.

Assign the following tasks to the remaining team members:

Task	Team Members
Installation of RJ-45 wall jacks	Cody Hyatt
Termination and testing of each cable	Sherri Webstein, Mike Murran
Installation and testing of patch panel	Sally Dehority, Sam Arnold
Installation and testing of network switch	Henry Mikev, Cody Hyatt

Notice how the names of the team members are reflected within the Gantt chart to show their responsibilities.
Save and close the file.