Lebanese International University

School of Engineering
Department of Industrial Engineering
Summer 2014
IENG300 Engineering Project Management

Assignment # 2 Solution
Exercise 5.2: (15 points)
Below is a project WBS with cost apportioned by percents. If the total project cost is
estimated to be $600,000, what are the estimated costs for the following deliverables?

a. Design?
b. Programming?
c. In-house testing?

$240,000
$120,000
$240,000

What weaknesses are inherent in this estimating approach?

a. Requires good and realistic historical data.
b. If total cost estimate is off, all other costs will be off.
c. Project must be very similar to past projects for sub-deliverables to be useful.

IENG300 Engineering Project Management

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Case Study: Sharp Printing, AG (15 points)

At this point what would you do if you were the project manager?
Let us start by examining the current case and then proposing immediate actions.
Current state:
The laser printer is a high-profile, strategic project to increase revenue.
Time to market is important.
It is reasonable to assume the bottom-up estimate is more accurate than the initial macro
estimate.
Immediate actions:
Lauren needs to quickly inform top management of the discrepancy between the macro
estimate and the WBS estimate.
Lauren should be prepared with a plan of action for any preferred plan of action she has
to offer.

Was top management acting correctly in developing an estimate?

It is apparent that senior management made a judgment call based on inadequate or faulty
information. Senior management should not have been in the estimating business.

What estimating techniques should be used for a mission critical project such as this?
Although it is easy to suggest estimating down to the work package level, there are mission
critical projects where time is critical and cost can only be carefully controlled. I have
witnessed more than one time critical project in which cost control was completely
abandoned. Still, it is hard to beat bottom-up estimates if time permits and cost is important.

IENG300 Engineering Project Management

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Exercise 6.4: (15 points)

Activity A is a burst activity. Activities D and H are merge activities.

IENG300 Engineering Project Management

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Exercise 6.7: (15 points)

Air Control Company

IENG300 Engineering Project Management

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Exercise 6.14: (15 points)

.

IENG300 Engineering Project Management

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Exercise 7.3 (10 Points):

In this case there may be many risks that could be identified. Here are some of the most
common and typical ones:

Event
Referees fail to show up
Fighting

Error

Abusive parents

Inadequate parking
Not enough teams
Injury

Response
Mitigate - Contact referees
night before games
Mitigate - Train referees
on how to diffuse
potentially violent
situations/publicize stiff
penalties for fighting
Mitigate - Recruit
seasoned referees and
assign best referees to
most important games
Transfer - Assign
responsibility to coaches to
manage
Mitigate - Level game
schedule
Mitigate - PR campaign
Accept

IENG300 Engineering Project Management

Contingency
Referee(s) on call who can
fill in
Referees, game officials,
and coaches intervene

Have a tournament czar

who adjudicates appeals

Referees empowered to
penalize team and dismiss
parents
Shuttle service
Collapse age groups
Contact ER in advance,
setup field communication
system

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Case Study: Peak LAN Project (Chapter 7 Page 239) (15 Points):
a) Potential Risks
Compatibility Problems: Since we are extending pre-existing networks with new
hardware and software, there is a risk that some old configuration and pre-existing
equipment might not communicate properly with the new operating systems
(windows 7 and server 2008) and new hardware.
System Speed/Crashes: Overwhelming the system with top of the line products like
Windows Vista and new antiviruses does not necessary mean a faster system. Also,
some new security patches and firewall configuration complexity might slow down
sharing resources in the network.
User backlash: people usually avoid changes. Installing, for instance, a new OS like
windws 7 which has so many new features and tasks might make some users lost and
uncomfortable; therefore, more complaints are going to be submitted to the director.
Hardware malfunctioning: ordering wrong parts, damaging a device, or purchasing
defective parts are always a concern and it could happen at any time.
b) Risk assessment form
Risk Event
Compatibility problems

Likelihood
3

Impact
4

System Slow/Crashes

User backlash
Hardware malfunctioning

3
1

Detection Difficulty
2

When
Setup

Start-up

2
3

5
4

Post-installation
Installation

c) Risk response matrix

Risk Event
Compatibility problems

Response
Mitigate: Test prototype

Contingency Plan
upgrade old equipment

Trigger
Old devices not
communicating

Responsible
Jamal

System Slow/Crashes

Mitigate: Test prototype

Reinstall OS/reconfigure
Anti-viruses and firewall

system stays
sluggish

Jad

User backlash

Mitigate: Prototype
demonstration/FAQ
guidelines

Increase staff support

Call from Labs'

director

John

Equipment malfunctions

Mitigate: Select reliable

vendor Transfer:
Warranty

Order replacement

Equipment Fail

Jamal

IENG300 Engineering Project Management

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