Answer sheet
Name: kassahun worku
ID GSE/7998/12
Section Two
1. What is project Management? Critically examine the essential skills with examples required by
the project manager.
It means, it’s a science of management of activity that could stay for some specified time with
specified resource.
Project management is a set of principles, methods, and techniques that people use to
effectively plan and control project work. It establishes a sound basis for effective planning,
scheduling, resourcing, decision-making, controlling, and re-planning.
Essential skills required for a good project manager includes,
Leadership
Communication
Decision making
Team building
Coaching
Negotiation
Cost management
Risk, task and quality management
Critical thinking
And finally, a good knowledge on technology is a plus.
2. What do you mean by project implementation? Explicate the different factors affecting project
implementation (success and failure factors) with appropriate examples in the Ethiopian
context.
Project implementation: is a stage on project management where our plans and visions become
a reality on ground.
We can choose to companies to evaluate their project implementation and the status of the
project implementation as a result.
A) Ethiopian airlines VISION 2025 was achieved before the target date
B) Ethiopian sugar corporation plan regarding the countries sugar production have failed.
Ethiopian airlines
Simplicity of Design: the strategic plan was simple and precise document. Which
address everything per different time periods and divisions of the company. This
includes from buying aircrafts, to hiring pilots cabin crew, technicians and to training the
qualified personnel’s.
Careful preparation: the project was preparation takes more than three years for
careful plan. There was nothing left unknown before the project was started. Including
the expected risks with their tolerance margins.
Relatively good management: the project was managed by the board of the company
where each sub-group of the company run its core project.
Involvement of beneficiaries/community: the project plan have addressed all stake
holders from management of the company, to part and equipment suppliers, to end
product/service consumers.
Knowledge and consideration on political atmosphere: the project plan have used the
advantages of the factors that were happening around the country and the continent.
This goes to the point of using regional and continental agreement for the company
benefit.
We can see the involvement of the company for the implementation of two of Africa’s
biggest achievements.
i) AfCFTA: African common free trade agreement
ii) Single African air transport agreements
The company didn’t just use the advantage but it also was working with other stake holders for the draft
and implementation of the two major continental projects.
Ethiopian Sugar Corporation
Technical problems: the project plans to build many g sugar factories all around the
country. And have given the construction of all factories to one company, METEC,
considering it as a Ethiopian company who could benefit the country. The problem was
the selected company doesn’t have an experience in erecting such factories and doesn’t
have the capacity to build all those factories by itself, all at once.
Financial Problems : the financial management was bad, this was because, it the project
managers shift the cost one factory to another although each was not progressing.
Additionally, the full payment was done before the completion of the factories. And
leave all the financial decision to METEC, and not sugar corporation.
Management problems : the management that were on sugar corporation have a
problem in facing the military personnel from METEC. As a result, they have left all the
decision to another company that was working under them. Actually, we can say the
generals have more power than the management of sugar corporation.
Political problems : the president of the sugar corporation was a former creator of the
ruling party. And the sub-contractor was the country’s military company, METEC, whose
leaders had affiliation with the president of the project. As a result, there could be no
accountability on METEC.
3. List and explain in detail the different methods of project idea generations. How can we select
the best viable and promising project ideas?
There are different ways where we could get a good idea that we could make a project to achive
a better result.
I) Focus group : this is a process where a small group of people, may be from different
section of a company, could interact with one another to get a better solution for a
problem on hand. Or getting an alternative solution for a process update. The meeting
could be chaired by the city administration.
Example: Addis Ababa city administration could arrange a focus group for traffic police,
public offices, schools, transport service and etc to get a better management of time on
road by reducing crowded traffic on roads.
They rearrange the entrance time of school and public service.
Assigning roads depending on time of the day etc.
Each of the members could take the action items and proceed as a project management to meet the
demand of the common good.
II) Brainstorming: is a condition where a group of people, experts, come together to
discuss about a problem and getting a solution for it. The people will meet to generate
an idea about a specific area of interest.
There would be no judgment
Free wheel of idea without boundary
More idea is better
Each participant shares his/her view.
Through evaluation of points together and few of the ideas will be selected as a proposed solution.
III) Observations: this is by understanding people and their pattern and interest. This area
have become a big area for data miners and tailored advertising for online business.
IV) Surveys: this is a direct research by us over regarding on our focus area.
For example: a construction company may want to know how to proceed on business
from the list of alternatives on hand regarding specific group of customers, shop owners
around lideta.
Case i) constructing for only clients that could pay fully.
Case ii) constructing and selling the shopes to businessmen though bank.
Case III) knowing their interest if they could pay by themselves, and the
amount they are willing to pay.
It was found that, businessmen were willing different amount of price and the company
have bulilt a complex that could match the interest of the different businessmen.
V) Research and development : mostly used in pure science and research area
VI) Emerging trends: evaluation what is happening all around us with regards with our
interests.
VII) Tradeshows and meetings: attending events that are related with our focus area,
sometimes even if they are barely related with our core interest. As the saying goes,
ideas worth spreading and we may get some critical ideas through those meetings.
The basic foundation to decide if our idea worth to become a project is if it qualifies on two parameters,
A) Strength of the idea: we check if the idea is strong enough to provide good revenue, and if it
strength our service delivery.
Example: Ethiopian airlines have built a five star hotel. Considering that the company is an
airline and not a hotel we may think its wrong.
But, the company have stated that the airline is paying a lot for different hotels to reserve rooms in case
some failure occurs on aircraft. Meaning, if transit passengers are forced to stay in hotels .
In-fact the company is paying weather passengers stay there or not since the hotels were paid in
advance to get the room.
Therefore,
The company is saving all the hotel expense for transit passengers that will be forced to stay
here in Addis.
Customer satisfaction could be maintained as the passengers will no longer be transferred to
another company. Distance to airport will also be a plus.
It is generating additional income working as a hotel;
B) The fit with the organization: considers if the organization can implement the idea with the
current existing conditions.
Therefore, we need to proceed with our idea if we get “YES” answer for the two questions.
Part two
A) Draw the network
1
3
4 6
B) Variance was calculated on the below table
Activities Time in weeks
i j 0 M p Te=(T0+4Tm+TP)/6 Variance=(Tp-
T0 /6)2
1 2 1 1 7 2 1
1 3 1 4 7 4 1
1 4 2 2 8 3 1
2 5 1 1 1 1 0
3 5 2 5 14 6 4
4 6 2 5 8 5 1
5 6 3 6 15 7 4
C) Expected completion time
First we need to know the critical path
Path 1-3-5-6 = 4+6+7 = 17 , which is the critical path
Path 1-2-5-6= 2+1+7= 10
Path 1-4-6= 3+5= 11
Therefore, the expected completion time is 17 days.
A) Earned value= (Baselined cost)* (completed actual %)
=8000*70%=5600 Br
Therefore earned value= 5600 Br
B) SPI= earned value/ planned value
Planned value = (¾)8000 br= 6000 br
SPI=5600 br/6000 br =0.93
SPI = 0.93 its less than one so we are behind the schedule
C) Schedule variance = EV-PV
SV= 5600 br-6000 br = -400 br
D) Cost performance index = earned variance/actual cost
CPI= 5600 br/7000 br
CPI= 0.8
CPI is less than 1 which means overbudget, we are sp[ending more than we
earn
E) Cost variance= EV-AC
Cost variance=5600-7000 br
Cost variance= -1400 br
Activity Per day cost
A 1000
B 1250
C 450
D 750
E 1500
F 1000
G 900
Since we are given the condition that all are on the critical path, the more desirable candidate
for crashing are the ones with the lowest cost per day to crash .
The order of the crash activity will be C, D, G,A and F,B, E
