ASSIGNMENT-2 CNST 505

Q1. Why are successful projects so important to Hewlett Packard?

Answer. Successful projects are important to Hewlett Packard because from the successful
project the organization makes revenue they get the capital to work on a new project. If the
project is not successful company will suffer loss in terms of money, positive attitude around the
organization. The HP puts too much Emphasis on project to be successful because project should
be completed in the given time and money and should meet the expectations. If the project does
not go well it will directly show up on the company future. Whereas the successful project will
increase the reputation of the company and it will make the companys future. If a project is
successful then the organization can teach their employees to develop and deliver successful
projects.

Q2. How far should an evaluation team go in trying to quantify project contributions to the
firms missions or goals? What is the role of financial selection criteria in hps project selection
process?
Answer. The evaluation team should go up to some limit in quantifying project contributions to
the firm missions or goals. The evaluation teams limit is dependent on the report, papers or any
sort of data they have regarding the project. They should screen the project on terms of time,
money, goals. Once they have screened they must send the project for further analysis. The team
should consider other employees, stakeholders, and upper managements views on the project.
Then the team should also see what will be the project will cost and how much revenue can be
generated from it.
As hp is a very big organization financial criteria is not limited to certain amount. This does not
mean that they do not care for money, they do. Thing is that if a project seems to be successful
and it requires millions of money the organization will go forward and will start working on it.
And they do not primarily focus on financial issues instead of that they focus on organizations
strategy and goals.

Q3. Considerable amount is paid to the measure hp uses to evaluate its projects. Is the aim of
carefully defining these measures to simplify the project selection process or something else?
Answer. Hewlett Packard pays a lot of attention to evaluate its projects; the aim of taking these
measures is to simply project selection process. If a project selection process is good that will
lead to a good project. If a project is good then it contributes toward the growth of the
organization, will increase the profit of the organization. If they start giving successful projects
then they can teach the criteria to other employees and they will just making successful projects
around the organization.
Q4. What do aggregate project plan and the plan of the record illustrate to upper management?
Answer. Aggregate project plan is the initiation of the project plan and gives the output of the
project. Fully funded project are in the category of the aggregate project plan. There is a separate
sheet for the list of the project which needs further considerations and also captures and tell
reasons for not funding the project. Aggregate project plan illustrate the upper management
which project should be funded and which should not be funded.
The plan of record is a tool used by organization to keep a track of the project list. It keeps track
about the project whether the project is underway or under consideration. Whether the project
has been funded or assigned resources. It illustrates to upper management about the project
funding, project needs, project criteria, project current situation and categories of the project.

Q5.when should out plan projects be considered for inclusion?
Answer. Out plan projects should be considered for inclusion because when they were at the
screening stage they were rejected because of the technology and may be that technology is
available now. Other reason is that when the project was rejected it does not have any
applications and may be the project is applicable now.
Project was rejected may the resources was not available so they were out planned. Afterwards
resources became available so that is also the reason for considering project for inclusion.
Q6. What was your impression of the impact that hps project selection process had on number
of projects underway? How do you expect hp would score on project management maturity?
Answer. Hps project selection process has lot number of screens which tends to narrow the
number of project to a more manageable and profitable ones. Hp project management focuses on
doing large and complex projects. They also keep the number of projects very less. The
analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and plan of record (POR) are the examples of hps project
selection process. HP would score brilliantly on project management maturity because of the
different process they use for the project selection and criteria on that too. They also consider the
out plan project for inclusion.

Q7. How did the new project selection process handle non-numeric type project? risk? How did
this new process alter new project proposals at hp?
Answer. The new project selection process handles the non numeric type project by employing
a comprehensive and systematic approach. Then the project managers and upper management
decides on selecting a non numeric project based on the diagram below.

1. What
should do
2. What
can do
3. Decide
4. Do it!
rejects

out-plan

list projects

requirements

capacity

critical few

prioritized list

desired mix

decision

in-plan

people

goals

categories

criteria

use

fully fund

communicate

update


Now here comes the process they start a project with goals, criteria and categories in the first
process. Then either they can reject it or list project requirements, capacity in the second process
.Then either they can out plan it or decide to work on that particular project with desired mix,
prioritized list. After doing it they can just use it communicate it or update it.
Risks involved was that every project goes in a cycle so input of the employees were not there
and risk factors were also not included. And the project does not have the priority list too. And
the out plan projects were not considered for inclusion.
The new process aggregate project plan makes the fully funded project in one sheet and list of
project for future consideration on the other field. The plan of the record is a process and tool
used by hp to keep track of all projects. If the project is funded and resources assigned it has
achieved in plan status. Other project was sent to out plan. The beauty of the new technique was
that even the out plan projects were considered for inclusion which earlier was rejected may be
because of lack of technology, application or resources.