Attempt all the questions.
Section-A
Question1) Explain the two approaches used in COCOMO model developed by Barry Boehm’s for cost estimation.
Question2) Describe in detail the Barry Boehm’s five principles to improve software economics.
Question3) Distinguish Project life cycle & product development life cycle
Question4) What is project estimation? Describe all the stages in software project estimation
Section-B
The award of Scott contract on Jan. 3, 1977 left Park Industries elated. Scott Project, if managed correctly, offered tremendous opportunities for follow-on work over the next several years. Park’s management considered the Scott Project as strategic in nature.
Scott Project was the ten-month endeavour to develop new product for Scott Corporation. Scott informed Park Industries which sole-source production contracts will follow, for at least five years, assuming that initial R&D efforts proved satisfactory. All follow-on contract were to be negotiated on a year-to-year basis.
Jerry Dunlap was selected as Project manager. Dunlap was given some of the best employees to fill out his project office as part of Park’s matrix organization. Scott project maintained project office of seven full time people, including Dunlap, throughout the duration of the project. Additionally, eight were selected from functional dept. for representation as functional project team members, four full-time, & four half-time. Although the work load fluctuated, manpower level was constant for the duration of the project at 2080 hrs. per month. The company assumed that each hour worked incurred a cost of $20 per person, fully burdened.
At the end of the June, with four months remaining on project, Scott Corporation informed Park Industries that, Owing to projected cash flow problem, follow on work will not be awarded until first week in march (1978). This posed tremendous problem for Jerry Dunlap as he did not wish to break up project office, if he permitted his key people to be assigned to other projects, there will be no guarantee that he can get them back at the beginning of the follow on work. Good project office personnel are always in demand. Jerry estimated that he needed $ 40,000 per month during “bathtub” period to support and maintain his key people. Fortunately, this period fell over Christmas & New Year’s, a time when plant will be shut down for seventeen days. Between vacation days that his key employees will be taking, and small special projects that his people can be assigned to on other programs, Jerry revised his estimate to $ 125,000 for the entire bathtub period.
At the weekly team meeting, Jerry told team members that they will have to “tighten their belts” in order to establish a management reserve of $125,000. The project team understood the requirement for this action & began rescheduling and replanning until a management reserve of this size can be realized. Since the contract was firm fixed price, all schedules for administrative support ( i.e., project office & project team members) were extended through Feb. 28 on the support that this extra time was needed for final cost data accountability and program report documentation.
Jerry informed his boss, Frank Howard, division head for project management, as to the problem with bathtub period. Frank was the intermediary between Jerry & the general manager. Frank agreed with Jerry’s approach to problem and requested to be kept informed. On sep. 15 , Frank told Jerry that he wanted to “book” the management reserve of $125,000 as excess profit as it will influence his(Frank’s) Christmas bonus. Frank and Jerry argued for a while, with Frank constantly saying, “Don’t worry! You would get your key people back. I’ll see that. But I want those uncommitted funds recorded as profit and the program closed out by Nov. 1.”
Jerry was furious with Frank’s lack of interest in maintaining the current organizational membership.
Question5) Case Questions:
(i) Should Jerry go to the General Manager?
(ii) Should the key people be supported on overhead?
(iii) If this were a cost-plus program, will you consider approaching the customer with your problem in hopes of relief?
(iv) If you were the customer of this cost-plus program, what will your response be for extra funds for bathtub period, assuming cost overrun?
(v) Will your previous answer change if the program had the money available as a result of an under run?