(32%) You are the program manager of a company with some work contracting out. Y

Question

(32%) You are the program manager of a company with some work contracting out. You are requesting proposals (called RFP) from other companies I. In the RFP, you put down these bullets: » Duration of the work: (not to exceed) 9 months » Flat fee; (not to exceed) $120,000 * Salaries: $6,000 per engineer-month, $8,000 per manager-month You have a baseline that they should not propose more than $120,000, but you can accept revised proposal for up to S150,000 Proposals Received: Companv A Month 1- 3: Design by 2 engineers Month 4- 5: Testing by 2 engineers Deliver by the end of month 5. Company B Month 1-2: Requirements spec by 1 engineer Month 3-5: Design by 2 engineers Month 6-8: Testing by 2 engineers Deliver by the end of month 8. Month 1 - 8: a manager manages the project Company C: Month 1-2: Requirements spec by 1 engineer Month 3-5: Design by 2 engineers Month 6-8: Implementation by 2 engineers Month 9-11: Testing by 1 engineer. Deliver by the end of month 11 Month 1- 11: a manager manages the project (a) (3%) Compute the man-months of each of these three companies (b) (3%) Compute the duration of these 3 proposals (c) (3%) Compute the proposed cost of these 3 proposals (d) (5%) Rank the 3 proposals by different criteria. Can you put some criteria? (e) (800) Do you think any (or all) of these 3 proposals meet the RFP criteria and also general software development practice? Why? (f) (1096) What defect do you see in each of these 3 proposals and how do you want to suggest them to revise? If a proposal is OK, state so

Explanation / Answer

Hi,
Please find the answers below:

(a)Compute the man-months of each of these 3 companies.

Company A
1 ,2 ,3 - Design by 2 engineers
4,5 - Testing by 2 engineers

Effort = 3 months x 2 + 2 months x 2
       = 6 + 4 = 10 man-months

Company B

1 ,2 - Requirements spec by 1 engineer
3,4,5 -Design by 2 engineers
6,7,8 - Testing by 2 engineers
1-8: a manager manages the project

Effort = 2 months x 1 + 3 months x 2 + 3 months x 2 + 8 months x 1
       = 2 + 6 + 6 + 8 = 22 man-months

Company C

1 ,2 - Requirements spec by 1 engineer
3,4,5 -Design by 2 engineers
6,7,8 -Impl by 2 engineers
9,10,11 - Testing by 1 engineer
1-11: a manager manages the project

Effort = 2 months x 1 + 3 months x 2 + 3 months x 2 + 3 months x 1 + 11 months x 1
       = 2 + 6 + 6 + 3 + 11 = 28 man-months

(b)Compute the duration of these 3 proposals

Company A
Deliver by end of month 5
Project Duration is = 5 months

Company B
Deliver by end of month 8
Project Duration is = 8 months

Company C
Deliver by end of month 11
Project Duration is = 11 months

(c)Compute the proposed cost of these 3 proposals

Company A

1 ,2 ,3 - Design by 2 engineers
4,5 - Testing by 2 engineers

All the effort is from engineers

Effort = 3 months x 2 + 2 months x 2
       = 6 + 4 = 10 man-months

Project Cost = 10 x $ 6,000 = $ 60,000/-

Company B

1 ,2 - Requirements spec by 1 engineer
3,4,5 -Design by 2 engineers
6,7,8 - Testing by 2 engineers
1-8: a manager manages the project

Effort = 2 months x 1 + 3 months x 2 + 3 months x 2 + 8 months x 1
       = 2 + 6 + 6 + 8 = 22 man-months

8 months manager effort

Project Cost = 14 x $ 6,000 + 8 x $ 8,000   
             = $ 84,000 + $ 64,000
             = $ 148,000 /-

Company C

1 ,2 - Requirements spec by 1 engineer
3,4,5 -Design by 2 engineers
6,7,8 -Impl by 2 engineers
9,10,11 - Testing by 1 engineer
1-11: a manager manages the project

Effort = 2 months x 1 + 3 months x 2 + 3 months x 2 + 3 months x 1 + 11 months x 1
       = 2 + 6 + 6 + 3 + 11 = 28 man-months
     
11 months manager effort

Project Cost = 17 x $ 6,000 + 11 x $ 8,000   
             = $ 102,000 + $ 88,000
             = $ 190,000 /-

(d)Rank the 3 proposals by different criteria. Can you put some criteria?

Ranking as per the RFP criteria without revised adjustments:

Criteria : Project Duration , Project Cost.

Company A
Criteria : Project Duration i.e 5 months < RFP criteria baseline duration 9 months
           Project Cost i.e $ 60,000/- < RFP criteria baseline project cost

Company B
Criteria : Project Duration i.e 8 months < RFP criteria baseline duration 9 months
           Project Cost i.e $ 148,000/- > RFP criteria baseline project cost $ 120,000 - revised 150,000
         
     
Company C

Criteria : Project Duration i.e 11 months > RFP criteria baseline duration 9 months
           Project Cost i.e $ 190,000/- > RFP criteria baseline project cost $ 120,000
         
(e)Do you think any(or all) of these 3 proposals meet the RFP criteria and also
general software development practice? Why?         

Company A clearly meets the RFP criteria. But in general software development practice
it lacks some phases like requirements gathering, implementation phases etc.

Company C with revised RFP is the best when you look for both RFE criteria and software development practices.

(f)What defect do you see in each of these 3 proposals and how do you want to suggest them to revise? If a proposal is OK, state so.
For example,
Company A lacks some software development phases like requirements gathering, implementation phases etc.
Company B lacks implementation phases etc.
All the company proposals in general follow waterfall model life cycle. Waterfall model has several drawbacks Let us consider a potential defect uncovered at the end of testing phase. ( typically the phase at the end of project duration in all the companies). All the companies might slip the project duration or ship with the product with potential bug in the product.

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