Work Breakdown Structure Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Work Breakdown Structure - Assignment Example The time frame for completing all activities at the terminal ends must be within the confines of one reporting period. If the activity may spill over to the next period, then it should be further subdivided. It is possible to contract out the terminal elements of work as single units of activities. For instance, all the activities in the above WBS can be contracted to specific individuals or groups. The terminal elements should represent work activities that realistically are not possible to break further (Miller 98). The Tree Structure Format was employed in developing the work breakdown structure. This is the commonly used format in presenting the WBS. The major advantage over other methods is that it is easy to understand just by taking a quick glance (Miller 109). Users can quickly be able to view the flow of work and what they are expected to do. The downside is that it may be difficult to create compared to others such as the Tabular Format. In project management, certain activities or whole project may spiral out of control and take longer than usual to complete. This may occur due to lack of proper planning of the scope of the project ahead of its implementation. This is referred to as the scope creep. IT projects are highly susceptible to scope creep. For example, FoxMeyer Drug, a large pharmaceutical company experienced scope creep on trying to install a multimillion IT system that would manage all critical operations. The scope of the project experienced a continuous growth until the costs became prohibitive (Schwalbe 209). The IT system also experienced billing errors. The cause of scope creep in this case was the lack of a clearly defined scope of work. There were no elaborate work limits during the initial stages of the project. Product testing could also have helped eliminate failures in the new system which resulted to errors (Schwalbe 210). Northrop Grumman, a manufacturing company experienced scope creep during implementation

Risk management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Risk management - Essay Example This created a bubble in the housing finance sector and mortgage properties. Investment banks and other financial institutions started to lend money to the mass of people as well as corporate houses for purchase of land or other business purposes. The land and housing properties were kept as mortgage serving as underlying securities for those loans. These loans were granted to the borrowers without looking at repayment feasibility of the loans or without carrying out adequate evaluation of the credit parameters. The credit parameters like income of the borrower, assets available to service the loan, existing liabilities, etc. were ignored by the financial institutions in the mortgage loans. This led to the inflation of the bubble in the housing sector which developed earlier. The bubble finally burst as the borrowers were unable to repay the loans and the defaulters in the mortgage loan market started to become heavy. This led to the devaluation of the mortgages which served as under lying securities. ... w of information to the market led to the erosion of investors’ confidence that reflected in the plunge of share prices of the company (Allen, 1999, p.24). Huge wealth of the investors was eroded in short time thereby causing a situation of liquidity crisis. Several companies like Lehmann Brothers, Bear Stearns, Meryl Lynch, etc. were affected due to fall in the valuation of the companies and inability to return the investment of the shareholders. The liquidity crisis created shortage of monetary supply in the economy which tightened the credit conditions in the economy. This created a global credit crisis which was fuelled by the implementation of revised regulatory standards, enforcement of strict credit parameters and revised policies of the companies to counter the global financial crisis. Role of financial engineering: derivative products were a risk management device Derivatives products are financial instruments that derive its value from the underlying assets such as s tock, interest rates, currencies, commodities, etc. Derivative products involve two parties entering into a contract for payment of a certain amount on a certain date under the agreed terms and conditions. The derivative products may be of two types, namely â€Å"lock† and â€Å"option† derivatives. The lock derivatives enforce the parties entering into the contract to fulfil the payment obligations of the derivative product as per terms and conditions. The â€Å"option’ derivative provides the right to the buyer to enter into the contract but the buyer is not obligated to enter into the contract in â€Å"option† derivatives. The derivative products are used to hedge financial risks and also to speculate financial gains in the time of adverse financial situations. The derivative products were used a