1 The Project

Welcome to the eScooter project! To make a long story short - just watch the video.

1.1 The Team

The project team consists of four responsible persons - Isabelle, Roxanna, Omar and Wastl. Each team member is responsible for more than one project modul. The work in the modules are performed by employees in the several departments.

1.2 Targets

The cool looking eScooter is powered by a rechargeable battery. The scooter has to achieve a maximum speed of 20km/h. The driver gets informed by an onboard-display. The status of the scooter can also displayed by an app on a smartphone.

1.3 Project Milestones (Overview)

The following table presents the major project milestones only. For a detailed list see Project Milestones (Details).

2 The Game

Within the project game you are undertaking all the necessary steps of a project manager. Because it is a game, there will be also a winner! The project with the highest score wins. For some tasks according the project milestones (see Project Milestones (Details)) you can earn points - or loose points. Your gaming partner is ProBot. ProBot generates your project data, donates points and sometime makes your project managers life a little bit challenging.

As been seen in the following table (see Project Milestones (Details)) ProBot donates points for achieved milestones, wherever your activity is required (see red text in the table). For those milestones ProBot donates 10 points to your project. It you miss such a milestone deadline, ProBot will take away 10 points from your project. Whenever questions have to be answered, ProBot will donate 1 point in addition for every correct answer (max. 9 points). Please take care, that every project has different project data.

2.1 Project Milestones (Details)

The project milestones are your guideline. A step-by-step approach helps you to perform all necessary tasks. For every Milestone a deadline exists (see Schedule).

2.2 Schedule

The participation within the project game follows a fixed schedule. Keeping the milestone deadlines is of utmost importance due to the fact, that ProBot don’t care about your excuses! In order to view the milestone deadlines enter ProMaSi, find your course and select show milestones form the left-sided menu. All student deadlines end at the time of 22:00 (10pm).

3 ProMaSi

ProMaSi - PROject MAnagement SImulation - is a web-based simulation software. ProMaSi provides a real-life simulation of the project management tasks, as defining the schedule, assigning resources, balancing resource load and react on unpredictable changes in the schedule.

3.1 Structure

The following picture presents the structure of ProMaSi - the simulation software .

• Every student is responsible for one project and takes over the roles of Isabelle, Roxanna, Omar and Wastl.
• Up to 10 projects belong to one company.
• Every company consist of 5 departments (see Department list). Every department has a limited number of employees.
• Every project consist of 12 modules (see Module list). For every module either Isabelle, Roxanna, Omar or Wast is responsible. To every module a resource from the related department has to be assigned.
• Every module consists of three tasks:
  • concept (see M3 Project Milestones (Overview)).
  • prototype (see M4 Project Milestones (Overview)).
  • final (see M5 Project Milestones (Overview)).

3.2 Department List

3.3 Module List

3.4 Register project

Hello students,

your first action within ProMaSi is to register your project. Please follow the necessary steps listed below:

• Decide on a project name and a secret project pin for the protected access within the ProMaSi-System. Keep your project pin confidential - do not distribute this pin to avoid unauthorized manipulation of your project data. The project pin consists of four numbers only, no other characters than numbers are allowed. The student ID can contain up to 40 characters of you personal choice. It has to be choosen in a way yourself can be clearly identified - either use you first and surname or your student identification number.
• Enter ProMaSi.
• On the left sided menu you have to select register new project.
• Enter you project data and submit the registration request by a click on the button register new project.

Perfect!

3.5 Answer question

Sometimes you're asked to answer questions regarding Milestone dates, delays and project effort (see Project Milestones (Details)). Whenever a Milestone requests to answer a question, a left-sided menu item answer question is activated within your project view within ProMaSi. The project view is the page where you can see all modules for your project and is available after passing Milestone M1.3 (see Project Milestones (Details)).

3.6 Assign resource

Every module within your project (see Structure and Module List) has to be assigned to a resource (company employee). The resources are organized within departments. Also your modules are bound to a department. To assign a resource to your module you have to enter the module view (select course -> project -> module) and select the menu item assign resource from the left-sided menu. Now select a resource from the presented list by a click to the resource ID.

Note: It is recommended to agree with students of the other projects within the same company, who assigns which resource. In the next Milestone you get asked to balance the resource load. This task is much more easier if not all projects using the same resources.

3.7 Department load

Department load means to balance the resources. The goal of balancing a resource is not to over- or underload a resource. A resource has to have one ManDay effort per working day. So no parallel task are allowed. To balance a resource you need an overview, which other project is using this resource at the same time. Therefore the department load menu item on the left-sided menus within the tasks view (course -> project -> module -> tasks) exists.

Within the department load page you can see on the horizontal axis the weeks and working days. On the vertical axis you can see the resources and the assigned tasks. By changing the start time of a task (see Edit planned start), you can shift the tasks time wise.

It is recommended to have two tabs opened in your browser window. One tab shows the department load and in the other tab you can change the planned start of your tasks (see Edit planned start). ProMaSi checks if your task can be booked on this resources without any conflict (= overlapping tasks with other projects for the same resource). If there is a conflict, either choose another start date for your task (and also for all subsequent tasks) or assign another resource to this module.

3.8 Edit planned start

Changing the planned start of a task is necessary for balancing resources (see Department load). You can change the planned start of a task by a click on the task ID within the tasks view (course -> project -> module -> tasks). This possibility is available as long the task didn’t started already, as long no actual start date is visible in the taks view.

If you change the planned start of a tasks, the planned finish will be calculated automatically. Furthermore all subsequent tasks of this module will be shifted accordingly. So if you shift the planned start of the concept task, the planned start and planned finish of the prototype and final task also get changed automatically. If you change the prototype task, the final task get changed also.

3.9 Export project data

Whenever you want to export your project data to a csv-file (comma separated values) you can use the menu item export project data on the left-sided menu within your project view within ProMaSi. The project view is the page where you can see all modules for your project and is available after passing Milestone M1.3 (see Project Milestones (Details)). Exporting project data is useful for undertaking the necessary calculations for answering the questions. It is recommended to do this calculations within a spreadsheet calculation program (e.g. MS Excel).