Assignment: Integrating Schedule and Cost

THIS IS THE SEPARATE ASSIGNMENTS. PLEASE DO NOT COMBINE THEM!

#1 Risk is present in nearly every human undertaking and projects are no exception. Recall a project that you have participated in and name at least one risk that was recognized before it happened. What, if anything, did you do to mitigate the risk? Was there a risk that emerged that was not seen in advance? What effect did it have on the project? What was a lesson learned from the surprise event?

Your initial post should contain at least 200 words and be supported by at least one professional or academic source other than the textbook. Use this week's lecture as a basis for your post. Respond to at least two of your classmates' posts. Are they missing important elements that should be considered? Your replies should be between 100 and 150 words in length

#2 We can easily look at a project schedule and quickly determine if we are ahead or behind of the plan. We can make a similar inference by examining the project budget and estimate if we have overspent or underspent, but do these two items by themselves tell the full and true story? What ambiguity exists in using these disconnected data points? Earned value management (EVM) integrates schedule and budget to tell us if what we are getting is what we are paying for. A beginning project manager needs to be at least familiar with EVM. Conduct research in the Ashford University Library or on YouTube and provide a citation or link to a short article or video that explains the basics of EVM. Summarize the findings of the article or video. Each class member is expected to supply a unique source.

Your initial post should contain at least 200 words and be supported by at least one professional or academic source other than the textbook. Use this week's lecture as a basis for your post. Respond to at least two of your classmates' posts. Your replies should be between 100 and 150 words in length and add depth and/or insight to the discussion

#3 Risk Status Report and Paper

Scenario

The Quick Drop 100 transition team has met to identify project risks, explore contingency plans, and assign owners to watch for symptoms and address the risks. The team surfaced the following information:

1. Julie is scheduled for a one week vacation during month three of the project.

2. The supplier of a common set of hand tools for the manufacturing floor notified the Roto Air Purchasing department that the tools will not be available until one month after manufacturing is scheduled to start. Alternative suppliers are available.

3. The Human Resources department has indicated that despite their best recruiting efforts the two openings for skilled welders have resulted in no qualified local applicants.

4. The manufacturer of the custom-built rotor forming machine now expects to be one month past the last acceptable date for installing the machine. No other suppliers exist for this item.

5. Roto Air uses a Just In Time (JIT) delivery system for major components used at the Florida plant. Hurricane season often interrupts or delays deliveries during one of the scheduled months of the project.

Assignment Instructions

This week you will be essentially doing two related assignment in one MS Word document. The first part is a status report. The second part is an academic paper.

Part 1 Status Report:

Prepare a simple status report for senior management by creating a table within a MS Word. For each of the five risks include in the table the following:

1. Determine if each risk should be classified as low, medium, or high based on its impact to the project.

2. Differentiate the risk classifications in the table using red, yellow, and green shading using, red for high, yellow for medium, and green for low to produce a status report that immediately signals the severity of the impact without reading the details.

3. Describe one plausible risk response for each of the risks.

4. Identify a team member to be responsible for monitoring each risk.

Part 2 Academic Paper:

Write a paper that reviews the risks and explains the options a project manager has available to lessen the effects of risk. These include acceptance, avoidance, control (mitigation), and transfer.

The paper

• Must be 900 to 1200 words in length, double-spaced (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

• Contextual (Level One) headings must be used to organize your paper and thoughts

• Must include a separate title page with the following:

o Title of paper
o Student's name
o Course name and number
o Instructor's name
o Date submitted

• Must use at least two scholarly sources from the Ashford Online Library in addition to the course text.
• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.