Course Project Assignment

Overview - Last week we completed our extensive work on Earned Value Analysis with the submission of two essays.

Each of you:

• Wrote an essay on the advantages and challenges of Earned Value Analysis in industry
• Wrote an essay on the use of earned value for forecasting, and your own EVA forecast for your project.

As your final assignment for PROJ592, this week you will be performing one of the basic functions of cost and schedule control that is modifying our project to bring it back into line with our project plan.  You also will be writing your lessons learned from this entire multi-phase course project effort and the course in general.

• You will be utilizing the techniques and approaches we have covered in class to make appropriate changes to your project to bring it back in line with your baseline.
• You will document those efforts in a 2-page Executive summary and a longer essay, explaining what you found and what you did about it.
• In a third essay, you will document your lessons learned for this course including going through the multiple phases and activities we've covered in our 7-part course project assignment (I hope and expect a lot of learning took place that I'm sure you can write about it extensively).
• You will be submitting your final version of your project plan with all the changes you made to correct deficiencies in cost and schedule, for review.

Assignment 1 - Executive Summary

As the primary audience for this work is executive management (for whom time is an ongoing concern), the custom is to provide an Executive Summary to give that audience a quick but factual high-level view of the project status both current and projected. The notion is, executive management will only look at the summary unless for particular items or issues they want to dive into the detail which you will provide in a separate essay.

The most effective way to write the executive summary is to first to write the detailed essay (see Assignment-2 below) and then summarize that material into this shorter more high-level document, but one still containing the pertinent data and proposed direction.

• Your executive summary will highlight the current status of your project and your current EVA numbers.
• Your executive summary will highlight any issues or problems you found with the project in terms of schedule and cost.
• Your executive summary will then explain, in summary, the steps that you are taking to bring the project back to baseline, or if that is not completely possible, what will be the effect by project completion.
• You will be using a template named "add your name here- Final Project Essays" for your Essay (you will be using the same template for all essays).
• At LEAST 2 pages long in length with appropriate references (you didn't invent the strategies for project control).

Formatting:

• Double-space (no additional space between paragraphs)
• One-inch margins
• Times Roman12-point font size
• Left justified

Assignment 2 - Controlling Your Project Essay

We had you mess with your project plan by forcing a 40% completion with 60% schedule progress, and several other common issues (schedule slippage, cost overruns etc.). You have done your EVA forecast last week and now it's time to take steps based on what you found to bring the project back to baseline or as close to it as you can get. You may not simply back out the changes we had you put in.  For the purposes of our educational goals, we are going to say those things happened, and the current percent complete of your project is 40%, and we are 60% into your schedule (that is your status date is that 60% calculated date.)So MAKE SURE your STATUS DATE in the PROJECT INFORMATION Window is the 60% calculated date NOT BLANK or all your EVA numbers will be bogus! Make sure your % complete is still 40% or you have changed the scenarios starting point.

In theory, we always need to balance project scope, with project budget, and the project schedule. In practice, that seldom happens. Usually, something has to give. My normal prescription is freeze one, (for example scope), manage another (for example budget) and float the third - which in this example,that would be schedule.

So, in this example, we would guarantee to deliver to the original scope PERIOD! We will try to stay as close to the original budget as possible - but the schedule may move out a bit (or a bunch).

You may not be facing such dire consequences - or you might be. At a conceptual level facing such issues, I don't know what your stakeholders would want to do in terms of the triple constraints.  That is, which to freeze, to manage, or to float.  You have to figure that out.

We've talked about the fundamental things you can do in such circumstances (Resource leveling, get schedule/scope/budget relief, swap to more productive resources, FastTrack, Crashing, etc.).  Now it's up to you to analyze where you are and come up with a plan to fix the problems. You will be documenting your plan and implementing portions of it by modifying a version of your .MPP file and seeing what happens to your numbers. You will also be submitting that modified project plan (without any overall located resources) for review.

• You will write an essay on what the possible options are when a project is at odds with its baseline. What are the options available?
• You will then document how you plan on bringing your project back in-line with your baseline
• You will explain in detail what your forecast numbers reveal as to your cost and schedule issues before corrective actions are taken.
• You will explain in detail the changes you plan to make to task durations, resources, budget values, project scope, etc. to bring your project back in line.
• You will be using a template named "add your name here- Final Project Essays" for your Essay (you will be using the same template for all essays).
• At least 3 pages or longer in length.

Formatting:

• Double-space (no additional space between paragraphs)
• One-inch margins
• Times Roman12-point font size
• Left justified

Assignment 3 - Lessons Learned Essay

You have been working on your course project. You have selected what I hope has worked out to be an effective project subject, constructed a detailed project plan, and gone through a whole series of analysis and modifications, including simulating common project concerns and issues.

We have also covered a myriad of topics and ideas in our reading and in our threaded interactions.  We have practiced multiple skills for example creating AIB's, crashing projects at the least cost, calculating pertMean's, calculating, interpreting, and leveraging Earned Value statistics, etc.

It is my hope, that wherever you sit in the range of prior project exposure, from rookie to experienced professional, that this course and these activities have produced moments of insight, and learning. Here is your chance to document your journey from Week-1 to Week-7 in terms of that educational achievement.

The expectation is that you will write your detailed review of your insights and takeaways inclusive of the large list of topics and concepts we've covered from week one all the way through week seven. What concepts, skills, tools, etc. have you learned, and why are they important.  Your essay should include your experience with your seven-part course project.  What would you do again? What is on your list of things never to repeat? What insights and realizations have you reached on the challenges of real world project management (even in our simplified and highly manipulated theoretical environment).

Formatting:

• Double-space (no additional space between paragraphs)
• One-inch margins
• Times Roman12-point font size
• Left justified

Assignment 4 - Final Version of your Project Plan

You've updated your Microsoft project plan to implement some of the ideas expressed in your essay in your effort to bring your project back to your baseline. Now let's take a look at your final plan product.

What changes you made to the final plan?

• Did you eliminate all over allocated resources?
• Maybe you Fast-Tracked some tasks?
• Maybe you de-scope some deliverables?
• What does your TCPI look like now?

Attachment:- Assignment Files.rar