Project Management Notes

Name : K.Povenesan

Student ID : 1191543 MPM APM1 Q1c

Question 1c: How should scope, time and cost be planned, monitored and controlled on projects and how does this relate to integration? Provide a series of at least 20 actions to plan and control scope,time and cost using the strengths of both the PMBOK model and PRINCE2 model. Scope, time and cost are integral part in project management. “The key being able to control the cost and schedule is having a plan that balances the scope of the deliverable of the project with the customer’s budget and has the right resouces assigned at the right time to perform all the work in time for the customer to be able use the deliverable. This is called the triple constraint as below” [1].

Time

Budget

Scope Scope planning form the foundation of the project plan and which other related plans are developed based on the scope statement. Scope definition involves subdividing the major project deliverables (as defined in the scope statement) into smaller, more manageable components in order to improve the accuracy of cost, time, and resource estimates [2]. With creation of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Product Flow Diagram (PFD) defines a baseline for performance measurement and control and facilitates clear responsibility assignments. If a task is not in the WBS or PFD, then it is not part of the project. Project stakeholders/customers formally shall accept the project deliverables. Scope verification shall happen at each phase.Scope shall be well control as it concerned with influencing the factors which create scope changes to insure the changes are beneficial. A scope control plan should be developed and reviewed with the client. With change requests may require expanding the scope or may allow shrinking it. Prospective scope changes may require modification to the WBS and analysis of alternatives approaches. Scope changes often require adjustments to cost, time or other project objectives. Project managers are required to make wise decision together with client on approving change request to avoid “scope creep”, delay and extra cost. Time is valuable resource and also the scarcest. The easiest way to manage time effective is scheduling activities. In order to have a schedule activity, one needs to have an estimated duration, cost, and resource requirements. WBS used as input to activity definition to plan the project time management. It identifies the specific schedule activities which are performed to produce the deliverables. Sequencing will be done among the schedule activities. A study will be done based on the input from project team and procurement to calculate the type and amount of resources required for each scheduled activity. We will estimate the duration taken for each activity based on volume of job against unit rate. Developments of project schedule are based on activity sequences, duration and resource requirement with some contingency after considering the risks involves. Schedule will be monitored and controlled along the way the project progress. Performance will be monitored & measured by EVM method. PM’s responsibility to continually update the schedule to have it reflects accurate project activity with comparison to the planned performance [3]. With approved change request, that might expand or shrink the schedule, it is recommended to provide a planned schedule to stakeholders. PMT to review schedule 1

Name : K.Povenesan

Student ID : 1191543 MPM APM1 Q1c

on weekly basis and provides methods to make the schedule in conformance with the plan. All additional/change of scope brought changes to schedule shall be updated and notified to stakeholders. Cost is an important factor in controlling projects. WBS is input to do cost estimation and budget. Using various method of estimation based on market conditions and commercial database, cost will be inputted against each activity. Reserve analysis will be done during planning phase to determine the contingency reserve to face the cost risks. The project budget will be rendered on approved scope and requirement of the project at the point of time. It’ll provide a baseline to control work, obtain funding, tender preparation, cash flow management [4]. With approved change requests, which expands from the planned cost, will be tracked down, Cost baseline will be modified and notified to stakeholders. As the work progress using cost baseline, four earned value metrics will be used to monitor project cost performance such as Cost Variance (CV) and Cost Performance Index (CPI). A forecast on cost performance need to be done based on the current information to avoid loss at end of the day. All the planning and control stages revolving scope, time and cost are integrated to completion of project. From the planning stage, creating the scope statement and project management plan all are linked together. During monitoring and control project work, all the outputs from each process well clearly identified. Changes in scope are done thru integrated change control to assure related project management plans are updated. Scope changes are fed back thru Integrated Change control (Project integration management) or Log to ensure technical and planning documents are updated as needed and stake holders are notified as appropriate. Below are series of illustrated 26 actions to plan and monitor & control scope, time and cost.

Scope

Time

Cost

Planning 1. Determine the initial objectives & create scope statement 2. Scope planning – product analysis 3. Develop an initial WBS 4. Develop Product WBS 5. Breakdown of product WBS into major activities / activity list. 6. Create a change management system 8. Determine each activity duration 9. Determine each activity sequence 10. Estimate the activities resource requirement 11. Place a key dates of each activities 12. Study on the risk and contingency 13. Develop a project schedule 14. Estimate the cost of each activity 15. Study on risk and contingency 16. Create a cost budget

Monitoring & Control 18. Variance analysis: Comparison against the planned. 19. Review of scope as project develops 20. Decision making on change requests

21. Update the schedule with the scope change 21. Report the actual against the plan using EVM 23. Review meeting for corrective action

24. Update the cost budget with scope changes. 25. Report the actual cost against baseline 26. Review meeting for corrective action

17. Every stage shall be verified/notified with/to stakeholders/client

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Name : K.Povenesan

Student ID : 1191543 MPM APM1 Q1c

This table can be seen clearly thru a real life workplace events; MIA Technology Institute has given Prosafe IT solution to design and establish a course schedule system for engineering dept for S$10,000 contract within 4 months. Rick, Project manager took lead of the project starting with scope planning. Descriptive below are based on the actions chosen above.  Objective: Course scheduling software is meant to create schedule for courses in Eng. Dept, given the preferences of professors and the information on available rooms and timeslots for courses.  Scope: Primarily, to create a schedule and give suitable messages from the given preferences and data given in input files. Getting the data to prepare the input files is out of scope of this system.  Development process: Rick chooses to follow “Waterfall” model of software development as it is simple and small (WBS).  Schedule: Tasks are listed with estimated duration. Resources identified as workstation with C/C++ compiler. Start date and end date included. Refer schedule below.  Since, manpower the main contributor to overall project cost. Each man/day rated at S$100. Overall cost budget will include overhead cost. Total cost budget allocated from director for this project S$7000. There will be a contingency around S$1000.  3 basics methods will be used for monitoring – project logs, weekly meetings and reviews.  Each project member will record his activity in a project notebook and report the hours for each activity in the meetings.  Costing report will be updated by Rick and monitor it against the budget.  With continuous communication with client, Rick was able to reduce the scope changes and control the man hours and cost indirectly.

#

Task 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

System Design Detail Design Coding input module Coding Sched module Coding output module Test Planning Testing and Integration Rework and final

Estimated manhour 9 13

Start date

End Date

Person

Jan 18 Feb 1

Feb 1 Feb 28

A,B A,B,C

Estimate Cost 900 1300

8

Mar 1

Mar 31

A

800

8

Mar 1

Mar 31

B

800

6

Mar 1

Mar 31

C

600

3

Mar 15

Mar 31

A,B

300

5

Apr 1

Apr 15

A,B

500

3

Apr 15

Apr 25

A,B,C

300 5500

Actual Effort

(Man-hour are in person-days & Cost in S$) Total Estimated Effort: 2.4 person-months (55 person-days) Project Duration: 3.5 months Total Estimated Cost: S$5500

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Name : K.Povenesan

Student ID : 1191543 MPM APM1 Q1c

References: [1] Ursula Kuehn (2006). Integrated Cost and Schedule Control in Project Management.pp.14 Management Concepts [2] Project Management Institute. (2004). A guide to the project management body of knowledge : PMBOK® guide. Newtown Square, PA, Project Management Institute, Inc. [3] & [4] Ursula Kuehn (2006). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling. John Wiley and Sons

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