Week-5 Course Project Assignment
Overview
Last week we did some more analysis and made changes to your resource allocations of your project
efforts. Each of you:
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Reviewed your Resource and Overallocated Resource Reports, and decided what to do about
any overallocated resource situations
Made appropriate changes (as needed) to your project and submitted the latest version for
review
Wrote a brief essay exploring the techniques we use for handling overallocated resources, and
how you handled the problem in your project
Created a fully populated RAM chart for your effort
This week we will begin our work with Earned Value Analysis.
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To do so we need to manufacture some level of progress, and some level of expenses (as
opposed to budget) in your project.
The process to do that is explained in the details below.
Having forced some scheduling and cost issues you will perform Earned Value Analysis on your
updated project and write a project status memo explaining your results.
Over in the File Section is a template I want you to use for this week’s Status Communication Essay.
PROJ592
Professor DP George
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Week-5 Course Project Assignment
Week-5 Assignment Descriptions
Assignment 1 Simulate schedule and cost issues in your plan.
This week you will have an opportunity to work with Earned Value Analysis. This is a straightforward
mathematical technique for evaluating both your cost and progress against completing your scope.
There are some things we need to do in order to allow Microsoft Project to calculate the earned value
numbers for us.
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We need to show actual progress on tasks in our plan or there is no earned value to evaluate.
We need to have a baseline established to have something to compare against.
We need to indicate a reporting period for which MSP can generate earned value numbers.
Over in Doc share, I have provided a video showing how we can accomplish these tasks in managing our
Microsoft project plan, and how we can view the resulting Earned Value Analysis. It is called “5C Simulating Project Scenarios in MSP Video.“ You definitely need to watch that tutorial hopefully
building your own version of that example Microsoft project plan for practice before you dig into your
own.
My wife loves those cooking shows where they mess with the contestants as they are cooking some kind
of meal (like swapping cooking implements or adding a new ingredient like chocolate ants to your
muffin mix?!) We are going to do something like that to your carefully crafted project. Sorry. Trust me
it’s for good reasons. We need to build certain conditions so we can discuss how they are handled in the
real world. So
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To begin with we are going to set the baseline for your project.
o Select the Project tab at the top of the screen then select the Set Baseline down arrow
o Click on Set Baseline then click okay.
Now we are going to simulate some schedule overruns.
o Let’s shoot for a 20% schedule slippage
o When you look at your Gantt Chart with the Entry table showing (the default view table)
it should show you the number of weeks duration of your project in the Duration
Column of your Level Zero Task (or maybe days if you haven’t changed the default duration). Let’s
say its 89 weeks for example. Well 89 x 1.2 = about 106. So we need to extend the
project duration to 106 weeks to force a schedule slippage of 20%. To do THAT we need
to set the View/Filer to Critical (So only critical path tasks show) and then increase the
task durations of those tasks (longest ones first) until the Project duration is increased to
106 weeks (in my example). When you are done remember to reset the Filter to No filter
Next, we are going to simulate cost overruns.
o Select View/Tables to display the Table Selection Context Menu
o Select the Cost Table
o The Gantt view will be updated and a new set of columns will be displayed one of which
is Fixed Cost
PROJ592
Professor DP George
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Week-5 Course Project Assignment
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For each of your fixed cost values, multiply the value by 1.2 (to increase the cost by 20%)
(I copy/pasted the entire Fixed cost column to Excel applied a formula to the column to create a new
column of costs, and then copy/pasted the new column of numbers back – but I do stuff like that with
Excel all the time)
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Also, it looks like salary inflation has finally hit your organization. Select the View tab
again and then Tables and reselect Entry. Then select View/Resource Sheet to bring up
your Resource Sheet. For each of your variable resources in your Resource Sheet, give
those hard-working folks a 20% rate increase. So, if the rate was $25 an hour, for
example, that would be (25 x 1.2= $30.00 an hour).
At this point, we have modified your project plan to include a 20% slippage in the schedule with a
20% increase in fixed cost and a 20% increase in variable costs.
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Now we are going to simulate that your project is 40% complete.
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Select the View tab at the top of the screen
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Select the Tables down arrow button and the Tables List context window will be
displayed
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Select the Tracking Table from the list
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The Gantt view will be updated and a new set of columns will be displayed one of which
is Percent Complete (% Comp)
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Overtype the percent complete cell on your level 0 task, replacing 0% with 40
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Your Tracking Table will be immediately updated and several tasks will show 100%
complete.
Having told MSP that we are 40% complete with all of your tasks, we are now we are going to
use the time machine functionality of Microsoft Project to set the status date to tell MSP that
we have used 60% of your scheduled time. To do THAT you need to calculate what the date
would be if 60% of your allotted schedule had passed. You can do this manually (for example, if
you had a 12-month project starting October 3, 2016 (a Monday) that would be 12 x .6 = 7.2
months. So, if the project started in October then 7.2 months later would be May 10th 2017.
However, I’ve written a utility program for Windows and Mac to calculate the status date for
you if you just enter the Project Start and Project End dates. Just download
“StatusDateCalc.zip” follow the instructions included therein. To set the status date in MSP:
o Select the Project tab at the top and then select the Project
Information button
o The Project Information window will pop up
o Now you just need to overtype the Status Date. In the
example above, I would type in 5/10/17 into the status date
field and click Okay.
DONE!
REMEMBER to set the status date to the 60% done date whenever you mess with your plan
going forward.
Do a Save As for this version of your project with a new version number! That way you can
always go back if something went South.
PROJ592
Professor DP George
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Week-5 Course Project Assignment
FYI…Here is what all this manipulation of your project plan has done to you
1.
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It’s had a 20% increase in total fixed costs
It’s had a 20% increase in variable costs
It’s has a schedule slippage of 20%
We are off and running! 40% of the project has been completed
You are 60% through your scheduled project duration
When we changed the fixed and variables costs we messed with the CV and CPI statistics going
forward, not so much the SPI stuff.
7. When we set the Status Date at “60% through the effort” we messed with the SV and SPI
numbers for the project going forward. Not so much the CPI stuff.
Having said all that...
Now you need to look at the earned value data that has been calculated for
you by Microsoft Project.
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To do THAT we:
o Select View then Tables again
o Then from the resulting table
list select More Tables
o Now we have a HUGE list of
tables to deal with. The good news is you just have to press the “E”
key to be positioned in the list with all the E-tables (tables starting
with E)
o Take a look at the three Earned Value tables one by one. Just select
a table and click the Apply button.
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Submit your latest version of your project plan (.MPP file) as:
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Week5_MSProjectPlan With baseline_yourlastname_vn.mpp
(Where “vn” is your version number
as in – Week5_MSProjectPlan with basleline_George_v2.mpp”)
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Point value 30 points
So, what does all those earned value numbers mean? YOU TELL ME! See the next assignment
PROJ592
Professor DP George
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Week-5 Course Project Assignment
Assignment 2 Project Status Communication
What we have done here is set you up! Despite your hard work and planning, you are apparently
40% complete having used 60% of your time, with both schedule slippage and overruns on fixed
and variable costs! Now you have a bunch of earned value results, the exact numbers depend on
your unique project. However, what Plan Value or your Schedule Variance or your CPI, etc.,
means conceptually is the same no matter what the project.
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You will be writing a Project Status Communication Memo
You will be explaining to your professional (but not project management educated) stakeholders
in some detail what EV, PV, AC, SV, CV, SPI, and CPI, mean conceptually and why
they are important.
You will also include your actual earned value numbers for your project as of our
(forced) status date, and explain what those numbers are saying about your effort
currently.
You will be using a template named “add your name hereProject Status Communication Memo” for your memo.
Next week we will be dealing
NOTE: by now it should go without saying that there is no way you can
with how we can use these
write this memo on EVA without references to referred sources, the
numbers to forecast future
absence of which will result in a loss of points at a minimum.
progress and the things we can
At least three pages or longer in length.
do to get things back on track.
Formatting:
o Double-space (no additional space between paragraphs)
o One-inch margins
o Times Roman12-point font size
o Left justified
At least two different reference sources are required.
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Point value 30 points
PROJ592
Professor DP George
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Week-5 Course Project Assignment
Hey Don, what would an outstanding assignment look like (meaning, what I will have to do to get an “A”)?
Yes, yes, I know … As always…Check the Grading Rubric on the next page.
An excellent submittal would have:
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PROJ592
An updated Microsoft Project plan for Week-5 with:
o Total project cost increased 20%
o The project end date extended 20%
o A project status 60% through the new project duration
o 40% of the project completed.
o My previous project feedback implemented
A completed essay (Project Status Communication Memo):
o Explaining to your stakeholders exactly what the “alphabet soup” of earned value
current status analysis means both in terms of the definition of terms and what those
terms mean conceptually.
o Explaining your particular project numbers, what they are, and what they imply for your
project at this point.
o Your essay will be written with the clarity and precision of language appropriate for a
Master’s level University course, and use appropriate references to refereed sources.
Professor DP George
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Week-5 Course Project Assignment
Week-5 Grading Rubric
Assignment
Updated MSP Plan with
simulated schedule and
cost issues
Project Status
Communication Memo
Requirements
Student provides an updated MSP Project Plan file with the appropriate changes made to set a
project baseline, simulate 40% completion at 60% of schedule time, with 20% increases in
variable and fixed costs. All tasks will be auto scheduled. Student will ignore overallocated
resources (if any), we will handle them later.
Student submits a memo explaining to the stakeholders in detail what EV, PV, AC, SV, CV, SPI,
and CPI, mean conceptually and why they are important. Student will include their actual
earned value numbers for the project at the (required) status date, and explain what those
numbers indicate for the project effort.
Point Value
30
30
60
As always, the quality of writing will be appropriate for a Master’s level University course, with suitable tone and clarity expected
of communication to corporate executives, and appropriate references to refereed sources.
PROJ592
Professor DP George
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DeVry University
Keller Graduate School of Management
[name of your project]
Project Status Communication Memo
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Course Requirements
for
PROJ592
Professor D.P. George
By: [place name here]
Date: [place date here]
Project Status Communication Memo
[add your 3 page + memo on EVA and your project status text here]
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References
[add your reference list here]
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PM592 Week 5 Earned Value Analysis Graded Assignment
Problem #1
Your project has four activities. Below is the current status of each activity.
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Task A was to have cost $150,000 when complete. Its costs so far are $45,000. It is 35%
complete. The activity has completed 5 weeks of a planned 15-week schedule.
Task B is at the end of week 2 of a planned 4-week effort. It is 45% complete. It was to cost
$100,000 when finished. Its costs to date are $50,000.
Task C is finished. It finished 2 weeks late. It cost $100,000. And it was planned to have cost
$110,000.
Task D is beginning its fourth of a planned 6-week schedule. It has cost $200,000 so far. It
was estimated to cost $450,000 when finished. It is approximately 55% complete.
Using this data, calculate the following.
1. What are the PV, EV, and AC for each of the activities and the complete project? (5 points)
PV
AC
EV
Task
A
B
C
D
Project
2. What are the SV, CV, SPI, and CPI for each of the activities and the complete project? (15 points)
SV
CV
SPI
CPI
Task
A
B
C
D
Project
3. Assess the project performance to date? Do you get to have the celebration? (5 points)
PM592 Week 5 Earned Value Analysis Graded Assignment
Problem #2
Your project has four activities. Below is the current status of each activity.
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Task A was to have cost $250,000 when complete. Its costs so far are $165,000. It is 50%
complete. The activity has completed 7 weeks of a planned 15-week schedule.
Task B is at the end of week 2 of a planned 4-week effort. It is 65% complete. It was to cost
$190,000 when finished. Its costs to date are $150,000.
Task C is finished. It finished 2 weeks late. It cost $200,000. And it was planned to have cost
$250,000.
Task D is at the end of its fourth of a planned 6-week schedule. It has cost $350,000 so far. It
was estimated to cost $500,000 when finished. It is approximately 55% complete.
Using this data, calculate the following.
1. What are the PV, EV, and AC for each of the activities and the complete project? (5 points)
PV
AC
EV
Task
A
B
C
D
Project
2. What are the SV, CV, SPI, and CPI for each of the activities and the complete project? (15 points)
SV
CV
SPI
CPI
Task
A
B
C
D
Project
3. What is your assessment of the project at this time? (5 points)
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