264
Actual
Finish
NA
Baseline
Duration
Actual
Baseline
Start Finish
03/01/X7 07/30/X8
03/01/X7 06/04/X8
03/01/X7 07/11/X7
Finish
Variance
369 days
Actual
Remaining
Duration
Variance
278.76 days 104.24 days
285.12 days 57.88 days
110 days
O days
Dur.
Variance
14 days
14 days
15 days
14 days
NA
08/01/X7
329 days
95 days
14 days
15 days
Assisted Living Facility
Construction Project Update
as of 4/11/X8
Baseline
ID
Task Name
Start
1 Construction & furnishings
03/01/X7
2 Facility construction
03/01/X7
3 Phase 1 - Foundation & 03/01/X7
Excavation
4 Phase 2 - Structure
04/19/X7
5 Phase 3 - Enclosure
07/12/X7
6 Phase 4 - Interiors
07/12/X7
7 First 45 (light-assisted) units 05/01/X8
ready to prepare for occupancy
8 First 45 units ready for residents 05/01/X8
9 Remaining 57 units (light & 06/04/X8
heavy) ready to prepare for
occupancy
10 Construction complete
06/04/X8
11 Building ready for residents 06/05/X8
05/24/X7 09/22/X7
08/01/X7 01/15/X8
08/01/X7 06/04/X8
NA
05/01/X8
10/09/X7
01/15/X8
NA
NA
113 days
134 days
234 days
O days
99 days
120 days
139 days
O days
O days
O days
95 days
0 days
-14 days
- 14 days
O days
O days
11 days
O days
14 days
14 days
8 wks
Owks
8 wks
NA
NA
06/25/X8
06/04/X8
NA
NA
Owks
O days
14 days
14 days
O days
0 days
O days
NA
NA
06/04/X8
07/30/X8
NA
NA
0 days
8 wks
O days
O wks
O days
8 wks
O days
Owks
14 days
14 days
Project Manager: K. Nanino
260
CHAPTER 7 / MONITORING AND CONTROLLING THE PROJECT
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. When making an estimate for the time and cost to
execute a project, should the time and cost required
to develop the planning, monitoring, and controlling
systems be included as well? Should the actions
required to monitor and control a project be included
in the project's action plan or WBS?
2. The chapter included an example of a firm where the
PM dispensed with all the planning formality because
no one ever looked at it anyway. What did the PM think
the purpose of such planning was in this firm? What
should the firm do in the future to correct this problem?
3. In fields such as psychology and sociology, verbal
characterizations are frequently used to show the
amount of some factor. How might one set up such a
measure for a project management characteristic such
as the "energy" of the project team?
4. How can the PM circumvent the problem that the
monitoring system can only report on activities that
have passed, thus telling the PM what has already
gone wrong but not what will go wrong in the future?
5. How might using electronic media to report project
information lead to problems with control?
6. Explain how the earned value chart captures all three
objectives of a project: scope, cost, and schedule.
7. Why isn't there an earned value reporting conven-
tion that allows progress on a task to be credited
when the task is half completed? Wouldn't this be
more accurate than giving credit only when the task
is finally completed?
8. When would spending and schedule variances be more
informative than ratios? When would ratios be better?
9. How should a PM reconcile the dual purposes of con-
trol: conserving resources and regulating results
through the use of resources?
10. Identify situations where each of the following con-
trol tools might be useful: earned value charts, bench-
marking, critical ratios, control charts, variance
analysis, trend projections.
11. How might the existence of a change control system
affect the behavior of a client, or a project team mem-
ber, who desires to make a change in the project?
12. "In order to manage for overall project success, con-
trol must be exercised at the detailed work level for
each aspect of project performance or no significant
change will occur." Does this mean that the PM
should micromanage the project? If not, what
does it mean?
13. Of all the rules for conducting meetings, the most dif-
ficult to enforce is the injunction against the weekly
(or daily) standard project progress report (the "show
and tell" meeting). Why is this, and under what cir-
cumstances do you think that such meetings are
justified?
14. If your project management software calculates
earned value, or any other standard item to be
reported differently than the Project Management
Institute suggests, should you deal with this matter in
management reports? If so, how?
15. Logically, when using earned value data in the criti-
cal ratio formula, should the "budgeted cost" be the
planned value or the earned value? What problems
occur with each choice!
EXERCISES
3. The following project is at the end of its sixth week.
Find the cost and schedule variances. Also find the
CPI and SPI. Then find the critical ratio of the pro-
ject using earned value calculations. Finally, calculate
the ETC and EAC for the project.
1. A project in its 26th week has an actual cost of
$270,000. It was scheduled to have spent $261,000.
For the work performed to date, the budgeted value is
$272,000. What are the cost and schedule variances
for the project? What are the SPI and CPI?
2. A project has just completed the 87th item in its
plan. It was scheduled to have spent $168,000 at this
point in the plan, has ally spent only
$156,000. The foreman estimates that the value of
the work actually finished is about $162,000. What
are the spending and schedule variances for the
project? What are the SPI and CPI?
(wks)
a
Prede- Duration Budget Actual % Com.
Activity cessors
($) Cost ($) plete
2 300 400 100
b
3 200 180
100
2 250 300 100
d
a
5 600 400 20
b, c 4 400 200
20
C
a
e
262
CHAPTER 7 / MONITORING AND CONTROLLING THE PROJECT
Mary Lynn is having trouble getting information on the to help them implement a newly purchased Dead-Beat-
status of the three projects she chose. Communication Parent tracking system. Jeremy is nervous and wants to be
between the project managers and the Quality sure that they meet the specifications of this new project.
Improvement Department is not always timely. She wants He is not sure if the standard action plan needs changing
to be sure that all three are completed in plenty of time or if there is something else he should do.
before the survey is scheduled. Mary Lynn also wants to be
able to tell where the projects are in relation to cach other,
Question: What should Jeremy Smith do?
as they all need to be completed by a certain date. She
wonders how she can tell if they are behind or ahead
Cable Tech, Inc.
of schedule.
Cable Tech is a contract cable wiring company. It pro-
Question: What would you recommend Mary Lynn do?
vides support to local cable companies in seven states in
the midwest. Cable Tech has one operation in each state,
Stoneworth Paving Company
and they vary in size from 60 to 250 employees. A dis-
turbing trend has been developing for the last couple of
Stoneworth Paving Company specializes in highway paving years that Cable Tech management wishes to stop.
jobs for the State of Virginia. When the state first awarded Incidences of tardiness and absenteeism are on the
Stoneworth the contract, they stipulated a 1 percent pen- increase. Both are extremely disruptive in a contract wir-
alty for each week Stoneworth was late on a completion ing operation. Cable Tech is nonunion in all seven loca-
date. Preston Flintrock, the project coordinator for tions, and since management wants to keep this situation,
Stoneworth, began to notice that the last two jobs were 3 it wants a careful, low-key approach to the problem.
weeks late, and the paving job that was due to be completed Assistant Personnel Manager Jean Alister has been
in the next 2 weeks was behind schedule. When Preston appointed project manager to recommend a solution. All
went in the field to investigate, he found the job to be seven operations managers have been assigned to work
understaffed, supplier delays, and a high work rejection rate/ with her on this problem.
repaving needed. As a result, Preston decided to establish a Jean has had no problem interfacing with the opera-
better system of project control and present it to his boss. tions managers. They quickly agreed that three steps must
be taken to solve the problem:
Question: If you were Preston, what characteristics
would you be looking for in a new control system? Will a new 1. Institute a uniform daily attendance report that is sum-
control system be adequate for the problem? Explain.
marized weekly and forwarded to the main office.
(Current practice varies from location to location, but
Happy Customers
comments on attendance are normally included in
monthly operations reports.)
J. Z. Smith is a small consulting firm specializing in
implementing new information systems installation
2. Institute a uniform disciplinary policy, enforced in a
uniform manner.
projects for service agencies. J. Z. Smith has a standard
project action plan for the implementation projects
3. Initiate an intensive employee education program to
they work on. They feel very confident in the project emphasize the importance of good attendance.
plan they use; all steps are included and the costs are
In addition, the team decided that the three-point pro-
estimated well.
gram should be tested before a final recommendation is
The project teams are very entrepreneurial and have
great relationships with their small client base. The com-
presented. They thought it would be best to test the pro-
gram at one location for 2 months. Jean wants to control
pany works with their clients informally following the
and evaluate the test by having a daily attendance report
standard action plan. They provide weekly progress reports
transmitted to her directly at headquarters, from which
for the client and for Jeremy Smith, the president of
she will make the final decision on whether or not to pre-
J. Z. Smith. Jeremy has noticed that they have problems
sent the program in its current format.
with meeting budgets and due dates. He thinks his teams
allow their clients to add steps to the projects. A current Question: Does this monitoring and control method
client, the local welfare department, has asked J. Z. Smith seem adequate? What are the potential problems?
INCIDENTS FOR DISCUSSION
• 261
10. Industrial Building, Inc., has two project teams
installing virtually identical, 4-story commercial
buildings for a customer in two separate cities. Both
projects have a planned daily cost of 100 and a
planned daily earned value of 100. The first six days
for each team have progressed as follows:
4. Repeat Exercise 3 using MSP (omit calculation of
CPI and SPI).
5. Given an activity in a smartphone design project
whose planned cost was $13,000 but actual cost to
date is $12,000 so far, and whose value completed is
only 80%, calculate the cost and schedule variances
Will the client be pleased or angry?
6. Resolve Exercise 3 using the 50-50 rule for planned
value and earned value.
7. Given the following information about a website
design, which activities are on time, which are early,
and which are behind schedule?
Team A:
Earned
Value
Team B:
Earned
Value
Day
A: Cost
B: Cost
90
92
94
98
104
112
90
88
95
101
89
105
3
4
5
6
95
98
101
106
116
126
95
94
102
109
99
118
Actual
Cost
Critical
Ratio
Activity
A
B
с
D
E
Budgeted
Cost
$300
125
225
100
250
$200
250
150
100
250
1.0
0.5
1.5
1.5
0.67
Compare the two projects in terms of general progress
and according to critical ratios.
11. At week 24 of a project to shoot a television com-
mercial, the project manager is worried about her
budget since costs have risen to $7,500. Find if there
is a cost overage, and if so, how much it is. Is the
schedule ahead or behind? Overall, does the project
appear to be in control?
8. Design and plot a critical ratio chart for an advertis-
ing project that had planned constant, linear progress
from 0 to an earned value of 400 over a 100-day dura-
tion. In fact, progress for the first 20 days has actually
been: 4,6,8,12,14,18,24,28,30,34,40,42,42,44,48,52,5
4,58,62,66. What can you conclude about this project?
9. Given the following information, calculate the criti-
cal ratios and indicate which activities are on target
and which need to be investigated. Comment on the
situation for each of the activities.
Prede-
cessors
%
Duration Budget Com-
(wks) ($) plete
6
900 100
6 1200 100
6
1200 100
12
1800 100
a
a
Actual Scheduled Budgeted Actual
Activity Progress Progress Cost Cost
A
2 days 2 days $40 $35
B
4 days 6 days $30 $40
с
1 day
3 days $50 $70
D
3 days
2 days $25 $25
Activity
a: Write script
b: Screen actors
c: Select actors
d: Contract
studio
e: Obtain props
f: Schedule
date
g: Shoot
commercial
b.c
b,c,d
14
10
1400
1500
100
40
d.e
16
800
0
INCIDENTS FOR DISCUSSION
St. Margaret's Hospital
Mary Lynn DeCold is the Quality Improvement Director
at St. Margaret's Hospital, a large acute care facility. She is
responsible for monitoring all of the performance improve
ment projects that take place in the hospital. At any given
time numerous projects can be underway, some depart-
mental and some enterprise-wide efforts.
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations is scheduled to conduct a survey of
St. Margaret's in 9 months. It is a requirement of the accred-
iting agency that three performance improvement projects
be spotlighted during the survey. Mary Lynn wants to be sure
that she picks three projects that will be finished within the
next month or 2 so that they have at least 6 months' worth
of data to show that the project improved performance.
CASE
• 263
С C
A
S
E
because
posed lot, and
the county to
Friendly Assisted Living Facility Case-7
It is now just 4 months until the Assisted Living Facility
program is scheduled to be completed. The team is excited
they can watch the construction of the facility
and feel they are moving toward the end of this program.
Every week since construction began, the construction
project manager, Kyle Nanno, has been holding a meeting
of his project team. At the
e meetings he invites representar
tives of the construction
n company,
the facilities manager
from Friendly Medical Center, the Director of Security,
and other key people as he deems necessary. The meetings
are scheduled every Friday at 1:00 PM and last not more
than 1 hour. No matter who is or is not there, Kyle starts
the meetings exactly at 1:00 pm. Kyle developed the fol-
lowing standing agenda:
1. Review schedule and budget as of today's date
2. Review schedule and budget for next 2 weeks
3. Issues impacting schedule or budget
4. Next steps and action items to be completed
The construction project update presented at the
April 11, 20x1 meeting is shown on the next page.
After each meeting the construction project manager
emails the minutes of the meeting and the action item list
generated to each member of the Construction Project
team. He also sends the information to Fred Splient, the
president of Friendly Medical Center, as well as to each
member of the ALF Project Steering Team.
Following the update is the most recent copy of the
action items generated at the 4/11/X8 construction pro-
ject meeting.
Upon reading the minutes and action items from the
week's meeting, Fred got quite angry. Fred read the min-
utes every week and would immediately phone Kyle to ask
why certain decisions still had not been made. This week
he wanted to know why the location of the security panel
had not been picked out yet, and what the hair salon issue
was about Kyle decided that these matters would
be better
discussed face to face. He went to Fred's office.
to explain to Fred that the Director of
Security Frank Geagy, had not attended the construction
project update meeting in weeks. Kyle said that Frank
informed him that in light of the cost
cutting going on in
the hospital, he is short staffed and cannot hire a new
security guard. Frank states that he personally has to cover
shifts during the time when the update meetings take
place. Kyle told Fred that he was not comfortable making
the security panel decision without the head of security's
input, and that Frank has not returned his phone calls or
answered his emails. Fred Splient proceeded to tell Kyle in
a very loud and angry voice, "That guy is not short staffed
and is not busy covering anyone's shift. Who does he think
he is?" Fred instructed Kyle to tell Frank to answer the
contractor's questions immediately or the decisions would
be made for him
Kyle said he would do so and then changed the subject.
He told Fred that they were still waiting for the city offi-
cials to approve the parking lot construction permit,
Friendly Medical Center's legal officer estimated that it
would take 8-10 weeks to hear back on approval. Kyle
allocated that amount in the schedule.
Kyle received notice from Fred to proceed with the
February 9, he submitted the application for a permit,com-
plete with appropriate plans and descriptions of the pro-
allocated weeks to wait for
notify him. He expected approval on or before April 19
and scheduled construction to April 20. Privately, he
doubted he would hear from the com
county by his target date.
The lot would take 3 weeks
to build, 2 weeks to install
the lighting and add landscaping, and 1 week to pave and
stripe. The plot had to be completed by the end of June so
that parking spaces would be available when Marketing
wanted to begin showing the facility to potential residents.
This was a tight schedule, but the marketing people
insisted that residents had to begin preparing for this kind
of move at least a month before they took residence.
Potential
residents needed to see the facility, get familiar
apartment layouts, and they needed a place to park.
Also, Marketing insisted on having some occupancy by
the opening date.
Kyle told Fred that Legal was calling the county weekly
to follow up. Fred wanted to know why the parking lot
construction was not outlined on the project plan for facil-
ity construction. Fred asked Kyle to add it to the Gantt
chart and to do a what-it on the assumption that
not respond until May 1. Fred also wanted
to know the
latest date that they could be notified and still
meet a
a June 15 deadline for completion of the lot.
As Kyle was leaving Fred's office, Fred asked him about
the hair salon. Kyle explained that the COO and VP of
Marketing had come up with an idea to build and operate
a hair salon in the facility for the residents. They thought
this might be a great
selling point that could generate rev-
enue. They came to Kyle just 2 months
ago and asked him
to include a hair salon on the first
floor the facility. Kyle
explained that he did not have enough information to be
able to determine the impact this would have on the con-
struction schedule or the cost of this addition, Fred lis-
tened and then wondered if the members of his team had
done any analysis to determine if this was a good idea or
not. Fred told Kyle he would get back to him on that one.
He then made a phone call to the COO and VP of
Marketing,
with
Kyle proced
proceeded
of
262
CHAPTER 7 / MONITORING AND CONTROLLING THE PROJECT
Mary Lynn is having trouble getting information on the to help them implement a newly purchased Dead-Beat-
status of the three projects she chose. Communication Parent tracking system. Jeremy is nervous and wants to be
between the project managers and the Quality sure that they meet the specifications of this new project.
Improvement Department is not always timely. She wants He is not sure if the standard action plan needs changing
to be sure that all three are completed in plenty of time or if there is something else he should do.
before the survey is scheduled. Mary Lynn also wants to be
able to tell where the projects are in relation to cach other,
Question: What should Jeremy Smith do?
as they all need to be completed by a certain date. She
wonders how she can tell if they are behind or ahead
Cable Tech, Inc.
of schedule.
Cable Tech is a contract cable wiring company. It pro-
Question: What would you recommend Mary Lynn do?
vides support to local cable companies in seven states in
the midwest. Cable Tech has one operation in each state,
Stoneworth Paving Company
and they vary in size from 60 to 250 employees. A dis-
turbing trend has been developing for the last couple of
Stoneworth Paving Company specializes in highway paving years that Cable Tech management wishes to stop.
jobs for the State of Virginia. When the state first awarded Incidences of tardiness and absenteeism are on the
Stoneworth the contract, they stipulated a 1 percent pen- increase. Both are extremely disruptive in a contract wir-
alty for each week Stoneworth was late on a completion ing operation. Cable Tech is nonunion in all seven loca-
date. Preston Flintrock, the project coordinator for tions, and since management wants to keep this situation,
Stoneworth, began to notice that the last two jobs were 3 it wants a careful, low-key approach to the problem.
weeks late, and the paving job that was due to be completed Assistant Personnel Manager Jean Alister has been
in the next 2 weeks was behind schedule. When Preston appointed project manager to recommend a solution. All
went in the field to investigate, he found the job to be seven operations managers have been assigned to work
understaffed, supplier delays, and a high work rejection rate/ with her on this problem.
repaving needed. As a result, Preston decided to establish a Jean has had no problem interfacing with the opera-
better system of project control and present it to his boss. tions managers. They quickly agreed that three steps must
be taken to solve the problem:
Question: If you were Preston, what characteristics
would you be looking for in a new control system? Will a new 1. Institute a uniform daily attendance report that is sum-
control system be adequate for the problem? Explain.
marized weekly and forwarded to the main office.
(Current practice varies from location to location, but
Happy Customers
comments on attendance are normally included in
monthly operations reports.)
J. Z. Smith is a small consulting firm specializing in
implementing new information systems installation
2. Institute a uniform disciplinary policy, enforced in a
uniform manner.
projects for service agencies. J. Z. Smith has a standard
project action plan for the implementation projects
3. Initiate an intensive employee education program to
they work on. They feel very confident in the project emphasize the importance of good attendance.
plan they use; all steps are included and the costs are
In addition, the team decided that the three-point pro-
estimated well.
gram should be tested before a final recommendation is
The project teams are very entrepreneurial and have
great relationships with their small client base. The com-
presented. They thought it would be best to test the pro-
gram at one location for 2 months. Jean wants to control
pany works with their clients informally following the
and evaluate the test by having a daily attendance report
standard action plan. They provide weekly progress reports
transmitted to her directly at headquarters, from which
for the client and for Jeremy Smith, the president of
she will make the final decision on whether or not to pre-
J. Z. Smith. Jeremy has noticed that they have problems
sent the program in its current format.
with meeting budgets and due dates. He thinks his teams
allow their clients to add steps to the projects. A current Question: Does this monitoring and control method
client, the local welfare department, has asked J. Z. Smith seem adequate? What are the potential problems?
INCIDENTS FOR DISCUSSION
• 261
10. Industrial Building, Inc., has two project teams
installing virtually identical, 4-story commercial
buildings for a customer in two separate cities. Both
projects have a planned daily cost of 100 and a
planned daily earned value of 100. The first six days
for each team have progressed as follows:
4. Repeat Exercise 3 using MSP (omit calculation of
CPI and SPI).
5. Given an activity in a smartphone design project
whose planned cost was $13,000 but actual cost to
date is $12,000 so far, and whose value completed is
only 80%, calculate the cost and schedule variances
Will the client be pleased or angry?
6. Resolve Exercise 3 using the 50-50 rule for planned
value and earned value.
7. Given the following information about a website
design, which activities are on time, which are early,
and which are behind schedule?
Team A:
Earned
Value
Team B:
Earned
Value
Day
A: Cost
B: Cost
90
92
94
98
104
112
90
88
95
101
89
105
3
4
5
6
95
98
101
106
116
126
95
94
102
109
99
118
Actual
Cost
Critical
Ratio
Activity
A
B
с
D
E
Budgeted
Cost
$300
125
225
100
250
$200
250
150
100
250
1.0
0.5
1.5
1.5
0.67
Compare the two projects in terms of general progress
and according to critical ratios.
11. At week 24 of a project to shoot a television com-
mercial, the project manager is worried about her
budget since costs have risen to $7,500. Find if there
is a cost overage, and if so, how much it is. Is the
schedule ahead or behind? Overall, does the project
appear to be in control?
8. Design and plot a critical ratio chart for an advertis-
ing project that had planned constant, linear progress
from 0 to an earned value of 400 over a 100-day dura-
tion. In fact, progress for the first 20 days has actually
been: 4,6,8,12,14,18,24,28,30,34,40,42,42,44,48,52,5
4,58,62,66. What can you conclude about this project?
9. Given the following information, calculate the criti-
cal ratios and indicate which activities are on target
and which need to be investigated. Comment on the
situation for each of the activities.
Prede-
cessors
%
Duration Budget Com-
(wks) ($) plete
6
900 100
6 1200 100
6
1200 100
12
1800 100
a
a
Actual Scheduled Budgeted Actual
Activity Progress Progress Cost Cost
A
2 days 2 days $40 $35
B
4 days 6 days $30 $40
с
1 day
3 days $50 $70
D
3 days
2 days $25 $25
Activity
a: Write script
b: Screen actors
c: Select actors
d: Contract
studio
e: Obtain props
f: Schedule
date
g: Shoot
commercial
b.c
b,c,d
14
10
1400
1500
100
40
d.e
16
800
0
INCIDENTS FOR DISCUSSION
St. Margaret's Hospital
Mary Lynn DeCold is the Quality Improvement Director
at St. Margaret's Hospital, a large acute care facility. She is
responsible for monitoring all of the performance improve
ment projects that take place in the hospital. At any given
time numerous projects can be underway, some depart-
mental and some enterprise-wide efforts.
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations is scheduled to conduct a survey of
St. Margaret's in 9 months. It is a requirement of the accred-
iting agency that three performance improvement projects
be spotlighted during the survey. Mary Lynn wants to be sure
that she picks three projects that will be finished within the
next month or 2 so that they have at least 6 months' worth
of data to show that the project improved performance.
264
Actual
Finish
NA
Baseline
Duration
Actual
Baseline
Start Finish
03/01/X7 07/30/X8
03/01/X7 06/04/X8
03/01/X7 07/11/X7
Finish
Variance
369 days
Actual
Remaining
Duration
Variance
278.76 days 104.24 days
285.12 days 57.88 days
110 days
O days
Dur.
Variance
14 days
14 days
15 days
14 days
NA
08/01/X7
329 days
95 days
14 days
15 days
Assisted Living Facility
Construction Project Update
as of 4/11/X8
Baseline
ID
Task Name
Start
1 Construction & furnishings
03/01/X7
2 Facility construction
03/01/X7
3 Phase 1 - Foundation & 03/01/X7
Excavation
4 Phase 2 - Structure
04/19/X7
5 Phase 3 - Enclosure
07/12/X7
6 Phase 4 - Interiors
07/12/X7
7 First 45 (light-assisted) units 05/01/X8
ready to prepare for occupancy
8 First 45 units ready for residents 05/01/X8
9 Remaining 57 units (light & 06/04/X8
heavy) ready to prepare for
occupancy
10 Construction complete
06/04/X8
11 Building ready for residents 06/05/X8
05/24/X7 09/22/X7
08/01/X7 01/15/X8
08/01/X7 06/04/X8
NA
05/01/X8
10/09/X7
01/15/X8
NA
NA
113 days
134 days
234 days
O days
99 days
120 days
139 days
O days
O days
O days
95 days
0 days
-14 days
- 14 days
O days
O days
11 days
O days
14 days
14 days
8 wks
Owks
8 wks
NA
NA
06/25/X8
06/04/X8
NA
NA
Owks
O days
14 days
14 days
O days
0 days
O days
NA
NA
06/04/X8
07/30/X8
NA
NA
0 days
8 wks
O days
O wks
O days
8 wks
O days
Owks
14 days
14 days
Project Manager: K. Nanino
260
CHAPTER 7 / MONITORING AND CONTROLLING THE PROJECT
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. When making an estimate for the time and cost to
execute a project, should the time and cost required
to develop the planning, monitoring, and controlling
systems be included as well? Should the actions
required to monitor and control a project be included
in the project's action plan or WBS?
2. The chapter included an example of a firm where the
PM dispensed with all the planning formality because
no one ever looked at it anyway. What did the PM think
the purpose of such planning was in this firm? What
should the firm do in the future to correct this problem?
3. In fields such as psychology and sociology, verbal
characterizations are frequently used to show the
amount of some factor. How might one set up such a
measure for a project management characteristic such
as the "energy" of the project team?
4. How can the PM circumvent the problem that the
monitoring system can only report on activities that
have passed, thus telling the PM what has already
gone wrong but not what will go wrong in the future?
5. How might using electronic media to report project
information lead to problems with control?
6. Explain how the earned value chart captures all three
objectives of a project: scope, cost, and schedule.
7. Why isn't there an earned value reporting conven-
tion that allows progress on a task to be credited
when the task is half completed? Wouldn't this be
more accurate than giving credit only when the task
is finally completed?
8. When would spending and schedule variances be more
informative than ratios? When would ratios be better?
9. How should a PM reconcile the dual purposes of con-
trol: conserving resources and regulating results
through the use of resources?
10. Identify situations where each of the following con-
trol tools might be useful: earned value charts, bench-
marking, critical ratios, control charts, variance
analysis, trend projections.
11. How might the existence of a change control system
affect the behavior of a client, or a project team mem-
ber, who desires to make a change in the project?
12. "In order to manage for overall project success, con-
trol must be exercised at the detailed work level for
each aspect of project performance or no significant
change will occur." Does this mean that the PM
should micromanage the project? If not, what
does it mean?
13. Of all the rules for conducting meetings, the most dif-
ficult to enforce is the injunction against the weekly
(or daily) standard project progress report (the "show
and tell" meeting). Why is this, and under what cir-
cumstances do you think that such meetings are
justified?
14. If your project management software calculates
earned value, or any other standard item to be
reported differently than the Project Management
Institute suggests, should you deal with this matter in
management reports? If so, how?
15. Logically, when using earned value data in the criti-
cal ratio formula, should the "budgeted cost" be the
planned value or the earned value? What problems
occur with each choice!
EXERCISES
3. The following project is at the end of its sixth week.
Find the cost and schedule variances. Also find the
CPI and SPI. Then find the critical ratio of the pro-
ject using earned value calculations. Finally, calculate
the ETC and EAC for the project.
1. A project in its 26th week has an actual cost of
$270,000. It was scheduled to have spent $261,000.
For the work performed to date, the budgeted value is
$272,000. What are the cost and schedule variances
for the project? What are the SPI and CPI?
2. A project has just completed the 87th item in its
plan. It was scheduled to have spent $168,000 at this
point in the plan, has ally spent only
$156,000. The foreman estimates that the value of
the work actually finished is about $162,000. What
are the spending and schedule variances for the
project? What are the SPI and CPI?
(wks)
a
Prede- Duration Budget Actual % Com.
Activity cessors
($) Cost ($) plete
2 300 400 100
b
3 200 180
100
2 250 300 100
d
a
5 600 400 20
b, c 4 400 200
20
C
a
e
• 265
QUESTIONS
Friendly Assisted Living Facility Construction
coordination meeting 4/11/X8
ACTION ITEM LIST
Date
Date
Initiated Required
01/10/20X8 ASAP
Date Required
Resolved From
02/11/20X8 St. Dismas
Comments
Proposal to St.
Dismas 1/18/X7
11/9/20X7
12/1/20X7
02/8/20X8
St. Dismas
11/9/20X7
12/1/20X7
St. Dismas
Security
Cost proposal to
St. Dismas 1/13/X7
Item
Provide notice to proceed on
parking lots
Provide PS. # for designer to
purchase accessories
What are the security
requirements? There are fire
doors, and they do not have
locks. We have rough-in for
card readers, but no electric
hardware.
Lighting review-will exterior
lighting in addition to the
building mounted lights be
required!
Location of security panel
12/14/20X7 03/15/20X8 03/15/20X8 St. Dismas
lighting
consultant &
electrician
09/28/20X7 ASAP
St. Dismas
security
01/18/20X7 01/27/20X8 02/11/20X8 St. Dismas
designer
02/9/20X8 ASAP
Contractor
Room number style and
placement
Parking lot permit
Part of signage
discussion
Permit application
2/9/20X8, waiting
for City to approve
Conduit required
02/11/20X8
ASAP
Fire alarm connection to
hospital panel
Hair salon decision
Updated fire alarm drawings
02/11/20X8
02/7/20X8
ASAP
07/1/X8
St. Dismas
electrician
St. Dismas
Contractor &
electrician
QUESTIONS
1. What do you think the construction project manager
should have done when the Director of Security
stopped attending the project meetings?
2. Do you think it is an effective communications tool
to send the construction project meeting minutes to
the ALF steering team and the President? Support
your answer.
3. How much time has to be made up for the original,
baseline schedule to be met?
4. Develop a plan and draw a Gantt chart for the
Parking Lot phase of the project as originally planned
by Kyle. Answer Fred's questions.
5. What information does Fred need to make a decision
about building a hair salon?
Purchase answer to see full
attachment