Project Management Review And Evaluation

Question: Demonstrate how you would apply project processes and procedures prepare project plans and establish the project organisation apply project scheduling, estimating and cost control techniques analyse the methods used to measure project performance explain project change control procedures evaluate the completed project Answer: Project Plan A project plan would be prepared as per PMBOK guide in which would include the following details: Executive summary giving brief about project objectives Project Scope definition highlighting major deliverables Feasibility Assessment evaluating feasibility of a project with respect to economic, operational, organizational and technical perspectives Constraints and assumptions of the project Human Resource management plan Project schedule and milestones would be presented using a Gantt chart Budget would be estimated considering expenses Risk management plan involving identification of project risks and development of response plan Change management plan Project deliverables would be listed Project Organisation The project organization is a day care nursery that accommodates 66 kids from toddlers to the children of age 4. The organization is a charitable one and is managed by some key staff members including trustees, nursery manager, deputy manager, admin, accountant, HR service, room leaders and practitioners(Hart, 2011). The children in day care are often taken out by the teachers so that they can have certain level of physical activities. However, due to extreme weather conditions like rains and heat in seasons, it becomes difficult for teachers to take students out. In such cases, the activities that students do get limited to indoor. However, active play is a very crucial part of the development process in child and thus, an alternative may be planned inside the premises to engage children in the active play. There is no active play facility inside for the students currently and thus, a project involving designing and development of an active play is suggested in this project(GDE, n.d.). These active play would be developed considering the age of children coming in the day care. Different activities that would be included for each age group in the active play would include: Age group Active Play 3 months Roll back from lying on one side; leaning in forearms; lying on stomach 6 months Arms cross over on body; mouth feeding; hands push up sitting 9 months Long time sitting; crawling; weight on hands and legs 1 Year Walking using furniture; sitting and lowering on furniture; stand alone; little walking 1.5 Years Backward walk; carrying toys while walking; pushes boxes; throwing ball; running 2 years Sliding; tiptoe standing; squats; jumps; running; walking down on stairs 2.5 years Jumping side and back ways; jump over trampoline; hop on one foot; use pedals on trikes 3 years Walking down the stairs; jungle gyms and ladders climbing; toe running; turns while running; leg balancing 3.5 years Tiptoe standing; cycle walk; kicking ball; tricycle ride 4 years Somersault; swinging; gallops; kicking ball; lame duck skips Project Plans Project Scheduling This project would involve assessment of the need of the play area for improvement through acquisition of play objects for active play, acquisition and placement of the same inside classroom for students. Milestone Name Start Date of Milestone End Date of Milestone Duration (days) Need assessment for Play Area 16-09-2016 21-09-2016 5 Identification of Play Materials to Acquire 22-09-2016 23-09-2016 1 Research on Active Play Objects 22-09-2016 28-09-2016 6 Calling Vendors 27-09-2016 29-09-2016 2 Selecting vendor 28-09-2016 04-10-2016 6 Procurement 05-10-2016 09-10-2016 4 Training Teachers on Active Play object usage 28-09-2016 05-10-2016 7 Placement and storage of Active play objects 04-10-2016 06-10-2016 2 Formal communication to parents about change 07-10-2016 10-10-2016 3 Marketing Materials with added play area details 09-10-2016 12-10-2016 3 Development of Schedules for Play Object usage 11-10-2016 14-10-2016 3 Responsibility assignment to teachers for play objects 15-10-2016 17-10-2016 2 Estimating And Cost Control Techniques Budgeting involves documentation of all the funds that would be utilized on the project throughout its lifecycle of development. The project should not exceed this budget at any point of time for which certain control measures have to be established to keep check on the expenditure. The total budget allocated on this project would be $ 34,000 which be utilized till 2 months starting from 28th August to 17th October 2016(Time is Ltd, 2015). For keeping a control, measures have to be taken for establishing a standard for performance, identifying ways to monitor performance, and plan for intervention procedures in case of deviations from planned performance. The performance baseline is determined by cost, scope and time a project has. Control limits may be established for maximum allowed variation in costs and schedule delays. In the current case, the budget variation limit can be set to 5% for expenses such that the project should not exceed over $35,700 any point in time. Variances allowed in the schedule can be set to 10% of maximum variation such that the overall project completion should not go beyond 20th November 2016 adding three days to the last date(City of Chandler , 2000). The benefit of this change through the development of play zone inside the school room could be understood when the monetary forecasts can be made for future income obtained after establishing play zone. Project Performance Measurement Various project performance can be used to understand and analyze the progress of project. These methods could be Project Status Reports, and Budget Reports. Project Status Reports: Project status reports would include project progress details such as what activities are completed, how they vary from the plan, what part of project schedule is met, what is the variation and causes of any variations fro budget cost or time would be recorded(Caltrans, 2007). Budget reports: Budget report would analyse expenses and highlight if there are variations from the budgeted amount. The same would be calculated and presented to top management for approval of additional funds in the case, additional budget is required(WSDOT, 2015). Change Control Procedures Change control procedures may include processes that identifies reasons for change requirement, investigate the impact of change and review the same to take decision on whether change has to be incorporated. In the current case, this change can be in the form of adding a new activity or acquiring a new play object for day care centre or any other required changes(Time is Ltd, 2015). In case any change is required to be made on the project, the same would be recorded in a Project Impact Report (PIR) containing following details for each of the project: Identification details: Project Name, Project Date, Project Manager and Project Sponsor Estimate Impact of change on scope, cost, schedule, risk and quality: The impact should be positive in order to approve change. These impacts are quantified to calculate figures of number of features changed, number of deliverables changed, days impacted by change on key milestones, impact on the dollar, changes in open defects and risk severity. Background: this would involve reasons on why change is required Impact descriptions: The impacts of change on each project variable could be described for understanding of decision makers(CPA Australia Ltd, 2009). When a project shows lease negative impacts and most positive impacts, it would cause the change to be selected(Hart, 2011). Project Review And Evaluation At the end of the project, a review can be conducted on how the project was carried out and the same would be evaluated against the set goals of the project in the beginning. Cost variances are evaluated on the basis of allotted budget targets for each activity or milestones(CPA Australia Ltd, 2009). The evaluation would be done when the project would be nearing completion and it would be done to assess the performance of project. It would follow a review structure in which project implementation would be reviewed against plan, lessons learned would be recorded, business benefits would be identified and recommendations would be made for improvement. This evaluation would be done in two weeks and after 9 months of completion, a final review would be conducted to investigate if the business case goals are being achieved. References Caltrans, 2007. Project Communication Handbook. s.l.:Caltrans. City of Chandler , 2000. Project Management Methodology Guidelines, s.l.: City of Chandler CPA Australia Ltd, 2009. Best practice in performance management, Australia: CPA. GDE, n.d. Project Management Methodology Guidelines. [Online] Available at: https://www.chandleraz.gov/content/pm000pmmethodologygde.pdf [Accessed 12 February 2015]. Hart, S., 2011. PM Foundations The Change Control Process, s.l.: PM Foudnatiosn. Pearson, 2000. Basic Skills for Project Managers, s.l.: Pearson Education. PMI, 2009. Project Management in India: Insights from Six Key Sectors, s.l.: FICCI. The Saylor Foundation , 2014. Project Management from Simple to Complex, s.l.: The Saylor Foundation . Time is Ltd, 2015. Evaluating a Project. [Online] Available at: https://www.time-is-ltd.co.uk/Management/Promise/PMManual/Evaluating%20a%20Project.htm WSDOT, 2015. Cost Estimating Manual for Projects , s.l.: Washington State Department of Transportation.