15 Jan Assignment: Update your risk

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

Module 1 Discussion

The Situation: You have been hired as the project manager to construct a custom home. The owners have decided to add an in-ground pool and convert a walk-in closet near the proposed pool to a bathroom and shower. The key members in your project team are the architect, pool subcontractor, and plumbing subcontractor. You also have to reduce the scope of work for the closet shelving subcontractor. You don’t want the final closing of the house to be delayed so you can claim the revenue in the April-June Quarter.

The Assignment: Refer to Section 4.6 of the PMBOK®Guide,and prepare a response consisting of a minimum of 500 words. Describe how you would perform integrated change control to incorporate the described changes to your project. You can format your response around Tool 10.2 from the Project Scheduling and Cost Control text. Include at least three credible references in addition to the PMBOK®Guide,with at least one of these being a peer-reviewed journal article. Properly cite your response.

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

Module 2 Discussion

The Situation: You have been hired as the project manager to construct a custom home. The owners have asked for some “minor changes” such as relocating two electrical outlets, adding a refrigerated wine cabinet that will require an electrical connection, and adding gutters to the outside of the house. The owners have seen the price list for these changes and are agreeable. The owners also requested that an internal wall be relocated. Unfortunately, the wall is load bearing which means that the architect and structural engineer must modify the plans and the local building department must approve the modified plans. The key members in your project team are the architect, structural engineer, and framing subcontractor. The redesign by the architect and engineer will take about two weeks. The building department needs two weeks after you submit the revised plans. You don’t have a price for the relocated wall.

The Assignment:Refer to Section 5.6 of the PMBOK® Guide. Prepare a response consisting of a minimum of 500 words. Describe how you would perform control scope and prepare change requests for the Perform Integrated Change Control process. Include at least three credible references in addition to the PMBOK® Guide with at least one of these being a peer-reviewed journal article. Properly cite your response.

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

Module 3 Discussion

The Situation: You are the project manager for constructing a custom house. Your company wants you to complete the construction one month earlier so that your company can recognize the revenue in this fiscal year. You know your current project schedule is based on many previous projects and minimizes costs and negative risks. You have crashed activities and fast tracked multiple activities in the past to shorten the schedule.

The Assignment: Using generic ideas of crashing and fast tracking, identify and explain some potential additional costs and risks (both opportunities and threats) that could occur because you are reducing the schedule by one month. Your response should consist of a minimum of 500 words and include at least three credible references in addition to the PMBOK® Guide with at least one of these being a peer-reviewed journal article. Properly cite your response.

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

Module 4 Discussion

The Situation: You are the project manager for constructing a custom house. Your company requires an evaluation of the estimate at completion (EAC). Since the pool change order described in Week 1 has not been executed, you don’t have to change your baseline budget. Everything is going well; even the irrigation well and pump are in early. The EAC should be based on the planned and earned values in WBS PV EV July 1 spreadsheet.

The Assignment: Calculate EAC using the four different formulas. You know that Tropical Storm will impact your cost, so in the “Bottom-up ETC” you add $5,000 to the estimated cost for storm cleanup in WBS item 3.4; thus your Bottom-up ETC will be $5,000 higher than the ETC = EAC-AC (i.e. ETC =EAC-AC +$5,000). Explain the differences between the four forecasting formulas. Which one would you consider has the most validity? Include at least three credible references in addition to the PMBOK® Guide with at least one of these being a peer-reviewed journal article. Properly cite your response.

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

Module 5 Discussion

The Situation: You are the project manager for constructing a custom house. On one of your Monday morning inspections of the progress, you notice a spot of flaking paint on the outside of the house. The outside was painted on Friday. On closer inspection, you see that the entire north side of the house has issues with the paint peeling and flaking. The other sides of the house appear fine.

The Assignment: Select one or more of the 7QC tools to investigate this problem. What else would you do? Your response should consist of a minimum of 500 words and include at least three credible references in addition to the PMBOK®Guide with at least one of these being a peer-reviewed journal article. Properly cite your response.

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

Module 6 Discussion

The Situation: You are the project manager for a project that involves two departments in your company. The larger department is paying for 80% of your project. The smaller department is paying 20%. The department manager of the smaller department is requesting modifications nearly every week. Your stakeholder management plan was based on your company’s standard template. You have been following the approved stakeholder management plan. You look at the issues log and see that there are four open issues. These open issues and possibly future requests for modifications could impact the completion date.

The Assignment: Obviously something must be changed to better control this situation. What tools and techniques would you choose to control this stakeholder’s engagement? What process outputs do you expect to create? What else, if anything, would you do? Prepare a response consisting of a minimum of 500 words. Include at least three credible references in addition to the PMBOK®Guide with at least one of these being a peer-reviewed journal article. Properly cite your response.

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

Module 7 Discussion

The Situation: In your past, you have probably monitored risks in your personal life, on your job, or both. Select one that you were monitoring, either formally or informally, that actually happened and was a surprise. Remember, risks are both opportunities and threats.

The Assignment: With 20-20 hindsight, identify what you missed that could have better predicted the risk occurring. Also, with 20-20 hindsight, identify what threat mitigation, threat avoidance, or opportunity exploitation you would have initiated. What else, if anything, could you add to your lessons learned database to improve your future performance? Include at least three credible references in addition to the PMBOK® Guide with at least one of these being a peer-reviewed journal article. Properly cite your response.

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

Module 8 Discussion

The Situation: Most relationships between different business entities are based on negotiated agreements, also called contracts. These are legal documents that bind each party to perform in accordance with the agreement. You are the project manager of an organization. You are responsible for closing a vendor’s agreement and administrative closure of the procurement.

The Assignment: Develop a procedure to close a procurement both contractually and administratively. Your response should be a minimum of 500 words, and portions can be in bulleted/outline format. Include at least three credible references in addition to the PMBOK® Guide with at least one of these being a peer-reviewed journal article. Properly cite your response.

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

GROUP PROJECT

Interim inspection to document accepted deliverables

This week, you will begin work on your Group Project for this module. You will work as a group

but will submit the assignments individually. Your Group Project for this course will be

completed in four stages and submitted in Modules 2, 3, 4, and 8. The purpose of the Group

Project is to apply the concepts and techniques of the module employing the following

processes:

1. Validate Scope

2. Control Scope

3. Control Schedule

4. Control Cost

5. Control Procurements and Monitor Stakeholder Engagement

Each of these will form a separate section of the Final Project.

The project is the construction of a new house. You are the project manager responsible for

building the house. The contract has been signed, which includes the final floor plan (enclosed

as Figure 1) and options selected at your company’s “Design Center.” One change order has

been processed: the addition of a swimming pool (in Module 1). You don’t need to update the

schedule yet; that will be assigned with other changes and due Module 8. More details are

below the Assignment.

Assignment: Complete the first stage of your Group Project—The Validate Scope Process. To

validate scope, your company requires five interim inspections and one final inspection. The

inspections are:

1. Grading inspection; pre-slab and underground plumbing stake-out (completed)

2. Slab inspection; pre-framing plan (completed)

3. Framing and exterior inspection; pre-drywall inspection (your current assignment)

4. Drywall inspection; pre-cabinets and fixtures

5. Cabinets and fixtures inspection

6. Final (closing) inspection

Group Project, Part I (Module 2)

Work together with your team to prepare a validate scope

document for the framing and exterior inspection, pre-drywall inspection. This inspection

includes the following:

• Completed exterior, including roof, windows, doors (pre-painting)

• Completed internal wall framing

• In-wall plumbing for sinks, tubs, dishwasher, clothes washer, wet bar, etc.

• Completed electrical for wall switches, outlets, ceiling fixtures, etc.

• Low-voltage wiring and conduit for security system, AV equipment, internet and

computer wiring, thermostat, telephones, etc.

• HVAC ducts and returns

All of these items are shown on the construction plans approved by the Browns. If the items are

as shown on the plans, they should be approved. The Browns know that if they want to make

any changes not shown on the plans, they will be charged a lump sum of $250 for making the

change and any additional costs incurred to construct the change. Some changes may require

the review and approval of the local building department, which will add at least two weeks to

the construction schedule. You don’t anticipate any issues; the Browns live in the area and stop

in at the site once or twice each week. You have shown the location of various appliances and

the kitchen island by painting the outline of these on the floor. This allows for the owners to

better visualize the final layout.

The purpose of this week’s submission is for your team to develop a generic procedure that

uses the inputs, tools, and techniques, and produces the outputs in the Validate Scope process.

In addition, your team must develop a quality control procedure for just the electrical switches

and outlets to eliminate rework and demonstrate your knowledge of the core value of

Responsible Stewardship by installing these features correctly the first time. Remember the

carpenter’s adage: “Measure twice, cut once.”

The case study on which the four part assignment is based is as follows:

Project Background: Mr. and Mrs. Brown are buying a new house, the “San Leo” model, in a

local subdivision. The house is a 4-bed, 2-bath with a 2 car garage. The Browns have selected

their options and signed the contract and addendums. Their financing is approved. The house is

now under construction. It is nearing the end of the third month in a seven-month construction

schedule. The Browns have previously approved the two earlier interim inspections, 1)

regarding the lot grading, underground plumbing; and 2) slab and interior wall framing. It is now

time for the third interim inspection described above.

Company Background: Your company, HappiHouses (HH), builds standard houses in several

new subdivisions in your area. HH has been in business for over 40 years and is a licensed

general contractor in your area. HH sells the house and lot as a package. HH’s profit comes

from mark-up on the lot, construction management, a mark-up on subcontractors, as well as the

margin from self-performing the structural, concrete, drywall, painting, and finishing work. HH

self-performs this work to better control the quality and schedule for these items.

HH uses several subcontractors (subs) during construction. These subs are typically those

trades that are separately licensed in your area. For this house, the subs are constructing the

electrical, plumbing, heating, roofing, and ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) items. The

construction of each house is managed by a single project manager who has two assistants.

This project management team typically has 10 to 20 houses in various stages of construction

to manage.

Please make sure that you cite and reference all your outside sources properly. You must have

a minimum of three references, including one peer-reviewed journal article.

Even though you complete this assignment as a group, all students must submit their own paper

to their own individual Assignment box. (This Assignment box basket may be linked to Turnitin.)

Group Project, Part II (Module 3)

The Control Schedule Process

The baseline project schedule in MS Project 2016 is contained in the course documents. The

start date (notice to proceed) is set for May 1, 2024 so that the schedule does not need to be

changed during the expected life of this course material. Please ignore the year. For your

convenience, a 2024 calendar is available at the end of this file. The building inspector requires

a three-day window, which can include weekend days. The building department is very good on

performing the inspections within the three-day window. The schedule has been approved by all

stakeholders. WBS items 3.5 and 3.6 are for two-story houses and were deleted from this

schedule because the San Leo is one story. For consistency, the remaining WBS numbers are

the same as a two-story house.

An Excel workbook: House Schedule of Values is included with the course materials. This

workbook has a WBS Budget that includes the initial budget for the WBS items. Notice that the

roll-up items do not have a subtotal. You should also refer to the Microsoft Project form:

Schedule Compression, to help with your assignment for this week.

Situation. The project was on or ahead of schedule during May and June. However, Tropical

Storm Cody sat off the coast, and the jobsite was shut down because of wind, lightning, and/or

rain for the entire first two weeks of July. We were fortunate that lintel and block inspection

passed on June 28. Today is Friday, July 12. It is too wet to work until Monday, but you have

ordered the materials for the roof and the framing, and all materials will be delivered on Sunday.

You’ve probably heard of “saving up for a rainy day.” Well, in the home building business, we

“save up to recover from rain delays”.

In the course materials, there is an Excel workbook that contains the budgeted cost, the

planned value, the percent complete, and the earned value that your team has estimated as of

July 12. The sheet has subtotals and formulas for PV, EV, AC, and BAC. Unfortunately, the

other formulas are missing, and you have to recalculate them.

Your supervisor has asked you and your project management team to develop a recovery plan

to start the drywall work on time by the end of July. That gives you two weeks to do essentially

four weeks of work. The building department has agreed to inspect the day you call in for an

inspection as long as you pay the $200 overtime fee per inspection. For weather delays, your

company’s policy is to always pay this additional inspection cost and costs for extra inspections

out of general company overhead so as not to impact your project budget.

To make up for the weather delay, you’ve talked with the structural engineer regarding the

framing inspection that is required before windows can be installed. (The building department

requires that all structural walls be completed before any windows are installed).You also talked

to the building officials about installing the windows after the inspection of the load bearing wall,

and they agreed. You don’t need to complete all of the framing, just the interior load bearing

wall shown in Figure 1. You realize that your crew can erect this in a 12-hour day. The building

department will have to inspect this wall before the windows are installed, but they agreed to do

that at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, so that allows you to install windows all day Tuesday. The cost for

the additional inspection will be paid out of company overhead and not charged to your project.

The sheeting can be started when half of the trusses are installed, but it will still take one day

after the trusses are installed for the sheeting to be installed. The inspector has agreed to be

there first thing in the morning the next day after the sheeting is completed.

You can also shorten the duration for framing, trusses, sheeting, windows, and roofing by

working your crews on overtime pay. You can get up to 12 hours labor per day from your crews,

and they like the overtime pay!

Your foreman estimated 48 hours total for the framing crew to do all of the framing. He

estimated 32 hours for the trusses. The time for the roofing is 80 hours with one roofing crew.

The windows are 56 hours for one crew. You can also pay these crews overtime for 4 hours per

work day and 12 hours on Saturday at a cost of $45 additional per hour. (The straight time

hourly wages are included in the budget.) If needed, your crews can work Sunday at double

time, which would cost an additional $90 per hour. (See the Crew Cost spreadsheet for

calculations.) One of your assistants started a spreadsheet in the budget workbook called

“Schedule Compression” to help develop the cost for the new schedule. She didn’t get it finished

before she went into labor and she will be out for the next 12 weeks.

Assignment: You will complete the second stage of your Group Project—The Control Schedule

process. Work with your group to prepare a recovery plan that can be used to bring the project

back on schedule. Prepare a report to your supervisor that provides a detailed description of

which tasks you will crash and/or fast track, the additional cost for crashing and/or fast-tracking,

the revised activity start and end dates, and any other issues you think should be reported.

Also, explain how crashing and fast tracking will shorten the schedule. Demonstrate your

knowledge of the core value of responsible stewardship by minimizing the cost for overtime pay.

Please make sure that you cite and reference all your outside sources properly. You must have

a minimum of three references, including one peer-reviewed journal article.

Even though you complete this assignment as a group, all students must submit their own paper

to their own individual Assignment box. (This Assignment box basket may be linked to Turnitin.)

Group Project, Part III (Module 4)

The Control Cost Process

Situation: You’re back on schedule. However, on your last visit to the house, you saw that the

baseboards and casings are not acceptable after 8 hours of charged work to activity 7.3 by

Curley and Moe, a standard crew. On closer examination, it appears that the initial framing and

drywall work were not exact, but are well within building standards. You are concerned that your

standard two man crew, Curley and Moe, may not have the skill to install the baseboards and

casings without a significant amount of rework and delay. You call Gus and Leo, the elite

carpentry crew you can use. They can be made available, but their combined hourly rate,

including fringe and overhead, is $50/hour more than the budget. (See the crew cost

spreadsheet.) Gus is confident that he and Leo can fix what has been constructed and finish the

remaining work in 72 hours without overtime. Gus also mentioned that he and Leo could do the

80 hours of finish work. You’ll consider that, but you’re pretty confident that Curley and Moe can

get it done in the 96 hours budgeted. What should you recommend to your supervisor? There

are two worksheets (which you need to complete) for baseboards and finishwork that can assist

you with making your decision.

Assignment: Complete the third stage of your Group Project—The Control Cost Process. Your

assignment for Module 4 is to work with your group to prepare a report to your supervisor

regarding your issues from the situation and any other issues that you think should be reported.

Also, include Earned Value calculations for VAC, CPI, EAC (using the remaining formulas not

completed last week except the bottoms-up), ETC (no need to re-estimate), TCPI using the

BAC formula, and the EAC formula. (Include calculations for all methods of calculating EAC

except the bottoms-up.) Although PV, EV, AC, BAC, SV, SPI, and the EAC (using the

EAC=AC+BAC-EV formula) were completed last week, include those in your report. Compare

the different methods used to calculate EAC and TCPI. Explain why the values differ. Which

would you give the most credence in forecasting this project?

Also, explain how you need to control costs on this project. Demonstrate your knowledge of the

core value of responsible stewardship by minimizing the cost.

Please make sure that you cite and reference all your outside sources properly. You must have

a minimum of three references, including one peer-reviewed journal article.

Even though you complete this assignment as a group, all students must submit their own paper

to their own individual Assignment box. (This Assignment box basket may be linked to Turnitin.)

Group Project, Part IV (Module 8)

Situation: It is now July 31 and Activities 1.1 through 5.1 are 100% complete as shown on the

WBS EV Jul 31 worksheet. Your actual cost equals the budgeted cost except for the additional

costs to get back on schedule. You need to calculate the actual cost for WBS 3.4 and 3.7

$____________ actual cost to WBS item 7.3-baseboards, casings, and other details that you

changed in Module 4.

Assignment: Update your project schedule with the start/duration changes generated in

Module 2 to recover from the storm. Complete the activity “Pool-if ordered” as WBS item 8.3.

The pool costs $30,000 and takes 28 days to build. It must be completed in order to start

landscaping. Include a screen shot of your revised schedule. Trim the excess and use an

appropriate time scale to show the activity durations. Finally, you received the attached letter

from Ralph Acme requesting an additional $350. What would you do to resolve this issue?

Update all your earned value calculations, including the revised percent completes through

activity 4.8 and the $________ actual cost in WBS item 7.3. Compare the different methods to

calculate EAC and TCPI. Explain why the values differ. Which would you give the most

credence in forecasting this project?

Also, explain how you need to control costs on this project. Demonstrate your knowledge of the

core value of Responsible Stewardship by minimizing the cost.

Please make sure that you cite and reference all your outside sources properly. You must have

a minimum of three references, including one peer-reviewed journal article.

Even though you complete this assignment as a group, all students must submit their own paper

to their own individual Assignment box. (This Assignment box basket may be linked to Turnitin.)

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

Module 1 Assignment

Closing a Project

For this assignment, you will be closing the purchase of the newly constructed home and transitioning to the operation/occupation phase. Refer to Section 4.7 of the PMBOK® Guide, and review Tool 11.1 in the Project Scheduling and Cost Control text. Prepare a 500- to 750-word essay response on how you would perform a project closeout on this new house. Your response should focus on two levels:

The turnover of the house and documentation.

An analysis of the processes used in constructing the house. Identify processes that worked well and that can be used in building future homes as well as those that need to be improved. List anything else that you might do to improve the process.

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

Module 5 Assignment

Control Quality – Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement is one of the key responsibilities of project managers. The PMBOK® Guide identifies four quality improvement initiatives: 1) PDCA, 2) total quality management, 3) Six Sigma, and 4) Lean Six Sigma.

Select two of these initiatives to compare. Prepare a 500 to 750-word essay response on how you would use these initiatives to continuously improve quality. Your response should focus on two levels:

1) Continuous improvement at the project level

2) Continuous improvement at the organizational level

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

Module 6 Assignment

Monitor Communications

Imagine that you have just taken a new position with a start-up company. As a start-up, the company has very limited organizational process assets. One of the main reasons you were hired was for your PMP. The owners want you to develop an information management system to Control Communications.

PRM520 Monitoring, Controlling, and Closing Projects

Module 7 Assignment

Situation: Just like in the team project, you are the project manager for a home construction company. Another tropical storm is on the way. You are familiar with the possible costs and risks if the storm hits and causes a two week delay since you experienced the storm that hit your San Leo home while it was under construction. You are currently building another San Leo home, and it is essentially in the same condition as the previous home was on July 1. You have two choices: accept the risk that the storm will not hit, or accelerate the construction to get the roof and shingles on before the storm is scheduled to make landfall. If the storm hits while the roof is under construction but not finished, you will have to reconstruct half of what was completed for a cost of $12,000. The weather channel predicts a 60 percent chance of the storm making landfall close enough to your location to cause this damage. If you accelerate construction, it will cost you $8,000.

Assignment: Update your risk register with the new information. Develop a decision tree with two alternatives:

(1) accept the risk and continue construction, or (2) accelerate construction to avoid the risk. You have two states of nature, the storm causes damage 60% probability and the storm does not cause damage. Use expected monetary value analysis for these two decisions and select the preferred alternative (PMBOK® Guide, p. 339).

Also, summarize how you can apply the processes used by project managers to incorporate the core value of responsible stewardship into project monitoring and controlling. Prepare a 500-word minimum response on how you would document your analysis and recommendation in a memorandum to your supervisor. Your response to responsible stewardship should be about 20% of your response. Also include at least three credible references in addition to the PMBOK® Guide with at least one of these being a peer-reviewed journal article. Properly cite your response. While working on this assignment, refer to the Assignment Rubric for guidance.