Question

You are the project manager responsible for a new building construction in northern Virginia. The building is worth $500,000 and will have five bedrooms, a kitchen, landscaping, and a two-car garage to be completed in two years. This was agreed upon in a firm fixed contract. During the execution (construction) of the building, you realize that the cost of materials have gone up by 10%, and your schedule is behind by 90 days due to delays from county inspections and permit processes. You also notice that if you continue with the current cost rate and schedule rate that the total cost to complete this house would be $600,000 and delivered three months late.

Submit a three-page report explaining the reasons for these variances from your original project management plan and the proposed steps on how you are going to control the cost and schedule to achieve the contract threshold of $500,000 to be delivered in two years. Your plan must include the following:

Address identifications of impacted activities with their cost and schedule attributes, remembering to account for contingencies.

Address explanations of the roles your project management team will play during the execution of your project management plan and how they will help you to control the issues that are arising during the project.

Answer 1

After going through the given scenario the following are the facts understood:

Facts:

• The building plan mentioned that the building is worth $500,000,
• It will be five bedrooms, a kitchen, landscaping, and a two-car garage to be completed in two years.
• However, during execution it was determined that cost of materials is increased by 10%.
• The schedule is running late by 90 days

The impacted activities with their cost and schedule attributes that were identified as follows:

• The prime reason for project running behind schedule was the delay in county inspections and permit processes.

• Because of this delay the cost of completing project will be increased from $500,000 to $600,000.
• It will also delay in completion of project by 3 months.

The reasons for these variances from the original project management plan are as follows:

• There is lack of planning. While any project is planned such risk are also calculated and then final price and duration of project is calculated.
• Poor base line schedule is one of the reasons for this variance.
• Insufficient resources might be there as of what was planned that resulted in this variance.

In order to control the cost and schedule to achieve the contract threshold of $500,000 to be delivered in two years following will be my plan:

• Staining of resources is one thing that is essential to ensure that project meets the cost,
• Maximizing the utilization of remaining time is order that will ensure that project completes on scheduled time.
• The time that was allocated to various activities needs to be adjusted as per the requirement.
• Teams should club two activities together (building of house and garage can be at simultaneously reducing the time of project).

Once the necessary inspection is done and the permission is gained for further construction the plan could be as follows:

Activities	Duration	Cost
Inspection and permission	3 months	$10,000
Laying foundation	4 months	$90,000
House Construction	1 year 4 months	$240,000
Garage Construction	4 months	$50,000
Labour		$110,000

The roles that project management team will play during the execution of the above project management plan are as following:

• By inspecting that every step take place as planned,
• By ensuring that no hurdles interrupt the project completion,
• By ensuring that budget allocation is appropriate.
• By taking controlling and preventive measures that ensure project completion is within budget and scheduled time.
• By maximizing the utilization of time.