I need a essay on Why we need to control costs and relate it to responsible stewardship. Please use references listed 2 documents enclosed Assignment project 3

Group Project Part II

August 13, 2019

Student Signature: Francis D. Lansangan

Table of Contents

According to the PMBOK® Guide (PMI, 2017), the Control Schedule process involves monitoring project status and progress to revise the project schedule and to supervise changes (and mitigate deviations) to the schedule baseline (p. 222). This essential process should be conducted throughout the project lifecycle to ensure the benefit of proper maintenance of the schedule baseline. Through Control Schedule, project managers, with the assistance of the project team and stakeholders, can effectively manage their project schedules and baselines and respond appropriately to changes in the project.

Projects often incur changes—good and bad—either to its cost, scope, schedule, or sometimes all three. Due to Tropical Storm (TS) Cody threatening the coast with its torrential rain, high winds, and dangerous lightning, HappiHouses shut down construction for the first two weeks of July. The HappiHouses supervisor has tasked the project manager and the project team with drawing up a recovery plan to complete missed work so that drywall installation can commence on time by the end of July. To accomplish this, they have only two weeks to compress the schedule and finish internal and external framing, roof truss installation and sheathing, window installation, and subsequent inspections for the framing, an internal load-bearing wall, and the roofing.

The project manager, project team, and stakeholders must know and understand the current and actual project performance to revise the schedule model (PMI, 2017, p. 223). Changes to the schedule baseline must be formally submitted and approved in accordance with the Perform Integrated Change Control process (PMI, 2017, p. 223). Failure to properly manage and document any changes to the baseline could potentially result in increased project costs, risks of threats to project completion, and miscommunication among the project team. The Control Schedule process has five concerns:

1) Determining the current status of the project schedule

2) Influencing the factors that create schedule changes

3) Reconsidering necessary schedule reserves

4) Determining if the project schedule has changed

5) Managing the actual changes as they occur (PMI, 2017, p. 223)

Inputs to the Control Schedule include but are not limited to: the schedule management plan; schedule baseline; scope baseline; performance measurement baseline; project calendars, project schedule; resource calendars; schedule data; work performance data; and organizational process assets (PMI, 2017, p. 224-225). Using the Control Schedule tools and techniques of data analysis (to include earned value analysis, iteration burndown chart, performance reviews, trend analysis, variance analysis, and what-if scenario analysis), critical path method, project management information systems (PMIS) software, resource optimization, leads and lags adjustment, and schedule compression, PMs and their teams can produce and promulgate revised work performance information, schedule forecasts, change requests, and updates to the schedule management plan and baselines for schedule, cost, and performance measurement (PMI, 2017, p. 227-229). Shown below are the inputs, tools and techniques, and the outputs of the Control Schedule process from the PMBOK® Guide, 6th edition (PMI, 2017, p. 222).

Unexpected circumstances (e.g., weather or other acts of God, an unannounced shift of resources to another project) can necessitate the need to shorten or speed up a project’s timeline. Schedule compression techniques can decrease a project’s duration but can also increase costs and risks (of both opportunities and threats). Crashing is a schedule compression method of adding more resources “to shorten the schedule duration for the least incremental cost” (PMI, 2017, p. 215) and only works for activities on the critical path. Examples of crashing project activities include but are not limited to authorizing overtime, tasking additional personnel, and adding equipment to expedite completion.

Substitution is another schedule compression technique that involves changing the method or tool by which the activity is performed (Hazini, Dehghan, and Ruwanpura, 2013, abstract). An example of substitution is a construction company using explosives to implode a building rather than demolishing it with a wrecking ball or an excavator.

Fast tracking, also known as overlapping, “involves performing activities, initially viewed as sequential, in parallel by overlapping their execution” (Ballesteros-Pérez, 2017) to shorten project duration. Instead of waiting for a particular activity to be completed before starting a different one, both activities are done in conjunction with one another, or one project activity reaches a significant milestone (i.e., not completion) before commencing the other activity. For example, instead of waiting for all the framing of the house to be finished before installing windows, window installation will commence as soon as the internal load-bearing wall has passed inspection.

Kerzner (2017) writes that scope reduction as a schedule compression technique is viable, but only if the customer agrees to it, which is typically unlikely to happen (p. 441). Because change requests have already been approved, the Browns will view HappiHouses in a negative light if even suggests scope reduction and could potentially lead to loss of potential business for HappiHouses. Crashing and fast tracking do not reduce scope and are, therefore, the preferred methods of schedule compression for this project.

The original schedule start date of the WBS 3.4 Framing was 7/1/24. Due to the bad weather conditions generated by TS Cody, the new start date for the project is now 7/15/24 which means a delay of 14 days. To recover lost time, crashing activities is necessary to bring the project back on track. The commencement of window installation is contingent on the internal load-bearing wall passing inspection. The load-bearing wall can be erected in 12 hours (8 standard hours + 4 overtime hours) by the framing crew. Instead of waiting for all the framing to be completed, window installation will be fast tracked and conducted in parallel with framing. The project foreman has provided the following time estimates for work: framing – 48 hours; roof trusses – 32 hours; roofing – 80 hours; and windows – 56 hours.

The drywall installation must begin no later than 31 July as per the supervisor’s guidance. As previously stated, framing and window installation can be fast tracked pending the load-bearing wall passing inspection, with an estimated completion date of 19 July for the framing and 25 July for the windows. Installing the roof trusses can begin on 20 July, with the roof sheathing fast tracked to start on 22 July, followed by roofing on 23 July. Weekend overtime for both Saturday and Sunday will be approved for work on the trusses and roofing, with an additional two days of weekday overtime approved for roofing. The modified project schedule below shows that with the crashing and fast tracking of activities, framing, windows, and roofing can all be completed by 30 July.

Modified Schedule beginning at WBS 3.4

Based on a weekday OT rate of $135/hr, a Saturday OT rate of $180/hr, and a Sunday OT rate of $270/hr, the total cost of crashing activities amounts to $9,360. Additionally, HappiHouses is absorbing $200 for each overtime inspection fee and will pay out of company overhead and not charge it to the project so as to not affect the overall budget. The Browns should not have to pay a single cent of these additional costs, which should be shouldered by HappiHouses.

Saint Leo University’s (n.d.) core value of responsible stewardship calls upon its staff and students to enhance and utilize all the resources available to them to fulfill the university’s mission and goals. Likewise, the project manager serves as a steward of HappiHouses and has a responsibility to the firm to spend its money effectively, not frivolously, in compressing the schedule of project activities. The project manager understands the need to crash or fast track activities to shorten project duration but must not forget the mission and goals of HappiHouses and manage increased costs and risks deftly to maximize profits and opportunities while minimizing the liabilities and threats to the project.

Changes can severely impact projects. It is imperative that PMs adapt to and overcome these changes lest they allow projects to fail. If a PM must compress the project schedule, he or she should do so promptly to not waste precious project time and resources. Effective communication, strong interpersonal skills, and maintaining a steady strain on the project team and its stakeholders are necessary for a PM to ensure schedule compression techniques are executed properly and efficiently. Although HappiHouses will have to pay $9,360 in additional costs, it is a small price to pay for the satisfaction of placing the project back on schedule.

Ballesteros-Pérez, P. (2017). Modelling the boundaries of project fast-tracking. Automation in Construction, 84, 231-241. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.09.006.

Hazini, K., Dehghan, R., & Ruwanpura, J. Y. (2013). Enhancing schedule compression process using evolutionary optimization techniques. Paper presented at the Seventh International Structural Engineering and Construction Conference, Honolulu, HI. Abstract retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269045602_Enhancing_Schedule_ Compression_Process_Using_Evolutionary_Optimization_Techniques doi: 10.3850/978-981-07-5354-2_CPM-6-60

Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling, 12th Edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Project Management Institute (PMI). (2017). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) 6th ed. Newtown Square, PA. Project Management Institute.

Saint Leo University (SLU) (n.d.). History, values, & Catholic roots. Retrieved from https://www.saintleo.edu/history-values-catholic-roots

Taylor, J. C. (2008). Project scheduling and cost control: Planning, monitoring and controlling the baseline (12th ed.). Plantation, FL: J. Ross Publishing, Inc.