Project Change Control & Cost Management

Part I:

Think of a project—it could be one you have managed in the past, or a hypothetical project, and answer the following questions. Feel free to use the Scope of Work Template, and edit as necessary to fit the scope of your project.

1.       Define the Scope of your Project in 2-5 sentences. This Scope of Work should include:

a)       Scope of Work statement – overall goal(s) of the project

b)      Total Budget

c)       Total man-hours required to complete project (i.e. 250 hours)

2.       List out two to three of your project’s deliverables (does not need to be comprehensive), and then break one of the deliverables into its tasks and subtasks.

3.       Work out a general timeline or schedule for your project, marking the timing of at least three different project phases or three different due dates on which certain deliverables must be complete.

4.       Identify one possible threat to your project and describe what impact it might have on your project. Discuss how will you approach this risk (accept, avoid, transfer, mitigate)? Then, estimate the risk value of this risk using this formula: Risk Value = Probability of Event x Cost of Event

5.       Discuss the following: How will you manage change within your project? Think of how you might implement control systems to help you keep change in check.

Part II:

Using the project and information from Part I, answer the questions below.

1.       Your project is now in trouble because one of your risks has occurred. Using the Rapid Project Recovery Process, identify two steps in the process that you can use to recover this project, explaining in detail how completing these two steps can help you get this project back on track.

2.       Now that you have identified how to recover this project, use the information from Part I and the consequences listed below to calculate the Actual Cost, Planned Value, Earned Value, and Budget at Completion. Please show the work for your calculations.

3.       The required change(s) has resulted in an extended deadline of 2 weeks (or 80 hours) and an increase in budget of 10%.

a.       How many hours were planned for in the original Scope?

b.       What is the new total for man-hours (with the 80 hour increase)?

c.       What was the original budget?

d.       What is the new budget (with the 10% increase)?

e.       What is the PV or BCWS?

f.        What is the EV or BCWP?

g.       What is the AC?

h.       What is the BAC?

4.       Now that you have calculated these costs, describe what kind of impact these events had on your Scope of Work. Referring back to the sections of the course on Scope of Work, explain two items that could be improved in your SOW that could have prevented this project from getting into trouble.

5.       How can you apply what you have learned about project change control and cost estimation to better manage your projects? What do you think was the most important takeaway from the course content, and tell us how you will use the information to more effectively manage your projects.