Lifecycle of project management

The project execution, control, and closing phases of the project management lifecycle are the most crucial of the five phases since they guarantee the effective management and execution of the project’s operations. The project manager must make sure that the strategies outlined in the earlier stages are successfully carried out in order to address the issues listed in the project requirements during these phases. However, the project manager should try to ensure that the project is brought to its proper and desired conclusion at the closure stage. A project’s success and ability to achieve its goals depends on the proper integration of the project lifecycle, including the project’s execution, control, and closure.

Determine the major project milestones and the required delivery dates. Analyze why each milestone is critical to the project.

The significant milestones of this project will be governed by the project deliverables which are previously stated in the previous assignment, for instance, a deliverable would be installing plumbing or electricity that can be accessed by everyone residing in the housing facility. Besides, these deliverables will always show the successful completion of the particular milestone of the project.

The project of turning a storage facility into an energy efficient living facility for the homeless will take place for an estimated period of 15 months with an assumed start date of the starting date of 1st October 2017. The initial milestone would be to write a comprehensive and well-laid business plan as well as plan and approval of the building or the storage facility which was to be converted to energy efficient homes for the homeless. After the project has received the support from the project team and other relevant stakeholders, the project team will be able to assign the appropriate resources to the project and as previously mentioned the project team and other stakeholders plays a critical role in the success of the project. Notably, the approval should be received within the initial month so that by 1st November 2017 there can be an official commencement of the project.

The second project milestone is to get or obtain the adequate funding and other resources from the angel investors together with the venture capitalists. These resources should either be in the form of grants or loans from the various institutions and individuals who have bought the idea of eradicating the social problems of homelessness in the city. Before the milestone is achieved, the project team and the overall management should sit down and plan on how the team is going to mobilize for funds and other resources which will be effective in the implementation and execution of the project. The resource mobilization officer plays a crucial role at this milestone, and he or she should guide the whole project team on the resource mobilization strategies the organization should employ to ensure there are adequate funds and other resources for the successful completion of the project. For instance, the resource mobilization officer should prepare a catalog which outlines the various donors and partners which are having the same objectives or goals of providing a sustainable solution to the homeless. He or she should also seek funds from the various government institutions including the local and national government to offer support to the homeless issue. Seeking loans from the financial institutions will also be other viable strategies for raising funds which will be used for the execution of the project. The whole process of fundraising for the construction project should be completed by 30th October 2017 to enable the efficient operations and completion of the various project deliverables.

In the third milestone, the project management team should start the process of receiving and evaluating bids from the various architect firms which will be responsible for the remodeling of the storage facility to house the homeless people in the town. Within the first two weeks of February 2018, the decisions on this companies should be communicated, and they are instructed to prepare for the implementation of their mandates.

The fourth milestone will include the architectural firms which have been selected start the process of remodeling the storage facility. Specifically, this process should begin within the last two weeks of March 2018, and these firms should be in constant communication with the management team with the aim of being on par with the budget cost and when there is an arising problem, it should be completed before 1st July.

In the week of 1st July 2018, the company should start purchasing the relevant equipment, tools, and materials which are required in the execution and implantation of the project deliverables. These will ensure that the project deliverables are achieved as there will be available resources and equipment in the implementations of the same.

There are multiple dependencies with this project include the finish to start, start to start as well as the finish to finish. Firstly, finish to start activities entails the receipt of the project approval must happen before the commencement of the project; the business plan requires to be established before it can be built as well as system readiness has to be conducted before the deployment. The start to start activities entail the distribution of the questionnaire before the clients can offer feedback, the project presentation has to be given endorsement before any work is actually started together with the project management team should be formed before the project actually begins. Lastly, the finish to finish activities entails the bandbox must create before its testing, the hardware requirements should also be purchased it can be deployed, and the software has to be purchased before the customization can start.

It is important to clarify the assumptions and issues which might be encountered from the beginning of the project. Typically, there could be issues of the resource constraints depending on the architect-engineer as well as system engineer availability. The assumption will, therefore, be that there will be minimal resource constraints. Similarly, there could be a number of the technical concerns during the procedures in both the design and deployment phase and the assumption is that there will be a minimal project together with the system downtime in the project.

It is evident that all projects have various risks and this project is no exception. There is always a risk of the vision and strategy, the management of benefits as well as the evaluation of the risks. The vision and the strategy are in danger if it too challenging and incomplete. To mitigate or solve this risk, the successful methods and criteria should be precisely defined and aligned with the goals and objectives of the company. The provision of the energy efficient homes for the homelessness is not an overnight achievement but rather an activity which takes months for the clients to get used to the new homes. To reduce the risk, the team should conduct a comprehensive capacity building and training on the benefits of the project and discuss the issues which they are likely to face in the implementation of the project. If the clients are heard, then any probable issues they have to adjust with the aim of keeping it low. Last but not least, there is a risk in the assessment of the return on investment objective. It will also not be viewed immediately. The return on investment objective is a three-year goal. To make sure that there is a return on investment, a value which is accurate to the objectives should be clearly examined and measurable (Khan, 2013).

Explain the techniques of reducing project duration, and determine if any applies to your project. If so, expand on the technology to be used. If not, explain as to why no technique is applicable.

There are multiple reasons for seeking to lower the project duration. One of the most crucial reasons today is the period to the market. The intense global competition, as well as the rapid advances in technology, has done many businesses to achieve their competitive advantage. To be successful, the institutions have to spot the new opportunities, launch project teams as well as bring the new products or services to the marketplace at a very speedy time.

The survival of any business primarily relies not only on the rapid innovation but also its adaptability. The international recession together with the energy crisis has always stunned the business industry, and those firms which survive in the sector are the ones who can quickly adapt to the new challenges, and this will require a fast project management (Billows, 2016).

Another notable reason for the reduction of the project time will happen when the unforeseen delays including the adverse weather, the design challenges as well as the breakdown of the equipment which can cause significant delays in the midway of the construction project. Getting back to the set schedule regularly needs the compression of the time on some of the remaining essential activities or tasks.

The project management team should consider the two fundamental strategies to make sure that there is an acceleration of the project. Firstly, the team should outsource the project work by subcontracting the project activity. Notably, these contractors may always have the accessibility of the superior technology and expertise that will be valuable in the acceleration and the completion of the project activity. Secondly, the project manager should also adopt the strategy of scheduling overtime. This has been proven to be more productive since it avoids the additional coordination and communication costs which are encountered upon the addition of more individuals. Another benefit of this strategy is that there will be fewer distractions when people work outside the stipulated hours. However, it should note that the sustained overtime within the project can also have several disadvantages including the intangible costs, for example, the divorce, burnout as well as the turnover.

Define the control process and describe the control steps. Be sure to expand on the description of Baseline Plan and Measuring the Progress and Performance using an Earned Value (EV) system.

As mentioned earlier, the control process refers to the procedure of monitoring the project by enabling for the assessment of the progress as well as the preparation of the status report at any particular desirable period. The control steps entail communication, corrective actions, as well as stakeholders. The plan will need the effective communication since fixing something is challenging when no one recognizes it is actually vandalized. The coercive actions will maintain the project on its schedule, on budget and in line with the quality goals. Similarly, the priorities of the major stakeholders should be considered in the project implementation and control process.

There are four distinct steps in the project management within the project control procedure. Control is the process of comparing the real performance against the set plans to determine the various deviations, evaluate the likely alternative courses of actions as well as taking the appropriate measures (Tyson, 2011). The baseline plans frequently offer the components of measuring the performance. Specifically, time and budgets are the quantitative measures of performance that effectively fit into the integrated information system.

Nevertheless, the status report of the project usually utilizes the earned value to measure the project’s schedule together with the cost performance. Measuring the earned value starts at the work package level, and in the status report, the work packages of the project are yet to be started finished or in the process. The work packages which are not yet established earn zero percentage of the PV (baseline). The baseline involves the total sum of the costs accounts, and every cost account refers to the sum of the work packages in the cost account. Typically, the three direct costs which are included in the baselines include the labor, equipment and material costs.

Describe Cost Variance and Schedule Variance. Then, assume that your project is at the half-way point, time-wise. Assuming that you have your baseline budget (PV) in hand, imagine or make up the Actual Cost (AC), and based on the available information, assess the project status about cost and schedule.

The cost variance demonstrates if the activity accomplished costs are more or less than the scheduled at any given point in the life of the project. The schedule variance provides an overall evaluation of the all the activity packages in the project scheduled to date. In the project, the baseline budget (PV) is$ 50,000 for the housing project. The various storage facility renovations are going on well as planned and the evaluation of the prevailing condition. While using the earned value cost or the schedule system needs the crucial elements including the proposed work costs scheduled (PV). Others include the budgeted cost of the task finished (EV); as well as the actual cost of the task completed (AC) and all these are used to compute the cost variance (CV) (Basu, 2016).

• The planned cost (PV) = $ 50,000 and the planned value after three-quarter finish will be $ 37,500.

• The budgeted cost of the task performed (EV) = 75% of the finished work which is $ 37,500

• The actual cost of completed work = $ 30,000

• The Cost Variance (CV) = $ 37,000 – 30,000 = $ 7,000 over budget.

Evidently, the schedule variance is $ 7,000 ahead of schedule and, this implies that it is a good project since it continues to stay on track and ahead of the project schedule.

Explain the project closure process, and describe the primary considerations for closing your project, smoothly

The project closing process refers to the procedures which are performed to conclude all the relevant activities and programs across every project management process groups to formally finish the contractual obligation or the project. Additionally, in the project closure, it is necessary to determine if there were any changes in the project charter and if the original intent and scope of the project were followed according to the project charter. It is also important to consider if the requirements were met by the final results (O’Berry, 2016).

References

Basu, C. 2016. How to calculate a cost variance (CV) & a schedule variance (SV). Retrieved from http://www.smallbusiness.chron.com

Billows, D. 2016. Project schedule – how to finish earlier video. Retrieved from http://www.4pm.com

Khan, V. 2013. What is risk mitigation and how does it relate to project management? Explaining Risk Mitigation in Project Management. Retrieved from http://www.brighthubpm.com

O’Berry, D. 2016. Four steps you must take when closing your project | The Fast Track. Retrieved from http://www.quickbase.intuit.com

Tyson, B. 2011. What is meant by the project control process. Retrieved from http://www.brighthubpm.com