How to improve project management analysis

Now that the project is in the execution process, summarize your project to date.

The project is planning a retirement party for an individual who has worked for the company for 30 years. Project execution involves delineating the roles and responsibilities for each member of the team as it relates to the implementation of the retirement party. The project to date also involves resource allocations as it relates to how to the venue, food items, materials, and other object that are required for a successful retirement party. In addition, proper oversight must be given to help mitigate any issues relates to project deliverables for the retirement party (Salapatas, 2000).

Describe 3–4 deliverables produced from the execution of your project.

1. Deliverable 1 – Completion of a retirement party and the securing of a venue to hold at least 100 people. This deliverable is a primary component of the retirement party. Here, the venue must be obtained in advance of the actual planning of the retirement party. This is a necessary step to ensure the space is adequate enough to support a large set of individuals. As the celebration is for an employee who has worked for the company for over 30 years, it important to have adequate space to accommodate all invitees is a comfortable manner. Likewise, it also helps to properly plan the placement of food, music, and other scheduled events for the employee.

2. Deliverable 2 – Template to use of future retirement parties for the organization. This deliverable allows the company to replicate the success of this retirement party for future events. This template will allow the company to operate in a more efficient manner when planning and leveraging company resources to plan a retirement party. It also helps to significantly reduce the amount of resources required during the planning phase to better accommodate the needs of other employees

3. Deliverable 3 – Increase in employee engagement. Through the successful completion and planning of the retirement party, other employees should feel much more engaged with the organization and its ability to support those within it. Through the success of the retirement party, employees should feel that the company overall supports those who contribute to the organization (Pich, 2002).

Explain how project baselines are established and why they are important to EVM calculations. Note: this relates to project control.

Project baselines are critical components to the overall project management field. For one, they help to calculate the overall EV of a project. For example, if a project is 50% completed, and the budget is $100, then the earned value for the project would be $50. This gives management a better assessment of how the overall project is trending as it relates to completion. It also provides a baseline for which corrective action can be taken to mitigate the adverse consequences of delays on the project. For can include allocating more hours to correct delays or using other means to get the project back on schedule. Project baselines can also help management as it allocates resources towards propjet completion. For example, areas that are significantly ahead of schedule may not require as much resources as areas which are behind schedule. As a result, project management can quickly divert resources from the overperforming area to the underperforming areas quickly and efficiently. This ultimately enhances project controls as management has very clear distinction as to where each element of the project stands and can therefore may better informed decisions to get the project towards completion and under budget. This also enhances the integrity of the overall EVM calculation as management has an adequate baseline for which to compare progress to (Pinto, 2002).

Explain how you assess the results (what is good, what is bad) when you do EVM calculations. Provide examples using 3–5 EVM metrics. Note: this relates to project control.

Earned value management helps to predict future cost overruns and allows management to take corrective action to adjust accordingly. As result, the first metric management should use is that of the earned value of the budgeted cost of work performed. This metric can then be used to calculate the burn rate of costs on the project relative to budget. These two metrics provide management with a gauge as to how the project is performing relative to the original anticipated plans. Using the burn rate, management can then extrapolate how the project is doing relative to plan, assuming that the burn rate does not change. Using sensitivity analysis and monte Carlo simulations, management can run various scenarios in which the burn increases or decreases overtime. Here in this circumstance, management would look to review the actual costs, the earned value, and cost variance to determine if the project is doing well or if the project is performing poorly. For example, projects that have large cost and budget overages relative to plan many be performing poorly. This has occurred recently with the United States construction industry. Due to COVID-19 business shutdowns, supply chains where heavily disrupted. Once the vaccine was widely disbursed, large increases in demand required supply chains to react very quickly and unexpected. However, due to the large demand, supply chains where not able to quickly adjust created bottlenecks and delays. The construction industry in particularly has experienced large price increase due to supply chain bottlenecks. Likewise, trade wars between the United States and China have also created shipment delays and price increases for materials. These instances have ultimately increased the overall price of construction project around the world. As a result, EVM metrics have experienced negative readings due to inflation and other significant cost increases. Here, project management will need to evaluate these increases in costs to determine if they are ephemeral or much more long-term oriented. They will then need to adjust their overall budgets according to help mitigate the overall cost increase of materials. In this example, managers for example can purchase materials in advance of actually using them, or changing materials to use lower cost options. This would lower the actual costs, shrink the overall discrepancy between budget and actual expenses and increase the earned value calculation in the future (Poister, 1999).

Apply the PMBOK best practices to close your project. Note: this relates to project closure.

As it relates to planning the retirement party for the employee, the first best practice will be to define the life cycle. Defining the life cycle allows the project manager to better identify the overall scope of the project. It also allows the manager to better plan the overall budget and plan the overall schedule of deliverables. The next best practice procedure will be to properly identify the overall scope the retirement party. Effective project management requires that project requirements, objectives and scope be documented and become stabilized at some point early in the project life cycle. Here, questions related to the goals of the retirement celebration, the deliverables and the overall costs limits should be determined. Another best practice is to define organizations, systems and roles with the overall project. By assigning responsibilities, it allows the overall project manager to more seamlessly delineate responsibility throughout the team.