Earned Value Management (EVM)

Project’s Summary

The central aim of the current plan is to develop a financial estimate for the yearly spending of the U.S. military. The greater portion of the money is disbursed by the defense unit of the military so the major portion of this financial plan covers defense’s department activities. The forecasted spending of the military for the next year is $597.8 billion (Amadeo, 2018). The main goals of the project are to break down the budget into different deliverables and allocate the precise costs and resources to the activities that are conducted to achieve the deliverables.

There are primarily 25 deliverables required to achieve the goals of the project effectively. These deliverables are distributed into smaller work packages/activities. The deliverables of the project are distributed in smaller activities because it makes it easier to accomplish (Ezzo, 2018). Moreover, the specific costs and resources are identified through these work packages that are needed to complete the deliverables. In addition to the resources and costs, particular timeline is also devised for each of the deliverable and the activities. The resources that are assigned to the activities involve both the human and non-human resources.

The key deliverables of the plan are retirement and social security benefits, audit & risk evaluation, equipment maintenance, training & development and logistics, appraisals & rewards. Additionally, the resources for future uncertainties are also added in this budget (Ezzo, 2018). The approximations pertaining to military spending have been made on the premise of suppositions. However, the practicality of the assumptions has been considered while developing cost forecasts. The specified timelines are allocated to each deliverable according to the significance and expected durations.

The projected costs are different for the twenty-five activities that are included in the work break down structure of the project. The projected costs of the activities collectively make $597.8 billion that is the expected financial estimate for the subsequent year.

Responsibility assignment matrix for the project

The responsibility assignment matrix makes use of the work breakdown composition and the activities to develop a connection between activities and the stakeholders. In this matrix, there must be one individual responsible for each task (Doglione, 2018). If it is expressed in a different way, this matrix offers a pragmatic image of the resources required for the completion of the project. Furthermore, it explicitly shows the individuals accountable for the particular tasks. With the help of the responsibility assignment matrix the deliverables of the project are allotted to the accountable parties who examine and put in the necessary activities/controls.

A specified coding composition is used to create this matrix, for example, PARIS or RACI.

The coding composition that will be used to create a responsibility assignment matrix for the on-hand project is RACI (Doglione, 2018). RACI refers to responsible, approval, consulted and informed. Responsible is the individual who has the ownership of the deliverable. Approval for the deliverable is gained from a single individual. Consulted is the individual who conveys the details needed to perform the task. Informed is the one who should be reported about the advancement of the plan/scheme.

Functional manager is the one who must be informed about the development of the project as he/she performs the duty of supervision upon the project managers. For social security and retirement benefits, the operational manager is owner and responsible for the completion of deliverable (Doglione, 2018). While the project manager performs the role of a transmitter who transmits the required information to accomplish a task. For audit & risk evaluation, the approval should be taken from the project manager and functional manger must be informed about the expansion of the project. The project manager is responsible for the equipment & maintenance and vendors should be consulted about the deliverable. Regarding logistics, appraisals and reward, functional/operational manager is the owner of the activity.

Network Schedule

The network schedule for the project has been developed by utilizing the Precedence diagramming technique.

Dependencies between the activities have been demonstrated through the arrows. Moreover, the slack for every venture is also exhibited in this network schedule.

There are mainly 5 activities in the network schedules. These are the work packages that have been designed after combining multiple ventures. Specific codes have been allotted to the activities to represent them in the network schedule. Activity A makes a reference to retirement and social security benefits. This activity has no predecessor which means that it is not dependent upon any other activity to be initiated. While the activity B is dependent upon the activity A. it means that activity B cannot initiate until the activity A is completed. Similarly, activity C is dependent upon activities A and B. Activity C is dependent upon activity B while activity E has two predecessors, i.e. C and D. There is a zero slack for the activities B and C. overall slack for the activity A is 5 days, and for activities D and E it is 11 days and 15 days respectively.

Critical path and total float of the project

There are various things involved in a project, therefore, it becomes arduous for the project supervisors to keep an eye on all the activities. Sometimes, certain activities are left on the far side. Such delayed or forgotten undertakings influence the overall timespan of a project during which a project needs to be accomplished (Nishada, 2018). A delayed plan or project results in decrease in profitability and dissatisfaction of the clients. Critical course assists the managers in recognition of two significant components. First, how much time will be taken by the project to be fulfilled. Second, the crucial tasks are identified through critical course which should be achieved before initiating the rest of dependent activities.

The longest route in a network diagram is actually the critical course of the project. In order to measure the critical course, the lengths of all routes in a network diagram are determined (Nishada, 2018).

For example, the linear measurement of all tasks of the current project is determined as below.

Activity A→ Activity B→ Activity C→ Activity E=8+19+11+2= 40 months

Activity A→ Activity D→Activity E=8+11+2= 21 months

Crucial course= longest route= 40 months

So, the critical route for this project is 40 months.

Float of a project indicates the overall quantity of time by which the plan can be postponed (Calculating critical path and float, N.D). Float/slack of the tasks can be calculated by the following method

Float/slack= Early finish – Late finish

The overall float in the project is 121 days. Different kinds of methods are implemented to minimize the float of the project. For instance, crashing and quick tracking methods. In crashing method, more resources are allotted to the activities and timespan of those activities is minimized. In quick tracking method, the activities are programmed simultaneously rather than following a sequential arrangement. I would take advantage from both these methods to decrease float in the project (Calculating critical path and float, N.D).

Practice to manage project schedule

In PMBOK guide, the best applications read about particular sequence of procedural categories that must be carried out. These “process groups” are named as initiating, planning, executing, investigation and control, and conclusion (The Five Traditional Process Groups, N.D).

The key motive of these process categories is to provide a corporate framework to effectively plan, implement and administer a skillfully managed project.

According to PMBOK, initiating process assists in establishing a vision about what should be achieved. In this process group, the scope of the project is determined and the stakeholders of the plan are recognized. It is critical to recognize the right stakeholders of the project because it influences the achievement of deliverables to a substantial level. Moreover, official authorization of a project is necessary in this process group. It means that a project supervisor is selected at this stage. The most appropriate application that I would apply to initiating is the development of a project charter. A project charter gives an overview about the project. Moreover, project deliverables are identified through creation of a project charter.

Another process category is planning. It is important to develop the scope of a project in this process category. According to PMBOK, there are 24 procedures that are engaged in planning. The suitable procedure can be chosen for planning process by the project supervisor. For planning, I would select the creation of the work break down structure. In my opinion, it is the most fruitful application for the planning process as it divides the deliverables into smaller ventures. It further helps in allocation of timeline and resources to the activities/work packages. Then comes the executing process category. In this process group, the project administration team initiates operations of the project. The top approach that I would implement in this process category is the management of communication at all levels across the project functions. Communication play a central role in the success/collapse of a project. If the requirements and directions are communicated well then desired outcomes can be easily achieved.

There is a type of process group that unlike the other process categories suspends over the entire project, i.e. monitoring and control. It is important to determine the areas that need attention and where changes are needed in the initial plan. I would implement the practice of observation and control in this procedural category because it aids in recognizing the grey areas and improving quality. The last process category is closing. The project should not only be closed in an official way but also approval of the project is significant (The Five Traditional Process Groups, N.D).

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