Creating a Project Budget
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ScheduleandBudget.docx· Schedule and Budget
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· Details
Overview
Create a project schedule and budget for your project.
Note: Developing a project requires specific steps that must be carried out in a certain order. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.
Context
Read Assessment 3 Context [PDF] for important information on project scheduling and budgeting.
Questions to Consider
As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.
Resources
Suggested Resources
The resources provided here are optional. You are may use other resources of your choice to prepare for this assessment; however, you will need to ensure that they are appropriate, credible, and valid. The Project Management Research Guide Library Guide can help direct your research, and the Supplemental Resources and Research Resources, both linked from the left navigation menu in your courseroom, provide additional resources to help support you.
· Project Management Institute's Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) — Sixth Edition and Agile Practice Guide (2017) :
· Chapter 6.
· Chapter 7.
· Sequencing all activities . (2015). GAO Reports, pp. 27–47.
· The five most common project cost management challenges and their resolutions . (2016, May 23). ENR, I1–I2.
· Lewis, M. A. W. (2016). Value follows function . PM Network, 30(7), 26–27.
· [u03v1] Toolwire Virtual Desktop
Click the linked title next to the arrow in the heading above to access and use Toolwire resources.
Microsoft Project is provided through this Toolwire virtual desktop. You will use this virtual desktop to complete upcoming activities. If you have not used it or need to refresh your skills, spend time to familiarize yourself with the program.
Note: When you complete an assignment requiring MS Project, you need to save your mpp file to your virtual desktop before downloading it to your local machine. You will then submit files through the normal courseroom assignment submission process.
Toolwire Technical Support
If you experience issues with accessing Toolwire:
· Contact Toolwire Support at (925) 227-8500 x200, or toll-free at (866) 935-8665 x200.
· To file a help ticket, go to Start a Support Case .
Refer to the Toolwire FAQ and Troubleshooting Help.
If you have specific questions about the Toolwire resource, please contact your FlexPath coach.
· Assessment Instructions
Overview
Scheduling and resourcing are tightly intertwined aspects of the planning phase. Consideration of the following questions will help you as you prepare your schedule and resource plans (it is not necessary to turn in your answers):
· Do you have the same resources doing overlapping tasks?
· Do you have a realistic time period in which to accomplish each task, given the resources assigned?
Familiarity with Microsoft Project will ease your schedule and budget preparation. If you need an introduction or refresher, make sure you review the video tutorials in this assessment's studies. Access Project through the Toolwire virtual desktop in this unit.
Budget
A proper budget should reflect costs incurred by a project, including human and capital resources and materials, which are often referred to as "time and materials." Make sure to make real-world cost approximations for each of the identified resources to create a realistic budget. Communicating budget changes is critical to the project manager. Often times many stakeholders need to be notified and communicated to in different ways. You should consider all implications of such a critical communication, including tone, content, and intended audience.
Directions
Part 1 - Schedule
Use Microsoft Project to develop a detailed milestone and deliverables schedule that identifies required human and capital resources. Do the following:
· Include a minimum of twenty steps (tasks).
· Link related tasks that must follow in order; and create sub-groups with activities where applicable.
· Enter the duration and start and finish times for each task.
· Activity duration can be estimated in hours, days, weeks, or months, depending on the time scale of your project.
· Project start and finish times can be entered as specific calendar dates if you wish.
· Assign named resources to each task in the timeline of your project.
Part 2: Budget
For this assignment, develop your projected project budget by allocating costs to each of your required resources (include human, capital, and materials). Use Microsoft Project or an Excel spreadsheet. (Use the Toolwire desktop provided in this unit to access Microsoft Project.)
Complete the following items:
8. Create the initial budget estimate.
8. Imagine that the client has requested that the project be done in a 20 percent shorter timeframe. Add two more columns to your budget. One should reflect the new costs and the other should depict the variance between the original and amended budgets.
Submission Instructions
Note: You need to save your mpp file to your virtual desktop before downloading it to your local machine. Then submit the project file, along with your budget file, through the normal courseroom assessment submission process. Be sure to attach BOTH of the documents with your assessment submission. This is important to avoid unnecessary use of one of your re-submission attempts to submit a missing part of your assessment.
Schedule and Budget Scoring Guide
VIEW SCORING GUIDE Use the scoring guide to enhance your learning. How to use the scoring guide
This button will take you to the next available assessment attempt tab, where you will be able to submit your assessment.
