Task 1
Using Critical Chain Project Management methodology, create a project duration buffer to be used in monitoring your critical path schedule performance
Determine the size of the project buffer
Describe how you would use the project buffer to determine the point at which you would implement controls to correct an unacceptable project schedule variance?
Note: You do not need to create a schedule to depict the buffer, nor do you need to identify the controls that might be applied
Task 2
Use the same approach to create at least one feeder buffer where appropriate
Determine the size of the feeder buffer
Describe the effect on your overall project schedule if the feeder buffer is depleted before the work in the feeder chain is completed
Task 3
Calculate approximately how likely it is that your project buffer will be entirely depleted, and how likely it is that your feeder buffer will not be used at all?
If every task in a feeder chain has free slack, is a feeder buffer useful?
Note: For a Normal Distribution, any outcome up to one standard deviation to the right of the Expected Value (mean) has an 84% likelihood of success, and any outcome up to one standard deviation to the left of the mean has a 16% likelihood of success
The values for +- two standard deviations are 95% and 5%, and values for +- three standard deviations are 98% and 2% respectively
Task 4
What specific KPI's and associated values (thresholds) would you anticipate might lead a decision-maker to select each of the following courses of action?
Approve continued execution of the project as currently planned, with no changes in the Performance Measurement Baseline
Immediate termination and abandonment of the project
Plan and approve necessary changes to scope, schedule, and budget, and then rebaseline the project
Stop work, restructure and re-charter the project
Take measures to capture the benefit of significant over-performance (e.g., reducing project capital allocation, reassigning excess resources, changing market strategy to include additional features or performance now in scope)
Take significant corrective action to replan the project with a major change to one primary constraint (e.g., budget, scope, schedule or resource assignments)
Approve continued execution of the project with the current Performance Measurement Baseline, but with a significantly expanded contingency buffer for cost and duration
In each case above, describe the KPI's to include the following:
Title of KPI
Method of determining or calculating the KPI
Brief description of relevance and significance of the KPI
Need for any corroborating KPI's
Example: For COA 1 (approve continued execution as planned, with no changes), KPI(x) based on EV and CPIcum is between the values of 1.12 and 0.96 with an improving trend over the three most recent status reports
KPI(x) is the best indicator of overall cost performance, and is based on readily available data. The formula for calculating KPI(x) is: .....
The SPIcum would be used as a corroborating KPI to ensure that the "on track" cost performance was not merely the result of low productivity and poor schedule performance
Task 5
In the last round of task progress reporting used to develop the milestone review status briefing, several of your subcontractors and field task leaders reported incremental progress (actual work) on tasks that had not yet been scheduled to start and, in several cases, when the predecessors for those tasks had not yet been reported as complete.
At least one predecessor for an in-progress task had not been started at all.
In some instances, based on their own initiative, resources have been alternating their effort back and forth between multiple tasks, rather than completing tasks entirely and in the planned sequence.
In another instance, two tasks scheduled as sequential (F-S) were started at the same time and completed, but the second task deliverable is unacceptable, requiring that the task be repeated (rework).
Additionally, two tasks that were not on the schedule at all were reported as 50% complete, having consumed significant labor and material costs.
What additional information might you want to obtain to ensure that the progress data is valid, accurate and credible?
How would you report and characterize overall project progress to your stakeholders in a status report after becoming aware of these issues?
Assuming the reports turn out to be valid, what are the potential issues with regard to performing and reporting work completed (progress) out of sequence, or contrary to dependencies in the schedule, or earlier than scheduled, or when the work was not planned at all?
What actions would you take to address the situation?
Task 6
For the following project performance graphic and data table, create a brief one-page or on-screen status report that would have been provided at Milestone #1
Use a one-page format with essential information, and include metrics information that would be relevant for internal stakeholders in a PMO environment
Task 7
Create a written or graphic status report and a forecast that would have been provided at Milestone #3
Include any brief explanatory information that might be relevant for a short, written or on-screen report
Task 8
Create a written status and progress report that would have been provided at Milestone #4
Include an estimated range for the project's final cost, based on best case and worst case EAC's
Include a TCPI, an Estimate to Complete and an estimated final project duration
Task 9
Create a written status report and forecast to be delivered at Milestone #5
Include revised TCPI, EAC's, ETC and project duration or Estimated Time to Complete (remaining duration)
If the revisions, compared to those provided at MS #4, are substantial based on trend analysis, explain why they (might have) changed so significantly
Note the worst-case EAC that could have been predicted at Milestone #1
Task 10
If any performance metric (KPI) at Milestone #5 is significant enough to justify a corrective course of action for this project, discuss the earliest points during project execution where this situation might have been anticipated, and what actions might have been taken at the time to correct the variances and improve the trends.
Task 11
The contingency buffer for duration at MS#4 was 40% (47.6 days) and the contingency buffer for cost at MS#4 was 25% ($22,500)
Justify, analytically, a recommendation that the project continue, as planned, to completion
Task 12
For the following project schedule, which critical task has the greatest potential leverage on your project duration?
It is the one task you might be most concerned about during project execution, because of its greater potential for causing a project schedule overrun
Explain why that one critical task has the greatest inherent schedule risk
Task 13
For the same schedule, what is the one non-critical task that has the greatest potential leverage on your overall project duration?
It is the one task that has the highest likelihood of becoming critical, and then extending the duration of the overall project
If that task did become critical, what other effects on your PMB would you need to be concerned about?
Task 14
Explain the predecessor relationships for Tasks #15 and #26
Discuss why those dependency relationships might have been used, and what risks are likely to have driven the decision to use these dependency relationships
Task 15
Would it be feasible to calculate an SPI for all of the tasks that are performed by a specific resource?
Why would you want to develop that metric?
Would it be feasible to calculate an SPI for only a single work package?
If the work package was relatively long duration, with high risk exposure, with multiple resources including a contracted vendor, what value would that metric provide?
What are the advantages to monitoring cumulative SPI rather than SPI values for each reporting period?
Why is SPI less useful during the early stages of project execution?
At what point does SPI cease to be relevant or useful in monitoring project performance?
If level of effort (PM, QA, Admin Support, etc.) labor costs are omitted from the Performance Measurement Baseline, and the actual LOE costs are reported and charged to the project, what is the effect on CPI reported at each status date?