Assignment: You are a project manager in the marketing department for a county funded hospital. The hospital is launching an extensive public service program for cardiac health. The program will involve print ads in local newspapers, television spots, posters at local eateries and health clubs, and sponsorship of events at the county fair. You have been discussing the project with your boss, the director of marketing, Walter Jones, and you are discussing options for a local celebrity to be a key spokesperson. You are hoping to have one of the local professional basketball players because they are typically available during the summer county fair season. The goal is that the first splash of public service announcements and ads takes place in the next 90 days, in conjunction with "Heart Healthy Month."
This is a critical project for the hospital, and you are honored (and a little nervous) to be the project manager. This project is part of a larger strategic initiative to develop community awareness of the hospital's expertise in cardiac care and increase the hospital's revenues over a 3-year period. The budget for the project is clearly defined and seems to be adequate. The various departments of the hospital are supportive of the project, and there is clarity and consensus around the scope and objectives of the campaign.
Unfortunately, the hospital's project budgets are under fire for experiencing significant budget overruns within the last year on a number of projects. The hospital's CFO has made it clear to your director that the project will need to be diligent in managing this project so that schedule and cost overruns do not occur.
You will need to build the project schedule that meets the required dates for the upcoming "Heart Healthy Month," plus the schedule for the remaining deliverables. Good luck!
Question 1:
You are about to kick off the project, so you are meeting with Georgia and the other team leads to review how you will monitor and track status. Your team is not familiar with the earned value method, so you will need to give them some specific guidance. You anticipate a number of questions and are preparing your notes to hand out for the meeting. Be sure to address the following:
What is earned value management?
Why is "percent complete" not enough?
How will we determine the different values?
What information do we need to capture from our team members?
Explore the use of earned value management systems to link cost and schedule performance.
Question 2:
Georgia turned in her status report for the county fair preparation activities. She feels that her pieces are on track, with nothing for you to worry about. She reports the following information for the critical path tasks:
|
Task
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Budgeted work/cost
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Actual work/cost to date
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Percent work complete
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Estimate to complete
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Planned Start Date
|
Planned End Date
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Actual Start Date
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Projected End date
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Planned Resource Utilization/Actual Resource Utilization
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|
A
|
120 hours/$1200
|
60 hours/$600
|
30%
|
90 hours/$900
|
March 15
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June 15
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March 30
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June 15
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25%/30%
|
|
B
|
120 hours/$1200
|
50 hours/ $500
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30%
|
60 hours/ $600
|
April 1
|
May 15
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April 8
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May 30
|
50%/30%
|
You look at her status report and determine that Georgia does not have a solid grasp of her status. Using earned value measurements along with the other information and metrics available, determine the true status of Georgia's project. Prepare an updated status report for Georgia, sharing the measurements, explaining the benefits of using EVM and rationale in your determination of the status for the project. Be sure to document some instructions for Georgia for determining the project status for her next project update to you.