Determining progress and closing a project

For this unit, your group will complete discussion questions and exercises on determining project progress and finishing a project found in Chapters 14 and 15, CPM 4e.

Chapter 14

Part 1 (20 points) – Questions.  Complete discussion questions #1, #3, and #7.

Part 2 (20 points) – Exercises.  Complete exercises #2, #7 and #8.

Part 3 (20 points) – Project Status Report Template. 

Each group will prepare a project status report template.  The templates will be evaluated against several criteria, including:

General information – does the status report provide general information about the project, who prepared the report, start and end dates of the project, the reporting period for the status report.

Overall Project Status – is it easy for the reader to discern the overall status of the project health as it relates to project objectives and constraints? 

Work – is it easy for the reader to know how much work (e.g., WBS elements) has been accomplished as it relates to the scope baseline?  Does it show what work is planned to be accomplished in the next reporting period?

Schedule – is it easy for the reader to understand, using metrics such as SPI or SV or other measures, the status of the project as it relates to the schedule baseline.  Are milestones listed and do they show the planned versus actual start dates?

Budget – Is the project adhering to the cost baseline? 

Issues and active risks – Is it easy for the reader to understand and appreciate project risks and/or any new issues (unknown unknowns) that are under the watchful eye of the project team?

Key Performance Indicators – does the status report show key project performance indicators that are used by the organization to compare with other projects in a balanced scorecard format?

Once each group has completed their status report, the group can submit it for official grading by the instructor. Additionally, each group will place their template in the status report forum.  Other groups will evaluate and score them based on the same criteria and drop their evaluations in the group drop box. 

The group evaluations will be due 1 day after each group has submitted their status report template for grading by the instructor.

Chapter 15

Part 4 (20 points) – Questions – Complete discussion questions #1, #4, #5, #6, and #7.

Mechanics (20 points) Excellent mechanics can be achieved through professional presentation, good grammar and correct spelling.  Parts 1, 3 and 4 should follow APA guidelines for in-text citations and referencing source material.

Your Instructor will use Turn-it-in to ensure your paper is authentic work.  To avoid plagiarism, see the course home page for more information and use the Purdue Online Writing Lab to learn how to paraphrase, summarize and cite the references you use in all academic writing assignments.

Submit your assignment to the group drop box in Moodle.