Unit 10 Individual Assignment
Budget Estimating (100 points)
This assignment consists of 2 parts: questions about budget estimation and developing a budget.
Part 1 Questions (10 points)
Provide responses to the following questions
1. You are providing a review of contractor bids for a component of your upcoming project. What can be done to determine whether or not a vendor’s bid is reasonable?
2. Describe the conditions for which parametric, analogous and bottom up estimation techniques work best, and provide 2 examples in support of each method.
3. Why is a cost management plan important? How does the plan benefit the project manager?
Part 1 responses should be presented in a question-response format. Use Arial font with 11 point. There is no word limit.
Part 2 Budget Estimating (30 points)
Using the same scenario from the previous unit on scheduling, create a time-phased budget for the following project. Prepare a figure like Exhibit 10.9 (see below), CPT 4e, that illustrates the daily and cumulative costs for the resource-leveled project.
Assume the following hourly rates:
Alcides $45 / hr.
Joan $50 / hr.
| Activity ID | Activity | Immediate Predecessor | Duration in days | Resource | Work Hours per Day |
| A | Evaluate freezers | | 2 | Alcides | 6 |
| B | Chart temperatures | | 6 | Joan | 4 |
| C | Review service record | | 2 | Alcides | |
| D | Consult with HVAC engineer | A, B, C | 3 | Alcides | |
| E | Develop construction plan | D | 10 | Joan | |
| F | Complete IC assignment | E | 2 | Alcides | |
| G | Complete ROI analysis | E | 5 | Joan | |
| H | Conduct regulatory review | E | 4 | Joan | |
| I | Obtain construction approval | F, G, H | 2 | Alcides | |
Part 3 Budget Estimating (50 points)
You are the project manager for a process improvement project for Company XYZ. Prepare a figure like Exhibit 10.9 (see below) that illustrates the weekly and cumulative costs for the resource-leveled project.
Hint: To accomplish this exercise, you’ll need to create a project schedule in MS Excel (or by hand), create resource assignments, assign costs to each resource, and assign the resources to each task. Some resource leveling will be required.
In this project, you have 3 employees: Ann, Becky and Clive. Each person is limited to the amount of time allocated to your project. Ann and Becky are available 30 hours/week; Clive is available 20 hours/week. There hourly rates are: Ann: $60/hour; Becky: $35/hour; and Clive: $50/hour.
| WBS | Activity | Immediate Predecessor | Estimated Duration in weeks | Resource |
| 1 | Process Improvement Project | | | |
| 1.1 | Operational definition | | | |
| 1.1.1 | Research literature | | 3 | Becky |
| 1.1.2 | Identify and define terms | 1.1.1 | 1 | Ann |
| 1.1.3 | Obtain approval of definition | 1.1.2 | 2 | Clive |
| 1.2 | Target Selection | | | |
| 1.2.1 | Solicit partners for pilot | | 2 | Ann |
| 1.2.2 | Hold brainstorming meeting | 1.2.1 | 2 | Becky |
| 1.2.3 | Identify characteristics of targets | 1.2.2, 1.3.1 | 1 | Ann |
| 1.2.4 | Obtain approval of partners | 1.2.3, 1.1.2, 1.3.4 | 1 | Clive |
| 1.3 | Question set | | | |
| 1.3.1 | Identify process group members | | 2 | Clive |
| 1.3.2 | Develop question set | 1.2.3 | 4 | Ann |
| 1.3.3 | Prototype and validate question set | 1.3.2 | 3 | Becky |
| 1.3.4 | Add partners | 1.3.1, 1.2.1 | 3 | Becky |
| 1.4 | Pilot process | | | |
| 1.4.1 | Schedule with target audience | 1.2.4 | 2 | Becky |
| 1.4.2 | Conduct beta test | 1.3.4, 1.2.4 | 2 | Clive |
| 1.4.3 | Process feedback from target audience | 1.4.2 | 2 | Ann |
| 1.4.4 | Conduct pilot | 1.4.3 | 2 | Clive |
| 1.4.5 | Analyze results | 1.4.4 | 2 | Clive |
Parts 2 and 3 Use MS Excel (MS Project is not acceptable) to create the budget estimate and present it similar to Exhibit 10.9. Show intermediate steps (schedule, resource schedule assignments, resource-leveled schedule and any other elements needed to create the time-phased budget estimate.