Budget Estimating

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 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, 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 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

Mechanics (10 points)

Part 1 responses should be presented in a question-response format.  Use Arial font with 11 point. There is no word limit.

.  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.

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.

It is expected that each part of this assignment have excellent mechanics (presentation, grammar and spelling) and exhibit the quality of work capable of a group of graduate students and working professionals. All sections of the document submitted must be readable at 100% magnification.