What is scope creep, and why should a project manager be concerned about it?
Scope creep refers to the changes that cannot be avoided in the scope of a project. This mainly happens in cases where the given project’s scope is not defined well, documented poorly, or not controlled properly. This is a negative happening in project management, and measures should be put in place to avoid its possible occurrence.
Generally, it’s also referred to as requirement creep. It involves fresh products or upcoming features of existing product designs during project implementation, without substantial addition in the resources, time, and finances. The project team is usually faced with the danger of moving away from their planned goals to focus on those coming along the way.
The project manager should take care of scope creep because as the project’s scope expands, more duties have to be performed within the original budget and time that was prepared for less recourse. This makes the project team run short of its original monetary and time plan (Gray and Larson, 2008).
“We cannot afford to terminate the project now. We have already spent more than 50 percent of the project budget.”
A project termination decision of a project that has used more than 50% of its budget, its budget leads to the abandonment of the given project. It’s not an easy decision to come up with given that many resources have been invested in it, and its termination leads to significant losses. However, such a decision can still be made due to the presence of challenging factors on the ground that hinder the realization of the set goals and objectives, e.g., the sudden withdrawal of the funding agency, a preliminary evaluation showing the project will not realize its objectives, unexpected loss of valuable resources among other reasons (Gray and Larson, 2008).
What role does a project retrospective perform? How is this different than a post-project evaluation conducted by the project manager and the project team?
The main goal of a project retrospective is to gain in-depth understanding (learning) by analyzing a software development project and recognizing the activities, processes, and characteristics that were important and which ones were not. On the other hand, a post-project evaluation aims to find out to which extent the project meets its budget, schedule, and other crucial measurable performance indicators (Gray and Larson, 2008).
What should an audit report include?
The audit report should include the following components:
- Summary: This consists of the most critical points of the given audit report in brief. It summarizes all the sections of the report.
- Introduction: This section encompasses all the details of the report, such as people, locality, and any other information regarding auditing. The goals and reasons for the audit have to be discussed here.
- Findings: Thorough audit information gathered from the field should be presented in the appendix. Performance evaluations can’t be avoidable to the project team who come from various fields at this point.
- Prioritized list of action: All the details of auditing problems should be identified in this section. A clear and comprehensive prioritized action plan should be given. The timescale should also be properly analyzed (Gray and Larson, 2008).
How should one go about preparing for an international project?
In preparing an international project, one should clearly understand the attributes of an excellent international proposal such as culture, geography, partners, challenges, awareness, bureaucracy, recourses. One should clearly understand the ground at which implementation will be done before the real process begins. This improves the implementation process (Gray and Larson, 2008).
The earned value analysis calculates, “The PV was $240, the EV is $230, and the AC $250, so we have a CV of $-20 and an SV of -$10”.
What does the above tell you about this project?
Cost variance (CV) is the difference between the actual costs (AV) and the earned value (EV). This being negative means that the project is not performing. The SV being negative implies that the project is behind schedule. Schedule Variance (SV) is the difference between planned value (PV) and earned value (EV). (PV) indicates that the project gets completed at an allocated point in time. (EV) indicates that the estimated value of money used in the allocation has to be completed at a point in the given time. Finally, the Actual Cost (AC) shows the amount of money used to finance the project.
Calculate & Interpret the CPI and SPI (show working).
The Cost Performance Index (CPI) and Schedule performance index (SPI) show rates in earned value analysis. They apply to projects at a point in time.
CPI = EV/AC =230/250 =0.92
CPI being less than one shows that the project is not performing, i.e., the given project is underperforming.
SPI = EV/PV = 230/240 = 0.96
SPI also being negative shows the project is underperforming (Gray and Larson, 2008).
Conclusion
All the project indicators show that it is underperforming, and the project team needs to evaluate the courses and find the best way forward.
Reference
Gray F, C. & Larson E, W. (2008). Project Management: The managerial process. Pennsylvania State University: McGraw-Hill.