Case 13.1 tree trimming project

Project Management: Progress and Performance Measurement and Evaluation

Complete the following items for this assignment:

1. Read through the Case 13.1 Tree Trimming Project Case below. Respond to Questions 1 and 2 of the case. Use Microsoft Excel to complete this item and include all calculations in your Excel file. Note that showing all calculations in Excel is required.

Case 13.1 Tree Trimming Project

Wil Fence is a large timber and Christmas tree farmer who is attending a project management class in the spring, his off season. When the class topic came to earned value, he was perplexed. Isn’t he using EV?

Each summer Wil hires crews to shear fields of Christmas trees for the coming Holiday season. Shearing entails having a worker use a large machete to shear the branches of the tree into a nice, cone-shaped tree.

Wil describes his business as follows:

A. I count the number of Douglas Fir Christmas trees in the field (24,000).

B. Next, I agree on a contract lump sum for shearing with a crew boss for the whole field ($30,000).

C. When partial payment for work completed arrives (5 days later), I count or estimate the actual number sheared (6,000 trees). I take the actual as a percent of the total to be sheared, multiply the percent complete by total contract amount for the partial payment [(6,000/$30,000 = 25%), (.25 × $30,000 = $7500)].

1. Is Wil over, on, or below cost and schedule? Is Wil using earned value?

2. How can Wil set up a scheduling variance?

2. Complete Exercise 2:

A. Given the information provided for development of a catalog product return process for periods 1 through 5, assign the PV values (using the rules) to develop a baseline for the project. Compute the SV, CV, SPI, and CPI for each period. Explain to the owner your assessment of the project at the end of period 5 and the future expected status of the project at the completion. Use Microsoft Excel to complete this item and include all calculations in your Excel file. Note that showing all calculations in Excel is required.

B. Specifically, complete the table on pp. 509-510 below from the textbook (note that SPI and CPI can be determined after the table is completed). Assume that cumulative EV, PV, CV, SV, SPI and CPI values are needed. Also, complete the table at the top of p. 511. At the end of Period 5, what is the status of this project (be specific)?

Table 509

TABLE 510

TABLE 511

3. Discuss a strategy that you would use to communicate the status of the project to stakeholders.

4. Submit your Microsoft Excel file. Ensure that items 1 and 2 above are in the same Excel file but on different Sheets within the file.

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and in-text citations and references should be presented using APA documentation guidelines