Chapter Exercises | IT Project Management: On Track from Start to Finish, Third Edition

Exercise 1

In this exercise you will use a Microsoft Project feature called resource leveling. Resource leveling is a process to suppress overallocation of a resource, typically a team member. Microsoft Project tracks resources and creates reports based on the resources that are overallocated. This process is helpful in balancing the implementation of your project to reduce expenses, time wasted , and project burnout.

To complete this exercise, you will need Microsoft Project installed on your computer and the CD-ROM included with this book. Follow these directions to complete the exercise:

Open Microsoft Project and then select File Open .
Navigate to the Exercises folder and then to the CH8 folder on the CD-ROM and choose the Microsoft Project named Exercise One.
This project is based on the PND you created in Chapter 7. Click the Resource Sheet on the View menu. Notice how the team members have been added to the project.
Note how Allan Hurt and Zack Talley are listed in red. In the Indicators column, note how there is a yellow exclamation next to their names . Hover your mouse over the yellow exclamations. The pop-up message reports the resource should be leveled as it is overallocated.
Click the Resource Graph. Double-click anywhere under the calendar (on the right side of the screen). The Bar Styles dialog box opens. In the Overallocated resources section, set the Show As option to Step Line and then click OK.
Scroll through the calendar and you will see the resources that are overallocated and the days they are overallocated. On the left of your screen, you can also scroll to the right and left to toggle through each team member and see their allocation.
From the View menu, select Gantt Chart to see the tasks the team members are responsible for. You will now invoke resource leveling to see the impact on the overallocated resources and the project.
From the View menu, select Resource Sheet.
From the View menu, confirm that Table: Entry is selected. If not, choose Table and then choose Entry from the pop-up menu.
From the Tools menu, select the Resource Leveling command to open the Resource Leveling dialog box.
In the Leveling Calculations field, choose Manual and in the Look for overallocations drop-down menu, choose Day by Day.
Confirm that the Clear Leveling Values check box does have a check mark in it.
In the Leveling range for Exercise One, confirm that Level Entire Project is selected.
In the Leveling Order box, confirm that Standard is selected.
Confirm that there isn t a check mark beside the option Level Only Within Available Slack. (This option will only allow Microsoft Project to allocate resources within available lag times. By not checking this option, the project end date can be moved to resolve the overallocation problem.)
Confirm that there is check mark beside the options Leveling can adjust individual assignments on a task and Leveling can create splits in remaining work.
Click Level Now.
Confirm that Entire Pool is selected and click OK. Microsoft Project will level the resources.
Notice that the yellow indicators are now gone. You have leveled the resources on a day-by-day process.
From the View menu, choose More Views Leveling Gantt Apply. Within the Leveling Gantt view, the Gantt chart demonstrates the difference before the leveling and after. The green bar on top of the task duration represents the preleveled task, while the blue represents the task after leveling.
Close the file. It is not necessary to save your work unless you would like to examine the file in more detail at a later time.

Exercise 2

In this exercise you will enter hours and percentages of work completed from your team members into Microsoft Project. This exercise requires that you have Microsoft Project installed on your computer; you also need the CD-ROM that accompanies this book.

Open Microsoft Project and select File Open.
Within the CH8 folder on the CD-ROM, choose the Microsoft Project file named Exercise Two.
From the View menu, choose More Views Task Sheet Apply.
From the View menu, choose Table Tracking.
Notice the actual start date is set as NA. Until work is actually reported , this setting remains Not Available ; once work is entered, the start date is reflected.
In the first task, Installing W2K Server, navigate to the cell under %Comp. Type 100 and press ENTER to advance to the next cell in the %Comp column. Notice how the remaining columns are updated to reflect the work completed.
For the second task, Create Workbook, type 10 and press ENTER to advance to the next cell in the %Comp. Again the remaining columns are updated.
For the third task, Install Exchange, type 50 and press ENTER.
For the fourth task, type 40 and press ENTER.
To finish, close the file.

Exercise 3

In this exercise you will compute the Earned Value Management for a project and review the EVM formulas. If you have Microsoft Excel installed, you will be able to use a template to complete the exercise. If you do not have Microsoft Excel, you will be able to complete the exercise, but will need a calculator to finish.

Exercise 3a: Follow these directions if you have Microsoft Excel installed:

From your CD-ROM, in the CH8 folder, open the Microsoft Excel document named EVWorksheet. The document is a spreadsheet that will automatically calculate the Earned Value Management values based on the information you supply.
To begin, confirm that you re on the worksheet named EVM formulas. This worksheet lists all of the EVM formulas and how they operate . You can hop back to this worksheet as you move through the exercise.
Move to the worksheet named EVM Actions by clicking on the worksheet name at the bottom of the workspace.
You ll enter values into the green highlighted area at the top of the worksheet. You won t need to edit any of the values that are highlighted in yellow.
Here s your scenario: You are the project manager of the APPDEV Project. Your project has a BAC of $550,000 and is expected to last one year. As of now, your project is 25 percent complete, but you should actually be 40 percent complete. Due to some incidents early on, you ve already spent $225,000 of your project budget. Enter the appropriate values from this scenario into the appropriate cells in the green highlighted area in the worksheet.
What is your Earned Value?
What is your SV?
What is your CPI? What does this value mean?
What is your SPI? What does this value mean?
Good news! You ve just learned that your project is actually 40 percent complete, not 25 percent. What does this do to your project s EVM values?

Exercise 3b: Follow these directions if you do not have Microsoft Excel installed:

Here s your scenario: You are the project manager of the APPDEV Project. Your project has a BAC of $550,000 and is expected to last one year. As of now, your project is 25 percent complete, but you should actually be 40 percent complete. Due to some incidents early on, you ve already spent $225,000 of your project budget. Enter the appropriate values from this scenario into the appropriate cells in the following table. Grab your calculator and complete the table:

Term	Formula	Result
Earned Value	%Complete * BAC
Cost Variance	EV “AC
Schedule Variance	EV “PV
Cost Performance Index	EV/PV
Estimate at Completion	BAC/CPI
Estimate to Complete	EAC “AC
Variance at Completion	BAC “EAC
Planned Value	Where the project should be at this point.
To Complete Performance Index	(BAC “EV)/(EAC “AC)