Project Phases and Resource Allotments

In order to upgrade the archive website of the company, the project manager is required to develop a project budgetary plan. It is the responsibility of the project manager to complete the project within the estimated budget and allotted time. Budget variance is referred to as the difference between budget and baseline amount of the revenue, expense and the actual amount. In order to upgrade the website, different activities are considered by the project manager. For each of the project activities varied cost amount is also allotted. The project manager of this long-term project has considered various resources also.

WBS for upgrading the website of National Archives of Australia

The lists of resources allotted for the project include needful equipments, facilities, fees and charges, human resources, materials, statutory cost and services as well. In order to reduce workload from the project team members and project manager as well work break down structure is also developed. For this particular project, five different phases are designed in terms of initiation phase, planning phase, design phase, design phase, development phase, testing phase and closure phase.  

Contingency budget plan is a kind of fund that is set aside by the company to deal with the unpredicted conditions. It also helps to ensure the successful completion of the project program.  On the other hand, tolerance is percentages estimated for the total budgeting that can be spend without any kind of return program.  

For this particular project, overheads or indirect costs have been estimated. In order to upgrade the website of the company the indirect cost estimated for the below factors such as management, general administration, utilities, security, insurance, legal, building rentals, advertisement etc. For different activities, the total budget estimated is as follows:

For upgrading, the website units of measure are considered as it helps to define the perquisite inventory setup for the units of measure. For this project, the project measures and metrics are related to each other. The metrics serve values, thresholds, constraints, scope and duration of the project.  According to the developed Service Level Agreement (SLA) of the company, it is found that the project needs 3 years for its successful completion. The additional components that are to be incorporated include API compatibility, accessibility, privacy of the intellectual properties and hosting.

With the help precision, the values for the repeating measurements are clustered because it is all about the project exactness. After 12 weeks from the starting of the project, it s found that the project is progressing n the correct track. The actual cost for all the activities and the estimated cost do not vary a lot.

Overheads and Indirect Costs

 In order to measure the direct costs to provide proper services to the consumers it is necessary to use certain cost analysis tools by the project manager. The cost analysis tool incorporated in the site administrator helps to simplify the project. Due to various reasons, the cost analysis tools are widely used by the project managers. The two different types of cost analysis methods used by the project manager in this particular project include investment cost analysis and cost allocation analysis.

Investment cost analysis: With the investment cost analysis, all expenses involved to the activities are operated and estimated by the finance manager. The finance manager is responsible to include all the investment cost for the different activities.

Cost allocation analysis: With the help of this particular method, the project manager will be able to allot actual cost for different project activities. However, for accomplishing the cost allocation, the finance manager considers the budget information and service details.

		Budget Variance
		Current Budget Variance	Projected Budget Variance at Completion
Project	Report as of Date	Actual Expenditures	Planned Expenditures	Variance Amount	Variance Percentage	Date Baseline Occurred	Baseline Budget	Estimate At Complete	Variance Amount	Variance Percentage
project planning phase	4/10/2018	$63,320	$       60,000	$         3,320	6%	Mar-18	$60,000	$       65,000	$         5,000	8.3%
project design phase	5/11/2018	$       39,680	$       35,000	$         4,680	13%	Apr-18	$35,000	$       45,000	$       10,000	28.6%
Project development phase	6/20/2018	$       68,240	$65,000	$         3,240	5%	May-18	$65,000	$       68,000	$         3,000	4.6%
testing phase	7/20/2018	$       48,800	$       45,550	$         3,250	7%	Jun-18	$45,550	$       50,000	$         4,450	9.8%
				Budget Variance Key
					At or under Original or Re-baselined Cost Estimate
					Within 0-15% of Original or Re-baselined Cost Estimate
					More than 15% of Original or Re-baselined Cost Estimate

In order to avoid all the extra expenses and cost overruns the project manager should maintain certain procedures. Replanning of the project will bring back the project to its origin budget. The steps to be followed for the maintenance are as follows:

Dealing with the faulty planning: The finance manager should try to reduce all the project risks through proper planning.

Correcting poor management: Accurate project management tools and techniques should be implemented.

Hiring financial experts:  In order to avoid the cost level risks experienced financial experts should be hired.

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors	Resource Names	Cost
Schedule for upgrading website	118 days	Tue 2/20/18	Thu 8/2/18			$267,520.00
Initiation phase	16 days	Tue 2/20/18	Tue 3/13/18			$21,680.00
Developing business case	4 days	Tue 2/20/18	Fri 2/23/18		Project manager, Project planner	$8,000.00
Undertaking feasibility study	3 days	Mon 2/26/18	Wed 2/28/18	2	Financial manager	$2,880.00
Establishing project charter	4 days	Thu 3/1/18	Tue 3/6/18	3	Project manager, equipment [1],service	$4,800.00
Appointing project team members	5 days	Wed 3/7/18	Tue 3/13/18	4	Project manager	$6,000.00
Milestone 1: Completion of initiation phase	0 days	Tue 3/13/18	Tue 3/13/18	5		$0.00
Planning phase	20 days	Wed 3/14/18	Tue 4/10/18			$68,320.00
Creating project plan	5 days	Wed 3/14/18	Tue 3/20/18	5	Developer, Project manager, Supervisor, equipment [1],Project planner	$17,600.00
Creating resource plan	4 days	Wed 3/21/18	Mon 3/26/18	6	Project manager, Project planner	$8,000.00
Development of finanacial plan	5 days	Wed 3/21/18	Tue 3/27/18	8	Technical engineer	$3,600.00
Development of quality plan	6 days	Tue 3/27/18	Tue 4/3/18	9	Developer, statutory cost ,System analyst	$11,520.00
Creating risk plan	4 days	Wed 3/28/18	Mon 4/2/18	10	Project manager, materials [1],Risk analyst	$8,640.00
Development of acceptance plan	5 days	Wed 4/4/18	Tue 4/10/18	11	Project manager, Supervisor, Project planner, service	$13,200.00
Development of communication plan	6 days	Tue 4/3/18	Tue 4/10/18	12	Risk analyst, statutory cost	$5,760.00
Milestone 2: Completion of planning phase	0 days	Tue 4/10/18	Tue 4/10/18	13		$0.00
Design Phase	15 days	Wed 4/11/18	Tue 5/1/18			$39,680.00
Wireframe Design	5 days	Wed 4/11/18	Tue 4/17/18	14	Developer, equipment [1],materials [1],Technical engineer	$8,000.00
Visual design	4 days	Wed 4/18/18	Mon 4/23/18	17	Developer, Financial manager, Project planner, Technical engineer	$13,440.00
Prototype design	6 days	Tue 4/24/18	Tue 5/1/18	18	Project manager, equipment [1],Project planner, System analyst	$18,240.00
Milestone 3: Completion of design phase	0 days	Tue 5/1/18	Tue 5/1/18	19		$0.00
Development phase	36 days	Wed 5/2/18	Wed 6/20/18			$68,240.00
CMS implementation	7 days	Wed 5/2/18	Thu 5/10/18	19	materials [1],Project planner, Risk analyst	$12,320.00
Front-end development	8 days	Fri 5/11/18	Tue 5/22/18	22	Developer, Financial manager, System analyst	$23,040.00
Back-end development	9 days	Wed 5/23/18	Mon 6/4/18	23	Developer, equipment [1],materials [1],service	$7,920.00
Database development	12 days	Tue 6/5/18	Wed 6/20/18	24	Developer, Project manager	$24,960.00
Milestone 4: Completion of development phase	0 days	Wed 6/20/18	Wed 6/20/18	25		$0.00
Testing phase	22 days	Thu 6/21/18	Fri 7/20/18			$48,800.00
Black box testing	5 days	Thu 6/21/18	Wed 6/27/18	26	Project manager, Project planner, service	$10,000.00
User acceptance testing	8 days	Thu 6/28/18	Mon 7/9/18	28	Developer, Project planner, Risk analyst, statutory cost ,System analyst	$29,440.00
Compatibility testing	9 days	Tue 7/10/18	Fri 7/20/18	29	statutory cost ,System analyst	$9,360.00
Milestone 5: Completion of testing phase	0 days	Fri 7/20/18	Fri 7/20/18	30		$0.00
Closure phase	9 days	Mon 7/23/18	Thu 8/2/18			$20,800.00
Hosting of the website	3 days	Mon 7/23/18	Wed 7/25/18	30	Project manager, Fees and charges ,Project planner, Technical engineer	$8,160.00
Post-project review	2 days	Thu 7/26/18	Fri 7/27/18	33	Project manager, Project planner	$4,000.00
Stakeholder analysis	2 days	Mon 7/30/18	Tue 7/31/18	34	Developer, Fees and charges ,Project planner, statutory cost	$3,360.00
Documentation	2 days	Wed 8/1/18	Thu 8/2/18	35	Developer, Fees and charges ,System analyst, Technical engineer	$5,280.00
Milestone 6: Completion of closure phase	0 days	Thu 8/2/18	Thu 8/2/18	36		$0.00

Review of the project performance in terms of cost management 

The effectiveness of the estimated cost or cost management plan for the project can be measured by evaluation through performance measurement. The components analyzed for reviewing the project performance and progress are as follows:

• Management organization and responsibility allotment
• Objective analysis through measurable indicators
• Timeliness of the reports and data authentication
• Variation calculation between current cost and planned cost
• Inception performed and design changes

In order to improve the issues those might have occurs during the implementation of the project, are as shown in the below table:

Date	Description of the problem or opportunity	Recommended action for the next time/project	lesson learned raised by
22/02/2018	Wrong assumptions in cost emerge	In order to avoid the issues of cost emerge the project manager is required to make an activity feasibility study. It is expected that with the help of proper feasibility study the project manager will get to know about whether the project outcome is beneficial or not.
26/02/2018	Incorrect cost forecast	In order to reduce the issues of incorrect project forecast, the project manager is needed to consider additional budget and resources as well so that those can be used whenever required.
01/03/2018	Incorrect contract formulation	Proper policy and guidelines are required to set by the project manager before formulating the contract.  If any contractor is found breaking the rules then, penalty policy should be incorporated.
5/04/2018	Pinpoint improvement opportunity failure	Any project should be developed based upon the benefits could be obtained from it. It is the responsibility of the project manager. If it is found that from the strength of the project no such opportunity could be gained then the pinpoint of the project should be implemented.
24/6/2018	Issues in over budget	For some of the activities it has been found that the estimated budget is exceeding. Therefore, at the project planning phase based on the details of the activities,  budget the project manager and the finance manager should estimate the budget

 

The existing website of the company does not hold all the necessary components therefore the website should be improved with different essential technical functions and operations. The recommendations needed to be followed by the website developer and analysts are as follows:

Using attractive photos of the product and services: In order to attract and grab more number of consumers the project manager should use attractive photos of both the products and services to be served by the company.

Merchandize the products and services: Around 2/3 of the total sales of the company is depends upon merchandizing. In order to keep the things consistent the services and products of the company is needed to be well categorized. Besides this, the detail information of the services and products are also needed to be categorized in the website.

Easy website navigation: The project manager must ensure that the structure of the website is well organized and designed in such a way so that the visitors can browse the search engine very easily.

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