Project Resourse Management

Project Resource Management

Djuana Long

Project Management in the Business Environment - MGT573

Bruce Brown, Jr. - Facilitator

February 18, 2007

Project Resource Management

Every project manager is faced with the problem of how to estimate what it will take to accomplish the project's objectives. Estimating the time, cost, and resource is never simple, and the higher the stakes become, the more anxiety the estimate is. In order for the project planning, scheduling and controlling are to be effective; project manager must employ the methodology to accurately estimate time, cost and resources (Gray, 2005). One of the tools that help project managers to lie out the requirement tasks for a project is to construct a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). WBS defines tasks that can be completed, facilitating resource allocation, and assigning responsibilities. This paper will outline the WBS and the time-phased budget for the Care+ project, which will be implemented for The Managed Care Department of the hospital. Based on the outlined WBS, this paper discusses the data sets used by Learning Team A to determine the budget, the factors that could influence the estimate, and the micro approach the team takes to estimate the budget. Finally, this paper also identifies and prioritizes major constraints that are associated with this project.

Work Breakdown Structure

In order to assure that all products and work elements are identified, the following Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of the Care+ Project outlines the project with different levels of detail (Gray, 2005). The WBS assumes that the average salary for IT personnel including operator, programmer, analyst, and managers is $91/hour. In addition, the additional data was supplied to the project manager.

- 3 servers needed for the project with each one costs $1,250

- Each server is required the purchasing of one backup software with the cost at $1,500 per copy

- The $450,000 cost of software also includes the cost of software configuration, data conversion, and training for 2 persons and one-site resources for 2 days during the initial installation and go-live.

- 12 users who use the software need 2 days of training

- Time estimate from other departments that will help with the project

Case Management Software

For The Managed Care Department

Time-Phased Budget

A time-phased budget is a procedure to determine "when" money must be available. Obtaining a time-phased budget requires knowledge of the duration of the work plan. The time-phased budget for the work plans are assigned to schedule time periods to determine the financial requirements for each period during the lifecycle of the project. This strategy helps an organization forecast future cash outflows and track actual cost variance. (Project Management Training) The following diagram lists the tentative breakdown of hours and cash flow for the implementation of the new Case Management System software package.

Time-Phased Budget for Care+ Software

Work Weeks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total

Cost

Case Management-Care+ $450,000 - - - - - - - $450,000

$1250 ea. Servers (3) 3,750 - - - - - - - 3,750

$1500 ea Backup software (3) 4,500 - - - - - - - 4,500

$91 per hour Total

Programmer (40 hours) - $455 $1,365 $910 $455 $455 - - $3,640

Database manager (65 hours) - - $910 $1,365 $1,365 $1,365 $455 $455 $5,915

Project analyst (150 hours) $3,640 $3,640 $3,640 $910 $455 $455 $455 $455 $13,650

Operations Analyst (20 hours) - - - $455 $455 $910 - - $1,820

Interface Manager (20 hours) - - - - $455 $1,365 - - $1,820

Network Analyst (10 hours) - - - - - $910 - - $910

2 Trainers (2 days each) - - - - - - $2,912 $5,824 $8,736

12 Trainees (2 days each) - - - - - - - $17,472 $17,472

Total cost $461,890 $4,095 $5,915 $3,640 $3,185 $5,460 $3,822 $24,206 $512,213

Primary Cost Drivers

Identifying primary cost drivers are the key to keeping the project at or under the allocated budget. It was stated in the scenario that "the manager of each department has provided you with estimates of the time required to complete this project." One primary cost driver for the project under the current scenario is the failure of having provided the proper estimates of the time required to complete the project. In general, one of the biggest cost drivers with any project at any business always revolves around the labor. The severities of missing the correct estimates of time are high. Labor will also be the cost driver in this scenario due to having the proper written estimates of the time required to complete the training for the managers and other personnel for the new software. Due to the improper estimates of time required to complete the task, this will lead to improper evaluation of cost allocation for the number of hours of IT work needed.

Along with the misallocation of monies for the IT worker's time, the prior estimates on the number of trainers needed might need to be revised and the number of hours for each task or items would also need to be revised. If the number of hours were more than the estimate, then this would require more money to cover the additional hours of work. These were just a few examples of how the primary cost could be driven up and thus affect the budget allocation.

Factors that could influence the accuracy of the Estimates

Determination of budget estimates