Simulation Report By Group 2

1. What was your initial strategy (Scope Vs. Time Vs. Costs)

During the initial part of the project, we wanted to complete the project by 18th week, as the project was time critical. Therefore for us, our strategy revolved around completing the project in time and we ensured that the scope of the project was achieved. Later on, as we went way ahead of the schedule we changed our strategy to bring down costs

2. Which risks you identified and what was risk management plan

The project was time critical therefore the main risk was any delay in the project. The complete the work mostly high and medium -high skills resources were used to complete the tasks. Since the resources where high skilled, only standup meeting were done to conducted to effectively use the time. Also most of the tasks were outsourced to better manage the time and keep few resources ready when any more tasks to be completed or the pace of the work needed to quicken.

3. What actions did you take at each crisis and why? What was the outcome?

The major crises that we encountered during project are as follows Over budgeting Project was behind the schedule Resources were not satisfied with the work load(frustrated, bored) Over budgeting We tried to compensate the cost by varying the team size between 8 to 12 members

As per the management the project scope and time frame were changed so we had to put in all the resources to accomplish the task on time, instead of bringing down the cost we finally ended up completing the project in 15th week with a higher cost

Project behind the schedule We outsourced all the resources to accomplish the task on time We allowed overtime and utilized the maximum possible number of resources To monitor the project status we did stand up meetings with all the resources Unsatisfied resources To provide a sufficient work load we minimized the team size To deal with the work load issues of team we brought in one on one coaching

4. How you computed earned value and used it for decision-making We computed the earned value of the project based on the cost that we had actually accrued for the given week and based on the percentage completion of the project. At the end we computed the earned value for the entire project.

Earned Value = Cost of the project * percentage completion (Based on stages)

Therefore, the earned value of our entire project was $ 128,000 as compared to the planned value of $ 80,000 5. What was your final score? What was the learning? We got a score of 823. (We are attaching the screen shot of the various functionalities. But we are unable to take the screen shot of the score page, as the final rating column was no longer visible for us)

Going through the simulation game we gain a lot of insights about project management and the various issues that a manager has to face in real life situation. We also gained insights related to decision that a manager has to take and how to approach the situation and review it while the project is going on. Learnings: We learn that while doing a project the balance should be maintained between cost of the project and project schedule. In our case we gave a lot of emphasis on schedule and neglect the cost, leading to a high cumulative cost Focus should be given in each stage of the project starting from the beginning. If we neglect any part of the project or stage it will reflect in the final stage The team should be aware of its objective. So that the final decision could be taken easily. For example: while we were running behind the schedule, we tried to focus on completion of job. But our cost increased and again we struggled to maintain the cost. So has to decide whether to assign more weightage to job completion or to keep the cost within budget The output was directly related to the performance of the resources. Initially the team was bored as most of the work was outsourced and skills were not effectively utilized. Later when the dead line approached and the project schedule was reduced to 13 week, the team was highly stressed. The balance between the overtime, team meetings and coaching was not achieved. We tried to balance our resources by providing them one on one coaching as and when the team felt stressed or confused. Throughout the lifespan of the project we ensured that the weekly reviews were taking place. We implemented stand-up meeting only when the situation demanded

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