Answer to the Question no.

3(a)
A buy-in in the financial markets is an occurrence in which an investor is
forced to repurchase shares of security because the seller of the original
shares did not deliver the securities in a timely fashion or did not deliver
them at all.

A buy-in can also be a reference to a person or entity buying shares or a

stake in a company or other holding. In psychological terms, the buy-in is
the process of someone getting on board with an idea or concept that is
not their own but nonetheless appeals to them.

A buy-in is a reference to the repurchasing of shares by an investor

because the original seller failed to deliver the shares as promised. A buy-in
can also be an agreement to purchase shares of something, in some cases
to buy a stake in a company that also has other owners.

Since most owners are generally interested in acquiring only a specific type
of constructed facility, they should be aware of the common industrial
practices for the type of construction pertinent to them. Likewise,
the construction industry is a conglomeration of quite diverse segments and
products. Some owners may procure a constructed facility only once in a
long while and tend to look for short term advantages. However, many
owners require periodic acquisition of new facilities and/or rehabilitation of
existing facilities. It is to their advantage to keep the construction industry
healthy and productive. Collectively, the owners have more power to
influence the construction industry than they realize because, by their
individual actions, they can provide incentives or disincentives for
innovation, efficiency and quality in construction. It is to the interest of all
parties that the owners take an active interest in the construction and
exercise beneficial influence on the performance of the industry.

In planning for various types of construction, the methods of procuring

professional services, awarding construction contracts, and financing the
constructed facility can be quite different. For the purpose of discussion,
the broad spectrum of constructed facilities may be classified into four
major categories, each with its own characteristics.

Residential housing construction includes single-family houses, multi-family

dwellings, and high-rise apartments. During the development and
construction of such projects, the developers or sponsors who are familiar
with the construction industry usually serve as surrogate owners and take
charge, making necessary contractual agreements for design and
construction, and arranging the financing and sale of the completed
structures. Residential housing designs are usually performed by architects
and engineers, and the construction executed by builders who hire
subcontractors for the structural, mechanical, electrical and other specialty
work. An exception to this pattern is for single-family houses which may be
designed by the builders as well.

The residential housing market is heavily affected by general economic

conditions, tax laws, and the monetary and fiscal policies of the
government. Often, a slight increase in total demand will cause a
substantial investment in construction, since many housing projects can be
started at different locations by different individuals and developers at the
same time. Because of the relative ease of entry, at least at the lower end of
the market, many new builders are attracted to the residential housing
construction. Hence, this market is highly competitive, with potentially high
risks as well as high rewards.

Institutional and commercial building construction encompasses a great

variety of project types and sizes, such as schools and universities, medical
clinics and hospitals, recreational facilities and sports stadiums, retail chain
stores and large shopping centers, warehouses and light manufacturing
plants, and skyscrapers for offices and hotels. The owners of such buildings
may or may not be familiar with construction industry practices, but they
usually are able to select competent professional consultants and arrange
the financing of the constructed facilities themselves. Specialty architects
and engineers are often engaged for designing a specific type of building,
while the builders or general contractors undertaking such projects may
also be specialized in only that type of building.

Because of the higher costs and greater sophistication of institutional and

commercial buildings in comparison with residential housing, this market
segment is shared by fewer competitors. Since the construction of some of
these buildings is a long process which once started will take some time to
proceed until completion, the demand is less sensitive to general economic
conditions than that for speculative housing. Consequently, the owners may
confront an oligopoly of general contractors who compete in the same
market. In an oligopoly situation, only a limited number of competitors
exist, and a firm's price for services may be based in part on its competitive
strategies in the local market.

Specialized industrial construction usually involves very large scale projects

with a high degree of technological complexity, such as oil refineries, steel
mills, chemical processing plants and coal-fired or nuclear power plants.
The owners usually are deeply involved in the development of a project,
and prefer to work with designers-builders such that the total time for the
completion of the project can be shortened. They also want to pick a team
of designers and builders with whom the owner has developed good
working relations over the years.

Although the initiation of such projects is also affected by the state of the
economy, long range demand forecasting is the most important factor
since such projects are capital intensive and require considerable amount of
planning and construction time. Governmental regulation such as the
rulings of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission in the United States can also profoundly influence decisions on
these projects.

Infrastructure and heavy construction include projects such as highways,

mass transit systems, tunnels, bridges, pipelines, drainage systems and
sewage treatment plants. Most of these projects are publicly owned and
therefore financed either through bonds or taxes. This category of
construction is characterized by a high degree of mechanization, which has
gradually replaced some labor-intensive operations.

The engineers and builders engaged in infrastructure construction are

usually highly specialized since each segment of the market requires
different types of skills. However, demands for different segments of
infrastructure and heavy construction may shift with saturation in some
segments. For example, as the available highway construction projects are
declining, some heavy construction contractors quickly move their work
force and equipment into the field of mining where jobs are available.

Answer to the Question no. 3(b)

While there are many ways to address the innumerable performance
metrics of any project, the critical factors always seem to come down to
time and money.
Will the project be delivered on time? Will it be completed within
budgetary constraints and expectations? Stay on top of these essential
parameters in your project management dashboards.
Timing
Every business has to deliver product or services in a timely way. Windows
of business opportunities close quickly, market trends change, and holidays
come and go. The following strategies help to effectively monitor and
manage project timing:
Incorporate enough detail. Show enough grain in your project schedule to
allow you to assess the progress of the project and whether or not work is
being accomplished in the time frame allotted to it. Include a bit of project
history from the previous weeks or months along with the list of work to be
accomplished and the team members assigned to various project
components. Be sure to list the actual time spent on tasks compared to the
time allocated to them. This data will help determine whether the current
schedule should be adjusted one way or the other to successfully meet
delivery dates.
Create milestones. Break down the entire project into manageable
milestones. Then you’ll be able to compare three trend lines: the timeline
originally targeted, the amount of time already invested towards
completion, and the actual percentage of completion that the project is
currently reflecting. These variables will give you a clear idea of how the
project is performing and enough perspective to forecast more effectively.
Use a time-honored tool. Earned Value Analysis (EVA) charts are valuable
tools to help you measure your project’s progress at any given point in
time, as well as forecast its completion date and cost. You’ll readily see
when a project needs a course-correction so adjustments can be made to
keep it on track for on time delivery.
Money
The other side of the fulfillment coin is money. Keeping the project within
budget is essential to its (and your) success. Key strategies to stay on top of
your project’s budget include:
Know where you stand: Use a Project Snapshot Report to view your
project’s budget compared to what’s been billed and what has not yet been
billed to your client. This way you’ll know the status of your budget at any
stage of its timeline.
Include Timesheet Details: Pair the Snapshot Report with a Timesheet
Details Report to provide even more insight. Make sure you can easily
separate time by project, phase, and employee so you can easily identify
and resolve any problems. From this, you’ll add an additional layer of depth
to your dashboard.
There are two main control variables available to the Project Manager
during the course of a project: hours and progress. These two variables
enable us to apply Earned Value Management principles and thus gain
insight into project performance at any time.
The “hours” variable is used to build a connection between project time
and costs, both in terms of estimates and real values. Time and cost move
together; “time is money”. Using “hours”, a Project Manager plans his or
her entire project and calculates the time needed to complete it, as well as
the resulting costs.
 
We should be clear that more work time does not equal more progress
in a project, and a good Project Manager should be fully aware of certain
concepts regarding types of hours:
 Budgeted hours: this represents the number of hours available for
completing the project. This will lead to certain costs that the
Project Manager can stipulate.
 Estimated hours: once the project is defined on a task level (with
a schedule and time estimates, as well as a selection of resources
involved), hours can then be assigned to users. An estimate will be
made of the number of hours needed by each user to complete the
task; in other words, the number of hours considered appropriate to
complete the activity. Each user will have a cost per hour assigned to
their professional category so that their assigned effort will be
reflected in an estimated cost.
 Real hours: the number of hours effectively worked can be obtained
at any point during the course of the project and reported by the
project team members. Based on their individual cost, the real cost of
the resources at any time can also be obtained.
 Accepted hours: the hours reported by users can be accepted or
corrected manually by the Project Manager. It may therefore be the
case that the real cost does not fully depend on the reported hours
but also on whether they are accepted by the Project Manager.
The Earned Value Method (EVM) is used to measure progress on project
completion in an objective fashion. This combines three vitally important
aspects in the completion of a project: technical (compliance with the
planned work); costs (whether more or less is spent than originally
planned); and deadline (whether the project is ahead or behind schedule).
The components of this are described below:
  Earned Value (EV): the progress on activities planned at the start of
the project at any given time is determined. This gives rise to another
series of data that is referred to as Earned Value (EV), indicating the
progress made to date.
 Planned Value (PV): the detailed planning of the project indicates
what is going to be done and on what dates, as well as how much it
was thought it will cost (both in personal and material effort). These
values are known as the Planned Value, which is nothing more than a
budget spread. The total Planned Value is usually called the Budget at
Completion (BAC).
 Actual Cost (AC): the cost incurred by the work carried out on a task
during a period. This reflects the total cost to date in relation to the
work completed. For a project to fall within estimated parameters, it
would need to correspond to what was budgeted for the PV and
measured by the EV.
 Analysis of Earned Value
 Cost Variance (CV): CV = EV-AC
 Schedule Variance (SV): SV = EV-PV
 Cost Performance Index (CPI): CPI = EV/AC
 Schedule Performance Index (SPI): SPI = EV/PV

As Project Manager, you should follow the advice of Benjamin Franklin in

the 18th Century and “remember that time is money”. Do not forget to
apply the best practices in Earned Value Management and thus monitor the
status of your projects relatively easily and simply, being this the perfect
time as well to get a good tool of project management, that allowed us to
make our work easier.