Measuring project success

Measuring project success Making cost, time, and/or scope adjustments as needed Critical thinking Problem solving Quantitative analysis Professional writing Assignment Instructions: performing an earned value analysis and writing a brief performance evaluation report.  a more detailed assignment, and it will require you to work with some case study files.  start this assignment early to allow for sufficient time. Below are the assignment guidelines Assignment Files: To complete this assignment, you will use the following three files: Lazrtrim Case Study Overview (attached) Lazrtrim MsProject File (attached) Lazrtrim Earned Value Analysis Worksheet (attached) Guide to Files File 1 -- PJM6000 - Case Study - Lazertrim -- The Laztrim Case Study file provides an overview of a sample case study you will be using. This will provide you some context to the evaluation you will be using and allow you to make some reasonable assumptions about the context of the project. File 2 -- The LazerTrim User Manual_PJM6000_StudentAssignmentFile.mpp -- This is where you will find details about the schedule of the project and progress to date. You will use this file to enter in actual data (provided in file 3) so that you can perform an analysis of performance. You will want to make sure that the baseline is set (see lecture 01 for how to verify this), and make sure that you set the status date to 10/30/15. File 3 -- PJM_Week5_Excel_Lazrtrim_EV_Worksheet_AssignmentUpload.xls -- This worksheet has two tabs. Tab one is the Actual data you will enter into the Laztrim MsProject file (see lesson 01 lecture to see how to do this). Tab two is the earned value calculations table, where you can enter the data from the MsProject file after you have entered the actual data to see all the earned value calculations (see Lecture 01 if you are uncertain as to how to do this). Creating Earned Value Data: For this assignment, you will use the above files to create a status report for the project. To create this report, you will first need to calculate the earned value data for the above sample case study. Please complete the following steps prior to writing the report: Read the Laztrim Case Study Overview (PJM6000 - Case Study - Lazertrim ) (attached above) Review the Laztrim MsProject file (The LazerTrim User Manual_PJM6000_StudentAssignmentFile.mpp ) (attached above) Review the Earned value worksheet (PJM_Week5_Excel_Lazrtrim_EV_Worksheet_AssignmentUpload.xls ) (attached above) Gather the Earned Value data from the MsProject file as illustrated in the Earned Value MsProject Example Lecture Enter the Earned Value data from the MsProject file into the earned value analysis worksheet (file 3) Use the earned value calculations from the worksheet as the basis for your report (include a copy of the data as an appendix in your Performance Report) Writing the Performance Report Using the earned value data gathered from the case, write a 1 - 2 page status report using the following structure: Report / Executive Summary - Summarize the finding of your report briefly (1 or 2 paragraphs); this should include the major finding of your report, as well as, your recommendations. It should be concise and direct. Current Status of Project -- In this section, you want to provide details regarding the current status. Tell whether or not the project is on or behind schedule, over or under budget. If there are variances, tell why they exist. What has gone wrong? What is going right? Provide the EVM data here, including CV, CPI, SV, & SPI. Explain what these values mean. Provide an brief analysis of what has happened in the project so that the reader understands why the variances exist, specifically. Forecast Future Performance - Based on the analysis, where is this project heading? Provide a forecast of future performance using EVM. What is the EAC and ETC for this project? Be sure to explain what these numbers mean in understandable terms. Recommendations - Based on your analysis, tell us what areas of the project are of concern. Is cost or time a concern in these areas? Does the scope need be considered? What are some possible solutions for cost and schedule related problems that might be applicable? Supporting Data - If relevant to your calculations and analysis, provide supporting data in the final section of the report as an appendix. The supporting data is not constrained by the page limit, but all other sections are. Be sure to include the summary table from the Excel worksheet as an appendix This will not seem like enough space to include all the data, but it is important that you are able to create concise, yet detailed, reports that provide the critical information. Therefore, you will need to determine what is the most critical information to include. Reports longer than 2 pages will lose credit. Here are some general guidelines for formatting: Use section headers so that it is clear what the sections of the report are This report should be single spaced; it should appear as a professional report, not an academic paper Make good use of tables and/or charts to report the data Be concrete; reference the case study and specifics regarding performance Include page numbers Write no more than two pages You should only submit one file -- the Performance Report, but you will lose credit if you don't include the table from the earned value analysis worksheet MsExcel file