Chase Retail Complex

Part A.

The project manager chosen by Chase Opportunity Chase Retail Complex Incorporated has the duty of overseeing the design and development of the plans for the four new 10,000 square foot buildings, which should consist of five spacious and open 2,000 square foot functional department areas. The company has sufficient resources to cover the project costs and therefore, the project was scheduled to proceed on January 2nd, 2007 as the buildings were supposed to be constructed on a plot of land that was previously secured and properly inspected. The goal of the project was to accomplish all critical tasks included in the projects path within the assigned budget and within the time frame to the highest level of building code standards and to the buyer’s personal level of satisfaction.

This paper explains how the project is developed within each of its seven parts where various exercises and components of each part are explained and computed in the project management software.

The project life cycle consists of four different stages that are distributed in varying sizes and amounts as they are effected in relation to time, which also effects the effort it takes to process through each stage. When the project goes through each life cycle stage, different people, resources, and businesses play different part of significance (Gido, 2015).

In the first stage of the life cycle different problems, needs, opportunities, and the solution to solve the problem are identifies. The second stage is the development of the solution. A proposal is often given to the customer in this stage to make an offer to be accepted. In stage three the implementation of the solution takes place. In this stage the tasks are accomplished up to the client’s quality levels, within the timelines, budgets agreed upon, and resulting in the customer’s satisfaction. When the project is complete its termination happens in stage five. In stage five the crew is dismembered. There are certain foreseeable outcomes and events which occur and create the need for the formulation and development of plans, costs, timeline, schedule, estimates for project implementation. The actual occurrence of these outcomes triggers the deployment of a team to set in motion the critical events and tasks broken down by different levels and sub actions and critical paths. As the project is first conceived it begins with the first life cycle stages and progresses through the rest of its stages. Examples of projects that begin and come to an end are marriages, building homes, space programs, festivals, events planning management. The project at hand needs a project manager to oversee the building of the four 10,000 square foot buildings. The needs of the size of the buildings are impacted by the cost of the larger sized five unit buildings and ranged up to 2,000 square foot maximum. The project manager must carefully consider the differences in sizes when negotiating the contract with the purchaser. There were opportunities to create project plans to include start and end dates, assignment of tasks at level one and level two to include sublevels and activities for primary and supporting responsibility assignments. Budget cost, work breakdown schedules, responsibility matrix, completion percentages and timelines, milestones, and monitoring are jobs for the project manager to take care of as well. In the project life cycle the project is developed after there is a contract signed between the contractor and the buyer and the contractor must perform to ensure that the finish product meets the requirements of the buyer as stated in the agreements, negotiations, and contracts. Therefore the project manager should have a good understanding of the terms, conditions, dates, and agreements in any legally binding contract. The life cycle of a project includes the workload that is to be accomplished in the third stage. The work breakdown tasks established included naming the primary and supporting activities people, and the first level activities run by the primary and second level by primary and supporting people (Gido, 2015). To proceed through the third stage for building the units A, B, C, D the project manager should use the project software to create the Gant Views for describing what the first and second level activities are and how they will break down into smaller sub activities. There is assignment to what group of workers will be assigned to each task and who will be the primary and support for each task. The life cycle of a project is listed below and outlines at least two tasks per stage.

Stage One

Stage Two

• Formal Request is sent for approval
• Contractors provide plans, costs, and time estimates.

Stage Three

• Chase Retail Complex responds to the RFP after development of the estimates for costs and amounts of resources, supplies, tools, materials, labor time requirement are carefully considered.
• A proposal is prepared and submitted for bidding. The winning bid is signed into a legal contract between the contractor and the buyer of the property.
  • The site is evaluated.

Stage four

• Hire the specialists needed to develop the project. These specialists will include: landscapers, inspectors, architects, engineers, interior designers, plumbers, concrete suppliers, contractors, crew members, carpenters, electricians, and painters.
• Finish landscaping and interior structures.
  • Install shower doors, mirror, and bathroom fixtures.

Part B.

• Complete accounting and billing tasks. Ensure all accounts and invoices are paid before the termination of any contracts can occur.
• Collect feedback from the customers to make sure they are satisfied and to obtain data for quality control for future projects improvement (Gido, 2015).

There is a developed work breakdown schedule and a responsibility matrix like the one in the book illustrated in the next few pages. The responsibility matrix depicts the level one activities as the first activity listed in each row and below each first activity there is the two sub activities, the sub levels, listed and each activity is assigned a number. The whole numbers are the first level activity and the decimal numbers are the second level activities. The columns consist of the groups of three members who are assigned and responsible for each level one or two activity. Two of the members for each group are a primary for each level one activity and two of the members are supporting responsibility for each second level activity. Once the matrix was developed then it became easy to see who is a primary who is secondary and if any of the activities can be performed simultaneously during the project building of the units. For example, as described in Bady (2016) in her step by step home building article, when considering how to do HVAC, plumbing, and electrical work, technically these three could be done together. Therefore, when developing the plans it is okay to assign them together. However, they will be done by different groups of people. Furthermore, the critical path is important to determining which tasks must be accomplished before others can begin and how should they be prioritized depending on which tasks will take longer or shorter to complete. Also, it appears that the electrical work could not only be done after the HVAC is also preferred it is done after the HVAC so that the wires don’t get tangled up in the ductwork. The matrix is an excellent tool for identifying the people that would be responsible for performing the work as primary as well as who would be there to support them. Supporting could mean anything from overseeing to informing and guiding or just being helpful in any way needed to the primary workers.

The primary activities that the work breakdown matrix shows are: grading and site, foundation, exterior structure, roof, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, interior structure, paving, and landscaping. The two secondary activities that the work breakdown matrix includes are clearing, inspecting for levelness, pouring concrete, curing concrete, designing the wall and floor, installing doors and windows, adding shingles and siding, installing water pipes and sewer lines and showers, installing ductwork and vent pipes, installing electrical wiring and fixtures, finishing drywall and finishing floors, mixing and pouring pavement, raking and mulching. The workers that were assigned to the tasks consisted of three people per group. There were names given to do the different tasks. In group one to do the grading and site prep were Sal, Jim, and Joe; group two to perform foundation construction were Randy, Mark, and Mike; group three – exterior structure were: Bob, Dan, and Ken; group four – roof were Jack, Steve, and Wally; group five – plumbing were Max, Tyler, and Damian; group six – HVAC were Bill, Scott, and Trevor; group seven – electrical were Seth, Neil, and Roy; group eight – interior structure were Don, Keith, and Andrea; group nine – paving were Greg, Jeff, and Pat; and group ten – landscaping were John, Lynn, and Beth. The matrix was designed to show the order in which the first and second level tasks were to be completed according to the project time line, completion status, and simultaneous tasks, and who would be responsible to complete each task in each group.

Table 1. Responsibility Matrix

Primary Support

ActivityResponsibilityResponsibilities

RoofJackSteve, Wally

HVACBillScott, Trevor

LandscapingJohnLynn, Beth

Paving GregJeff, Pat

PlumbingMaxTyler, Damian

Grading and Site PrepSalJim, Joe

Interior StructureDonKeith, Andrea

Foundation ConstructionRandyMark, Mike

Exterior StructureBobDan, Ken

ElectricalSethNeil, Roy

P=Primary ResponsibilityS=Supporting

Figure 1. Work Breakdown Structure Chart 1 of 3

Figure 2. Work breakdown Structure Chart 2 of 3

Figure 3. Work breakdown structure chart 3 of 3

Part C.

The information that was used and developed in Part B provided the answers to Part C

Table 3. Gant View

Table 4. Gant View

Note. From SmartSheet Project Software.

Work breakdown schedule in project software and Gant view and questions

Unit A

Unit B

Unit C

Unit D

Note. From MS Project 2016

How much time will it take to complete the overall project as considering that it takes a month of 8 hour workdays not including weekends to complete every activity? As seen in the Gant chart created in the project software and illustrated in the tables above there are ten level one primary activities to be completed and each activity takes about 30 days. The level two activities were not entered into the Gant view. The project starts on January 2nd, 2017 and ends on September 3rd, 2020. The Gant view depicts each level one activity completion times, scheduling for each level one activity, start date to end date, resources scheduled to work for 8 hour days and shows the last activity is completed on September 3rd, 2020. The time to complete the overall project for all four units and the details for projection completion times are per activity and the work breakdown schedule and Gant chart view is shown in the screenshots. The figure below indicates that it would take 1340 days to complete the project.

Table 9

Part D

The project manager is paid $30/hour, each primary (P) worker is paid $25/hour, and each

support (S) workers is paid $15/hour.

Primary worker salary 25/hr * 8 hr per day * 1340 days = $268,000

• Project manager salary 30/hr * 8 hr per day * 1340 days = $321,600

Support worker salary 15/hr * 8 hr per day * 1340 days = $160,800

Project’s Total labor cost = $750,400

Table 10

• I would consider allocation of total project costs for every element like materials, subcontractors, and labor, as well as the appropriate work packages in the work breakdown structure to estimate the total budgeted cost. The actual and budgeted costs should be taken into consideration and the actual costs should be kept as close to the budgeted costs as possible. Furthermore, factors such as size of an area within the unit may vary which could increase the costs of labor and materials if a large in size unit is produced. Other factors such as weather, overtime, holiday pay, increased cost in materials from the start to the end may change as well.

Estimated time to complete the project = 1340 days

Total labor cost to complete four units = $750,400

Part E.

Table 11. Start Date for Electric Revised

The reason why I made the changes in the project management work breakdown and Gant in Project is because according to Bandy, it is okay to complete rough plumbing, HVAC and electric simultaneously. Once the exterior structure is finished, siding and roofing can be installed. But those can also be done together. Furthermore, if there is a chance that a difference can be made in cost, time, and schedule by limiting time, changing a critical path, resource, or materials then we must consider what could be changed in our advantage. The most obvious factor that seemed could be changed to benefit the project was the electrical work start and end dates. Electrical and plumbing contractors start running pipes and wires through the interior walls, ceilings and floors. Sewer lines and vents, as well as water supply lines for each fixture are installed. To make it possible for all three events and tasks schedules to occur I would plan to have each primary working on his level one activity in different areas so that their paths do not cross unless they need to support each other and so they do not get the wires tangled up with the pipes, vents, or ductwork. In this simulation because the dates for electrical work were moved to start earlier, the completion time for each unit and total projection completion time is reduced by approximately 6 months. If the electrical work was scheduled earlier on each unit then on average all four units can be completed by May, 2020 instead of September 3rd, 2020. However, we must notice that HVAC ductwork and plumbing are often installed prior to wiring. This is done in attempt to simplify the work because it is easier to install wiring around pipes and ducts since they are flexible and less space consuming than the other way around.

Part F.

When it comes to building a home, a conflict may arise from a contractor who may have only applied one coat of paint on the walls in the building. If the buyer is not happy because he thinks that one coat is too transparent and not enough to cover all imperfections on the walls then he may request another coat. This request could incur additional cost for paint. If there is a conflict about quality of any kind the contractors might have to make a decision about whether they think it is fair to have to pay for extra costs even if they do not want to upset the customer or just roll on an extra layer of paint. Things like paint quality, color differences, and quality of application or even tint between an off white and an eggshell white can be seen as completely different than what the customer wants.

Part G.

Project Management Metrics #1: Schedule and Effort/Cost Variance

This measures that the project performs and progresses within the standards.  This metric contributes to the project’s profitability.

Project Management Metrics #2 – Productivity: Resource Utilization

This metric measure productivity of resources used in the projects and looks for any over

utilization.

Monitors the number or frequency of requests that are increasing over time which varies from the agreed upon tasks in the contract to observe frequent patterns that deviate from what should be happening in the scope of the work.

• Project Management Metrics #3: Change requests to Scope of work

Project Management Metrics #4: Quality and Customer Satisfaction

Quality is the number of severe, medium or low flaws seen through project lifecycle. Quality impacts Customer Satisfaction. Project managers needs to define, what severe, low and medium means. The sooner to catch the defects occurs in the life cycle the better (Verma, K, 2013).

Bibliography

Gido, J., & Clements, J. P. (2015). Successful project management. (6th ed.). Stamford, CT:

Cengage Learning.

Bady S. (2016). Step by step guide to the home building process. Retrieved from

https://www.newhomesource.com/resourcecenter/articles/a-step-by-step-guide-to-the-home-

building-process

Gido, J., & Clements, J. P. (2015). Successful project management (6th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Appendix C.

Verma, K. (2013). Five Project Management Metrics key to Successful Project Execution –

Operational Excellence. Retrieved from: http://obolinx.com/resources/2013/10/five-

project-management-performance-metrics-key-to-successful-project-execution-

operational-excellence