Project Management

Project Proposal

Our initial Statement of Need showed the City of Lompoc having many neighborhoods without parks. There were no neighborhood parks where the children of the community could congregate and have picnics and barbeques. The Lompoc city Council decided to budget for the landscaping and construction of two community parks. One would be located on the North East and one located on the South East side of the city. Providing the additional city parks would enable communities from both sides to have team sports for the children of the community as well as helping the city in a beautification and upgrading process. Not only would the parks be functional by providing recreational benefits to the community, but it would also beautify the city by providing trees and shrubbery to areas that are currently empty lots with little or no vegetation. The City Council voted to budget for two community parks over a five year period which made the start schedule of the project for April of 2007.

Stakeholders were initially identified as being the following:

The City Council who voted the budget for the projects and will remain concerned with the budget throughout the project.

The neighborhood residents involved within the two neighboring areas will be interested in seeing the parks built for their own personal recreational uses and knowing that their city tax dollars will be spent on a worthwhile project.

The landscape company hired to do the project will have a large interest as these projects will bring revenues into their company as well as the potential for future projects, depending on the company's ultimate performance.

The local nurseries who will be providing shrubbery, trees, compost, sod and other landscaping needs will be selling large quantities of material to the landscaping company.

Identified within the first proposal was the triple constraints theory. As any human undertaking, projects need to be performed and delivered under certain constraints. Traditionally, these constraints have been listed as scope, time and cost. This is also referred to as the Project Management Triangle where each side represents a constraint. One side of the triangle cannot be changed without impacting the others. Further refinement of the constraints separates product quality or performance from scope and turns quality into a fourth constraint. Time constraints refer to the amount of time available to complete a project. The cost constraint refers to the budgeted amount available for the project. The scope constraint refers to what must be done to product the project's end result. These three constraints are often competing constraints: increased scope typically means increased time and increased cost, a tight time constraint could mean increased costs and reduced scope and a tight budget could mean increased time and reduced scope.

The discipline of project management is about providing the tools and techniques that enable the project team to organize their work to meet these constraints. The three constraints to consider were finance, time and resources or project specifications. Our project was defined by these three constraints as well as others but for the sake of summarization, we will concentrate on our overall evaluation of the project based on time, budget and project specifications/resources.

Time

For analytical purposes, the time for each task was estimated. It was important to divide the work into several smaller pieces so that the progress became easier to measure. A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) helped to develop the list of tasks each of which was then given a time estimate. Note that time was not considered a cost or a resource since the project manager cannot control the rate at which it was expended. The requirements specified for the end result equals the overall definition of what the project should accomplish and a specific description of what the end result should or would be accomplished. The amount of time put into individual tasks determined the overall quality of the project. Certain tasks required a given amount of time to complete adequately, but given more time, enable the task to be completed exceptionally. Over the course of such large projects, quality has a significant impact on time and cost.

In order to complete the projects in a timely manner, the Critical Pathway Method was implemented. Our Gantt Chart showed that on Site One, the time allowance for irrigation was scheduled for ten (10) days but the actual amount of days to complete the irrigation would take thirteen (13) days.

Although the three-day difference from estimated time for completion to actual, this would not delay the start of irrigation work for the second site. Provided there were no further issues with irrigation, landscaping on Site One started one day after irrigation was completed. Landscaping on Site One is scheduled to start on time and should be completed on time as well.

The concrete and blacktop as well as the park equipment are also on target for Site One providing there are no barriers to slow down the completion of the landscaping. Thus far, the project is moving as scheduled. Our projection date is still on target for May 16, 2007. Site Two is also moving along as scheduled. Irrigation is on time and within budget and will be completed one full day prior to the start of the landscaping which is set to begin on April 26, 2007. At this point we have no reason to believe there will be a delay to start the landscaping as scheduled. Concrete and blacktop are on schedule as currently there are no delays in the landscaping. The park equipment project is scheduled to begin without delay. There is no cause for concern for delay in the schedule and thus far, our time frame is within the parameters.

Budget

The budget was originally allocated by the City Council of Lompoc. Thus far, the budget has not been an issue in the project process. Currently there are no anticipated budget constraints which have been identified. There is a buffer in the project cost versus the actual cost. This buffer allocated will cover any additional inflation costs throughout the nine week projects. Thus far, there are no additional inflation costs that have been identified. The original budgeted amount by the City Council of Lompoc for both parks was $600,000 for both parks. The actual cost of completing both parks has been estimated at $500,000. This leaves the cost variance at $100,000 indicating no cost overrun is expected. The cost variance is at 17 percent. The budgeted cost work schedule (BCWS) is $500,000, indicating a schedule