Information Technology
Project Management

Project Execution and Control

This lecture reviews steps project managers can take to execute projects, measure the outcomes and control project performance.

Objectives

1. Select and manage project team and vendors
2. Track performance against project plans and budget
3. Assess project quality through regular monitoring of progress and nature of progress.
4. Analyze personnel cost of a project and tradeoffs between cost of project and completion date.

Assigned Reading

1. Chapter 4:  Execution Phase in Houston S, Bove LA. Project Management for Healthcare Informatics, 2007.
2. Chapter 5:  Control Phase in Houston S, Bove LA. Project Management for Healthcare Informatics, 2007.

Presentations

1. Lecture on project execution  Slides► Listen► SWF► You Tube 1► You Tube 2►  Arabic 1►  Arabic 2► 
2. Lecture on project control  Slides► Listen►  SWF► Arabic►

What you know?

Advanced learners like you, often need different ways of understanding a topic. Reading is just one way of understanding. Another way is through writing about what you have read.  The enclosed assessment is designed to get you to think more about the concepts taught in this session. 

1. What are the phases of team building according to Tuckman?
2. What are the four questions that the status reports should concentrate on?
3. What are issue logs and what information should be collected in these logs?
4. What is the purpose of the project team's storming phase?
5. What are the elements that should be included in the status meeting agenda?
6. What are the top 10 reasons projects fail?
7. Is it the purpose of the project manager to focus on tasks to be done or to make sure that the team members are having fun, socializing and celebrating project's progress?  Why?
8. What are the key activities of the control phase?
9. What are the 15 leadership skills suggested by Peters and is there any evidence that management students can be trained in these skills or that these skills are key to success?
10. Define the following terms, planned value, earned value, actual cost, cost variance, schedule variance, cost performance index, schedule performance index, budget at completion and percentage complete.  If any of these variables can be calculated from other variables in the list, show the relationship.  Give the formula for calculating Estimate at Completion.

Please send an email to your instructor with your responses to the above questions.    Make sure that the email subject line includes the course number, topic name and your name, otherwise it will not get to the right place.  If you wish to receive a receipt that the instructor has received your email, you may request the receipt from your email program.  Please respond to all of the questions within the same email.  Do not attach any files.  Keep a copy of all your emails to the instructor till the end of the semester.  Email►

Rapid Analysis

1. Using the status report document on page 121 of the book "Project Management for Healthcare Informatics" provide a progress report of your personal improvement project.

2. Given the following information, calculate the earned value, cost variance, schedule variance, and cost performance index for weeks one and two.  Calculate the Estimate to Completion.  Make a plot of planned, actual and earned values.  Show the Estimate At Completion on the plot.  See a guide on how to do this assignment.  Video► SWF►
    

   	Week One	Week Two	Other Weeks	Week Ten (Project End)
   Rate of performance	50%	75%
   Planned value	$7,000	$27,000		$100,000
   Actual cost	$8,000	$29,000