Part 1. Geoff coolly surveyed his earned value table at the conclusion of month 24.

Part 1. Geoff coolly surveyed his earned value table at the conclusion of month 24. It was hard to believe that two short years ago, with his membership at Match.com about to expire, he had managed to craft an ad that was both urbane and manly enough as to catch the eye of the divine Miss Smylie. (The male model photo he substituted for his own certainly didn’t hurt either.) Now he was almost done managing this critical project. Some might think him crass for taking such an approach, but he practiced what he preached at the small school where he taught.

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Calculate the earned value (costs in the table are in dollars) as of month 24 for this project

Identify the schedule and cost variances for this project

Estimate the time and cost at completion

Comment on Geoff’s skills as a project manager

Part 2. See below for this week’s discussion topics. You can discuss any of the following topics (name your thread appropriately to indicate the topic chosen).

Discussion Topics:

Why is it important to measure progress against goals when managing a project?

Study the “Monitor Matrix for Global Projects” (provided under Additional Resources folder of this module as well as in Notes of this week). Discuss possible culture diversity impact on monitoring and controlling international projects (e.g., attitudes towards changes, data collection and reporting, relationship-oriented vs. achievement-oriented cultures).

What are some of the key drawbacks with S-curve analysis?

What are the benefits and drawbacks with the use of Milestone analysis as a monitoring device?

Comment on the prons and cons of Tracking Gantt chart as a monitoring device?

What are the major advantages of using EVM as a project control mechanism? Why don’t all projects use earned value management? What is difficult about using this technique?