Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLANNING 1

Project Management Planning

Odell Kruah
Columbia Southern University
Dr. Stephen Onu
April 15, 2019
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Project Management Planning

A building in Northern Virginia is needed to be constructed within two years at a cost of

$500,000. The constriction of the building is governed by a contract the client signed with the

county building constriction authority. For the project to be initiated, the first thing is the

approval from the county. During planning (initial phase of project management) construction

activities were allocated time and resources and hence the resultant estimated time was 2 years.

During the initial time of execution of activities, a concern on an increase in cost by 10% arises

due to delay of the project by 3 months. The purpose of this report is, therefore, an explanation of

the delays in the project and the increased constriction cost. It also gives an outline of how the

development team is going to control the cost and schedule the project to achieve the

predetermined construction period.

Reasons for the Variation from our original Project Plan
The main factor that leads to the variation from our original project management plan is

the delay in the processing of permits from the county authority. During the planning and

allocation of time and resource, we allocate three months for approval of construction permits.

This, later on, proved to us that we allocated a small time for this activity. It is very difficult to

understand the process of other authorities and thus one may not accurately estimate the time in

which the third party in a business sense will take to consider the request. In our case, we didn’t

have enough capacity to dig deeper to understand the time in which the construction authority

will take to process the permit. Having allocated three months to this activity, we had to wait for

another three months for them to approve. We went further to ask the authority for the reason for

such delay and we found that the answer was on the question of the land. There were some

processes that needed to be done to ascertain on whether the land is fit for construction. Such
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activities associating with the issue of land includes nearness to the public road, stability of the

basement of the land, verifiable ownership of the land. The critical issues issue in this particular

case was on the public road, where the land was seemingly to be very near to the road.
The second factor is on increased overhead costs and this best explains the reason why

the cost has a shoot from $500,000 to $600,000. From fundamental principles of project

management, an increase in time attracts other expenses (Larson & Gray, 2017). One factor that

leads to deviation in cost is subscription. Tools that will be used in construction were hired and

the lending organizations charge for the use of their tools on a monthly basis. The delay of

construction for three months implies an increase in monthly subscriptions from the lending

organizations hence attracts an increase of the overall cost by 10%. In addition to these, the

construction is under security provided by two security companies. We must submit security fee

on monthly basis to the providers and this means that an elongation of the project management

period by three months will require us to pay an extra subscription security fee on the same. Yet

another influential factor is on salaries and allowances payable to the labor (human resource).

We had already employed workers for the execution of project activities and are to be paid

monthly. Then if we attempt to account for the delay of the project, we are an oath to pay for

salaries and allowances for three months and this increase the cost of the project.
Steps on how Management Team is going to Control the Costs and Schedules
Having delayed project for three months, it is important to control its management in

order to achieve the cost and time of the initial plan. This needs to be done for two reasons: (a) to

deliver the project to the client on time and (b) to cut short on the cost of running the project. Our

management team has identified the impacted activities including the supply of contraction

materials, preparation of foundation, painting, wiring/installation of electricity, fencing, roofing,

erection of walls, finishing, installation of water pipes/water supply, installation of

security/CCTV surveillance. The project team shall have to restructure execution activities in
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order to catch up on time. The activities that had been allocated more time will have to be

executed on minimal time to allow room for other activities. Other activities will be done

concurrently. The table below shows the tasks and resources allocated to them.

Tasks Resources Time Cost

1. Establishment of Mason 2 month $60,000
Foundation
2. Fencing Fencer 2 months
3. Supply of materials Tenders 2 moths $80,000
4. Erecting of walls Masons 10 months $200,000
5. Roofing Mason 2 moths $40,000
6. (a)Installation of Electricians, IT 4 moths $80,000
Electricity consultant, and
(b)Installation of plumbers
Water supply
(c) installation of
CCTV
surveillance
Painting Painter 2 moths $40,000

Reflection on My Learning
I have learned that planning is important to phase of project management, where all

activities are assigned resources and time. I have also learned that increasing duration of project

management results in increased overhead costs due to the constant rate of subscriptions that is

imposed project management process. It is important to allocate enough time resources to project

activities to account for contingencies and other risks that may occur (Kerzner, & Kerzner,

2017). In a situation where the project tends to go in the wrong direction, it is possible to

restructure the already planned activities in to maintain overall management time and costs.

These lessons have impacted my decision on reorganizing the project in order to fit into a cost

and predetermined period.

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References
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,

scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2017). Project management: The managerial process. McGraw-

Hill Education.