Linda Construction LLC is a general contracting company. The company performs contracted work mainly in the area of engineering and heavy construction. The company executes multiple projects simultaneously at any given time and each project is managed by a project manager (YOU in this case as a project manager working there).

Most contracts are awarded to your company on the fixed cost basis contract and on "design bid-build" basis procurement method. This means that projects executed by your company can only be profitable by completing projects on time and within budget with a heavy penalty on late completion. However, in construction projects, cost and/or schedule overruns could occur due to a variety of internal and/or external factors. These costs or schedule overruns can quickly wipe out profit margins and may result in a loss. Project losses generally are the result of problems of a few activities in a project which may impact other activities and hence, the entire project may be impacted negatively. It is not possible to avoid all schedule or cost overruns (like schedule overruns due to severe weather conditions), however, proper project monitoring can reduce the impact of these overruns.

Recently your company has been awarded a contract by a mining company for building a community centre on a fixed cost "design-bid-build" project.

Project Case Data:

The following Data are presenting the project case

Table 1: is the project work packages and tasks (outline WBS)

Table 2: is the schedule plan baseline

Table 3: is the cost plan baseline

Table 1: Project Main Task and sub-tasks

ID	Task name	Duration (weeks (w) / days (d*))	Predecessor Tasks Assume F-S relationship between the tasks.
	A. Site Development
1.	Site Survey	1w	Project Start
2.	Site Cleaning	2w	1
3.	Waste Removal	5d	2
4.	Milestone 1	0	3
	B. Foundations
5.	Level Ground	10d	4
6.	Dig Trenches	10d	5
7.	Sewage Connections	10d	6
8.	Electrical (to mains)	10d	6
9.	Gas (to mains)	5d	6
ID	Task name	Duration (weeks (w) / days (d*))	Predecessor Tasks Assume F-S relationship between the tasks.
10.	Pour Concrete	10d	7,8,9
11.	Brick Foundations	5d	10
12.	Milestone 2	0	11
	C. Walls + Roof
13.	Brick Walls	10d	12
14.	Wooden Rafters	10d	13
15.	Windows Preparation	15d	13
16.	Lay Roof Tiles	15d	15
17.	Milestone 3	0	16
	D. Interiors
18.	Electrical Wiring	15d	17
19.	Pipes and Plumbing	15d	17
20.	Doors	15d	17
21.	Windows Installing	10d	17
22.	Floorboards	5d	21
23.	Milestone 4	0	20, 22
	E. Bathroom and Kitchen
24.	Walls	10d	23
25.	Bathroom Fittings	10d	24
26.	Bathroom Tiling	5d	25
27.	Bathroom Flooring	5d	26
28.	Kitchen Fittings	5d	27
29.	Kitchen Slate Flooring	10d	28
30.	Milestone 5	0	29
	F. Finish
31.	Plasterboard Walls	10d	30
32.	Painting	10d	31
33.	Milestone 6	0	14,18,19,32

* 5d equals 5 days equivalent to one working week(1w) Table 2: Percentage of Tasks Planned to be Completed Each Month

Main Tasks			Percentage Completion for each month
	May	Jun	July	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan
A.	100%
B.		70%	30% (finished)
C.				80%	20% (finished)
D.						100% (finished)
E.							50%	50% (Finished)
F.									100%

Table 3: Budgeted Planned Cost

Task	Budgeted Cost Of Work Scheduled					Months
		May	Jun	July	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan
A.	$75,000	$75,000
B.	$60,000		$42,000	$18,000
C.	$120,000				$70,000	$30,000
D.	$40,000						$40,000
E.	$60,000							$30,000	$30,000
F.	$20,000									$20,000
Total	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Cumulative	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?

The Problem:

The project was started as per plan. Working hours and days are 8 hours Monday to Friday. Work started at a slow pace in the first month with substantial delays in mobilisation of workers. In the middle of June, a severe thunderstorm disrupted the construction site. More than two weeks of work time was lost in June tasks due to the flooding of the site caused by the storm.

By the mid of July, another problem surfaced related to the quality of work performed by a sub-contractor. The foundation sub-contractor failed to meet the standards set in the contract. About 20% of the work completed in July by this sub-contractor had to be redone. This resulted in delaying some of the activities, but the project manager and the team did not update the schedule and cost baselines.

In Sep, the project manager realized that the sub-contractor was having problems in procuring raw material. A meeting with the sub-contractor revealed that the sub-contractor was having problems with labour and finances. The project manager did not monitor the project performance and progress since the start of the project, and the project manager now is not yet sure of the problem. Currently, hiring a new contractor is not an option. The Client requested a status report from the contractor. A new project manager from the Client side took the place of the old project manager and first thing he asked for is a status report from you for End of Oct.

Table 4: is Main Tasks Percentage Cumulative Completed as reported by the project team end of Oct

Table 4: Main Tasks Percentage Cumulative Completed by end of Oct.

	Task			Months			% Cumulative completed by end Oct
		May	Jun	July	Aug	Sep	Oct
A	% Complete each month	80%	100% (finished)	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%
B	% Complete each month		20%	70%	100% (finished)	100%	100%	100%
C	% Complete each month				30%	50%	80%	80%
D	% Complete each month						10%	10%

Table 5: is Actual spending (project costs) as reported by the project team end of Oct

Table 5: Main Tasks' Actual Cost incurred per month by end of Oct

	Task			Months
	Month wise	May	Jun	July	Aug	Sep	Oct
A	Actual Cost	$75,000	$45,000
B	Actual Cost		$25,000	$50,000	$40,000
C	Actual Cost				$60,000	$30,000	$20,000
D	Actual Cost						$20,000

QUESTIONS

Write down the lessons learned from this project. 6- Given the actual costs in previous months (Table 5) and given the percentages of completed work in previous months (Table 4), utilise EVA and determine when would the project manager have recognised that there is a problem in the project if he/ she was monitoring the project progress and performance monthly? What would you do back then if you were the project manager?