ATA Solar Project: Project Evaluation Tools & Techniques

ATA Solar Project
Project Evaluation Tools & Techniques

A small-scale company in Australia has a big idea of installing solar panels in remote villages
of Quelicai, East Timor. The company behind this venture is known as ATA and is a non-
government as well as a non-profit based organization. The project has to be managed using
project management principles. The entire scope of the project involves raising funds,
preparation of project plan, providing training to the team and selection of beneficiaries
(Greer, 1988). The project has to be watertight in management in order to ensure that the
ambitious project can be taken off. Otherwise, this could mean a huge setback for the small
organization which may not be able to survive afterwards. In order to ensure, the project is a
success, project management involves usage of certain tools and techniques to verify if there
are any deviation in the deadline or the budget of the project.
Earned Value Method is among the most popular tools that are used for calculating and
estimating Cost, Schedule and Work performance (Anbari, 2004). EVM or Earned Value
Method defines several performance related metrics. These includes Time Variance or TV,
Resource Flow Variance or RV, Schedule Variance or SV, Schedule Index or SI, Resource
Flow Index or RI and Cost Variance or CV. The metrics that needs to be followed for the
ATA Solar project should include the following:
a) Schedule Deviation: This metric under EVM measures the status of the project in
percentage ranging from 0 to 100 wherein 100 being completed. This helps measure
the status of the project at any given moment and if there’s any deviation in terms of
the current start and current end date vs the estimated ones as well as the number of
tasks achieved as on any given date. This allows quick tracking of these elements.
During the implementation of proposed project, the project should be on track
because installation work cannot go beyond the deadline as there is no storage
area where the solar panels can be stored for long (La Trobe University, 2017).
b) Cost deviation: The cost deviation tracks the estimate cost of the project versus the
actual cost that would come out to be. Any deviation whatsoever in terms of the cost
of the project can be instantly and easily detected using this metric. A positive cost
variance means the project shall be completed well within the budget and a negative
means the opposite. ATA is a non-profit organization, hence the cash inflow and
cash out flow has to be monitored in weekly reports to maintain the cost under
track.
Apart from EVM, a Gantt Chart is also an effective tool to allow for quality controlling as
well as monitoring the project. This particular tool makes use of graphical charts to track
progress of the given project. With Gantt chart, the benchmarking of activities and milestones
is possible (Xu & Yeh, 2014). However, if the project is extensively complex and is