AF PLC Case Study: Fundamentals of Project Management Report

This report presents a comprehensive case study on Automatic Futures (AF) PLC, a software development and technology consulting firm, focusing on four key aspects of project management. It begins by examining the iron triangle and identifying potential project constraints and risks, utilizing risk registers. The report then delves into project scheduling, creating network diagrams and Gantt charts to define timelines and critical paths. A detailed budget analysis follows, assessing the project's financial viability. Finally, the report evaluates project progress, comparing planned versus actual progress using earned value analysis, and recommends acceleration options for the company's managers. The analysis covers risk assessment, project planning, cost management, and earned value analysis to provide insights into project management best practices.

Fundamentals of Project
Management

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................4
TASK 1.............................................................................................................................................4
A. Importance of various parameters of iron triangle in determining the overall Project
objectives and goals...................................................................................................................4
B. Identify the risks that are likely to emerge during the course of project
implementation by AF Plc with the help of risk registers........................................................5
2. Planning and costs...................................................................................................................9
a) Prepare a network diagram showing the critical path and planned duration of the project.9
b) Prepare a Gantt chart for the project...................................................................................9
c) Detail of overall project budget and projected net profit of the contract..........................10
3. Managing progress and spending..........................................................................................14
a) Create a table comparing the planned progress against the actual progress values...........14
b) Produce a revised Gantt chart and indentify the new completion date.............................14
4. Earned value analysis and acceleration.................................................................................16
a) Using EVA determine planned % percentage complete and compare with actual
percentage complete..............................................................................................................16
b) Create a projected completion date for the entire project using EAC...............................17
c) Recommendation...............................................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................19

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Automatic Futures (AF) PLC is a company which deals with development of software products
and technology consulting for various clients and companies with an objective of increasing the
level of automation in the operational processes of the organization. The following project report
consists of a case study of AF PLC on four different aspects of project management. In the first
aspect, an attempt is being made to identify the various project constraints and risk which could
potentially exist for the company. The second aspect deals with defining project schedule by the
help of using Gantt chart and network diagram. A detailed budget analysis is being done in the
third aspect of the report to determine and ascertain the profitability of the contract. In the last
part of the report, a new project timeline is being scheduled after comparing the actual progress
with the planned progress and aims to provide recommendations for the managers of the
company in choosing a suitable acceleration option.

INTRODUCTION
Project management is a concept which involves controlling, coordinating planning,
evaluating and monitoring the task and performances of team with an objective of achieving the
task requirements of a project within a limited time schedule. This project report deal with the
case study of AF PLC, a technology consulting and contracting firm with software development
specialization. In the following project report, different aspects related to project management
which includes identification of risk, mapping out the project schedule and ascertaining the
profitability of the contract are being covered.
TASK 1
A. Importance of various parameters of iron triangle in determining the
overall Project objectives and goals.
Iron triangle is a very important tool of project management which assists the project manager in
identifying the constraints which may hinder the successful execution of project. It is also
referred as Triple Constraints or Project Management Triangle. There are three different factors
which usually determine the success of any project which are time, scope and cost of the project
upon which delivered quality of the project depends. These three factors are interdependent and
connected and if any change is done in any of these factors, some other factor must change with
equal magnitude. Iron triangle suggests that every project should be completed in the time limit
which has been described, cost incurred should not be more than the budget and all the
requirements and scope of the project should be duly covered (Greene and Stellman, 2018).
Cost:
Cost refers to the total amount of expenditure which has been incurred in a project. Before
commencing every project, a budget is prepared by the project managers and the client who act
as guidance and controlling tool. In some projects, cost is not the main concern and emphasis is
laid on the quality of the project (McKevitt, Carbery and Lyons, 2017).
Time:

The managers of every project undertake the task of mapping out the whole project schedule so
that the project can be completed within the fixes time limit. Time is one of the major constraints
which can hinder the successful delivery of any project. In the context of AF PLC, the managers
of the company have task to meet the time deadline of the project as a result of which cost is
increasing.
Scope:
Scope refers to the task requirements and main objectives of the project. A very wide scope often
leads to mismanagement of the project. Quality of the project depends a great deal on the scope
covered in the project. Every project does not necessarily have a predefined and fix scope due to
which many projects fail at this stage.
Iron triangle suggests if changes are made in any of the factor, some other factor with equal
magnitude must be altered. For example, if the managers of AF PLC want to decrease the time
required to complete the project, either cost incurred in the project needs to be increased or the
scope of the project needs to be reduced (Andersen and Grude, 2018). Similarly to decrease the
cost incurred in the project, either the time required needs to be shortened or the scope of the
project has to be reduced. Although, one box process of project management of AF PLC meet its
current requirements but it can be used for every client with different requirements and
expectation. Iron triangle is one of the most important tool of project management which
provides the managers with guidelines of factors which are to be kept in mind for ensuring a
successful execution of any project.
B. Identify the risks that are likely to emerge during the course of project
implementation by AF Plc with the help of risk registers.
Success or quality of any project can be significantly improved with the help of a risk register
which helps the project manager to identify the risks which have the potential of becoming an
obstacle in the path of successful project execution. Risk register is a tool which is used to
identify the risks which are likely to emerge during the course of a project and the relative
importance of each risk is ascertained with the help of determining the likelihood of risk
occurrence and the impact of the risk in the event of its occurrence. In the context of AF PLC,
risks which are most likely to emerge during the project implementation are safety risk of

workers, shortage of labor and raw materials, legal complexities due to poorly drafted contracts,
change in client expectations, inefficient management and monitoring of the project etcetera (Li,
Akintoye and Holt, 2017). Risk register is a tool of utmost importance which has potential to
determine the quality and success of a project with the help of early determination of risks and
development of a mitigation plan which can reduce the severity of the risk and its impact on
project. A risk register from the context of AF PLC is as follows
RISK
(Potential
Risk which
may arise
during the
project)
LIKELI
HOOD
(1-5), 1
being
least
chances
and 5
being the
highest
chance.
IMPACT
(1-5), 1
being the
least
impact and
5 being
the highest
impact
RATIN
G
(Increasi
ng order
where an
increased
number
denotes
higher
overall
risk)
OWNE
R
(Respons
ible for
mitigatin
g of risk)
MITIGATION PLAN
(Management plan for reducing
risk likelihood and impact)
Health and
Safety risk
for
workers
3 4 12 Project
supervis
or
A complete arrangement for the
security of workers while
working on the project should
be done. All the machines and
equipments used during the
project should be as per the
health and safety standards
(Batselier and Vanhoucke,
2017).
Labor
Shortages
3 4 12 Project
supervis
or
A plan should be prepared by
making provisions for sourcing
and acquiring additional labour

in contingent situations that may
arise.
Unexpected
increasing
material
costs
2 3 6 Purchase
departme
nt
Supplier should be selected after
a proper evaluation and a
contract should be made to
undermine the chances of any
sudden increase in costs.
Poorly
drafted
contracts
3 5 15 Legal
departme
nt
Legal department of the
company should check the
various segments of the contract
and ensure its reliability.
Natural
disasters
1 4 4 Manage
ment
Company should get insurance
by a trusted insurance agent or
company to minimize the
adverse impact of natural
disasters (Martinsuo and
Hoverfält, 2018).
Theft of
equipment
3 4 12 Project
supervis
or
Installation of devices such as
cameras and CCTV can be done
to set-up a proper monitoring
and guarding arrangement for
the machines and equipments at
the contract site.
Unknown
site
conditions
3 3 9 Project
Supervis
or
A complete inspection and
examination of the site should
be done to get familiar with the
site conditions.
Change in 3 3 9 Project Clear expectation setting with

orders manager the client and having a properly
drafted contract with clauses for
change in orders can be used
effectively to undermine the risk
and impact of future change in
orders.
Availability
of
materials
2 4 8 Purchase
departme
nt
A proper adequate inventory of
material should be kept to
ensure smooth production
process and arrangements
should be made with other
suppliers as well to meet
contingent material
requirements.
Mismanage
ment of the
project
2 4 12 Project
manager
For ensuring a better project
management, various tools of
project management such as
Gantt chart and network
diagram which help the
managers to map out the entire
project schedule should be used.
The entire task should be
divided into small fragments for
better monitoring.

2. Planning and costs
a) Prepare a network diagram showing the critical path and planned duration of the
project
A system chart is a graphical portrayal of the work breakdown structure; Which delineates the
ancestor and replacement exercises and furthermore outlines the basic way under which the
whole undertaking will end. In light of the system chart, it was discovered that an aggregate of
58 weeks would be the length to finish the undertaking (Bresnen, 2016). The system chart is
given beneath:
In the above chart; the red line demonstrates the basic way of the venture that will be taken by
AF contractual workers for a base time. The absolute time required to finish the undertaking is
58 weeks.
b) Prepare a Gantt chart for the project
Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that shows a project schedule. The Gantt chart initially describes
and finishes the dates of terminal elements and summary elements of a project. The terminal
elements and summary elements project work includes breakdown structure. Some Gantt charts
also reveal the dependency (i.e., precedence network) relationship between activities. Below is
the Gantt chart of estimated project which is 58 weeks (Keegan, Ringhofer and Huemann, 2018).

Therefore, the completion period of the given project is estimated to be August 7, 2020 without
any modification in the given schedule.
c) Detail of overall project budget and projected net profit of the contract
Budget: A budget is a spending limit of a conventional articulation of anticipated salary and use
dependent on tentative arrangements and targets. As such, a financial limit is an archive that
administration makes for organizations to evaluate income and costs for the coming time frame
dependent on their objectives (Jiang, Klein and Fernandez, 2018).
Surplus and deficit budget: When estimated costs is more than actual; this situation called
surplus budget and when estimated cost is less that actual expenses, this is called deficit budget.

The details of projects overall estimated cost and projected net profit from the contract has been
calculated below:
Task
s
Fixed
cost
£M (A)
No.
of
Eng
.
No.
of
Sta
ff
Total
week
s
Days
/wee
k
Hr
s
Enginee
r cost
£/h
Sta
ff
cost
£/h
Total
eng.
Cost (B)
Total
staff
cost (C)
Total cost
(B+C) £
X 0.2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
A 2.8 10 5 3 5 8 69 39 £82,800 £23,400 £106,200
B 1.6 10 5 2 5 8 69 39 £55,200 £15,600 £70,800
C 1.5 10 5 1 5 8 69 39 £27,600 £7,800 £35,400
D 3.8 10 5 8 5 8 69 39
£220,80
0 £62,400 £283,200
E 5.4 20 10 8 5 8 69 39
£441,60
0
£124,80
0 £566,400
F 3.4 10 5 10 5 8 69 39
£276,00
0 £78,000 £354,000
G 6.4 20 50 10 5 8 69 39 £20,000 / week £200,000
H 4 30 40 9 5 8 69 39
£745,20
0
£561,60
0
£1,306,80
0
I 3.5 10 60 8 5 8 69 39
£220,80
0
£748,80
0 £969,600
J 2.2 8 20 6 5 8 69 39
£132,48
0
£187,20
0 £319,680
K 2.5 10 5 4 5 8 69 39
£110,40
0 £31,200 £141,600
L 3.1 25 50 6 5 8 69 39
£414,00
0
£468,00
0 £882,000
M 2.2 10 5 4 5 8 69 39
£110,40
0 £31,200 £141,600
N 2.7 10 6 5 5 8 69 39
£138,00
0 £46,800 £184,800
O 2.1 6 20 6 5 8 69 39 £99,360
£187,20
0 £286,560
P 1.2 6 16 6 5 8 69 39 £99,360
£149,76
0 £249,120
£48.6
M
£6,097,76
0
Other adjustments to task costs:
Less:
Christmas off 10 60 2 5 8 69 39 £55,200
£187,20
0 £242,400
Add: other staff cost £462,250
£48.6
M £6.31M

Total cost of the project tasks = £48.6M + £6.31M
= £54.91M
Other staff costs:
Project management
support
Project manager
Project
planne
r
Rate
£/Wee
k
No.
of
week
s
Total
cost
2 2 5,500 17 £93,500
1 1 2,000 40 £80,000
Commercial Manager
1 2,750 17 £46,750
2 2,750 44
£242,00
0
£462,25
0
Revenue:
Since it is estimated that project will be finished on 7th Aug, 2020
Hence, the bonus will be get for 18th Sep, 2020 - 7th Aug,2020 is 42 days
Bonus / working day No. of days earlier Total extra bonus
Bonus £50,000 42 £2,100,000
Budget allotted £58,500,000
Total Revenue £60,600,000
Less: Total cost £54,917,610
Surplus: £5,682,390
Less: 50% to
client £2,841,195.0
Estimated profit £2,841,195.0