Detailed Analysis of Team Dynamics, Budgeting, and Cost Management

This homework assignment provides detailed answers to questions on team dynamics, project budgeting, and cost management. The assignment covers the origins and concepts of group dynamics, aspects that negatively affect team performance, advantages and disadvantages of group decision-making, and various team-building techniques. It also addresses team consensus, methods for achieving consensus, and steps for resolving workplace disputes. Furthermore, the assignment delves into the purpose and objectives of budgeting in project management, outlining the budgeting process and the use of key performance indicators (KPIs) and milestones. It also explains budgetary control, the use of spreadsheets for budget development, and methods for cost estimation. The assignment explores Earned Value Management (EVM), project cost management, cost plans, and the cost change process, including the roles and responsibilities of a project manager in cost management. The document concludes with a bibliography of cited sources. This assignment is a valuable resource for students studying project management and leadership.

Running head: WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Assessment task 1: Written Questions and Answers
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:

1WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Answer to question 1
The origins of team group dynamics are that in the year 1924,
Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer proposed that there are entities where behaviour
of whole cannot derived from the individual elements fit together rather than alternative
is true. The concepts of team group dynamics are defined as individuals those can
come together to accomplish particular tasks and goals. The team dynamics is
behavioral characteristics of the group of people.
Answer to question 2
Following are three aspects of the group dynamics which provide negative effect
on the team performance such as:
I. Weak leadership: When the team has lack of leadership, then it leads to lack of
directions and focus on wrong priorities.
II. Excessive deference to the project authority: It occurs when people are
agreed with the leader’s decisions and therefore they are not expressing their
own opinions.
III. Lack of interest: When the team members have lack of interest in work, it
disrupts in flow of information among the group members.
Answer to question 3
Advantages of group decision making are:
 A group is equipped well when the information is a main concern for them.

2WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
 A group has advantage of diversity of views.
 The group included experts forming a group to make decisions on the project
issues.
Disadvantages of group decision making are:
 It is time consuming process as they are organized, planned and coordinated
meetings to reach the final solutions.
 It is critical to fix responsibility of each individual in a group.
 Group decision making leads to compromise of decisions.
Answer to question 4
Following are three types of team building techniques such as:
Investigate: The team building is a process which requires cooperative of
everyone to build a team. By using website, SurveyMonkey is used to distribute the
survey questions to find out where the team is stronger and need help.
Communication: A lot of interaction among the team members is required to
communicate the project problems. By meetings and face-to-face interaction, it is
performed.
Lay the groundwork: A stronger team can start with the manager. For example,
the supervisor and business owner can set the tone.

3WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Answer to question 5
Team consensus means setting to find a proposal acceptable enough that the
team members can support and with no members are opposed it.
Answer to question 6
Two methods which are used to assist the project team to reach consensus such
as:
1. Ensure and encourage the participation: The team leader can motivate and
encourage the team members to take participation in the work. It is started with
the team member to think about the problems individually.
2. Pinpoint priorities: In the group environment, each of the team members can
prioritize the project tasks.
Answer to question 7
Steps for conflict resolution in the workplaces are as follows:
i. Identifying sources of conflicts
The team can identify sources of the conflicts and resolve it. In order to get
information about the reasons of conflicts, series of questions are asked to identify
causes.
ii. Looking behind the incidents

4WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
The team can look what are the causing them towards disruptive evidences of
the conflicts.
iii. Requesting for the solutions
After getting viewpoint of each party, it is required to identify how the situations
are changed.
iv. Identifying the conflict solutions
The team member can listen for acceptable course of actions such as
collaboration and cooperation to address the issues.
Answer to question 8
Disruptive resolution process is effective to determine the clauses of the disputes
which are occurred among the contractual parties. It is an agreement with the contract
with a scope to determine in drafting of clause. The dispute resolution process provides
with a channel to work throughout as well as resolve the disputes by solving
misunderstanding and differences which are raised from daily basis. It will reduce
possibility of disputes and misunderstandings by escalating to the position.
Answer to question 9
The purpose of budgeting is to forecast the income as well as expenditure. It is a
tool for decision making regarding estimation of project cost. It is used for monitoring the
business performance. The purpose of budgeting is to make excess of the project
revenue over expenses to maximize the profit.

5WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Following are the objectives of budgets in the project management such as:
 To provide realistic estimation of project incomes as well as expenses for a
specific time period
 To provide coordinated project plan of actions for achievement of estimation
reflected in budget
 To make forecasts throughout budget period to guide management into making
daily decisions
Answer to question 10
Main steps in the budgeting process of a project are as follows: Aids into planning of the actual operations of business Coordinates the project activities of the organization Communication of project budget plan to project manager Motivation of managers to achieve the budget goals Controlling the project activities Evaluation of performance of project manager
Answer to question 11
The key performance indicators are used in budgeting to keep track of the
financial health of the business firm. Following are financial KPIs used to determine
effectiveness of project budget such as:

6WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
I. Operating cash flow is total amount of money which is generated by the daily
operations of the company. Using this metrics, the company can maintain
positive cash flow for business growth.
II. Current ratio is reflected on ability of organization to pay the financial obligations
in one year.
III. Quick ratio is indicated whether the business has short term assets for covering
the future liabilities.
Answer to question 12
Milestones are used in project budgeting to mark the start and end date of each
project activities and budget checks. It is used to complete the budget checks for
external review of the project cost.
Answer to question 13
Budgetary control helps to compare performance of different individuals with pre-
determined standards laid down with the budgets. It reports key significant variations
from the project budget to top level management.
Answer to question 14
The spreadsheets are used for developing budgets to organize as well as
categorize the data into the logical formats. Once the data is being entered into the
spreadsheet, then it helps the business to grow. While estimation of project budget, it is

7WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
used to process numerical data. It analyzes the data and presents in graphical way by
using charts and graphs. Following are two key features of spreadsheets such as:
I. Spreadsheet can provide commands for manipulations of texts.
II. Functions are used into the spreadsheet for expressing relationships of two or
more than two cells.
Answer to question 15
Following are the two methods for conducting the cost estimation with advantage
and disadvantage of each method such as:
Parametric estimation: This method uses statistical modelling for developing
the cost estimation. It is used historical data of cost drives to measure estimate for
various parameters like cost and time duration. Advantage of this method is that the
cost estimation is used relation between variables for arriving cost. Disadvantage is that
the cost estimation is that measurable is scalable to accomplish the accuracy.
Bottom up estimation: This method uses estimation of work packages where
are summarized to determine cost estimation for the project. Advantage of this method
is that it leads to greater accuracy which takes in consideration of each components of
project work. Disadvantage is that this method takes high amount of time it consumed.
Answer to question 16
The Earned Value Management (EVM) helps to measure the performance of
project. It is a process to find the project variances based on comparing work performed

8WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
as well as planned. It is used to control the cost and schedule in project forecasting. The
application of EVM is that it is a value of work which is equal to amount of budgeted
funds to complete the work.
EVM is calculated by: Percentage of completed work * budget at completion.
Answer to question 17
The project cost management is the process to plan and control the project
budget and business. It is included activities like planning, estimation, budgeting and
funding such that the project is completed with accepted budget. It is a way to manage
the project cost. The first thing is to get an estimation of cost at task levels and next step
is to develop the project budget. The cost is evaluated to make economical evaluation
of the project. It uses the financial resources to operate the cost evaluation.
Answer to question 18
The cost plan assists to manage the project cost by setting the baseline of the
cost. It helps the project manager to keep tracking the project budget and control
spending of the project.
The cost plan is assisted over the project lifecycle to take high level of
confidences into the project decisions. It is a part of the project validation calculations.
The cost management covers the project lifecycle from initial planning phase towards
measurement of actual performance of cost as well as project completion.

9WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Answer to question 19
The cost change process follows procedures to complete the project work such
as: Review the change requests and approval of the changes Managing the cost changes to the project deliverables Documentation of cost plan and project plan Raising the document updates Formal change requests Secure the funding and time required to conduct the project work
Answer to question 20
Processes which are used to measure the project costs are as follows:
I. Financial metrics: It is required to analyze gross as well as net profit margin for
better understands how the organization is generated high return. The financial
manager should compare actual overhead with forecasted budget.
II. Customer metrics: The customer acquisition cost is divided total acquisition
cost by number of new customers in the time period to examine. It is used to
evaluate cost effectiveness of the marketing campaigns.

10WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Answer to question 21
Following are the key role and responsibilities of the project manager in relation
to the cost management as:
a) Managing production of the project deliverables based on project requirements
b) Planning, monitoring and controlling the project cost
c) Estimating the cost for each project solutions
d) Managing the financial risks including with development of contingency project
plan

11WRITTEN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Bibliography
Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project
management. Project Management Institute.
greenwichcollege.edu.au 2019. Lead and manage team effectiveness. Greenwich
Management College.
Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to
planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Lock, D., 2017. The essentials of project management. Routledge.
Nicholas, J.M. and Steyn, H., 2017. Project management for engineering, business and
technology. Routledge.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Smith, P., 2016. Project cost management with 5D BIM. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 226, pp.193-200.
Tonchia, S., 2018. Project Cost Management and Finance. In Industrial Project
Management (pp. 153-170). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.