Budget and Time allocation for a project

Budget and Time allocation for a project

The above table indicates the initial budget and the time allocation for each activity that would be undertaken during the project. However, the schedule and budget were not adhered to, and this caused some delays because of the variances experienced. The project was set to extend the time of completion by a few months. There was an increase in the cost of executing activities because of the time wasted while waiting for the permission and county inspection before starting the project as it had been planned. Most simply, the longer the time it takes in project execution, the higher the costs involved (Turner, 2014). The contractors were forced to wait for the clearance from the relevant authorities before commencing the project because they lacked the legal documents to give them the go-ahead for the construction. Likewise, the client for the project cannot start the operations without the presence of all the necessary details, and this implies that there must have been a complication that emerged between the client and the management. The client requires to have all the documents before he or she starts the project.

In the given scenario, the projection of the activities did not match the reality; therefore, poor scheduling was the primary cause of the variances encountered during the project. To some extent, the authorities tend to delay giving permits for the construction, and this results in another challenge during the project execution. Therefore, the project plan should have allocated more time to accommodate the delays in inspection, receiving permits and documents. For instance, if they would have allocated three months for inspection, permits, and document, squeeze the subsequent activities; then they would have managed to complete the project in two years based on the target. To complete the project, the team had to increase the time by three months because of the delays caused by the authorities.

The other cause for the variances could be because of inadequate resources compared to the available resources captured in the project plan. There is clear evidence that the estimation of funds was not done appropriately, for example, realizing that the project cost $600,000 when the initial budget plan indicates $500,000. Poor approximation of resources is a significant problem when planning for a project as this implies that the team will experience resource straining (Reiss, 2013).

The team responsible for managing the project has a tough role to play to make sure that completion is achieved based on the scheduled deadline. For instance, the team will ensure the straining of the available resources while utilizing the remaining time to meet the timeframe allowed. A contract planned for two years needs to be completed within that time, this is an expectation of the client. Any form of discrepancies would make the client unhappy and consider it as a breach of the contact, and this is against the law of contact.  The project management team should adjust the time allocated for each activity to ensure the deadline is met. In this regard, the project team will identify appropriate ways that will help to combine the activities to meet the agreed timeframe (Reiss, 2013).

The management team for the project can decide to merge the activity for constructing the garage and the house so that it is done at the same time. The idea will help in saving time as well as utilize the available resources effectively. The extra cost in the project would be reduced once the management team decides to do different activities at the same time as the case of constructing the garbage and the house together.

Reflection

The project manager requires to seek consultation from the project team to make sure that whatever is planned is real and achievable. A lot of attention is needed by the project manager to ensure that resources are allocated accurately and that they are real. The project plan can be established to be accomplished within a given time, but variations may occur at the end making the project to fail. This is commonly caused by the lack of a proper budget and plan when undertaking the project. The time and budget allocated form an integral part of the project plan, they require the project management team to be careful while drawing the schedule for the project. Therefore, project managers who fail to prepare a real project plan that is achievable expose the entire project to risks.

 
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