Assignment 3 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 9

3 - Assignment Example During his tenure as CEO of the Group, the Virgin Group was doing extremely well as it embarked upon new projects which many believe were not possible. An example of such projects include projects include setting up a space travel company which would take people to space. As a person and a CEO, Branson was highly risk taking in nature as was evident by his will to compete against British Airways and CocaCola, both industry giants in their line of work. Branson is a people’s person and believes keeping employees happy and motivated is the best way to ensure his companies work well (BRANSON & MCLIMORE, 2013). As far as Branson’s leadership style is concerned, it can be viewed from many different angles. Having the ability to make his employees work with all their efforts, and give in their hundred percent towards work portrays Branson as a â€Å"Transformational Leader†; one having the ability to pass on his flair into others. A real life example of this scenario was when he once asked his marketing manager to ensure the Company’s advertisement gets featured in a London based evening newspaper with just one day of deadline. As expected, the manager fell out of place but Branson handled the scenario by telling him he has faith in him and that he would be able to deliver. The result was in line with what could be achieved by having a transformational leadership style; the manager did his best and the advertisement got featured in the newspaper. This example clearly portrays how Branson’s leadership style is a â€Å"transformational† one, having the abilit y to transform employees’ attitude towards work and making them do what they think was undoable (OSBORNE, 2008). A rather interesting fact about Branson is that he does always believe in what theories say. According to various leadership theories, leaders follow the view that â€Å"customer is always right†. However, Branson is not a believer of this stance, and many times during his term as

Problems And Solutions Of Urbanization Environmental Sciences Essay

Problems And Solutions Of Urbanization Environmental Sciences Essay The meaning of urbanization can be basically described as the expansion of cities by encompassing the rural areas in it. Urbanization is not just physically growth. Also, it contains population and social and economic structure. The urban growth generally has been caused by immigrations. Most of these immigrations are done from rural areas to urban areas. Sometimes it can be seen from countries to countries. The reasons of migration can be arranged as economic, technologic and sociological. The urbanization has positive sides as well as negative. The major advantage of urbanization is economic development. The cities supply more facilities to its citizens with huge amount of technological equipments. On the other hand, negative sides follow the technological and economical development. All forms of pollution increase together with growth of population. Traffic congestion also starts to seen in the developed countries. Housing problems accrue due to population access from rural areas to urban areas. The whole of society is affected by urbanization. All of these negative sides can be arranged as the problems of urbanization. The problems of urbanization need to be addressed. In this developing world, nobody can stop the growth of population. However, if urban areas could be developed with a good method like sustainability, the problems of urbanization would be solved. Sustainability means the ability of sustain something. In other words, think of the future and make a plan. The aim of it is prevent some problems which will be faced in the future. If the cities are developed regarding to policy of sustainable development, the problems of urbanization can be met. In the last centuries, the urbanization had been got an uncontrolled phase. The huge amounts of people migrate to cities from rural areas. There are several causes of it. The major causes of urbanization can be arranged as economic, technologic, politic and psycho-sociological. People, who have been living in the rural areas, tend to migrate to cities because of economic factors. Specially, in the developed countries, there is vast amount of difference between peasant`s income and civicsà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ income. So, the people who have been living in the rural areas immigrate to cities to increase their incomes. Besides, people immigrate to live more comfortable and for education. Firstly, population problem arises in urbanization. The balance of the population between rural areas and cities starts to grow up. While the cities are expanding, the farmland starts to destroy. In the rural areas, life is more difficult than the life, in the cities. Transportation, communication, technological needs are always difficult to benefit in the rural areas. Therefore, people spread towards cities. All types of pollution can be seen easily in the urbanization. Air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, light pollution and solid product waste are the main pollutions which are increased parallel to urbanization. Because of the population growth, the air quality decreases in the urban areas. The trucks, cars, factories always exhaust a huge amount of carbon dioxide in a day to the air. The number of truck, car, and factory are raised parallel to people population. As population growth in cities, the demand of clean water increase. Sometimes the local authority cannot supply enough clean water to citizen due to high population. So, the water pollution occurs in the urban areas. The other pollution is noise pollution. In our daily life everybody use their cars, especially in the cities, car noise is the simplest example for noise pollution. The noise could be created by cars, people, factories, construction sites. Because of noisy environment, people have been less fertile and uncreative in their professional life. Again, all of them are connected with population growth. Light pollution causes to loss of electricity energy as well as environmental pollution. This also creates a problem for the future. By using more energy to use lights, the sources for electricity go down. This is the main problem of urbanization, unsustainable development. In the developing countries, solid product waste is another problem in the recent years. High population always need more supply. Sanitation should be always kept on high for public health. Whole pollutions act a very important role in human life. Pollution creates different type of disasters. According to P.S. Brandon, P.L. Lombardi V. Bentivegna (1997, p. 134) China is one of the cities which is faced with environmental degradation, in the world. Environmental degradation covers both its air and water. To improve this environmental degradation governments develop some strict laws. Water pollution, air pollution, noise pollution and the other environmental degradations can be met by policy of environmental protection law. The other problem which occurs in the cities because of urbanization is traffic congestion. Using a private car has become very common in the world. Everybody prefers to use their cars to simply their life. It seems especially in the urbanization countries. This attitude creates traffic congestion. Besides, with this problem, it causes more energy usage, time loss and makes people nervous. To decrease the traffic congestion, the governments find some possible solutions. Public transportation is the most common solution to prevent traffic congestion. The developing cities should produce more sustainable products, vehicles, buildings to save more energy for future generations. According to S. M. Wheeler and T. Beatley (2004, p.98) to prevent the traffic congestion, traffic calming is the process of slowing down traffic to create safer, conductive to pedestrians, cyclists and residential life. With this alternative solution, the air and noise pollution will be decreased. Also, the fuel consumption will be reduced. The cities will be more sustain by traffic calming method. Energy will be saved by this way. Roads will be used safely. Briefly, this method will be solved one of this urbanization problem, traffic congestion. As list of my essay, third problem of the urbanization is housing. Because of large amount of migrants, housing problem has been increasing day to day in cities. The migrants who migrate from rural areas to cities create a problem. These migrants try to find suitable accommodation for them. Unfortunately, due to the low income of migrants, it is impossible to find an accommodation by reasonable price. There are large amount of flats, houses and buildings to live in cities. However, the accommodation price is large as well as amount of accommodation. People start to live unsuitable buildings in cities after migration. The migrants hold old and inconvenient accommodation to survive their life. This creates another problem, which is called visual pollution. Besides, several diseases can easily spread into cities. According to Mark, Gordon, Peter Ron (2007, p. 362) groups of buildings or building stocks is the useful method to over to the management of social housing stock. The governme nts have some policy to over to the management of social housing stock. If policy of housing always applies, the housing problem can be solved by this policy. Fourthly, suffering of societies can be counted as a problem of urbanization. Urbanization effect on societies is the other problem. Fundamentally, this problem is the result of other problems, pollution, traffic congestion and housing. Because of these problems, peoples` welfare goes down. The societies feel bed. This problem can be solved after other problem`s solutions. As a result of, urbanization is created by people and can be solved again by people. The main reason of urbanization is unbalanced income between peasant and civic. In the other worlds, urbanization is expansion of cities and contraction of farmland. According to Philip M. Hauser Leo F. Schnore (1967, p. 1) the reasons to emergence of cities are the size of total population, the control of natural environment, technological development and developments in social organization. The major triggering factor of developing cities is technology. Technology should be used correctly. Even if cannot be used correctly or without caring future, it cause some problems such as urbanization. Urbanization has lots of negative sides. In case, urbanization control by policy of sustainable development. The brief meaning of sustainable development is deliberate developing. The problems which occur due to urbanization can be solved with caring future. And developing some rules or policies by governments will prevent problems of urbanization. For example, to prevent the environmental pollution that contains air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, visual pollution and solid wastes can be decreased by making lawful to sustainable development. On the other hand, increasing the number of public transportation with reasonable price can raise the demand of using public transportation. Besides, the fuel consumption, noise and air pollution can be solved by this way. Also, traffic congestion can be solved by developing the infrastructure of transportation facilities. For the other problem, housing problem, governments can apply strict rules to prevent housing problems which is occur because of immigrations from rural areas to cities. If all these problems are solved, automatically, the last problem, effect of urbanization on societies can be disappeared.

Essay --

Interviewing for a job can be a stressful situation on many levels. Because Successful interviewers conduct interviews to find the right applicant to fill a particular job vacancy. interviewers play the key role in determining whether the company and candidate will make an effective match. It is the candidates objective to convince them that he or she is the right person for the job. However, whether your interviewing for a summer job, a part time job, or a job with room to move up, it is important to make a good impression in order to land it. These few tips will help you make a great first impression, and hopefully end your job search at the same time. The First step in successfully surviving a job interview would be preparation. Preparing yourself is the key to confidence. Be prepared for your interview. Before your interview, you should have a clear idea about what role they would expect you to work in,Start by learning what the company does, sells, offers and how the company operates, the size of the company/business, and the kind of work or clients they have. Know what duties you will be expected to handle. The more you know and understand the better prepared you will be. Another preparation would be having a resume. The purpose of your resume is to make a good first impression, a resume is a Summary of your Qualifications and skills It is always professional to bring a resume with you. Bringing a resume tells an employer that you are prepared and know how to present yourself effectively. Next, is Making an Impression. Usually, during a job interview, someone can make an evaluation of you within approximately 30 seconds of meeting you. Since there’s no rewind button to undo a false start don’t blow the opportunity to cem... ...ant is suitable for a position of employment. potential employees are evaluated by an employer for prospective employment in their company. a job interview is one of the most drawn-out and intimidating ways of making first impression. But is your opportunity to make an outstanding impression on the employer and not only prove your passion for the job Take some time to evaluate the impression that you are imprinting upon the new people that you meet. Be yourself when being analyzed on your first impression although, a person is judged automatically. being on time, respectful and courteous are wonderful skills walking into an interview. Follow these steps, you’ll notice a significant improvement in how well you perform in an interview your confidence will rise and you will know what you want and are ready to give to the employer. successfully mastering the interview.

Comparative Advantages and Disadvantages

With China being a market of more than 1. 3 billion people, competition for this newly emerging market Is rich. The following brands are omitting In the Chinese market. 1. 3 National comparative advantage The theory of comparative advantage propagated by the classical economist David Richard proposes that a country attractiveness to foreign investment is determined by its inherent natural factors such as land, natural resources, labor, and the size of the local population.Michael Porter's Diamond of National Advantage extends the theory to propose that a nation can create new advanced factor endowments such as skilled labor, a strong technology and knowledge base, government support, and ultra. Kicker uses Porter's model here to determine the national comparative advantage. 1. 3. 1 Factor conditions China can offer quality products because of its comparatively cheap labor. China has become the location of choice for global manufacturing. This is usually attributed to its low wages.Ch inese factory workers today earn 50 cents to $2 an hour and often work long shifts, getting minimal time off for weekends and holidays. [Prosperity, 2005] Competitive Labor: China's workers are not Just inexpensive but literate, hard irking, already reasonably skilled and desperate to be trained. There is also a sizable and growing cadre of university-educated technologists and professionals. For example, China is now graduating 330,000 engineers and scientists annually, as compared with 398,622 for the United States [Prosperity, 2005].Abundant resources: Apart from competent and cheap human resources, China also boasts of huge natural resources. All the raw materials required for producing Kicker are easily available in China at very competitive prices. 1. 3. 2 Demand Conditions The demand for car audio is increasing rapidly in China, as already noted in a previous chapter. The demand has increased steadily, however, not from Kicker's current target market, which is the higher inco me earning group.The demand for Kicker products will stagnate if it does not lower its price to suit the needs of the upcoming middle class group. Growing market populations: China offers a huge market population of 1. 3 billion people. As seen earlier, the middle class car purchasing group, which is Kicker's new target group, is increasing phenomenally wing to national growth. 1. 3. 3 Related and Supporting Industries Kicker sources most of its raw materials from China, who are suppliers of global standard raw materials.Kicker can benefit from the existence of its support industries in China. 1. 3. 4 Firm Strategy, Structure, and Rivalry Kicker is not a single player in the market. This is good because the existence of competition ensures that there is sufficient motivation for product innovation. It also indicates that the demand for foreign car audio exists in the market and has the potential to expand. All the factors together indicate that the time is ripe for Kicker to begin i ts operations in China. . 3. 5 Government attitude towards FED / foreign firms The biggest advantage for China is its open policies on foreign direct investments. China is attracting multinational companies by improving relevant policies to attract multinationals to invest in China [China's Absorption of Foreign Investment, n. D. ]. The efforts are paying off well, as indicated earlier, the phenomenal increase of over 142% in foreign direct investment from 1999 to 2003.

Addendum to the Risk Assessment Matrix Essay

Description of Risks Impact Likelihood of Occurrence (L,M,H) Degree of Impact (L,M,H) Initial Action to Take if Event Occurs Team Member Responsible Strategies for Prevention and Mitigation Widespread security breach due to unauthorized access to sensitive customer information. Negative publicity of the company and loss of credibility in the eyes of existing and potential customers impacting overall business. Take immediate action to tighten security including all employee access to customer sensitive information. Identify and install the latest security software on all telecommuters’ PCs and enforce strict rules for information access including password policy management. Document Server integration challenges. The setup of the environment for the Telecommuters would be delayed. roubleshoot remotely to identify the root of the integration issue. The repetitive process of installation and setup of the document servers can be potentially scripted and semi-automated to minimize error and reduce time taken. Technical challenges such as power failure and internet connection outages. The setup of the environment for the Telecommuters would be delayed if either power or internet connection were impacted. Guidelines can cover instructions to move on to the next computer to setup and return to the remote PC with power or internet challenges later.PhoebeTo prevent and mitigate this risk, the telecommuter PCs can be staged and setup in the Xemba Translations office before shipping to the remote l ocation. In the long term budget can be allocated for individual battery backup for the remote PCs Delay in completion of the Telecommuting Expansion projectInadequate resources available to address the increased customer need causing negative publicity of the company. Increase the project team size to catch up and speed up progress reducing potential for any further schedule impact.Project TeamManage schedules even more tightly monitoring daily progress of tasks and mitigating schedule delays even before it occurs. Perception of impersonal and below par service due to telecommuters Though there is a subjective aspect to this risk it can lead to the loss of very real customers and negative publicity. Focus can be shifted to the lost customers to survey the reason for them to take business elsewhere and offer  incentives to return. Work with the marketing team to ensure the message is clear to large customers on the benefits of real-time web based communications and translation ser vices. Task B: Explanation of Metrics: The metrics that can be effectively used to clearly and effectively measure the progress and overall project health of this Telecommuter Expansion project is â€Å"Earned Value Management†. It is a commonly used technique that factors in the cost and schedule baselines and then uses simple indices to estimate and measure where the project is in reference to the respective projected baselines that were set at the beginning of the project. Earned Value Management relies on three key metrics: – Planned Value (PV): This is the official budget that has been allocated to the project. The budget is typically setup per phase of the project, but at any point in time the â€Å"Planned Value† is used to refer to the work that should have been completed. The total planned value for the project is also referred to as the â€Å"Budget at Completion† (BAC) – Earned Value (EV): The Earned Value refers to the amount of work that would need to be completed at any point in time in for the project to be considered to be on track. The Earned Value is often used to calculate the percent complete for any project. The formula for percent complete would be: % Complete = EV / BAC. – Actual Cost (AC): The Actual Cost would quite simply be the costs that have been incurred to accomplish all the work performed thus far in a project. Technically the AC will have no upper limit and translates always to what was budgeted in the PV and measured by the EV. Part of the Earned Value Management technique is the monitoring of variances from the approved baseline of costs and schedule. The variances are useful in determining the overall project health and status. – Schedule Variance (SV): The Schedule Variance indicates a value which is a measure of how much the project is either ahead or behind at a given point in time. For any given point in time, once the EV and PV are known the SV can easily be calculated. The formu la for SV is quite simply: SV = EV – PV. Here a positive value indicates that the project is ahead at the current point in time and a negative value would indicate the opposite that a project is behind at the current point in time. – Cost Variance (CV): The Cost Variance indicates a value which is a measure of how much the project is either overspent or  underspent at any given point in time. For any given point in time, once the EV and AC are known the CV can easily be calculated. The formula for CV is quite simply: CV = EV – AC. Here a positive value indicates that the project is under spent at the current point in time and a negative value would indicate the opposite that a project is over spent at the current point in time. The Cost Variance at the end of the project is calculated as follows: CV = BAC – AC. The same above rationale is applied to positive and negative numbers to indicate if the project is under spent or over spent respectively. To me asure schedule or cost efficiency there are two indices which are also computed as part of the Earned Value Management technique. They are Schedule Performance Index and Cost Performance Index. – Schedule Performance Index (SPI): This is a measure of how efficiently the project has been run till the current point in time. An SPI of less than 1.0 would indicate that less work was completed than originally planned and an SPI value greater than 1.0 would indicate that more work was completed than was originally planned. The SPI is calculated with the following formula: SPI = EV / PV – Cost Performance Index (CPI): This is a measure of how efficiently the project has been run in terms of budgeted resources till the current point in time. The CPI is considered the most critical metric of the Earned Value Management methodology. A CPI of less than 1.0 would indicate that the project is currently over budget than originally planned and a CPI value of greater than 1.0 would in dicate that the project is currently under budget and in good shape. The CPI is calculated with the following formula: CPI = EV / AC Task B1: Justification of Metrics: One of the primary reasons of choosing the Earned Value Management methodology for the tracking of the project metrics of the Telecommuting Expansion Project was due to the fact that this method comprehensively covers all the key aspects of Project Schedule Control and Cost Management. With the use of this approach a well-rounded analysis can be performed on the data provided. The data provided has the clear value for the budget at completion (BAC) for all the labor costs for the project as well. The Cash Flow Report provided in the case study provides a good reference of the Earned Value at the 76 day mark within week 11. The Status Reports that are provided at the end of the Case Study also provides the  detailed actual sunk costs for each work package covered in the project work breakdown structure. Using the details provided, the Cost and Schedule Variances can easily be calculated which would easily offer a detailed look at the overall projec t health in regards to schedule and cost. With a simple arithmetic calculation one can easily determine whether the project is on track to stay under budget or go over budget as well as determine whether the project is going to stay on track and complete on schedule, or early or late. Also, with the calculation of the Cost Performance Index and the Schedule Performance Index, the schedule efficiency and cost efficiency of the Project can be easily evaluated. Comparing the two indices in reference to them being greater than 1.0 or lesser than 1.0 one can predict if the project is on track to come in under or over budget and finish ahead or behind schedule. This approach also fits well with the critical path approach that has been used thus far in the case study where special emphasis can be paid to the work packages in the critical path in an effort to further mitigate risk and control schedule and costs of the project. Task B2: Current Project Status: The following table is a complete summary of the fifteen project team members and their associated labor costs that were planned at the beginning of the project as well as the revised plan per the project manager’s Status report: Resource NameRate per HourPlanned HoursBudgeted Labor CostWBS ItemHours WorkedHours LeftRevised Work PlanSpent CostsFuture Costs% Left Elizabeth $ 70.00 121.43 $ 8,500.10 11220122 $ 8,540.00 $ – 0% Hugh $ 70.00 120 $ 8,400.00 210317120 $ 7,210.00 $ 1,190.00 14% Kimberly $ 70.00 76 $ 5,320.00 3721688 $ 5,040.00 $ 1,120.00 21% Phoebe $ 68.00 98 $ 6,664.00 4762096 $ 5,168.00 $ 1,360.00 20% Ben $ 68.00 138 $ 9,384.00 59352145 $ 6,324.00 $ 3,536.00 38% Zeke $ 65.00 384.67 $ 25,003.55 6153245398 $ 9,945.00 $ 15,925.00 64% Malinda $ 75.00 224 $ 16,800.00 758160218 $ 4,350.00 $ 12,000.00 71% Willis $ 70.00 108 $ 7,560.00 816068228 $ 11,200.00 $ 4,760.00 63% Jackson $ 45.00 268 $ 12,060.00 2,4,5177112289 $ 7,965.00 $ 5,040.00 42% Kendrick $ 40.00 78 $ 3,120.00 586086 $ 3,440.00 $ – 0% Marcel $ 75.00 432.85 $ 32,463.75 1,4,5,7268200468 $ 20,100.00 $ 15,000.00 46% Lianne $ 37.50 204 $ 7,650.00 3,8170110280 $ 6,375.00 $ 4,125.00 54% Darius $ 55.00 72 $ 3,960.00 3,8304272 $ 1,650.00 $ 2,310.00 58% Valene $ 60.00 150 $ 9,000.00 4,5,611664180 $ 6,960.00 $ 3,840.00 43% Clemencia $ 80.00 218.05 $ 17,444.00 1,6104114218 $ 8,320.00 $ 9,120.00 52% 2693 $ 173,329.40 178812203008 $ 112,587.00 $ 79,326.00 41% Notes: Looking at the above summary, the following can be summarized: †¢Planned Labor Cost (PV/BAC): $ 173,329.40 †¢Labor Costs spent (AC):$ 112,587.00 †¢Remaining Labor Costs:$ 79,326.00 †¢Initial Labor Plan:2693 hours †¢Revised Labor Plan:3008 hours oHours Spent:1788 hours oHours Remaining:1220 hours †¢Based on the Initial Labor Plan the following are computed: o% Complete:Hours spent / Initial Labor Plan 1788 / 2693 = 66% †¢Based on the Revised Labor Plan the following are computed: o% Complete:Hours spent / Revised Labor Plan 1788 / 3008 = 59% o% Remaining:Hours remaining / Revised Labor Plan 1220/ 2008 = 41% Since the PV, AC and % Complete are known, the following metrics that are part of the Earned Value Management Plan are computed: †¢Earned Value (EV) = BAC x % Complete = $ 173, 329.40 x 59% = $ 102, 264.35 †¢Cost Variance (CV) = EV – AC = $102,264.35 – $112,587.00 = -$10,322.65 †¢Schedule Variance (SV) = EV – PV = $102,264.35 – $173,329.40 = -$71,065.05 Note: Since both the Cost and Schedule Variances are negative, this indicates that the project is currently trending â€Å"over budget† and currently  running behind schedule. †¢Cost Performance Index (CPI)= EV / AC = $102,264.35 / $112,587.00 = .91 †¢Schedule Performance Index (SPI)= EV / PV = $102,264.35 / $173,329.40 = .59 Note: Since both the Cost and Schedule Performance Indices are lesser than 1.0 then this would indicate that the Project will finish over budget and will finish late. Using the formulas in the Earned Value Management technique, the final project cost and the final project duration can be estimated. Per the Case Study, the initial planned duration for the project is 123 days. †¢Estimated Final Project Cost = BAC / CPI = $ 173,329.40 / .91 = $ 190,471.87 †¢Estimated Final Project Duration = Planned Duration / SPI = 123 days / .59 = 209 days Note: Unless mitigated further the labor costs for the project will be around $ 17K more than planned and will finish around 86 days late. The additional costs for the project are the procurement costs for the hardware and software to support the 173 telecommuters. These would include the costs for the new computers that the telecommuters would use as well as the Document Servers, Shared Drives, FTP Servers, Firewalls and the support for Web-Based meetings. Based on the details provided in the Status Report by the previous project manager for the Xemba Translations Telecommuter Expansion Project, the total budgeted amount for all of these costs was $73,670.57. Per that same report the following table contains the estimated actual costs for those items. ResponsibleTask NameWBS ItemHW Costs – Option 1HW Costs – Option 2Cost Details ElizabethComputer inventory and requirements1$11,400.00 $14,200.00 Cost for 12 additional computers for the telecommuters. Option 1 – D esktops Option 2 – Laptops HughTechnical support2$0.00 $0.00 KimberlyComputing support3$0.00 $0.00 PhoebeDocument servers4$34,600.00 $89,268.00 Cost for document servers for the 173 telecommuters. Option 1 – $200 for 50GB per person Option 2 – $516 for 100GB per person BenShared Drives5$17,300.00 $17,300.00 Cost for shared drives for the 173 telecommuters. The cost is estimated at $20 per 10GB. Each usr will use an average of 50GB. Total cost of $100 per user. ZekeFTP Sites6$6,000.00 $6,000.00 Estimated annual cost for 1000GB storage space with unlimited bandwidth for file transfers and unlimited simultaneous logins MalindaFirewalls7$20,000.00 $20,000.00 Cost of firewall software and hardware WillisWeb-Based Meetings8$2,000.00 $2,000.00 Cost between $1000 and $2000 per year based on used of web meetings  $91,300.00 $148,768.00 Per the details included in the above table, the total costs for all the hardware and software to support the needs for the 173 telecommuters are more than the budgeted amount by $17,629.43 at the lower end and potentially more depending on configuration chosen. Per Xemba Translations CEO, Phuong Wolfing, the costs of the firewall could easily be absorbed into the overall IT budget rather than being accounted for as a project cost. This would imply that the hardware and software costs for the Telecommuter Expansion Project would total to $71,300 and come in under budget. Xemba Translations Senior Management and Stakeholders will need to decide on how to proceed here. Task B3a: Problems Affecting Project Implementation: A summary of three problems that could impact the project are as follows: One: Cost Overrun – Based on the current project status and trend of activities including estimates from the project team of how much more time is needed on the different project tasks, if there are no major changes, the Project will definitely run well over budget and require additional funding in order to be completed. This would mean that there would really need to be an even bigger effort by the new Project Manager to control costs to minimize the cost overruns. Since the planned project duration is 123 days, with 76 days of this project completed, this project should be approximately 62% completed. Till date, the Actual Cost (AC) for labor on the project is only $112,587. Looking at the Cash Flow Report which is part of the Baseline Project Report, it shows that on day 76, the Earned Value (EV) of the project should be around $125,000 with a Percent of Work Complete at approximately 72%. Calculating the Cost Performance Index (CPI) using the EV of $125,000 and AC of $112,587 would give us a value greater than 1.0 (1.12) which would indicate that the project is currently under budget. However, factoring in the new estimates of the amount of work remaining, the Percent of Work Remaining comes in at ~41% which would mean that the project is only 59% completed in terms of tasks. Using the â€Å"% complete† at 59% and the Planned Value (PV or BAC) of $173,329.40 we arrive at an EV of $102,587 with a negative CPI lesser than 1.0 (0.91) indicating a definite cost overrun if something is not done and the project costs are not controlled more tightly moving forward. Two: Schedule Overrun – Based on the current project status and trend of activities, if there are no major changes, the Project will definitely finish well beyond the targeted end date at the end of June in time for the start of the third quarter of the year as expected when the project was approved. This will imply that if Senior Management and Stakeholders of this project are serious on this project being completed in time for the third quarter of the year, then many critical steps will need to be taken to try and mitigate and minimize further project delay. There were many contributing factors leading to the delay. One of the biggest contributing factors for the delay in the project schedu le is the time lost in the pilot tests of the several web-based meetings that were planned and that needed to be re-scheduled due to the weather related power outage experienced in the Midwest. Another factor contributing to delay in the schedule is the procurement delay of the 47 new computers which were delayed by two weeks due to being â€Å"back-ordered. This contributed to a late start of the setup and validation of the 47 new computers for the telecommuters. As discussed in the â€Å"Project Status† section the Schedule Performance Index (SPI) is calculated to be 0.59. Since this value is below 1.0 this indicates  that the project is currently behind schedule and will most likely be completed much behind schedule if the factors contributing to the delay are not mitigated. There will need to be close attention to the items that are in the critical path to see if they can be accelerated to try and minimize delay moving forward. Three: Quality Challenges – The status report for the Telecommuter Expansion project that is included as part of the case study reveals that typically in any IT Project there are many factors which can easily drive down the quality of the solution that is being worked on. In this case for Xemba Translations the Telecommuter Expansion is a project which involves substantial capital investment in information technology infrastructure and the associated complexities of getting the infrastructure setup a nd functional. As with any complex technology solution, the most critical part involves the initial setup and verification of the complex solution especially in all the many edge cases where the solution’s resilience to security attacks and malicious users is tested. Something which is not specific just to this Telecommuter Expansion project is the strain on resources that is usually experienced in an extremely pronounced way when there are schedule related challenges in a project. This project is tremendously behind schedule and there are many important schedule related decisions which will need to be made as part of the overall progress on this project. Another item that absolutely cannot be ignored is the Quality Management of all the moving pieces of the project. For example, this project involves the setup of computers for 173 telecommuters which include setting up document server access for each of them, shared drives, FTP access and the necessary software and hardware to support a web-based meeting environment for each of the 173 telecommuters. While this seems a tall order for a group of 15 project team members, it adds additional strain when all this needs to be accomplished flawlessly when the project is already behind schedule. Typically when there are schedule related pressures, the tendency is to just complete an item without focusing much on quality. Given the technical complexity of the deliverables of this project compounded with the lack of enough resources, there needs to be steps taken to ensure overall quality of all the technical deliverables in the project are maintained at a high level for the successful completion of this project followed with the successful operation of daily activities in Xemba  Translations. Task B3b: Recommendations for Problem Mitigation: The following is a summary of the mitigation steps to address the above mentioned problems that could negatively impact the project. Although the problems that have been encountered thus far cannot be eliminated, moving forward in the project, till completion the same problems can be minimized or mitigated. Based on the current project status, if we the project is on day 76 out of a planned 123 days of project activity and have spent $112K out of a budgeted 173K, then there is a lot of room for tighter fiscal control and cost management. There needs to be processes in place to confirm and authorize the need for additional hours spent on an activity especially if that activity is behind schedule. For example, there has been substantial amount of time spent on the Web-Based Meetings pilot test. This is an activity where bad weather played a role in causing unexpected delays as well as unnecessary hours spent on an activity which yielded no results. Since we cannot turn back the clock here, moving forward on any planned end-to-end testing activity, there needs to be a quick go/no-go call to first discuss readiness for such activity. Also, there needs to be more diligence paid to estimation of task duration. Given that we have an actual track record of how long different task take, the activity can we more tightly estimated and the duration exactly planned for. This not only helps with cost estimation but also helps with scheduling control. As part of due diligence and planning, there can also be a â€Å"best practices review† organized by the Project Manager where the project team reviews best practices for a task that needs to be worked on and accomplished in the effort to further accelerate the rate of progress while also indirectly bringing in completion dates and shortening the schedule where possible. Given the revised estimates of the remaining 1220 hours of work left on the project, there is a great o pportunity to bring in those dates and reduce the hours spent as the same time. Also, authorization can be obtained from Senior Management on the potential of incentivizing the team with spot bonuses if budget can be allotted accordingly, in order to keep certain tight deadlines. This helps the team focus and work together to achieve the common goal. On another note on the topic of hours spent on the project by the project team, a process can be reviewed with the team and  proposals can be made to Senior Management weekly on whether overtime hours for employees who will be working their full 40 hours for the week can be authorized or not. This will not only keep a handle on costs due to overtime-pay, this will also prevent a certain element of â€Å"burnout† within the team where the team would feel overworked. Historically, overworked teams tend to make mistakes and produce low quality deliverables. Hence at all costs, team burnout will need to be avoided which would indir ectly also improve overall quality and team responsiveness. Quality can be very relative and subjective. In order to take out the subjectivity from quality measurement, the team can be asked to work together and come up with tangible metrics to measure the quality of all the technical deliverables that are worked on. This will serve in obtaining an unbiased and tangible view of the progress made on any of the technical deliverables and measure readiness of the solution that is being worked on. In general this same process can be applied to the processes used for setting up the new computers, document servers, shared drives, FTP sites as well as the web-based meeting software environment. Task C: Executive Summary: The Telecommuting Expansion project is well underway. Another Risk Analysis was performed and new risks have been identified and summarized in a Risk Assessment Matrix. A quick summary of the newly identified risks, its impact and strategies for prevention and mitigation are as follows: Description of Risks Impact Strategies for Prevention and Mitigation Widespread security breach due to unauthorized access to sensitive customer informationNegative publicity of the company and loss of credibility in the eyes of existing and potential customers impacting overall businessIdentify and install the latest security software on all telecommuters’ PCs and enforce strict rules for information access including password policy management. Document Server integration challengesThe setup of the environment for the Telecommuters would be delayedThe repetitive process of installation and setup of the document servers can be potentially scripted and semi-automated t o minimize error and reduce time taken. Technical challenges such as power failure and internet connection outagesThe setup of the environment for the Telecommuters would be delayed if either power or internet connection were impacted. To prevent  and mitigate this risk, the telecommuter PCs can be staged and setup in the Xemba Translations office before shipping to the remote location. In the long term budget can be allocated for individual battery backup for the remote PCs Delay in completion of the Telecommuting Expansion projectInadequate resources available to address the increased customer need causing negative publicity of the company.Manage schedules even more tightly monitoring daily progress of tasks and mitigating schedule delays even before it occurs. Perception of impersonal and below par service due to telecommuters Though there is a subjective aspect to this risk it can lead to the loss of very real customers and negative publicityWork with the marketing team to ens ure the message is clear to large customers on the benefits of real-time web based communications and translation services. The project is at day 76 since its inception. There have been some changes to the initial estimates of schedule and costs to the project. The Earned Value Management technique was used to compute some key schedule and budget metrics for comparison and strategic planning of the project. The following table has a summary of key initially planned and revised estimates of the Schedule and Budget items of the project: Schedule/Budget ItemInitially Planned Revised Estimates Duration in Days123 days209 days Duration in Hours2,693 hrs3,008 hrs Personnel Cost$173,329.40$190,471.87 Hardware/Software Cost$73,670.57$71,300.00 Note: There is additional firewall hardware and software cost of $20,000 which will be accounted for in the IT budget per guidance from CEO – Phuong Wolfing instead of being added to the Telecommuting Expansion Project costs. This cost is excluded in the estimates in the above table. In addition to the above revised estimates, an analysis was done on three problems that the project is facing and recommendations were summarized to address and mitigate the problems. The problems that were discussed and summarized in great detail together with recommendations to address the root of the respective problems are as follows: One: Cost Overrun – Based on the current  project status and trend of activities including estimates from the project team of how much more time is needed on the different project tasks, if there are no major changes, the Project will definitely run well over budget and require additional funding in order to be completed. This would mean that there would really need to be an even bigger effort by the new Project Manager to control costs to minimize the cost overruns. Two: Schedule Overrun – Based on the current project status and trend of activities, if there are no major changes, the Project will definitely finish well beyond the targeted end date at the end of June in time for the start of the third quarter of the year as expected when the project was approved. This will imply that if Senior Management and Stakeholders of this project are serious on this project being completed in time for the third quarter of the year, then many critical steps will need to be taken to try and mitigate and minimize further project delay. Three: Quality Challenges – The status report for the Telecommuter Expansion project that is included as part of the case study reveals that typically in any IT Project there are many factors which can easily drive down the quality of the solution that is being worked on. In this case for Xemba Tran slations the Telecommuter Expansion is a project which involves substantial capital investment in information technology infrastructure and the associated complexities of getting the infrastructure setup and functional. As with any complex technology solution, the most critical part involves the initial setup and verification of the complex solution especially in all the many edge cases where the solution’s resilience to security attacks and malicious users is tested. Given the technical complexity of the deliverables of this project compounded with the lack of enough resources, there needs to be steps taken to ensure overall quality of all the technical deliverables in the project are maintained at a high level for the successful completion of this project followed with the successful operation of daily activities in Xemba Translations. Although the problems that have been encountered thus far cannot be eliminated, moving forward in the project, till completion the same prob lems can be minimized or mitigated. The recommendations to address the problems facing the project are as follows: Authorization for additional work: There needs to be processes in place to confirm and authorize the need for additional hours spent on an activity especially if that activity is  behind schedule. Since we cannot turn back the clock here and undo any issues already experienced, moving forward on any planned end-to-end testing activity, there needs to be a quick go/no-go call to first discuss readiness for such activity. Accuracy of Task Estimation with Best Practices: Also, there needs to be more diligence paid to estimation of task duration. Given that we have an actual track record of how long different task take, the activity can we more tightly estimated and the duration exactly planned for. This not only helps with cost estimation but also helps with scheduling control. As part of due diligence and planning, there can also be a â€Å"best practices review† organized by the Project Manager whe re the project team reviews best practices for a task that needs to be worked on and accomplished in the effort to further accelerate the rate of progress while also indirectly bringing in completion dates and shortening the schedule where possible Motivate Project Team through incentives: Also, authorization can be obtained from Senior Management on the potential of incentivizing the team with spot bonuses if budget can be allotted accordingly, in order to keep certain tight deadlines. This helps the team focus and work together to achieve the common goal. Manage Overtime Pay and â€Å"Burnout†: On another note, on the topic of hours spent on the project by the project team, a process can be reviewed with the team and proposals can be made to Senior Management weekly on whether overtime hours for employees who will be working their full 40 hours for the week can be authorized or not. This will not only keep a handle on costs due to overtime-pay, this will also prevent a cert ain element of â€Å"burnout† within the team where the team would feel overworked. Quality Assurance Metrics: Quality can be very relative and subjective. In order to take out the subjectivity from quality measurement, the team can be asked to work together and come up with tangible metrics to measure the quality of all the technical deliverables that are worked on. This will serve in obtaining an unbiased and tangible view of the progress made on any of the technical deliverables and measure readiness of the solution that is being worked on. With all of the above listed recommendations in place this would not only pave the way for the successful completion of the Telecommuting Expansion Project but set a very bold precedent within Xemba Translations as to what to do and what not to do in a project. The successful completion of the Telecommuting Expansion Project  would set a strong foundation for Xemba Translations to handle the additional business that is forecasted starting in Q3.