#1 Assignment Objectives Managing a Project Schedule 400 words For this Discussion Board assignment, complete the following: •Critique 3 ideas, concepts, or topics from this course, and reflect on how they relate to the course objectives and your career aspirations. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas #2 Assignment Objectives Managing a Project Schedule Describe project management principles as they are currently applied to both governmental and non-governmental acquisition projects. Use effective communication techniques. Word document with 10 total pages, including empty sections 700 words Assignment Your first task in this process will be to select a project to use as the basis of your Key Assignment. You will also create the shell document for the final project Key Assignment document deliverable that you will be working on throughout the course. As you proceed through each project phase, you will add content to each section of the final document to progressively complete the final project delivery, which is the Acquisition Project Scheduling and Cost Management Plan. The project deliverables are the following: •Submit your project proposal to your instructor for approval. •Acquisition Project Scheduling and Cost Management Plan document shell ◦Use Word ◦Title page ◾Course number and name ◾Project name ◾Your name ◾Date ◦Table of Contents (TOC) ◾Use an autogenerated TOC. ◾This should be on a separate page. ◾This should be a maximum of 3 levels deep. ◾Be sure to update the fields of the TOC so that it is up-to-date before submitting your project. ◦Section headings (create each heading on a new page with "TBD" as the content, except for sections listed under "New Content" below) ◾Project Outline ◾Cost, Schedule, and Technical Performance Management ◾Management of Small Projects ◾Acquisition Project Guidelines ◾Costing Methods and Tools ◾Earned Value Management System ◾Overall Cost and Schedule Performance •New content to be inserted in document shell ◦Project Outline ◾Give a brief description of the project. ◾Discuss the overall project deliverable. ◾The material can be taken from approved proposal submitted to instructor, and this will serve as the draft for the proposal. ◾Be sure this project is approved by the instructor. ◦Cost, Schedule, and Technical Performance ◾Discuss cost techniques both in determining initial estimates and in monitoring and controlling them throughout the life of the project. ◾Determine the project schedule for the acquisition component of the overall project and include a copy of it. ◾Develop the program evaluation and review technique (PERT) and critical path method (CPM) for this Key Assignment acquisition project, and include copies of those charts in this section. ◾Describe all of the key schedule influencers that can impact a schedule positively or negatively and how you would handle them. #3 Assignment Objectives Management of Small Project ...

1. #1 Assignment Objectives
Managing a Project Schedule
400 words
For this Discussion Board assignment, complete the following:
•Critique 3 ideas, concepts, or topics from this course, and
reflect on how they relate to the course objectives and your
career aspirations.
Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your
ideas
#2 Assignment Objectives
Managing a Project Schedule
Describe project management principles as they are currently
applied to both governmental and non-governmental acquisition
projects.
Use effective communication techniques. Word document with
10 total pages, including empty sections
700 words
Assignment
Your first task in this process will be to select a project to use
as the basis of your Key Assignment. You will also create the
shell document for the final project Key Assignment document
deliverable that you will be working on throughout the course.
As you proceed through each project phase, you will add
content to each section of the final document to progressively
complete the final project delivery, which is the Acquisition
Project Scheduling and Cost Management Plan.
The project deliverables are the following:
•Submit your project proposal to your instructor for approval.
•Acquisition Project Scheduling and Cost Management Plan

2. document shell ◦Use Word
◦Title page ◾Course number and name
◾Project name
◾Your name
◾Date
◦Table of Contents (TOC) ◾Use an autogenerated TOC.
◾This should be on a separate page.
◾This should be a maximum of 3 levels deep.
◾Be sure to update the fields of the TOC so that it is up-to-date
before submitting your project.
◦Section headings (create each heading on a new page with
"TBD" as the content, except for sections listed under "New
Content" below) ◾Project Outline
◾Cost, Schedule, and Technical Performance Management
◾Management of Small Projects
◾Acquisition Project Guidelines
◾Costing Methods and Tools
◾Earned Value Management System
◾Overall Cost and Schedule Performance
•New content to be inserted in document shell ◦Project Outline
◾Give a brief description of the project.
◾Discuss the overall project deliverable.
◾The material can be taken from approved proposal submitted
to instructor, and this will serve as the draft for the proposal.
◾Be sure this project is approved by the instructor.
◦Cost, Schedule, and Technical Performance ◾Discuss cost
techniques both in determining initial estimates and in
monitoring and controlling them throughout the life of the
project.
◾Determine the project schedule for the acquisition component
of the overall project and include a copy of it.

3. ◾Develop the program evaluation and review technique (PERT)
and critical path method (CPM) for this Key Assignment
acquisition project, and include copies of those charts in this
section.
◾Describe all of the key schedule influencers that can impact a
schedule positively or negatively and how you would handle
them.
#3 Assignment Objectives
Management of Small Projects
Describe project management principles as they are currently
applied to both governmental and non-governmental acquisition
projects.
Identify the fundamentals of cost, schedule, and technical
performance management of major projects and relate these to
the management of small projects.
Investigate current costing methods and tools available to assist
the project manager.
Use effective communication techniques.
Use team and problem-solving skills to collaborate on a project.
500 words
Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your
ideas.
It has been argued that without project management for very
large projects, they are most certainly doomed to fail. Can the
same be said for small projects? In this Discussion Board, you
will explore this question and take it further by describing what
tools and techniques you would still utilize to manage a small
project.
The following Discussion Board research will assist you in
determining each of these dimensions. Research at least 2
resources (which may include your textbook) to support your
response.
•What tools, techniques, and methods that you would

4. traditionally use in a larger project would you still incorporate
in managing a small project?
•What do you envision the roles and responsibilities to be for
smaller projects?
•Describe the schedule change management process that you
would implement for smaller projects and how this differs from
what you might use for larger projects.
Include an introduction and conclusion to this topic. Be sure to
include your references and citations, and format your
submission in APA format.
# 4 Assignment Objectives
Management of Small Projects
Word document, 900 words of new content
Identify the fundamentals of cost, schedule, and technical
performance management of major projects and relate these to
the management of small projects.
Use effective communication techniques.
Assignment
In the Discussion Board, you already analyzed how you would
manage a smaller project compared to a larger project. You will
now synthesize what you have learned during the discussions on
this topic. For this assignment, you are determining all of the
processes, activities, and tasks you will need to incorporate in
your acquisition project, which will be small in nature
compared to a larger-sized project. You will also describe the
overall processes such as project communication processes,
integrated change control processes, and project monitoring and
controlling processes.
Deliverables
The following are the overall project deliverables:

5. •Update the Key Assignment document title page with a new
date and project name.
•Update the previously completed sections based on the
instructor's feedback.
•Create the following new section: ◦Management of Small
Projects ◾Develop your small acquisition project schedule
using MS Project (tasks, predecessors, duration, and resources
assigned).
◾Copy a screen print of the schedule and Gantt chart into this
shell.
◾Copy a screen print of the critical path network diagram, or of
the Gantt screen of the Tracking Gantt view showing the critical
path into this shell.
◾Describe the specific processes that you will use within each
of the 5 Project Management Institute (PMI®) process groups:
initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling and
closing.
#5 Assignment Objectives
Describe project management principles as they are currently
applied to both governmental and non-governmental acquisition
projects.
Identify the fundamentals of cost, schedule, and technical
performance management of major projects and relate these to
the management of small projects.
Discuss and apply system acquisition principles.
Use effective communication techniques.
Use team and problem-solving skills to collaborate on a project.
500 words
Whether a project is being developed from scratch or is
acquired, project management is still necessary through the
final delivery. In this Discussion Board, you will consider what
the differences are by applying system acquisition processes
and principles.

6. The following Discussion Board research will assist you in
determining what each of these dimensions means. Research at
least 2 sources (which may include your textbook) to support
your response.
•Explain how you will refine your system acquisition project
schedule of activities and deliverables that will also be
incorporated in your Key Assignment project plan. (In
reviewing your initial project schedule, what additional
activities or deliverables did you discover that might also need
to be included?)
•What evaluation techniques will you use to determine which
seller has the best system that you are hoping to purchase? What
information will you ask for in the request for proposal (RFP)?
•What information will you require from the selected vendor in
terms of project status and budget?
Include an introduction and conclusion to this topic. Be sure to
include your references and citations, and format your
submission in APA format.
#6 Assignment Objectives
Describe project management principles as they are currently
applied to both governmental and non-governmental acquisition
projects.
Discuss and apply system acquisition principles.
Use team and problem-solving skills to collaborate on a project.
System Acquisition Principles
Word document, 900 words of new content
Assignment

7. In the Discussion Board, you looked at the tasks that should be
included in the project plan, so you will go back and update
your project plan to include these tasks. You will also develop
your request for proposal (RFP) based on Discussion Board.
Prepare a table of the evaluation criteria that you will use to
select your top vendor. Finally, you will present a status update
process diagram and describe the process for the vendor to
communicate status.
Deliverables
The following are the overall project deliverables:
•Update the Key Assignment document title page with a new
date and project name.
•Update the previously completed sections based on the
instructor's feedback.
•Create the following new section: ◦Acquisition Project
Guidelines ◾Update the project plan and Gantt Chart with
acquisition project activities with MS Project, and copy it into
this section.
◾Develop a request for proposal (RFP) template for the
acquisition project with the elements discussed in the
Discussion Board for this week.
◾Develop a table with the vendor evaluation criteria.
◾Diagram and describe the vendor status update process.
#8 Assignment Objectives
Identify the fundamentals of cost, schedule, and technical
performance management of major projects and relate these to
the management of small projects.
Use effective communication techniques.
Investigate current costing methods and tools available to assist
the project manager.
Use team and problem-solving skills to collaborate on a project.

8. Cost Methods & Tools
1,500 words with new content 10 total pages, including 2 empty
sections
NOTE this is a table for this assignment (#8) that I attached
also
Assignment
You are now ready to apply costing methods, tools, and
techniques to your project. There are many of these available to
assist you in determining your overall budget, as well as to
estimate the durations for individual tasks. These methods could
include the following:
•Expert judgment
•Analogous estimating
•Parametric estimating
•Bottom-up estimating
•Three-point estimating
•Reserve analysis
•Cost of quality
•Project management estimating software
•Vendor bid analysis
You will be responsible for using your plan that you developed
in Weeks 2 and 3 to estimate your budget for your key
assignment project. You should apply 2 of the above methods to
determine a worst-case scenario budget. Please put your
calculations in a spreadsheet similar to the following:
Deliverables
The following are the overall project deliverables:
•Update the Key Assignment document title page with a new
date and project name.
•Update the previously completed sections based on the
instructor's feedback.
•Create the following new section: ◦Costing Methods and Tools
◾Select 2 of the costing methods, and discuss why they will

9. support developing a realistic budget.
◾Provide an example of computations for a few of the activities
for the 2 selected methods.
◾Fill in a table similar to the example table so that your 2
different total project budgets are based on the 2 selected
methods.
◾Discuss what type of contingency budget you will put in place
based on the 2 budgets to mitigate an underestimation.
#9 Assignment Objectives
Earned Value Management Systems
Explore the use of earned value management systems to link
cost and schedule performance.
Use effective communication techniques.
Use team and problem-solving skills to collaborate on a project
Summative Discussion Board
Review and reflect on the knowledge you have gained from this
course. Based on your review and reflection, write at least 3
paragraphs on the following:
•What were the most compelling topics learned in this course?
•How did participating in discussions help your understanding
of the subject matter? Is anything still unclear that could be
clarified?
•What approaches could have yielded additional valuable
information?
•The main post should include at least 1 reference to research
sources, and all sources should be cited using APA format.
# 10 Assignment Objectives
Explore the use of earned value management systems to link
cost and schedule performance.
Use effective communication techniques.

10. Use team and problem-solving skills to collaborate on a
project.900 words of new content; 3,000–6,000 words (10–20
pages) total
Assignment
In the previous weeks, you developed a plan for project
managing acquisition projects. In Week 1, you discussed which
tools would be most appropriate for managing cost, schedule,
and technical performance. In Week 2, you evaluated the
difference in managing a project if it is small in nature. In Week
3, you focused specifically on guidelines for acquisition
projects. In Week 4, you incorporated cost methods and tools to
assist you in project tracking and monitoring.
This week, you will be incorporating earned value management
and how overall cost and schedule performance will be
monitored and controlled.
Deliverables
The following are the overall project deliverables:
•Update the previously completed sections based on the
instructor's feedback.
•Complete the following new sections: ◦Earned Value
Management System ◾Discuss how an earned value analysis
will be utilized for this project or Key Assignment, including
the formulas to compute earned value analysis (EVA).
◾Cover the following 4 scenarios and what you should do:
◾Behind schedule and over budget: Include a sample
calculation that would trigger this interpretation, along with a
graph.
◾Ahead of schedule and on budget: Include a sample
calculation that would trigger this interpretation, along with a
sample graph.
◾Behind schedule and on budget: Include a sample calculation
that would trigger this interpretation, along with a sample
graph.
◾Ahead of schedule and under budget: Include a sample

11. calculation that would trigger this interpretation, along with a
sample graph.
◾Discuss for each of the above situations how you compute the
final cost and end date if nothing changes with its present state.
◦Overall Cost and Schedule Performance ◾Discuss how you will
monitor progress.
◾Discuss what metrics, reports, and graphs you will use to
monitor progress.
◾Discuss how they would determine the cause of the variation.
◾Discuss how you will respond to deviations; (specifically
around schedule compression and a contingency budget).
•Update the Key Assignment title page with a new date and
project name.
•Be sure to update your table of contents before submission.