Budgetary Assumptions

The budgetary assumptions are as follows:

1. Equipment- it was assumed that the equipment will work at full capacity and hence maintenance costs shall be saved.
2. All facilities procured shall also work at full capacity thereby eliminating the risk of the additional project cost.
3. Although it is assumed that the human workforce will work and manage the work properly and that there will be no additional costs incurred on the same. The terms of workers were contractual and hence they would perform duties as per the terms and conditions enumerated in the contract. However, a contingency of 1% was kept to meet any unforeseen circumstance related to human issues.
4. Materials- the materials required in the project was all cloud and network-based, i.e. intangibles, such as software, middleware, firewall. This eliminated the risk of any loss or additional cost.

RECRUITMENT & SELECTION

In our budget, it is difficult to ascertain the profit since the turnover or project reimbursement from the client is not known. Hence we prepare a cost budget variance report:

Resources	Resource cost	Contingencies and Tolerances	Overheads/Indirect cost ( whole phase)
Human resources	$3,000.00	inaccuracy and inefficiency of  +11%	330
Fees	$1,000.00
Services and Statutory Costs	$4,000.00	Risk of Covid and increased cost of services incidental + 20%                      $800
Materials	$3,000.00	escalation of + 10%	$300
Equipment	$5,000.00	escalation of + 10%	$500
Facility and Utilities	$2,000.00	escalation of + 10%	$200
Control threshold			$1,000
Estimated cost	$18,000.00		$3,130

Here, the variance has been taken due to the following reasons:

Any activity involving humans will need to provide for an accuracy variance of 10%. Hence, we have given an additional cost of 10% for materials, equipment and other facilities.

Addressing an Environmental Issue

Cost management plan:

The various cost management plans of ‘Destination- Australia’ are as follows:

1. Unit of measurement- The project’s platform is online. Hence the unit of measurement of cost shall be the online time spent by its users. and the costs will be determined based on a percentage of completion of the project. The repository of such an online platform, where users are able to add pictures and videos of their travel and experiences in Australia and browse through the content, will help the National Archives of Australia to keep track of the migrant’s count.
2. Precision Level- This can be maintained by keeping a check on physical resources such as materials, equipment, facilities, thereby eliminating any kind of wastage or leakage of cost.
3. Accuracy- Accuracy can be maintained by employing experienced and well-trained staff and also spending time and effort on training them about the requirements of the project. Proper planning, management and control of employees can eliminate costs due to inaccuracy. This cost can be expected more during the initial phase of the project, hence a 10 per cent of increase or decrease in cost can be expected as a variance.
4. Maker-checker approach- all the expense and overhead statements shall be maintained in online tools such as Microsoft Excel worksheets and will be made by one person and validated by a senior to avoid inconsistency costs.
5. Conservative budgeting- while giving a strong budget goal, the contingency provisions have been kept to make sure some room is left for any extra overhead. 
6. Performance yardstick- the website designing project was enumerated into various levels and the performance of the team could be measured on timeliness and costs incurred vs. the expected idea.
7. Reporting format- the reporting of the budget was detailed, and transparent hence giving the users of the information a clear idea

Financial Management In Covid-19

Tools used for measuring cost variation

 

Three-point estimating 

(Discuss why are you choosing this to analyze the case study) 

Resources	Optimistic Cost	Most Likely	Pessimistic cost	Expected Cost
Human resources	2700	3000	3300	3000
Fees	1000	1000	1000	1000
Equipment	4500	5000	5500	5000
Services and Statutory Costs	3600	4000	4400	4000
Facility and Utilities	1800	2000	2200	2000
Material	2700	3000	3300	3000

E = (o + 4m + p ) / 6

where E is Estimate; o = optimistic estimate; p = pessimistic estimate; m = most likely estimate

Budget Performance Report

Resources	Planned	Actual	Variance
Human resources	3000	3330	330
Equipment	5000	5500	500
Material	3000	3300	300
Fees	1000	1000	0
Facility and Utilities	2000	2200	200
Services and Statutory Costs	4000	4800	800

Re-planning of the project:

Resources	Resource cost	Contingencies and Tolerances
Human resources	$3,330.00	inaccuracy and inefficiency of  +11%
Fees	$1,000.00
Services and Statutory Costs	$4,800.00	Risk of Covid and increased cost of services incidental + 20%
Materials	$3,300.00	escalation of + 10%
Equipment	$5,500.00	escalation of + 10%
Facility and Utilities	$2,200.00	escalation of + 10%
Control threshold	$1,000
Estimated cost	$21130.00

Reasons for replanning:

1. The human resource amount has been recalculated as per the given two assumptions. Firstly that 1% of the workforce budget was given to hire temporary employees, and hence 1% to be added to the budget. Secondly, the initial budget of the project is more than $5000 and hence 10% variance is given for accuracy. All costs included in the budget that calls for accuracy have to be included in the 10% bracket, such as facility and utility, equipment usage, and materials usage. Hence 10% cost escalation has been provided. 
2. Since details of costs and stage of the project are not mentioned, it has been assumed that the computation and details are shared for the project as a whole and similar calculations are being done.

Probabilistic Seismic Model

Ways of overcoming cost variance:

1. Cost curtailment- where possible, unnecessary delays and extra incidental costs can be ignored.
2. Reforecast- A well-defined and well-managed project always has a plan B. Once the cost variances go high, the project team should immediately replan and reformulate their budget.
3. Thresholding- looking at earlier projects and taking ideas and cues on cost management can be helpful.

Financial Completion Activity

 

on completion of the project, one needs to ensure that the variance has not been extremely high, or even higher than the tolerance level. Before delivering the project to the client, it is mandatory to ensure the following:

1. Specification check- that the project has been made exactly or as close as possible to the specifications made by the client. 
2. Cost check- that the costs incurred are not haywire and way beyond expected. There has to be some streamlining between the variances.
3. Testing- the check (mostly by an outside independent party or through surveys) that the project behaves as expected and all necessary information is present on the website.

Review of the project performances

 The review of the project performance is mostly not cost-driven, but functionality is driven so as to ensure that it delivers what it has been formulated for. That it fulfils all expectations and is serving its purpose well. Also the visibility, promotions and appeal of the website work on fulfilling its performance.

Data Management in Healthcare

Issues occurred on the Project

from a control perspective, it is important to note that once the project is delivered, there has to be a mandatory check on the performance, and redressal of the same. However, each project is a learning experience for the team and a checklist like the one below helps to keep a track of all issues faced and how they were overcome, hence creating a baseline for future prospective projects.