Describe about the Expert System Application for Evaluation of the Engineering Projects with the Earned Value System Implementation?
Assessment of the performance measurement of a project include the investigation of the total budget, examination of the work was done and analysis of the schedule. The project management process makes it difficult for the management authorities to control the progress of the project if the initial assessment of the project is not known. Considering, this issue, this research proposal is prepared, where the researcher aims to is to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of Earned Value Management System in the Expert System Application for the Evaluation of the Engineering Projects. To do so, the researcher has performed a review of the literatures related to the study area. Later, the research proposal also demonstrates the implementation of various research methodologies for further research and development on the subject. The data is collected from different expert system application for evaluation of the engineering projects with the application of the earned value system implementation. In this research proposal, the data collected will be analyzed accordingly to achieve the results to gain the aim of the research.
The primary aim of this research is to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of Earned Value Management System in the Expert System Application for the Evaluation of the Engineering Projects.
The focus of this study comprises of the need of need of Earned Value Management System (EVMS) in Engineering Project, the productiveness of the system in analyzing the overall budget, the scheduling plan and the variance of the current project from the planned or proposed system (Colin and Vanhoucke 2015). The research paper deals with the data collection process from various finished engineering projects. The effectiveness of the planning of the project with the analysis of Earned Value System is compared with the effectiveness of the project planning without the analysis of Earned Value System is examined. The principle aim of the research is to scrutinize the supremacy of the Earned Value Management System in successful organization of the project and how it helps in overall project planning (Fleming and Koppelman 2013).
The Earned Value Management System or the EVMS is an effective tool to measures the tracks and exercise the physical scope of any project. The EVMS evaluated and integrated the project in a systematic way to measure the cost, technical scope and effective schedule of the task or any project (Batselier and Vanhoucke 2015). The implementation of the EVMS helps the researchers to have a clear and detailed view of the project planning including the overall budget of the project, the integrated schedules of sub-divisions in the project, technical milestones to be achieved and the critical programming in the project. EVMS is required for all the projects where the successful implementation of the project is largely dependent on the planning degree and effort for the application.
According to Gupta (2014), the EVMS felicitates to control the project progress. EVMS scales the current status of the project and the variance from the actual schedule of the planned project. The EVMS is a versatile tool that can be applied to projects of various size, complexity and type. The Earned Value Management System is the only current evaluation technique that traces the project regarding cost, time and work. The periodic analysis of Earned Value System helps the implementations and researchers to evaluate the current progress of the project.
Some specific terminologies are defined in the context of EVMS
EVA (Earned Value Analysis):
The Earned Value Analysis is the method or procedure of assessing the projects status in any given time and forecasting the future scheduling, final cost and completion date (Haghighi et al. 2015).
EVM (Earned Value Management):
The Earned Value Management is a methodology or techniques to evaluate the performance of the project in terms of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) (Kwak and Anbari 2012).
EVMS (Earned Value Management System):
The Earned Value Management System is the tools, process and procedure used by an organization or the group of people to process the EVM in the project. (Macdonald 2013)
Expert system application for the engineering projects with Earned Value System Implementation is cost efficient project. Therefore, most of Earned Value system costs are in the area of engineering project most responsible for the control management system. Zhang, Li and Tang (2014) opined that majority of engineers are typically responsible for the report and variance analysis. Moreover, in order to implement EVMS criteria, need to ensure the compliance. Evaluation of the Engineering Project with the Earned Value System, many limitations were found in spite of the different advancement of the technologies used in EVMS. Due to various factors in the management of the earned value system, the system fails to produce efficient and effective results as required. Thus, the research paper on the EVMS becomes most essential and inevitable.
The main objective of the research on Earned Value Management System is to recognize the potential of EVMS on the Expert System Application for Evaluation of the Engineering Projects. First the effectiveness of the EVMS is in terms of evaluating the scheduling of the project is done (Gupta 2014). The literature review deals with the investigation and the evaluation of the previous research on the implementations of Earned Value System and the current theories that proposed on the system. Different researchers are taken into account, and a detailed review is presented about it.
Work Breakdown structure is the procedure in breaking up the complex project into simpler subdivisions and easily manageable tasks (Colin and Vanhoucke 2015). The most difficult and critical tasks while engaging the project in EVMS is to divide the project scope in different sub tasks. The Work Breakdown Structure is most difficult for implementation in the software development in the engineering projects. Without the specific information about the whole project, it is difficult to analyze the percentage of the work done in the given time (Wu and Hsieh, 2012). The WBS is used by the engineer to decompose the project into small and feasible task packages. Without the use of WBS, the complete budget and schedule of the project cannot be accurately deliberated.
According to Acebes et al. (2015), the project leader uses the WBS in the Earned Value Management Technique. Yet, the EVMS fails to evaluate the correct and accurate scheduling and cost forecasting in the project. This happens because the different team member fails to value the importance of the work breakdown structure from the beginning. Furthermore, the minimum cooperation between the project members fails to correct evaluation of the EVMS. Moreover, the incomplete requirement for the project results in the incomplete evaluation of the work breakdown structure (Williams-Jones and Potvin, 2013). This is not recognized by the project members at the beginning and the stakeholders. The pitfall of this also occurs, when all the requirements are gathered in the initial stage of project management but is not checked of verified if the WBS implemented matches the requirements of the project. These faults can be avoided by maintaining a WBS dictionary and list the requirement properly (Tserng et al. 2015). The dictionary also inspects the every element if covered by the WBS. Additionally, another fatal problem encountered in developing the faulty EVMS is that the project member does not develop the task following the WBS.
The CPI is used to analyze the project and determine the final cost of the project at the beginning. The CPI is an effective tool that helps in estimating the cost efficiency of the project in the earned value management system. The Cost Performance Index or simply, the CPI is an indicator of the budget efficiency of the project (Willems and Vanhoucke, 2015). The Cost performance index analyze the work being completed on the project on every unit of cost utilized. The cost performance index can be evaluated by dividing the earned value to the project with the actual cost required for the project. The formula can be represented as
CPI = EV/AC (Tsui 2013)
From the above formula, it is concluded by Vignesh and Sowmya (2013) that if the evaluated CPI is less than one, it indicated that the project is over budget. In other words, the project is spending more money than planned. If the CPI is evaluated is greater than one, it indicates the project is under budget (Vignesh and Sowmya, 2013). In other words, the project is spending less money that planned. If the evaluated CPI is evaluated equals to one, it indicates the project is progressing as planned in the initial stage.
If there is a consistently high or low CPI value in every analysis, it indicates some error in the project and all estimations and requirements are checked and verified again to estimate the effective EVMS (Zhang Li and Tang 2014). It is found from various researchers, that in 90 % of the time, the schedule is incorrect as described by the client. Due to different miscommunications, constraints misuse, quantity errors and including an incorrect rate of the project, the budget of the project is calculated wrong from the very beginning of the project. This resulted in the incorrect analysis of the cost performance index that furthermore delayed the project and drastically effect in the earned value management system.
Another practical assessment tool for the evaluating the EVMS is To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI). The TCPI tool is the comparatively new tool used in the earned value management system. The TCPI tool is used for forecasting the performance level of the project. The TCPI gives the future guidance of the cost performance index in the future tasks. The TCPI helps the project to complete within the remaining budget and time. TCPI assists the project to be completed within the deadline and having the required level of performance. The analysis of the TCPI is done by dividing the remaining work of the project by the remaining budget of the project. The TCPI formula can be represented as
TCPI= remaining work / remaining budgets (Tserng et al. 2015)
Furthermore, the remaining work of the project can be calculated by subtracting the earned value from the initial budget of the project. The to-complete performance index is used for analyzing the future cost performance of the required performance (Tserng et al. 2015). If the project is on under budget, the TCPI is calculated on the basis of BAC (Budget at completion). And if the project is over budget, the TCPI is calculated on the basis of EAC (Estimate at Completion).
According to Gupta (2014), the progressive CPI helps in stabilizing the project about 20 % of the project completion. Various researches have shown that the CPI does not change more than 10% and at dome cases, the CPI tends to worsen the project condition.
The forecasting tool, to-complete performance index assists in analyzing the future efficiency of the required project. TCPI is done in order to complete the project within the planned time. If the TCP index is less than one, it means the project is running smoothly (Vignesh and Sowmya 2013). But the alternative, that is not true for the other performance indexes.
In spite of all the techniques used in the earned value management system, the system fails to produce accurate results as required for the planning of the project. This occurs due to the inadequate collection of cost (Acebes et al. 2015). There is a limitation in the cost collection system that only records the costs only for pain invoices received. There is always an influence of the management in the schedule and cost estimation that result in insufficient effect in the earned value management system.
The thesis statement focuses on the fact that that a number of project developers are implementing the earned value management system that helps in the determining and analyzing the current status of the project.
For the measurement of the overall project performance the proposed research deals with the various participants, different instruments of analysis and the procedure to apply in the research (Hall 2012). Different variations in the earned value management system is recommended for the most effective and efficient results.
The importance of the research methodology is the fact, that the information is well structured and defined. The sequential approach to a collection of data and well-defined and transparent approach will help the researcher to convey the research process in an efficient manner (Yin 2013). The research design is considered as the blueprint of every details and work involved in the analysis and collection of data during the research process (Pickard, 2012). There exists three type of research designs that includes descriptive, explanatory and exploratory. The researchers will choose from these research designs to carry forward the research (Kwak and Anbari, 2012). In this research paper, the researcher will choose descriptive research design to collect and analyze information from observation of the participants, a viewing method of the whole process and recording the participants in details (Willems and Vanhoucke 2015). The researchers in this proposal will get the freedom to explain the research problem and the knowledge regarding the problem.
The expert system application for the evaluation of engineering projects takes the authority in providing the high precision in the work done with the implementation of the earned value management system (Bryman 2012). The recent technologies have provided for the improved and better analysis of the estimated cost and planning the schedule of the project. The research of the proposed experiment will be carried fifty teams of engineers each consisting of ten members. The targeted engineers will be evaluated on the basis of the efficiency of the tasks with the implementation of EVMS during their project. For this particular study, the selected tem of engineers will help in represent the trained members for the required project.
In terms of conducting the research, analyst will gather information from both primary and secondary sources. In terms of collecting information from secondary sources analyst will use several the university library database. Apart from that, analyst will also use scholarly articles in terms of preparing the research project. The detailed survey will be conducted about the correlation between the team members and the evaluation of the project (Fleming and Koppelman, 2013). The team engineers will be informed via emails to their personal mail accounts about the interview process at least 24 hours before the process. The personal interview will not last more than thirty minutes. Furthermore, the analysis of every data and details done by during the project will be taken into consideration. On the other hand, in terms of collecting data from the primary sources, researcher will gather some respondents who relates with the EVMS technology and through the questionnaires will gather information. The participants of the project will be observed in every step of the project and analyzed in details (Fowler Jr 2013). The researchers will create a formal line of inquiry during the data collection processes. Furthermore, the researcher will allow the review of all the instruments used in the research to be verified and tested by the research (Hall, 2012). This will ensure the transparency and ability to understand the questions by all the members of the project team. The evaluation process will be made more summative and formative. This will help the researchers to set up the questions more related to the research topic (Pickard 2012). To increase the validity and reliability of the questions used in the research study different protocols will be used while setting up the questions.
In this particular research, analyst will identify the qualitative characteristics that will be the most appropriate method for decision making and making a useful conceptual framework in terms of comparing benefits and costs of EVMS project. This report will have two analytic methods such as Reliability and Relevance (Haghighi et al. 2015). Within the relevance method, three different methods will employ such as predictive value, timely and feedback value. Predictive value will help in finding the oversight personnel and the usefulness of information variances. Variance analysis will employ for making decision of feedback of the selected respondents.
From the point of view of Reliability, same database will verify. Analyst will use bias free information. Therefore, these technologies will help in restoring the balance of EVMS technology in the engineer project with the earned value system analysis (Fowler Jr, 2013). Through these analytics tools, analyst will able to make an ultimate decision with the marginal benefits of EVMS with the Earned Value System.
For this particular research, data will collect from both primary and secondary sources. All the information will extract for identifying the EVMS technology with the earned value system. Analyst will select both primary and secondary sources in terms of providing the useful materials that helps in gaining the information for this particular research study. As opined by Batselier and Vanhoucke (2015), primary data are the raw data that influence the research project directly. However, primary data are the first hand data that will enhance the reliability as well as validity of the research. On the contrary, secondary data sources are used in widening the research area and conduct the study in such a better manner with description.
In this research study, response will structure with the closed ended questions based on the percentages. However, analyst will analyze the percentage of response through using several analytics tool such as regression analysis, t-test, z-test, etc. All the collected data will be analyzed using the data analytics tools SPSS (Statistical Packaged for Service Solution).
To successfully perform the research works, some aspect s are to be considered as follows-
Acebes, F., Pereda, M., Poza, D., Pajares, J. and Galán, J.M., 2015. Stochastic earned value analysis using Monte Carlo simulation and statistical learning techniques. International Journal of Project Management,33(7), pp.1597-1609.
Andrews, D.F. and Herzberg, A.M., 2012. Data: a collection of problems from many fields for the student and research worker. Springer Science & Business Media.
Batselier, J. and Vanhoucke, M., 2015. Empirical evaluation of earned value management forecasting accuracy for time and cost. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 141(11), p.05015010.
Bryman, A., 2012. Social research methods. Oxford university press.
Colin, J. and Vanhoucke, M., 2015. A comparison of the performance of various project control methods using earned value management systems.Expert Systems with Applications, 42(6), pp.3159-3175.
Erickson, F., 2012. Qualitative research methods for science education. InSecond international handbook of science education (pp. 1451-1469). Springer Netherlands.
Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2013. Earned Value Project Management A Powerful Tool for Software Projects. Software Management,16, p.337.
Fowler Jr, F.J., 2013. Survey research methods. Sage publications.
Gupta, R., 2014. Earned Value Management System. International Journal of Emerging Engineering Research and Technology, 2(4), pp.160-165.
Haghighi, M., Zowghi, M., Zohouri, B. and Zowghi, M., 2015. Project Earned Value Management in Fuzzy Environment. Studies in Management and Applied Engineering, 1(1), pp.1-10.
Hall, N.G., 2012. Project management: Recent developments and research opportunities. Journal of Systems Science and Systems Engineering, 21(2), pp.129-143.
Kwak, Y.H. and Anbari, F.T., 2012. History, practices, and future of earned value management in government: Perspectives from NASA. Project Management Journal, 43(1), pp.77-90.
Macdonald, R., 2013. A Report on Earned Value Management. GRIN Verlag.
Miller, T., Birch, M., Mauthner, M. and Jessop, J. eds., 2012. Ethics in qualitative research. Sage.
Pickard, A., 2012. Research methods in information. Facet publishing.
Tserng, H.P., Lin, W.S., Li, C.C., Weng, K.W. and Loisel, D.C., 2015. Research on the Earned Value Management System Applied in Consultancy Project Performance. Journal of Marine Science and Technology, 23(1), pp.21-35.
Tsui, F., 2013. Analysis and Application of Earned Value Management in Software Development. Southern Polytechnic State University, Marietta, Georgia, USA.
Vignesh, N. and Sowmya, S., 2013, December. Analysis of “Estimate at Completion” of a Project’s duration to improve “Earned Value Management System”. In International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology(Vol. 2, No. 10 (October-2013)). ESRSA Publications.
Vignesh, N. and Sowmya, S., 2013, December. Analysis of “Estimate at Completion” of a Project’s duration to improve “Earned Value Management System”. In International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology(Vol. 2, No. 10 (October-2013)). ESRSA Publications.
Willems, L.L. and Vanhoucke, M., 2015. Classification of articles and journals on project control and earned value management. International Journal of Project Management, 33(7), pp.1610-1634.
Williams-Jones, B. and Potvin, J., 2013. Barriers to Research on Research Ethics Review and Conflicts of Interest. IRB: Ethics & Human Research,35(5), pp.14-20.
Wu, I.C. and Hsieh, S.H., 2012. A framework for facilitating multi-dimensional information integration, management and visualization in engineering projects. Automation in Construction, 23, pp.71-86.
Yin, R.K., 2013. Case study research: Design and methods. Sage publications.
Zhang, L., Li, Y. and Tang, J., 2014, January. The Application of the Earned Value Management in the Last Planner System for Project Performance Control. In Proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate (pp. 851-857). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
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