Final Project

The Setting

As a recent graduate from the CSU Construction Program, you have begun working for Senior, Inc., a medium-sized contractor ($100M billed in 1997). Colorado State University has announced that it will award the construction of the Lory Student Center Addition and Remodeling to Senior, Inc., after a competitive bidding process last semester.

Senior's CEO has requested you to team up with three other company members to develop and submit a construction plan for this project. Depending on the quality of the plan and your presentation to the CEO, your group may be assigned to manage this project. However, you will be competing against other company teams similarly composed, and as eager to get this career breakthrough as your team is.

The Construction Plan Report

Your report should have a professional appearance. It should be divided in sections with physical dividers between each. Include a preliminary section with a submittal memo to the CEO and a table of contents. Number the topics within each section. Use section dividers, and a good binder or spiral binding. Neatness counts.

The sections in the report should cover, as a minimum:

A general discussion section, explaining:

	Project background (be brief - remember that you are presenting to your own company, which knows the project).
	The overall construction strategy for the project. Discuss the challenges of this project, and how you plan to solve them.
	A discussion of your schedule. Is the critical path reasonable? Do non-critical activities have reasonable floats?
	A small summary of who are the group members, and how they will be organized for the construction.
	Why your team, and not any other, should be awarded the management of this project.

A detailed activity analysis. Include at least the following information for each activity, using a separate page for each activity similar to the form presented in the last page of this statement.

	Its identification code.
	A descriptive name.
	The work package(s) comprising the activity.
	The individual or subcontractor responsible for the activity (use an abbreviated code, and provide a key to abbreviations on the first page of the section).
	Main resources utilized (emphasizing labor).
	Duration, including its computation/rationale and information source used to estimate the productivity.
	Predecessors.
	Successors.
	Other assigned codes.

Bar charts for:

	Milestones only.
	Critical activities only.
	All activities, grouped by CSI division, then sorted by Early Start.
	Activities scheduled for the first 30 days only.

Tabular reports produced with the scheduling software package containing:

	Basic scheduling information for all activities.
	Costs and resources.
	Subcontractors and other responsible parties.
	Cash flow.

A project precedence network. Activity boxes should be categorized by responsible party.

Other reports:

	Optional: a time-scaled network.
	A separate histogram for each main resource (no more than 5).
	The project calendar(s).

An appendix should specify the work performed by each group member. Be specific.

Other Report Notes

	All reports must be folded (if necessary) into a 8.5" by 11" format.
	The first page of each section should discuss in detail the report or graph being presented. This should include an explanation of the column headings and / or the graphs, and a discussion of the results shown.
	A diskette with copy of the project should be included. As an exception to the rules discussed in class, copy the project to the diskette, do not back it up.

Deadlines

This report must be turned in by the beginning of the regular meeting time on April 15, 1998. Team presentation dates and times will be determined before this deadline.

Other intermediate deadlines must be observed:

1. Activity list: January 28.
2. Activity network: February 9.
3. Activity duration analysis: February 23.
4. Resources and cost: March 25.

Oral Presentation

Each team member will speak for at least three minutes about a part of the project that he or she directly performed. The presentation must have professional quality in the appearance of the presenters and the presentation aids used. The use of presentation software (e.g., Powerpoint), overhead transparencies, flipcharts, etc. is strongly encouraged. A total of 25 minutes will be allocated to each group.

Grading

This final project carries a total of 150 points for the final grade. This total is broken down as follows:

1. Activity list submittal 5 pts
2. Activity network submittal 5 pts
3. Duration analysis submittal 5 pts
4. Resources and cost submittal 5 pts
5. Final report 65 pts
6. Oral presentation 65 pts
7. Total: 150 pts

To illustrate the reasoning followed by the instructor when grading the written report, the following considerations have been part of the criteria used in the past:

1. General
Report is well formatted and professionally-looking
Presents reasonable, convincing data about team
Follows the scenario/setting of the problem

2. Work strategy
Strategy is clearly explained
Includes insight about subcontractor work strategy
Discusses critical operations in some detail

3. Activities
Includes milestones, procurement and inspections
Excludes irrelevant activities
Durations are discussed
Predecessors and successors are discussed
Network has reasonable shape and flow
Major resources and cost identified for each activity
Work packages logically related to activities

4. Schedules
Precedence network printout is clear
Bar chart includes key information
Bar chart excludes irrelevant information
Cost reports included
Resource utilization graphs are reasonable

5. Discussion of Results
Discussion relates to reports and graphs included
Critical path discussed
Resource utilization discussed.

The project is different each semester, and these criteria change to adjust to the characteristics of the project at hand. Other criteria for this semester include the feasibility of the plan to keep operational the Lory Student Center, the attention to the two distinct phases mentioned on the project manual, attention to the contractual duration, and others that will be discussed in class later on.

Peer Evaluation

Each student's grade for this project will depend on his or her peer evaluations. These evaluations will be twofold:

� During the oral presentation, each group will be evaluated by the rest of the class. Forty percent of the grade for the oral presentation will depend on this evaluation. This grade will be the same for all the members on a group, until it is differentiated by the peer evaluation discussed next.

� Each group will evaluate the distribution of work within its members. If all members have had the same level of effort, the common grade is not redistributed However, this peer evaluation could result in a redistribution of up to 15% of the group points among the members. A more detailed explanation of this evaluation process is presented in a separate handout, and has been introduced in the course syllabus.

Other Comments

There are intrinsic limitations to the realism of this project. The software used for this course is truncated to 200 activities, which is a very small number for a real setting. Also, the report requirements are much more detailed than what would be useful in a real context. In all probability, Senior's CEO would be able to make a decision without such detailed information. However, remember that this is your chance of integrating the bit and pieces of lectures and labs into a sizable project, and these small contradictions should not affect too much the overall learning experience.

This page was last modified April 22, 1998
Senior@cahs.colostate.edu