You have raised a very interesting point, before taking this class I did not know all these terms, I used to only say that we were under budget, ahead/behind schedule, etc. In my particular case, during my capstone project, my team proposed an original budget of $150, the real price of our product was $90 but the professor, advisor and the team agreed to order some extra parts just in case we broke some fragile devices. By the end of the term, our cost variance was positive, however the schedule variance was negative (behind schedule). This occurred because during the project, we replaced a part for one that could do the job in an easier way and cheaper, but it took about 2 weeks to get this one part which made us have a negative value for our schedule variance. At the time I was not aware of these terms but now I realize what the correct way of expressing it is.

Let me know what you think.

Sincerely,
Roberto Pineda.

I currently work as a Project Coordinator for NJIT in which I am coordinating an entire project from training to payroll, to dealing with students and tutors. Initially, it was planned each tutor can make up to $700 per semester and the hours/tasks will be documented as the program continues throughout the semester. As I am currently in the last 1/3 of the program, our budget was under. This was because we never accounted for the fact that the 50 students assigned to our program also go to the Math Center, Writing Center, or Other learning assistants on campus (which are paid by the school). Thus, our budget for paying the students was under and as a project coordinator, I saw progress being made as expected but the students were using other resources besides what we provided. We planned a value of how much it would cost to have 6 tutors on the team working with 50 students. Our actual budget was less with the same end result as expected.

The program is running as expected and our budget is under leaving us with money that can be used to hire tutors with different areas of expertise to expand this ELA program for next semester and bring more students on board. This is my direct experience with budgeting and working as a project leader and making sure each of the team members in this program are on the same page.

I was working on my class project; at the beginning, I had to estimate project cost. I calculated the total project budget should not cost more than $90. However, by the time I finished my project, it ended up cost me 40$ more than I estimated due to some defective motors which needed to be reordered and replaced. By the deadline, I only completed 80% and earned value was $72 and actual cost was $130. My cost variance for that project was -58 which shows I spent more than I originally predicted and based on negative number my project was over budget “not a good sign”.

For my capstone project, we were required to set up a budget and track the changes as we have to purchase material. One of our costliest materials is a resin used to 3D print the material that our final product will be made of. In theory it costs about $700. We had set up a goal to be below $1000. The school ended up having some sort of contract with the manufacturer that we had to buy the resin from and they cut us a deal and it ended up being half the price. In the end, we ended up being at $600 as opposed to $1000 which was quite a bit of saving.

I was chipping away at my class extend; toward the starting, I needed to gauge extend cost. I figured the aggregate venture spending plan ought not cost more than $15000. In any case, when I completed my venture, it wound up cost me 1200$ more than I evaluated because of some broken syringe which is about 85$. By the due date, I just finished 90 percent and earned esteem was $1300 and the real cost was $1600. My cost difference for that venture was 100 which demonstrates I spent more than I initially anticipated and in light of negative number my venture was over spending plan not a decent sign.

In my time as an undergraduate research assistant, I was charged to create, oversee, and execute my part in a much larger drug discovery and development project. Similar to what Roberto said, I was not aware of the terminology “planned value, actual cost, and cost variance” at the time. I only knew that I was either under or over budget at any one time in my end of the project. Looking back to a point roughly ¾ though my project, that have had a total project budget of $250, I can calculate that my planned value was 0.75*250=$187.5. In addition, my earned value was 0.7*250= $170 which meant my schedule variance came in at $-8.75. At the conclusion of the project, my actual cost ended up being $255.00 which was due to a particular step in the organic synthesis being an unforeseen issue. At the time, simply having a rough idea whether I was over or under budget was sufficient. However, utilizing these new equations gives a much clearer picture of the actual numbers during a project which is critical as larger, more complex projects are undertaken.

For a animal trial study I worked on we had a cost variance associated with the study, and did end up going over budget as our cost variance was negative. Our earned value on the project was estimated at about $30,000 and the actual cost came out to around $55,000. This negative gap was a result of delays in the animal study which led to rising costs, each day the study was delayed. Moreover, there was an error conducting the study the first time by the contract lab which further increased our estimated time frame and caused us to conduct another study. When you have such a large gap in your cost variance it does cause many headaches because it is usually the result of many different factors that are causing setbacks within your project.

In my senior design project (capstone), we were supposed to come up with an estimated project cost and track as we progress with buying parts for the project. Just like in any project, our budget varied throughout as completion of the project. Our main component called, “E-health board” was the costliest component of about $ 200. The other smaller components like the wifi board and biometrics sensor attaches to the E-health board. We were granted a $500 award from the NJIT Undergraduate Research Committee to use towards the project. The budget was under throughout until the last phase when one of the wifi boards didn’t work, so we ended up buying few different kinds of boards. In the end, we ended up being at $750, which is over by $150. All in all, the project was successful.

I was lucky enough to choose a Capstone project where we did not have to pay for anything, all of our parts were given to us from previous attempts at the project. However we later found out that the sensors we got were faulty and we had to buy new ones ourselves. This was a major set back to the project, we kept modifying our code thinking we were the problem while it was the actual sensors the entire time. Since we had no budget, we had no earned value management and no proper schedule variance. When we finally realized the sensor problem we were already behind schedule. This means that maybe we were not so lucky to get a zero cost zero budget project, especially when using parts from previous uncompleted attempts. Summarizing: planned value = $0; actual cost = cost of sensors; schedule variance = cost of sensors. Since Capstone projects all have to be finished at a set time, we did end-up finishing however we were greatly rushing towards the end.

I was working on a project during my undergraduate where I had to develop a rehabilitation glove for stroke patients. We had acquired a budget of $3000 and had to decide what we needed for a prototype. I was made the chief financial officer of our group, but I was woefully inexperienced at anything financial so our spending was very much unplanned. We ended up spending only a little over $200 before that project eventually fizzled out, so all in all it wasn't as much of a bad ending as it could have been since we were always under budget.

I am currently working on a capstone project. We won a $3000 URI grant to design and fabricate our device. This grant must be used only for this project. As a result, we based our entire budget around this $3000, not considering if we could potentially do it for less or if we need more since those were not options. As a result, we unfortunately cannot see outright if there was a positive or negative cost variance. However, this discussion thread brings up a good point that it is useful to go back and analyze that. In purchasing materials, since we had room in our budget we bought different variations of the components to then test which performed best. However, if we were aiming for a certain cost variance I am curious to see if we would have had to limit the different options and experimentations we have tried. On the other hand, scheduling was another reason we had to buy all the variations at once and spend the entire budget at once since going through purchasing can take a long time.

I remember during my undergraduate capstone class, we had to create a budget for a grant we received. We list all the materials we needed for this project. The biggest problem was we needed sensors and that came from europe. We had an issue with some of the sensors because they did not work. It took three months to ship and and another three months to return, so we abandoned the defective sensors. As a team, we decided created a priority list of what sensors we need and what sensors we don’t, and how much each sensor cost. We got sensors that were replicas and a lot cheaper. We used the money we had left to buy, basically knockoffs and it worked successfully. There was some cases were we pulled money out of our own pockets for small things but it had to be done. It was a good lesson learn that we should utilize the budget correctly so we don’t go over.

Cost Analysis is an important viewpoint in project management and it is relevant in circumstances like evaluating a new project, evaluation of any change activity and deciding the possibility of various purchases. Initially, I would record the project costs and evident benefits before calculating the Return on Investment. It is essential to conceptualize all expenses and advantages that are related to a specific project. Once the expenses and advantages have been recorded down, assign a monetary value to the costs. Costs like physical sources utilized as a part of the project and additionally human effort should be assigned their monetary value. Similar things should be done to the benefits. This will permit project heads to contrast the two expenses and advantages adequately make the right decision.

One of my jobs as a biomedical technician is to maintain inventory so my coworkers and I can provide a consistent stream of work. Depending on the device, manufacturer, or supplier I am dealing with, the maximum cost may vary. Also, certain vendors have a minimum cost that must be met. I have to strategically select components and ensure that high priority components are ordered while keeping the total cost within budget. Sometimes there is a high demand for repairs and it is impractical to keep the order within this threshold, in which case management will typically extend the limit as needed.