When we were developing our Capstone project, we had to constantly monitor where we were in terms of our schedule. We had to make sure that everything we do was on schedule because the amount of time we had to complete the project was very small. Overall, there were a lot of times when the project fell behind schedule however, since we were completing different aspects of the project simultaneously, we didn’t fall behind as much. In terms of budget, we had a surplus of money for the project. However, there was a time when we were scared that we were going to go above the budget for design purposes. We needed new equipment and it ended up costing a lot but it never added up to go over the budget. Performing variance analysis for our project taught me how to balance based on a pre-set amount of resources and has also taught me to become better at becoming flexible when it comes to working on problems that arise within the middle of the project.

With M&C there is the process of tracking, reviewing, and regulating the progress to meet the performance objectives defined in the project management plan. Capstone is a great way to learn what project management is like. For example, we have status meetings with Dr.Schesser. He is monitoring the overall issues that we can have with the project as well as requiring proof that we completing the tasks he assigns us every week. Going back to what Talha was saying yes there are variances within the project timeline, different requirements might be changed to satisfy the customer's needs, change orders may have to be put in, hypothetically speaking. Also when we start testing various aspects of the various requirements which are tested and either pass or fail. We have to either work on the failed tested or devise another requirement to satisfy the customer needs.

As we know Monitoring and Controlling is one of the phase of project management. It includes tracking, reviewing the performance of the project going on and looks at the changes required. This phase itself contains 11 processes like: 1) generic process whre all monitoring and controlling is done. 2)task involving changes to the plan. 2)process gaining approval. 4)ensuring scope is no changed and no unauthorised activities are done. 5)maintaining costs. 6)ensuring the quality. 7)ensuring that deadlines are meet. 8)providing communication to each stakeholder. 9)safeguarding the events. 10)ensure goals are meet. 11)ensuring each stakeholders are satisfied.

I also agree with the others, the capstone class is a great example and experience of monitoring and controlling. During my project, there were many times were we fell behind schedule mainly because of our code and electrical components did not cooperate with one another. As required by the class we created a high level schedule and made priorities of what needs to be done, and present what we accomplished, every week. Additionally we also had issues of defective part that were shipped from Europe. The problem was getting new parts and sending parts back was too time consuming. As a result, we had to manipulate our budget so we can go out for replica products. In the end we accomplished our goal by staying under budget and meeting all requirements.

You will find that the M&C is highly correlated to the a properly defined scope. Many of you have mentioned capstone, and I am sure that as you began actually building the product you realized that your understanding of the scope of the project or the time scale for each component based off your understanding of that component from the scope determined if you were in the positive or negative because the scope is what eventually leads to the definition of the predicted/expected budget and time. One of the components that resulted in a major set back for was the compatibility of components and the idea that a component that was delivered could be defective. We had spent a whole weeks trying to transmit information from an arduino through wifi to a remote server but found out that the wifi chip was defective and after purchasing a new chip, the initial code worked fine. This was a rate determining step in our gant chart and it resulted in delays. With a perfectly designed scope, you would be able to have a neutral net being just on time similar to how if you had to do the capstone project again you would be able to quite accurately define the time needed to finish ever step as well as have every step needed well defined.

When planning and executing any project it is almost normal to fall of schedule I believe. Even when developing a gantt chart there is a critical path and supplementary paths that allow time for slow downs or hiccups. When running my own capstone project, we saw hiccups that are very hard to account for like shipping and manufacturing times. Also, since our project is being developed to function in a hospital setting there are increased costs for materials due to regulations and higher levels of quality. Some materials were in within days and others are still delayed by weeks. I also feel like a budget relies on making sure there is a surplus budget for unexpected failures. Using an entire budget early in a project will leave you inevitably guaranteed to land over budget. Even with no cost planed or even extra material purchased a capped budget will eventually incapable of moving forward.

I think an important thing to add to this discussion is how to adjust things when out of scope - whether it be due to budget or time. An example is in capstone, whenever something takes more time than our schedule planned for, putting us in the negative, we have to make a contingency plan on how we are going to fix it. How my team fixes this is by running things in parallel that were not originally going to be done at the same time. Moreover, an example of doing this with budget is that an unexpected testing cost came up putting us over budget. To afford this unexpected cost, we had to decrease the amount of other materials we planned to order. This was a difficult decision because it decreased the amount of testing we are able to do. Does anyone have other experiences with fixing going out of schedule or budget?