Project Management Professional (PMP)

Construction
Project Management Exercise

1.0 Background
The Caspian Research College is a large post-secondary institution dedicated to the study
and improvement of energy use. The post-secondary degrees granted at the college focus
primarily on fossil fuels and renewable energy. With the world becoming more focused
on improvements in energy efficiency and the finding and harnessing of renewable
energy sources, the college’s enrolment has doubled in the past decade.

The college has set a goal of doubling enrolment in the next five years. The present
facilities can barely accommodate the present number of students enrolled and they are
completely inadequate to accommodate the planned 100% increase.

The college intends to expand its campus including new classrooms, laboratories and
residences. Architectural drawings had been completed and construction companies to
build the new facilities have been identified. Your company has been chosen to build a
3000 square meter two-storey building that will house 10 laboratories. The expected
budget is approximately $400 million and the college wants the building completed
within 24 months

2.0 Objectives
The objective of this exercise is to plan and construct the new laboratory building. Your
team will be required to do the following:
• Define the scope of the project and prepare a project charter;
• Rolling wave planning will be done for the project. You will be required to
prepare a project plan that has significant detail in the first year and less detail in
the second year. The plan will include:
o work breakdown structure
o duration estimates
o resource estimates
o cost estimates
o schedule
• Identify major project risks and mitigation responses;
• During the execution phase, monitor the project progress and take action as
necessary to maintain control of the project; and
• Close out the project.

• Each team member must have a role within the project. The following roles must be
filled by a team member:
o Project Manager ($700/day) – manage the team;

PMP Exercise 1
 o Engineer ($800/day) – chief designer and manager of construction;
o Builder ($3000/day) – does the building of the laboratory;
o Quality manager ($500/day) – perform quality checks, manages risks, and
provides general support to the project; and
o Other roles may be added to the team if there are enough students.

3.0 Exercise Activities

This exercise will be done in phases (tasks). The phases include:

3.1 Task 1 – Project Scope

Define the high-level scope of the project. Include this scope in a brief Project
Charter/MOU/SOW. It will include:
• scope statement (project requirements)
• major stakeholders
• major milestones

3.2 Task 2 – Planning Phase WBS

Your team is to develop a WBS for the building of the laboratory. The “Level 0” Activity
will be titled “Construct Laboratory”. There must be at least 3 “Level 1” activities.
Decompose all “Level 1” activities down to the work package level (do not decompose
activities that would normally be done in the second year).

3.3 Task 3 – Schedule & Budget Phase

Your team is to develop a Gantt Chart/schedule using the WBS;
• Using the PERT effort estimating model, calculate the effort (duration) of the work
packages in the WBS;
• Estimate the resources needed for each work package (material and people);
• Calculate the costs of the resources for each work package using the cost spreadsheet.
• Prepare a project schedule that includes activities (and milestones), activity durations,
resources, costs.

3.4 Task 4 – Risk Planning & Management

Identify the major risks and your mitigation approach to the building of the laboratory.
Use at least 2 fish bone diagrams to identify risks.

PMP Exercise 2
3.5 Task 5 – Execution Phase
Monitor the project and use control responses to ensure the project plan is correctly
implemented.
• What type of metrics/information/tasks would you monitor to allow you to
maintain control of the project?
• What types/forms of communications will you use (what would you report, how
often would you report, and to whom would you report)?

• You are spending more money sooner than expected on the apartment renovation
project
• You have plotted your spending on the following trend analysis chart

Expecte
d
Spendin
$ g Curve

Star TIM
E End
t

• Using a Cause and Effect Diagram, identify the possible areas you may need to
investigate to identify where and why you are over spending

Cost
overrun

PMP Exercise 3
 • During your analysis of the cost over runs you determine that the crews are
putting in more overtime than planned.

• Before deciding to take any action to address this increased overtime, is there any
additional information you would need in order to take the most appropriate
action?

3.6 Task 6 – Project Close out

What lesson learned topics would you capture and report on at the end of the project?
What project items would you archive for future projects?

PMP Exercise 4