The Integrated Strategic Management, Management by Objectives and the use of Values in management, are the basis for the development of Integrated Project Management (DIP) with the aim of guaranteeing continuity in the Management process and reaching man in the base that is who makes use of the resources to execute the actions. The project is where the man who executes the actions and tasks to guarantee the strategy has an impact, it is where performance and results are measured, where resources are allocated and their use and destination are controlled.
The objective of the work is to develop an advanced cost system for the control of project cuts, through a system of indicators that affect the budget through the accumulated cost vs. time curve or the S curve, financing on the S curve taking into account the programmed certifications and invoices, the cash flow, the cost center per project with its effective accounting system in an integrated system, which is a necessity and a challenge that the environment demands current competitive, to ensure customer and stakeholder requirements.
The Integrated Management for Projects (Project Management), needs effective cost control, through a set of indicators reflected in the command board, in order to provide the necessary information for making strategic decisions on a basis solid, that integrates the work of the company based on the success of the projects. Project management constitutes the basic organizational unit of a large part of our companies that participate in business improvement.
The DIP supported by the Information and Communication Technologies such as the MS Project 2007 and the Office complements, has reached a high development in the application of business processes, both nationally and internationally. The continuous training of personnel associated with these technologies requires personalized attention through an integrated blended training strategic model, mounted on a computer platform, with the aim of achieving high performance in the development of their functions.
1. Introduction
The world of commercialization and business is becoming more competitive every day, the project work policy is strengthened and demands higher quality in its design and execution control. Clients are more demanding in meeting the time frame established in the schedule. The use of ICTs is essential to guarantee greater effectiveness in meeting the objectives in the expected time frame.
The project constitutes the basic organizational unit of the companies that have a decisive influence on the development of the country. The knowledge management associated with the projects allows the continuous improvement of the company in improvement. Business synergy, project management policy and knowledge management form the fundamental basis for the development of business intelligence for companies that aspire to high performance.
The Integrated Management by Projects (Project Management), requires a process of control by cuts that allows to rely on an analysis of the behavior of costs, the characterization of the project in the current cut and a forecast for the next period, with the aim of make the corresponding decisions. In this process, the integration of the DIP team with the commercial, planning, finance, purchasing and accounting departments is decisive for evaluating the outages, making decisions and proceeding with the corresponding adjustments within the management process.
The objective of the work is to develop a procedure in which a cost, budget and financing structure is established, which is controlled by cuts in the project, with the support of accounting with indicators mounted on a command board, in a knowledge management model that facilitates decision making.
In the design, execution and control of projects, cost plays an important role. From the initial stage of evaluation of investments, evaluations of alternatives, in the planning stage and during execution, economic control, budget, financing and their behavior, as well as economic evaluation in decision-making, constitute factors of great importance in its different stages of development, in which management takes into account for the comprehensive evaluation a set of technical economic indicators.
The project dashboard is part of an information system based on a set of key indicators in which cost plays an important role. The indicators are disaggregated according to the functional structure, which allow evaluating the status of the projects in each court. The evaluation of the indicators allows decision-making based on the objectives.
Project work is a process of great tradition in which the fundamental indicators have been cost, time, quality and logistics, with the main characteristic of responding to independent processes with evaluations that have not responded to comprehensive development strategies.. On the other hand, the lack of support from Information Technology and Communications has limited the development of this process. In the content of the work these indicators are integrated with the aim of facilitating decision making by courts.
2.- Development
In cost analysis from design to project execution control, it plays an important role in decision making. From the initial stage of investment evaluation and evaluation of alternatives in the conception stage, to the economic control of the budget and its behavior in the execution stage, cost is a factor of great importance for decision-making in the development cycle. project life. Management has to take into account for the comprehensive evaluation, a set of technical economic factors throughout the process.
The current development of the environment, the demands of customers, the training of personnel associated with business management and business, demand a leap in the use and development of management techniques in search of a balance between advanced technologies, the consequent scientific development and the techniques of organization by projects that guarantee a decision making consistent with the current demands of the environment. Decisions not well founded, jeopardize the work carried out by an outstanding group of workers. The project databases linked to Project 2 003 and the Office add-ons provide a set of information that allows obtaining important elements for decision-making.The facilities provided by the project in electronic format have encouraged the use of professional computer systems to support project management. The company's management works by objectives and the DIP provides continuity in the management process in the entities where the project represents the basic organizational unit. It is essential for companies in the process of improvement, the storage on computerized support of the accumulated experience, the management of project knowledge and the transformation of this knowledge into value, expressed in new projects. All these objectives require the training of man as the center of management systems, supported by the use of Information Technology and Communications.An integrated strategic model of blended distance study personalized according to these interests, contributes with the training that the specialist requires for the implementation of the DIP in companies in business improvement.
2.1.- Cost structure
As a result of the introduction of the project tasks, their duration and the corresponding rates in the planning process it is possible to obtain the Planned Cost of Planned Work (CPTP), which is made up of 3 fundamental elements, the cost of labor., equipment and materials. Likewise, the total cost (TC) is obtained, represented as the sum of the variable costs (CV) corresponding to the workforce and equipment, plus the fixed costs CF of the materials. In all cases they are direct costs.
CT = CV + CF = T x JT x (SR xt) + CF
The cost of labor can be assigned to several projects and its control by cost center requires an appropriate control system, depending on the characteristics of the entity in question.
3.2- Variation of cost, duration and resources
In the initial configuration of the project are the calendars, the allocation of resources and the rates, among others, but it is necessary to configure it according to three possible variants in terms of calculating costs, such as fixed duration, fixed work and fixed units.
CT = CV + CF = T x JT x (SR xt) + CF
The general expression of cost allows establishing this relationship and configuring the computer system according to the problem to be solved, establishing the relationships between duration (T), resource allocation (R) and cost through work.
Based on the expressions of cost and work
Work = T. JT. ∑ (R)
If the resource is unitary and the rate remains constant C = work x rate and therefore the variant of fixed work equals constant cost. In the CD of the DIP examples of real projects are developed where its use is illustrated.
The figure shows how to configure the Project to establish the relationship between the duration and the allocation of resources while keeping the work fixed. More information can be found in the folder 5.2.1.DIP CD Configuration.
Budgeting systems have for each task the NT time standard with a well-defined unit resource allocation. Although resources are added to a task, the total work and its cost remain constant, decreasing the duration. Defined the volume of work VT is obtained. Work = VT x NT. Duration D = Work / Workday.
Constant cost is a function of duration and resources. This type of analysis is valid in tasks where incorporating twice the unit resources can cut time in half, keeping the total cost constant. In tasks involving a set of resources, this analysis is correct when they are integrated into a crew or brigade, forming a resource module with a defined rate.
For example
If the work volume VT = 1200 m 3 and
NP = 5 m 3 / h standard of production of a crew
T = VT / NP = 1200/5 = 240 hx R as this is the work that a crew develops, it can be interpreted as 240 hx crew. If the workday is JT = 8 h / day. A crew would take 30 days.
Taking as the representative rate of the crew t = $ 20 / hour the cost will be:
C = 30 days x 8 hours / days x 1 R x $ 20 / hours R = $ 4,800.
Keeping the cost constant, it is possible to increase the resources R and calculate the time T with the following distribution.
The analysis can be started with a crew, a man, or a pool of resources, and then if necessary shorten the duration of the task keeping the cost constant.
The following graph shows the variation of resources with duration, keeping the cost constant.
This process is necessary when defining the VT workloads for the tasks and it is necessary to assign new resource modules of the budget system through the critical path in order to decrease the project execution time keeping the direct cost constant.
After adjusting the project execution time using the critical path and the redistribution of resources, it is necessary to determine the accumulated cost vs. time curve, cash flow and financing. This process is achieved by exporting the Project information to Excel where the corresponding graphs are obtained to carry out the analysis of the financing with the tasks, the value of the financing and the date. The latter is dependent on the time necessary for the purchasing department to guarantee the resources planned in the resource distribution curves.
2.3.- Cash flow
The project consumes resources by tasks, which according to the execution schedule, distributes the costs according to a given frequency of time. This distribution is called the cost flow. When the project receives an entrance or financing to satisfy the cost requirements, according to the programming, income is produced, which with the expected expenses or costs generates the cash flow. The programming of the project and the distribution of costs play an important role in the control by stages with inputs and outputs that allow later, in the execution and control stage, to characterize the use of the budget, evaluate the project and make the pertinent decisions.. In full-cycle projects that generate sales, these are taken as income,that with the costs allow to also develop the cash flow.
The computer system used, once tasks and costs have been defined according to schedule, it is relatively easy to obtain the cost distribution analysis as often as desired.
The figure shows how to proceed and the CD of the DIP in 5.5.8.-Cash flow can study the developed examples.
The general report menu shows how to proceed.
The output of the cash flow can be organized by using a set of filters that include the frequency by tasks or ordered resources, selection of tasks and other more variants. The economic part uses Excel for cash flow, exporting the information provided by the Project allows making the cash flow associated with project scheduling in Excel, which facilitates the flow of information in the company.
Resource variation curves can be represented simply or cumulatively. In this case the cost curves facilitate the control of the project execution. Accumulated cost curves are widely used to control the execution of projects and allow establishing relationships with the purchasing and accounting department.
Linking this information with Excel facilitates integration with the purchasing and economy areas, as they are used to working with these computer systems. Excel provides multiple facilities to obtain the different kinds of charts used in the flow of information to interested parties.
2.4.- Accumulated cost vs. time curve
After having defined the calculation of time, the critical route and the cost, it is necessary to determine the total cost of the project and the variation of the cost in relation to time.
The accumulated cost vs. time curve, also called the S curve, allows obtaining the total cost and the accumulated variations by cuts.
This variant allows the integration of the project manager with planning and economy in terms of costs, since the controls are carried out on a cumulative basis and the accounting provides the cumulative real cost CR in the outages.
The accumulated cost vs. time curve is the basis for project financing and execution control. It is obtained in Excel from the import of the cost data provided by the MS Project 2003, this being the basis for project execution control and decision-making.
2.5.- Financing
Financing is an indispensable resource for the proper development of the project. Financing is supported by the cost of the tasks, the cash flow or cost flow by frequency and the cumulative cost vs. time curve or the S curve.
The use of staged bank credit as a form of financing based on this analysis is advantageous due to the possibility of obtaining different forms of loans with softer interests.
The distribution of financing based on the accumulated cost vs. time curve facilitates the work of distributing the budget in stages, with the aim of achieving the financing required by the project.
The analysis of this curve allows to know the real execution of the budgeted expenses in each cut interval. It is also possible in planning to analyze, from the way of obtaining financing for the execution of the project, the optimal variant that from the economic point of view achieves greater efficiency in the use of monetary resources.
The S curve is the fundamental basis for developing the phased financing scheme.
The CD of the DIP, in section 5.5.10.- Financing, shows the way to proceed from the export of the cost information from the Project to Excel, the preparation of the S curve and the determination of the financing amounts by frequency on the scheduled dates. The way to shift the curve to assume the risks and the advance for the execution of purchases in the logistics process is also obtained, which allows the efficient use of monetary resources, avoiding unnecessary immobilization of resources, with the consequent deterioration from the point economically implies.
The accumulated cost vs. time curve is the basis for system integration, since it is the form of budget control by accounting in cost centers and easy to use by finance.
Human resources, equipment, materials and financing form the basis for the formation of the shared resources fund, on which the commercial, planning, purchasing, accounting, economic, workshops and specialized departments of the functional structure operate. If you have a computer system capable of facilitating the planning and control of resources over a pool of shared resources, the integration of the company is guaranteed based on its improvement.
The figure shows a schedule with its critical path, a cut with the corresponding% of physical progress that determines delays in certain tasks and therefore the delay of the project. The CPTP, CPTR and CRTR are shown for the cut that allow evaluating the indicators and specifying the status of the project in the cut, taking into account the approved financing scheme. The graphic elements reflected with the information provided by the Project in the table of accumulated values, allow obtaining the necessary information for decision-making.
The figure shows a section of the project in which its control is executed. The execution of the financing foreseen for the cut-off date of the tasks with their execution percentage is shown and the problems of arrears, quality evaluations and the use of the budget are detected.
When there is an important result already applied, it is necessary to seek its generalization and for this it is necessary to make a design, identify the needs and adapt it to them, formulating a project that achieves that the client provides the necessary financing for the development of the project. In these bidding processes, the best-formulated projects mounted on computer support and highlighting the advantages of design for execution control with well-defined criteria of cost, time and quality, are more likely to obtain the necessary financing for the execution of the Projects. The design of the projects following the methodology provides an added value to the project that allows obtaining better results in the bidding processes.
3.- Execution control
In the project development stages, the execution control process is one of the most important due to its complexity and the importance of making the necessary decisions to achieve its objectives, shortening the time frame, within the framework of the budget, with the programmed supply and with the quality required by the client and the interested parties.
During the planning process, the structured programming of the project is developed and on this basis the control strategy is prepared, with the aim of facilitating decision making.
The following figure shows a cut of the project with the planned and executed financing, the CPTP for the cut and its link with the cumulative cost vs. time curve in Excel and the indicators SPI = CPTR / CPTP and CPI = CPTR / CPTR reflected on the command board.
The evaluation dashboard presents the evaluation with the weighting of the parameters used for this project in which cost and performance are weighted.
The figure shows a table designed in Project 2003 with the indicators and their respective evaluations on the command board, according to the results of the progress of the project reflected in the execution schedule. The CPI = CPTR / CPTR ratio is reflected in cost. The comprehensive evaluation includes the weighted behavior of the indicators.
4.- Strategic model for the knowledge management cycle
Knowledge goes through an objective process, it develops regardless of whether it is directed or not. If by applying a strategic model of knowledge management it is possible to evaluate its behavior by identifying its regularities, develop a diagnosis and a projection with the aim of transforming its development process, we will be in a position to direct it in a conscious process, depending on the collective benefit of project team and stakeholders.
The project in its development stages, generates the knowledge that must be structured and stored properly to make it available to those interested, with the aim of sharing it. The databases of projects in process and completed, facilitate this purpose when integrated into an appropriate management model.
The design of the databases and the instrumentation of the model depend to a great extent on the specific characteristics of each company, the technological discipline and the computer culture of the personnel, establishing different levels of development that can be achieved through the use of change projects and consultancies with their corresponding training.
With the development of computational tools oriented to project management such as the MS Project 2003 and the Free Software Planner, it is possible to store all the information inherent to the project in digital format, also providing the possibility of carrying out certain calculations such as the critical path, cost curve, use of resources, budgets and financing, among others, which facilitate analysis for decision-making.
For the development of the model, taking into account the life cycle, the project is necessary:
- Create a database of projects in execution, where the essential data that characterizes the state of execution of each project is stored, with easy access for managers and interested parties. Create a database of completed projects where the experience is stored. innovative in their development. Apply search engines and strategies that facilitate knowledge management. It leads to a process of continuous improvement in the quality of new projects. Evaluate the impact of business projects. Creation of templates in MS Project. Reuse of modules that have already been validated in practice with good results. Characterization and solutions to the known conflicts of the projects in the cuts. Training of the project team.
The project generates value and knowledge, therefore it is essential to develop a strategic model that guarantees its improvement. Knowledge goes through a search for information and a learning process in which Information and Communication Technologies, with the databases of executed projects, play an important role in the development of the project stages during its useful life..
5.- Training strategy
Training is a need of the company in improvement, it constitutes an investment of time in function of increasing the capacity of action of the personnel that is reflected in the measurement of the impact on the continuous development of the company. The recovery of the investment translates into a reduction in the execution time of the projects, developed within the framework of the budget, the adequate use of resources with their corresponding control and with the quality required by the client and the interested parties. The guarantee of the training oriented to the content of the job, facilitates the recovery of the investment applying the techniques of critical path, the advanced cost systems, the optimization of time and resources in an integrated environment,in which business intelligence making use of the synergy of the project team achieve the success of the company.
Training based on problem solving, with the team approach by key process and by project, with the process leader and the project director, allows the harmonious and corporate development of the company. The role of the leader in motivating, advising and controlling impact is decisive with the support of the teacher and company managers. It is necessary to use the training structure in search of participatory help, where the one who knows the most teaches others, sharing knowledge in search of continuous improvement in the company. The integrated teamwork in the training process creates the basis for the work of the Integrated Project Management. Shared knowledge facilitates integration work in the company.
6.- Conclusions
The consistent application of a resource allocation strategy, making use of the current budget system, allows reducing the project execution time in accordance with customer requirements, ensuring compliance with the objectives with a rational use of resources, in the budget framework, with the scheduled supply, with the required quality, in order to guarantee compliance with the deadline on the scheduled date, supported by the critical path and the optimization algorithms of the MS Project 2003 and the Office complements.
The Integrated Management for Projects (Project Management), needs the development of the command board to control the execution of projects, on a structured organizational basis, which guarantees a systematic evaluation of a set of disaggregated key indicators, according to the functional structure. of the company, which allows a behavioral assessment, diagnosis and prognosis to be made based on the strategy defined for the project.
The DIP or Project Management and the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in the international framework provide good results to business development, it is necessary to evaluate the positive of these technologies and make the corresponding adjustments to our conditions.
The consistent application of an integrated blended training strategic model, making use of ICTs, enables change to be led to guarantee the implementation of the DIP in companies that are in the process of business improvement through a change project.
The accelerated development of Science and Technological Innovation imposes new challenges to business improvement, man is the center of the development of business systems, therefore training is at the center of the company's master strategies, but it is necessary to direct it properly with the aim of obtaining the same, the impact required by the high-performance company.
The control of costs for cuts in the project, with the support of accounting and the set of indicators reflected in the command board, constitutes the basis for achieving the proposed objective and constitutes a need and a challenge that the competitive environment demands. current to ensure customer and stakeholder requirements.
The assembly of the knowledge system on a computer platform, which allows dosing the supply of knowledge following a pedagogical model in accordance with the knowledge and skills necessary for the performance of its functions, is a main objective of the model.
The project knowledge management cycle guarantees the continuous improvement process of the company in improvement, allows knowledge sharing and is the best way to assess the impact of training. Those who acquire greater wisdom in the knowledge management process are the ones that reflect the greatest needs for learning.
The illiterates of the future will not be those who do not know how to read or write, they will be those who are not capable of informing themselves using new information and communication technologies in management processes.
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