‘Ungrateful’ Kalaba caned
THERE is nothing wrong with President Edgar Lungu respecting wealthy investors because it is every President's dream to have investors in the country, Zambia Republican president Wright Musoma has said.
Mr Musoma said that no country or leader would want to have poor investors who would come to exploit Zambians.
He noted that China has been an all-weather friend of Zambia and has contributed largely to the economy by building infrastructure.
He was reacting to a statement by Democratic Party leader Harry Kalaba that President Lungu respects wealthy Chinese.
Mr Musoma said that such a statement was nonsensical because every country needs investors who can create employment and improve the economy.
He said that it was unfortunate that such a statement came from a person who was vying for the highest office in the land.
“As Zambia Republican party we find such a statement nonsensical especially that it is coming from a person who wants to become a president which president on earth does not need investors.
“China has been an all-weather friend with Zambia and has greatly contributed to the economy. As politicians, let us rise above petty politics.
Mr Musoma advised opposition leaders to be offering positive criticism instead of issuing petty statements.
And PF Lusaka province youth chairperson Daniel Kalembe has advised Mr Kalaba to find better issues to talk about than petty issues.
He said that the DP leader should concentrate on recruiting more people in his party which has no following.
Mr Kalembe stated that petty politics should not be allowed in the country and urged people not to vote for leaders who were unnecessarily criticizing others.
Mr Kalaba had alleged that President Edgar Lungu respects wealthy Chinese people at the expense of ordinary citizens.
He charged that the late President Michael Sata respected people especially the poor and ordinary Zambians.
GOVERNMENT will work closely with traditional leaders in promoting conservation of wildlife in order to develop the tourism sector, Tourism and Arts Minister Ronald Chitotela has pledged.
Mr Chitotela said traditional leaders should also help fight poaching in game management areas in order to protect wildlife.
The Minister said this when he paid a courtesy call on Paramount Chief Mpezeni at Ependukeni Palace in Chipata during his ongoing tour of Eastern Province tourism development.
Mr Chitotela advised the Department of National Parks and Wildlife to help the Paramount Chief set up a community game ranch in his area.
The Minister is in Eastern province to check on infrastructure under the Department of National Parks and Wildlife and to introduce newly Permanent Secretary Patrick Lungu.
And Paramount Chief Mpezeni pledged to support Government effort to fight poaching.
He was happy that Government was now engaging traditional leaders to help fight poaching and promote community driven conservancy projects.
Chief Mpezeni emphasized the need to conserve the country’s wildlife for the benefit of future generations.
O M HUR OW discussion do we acthis ANAGING project change week count requests focusses for in beneon the project most fits popular delivered schedule and by project methodologies, budget projects monitoring and proand predictive(Waterfall) grammes? control. Most Do our projects of project suffer Adaptive and from programmes schedule (Agile): Waterfall and produce budget overruns and ‘White Agile Elephants’? at project project approaches. closure What and is in Simply a benefit put, and a waterfall who is accountproject
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Value Management (EVM) gives projects?? tion. A change request is
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to alter the scope of the project
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approved plans.
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a living thing and needs and to we have whether develop a project you project are life under cycle or budget proor therefore gramme over budget. it plan is inevitable we Probably need that to of more also importance, projects look at are how EVM faced benefits also with allows change will you be to requests realized, understand from measured how stakeholders you and are manfairing so and aged that particularly during you can and better from after estimate the project client the duration side. or programme Project and managers cost closure. remaining should to complete not Benefits frown or need get agitated to be planned when
the project. key In stakeholders our talk this request week we for will for, reviewed, accounted for present change. a brief overview of EVM and somebody specifically
Most projects are a result of
tasked to perform this duty.
contracted work with specific and how it is applied to a small practical scenario and some tips you can integrate into your project progress reporting. What is Earned Value Management? EVM provides project managers a way of measuring the work that has been done on the project. A way of assessing the past performance of a project in terms of both cost and schedule. Checking how much of the budget “should have” been spent up to this point. Checking how much “value” the project has earned so far. EVM can also be used to forecast a project’s future cost and schedule performance.
EVM can be described as a project management tool to measure performance and progress against performance measurement baseline (incl. scope, cost, schedule baseline). It helps to understand current status of schedule and cost predict future changes to schedule and cost make decisions about the project’s viability. Cost and schedule are considered independently: A project is: either over or under budget, AND either behind or ahead of schedule. All earned value terms refer to either current or future status: Current: How much project work has been done? Future: How much do we expect to spend by the end of the project?
Let us delve a little bit deeper into the useful EVM terms: Project managers using EVM should understand the following terms. Currently known values planned value (PV) of work to be done How much work should be done at this point? Earned value (EV) of completed work. How much work has been done? Actual Cost (AC) How much did the work that’s done cost? budget at completion (BAC). How much was the project supposed to cost? Variances scheduled variance (SV) How much is the schedule behind or ahead of schedule? Negative result = behind schedule, positive = ahead cost variance (CV) How much is the project over or under budget? Negative result = over budget, positive = under
Now let look at a simple practical example and how you can easily apply and relate EVM. Suppose that your company makes tiles and sells them to construction companies. You have a project plan with your team as follows:
Project Objective: make good quality tiles per hour
Project Schedule: 5 hours make 1,000 good quality tiles
Project Budgeted cost per tile = K1.85
Total Budget = K1,850.00
After one hour of making we find that we’ve made …
150 good tiles – some had cracks; some hit the floor and broke; the workers also hid some and could not account for them.
Actual cost of materials spent after one hour (AC) = K333.00 200 to tiles
• Earned Value (EV) calculations after one hour
AC = K333.00
PV = K370.00
K1.85 each)
EV = K277.50
K1.85 each )
Cost and Schedule
Calculation
SV = EV – PV = – K92.50 Negative means our project is behind schedule
CV = EV – AC = – K55.50 Negative means our project is over budget Schedule Performance Index = EV / PV = 0.75 < 1 = behind Performing at a rate of 75% of our planned schedule
Cost Performance Index = EV / AC = 0.833 < 1 = means over budget Performing at approximately 17% over budget
• Budget forecast of cost Estimate At Completion = BAC / CPI = K1,850.00 / 0.833 = K2,220.89
• Schedule forecast
New schedule = original schedule / Schedule Performance Index = 5 / 0.75 = 6.67 hours
Progress report
We now estimate that it will take 6.67 hours and K2,220.00 to make 1,000 good quality tiles if the productivity of this project doesn’t improve.
Improvement plan:
Stop being wasteful and cracking tiles
Be careful not to drop tiles (given)
(200 tiles @
(150
tiles @
Performance
Put in security measures to prevent workers from pilfering tiles e.g. installing CCTV in the plant.
Finally, I would like mention some Earned Value tips. The EV term is used first, i.e. EV minus or divided something. If the formula relates to cost, use AC. If the formula relates to schedule, use PV. In terms of variances a positive result is good and a negative result is bad. In terms of indices a result greater than 1 (>1) is good and a result smaller than 1 (<1) is bad. From the example above project manager can easily take necessary steps to ensure that project schedule and budget performance is brought under control.
This article was written by Dr Laban Mwansa, MSP®, PMP®, PRINCE2® Practitioner, Agile®, Laban is a consultant and trainer in project management and specifically trainer/coach in PMP®, PRINCE2® Practitioner, and PRINCE2 Agile® in Zambia, South Africa and Europe for many years. He was in the executive committee of ICTAZ as technical chair. He is also the managing partner of Betaways Innovation Systems and can be reached at: Laban.Mwansa@ betaways- innovations. com, +260975280392 or WhatsApp +27817029669. He is also a professional member of PMSA and PMI-USA.