It takes courage to kill a project, but sometimes you know it has to be done. Some common symptoms of a failing project are ill-defined initial requirements, constant changes in scope, excessive changes in resources and personnel, and extreme stress/tension over anticipated changes. Yet, a project may have followed the "book" and done everything right, but still need to be terminated. This was the case with a project in the U.K. where the client was highly committed to the project, contributing time, resources, and prompt decisions. The scope was clear, completion criteria agreed upon, the budget and timeframe acceptable to all. Early on, however, an unavoidable scope change had to be made, requiring a 20 percent increase in time and a 10 percent increase in cost, agreed to by the client. As the project approached the end of the fi rst phase, it was clear that the quality and schedule were both deteriorating, as indicated in progress reports to both the client and senior management. A quick review showed that the results were not going to be acceptable. With the agreement of the PM, an outside Expert was called in to review the effort to date and make a recommendation. Then a joint meeting was held with the Expert, the PM, the Program Manager, and the primary contractor where it was decided that the best thing to do was to work together to complete phase one and then terminate the project, with a clean handover to another team to tackle phase two. Although disappointing to everyone, the close and frequent communications of both progress and concerns throughout the project with upper management and the client, offered in timely, digestible amounts, reduced their expectations and protected the client from a surprise at the end. Honest, consistent communication throughout the project life cycle resulted in improved trust, integrity, and confi dence in the vendor and their team.

Required:
a. What are your thoughts about doing everything right and the project still failing?
b. Does the admonition "Never surprise the boss!" now make more sense? Why?
c. Do you think the scope change at the beginning was the problem here, or was there going to be a problem anyway?

Solution :

a). There are several methodologies for the projects that are followed by the different companies. The successful of any project depends upon the far sightedness of the project manager and the ability of him to the execute the project in a proper order. One of the key factors that makes a project complete is the behavior of the people.

The vendors incur some excessive or some unnecessary costs to the project of they are not properly managed. The duty of the project manager is to foresee the scope of change if there is any.

If there were some additional cost and additional time for the completion of the project, then it means that it will delay the benefits of the project to others and hence attracts lower return of investments. Even though everything went according to the papers or the book, there is a lack of dedication on the project manager who believed and trusted the vendor too much.

b). A manager needs complete and clear information for an effective decision making. In any project, surprises gives a lesser amount of time and also less information related tot he project to resolve any issues that occurs at any time. It also disappoints the management that leads to spur of moment decision. So, 'Never surprise he Boss' makes a complete sentence.

c). The major factor why the project failed is the changed in the scope. The objectives are poorly cited and the timelines went overhead including the cost of the project. Too much trust of the project manager on the vendor  also lead to the schedule and the quality issues.

Monsanto Company, a large chemical and fibers company, invested $37 million in state-of-the-art systems to improve process control, laboratory automation, and local area network (LAN) communications. The investment was not justified merely on cost savings but was also justified on the basis of qualitative considerations. Monsanto management viewed the investment as a critical element toward achieving its version of the future. What qualitative and quantitative considerations do you believe Monsanto would have considered in its strategic evaluation of these investments

XYZ is considering two proposed machinery investments. Proposals A and B each cost $600,000, have 6-year lives, and have expected total cash flows of $750,000. Proposal A is expected to provide equal annual net cash flows of $125,000 while the net cash flows for Proposal B are as follows: Year 1 $250,000 Year 2 $200,000 Year 3 $150,000 Year 4 $ 75,000 Year 5 $ 50,000 Year 6 $ 25,000 Determine the cash payback period for Proposal A and B. Show all calculations. Rounds answers to 1 decimal place.

What are some tasks commonly performed in Facility and Mobile Equipment Maintenance jobs? Check all that apply.

testing vehicles to identify problems
cleaning vehicles and equipment
analyzing the flow of traffic
communicating with customers
steering and navigating vehicles
documenting information

explain the topic 'market structure' in economics​

Whistle Works sells each whistle for $12. It takes 3 ounces of metal to produce each whistle at a cost of $0.50 per ounce. They prefer to have 10% of materials required for the following month's production in ending inventory as well. How many ounces of direct materials does Whistle Works need to purchase in October to meet production needs

Always accept a job offer before discussing its salary and benefits.

Using the following information, prepare a bank reconciliation for Oriole Company for July 31, 2022. a. The bank statement balance is $3,760. b. The cash account balance is $4,000. c. Outstanding checks totaled $1,450. d. Deposits in transit are $1,600. e. The bank service charge is $63. f. A check for $85 for supplies was recorded as $58 in the ledger.

Charise is considering how much to charge for her small business’s products. Charise is involved in

Group of answer choices

Swifty Company manufactures and sells three products. Relevant per unit data concerning each product are given below. Product A B C Selling price $9 $14 $18 Variable costs and expenses $6 $12 $15 Machine hours to produce 2 1 2 Compute the contribution margin per unit of limited resource (machine hours) for each product. (Round contribution margin per unit to 2 decimal places, e.g. 1.50.) Product A Product B Product C Contribution margin per unit of limited resource $ $ $ Assuming 3,000 additional machine hours are available, which product should be manufactured

Charles lives in Houston and runs a business that sells boats. In an average year, he receives $851,000 from selling boats. Of this sales revenue, he must pay the manufacturer a wholesale cost of $476,000; he also pays wages and utility bills totaling $281,000. He owns his showroom; if he chooses to rent it out, he will receive $71,000 in rent per year. Assume that the value of this showroom does not depreciate over the year. Also, if Charles does not operate this boat business, he can work as an accountant, receive an annual salary of $34,000 with no additional monetary costs, and rent out his showroom at the $71,000 per year rate. No other costs are incurred in running this boat business.
Implicit Cost
Explicit Cost
The salary Bob could earn if he worked as an accountant
The wholesale cost for the boats that Bob pays the manufacturer
The rental income Bob could receive if he chose to rent out his showroom
The wages and utility bills that Bob pays
Complete the following table by determining Bob's accounting and economic profit of his boat business.
Profit
(Dollars)
Accounting Profit
Economic Profit

The partnership of Hendrick, Mitchum, and Redding has the following account balances: Cash $ 53,000 Liabilities $ 38,000 Noncash assets 138,000 Hendrick, capital 98,000 Mitchum, capital 73,000 Redding, capital (18,000 ) This partnership is being liquidated. Hendrick and Mitchum are each entitled to 40 percent of all profits and losses with the remaining 20 percent going to Redding. What is the maximum amount that Redding might have to contribute to this partnership because of the deficit capital balance

Roland, Inc. provides residential painting services for three home building companies, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, and it uses a job costing system for determining the costs for completing each job. The job cost system does not capture any cost incurred by Roland for return touchups and refinishes after the homeowner occupies the home. Roland paints each house on a square footage contract price, which includes painting as well as all refinishes and touchups required after the homes are occupied. Each year, Roland generates about one-third of its total revenues and gross profits from each of the three builders. Roland has observed that the builders, however, require substantially different levels of support following the completion of jobs. The following data have been gathered:Major refinishes Hours on job $70
Touchups Number of visits $180
Communication Number of calls $20
Builder Major Refinishes Touchups Communication
Alpha 80 150 360
Beta 35 110 205
Gamma 42 115 190
(a) Assuming that each of the three customers produces gross profits of $100,000, calculate the profitability from each builder after taking into account the support activity required for each builder.

Alpha

Beta

Gamma

Use the following information to prepare the July cash budget for Pinkie Pie Company for July 31, 2021.
a.) Beginning cash balance on July 1: $55,000.
b.) Cash receipts from sales: 10% is collected in the month of sale, 50% in the next month, and 40% in the second month after sale. Sales amounts are: May (actual), $1,700,000; June (actual), $1,000,000; and July (budgeted), $1,500,000.
c.) Payments to suppliers for merchandise purchases: 85% in the month of purchase and 15% in the month following purchase. Purchases amounts are: June (actual), $590,000; and July (budgeted), $770,000.
d.) Budgeted cash disbursements for salaries in July: $297,000.
e.) Budgeted depreciation expense for July: $10,000.
f.) Other cash expenses budgeted for July: $190,000.
g.) Cash dividends to be paid in July: $70,000.

your team is working on a project due at the end of the quarter. you propose a timeline that some of your teammates disagree with because many milestones conflict with their other work. what would you do? A propose revising the timeline as a group to account for scheduling conflict. B offer time management techniques so they can stay on schedule. C suggest pushing back the projects deadline one week to help avoid some scheduling conflicts. D politely explain that this schedule is necessary to get the project completed on time. E suggest that your teammates send their schedule to you so you can revise the timeline​

What is the primary characteristic that differentials a zero based budget from a conventional budget. A. A zero based budget does not take inflation into account. B. The zero based budget requires managers to re-justify every planned expenditure every year. C. A zero based budget rolls historical data forward. D. A zero based budget uses a fixed volume growth rate.

The following facts relate to Coronado Corporation.
1. Deferred tax liability, January 1, 2020, $20,200.
2. Deferred tax asset, January 1, 2020, $0.
3. Taxable income for 2020, $95,950.
4. Pretax financial income for 2020, $202,000.
5. Cumulative temporary difference at December 31, 2020, giving rise to future taxable amounts, $242,400.
6. Cumulative temporary difference at December 31, 2020, giving rise to future deductible amounts, $35,350.
7. Tax rate for all years, 20%.
8. The company is expected to operate profitably in the future.
Compute income taxes payable for 2020:
Prepare the journal entry to record income tax expense, deferred income taxes, and income taxes payable for 2020. (Credit account titles are automatically indented when amount is entered. Do not indent manually. If no entry is required, select "No Entry" for the account titles and enter 0 for the amounts.)
Prepare the income tax expense section of the income statement for 2020, beginning with the line "Income before income taxes." (Enter negative amounts using either a negative sign preceding the number e.g. -45 or parentheses e.g. (45).)

Given a reserve requirement of 12.5%, a bank currently meets their reserve requirements with $15,000,000 in excess reserves. If the reserve requirement increases and the bank must hold an additional $1,800,000, by how many percentage points did the reserve requirement increase

Use the following stockholders' equity section of Marcy Company on December 31, 2004 to answer questions 45 through 50. Treat each question independent of the other questions - so your answer to question 46 should not be influenced by the answer to question 45, and so on:

Preferred Stock - 6% cumulative, $20 par value, 10,000 shares authorized, 5,000 shares issued and outstanding . .$100,000
Contributed Capital in excess of par value, Preferred Stock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250,000
Common Stock, $5 par value, 20,000 shares authorized, 10,000 shares issued and outstanding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50,000
Contributed Capital in excess of par value, Common Stock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450,000
Total Contributed Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $850,000
Retained Earnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150,000
Total Stockholders' Equity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,000,000

The average issue price per share of preferred stock must have been: _________

The Wiz Co. owes $60 to its bondholders for the payment of principal and interest. The company expects to have a cash flow of $136 if the economy continues as it is but that cash flow will decrease to $54 if the economy enters a recession. Should the company ever face the real possibility of bankruptcy, it will incur legal and other fees of $30. What amount will the bondholders be paid in the case of a recession

Consider the following information.
First Quarter Second Quarter
Unit Selling Price $15.00 $17.00
Total Units Sold 12,000 11,500
Labor Hours 10,000 9,500
Labor Cost/Hour $9.00 $10.00
Material Usage (lbs.) 5,000 7,500
Material Cost/lb. $12.00 $10.50
Other Costs $25,000 $30,000
a. Which quarter, first or second, had the higher labor productivity (output quantity per labor dollar input)?
b. Which quarter, first or second, had the higher material productivity (output quantity per material dollar input)?
c. Which quarter, first or second, had the higher total productivity (dollar output per total dollar input)?

Terry Wade, the new controller of Hellickson Company, has reviewed the expected useful lives and salvage values of selected depreciable assets at the beginning of 2015. His findings are as follows.
Date Accumulated Depreciation Useful life in Years Salvage Value
Type of Asset Acquired Cost 1/1/15 Old Proposed Old Proposed
Building 1/1/09 $806,700 $115,410 40 50 $37,300 $50,210
Warehouse 1/1/10 114,000 21,940 25 20 4,300 19,610
All assets are depreciated by the straight-line method. Hellickson Company uses a calendar year in preparing annual financial statements. After discussion, management has agreed to accept Terry’s proposed changes.
1) Compute the revised annual depreciation on each asset in 2015. ( Building and Warehouse)
2) Prepare the entry to record depreciation on the building in 2015. (If no entry is required, select "No entry" for the account titles and enter 0 for the amounts.)

In 2001, HP acquired Compaq. The merger had an impact on two different markets: desktop PCs and servers. Pre-merger market shares in the desktop PC market were as follows: Dell, 13; Compaq, 12; HP, 8; IBM, 6; Gateway, 4. Pre-merger market shares in the servers market were as follows: IBM, 26; Compaq, 16; HP, 14; Dell, 7. Source: Bank of America report, October 2001. Data for 2001Q2.
(a) Determine the value of HHI in each market before the merger.
(b) Assuming market shares of each firm remain constant, determine the value of HHI after the merger.
(c) Considering the values determined above and the DoJ merger guidelines, was the Department of Justice right in allowing the merger to take place?

Bonita Industries financed the purchase of a machine by making payments of $29000 at the end of each of five years. The appropriate rate of interest was 8%. The future value of one for five periods at 8% is 1.46933. The future value of an ordinary annuity for five periods at 8% is 5.86660. The present value of an ordinary annuity for five periods at 8% is 3.99271. What was the cost of the machine to Bonita?

For each of the three independent situations below determine the amount of the annual lease payments. Each describes a finance lease in which annual lease payments are payable at the beginning of each year. Each lease agreement contains an option that permits the lessee to acquire the leased asset at an option price that is sufficiently lower than the expected fair value that the exercise of the option appears reasonably certain.

Situation 1 Situation 2 Situation 3
Lease term (years) 5 10 4
Lessor?s rate of return 10% 11% 9%
Fair value of leased asset $62,000 $421,000 $186,000
Lessor?s cost of leased asset $51,000 $421,000 $146,000
Bargain purchase option:
Option price $11,000 $51,000 $23,000
Exercisable at end of the year: 5 5 3

Required:
Determine the annual lease payments for each situation:

The charter of Vista West Corporation specifies that it is authorized to issue 209,000 shares of common stock. Since the company was incorporated, it has sold a total of 146,000 shares (at $16 per share) to the public. It has bought back a total of 12,000. The par value of the stock is $5. When the stock was bought back from the public, the market price was $22. Determine the authorized shares.

Which actions can you take to bring back your computer from sleep mode?
(you can choose more than one answer)

Check the power supply.
Press any key on the keyboard.
Reboot the computer.
Move the mouse around.
Click any button on the mouse.

Cameron Industries is purchasing a new chemical vapor depositor in order to make silicon chips. It will cost $7,000,000 to buy the machine and $20,000 to have it delivered and installed. Building a clean room in the plant for the machine will cost an additional $3 million. The machine is expected to raise gross profits by $4,500,000 per year, starting at the end of the first year, with associated costs of $1 million for each of those years. The machine is expected to have a working life of seven years and will be depreciated over those seven years. The marginal tax rate is 40%. What are the incremental free cash flows associated with the new machine in year 0?
A) -$10,020,000
B) -$7,000,000
C) -$9,018,000
D) $1,002,857

rr Co. adopted the dollar-value LIFO inventory method on December 31, Year 12.Farr's entire inventory constitutes a single pool. On December 31, Year 12, the inventorywas $480,000 under the dollar-value LIFO method. Inventory data for Year 13 are asfollows:12/31/13 inventory at year-end prices$660,000Relevant price index at year end (base year Year 12)110Using dollar value LIFO, Farr's inventory at December 31, Year 13 isa.$528,000.b.$612,000.c.$600,000.d.$660,000

You have just been elected to public office and you have been informed that the government does not have money to pay all of its bills.
You have been told that if you were to cut the marginal tax rate, tax revenue would actually increase. Is this true and if so, what would
be the reason for this?
Choose one

Lenci Corporation manufactures and sells a single product. The company uses units as the measure of activity in its budgets and performance reports. During May, the company budgeted for 5,120 units, but its actual level of activity was 5,070 units. The company has provided the following data concerning the formulas used in its budgeting and its actual results for May:
Data used in budgeting:
Fixed element per month Variable element per unit
Revenue - $ 40.30
Direct labor $ 0 $ 6.20
Direct materials 0 16.40
Manufacturing overhead 42,200 2.00
Selling and administrative expenses 23,400 .90
Total expenses $ 65,600 $ 25.50
Actual results for May:
Revenue $ 198,510
Direct labor $ 29,265
Direct materials $ 80,965
Manufacturing overhead $ 51,905
Selling and administrative expenses $ 23,380
The spending variance for manufacturing overhead in May would be closest to:_________