Project Estimation and Cost Management

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REFLECTIVE ASSIGNMENT

Project estimation and cost management

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Ques 1: - What happened in the class?

Ans 1: - Before coming to this semester, I had a little knowledge about the course Project estimation and cost management. For me, it was all about calculating the overall costs of projects, rejecting or accepting them and calculating profit or loss. But to my horror, it wasn’t as simple as it appeared to be. In the first 3 weeks itself I had a quiz based on first three chapters which dealt with financial statements, various ratios dealing with business decisions and role of engineers in business. Also, I learnt about the time value of money i.e., how the worth of a dollar today is different from its tomorrow’s worth. After getting an average score in the quiz I was determined to perform better in the next one which was just 2 weeks apart and it contained 2 chapters which had concepts of effective interest rates and analysis of projects. Luckily, I did well and got an A in this quiz. Next I learnt about comparison of projects, decision making in estimating future costs i.e., chapters 6 and 7 from the book. Getting an A in the quiz made me feel overwhelmed and as a result I took my midterm lightly which brought me down to a D grade. For all these weeks, I was taught by Prof. Farhad Moayeri. From the week following midterm, we got a new professor Mr. Raj Krish. Until now, I have learnt about depreciation and Income taxes from him. I have been made familiar with 50% rule, depreciation methods etc. All these are going to be there in my first group quiz slated to be done this week. Let’s hope I get an A+ in this one to boost my score.

Ques 2: - What are the relevant concepts and theories?

Ans 2: - Talking about concepts and theories, there are a lot of things to learn from this course, for example, now I can easily know how much I have to pay while financing a loan. Also, Using the techniques to calculate future value of money, I can easily calculate how much should I get in future if I am lending a particular sum to somebody or if I have won a lottery. Having knowledge about the concept of cash flows and depreciation, I can see if I should invest in market or not. All these theories have made it look simpler to understand the otherwise complicated market rates of shares and businesses.

Ques 3: - How does the experience relate to the concepts or theory?

Ans 3: - Money is involved in almost every day of our life. We buy something and in exchange give money or something that has value. Buying a car on finance earlier seemed to be a complicated issue, but now using the concepts learnt in this course I can at least see what amount I’ll be paying extra if I go for a financing of vehicle for N no of years. Also, using the concept of time value of money, I can see if that transaction is profitable or not. The installments given to bank earlier seemed to be complex but now I can better understand the terms and values associated with it.