Thomas Johnson is a timber and Christmas tree farmer who attended a project management class last year during his off-season. When the subject of earned value (EV) came up in class, Thomas wondered if he was utilizing the concept properly.

In mid-October, Thomas hires and trains crews who work to shear fields of Christmas trees for the upcoming holiday season. In this practice, each worker uses a large machete to shear the branches of the tree into a cone shape tree, which is the desire of most customers. Thomas operates his business per the following:

• He counts the number of Christmas trees in the field, which is approximately 24,000.
• He agrees with customer Tom Jones to a $30,000 lump sum contract for shearing all trees in the field.
• He receives a partial payment about 5 days after starting the project. He then estimates the actual number of sheared trees to be approximately 6,000. The actual number of trees is taken as a percent of the total to be sheared, multiplied by the percent completed by total contract amount for the partial payment [(6,000/24,000 total trees = 25% of trees trimmed), (.25 * $30,000 total payment = 5 days payment of $7,500)].

Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper that thoroughly answers the following questions based on the case study:

• Is Thomas over, on, or below schedule? Explain.
• Is Thomas using earned value as he was taught in his project management course? Explain.
• What can Thomas do to set up a schedule and cost variance?
• What method do you suggest for Thomas to use for any changes in project scope, such as the shape of the tree that Tom wants?
• It appears Thomas is using the traditional method of project management. How can he accelerate the completion of this project that he has contracted for using the Agile methodology?
• Analyze Thomas’s project performance on this project, assuming the original quote given to the customer was an estimate.

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.