Project Management – Description
Some discussions/individual assignments in Sessions 5 through 11 will also address aspects of the team assignment, meaning that they will revolve around various considerations related to developing and/or executing and/or monitoring performance against this project management plan, and they will also facilitate and lighten the completion of the team deliverables in Sessions 6, 8, and 11. Each session will provide specific instructions on what exactly is required in that session.
The project you choose can be either the example provided below (Gizmotron’s Product Rollout) or one of your choosing. If you pick your own project, please make sure it is not too complex and/or large, and post a description of it along with its key deliverables in your GROUP Discussion Area (roughly a page long, double spaced). If you choose the Gizmotron project below, please make a similar post stating your project choice. Your professor will review and approve your choice. You will be implementing parts of the project plan in Microsoft Project (MS Project), so you could run into challenges in MS Project if you select a very intricate and or large project with numerous activities. At the same time, the selected project should bring out real-world consideration and challenges, so it should not be too simple or trivial. Here are basic assignment requirements which will ensure that your project is not too easy or too challenging:
Make sure that there are three or four main deliverables (first level of WBS)
Have between 10 to 16 work packages (“leaves” of the WBS)
Have between 25 to 40 activities (remember that work packages decompose into activities,
something we cover in Session 6). Actually, if you meet requirement #2 above, it is very likely you will meet this one too, so pay particular attention to #2 in Session 5, and leave this one to Session 6.
The activities should have a reasonable amount of concurrency, meaning that it should be possible to perform some of them in parallel. For example, having 30 activities with most of them being performed in sequential order (one after the other) would violate this requirement. (Again, you can defer this to Session 6, although you can intuitively gauge in Session 5 whether or not there is a reasonable amount of parallel work in your selected project.)
Once you have practiced in this course how to develop project management components for a typical but not-too-complex real world project and implement parts of it in MS Project, subsequent PMAN courses will tackle more complex projects. Please read the note below which suggests the “roughly right” mindset you need to take when working through this extended team assignment, no matter which project you choose.
Gizmotron’s Product Rollout
Note: The information in the project description below provides most but not all information that you will need to develop reasonably sound scope, schedule, and cost baselines for the product rollout project. There are some deliberate minor gaps in the information that will require you to use some common sense and judgment, even some plausible intuition/guesswork in a very few cases. Seldom will you encounter real life projects that are detailed to 100% accuracy and perfection, so this project is intended to demonstrate that there is some room for judgment, flexibility, reasonable assumptions, and common sense in project management, as opposed to investing unreasonable amounts of time and effort in striving for complete perfection and accuracy (which are usually not attainable anyway!). Hence, there is no one right “solution” here. Different teams could come up with slightly different scope, schedule, and cost baselines. When you work through this assignment as a team, do not waste time quibbling over infinitesimal details. Strive for a “roughly right” but logically and practically sound approach which you can defend if you need to.
Gizmotron is rolling out a new product in several metropolitan areas in the US. For the purposes of this assignment, let us restrict our attention to the Chicago area. An extensive marketing campaign is being planned in eight Chicagoland suburbs. For the purposes of this assignment, you may group the campaigns for the eight suburbs, so there is just one Chicagoland campaign as opposed to eight separate ones.
The Chicagoland marketing campaign comprises three major efforts, which are distinct but interrelated, meaning that there are dependencies between activities in the three efforts: Publicity, events, and sales/marketing. Here is a brief description of each of the three efforts:
1. Publicity: News of the event needs to be disseminated. This will be done via mailings (of a brochure) and media (radio and TV ads). Mailings require graphics design, developing a brochure (based on the graphics design and content provided by the sales/marketing effort), and a two-part mailing campaign: paper-mail as well as e-mail. The paper-mail campaign is to occur a week after the email campaign has ended (because the email campaign will generate some leads on who should be targeted in the paper-mail campaign). The media component has two aspects: radio ads and TV ads, each of which requires scripting and slotting (when to run the ads). Some details associated with the various activities are:
a. Graphics design is based on “intelligence” provided by the sales/marketing effort that provides the graphics design team a draft proposal of the key types of messages to include and also some content to back-up those messages. (The graphics design team may further refine the content.) Graphics design takes 8 business days (after the draft proposal has been received). Its total cost is approximately $5,000.
The brochure takes 4 business days (after graphics design is completed) to finalize and the cost is about $2,000
The e-mail campaign commences right after the brochure is ready and takes 1 business day (cost $6,000). A week after the email campaign ends, the paper-mail campaign commences and lasts 3 business days (cost $5,000).
Scripting for the radio and TV ads take 3 business days and 7 business days (respectively), costs being $2,000 and $5,000 (respectively). The scripting is also based on the draft proposal from sales/marketing. The slotting effort for the radio and TV ads takes 2 business days each (at a cost of $1,000 each). The radio ad slotting uses a radio listener report done by the sales/marketing team, and the TV ad slotting uses a TV watchers report, also done by the sales/marketing team. The radio and TV ads run over a period of 10 business days, commencing immediately after slotting has been finalized.
Events: The events effort comprises venue identification and setup, catering, and agenda finalization (speakers, entertainment, giveaways, etc.). Venue identification and setup as well as catering are contracted out to companies who can be trusted to complete on time and budget. Venue identification takes 5 business days (cost $2,000 for eight venues) and must be completed before the brochures are finalized (simply because the addresses are needed for the brochures). Venue setup is the act of determining how much space to rent at the venue, how the space will be organized, etc. This cannot be started until after the mailing campaigns (paper and email), radio and TV ads have run (because campaign statistics/viewership is used to estimate event attendance). Venue setup (for all 8 venues) takes 6 business days and costs $5,000.
Catering cannot be started until after the mailing campaigns (paper and email), radio and TV ads have run, and (for all 8 venues) takes 6 business days to finalize, with catering costs dependent on projected attendance. From historical data, catering costs are estimated to average $4,000 per venue.
Agenda finalization requires contracting (for speakers, entertainment, etc.) and product promotion planning (displaying, demonstrating, giveaways, etc. of products). The contracting and promotion planning are both dependent on projected attendance. Contracting (for all 8 venues) takes 6 business days and the total costs are anticipated to be around $60,000 (which includes speaker fees). Total promotion planning duration is 10 business days (cost $35,000, which includes product giveaways).
Sales/marketing: This effort comprises (market) message development, marketing analysis, surveys, and legal approval. Message development is broken into two parts: draft proposal development (5 business days, $5000) and executive approval (2 business days, $1,000). The message development does not start until after the surveys are completed. The survey effort
comprises focus groups (10 business days, $15,000) and web surveys (4 business days, $6,000). Marketing analysis includes development of a radio listener report and a TV watchers report, each of which takes 3 days and costs $2,000. The surveying effort requires legal approval (2 days, $1,000 for each approval) prior to conducting focus groups and web surveys, and the draft proposal requires legal approval after it is developed (and before it is released to the promotions team).
WEEK 6 DELIVERABLE
This WEEK 6 deliverable requires you to submit a project charter, a WBS in pictorial inverted- tree format, and an MS Project file for the project your team selected. One team member should submit these three files to the team assignment area.
The WBS pictorial can be put together using any software you wish. One easy way to do this is to use the MS Excel org chart template. Stormboard (which currently has a free subscription), Visio, MS PowerPoint, etc. are other tools you may wish to consider. A neat and very legible hand-drawn version is also acceptable.
Your Microsoft Project file must clearly reflect the structure of your WBS inverted-tree pictorial, should show all activities under each work package, their duration, and their dependencies (predecessors), as well as clearly show the critical path (or paths) colored in RED. In addition, add a column to your MS Project file labeled “OWNER” and place in it, for each activity, the name of the team member who identified that activity and provided and verified correctness of the duration and predecessors of that activity. Each team member should own at least three activities.
In the Session 6 Team Assignment, there are three videos provided for: (a) developing a WBS; (b) going about determining the critical path; and (c) using MS Project to get your critical path. All team members are strongly encouraged to watch (a) in Session 5 (after watching the Session 5 video), and (b) and (c) early in Session 6 (but after watching the Session 6 video). Doing this will not only facilitate timely completion of your team assignment but will help you derive an even better understanding of the techniques and concepts in Weeks 5 and 6.
Being able to use MS Project to obtain a project’s critical path is an ability that will serve you well in real world project management and give you an extra skill to add to your resume! So, ALL team members are urged to work on completing the MS Project exercise instead of leaving it to one or a few team members. The video demo in the Session 6 team assignment walks you through the MS project exercise using simple step-by-step instructions that require no prior MS Project knowledge or skills whatsoever.
WEEK 8 DELIVERABLE
This WEEK 8 DELIVERABLE requires you to submit an MS Project file and another (WORD or PDF) file which includes an S-curve (for planned cost), and a high-level risk assessment for the project your team selected. One team member should submit these two files to the team assignment area.
Your Microsoft Project file must not undo anything that was part of your first submission
(in Session 6) – so it should continue to clearly reflect the structure of your original WBS inverted-tree pictorial, should show all activities under each work package, their duration, and their dependencies (predecessors), clearly show the critical path (or paths) colored in RED, and include the “OWNER” column (which could be modified in case owners were different this time around).
Additionally, your MS Project file should have resources assigned to each activity (with their labor cost rate and the prorated accrual method). These resources and rates should exactly mirror the information in the Activity Resources and Rates table you submitted earlier to the Group discussion area. (You are not required to have fixed costs for activities but you can if you wish to.) Your MS Project file should also display the cost of each activity (based on the activity resource and rate information you provided) – this will be calculated by MS Project, so you will not need to calculate these activity costs yourself. Use MS Project to obtain the time-phased planned cost and use these time-phased numbers to plot your S-curve. (You can use EXCEL or any other software to get your S-curve plot.) Two step-by-step videos are provided in the Session 8 Team Assignment: one that explains the mechanics of project costing and one that explains how to complete the MS Project part of your Week 8 Team Assignment.
Finally, your high-level risk assessment (roughly two pages long, double spaced, not including any charts) should:
1. Identify the top three or four project risks and explain how they might affect project schedule and/or cost.
2. Explain whether modeling (Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis process) will be needed for some of your risks and, if so, why; if not, how did you gauge the effect of those risks?
3. Indicate how you might respond to each risk, why that response is the most appropriate, and argue why the benefits of the response outweigh the costs associated with the response.
4. Briefly explain how you would use #1, 2, and 3 above to present a balanced and well-informed picture of the project schedule and cost at an upcoming meeting with your sponsor and senior executives. Assuming you have only five minutes to make your presentation, think in terms of a few (two to three) charts you could present to capture your story. (You can either include sample charts or briefly describe them.) The better you can anticipate your audience’s questions and even their possible resistance and push back, the better your write-up will be.
One team member should submit the assignment to the team assignment folder.
WEEK 11 DELIVERABLE
This WEEK 11 Deliverable requires you to submit a WORD or PDF file. No MS Project file needs to be submitted. The goal of this assignment is to complete our understanding of and appreciation for the project management plan AND to also determine how much of it is needed and when.
There are real life projects that fair just fine without a formal project management plan, most likely because one or more of the following apply:
1. The project does not have a high degree of uniqueness and is very similar to prior projects (in the organization)
2. The expertise level and degree of coordination/teamwork is very high 3. The project is “small” and/or inherently simple
4. There is a very high degree of colocation of team members (example: all five team members are in the same room)
On the other hand, a high percentage of projects encounter major challenges, slip cost/and or schedule, or even wind up getting cancelled after major investments have been made in them because the project team failed to put together a sound project management plan. As a project manager, your responsibility is not to blindly follow a recipe for putting together a project management plan, but to use your knowledge, skills, experience, and judgment (and common sense!) to determine when such a plan is needed, which sections of the plan are absolutely essential, and what degree of formality and rigor those sections need. Moreover, you should always strive to use visualization (charts, meters, heat maps, dashboards, etc.) to the greatest extent possible as opposed to vast amounts of text that run the risk of creating information overload or possibly not being read. This requires that you understand your project well and that you also understand your team, stakeholders, organizational culture, and perhaps even your industry in general.
This team assignment requires you to exercise this knowledge, skill, and judgment for the project that you worked on this term. You will only focus on the communications, stakeholder, quality, and procurement management sections of the project management plan for this assignment. Your assignment should be about five to six pages (double spaced) altogether. Any charts, pictures, visuals, etc. do not count towards this page limit. Divide your assignment into four parts, one each for communications, stakeholder, quality, and procurement, and in each part clearly, succinctly, and convincingly address and argue the following:
1. Does your project management plan need a section that addresses that knowledge area (communications, stakeholder, quality, procurement). Why or why not?
If the answer to 1 above is “no” (for one or more of those four knowledge areas) then you can skip the following for that knowledge area. Of course, you must provide a very cogent and convincing reason for your “no” answer. If the answer is “yes”, then address the following for that knowledge area:
2. What type of information would you include in the project management plan (for that knowledge area), and why; and to what level of detail and formality ? (You do not have to actually include the information, only justify and explain the type and level of detail/formality of the information.)
3. How much of the information (in #2 above) could be presented using visualization as opposed to text? Provide visualization examples if possible. You do not have to actually develop these visualizations specifically for your project. You may use generic examples to make your point.
The post Project Management first appeared on .
