NUMBER 1 ASSIGNMENT....The discussion on stakeholder identification went better than expected. Everyone seems to be on the same page. However, the team realized that there are a lot more internal and external stakeholders on the project.
Although all of your team members work in the sales and marketing function, they all bring unique skills and experiences to this project. Many have worked in other departments prior to their new role or have duel responsibilities in the company.
"This is a make-or-break project for us at this point," says Jim. "We have to get it right the first time. If we miss any stakeholders in our communication, it could be devastating to the success of the project."
Jim turns to you. "I need you to lead the team in conducting a stakeholder analysis. We need to make sure to include all of the stakeholders, their background, contribution to the project, and level of priority to the project communication. You will be working with your four teammates in performing the stakeholder analysis and transferring this information to the project charter for review."
"Okay," you say. "Can everyone give me a little bit of background about work experience and education?"
"Sure," says Jerry Lawson. "I have an MS in Business Management and several IT/PM certifications as well as 6 years with the company."
"I have a lot of procurement and acquisition experience, but have an engineering background," says Sara Jenkins. "I earned an MBA and a BS in electrical engineering. I have been with the company for 4 years."
"I have done business analysis, quality assurance, and risk management, but have a construction background," says Melissa Grant. "I have an MSM in project management and a BS in electrical engineering as well as 6 years with the company."
Mike Green, a technician who previously worked in the public relations and marketing department says, "I have done a lot of hands-on electrical work and testing. I earned my MBA in marketing and two undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering and IT management. I have been with the company for 5 years."
"Great, thanks," you say.
Jim hands you a document, saying, "Here is a project charter, a stakeholder register, and SOW templates for you to use as a guideline."
After Jim leaves, you and the rest of the team get busy discussing how to conduct a stakeholder analysis and how to justify stakeholders’ inclusion. You also begin to review the project background information to develop your initial SOW outline.
Assignment
Notes from your team discussion help you defend your position on the stakeholders' inclusion. Back at your desk, you write the stakeholder analysis in an essay-style format using MS Word and the stakeholder register template. Your essay should include a brief description of who your stakeholders are to the project; their roles, responsibilities, and positions (internal or external); and their level of influence, power, interest, and impact. You will fill out the stakeholder register template using your descriptions.
The goal of this assignment is to document everything you know and everything others need to know about the project stakeholders.
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For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials...............................................................................................................
NUMBER 2 ASSIGNMENTAssignment DescriptionAdditional Information
After completing your stakeholder analysis and developing your stakeholder register, you started working on your next project, which will be to develop a project charter. You started to gather information from various stakeholders via interviews and e-mails. The latest e-mail you sent caused quite a response. Several meetings were centered on the project charter, statement of work (SOW), work breakdown structure (WBS), and enterprise environmental factors and organizational process assets that you will use to complete the second and most important deliverable at this stage, the project charter. Jim comes to your desk one afternoon for further discussion.
"Our team meetings on the SOW, project charter, WBS, and environmental factors and organizational process assets have been very productive," says Jim. "Thanks for getting this project charter moving in the right direction."
"Anytime," you say.
"So, based on our last team meeting, do you think we are ready to write a concise SOW and the project charter?" asks Jim.
"I think we have enough information to assess risks, assumptions, define scope inclusions and exclusions, objectives, business need, milestones, high-level budget breakdown, acceptance criteria, and constraints," you say.
"Have you ever prepared a WBS before?" asks Jim<.>
"I have," you say. "Prior to working at ACH, I was an associate project manager for an engineering firm on the West Cost."
"Oh, that's great!" says Jim, handing you a document, saying, "Here is a simple template that combines all three deliverables: the SOW, the project charter, and the WBS. Do you think you can update the project charter for me with all of the required information?"
"Sure," you say, looking at the document. "You know, in my previous job, we developed three separate documents for these three deliverables.”
Jim smiles and says, “Oh, believe me I know that, but as you know we’re a small organization and have developed our own ways of managing project records within the overall project management PMBOK® Guide framework. Remember, the PMBOK® Guide framework is a tool kit and we’ve taken from it what works well for us here.”
PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
Assignment
Use the Project Charter Template for this assignment. Please note, for your WBS section, the WBS should be an expansion of the list of tasks in the SOW, which should also include high-level deliverables and milestones.
After Jim leaves, you start working on the project charter for the next meeting. You use all of the information you gathered and follow the direction under each section of the Project Charter Template to ensure completeness.
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For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.........................................................................................................
NUMBER 3 ASSIGNMENT........Assignment DescriptionAt the next meeting, you and the team had a very productive discussion on your findings related to the identification of all of the project activities that must happen to start and finish your project. You even took a step further in working with your team members to estimate resources and cost for each of the activities. Everyone feels that it is time to present your findings to Sam and Gloria and provide them with a baseline estimate of how long this project will most likely cost in terms of time and dollars.
"Thanks for educating us on the schedule development planning," says Jerry to you. "We have some great information here, but I think it is too much detail to present to Sam and Gloria."
"I agree," says Melissa. "Does anyone have any ideas on how best to present this information?"
"We should go ahead and plug this information into a project schedule that both Sam and Gloria know and will appreciate. We ought to establish a project baseline at this time. We should define the tasks, start and finish dates, durations, and predecessors (sequence of activities)," says Sara.
"The project schedule should account for all of the activities that must happen. It must not be less than 30–50 activities and sub activities," you say.
"Oh, that's great!" says Jim. "Do you think you can prepare it for the team by next week?"
Assignment
Tips: Start by expanding the basic WBS from the Charter that you completed in IP2 to include all of the tasks necessary to complete the renovation, equipping, supplying, training, and marketing of this new location. Think about how you could decompose your work packages into activities and subactivities to complete this coffee house project. You should use all of the project artifacts (deliverables) you produced so far and the given project scenario to identify all of the activities that are needed.
You should be able to come up with 30–50 activities, both major and sub-activities, for your schedule baseline. Once those activities have been identified, next refine your schedule by plugging in start and finish dates, durations, and predecessor relationships. Your project name must go in the first row, and all other activates should be indented under it. You should link all activities to summary tasks and subactivities to the main activity. You may make assumptions for any of this work. You should save the finished project file as: "Week 3 deliverable_your name."
Note: This assignment requires MS Project software or an equivalent. If you need help learning how to use the MS Project software, please visit our Project Management Learning Center: Microsoft Project page.
Please submit your assignment.
For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.................................................................................................................
NUMBER 4 ASSIGNMENT.........Assignment DescriptionAdditional Information
The team returned and discussed their ideas about the budget impacts on the project scope. The brainstorming session went very well, with a lot of input from the entire team. You now have more than enough project cost information to share with Sam and Gloria. The discussion again turns to the best way to present the information. Jim shares some insight on Sam and Gloria with the team.
"Sam and Gloria will have different concerns and issues on project human resources and quality management," says Jim. "Sam will focus more of his attention on the qualifications of people, while Gloria will be concerned with the cost of additional resources and services and quality for the project."
"Sam and Gloria really liked our MS Project schedule presentation," says Jerry.
"I agree, we should just continue to build our MS Project schedule and this time assign cost and human resources for all activities," says Sara. "We should include a plan on how we’re going to manage quality; otherwise, they will ask us how we plan to handle that. Let’s just prepare a simple 1-page quality management plan using this template and present it with the updated MS Project schedule” says Jerry.
"The MS Project cost should include the salary and budget information that we shared in our team discussion," you say. "We should also consider the cost of possible overtime pay. And yes Jerry, I can fill out this simple quality management plan document."
"Don't forget the cost of additional people, equipment, and technology for team members and the cost of the services rendered by the vendors," says Sara. "It should include additional maintenance and training costs as well."
"Oh, that's great!" says Jim, turning to you. "Do you think you can update the MS Project Plan to include resource names for all tasks and cost estimates, and prepare a separate Quality Management Plan for the team? You did such a great job the last time."
"Sure," you say. "I'll have those ready to review at our next meeting."
Assignment
During your final check of your MS Project schedule, you review your notes from the meeting to be sure you have captured cost information from your discussions, including the cost of resources and materials. Also include the cost of services rendered by the vendors. Put this information in the Resources sheet in MS Project. Also insert resource names on the project plan's Gantt chart. Create new rows in the basic project plan to track task costs as well.
For your quality management plan, you may use this Quality Management Plan template.
PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
Please submit your assignment.
For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials....................................................................................................
NUMBER 5 ASSIGNMENT................Assignment DescriptionAdditional Information
The briefing to Sam and Gloria went well. They were still concerned about both the schedule and the costs of the project. Gloria asked, “Do you have a risk list that we can examine to make sure you have thought about all of the possible things that still could go wrong? But I am still excited about this new opportunity. Can you also give some thought to the positive elements of the project that we should take steps to exploit?
"I will approve the project budget, but to ensure everyone is on the same page and that project risks are managed properly, we need to see a simple project communication plan and a risk register. We need to understand your approach better going forward," says Gloria.
Jim turns to you, handing you a template for both the risk register and the communications plan. "You have done such an excellent job throughout this entire project. Would you be willing to complete these plans?"
"Of course." you say.
"Because of the leadership behavior you have displayed over the past few months, we would like you to take over Jim's position as the new project manager," says Sam to you.
Assignment
Back at your desk, you start filling out the risk register template. For your risk register, you will need to define 5 negative risks and 5 positive risks and fill out the rest of the information in the template. For your communications management plan, please use the Communication Plan template. You need to account for all communication types with your stakeholder. Please follow the instructions in the Communication Plan template for both deliverables.
Please submit your assignment.