PMAN 634 Team Assignment
This ongoing team assignment will extend over the next seven sessions (Sessions 5 through 11), and will
focus on the project charter and the various components of a project management plan. There will be
team deliverables in Sessions 6 and 8 (which will include submitting an MS Project file) and one in
Week 11 (no MS Project file submission required). These deliverables are described in detail following
the Gizmotron case below. You will need to spend a few hours in each of Weeks 5 through 11 building
up to the three deliverables due in Weeks 6, 8, and 11. Please save this file for future reference.
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:
1. Make sure that there are three or four main deliverables (first level of WBS)
2. Have between 10 to 16 work packages (“leaves” of the WBS)
3. 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.
4. 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.
b.
The brochure takes 4 business days (after graphics design is completed) to finalize and the cost is
about $2,000
c.
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).
d.
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.
2. 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).
3. 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 invertedtree 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.
One team member should submit the assignment to the team assignment folder.
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