PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND RISK.Discuss

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND RISK

You are a Project Manager employed by a company which is due to implement new software within their supply chain system. The new system has already been agreed and this project involves the organising and training of all staff on the new system. You have a Project Technician who will assist with the project work. In addition, 5 internal staff will temporarily be appointed as trainers of the new software. It has been agreed that the new system will be live on the 20th June 2015 so all work on the project, including training of staff must be completed by then.
The project should start on 20th April 2015. The overall budget is £42,000 which includes estimated costs of £2,000 for printing of training materials and £10,000 for training equipment. Work is split into 7 main phases:
• Determine needs
• Purchase equipment
• Write training material
• Set up training lab
• Appoint & train the trainers
• Set up training programme
• Train staff

Staff available to work on the project, together with their costs are:
Project Manager £30.00/h
Project Technician £15.00/h
HR Manager £30.00/h
SC Manager £30.00/h
Electricians (2) £15.00/h
IT Technicians (2) £20.00/h
Trainers (5) £20.00/h

The following constraints must be included in the project plan:
• The meeting to Agree Specification and Timescales is scheduled for 27th April 2015.
• To allow time to receive quotations, Review Quotes & Decide on Supplier cannot start until 2 weeks after Send Specification to Suppliers.
• To allow time for delivery of equipment, Install Network cannot start until at least 2 weeks after Order Equipment.
• Although Install Software is a dependency of Install Network, it does not have to wait until the entire network is complete so could start after 2 days network installation work has been carried out.
• Due to work on other projects, electricians are only available to Install Electrics from 27-29 April 2015.
• Due to HR procedures, posts are only advertised on the 1st of each month. Trainer posts are due to be advertised (internally) on 1st May 2015.
• There must be at least 3 weeks between Advertising the Posts and Interviewing and Appointing Trainers and a further week between appointing and Training the Trainers.
• It is intended that the training material (in Write Training Material phase) is tested when Training the Trainers therefore this must be set up as a dependency

Using Microsoft Project 2010, set up the following project, including the constraints as detailed above:

Task Duration Dependency Resources
1 Determine needs
2 meet with SC Manager 0.5 days Project Manager, SC Manager, Project Technician
3 write specification 3 days 2 Project Manager, Project Technician
4 agree specification and timescale 0.5 days 3 Project Manager, SC Manager, HR Manager
5 Purchase equipment
6 send specification to supplier 0.5 days 4 Project Technician
7 review quotes & decide on supplier 1 days 6 IT Technician, Project Manager, Project Technician, SC Manager
8 order equipment 0.5 days 7 Project Technician
9 Write training materials
10 write first draft 2 weeks 4 Project Technician
11 test material and gain feedback 4 days 10 Project Manager, Project Technician
12 redraft and finalise 1 week 11 Project Technician
13 send to printers milestone 12 Project Technician
14 Set up training lab
15 prepare room 1 day 4 Project Technician
16 install electrics 3 days 15 Electricians[2]
17 install network 3 days 8,16 IT technicians[2]
18 install software 3 days 8, 17 IT technicians[2]
19 test system 1 day 16,17,18 Electricians [1],IT technician [1], Project Technician
20 Appoint and train trainers
21 advertise posts 0.5 day 4 HR Manager
22 interview & appoint 5 trainers 2 days 21 HR Manager, Project Manager
23 train the trainers 2 days 19,22 Project Manager, Project Technician, Trainers [5]
24 Set up training programme
25 set up booking system 1 day 4 Project Technician
26 check training materials and lab 1 day 13,23,25 Project Technician
27 Train staff 21 days 26 Trainers[5], Project Technician, Project Manager

REQUIREMENTS:
1. Using Microsoft Project 2010, plan the project, including the constraints as detailed above. Save the project as SCProject1.
2. Produce a comprehensive report for the senior management team which will present the plan and include details of any issues you can foresee.
3. List the risks associated with the project and discuss the implications of these risks. Explain how risk management software could be used to support the risk management process.
4. Using Microsoft Project 2010, update the project taking into account the issues and risks identified. Produce a short report justifying that this is the optimal solution possible. Save the updated project as SCProject2.
NOTE:
• For the above it is expected that you make full use of Microsoft Project’s reporting facility.
• You may make assumptions, but these must be clearly stated in the reports