Assignment:
You are a project manager in the marketing department for a county funded hospital. The hospital is launching an extensive public service program for cardiac health. The program will involve print ads in local newspapers, television spots, posters at local eateries and health clubs, and sponsorship of events at the county fair. You have been discussing the project with your boss, the director of marketing, Walter Jones, and you are discussing options for a local celebrity to be a key spokesperson. You are hoping to have one of the local professional basketball players because they are typically available during the summer county fair season. The goal is that the first splash of public service announcements and ads takes place in the next 90 days, in conjunction with "Heart Healthy Month."
This is a critical project for the hospital, and you are honored (and a little nervous) to be the project manager. This project is part of a larger strategic initiative to develop community awareness of the hospital's expertise in cardiac care and increase the hospital's revenues over a 3-year period. The budget for the project is clearly defined and seems to be adequate. The various departments of the hospital are supportive of the project, and there is clarity and consensus around the scope and objectives of the campaign.
Unfortunately, the hospital's project budgets are under fire for experiencing significant budget overruns within the last year on a number of projects. The hospital's CFO has made it clear to your director that the project will need to be diligent in managing this project so that schedule and cost overruns do not occur.
You will need to build the project schedule that meets the required dates for the upcoming "Heart Healthy Month," plus the schedule for the remaining deliverables. Good luck!
Question:
You are meeting with Georgia tomorrow to give her specific direction around developing the cost budget for the county fair event portion of the project. She has determined that the event will most likely involve a tent of some sort that contains tables and various health-related activities for children and literature for adults. There will be some sort of heart-related giveaway with the program's slogan on it, along with pencils and something else for the children. Expected attendance at the county fair is projected to be between 250,000 and 450,000, with some percentage of that stopping by the tent. Two vendors will be used to produce the giveaways and print the literature and signage. The tent will be staffed by the hospital's employees who will be paid their regular wages (not part of the project budget). All other work (determining the tent layout, creating the activities, developing the literature, scheduling the staffing, etc.) will be done by Georgia's team.
Create a worksheet (in Excel or other spreadsheet tool) that Georgia can use to create the budget. Prepopulate the worksheet with the components of the estimate and provide direction to Georgia in the procedures document (in Word) on how to obtain the three-point estimates and the resulting budget.