Assignment task:
It was a tense Monday morning at the brightly lit and huge conference room on the 15th floor of the Toronto corporate headquarters of Universal Consumer Products Co. (UCP). The PMO head had called a meeting of all Project Managers at 9 a.m. Brian, Peter, Susan, Nick, and other veteran PMs sat at the conference table. The PMs were pleasantly surprised to see the meeting being attended by heads of other departments like Sales, Marketing, Procurement, Production, Finance, and HR. After reviewing UCP's annual performance, the PMO head gave a short but well-articulated speech, summarized here: UCP is a unique company with leadership status in a wide variety of products, including Consumer Products, Consumer Durables, and Electronics, that are popular with Canadian Consumers. UCP's last year performance showed only a small growth of 2%. This was true across the range of products. UCP, with its vast resources accumulated over years of solid performance, wants to bounce back this year and show solid growth of at least 20% or more. To support its Bounce Back initiative, UCP has developed multiple products for launch this year. Each Project Manager will be responsible for the successful launch of one of these products. Product samples are displayed at the far end of the conference room. You will receive support from all department heads for your product's launch. I want to meet with each of you separately for a meeting in 15 days to review your product launch plan. The launch will be executed in the next 45 days in time for the buying season. The following products were on display: Cellphone T-shirts, shirts, trousers making up a fashion brand Vacuum cleaner Laptop TV Peanut butter Chocolate Potato chips Gaming console Running shoes Upon completion of this assignment, you should be able to:
1. Outline the framework for project integration from planning through execution, monitoring and control, to closing. Students will develop and follow procedures for project integration and to create a project file using project management software (MS Project).
- Create a project scope document.
- Outline how to execute a project from initiation and planning through execution, monitoring and control, to closing.
2. Summarize the four key aspects of project management: scope, time, cost, and quality management. Students will identify how these concepts are applied in real-world case studies and to integrate them into their own projects will identify how these concepts are applied in real-world case studies and to integrate them into their own projects using MS Project.
- Define activities that form the basis for project schedules and explain their importance with respect to good project time management.
- Use a Gantt chart for planning and tracking schedule information and finding the critical path for a project.
- Diagram a Work Breakdown Structure.
3. Explain the importance of human resources management to the success of projects (including the value of human resource planning, teamwork, and motivation). Students will describe how effective project communications can enhance and improve project management.
- Apply tools and techniques to help build and manage project teams.
- Demonstrate good project communication skills through project reporting and teamwork assignments and projects.
4. Plan strategies to address, monitor, and control risk.
- Identify and assess various types of risk in projects.