Homework: Overview & Instructions
Length: 8 to 10 pages.
Learning Outcomes
This homework provides you with the opportunity to build a Project Plan for the construction of a new Recreational Community Centre using the concepts and framework discussed in class. It will enable you to achieve the following Learning Outcomes:
i. Identify the fundamental principles and practices of project management in an organization.
ii. Describe the key elements of a project and a role of a project manager.
iii. Demonstrate the ability to create project documentation, including a project plan and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
iv. Itemize and explain the critical success factors to a project.
v. Describe key elements of project scheduling through a WBS and the management of project risks.
vi. Estimate time and cost for a project and develop a project management plan.
I. Construct a New Recreational Community Centre
The Town of Newfane has experienced rapid growth because of several new housing developments that have doubled the population over the last six years. In turn, this has led to a significant increase in year-over-year tax revenue for the Town. This has afforded the Town the opportunity to provide additional services to the community. However, the Town currently lacks the facilities to support such services. The regional council has recently voted to develop a Recreational Community Centre to be built on the municipal lands near the Town Hall.
II. Project Rationale
The new Centre will provide residents with facilities that will help bring the community together. It will also provide the opportunity to adequately support competitive supports with other towns and cities. The new complex will be state of the art and could be used to attract top tier athletes that the Town of Newfane was not previously able to recruit. The complex will continue to strengthen the Town's relationship with the local community through interaction programs such as hockey, swimming, and basketball camps as well as local fundraising events.
III. Project Objectives and Goals
The main objective of the project is to provide the local community with high quality sporting facilities to encourage both friendly and competitive events that will help promote the Town's team spirit. The goal of the project is to improve facilities so that they are at a standard and level to other prestigious facilities across the country.
IV. Anticipated Benefits
i. Interest to utilize the facility by other athletes across the country
ii. Increased revenue to the Town and the local community from events
iii. Healthier and happier community
iv. Creates a positive work-life balance for people
v. Improves the Towns' reputation when they host national conferences
V. Project Alternatives
Most construction projects offer a number of alternatives to clients (e.g. bronze, silver, gold). A number of community consultation and collaborative sessions were held with the local community to develop a concrete list of facility amenities. The project team worked hard to finalize this list to avoid further changes during design and construction. After careful deliberation, the Town has decided to go with the "gold" alternative.
The gold package comes with a facility that will be modern, fit-for-purpose, and complete with sports and swimming facilities. It will be designed to meet the needs of today's public leisure users and the entire community.
The proposed 150,000 square foot facility will include the following:
i. Hockey rink
ii. 25m main Swimming Pool
iii. Learner pool
iv. Fitness Suite
v. 6 community multi-purpose studios
vi. Gymnasium/ basketball court
vii. 1,400 parking spaces
VI. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Before developing a Gantt chart, it's important to complete a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) to illustrate the key components of the project. The complex will consist of a new 150,000 square foot facility with all of the elements mentioned above (e.g. hockey rink, 25m swimming pool, learner pool etc.) plus other components such as project management activities, lounges, and food concession areas. When breaking down your work, think about all these components as well as everything that goes into it (e.g. lighting, flooring, restrooms, seating, scoreboards, etc.)
VII. Cost Estimates
Newfane Town Council initiated the project with funds secured from the new tax revenue generated because of the housing development and developer levies collected to support infrastructure projects. However, initial funding of $40M budgeted for the project were found to be insufficient to achieve the requirements and further funding was required. Town Recreation and Infrastructure Project Committees constructed a business plan that secured an additional $25M from Provincial grant for a total project budget of $65M.
Below is an estimated cost per square-foot (SF) to construct the Centre. Use it to determine what the cost is for each resource along with the % of total budget dedicated to each resource.
Item
Cost/SF per item
Cost per Item % of Total Budget per Item
Contractor Fees $40
Architectural Fees $12
Community Consultation Costs $1
Cost of Materials $300
Permit/Fees $2
Cost of equipment Rentals $50
VIII. Resource Estimates
To successfully build the Recreational Community Centre, a Project Team with several resources were assembled. This includes the following:
i. Town Council
ii. Town Recreation and Infrastructure Project Committee
iii. Architectural Firm (Lawrence and Yonge)
iv. Main Contractor (Willis and Don)
v. Design Team
vi. Stakeholders from the Local Community
IX. Risks and Mitigation Strategies
Risks are inherent on every project. Building a large-scale Recreational Community Centre comes with own set of risks. When completing your report, you will need to think about different types of risks and how you will mitigate them.
X. Constraints
Below are some constraints for building the new Recreational Community Centre:
i. Project is slated to start on September of current year and expected to last 12 months
ii. Work must be completed prior to the Grand Opening in September of the following year
iii. Key decision makers may be difficult to contact during project (e.g. vacations, sick days)
Paired Homework - PDF Report
Each report is expected to consist of the 7 following components.
I. Project Scope Statement
i. Project Objective - Answers the questions of what, when and how much
ii. Deliverables - Tangible or intangible goods or services to be created
iii. Milestones - Major events to show segments of completed work
iv. Technical Requirements - Any performance specs needed for a product / service
v. Limits & Exclusions - List Items outside of the scope to establish boundaries
vi. Customer Reviews - who is your point of contact? How will you manage expectations?
II. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
i. Create a WBS structure in a hierarchical format
ii. Can be structured by "phase" or by "deliverable" (either one is fine)
iii. Tasks should be:
iv. Manageable - authority and responsibility can be assigned
v. Measurable - it should be easy to track progress on it
vi. Independent - not dependent on other activities
vii. Rule of thumb:
viii. Stay between 5 to 8 columns wide
ix. Stay between 4 to 5 rows down
III. Gantt Chart
i. Create a Gantt chart for your Project
ii. Note: the use of MS Project is not mandatory
iii. Use the template provided or any software available to assist in building the Gantt (e.g. PowerPoint, Visio, Excel, PowerPoint or MS Word)
iv. Use the WBS created above to match the breakdown of the Gantt Chart
v. Include key deliverables and milestones
vi. Conduct research when necessary and use industry knowledge when appropriate
IV. Budget
i. Use the information provided to create a budget for this project
ii. Develop the budget in an excel spreadsheet or word document (either is fine)
V. Risks and Mitigation Strategies
i. Planning - what risks come with planning a greenfield (undeveloped) project with nearby houses and substantial change?
ii. Schedule Delays - what will be the impact of a delay in the project? How can you minimize it? How can you avoid disruption to the local community? What will be your Plan B?
iii. Cost Increases - sometimes the prices of material increase due to an increase in demand (e.g. raw material such as wood, steel, glass). How can you avoid this problem?
iv. Environmental - since this is a greenfield project, what kind of an impact could this have to the environment and, potentially, to endangered species? How can you mitigate that? What about flood risk?
VI. Conclusion
i. What were your Key Findings?
ii. Will the project finish on time and within budget? Why or why not?
VII. References
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
i) The answer should be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
ii) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
iii) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.