Project Proposal – PART I
Reading
Unit I Study Guide
Chapter 1: Introduction: Why Project Management?, pp. 1-29
Chapter 2: The Organizational Context: Strategy, Structure, and Culture, pp. 38-75
Throughout this course, you will work in each unit to build a project plan that will ultimately become your final deliverable for Unit VIII. Starting in Unit II, you will begin creating components that will cumulatively make up your final project plan. Your professor will grade each component and offer feedback. The feedback can then be used to make any improvements before submitting all components of the final project plan in Unit VIII.
The outline below represents how your final project plan should be organized.
Project Overview (Units II and III)
1.1 Purpose, Scope and Objectives, and Business Case
1.1.1 Scope
1.1.2 Statement of Work (SOW)
1.1.3 Business Case
1.2 Project Deliverables
1.3 Project Organization
1.4 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
1.4.1 Task Description Documentation
1.4.2 Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS)
1.5 Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)
1.6 Work Authorization
1.7 Work Charter
Risk Assessment (Unit IV)
2.1 Risk Identification
2.2 Assessment of Probability and Consequence (Qualitative)
2.3 Assessment of Probability and Consequence (Quantitative)
2.4 Mitigation Strategies
Quality Management Report (Unit IV)
Project Schedule (Unit V)
4.1 Activity Duration Estimates
4.2 Gantt Chart
4.3 Activity Network
Project Budget (Unit VI)
5.1 Project Resources
5.2 Other Costs
5.3 Cost Estimates
5.4 Time-Phased Budget
Communications Management (Unit VII)
Tracking and Status Updates (Unit VII)
7.1 Tracking Method
7.2 Notification Record
7.3 Control Systems
Project Closeout (Unit VIII)
8.1 Close Cost Accounts
8.2 Lessons Learned
In the assignment for Unit I, you will start the project process by providing the professor with your idea for a project. The professor will provide feedback so that you can adjust your project, as needed, for Unit II.
Take the considerations below into account.
The project’s time frame should be about two months in duration. In other words, building a hotel would not be considered an appropriate project for this course because it would likely take at least 6 months to build.
The project team should include at least six people from different areas of your chosen organization.
The scope of the project should be neither too simple nor too complicated. An information technology (IT) project that involves replacing the desktops in the customer service department would be too simple because it would likely only involve a couple of employees and one or two tasks. An IT project involving an organization replacing all of their legacy systems across its U.S. operations would likely be too complicated. Find some middle ground, and remember that you will need to break down the tasks and assign responsibilities to team members.
Your project may be initiated from any functional unit (e.g., IT, operations, accounting, customer service, product development, marketing, sales), but be prepared to create your team using employees from multiple functional units.
For this unit’s assignment, include the components listed below in a minimum of a one-page document using proper APA formatting.
Include the title of your project.
Provide a description (abbreviated scope) of the project.
Specify the project time frame.
Identify those involved in the project.
Once the professor provides you with feedback on your project idea, you can make the needed adjustments for Unit II and begin to develop your project plan.
Please complete part 1 do not start on part 2 until I have given feed back to continue to PART II
Starting Your Project Plan Part 2 Unite 2
Reading
Unit II Study Guide
Chapter 3: Project Selection and Portfolio Management, pp. 80-111
Chapter 5: Scope Management, pp. 156-164
In Unit I, you were required to develop and submit a project idea. Your instructor should have provided you with either the okay to proceed with your idea or some feedback so that you can make changes. Once you have this feedback, you will be able to make any needed modifications to your project idea, and then you may start putting together your project plan.
Also in Unit I, you were provided with an outline for your final project plan. For the assignment in this unit, refer to your unit lesson and required unit resources to begin to draft your project plan, which should include the components listed below.
Project Overview: This section should include a brief background description of the project, including motivation, goals and objectives, success criteria, major project deliverables, and identified constraints.
1.1 Purpose, Scope and Objectives, and Business Case (In these sections, be sure to include how you will measure project success.)
1.1.1 Scope: The project scope may be described in general terms. Include a problem statement, detailed steps in requirements gathering, information gathering, project constraints, alternatives analysis, and business case documentation. Be sure to describe the techniques used to derive the requirements for this project.
1.1.2 Statement of Work (SOW): Include key milestones, resource requirements, risks and concerns, and acceptance criteria.
1.1.3 Business Case: Include the business needs to be satisfied, the feasibility of the project, a description of internal and external forces likely to affect the project, a comparative analysis of the costs and benefits of this project over alternative solutions, and time estimates to return on investment. Identify how the satisfaction of business needs will be determined.
1.2 Project Deliverables: List the major items or project features to be delivered to the client.
1.3 Project Organization: List all project team members, their specific roles, and the project organization hierarchy. Where appropriate, indicate joint responsibilities between the project manager and functional manager. Develop a project team reporting structure.
This assignment should be a minimum of two pages in length, not counting the title page and reference page. Be sure to use proper APA formatting. Citations are not required; however, if outside sources are used, make certain to provide in-text citations and references in APA format.
Unit 3
Reading
Unit III Study Guide
Chapter 5: Scope Management, pp. 164-187
Chapter 7: Risk Management, pp. 241-261
Wrapping up the Project Overview
In Unit II, you were required to complete components 1.1–1.3 in the Project Overview section. As you receive feedback from your professor, be sure to make improvements to your project plan.
In Unit III, you are required to complete the rest of the Project Overview section (components 1.4–1.7) from your project plan. For this assignment, refer to your unit lesson and required unit resources to advance your project plan. You should now have the components from Unit II already developed (see below).
Project Overview (due in Unit II)
1.1 Purpose, Scope and Objectives, and Business Case (due in Unit II)
1.1.1 Scope (due in Unit II)
1.1.2 Statement of Work (SOW) (due in Unit II)
1.1.3 Business Case (due in Unit II)
1.2 Project Deliverables (due in Unit II)
1.3 Project Organization (due in Unit II)
For this assignment, continue this section by completing the components listed below.
1.4 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): Provide a WBS for the project, including all key deliverables and work packages.
1.4.1 Task Description Documentation
1.4.2 Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS): Include all cost accounts across cooperating departments in the organization.
1.5 Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM): Include a copy of a RAM for the project that identifies all team members by WBS task code, including tasks for which they assume responsibility, notification, support, or approval upon completion.
1.6 Work Authorization: Describe contract terms and conditions. Include all penalty clauses and specific events that will trigger execution of penalties. Include all notification information, including members of the organization to be notified of changes in contract terms.
1.7 Project Charter
This assignment should be a minimum of two pages in length, not counting the title page and reference page. Be sure to use proper APA formatting. Citations are not required; however, if outside sources are used, make certain to provide in-text citations and references in APA format. For more elaboration on what you should include in your project plan, refer to pp. 539–542 in your textbook.
Unit 4 Reading
Unit IV Study Guide
Chapter 9: Project Scheduling: Networks, Duration Estimation, and Critical Path, pp. 313-339
Instructions
Risk and Quality Sections of the Project Plan
In Units II and III, you completed the Project Overview section of your project plan. It is now time to work on the following sections: Risk Assessment and Quality Management Report.
In this assignment, you are required to complete sections 2 and 3 of the project plan. Refer to your unit lesson (from this unit and last unit) and required unit resources to advance your project plan. Create the sections listed below.
Risk Assessment: Include evidence of the risk assessment. The section is divided into subsections on identification of risks, analysis (assessment of risk probability and consequences), and mitigation strategies.
2.1 Risk Identification: Describe all relevant risk variables for the project, including a brief description of the risk variable and the ways in which it is likely to affect the project.
2.2 Assessment of Probability and Consequence (Qualitative): Include a qualitative risk assessment matrix in this space. Give evidence of how you arrived at this assessment.
2.3 Assessment of Probability and Consequence (Quantitative): Include a quantitative assessment of probability and consequences, clearly identifying the criteria used for determining both probability of failure and consequence of failure.
2.4 Mitigation Strategies: Identify individual mitigation strategies for each high-priority risk factor. Briefly specify actions to be taken in order to accomplish the strategy.
Quality Management Report: In this section, be sure to define what quality means for your project from both a product and process standpoint. Include your project quality standards and expectations both internally and for the customer, the metrics and measures for success, and critical success factors. How will you monitor quality throughout the project? Who will be responsible?
This assignment should be a minimum of two pages in length, not counting the title page and reference page. Be sure to use proper APA formatting. Citations are not required; however, if outside sources are used, make certain to provide in-text citations and references in APA format. For more elaboration on what you should include in your project plan, refer to pp. 539–542 in your textbook.
Unit 5 Reading
Unit V Study Guide
Chapter 10: Project Scheduling: Lagging, Crashing, and Activity Networks, pp. 350-375
Chapter 12: Resource Management, pp. 420-442
Project Schedule
In this unit, you are required to complete the Project Schedule section of the project plan. Refer to your unit lesson (from this unit and last unit) and required unit resources to advance your project plan. For this assignment, create the components listed below.
Project Schedule: Include the duration estimates for all project activities, their activity networks, the project critical path, and estimated project duration.
4.1 Activity Duration Estimates: Include a table with activity number, activity, predecessors, optimistic duration, most likely duration, pessimistic duration, and estimated duration. Be sure to show your paths as well as the critical path.
4.2 Gantt Chart: Show the task, duration, predecessors, and the schedule leveling.
4.3 Activity Network: Be sure to include fully completed nodes, including early start, early finish, late start, late finish, and activity float/slack.
This assignment should be a minimum of two pages in length, not counting the title page and reference page. Be sure to use proper APA formatting. Citations are not required; however, if outside sources are used, make certain to provide in-text citations and references in APA format. For more elaboration on what you should include in your project plan, refer to pp. 539–542 in your textbook.
Unit 6 Reading
Unit VI Study Guide
Chapter 8: Cost Estimation and Budgeting, pp. 274-298
Cost Estimation and Budgeting
In this unit, you are required to complete the Project Budget section of the project plan. Refer to your unit lesson and required unit resources to advance your project plan. You may also need to revisit the Unit V Lesson. For this assignment, create the components listed below.
Project Budget: Include cost estimation and project budget. Include direct and indirect costs, recurring and nonrecurring costs, and any expedited costs.
5.1 Project Resources: Identify all project resources. Develop a cost table for all project resources.
5.2 Other Costs: Identify all significant costs for materials (e.g., equipment, overhead, expediting).
5.3 Cost Estimates: Submit ballpark, comparative, and feasibility estimates. Show all information gathered to support these estimates.
5.4 Time-Phased Budget: Include estimated expenses for duration increments (e.g., days, weeks, and quarters).
This assignment should be a minimum of two pages in length, not counting the title page and reference page. Be sure to use proper APA formatting. Citations are not required; however, if outside sources are used, make certain to provide in-text citations and references in APA format. For more elaboration on what you should include in your project plan, refer to pp. 539–542 in your textbook.
Reading
Unit VII Study Guide
Chapter 13: Project Evaluation and Control, pp. 452-479
Instructions
Communications and Control
In this unit, you are required to complete the following sections: Communications Management and Tracking and Status Updates. Refer to your unit lesson (from this unit and last unit) and required unit resources to advance your project plan. For this unit, create the sections listed below.
Communications Management: Identify all critical communications channels for project stakeholders, frequency of communications, types of information to be communicated, and the project status-tracking plan. Where appropriate, include electronic media used for collaborative purposes (e.g., Google Docs, Yammer, and Facebook). Also, in cases of geographically dispersed project teams, indicate methods for regular communications. Please review the discussion from Chapter 6 on team communication methods. An example of a communications management protocol is shown on p. 541 of your textbook.
Tracking and Status Updates: Indicate the methods the project team will use to regularly update the project status, including methods for tracking project progress, and identify which organizational stakeholders receive notification of the project status.
7.1 Tracking Method: Show the method used to track project status (e.g., S-curve, earned value, milestones). Indicate the regularity of these assessments (i.e., monthly, as needed, or upon completion of major deliverables). For earned value assessments, indicate how you will provide updated cost performance index (CPI) and schedule performance index (SPI) data. See p. 542 of your textbook.
7.2 Notification Record: Provide a record of project status update communications. Indicate who received project updates, and show sign-off by key stakeholders upon their receipt of status updates.
7.3 Control Systems: Indicate the forms of project control to be used for the project, including configuration control, design control, quality control, document control, and trend monitoring. Develop control documentation for each form of control you intend to use, including a list of key organizational stakeholders who will be copied on all control documents and status updates.
This assignment should be a minimum of two pages in length, not counting the title page and reference page. Be sure to use proper APA formatting. Citations are not required; however, if outside sources are used, make certain to provide in-text citations and references in APA format. For more elaboration on what you should include in your project plan, refer to pp. 539–542 in your textbook.
Unit VIII Study Guide
Chapter 14: Project Closeout and Termination, pp. 496-515
Project Closing
In Unit VIII, you are required to complete the Project Closeout section of your project plan. Refer to your unit lesson and required unit resources to advance your project plan. For this unit, create the section listed below.
Project Closeout: All necessary project closeout documentation should be included. Work completed or soon to be-completed must be identified, along with any configuration management changes.
8.1 Close Cost Accounts: Discuss completing and closing all project cost accounts and other financial closeouts.
8.2 Lessons Learned: Complete a Lessons Learned assessment that identifies key concepts learned and suggestions for future projects. What is your plan for retention of this information?
The Project Closeout section should be a minimum of two pages in length. You will need to add the Project Closeout section to your previous work from Units II–VII and submit a cohesive, complete, polished document for your final project plan. You will submit only one document; you do not have to submit the Project Closeout section separately. Be sure that you have incorporated modifications based on your professor’s feedback throughout Units II–VII.
This assignment should be a minimum of two pages in length, not counting the title page and reference page. Be sure to use proper APA formatting. Citations are not required; however, if outside sources are used, make certain to provide in-text citations and references in APA format. For more elaboration on what you should include in your project plan, refer to pp. 539–542 in your textbook.
Textbook Project Management, 5th Edition
Author: Jeffrey K. Pinto
VBID: 9780134730509