Scenario
You are employed as an Office Manager in a company based in the centre of London. The company provides consultancy services to businesses around the world, particularly in the area of management
development. All of the consultants work remotely from home and the office function, with a team of 10 people, is purely administrative. The Managing Director has announced that the offices will be relocated to the area around Banbury, Oxfordshire in order to reduce costs. She has asked you to lead a small team from the office and
involve consultants to plan and execute this move. She wishes to retain the same size administrative team. In her announcement, she also confirmed the current business objectives and the specific
objectives associated with the move. These include:
Continuing to grow business income by 10% annually Enhancing profitability partially by reducing the physical costs associated with accommodation Retaining the business earning capacity Improving the quality of support the office provides to the consultants and clients Improving the IT systems for the business Minimising the human resource costs associated with the move particularly associated with redundancy, recruitment and training
Activity 1The Managing Director wishes to understand the full implications of the office move. She has asked you to prepare an initial report which considers the various projects needed to deliver the move
to new premises.
Appraise the business objectives listed above and identify the projects which will be needed to successfully carry out the relocation. Considering your list of projects, develop the necessary project sub divisions and produce high level estimates of the resources needed to complete one of these projects including time and
costs.ACs 1.1, 1.2
Activity 2The MD has read your report and agreed with the work completed to date. She now wishes to get an insight into the way in which you believe the projects should be planned and delivered. She has also
made it clear that all members of the team need to have the same shared understanding. She has asked you to use your selected project and produce a handbook on The Project Management Approach, for
use by all members of the team.The first section of this Handbook must:
describe and evaluate a suitable methodology for your chosen project assess the feasibility of this project include a structure for the management and administration of the project define the roles and responsibilities of staff who will manage this project, producing a job description and person specification for a Project Manager. This person specification must
include the interpersonal skills required for effective project managementACs 1.3,1.4, 2.1, 2.2, 3.2
Activity 3In the second section of the Handbook you must prepare and describe a detailed project planAC 2.3
Activity 4In this section you must: describe and assess alternative project team structures design processes for quality management of the project design procedures for how project change proposals will be managedACs 3.1, 3.3, 3.4
Activity 5This section of the Handbook covers monitoring and control of projects. Produce two tables which identifyo the issues and risks that may impede a projecto the issues and risks likely to be encountered in the final stages of a project Design and describe systems which can be used foro monitoring and appraising the status of a projecto detecting and managing issues arising in the course of projects