Project Management Concepts - Coursework Example

Project Management Concepts Introduction Project management can be defined as the application of various knowledge, skills, tools, techniques with the aim to achieve the desired project objective (Henry, 2008, p. 89). Project Management Institute (PMI) has defined project management as the art and science of directing and co-coordinating raw material and labour throughout the project life cycle by implementing advanced project management techniques to reach predetermined goals within specific time period. The present study has been conducted in lieu to analyze the critical factor related to the successful execution of a project. The present study consists of two divisions; the first part consists of various stages of a project life cycle while the second part of the study deals with the preparation of a project plan for KFC Hale (Kousholt, 2007, p. 121) Task-1 Project life cycle brief Before getting in to explaining the case of project life cycle through practical example it is important to provide a brief over view of a project life cycle. A project life consists of four different stages namely initiation, planning, execution and evaluation. The initiation phase begins with defining the scope and purpose of the project. The first step of the planning phase is creation of the detailed project plan. The execution phase of the project includes the explanation of the deliverables by the project manager. It also includes the monitoring and control of the project delivery. The project evaluation or implementation phase is carried out in order to determine the overall success of the project (Biswas, 2011, p. 105). Example The XYZ manufacturing company LTD is a small and medium scale computer manufactures. The company is looking to achieve process efficiency by reducing product delivery time and inventory costs. The company has hired a project consultant to provide guidance for the project throughout the life cycle of the project. Initiation This phase involves defining the purpose and the scope of the project. In this particular case the main goals of the project is to provide improved system and controlling the inventory as well as reduce the product delivery systems. The project would look to provide a modularized, flexible bill of material system to reduce the support cost. The objectives of the project would be to achieve inventory cost reduction of 25% of the display, improve average days to deliver the displays from eight to three days and server delivery to ten to five days (Kloppenborg, 2011, p.345) Planning The planning phase would involve the creation of a set of planning documents. The main objective of the phase is to create a project plan to identify the work breakdown structure or WBS of the key activities needed to complete the project. Project ID Deliverable Due Date Display Division goes live Complete inventory module Complete Bill of material module Complete order entry module Finalize testing and training 05/01/13 08/04/13 11/09/13 05/01/14 Server Division Live Complete inventory module Complete Bill of material module Complete order entry module Finalize testing and training 01/06/13 02/07/13 03/09/13 05/01/13 The planning phase would also require human resource planning as well as financial planning. The brief over view has been given blow: Execution Phase During the execution phase the project deliverables are physically built and presented for the acceptance of the client Activity Description Ownership Identification In the beginning of the project the major risks would be documented for the purpose of tracking. Specific management team is responsible for developing key project management strategies to establish the possible risks. Project consultant, Director of Information Technology, Project Manager, Vice President of manufacturing Reporting A meeting on monthly basis would be held to review the overall project risk management and add new risks as applicable. Project Manager Person Responsibilities Assigned to Project Manager Highly responsible for the overall completion of the project. Risk management plan is effectively implemented along with detailed reporting to the sponsor of the project. Project Manager and Consultant Project Owner Provide guidance and assistance to the project manager and the whole team. The owner should act as an interface between the project team and functional management. Director of Information Technology Project Sponsor Acts as senior manager of operations and manufacturing and provide sign off and acceptance criteria on all major deliverables of the project. Vice President of Manufacturing Closure Project closure involves the releasing of the final deliverables. This mainly includes project evaluation to analyze the effective of the process. This would require both financial and non-financial analysis. Financial analysis would be in terms of sales, inventory costs, etc. Another major analysis would be based on the satisfaction level of the customers. Hence a customer feedback study needs to be undertaken to analyze the effectiveness of the project. Task-2 Back Ground Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC is major fast food restaurant headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The organization specializes in fried chickens. The fast food major has strong presence on the global market. However, KFC wants to open a hale restaurant in London to target the muslin community. The restaurant would be providing halal food to the Muslim community. The project has been undertaken keeping the large number of Muslim communities in England. Project Overview The tile of the project is the KFC Hale – A new beginning. The project starting date would be August 01, 2013. The project in-charge would be the project manager. The objectives are to establish the brand recognition, turn profit and promote and position the restaurant among the Muslim community as a healthy restaurant that respects the values and cultures of the Muslim communities. Here it is to be said that it would be important for KFC to a design approach. The design approach is mainly a synthesis of the research approaches that looks to adopt the advantages and avoid the disadvantages. Approach The project approach would be to research the target market locations, purchase restaurant building or renovate existing buildings, establish marketing plan, maintain control on operating expenses and attain customer satisfaction. Project Mile Stones Research Phase Complete Market Research Procurement Phase Obtain building, permits and equipments Renovation and Style Complete the renovation of the building Advertisement Launch Advertisement Campaign Staff Hire store managers and other employees Grand Opening 23/11/13 Business Objectives The KFC Hale would provide the Muslim community of London what has been longing for a very long time. The mission would be to make sure that customers are satisfied. To be more specific the objectives would be to maintain tight controls on cost and operations, make use of automated computer systems and internets, expand marketing and communications, attain average sales of one to two million Euros each and every year, keep the cost of food lower than 35% of the total revenue, keep labour and employee cost between the range of sixteen to eighteen percent, improve gross margin from sixty five to sixty seven percent in the year and to attain 70.73% gross margin by the end of the year number three. Achieve profitable return on investments by the beginning of the second year. Communication Management Plan Communication plans need to be broken down into three parts such as the stakeholders, team members, contractors and business owners. It is to be ensured that the stakeholders are fully informed at all the times about the project schedule and financial solution each and every time. The project team members should always stay on track and complete the activities on schedule. It should be made sure that the procurement team i.e. the suppliers and vendors are friendly to make sure the overall supply chain acts smoothly. It has to be made sure that the renovation of the building follows the need of the restaurant floor plan (Reid, 1999, p. 291). Work Break down Structure Project Schedule Conclusions To conclude things it can be said that each and every project goes through a series of phases known as project life cycle which has four different stages such as initiation, planning, execution and evaluation. During the initiation phase the main scope and purpose of the project is defined. The next step i.e. the planning phase includes a detailed project plan; the next phase is the execution phase in which the set deliverables to be covered by the project team are fixed (Cowan, 2005, p. 67). The project evaluation or implementation phase is carried out in order to determine the overall success of the project. From the study it can be seen that how project management concepts helps two very different organizations looking to achieve two different set of objectives. On one hand it can be seen that how a computer manufacturing company used project life cycle management concepts to reduce inventory costs and customer delivery lead time to gain customer satisfaction. On the other hand it can also be seen that how KFC, a much larger organization used project management concepts to effectively plan a grand opening of the KFC hale food chain in London for the Muslim communities residing in the area. References Cowan, A. 2005. Risk Analysis And Evaluation. Global Professional Publishing: UK. Henry, A. 2008. Understanding Strategic Management. Oxford University Press: UK. Biswas. P. 2011. Project Management. Matrix Educare: India. Frank, N. 1964. Market analysis: a handbook of current data sources. Scarecrow Press: US. Kousholt, B. 2007. Project Management. US: Teknisk Forlag. Kloppenborg, T. 2011. Project Management. US: Cengage Learning. Reid, A. 1999. Project Management: Getting it Right. UK: Woodhead Publishing. Read More