Project Development and Control on Chewing Gum Litter Reduction Project - Assignment Example

Project Development and Control On Chewing Gum Litter Reduction Project 19 April Table of Contents Figures Figure 1: Spider gram showing brainstorming ideas on the overall objective. 3 Figure 2: SWOT analysis of city council drive against chewing gum. 3 Figure 3: Ishikawa diagram of root cause of chewing gum littering. 4 Figure 4: Organization chart of the hybrid scenario. 6 Figure 5: Project WBS. Numbers on the boxes indicate level and hierarchy. 8 Figure 6: Gantt chart of Chewing Gum project. 10 Tables Table 1: Roles, responsibilities and skills required of the project organization 7 Table 2: Budget estimate 10 I. Business Case a. Brainstorming Ideas This is a business case in addressing the issue of chewing gum litter in a bid to be proactive against the issue. It intends to reduce gum litter by 50% by July 2011 and to 95% by July 2012. In addition to those objectives, this project will find a long-term solution to keep chewing gum litter below 10% in the on-going. Figure 1 show brainstorming concepts on how this could be achieved: Figure 1: Spider gram showing brainstorming ideas on the overall objective. From the brainstorming concepts, we will asses the local council's SWOT in figure 2. In addition, figure 3 will show the various root causes of the problem at hand and such root causes maybe the focus areas of the project team. STRENGTHS a. Fully supported by local council b. Available human resources for project success WEAKNESSES Limited funding for campaign and project execution Resistance from youth councils/ peers OPPORTUNITIES Government legislation Support from private groups THREATS Slow response to campaign Figure 2: SWOT analysis of city council drive against chewing gum. Figure 3: Ishikawa diagram of root cause of chewing gum littering. b. Scenarios There are three possible scenarios in executing this project. Below are a detailed discussion of each, and the recommended scenario to be executed. 1. First is to have a fully autonomous council. This scenario allows for full control by the local council on any program particulars. However, there are several risks involved. First, this will require experienced individuals in launching socio-civic programs to execute a big social change. Secondly, it requires significant funding. This will either require finding a big sponsor, major government funding or launch mega projects to generate funds adding project complexity. Given the risks and enormous scope, this is a pessimistic option to be chosen. 2. Another scenario is to partner with national organizations on chewing gum litter control. Currently there are established groups effectively addressing the issue on a national level and are looking for local city councils to partner with and execute their programs. While this is a low-risk scenario, it maybe limiting the group from doing particular action steps that maybe tailor-fitted to the city. This is an optimistic scenario with limitations. 3. The last option would be a hybrid scenario of the first two. This has some amount of risk in terms of generating funding, but not as huge as that of option one. There can be starting capital from partnership with a national organization and the team can spring board from there to tailor fit more effective programs to address the chewing gum issue on a local scale. Thus, it is recommended to formulate a hybrid program that partners with a national organization against chewing gum litter while having its own strategies adapted locally II. Project Organization Illustrated in figure 4 is the proposed project organization while table 1 lists the roles, responsibilities and skills required of each member. In addition to this team, the stake holders of the project are also important. They will comprise the project board. They will be representatives of the local city council on ways and means, local city council on law and governance, city council on budget, a member from the cleanliness civic group and a representative from the national organization responsible for the chewing gum issue and a member of the youth council. Each will have their own focus for this project. The PM establishes a good working relationship with each to capture their focus and explain execution strategies on how to achieve them. Their support and extension of resources will be aligned and agreed with to ensure smooth flow of execution. Figure 4: Organization chart of the hybrid scenario. Table 1: Roles, responsibilities and skills required of the project organization Roles Responsibility Skills Required Project Board Representatives from the city council and national organizations accountable for eradication of chewing gum litter. Holds government and private positions that have accountability for the local city governance. Project Manager (PM) Accountable to the project board for the success of the projects based on goals set Must have skills and experience in managing cost, schedule and quality and integrating and planning skills. Admin Provides administrative support to the project team Manages the schedule together with the PM to ensure execution is on-track Ability to operate a computer, do word process, scheduling software and have organizing skills Works well with others Finance Provides financial management on project budget and spending Audits financial activities of all members of the team Know and understand basic accounting and audit practices Can manage admin to generate financial reports timely and accurately Purchasing Provides sourcing and procurement of goods & services for the project Manage suppliers/ services Have sourcing, negotiating, procurement skills Have ability to manage external suppliers regardless of company size Marketing Formulates plans to sell project programs and generate response Have marketing, advertising, creative skills Have influencing skills Excellent communication skills Quality Assurance Monitors supplier and project quality Knowledgeable in quality standards and requirements Consumer Research Understand the consumer public, behaviours, values, environment that will enhance positive results for the programs Have marketing, advertising and creative skills Have interest and experience in public interaction and moderation Have good communication skills External Affairs Liaise and interface with non-government entities to obtain necessary support to program success Have marketing, advertising, creative skills Have influencing skills Have negotiation skills Excellent communication skills Government Affairs Liaise and interface with non-government entities to obtain necessary support to program success Have thorough understanding of political structure and processes in government Have marketing, advertising, creative skills Have influencing skills Have negotiation skills Excellent communication skills III. Project Planning A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a hierarchical decomposition of the work to be accomplished to achieve the project objectives (PMBOK 2008, p. 116). Refer to figure 5 for the WBS of the project. From the WBS, an activity list is generated and scheduled to comprise a Gantt chart (figure 6). Figure 5: Project WBS. Numbers on the boxes indicate level and hierarchy. IV. Monitoring and Reviewing The monitoring and review plan for this project is indicated in figure 6. Each review session allows for opportunity to adjust execution of current and future programs. It also reviews spending against budget (table 2) and track status of achieving goals. V. Project Success Factors This project will be deemed successful if the objective of 50% reduction and 95% reduction in chewing gum litter is achieved by July 2011 and 2012, respectively. A third measure of success is the less than 10% chewing gum litter, on-going. Such is the original and bottomline objective of the city council and thus are most important achievements. Figure 6: Gantt chart of Chewing Gum project. Table 2: Budget estimate VI. Bibliography Byrne, J. 03-May-2010. Pack designed to reduce chewing gum litter,claims developer. Confectionery news.com [Online]. Available at http://www.confectionerynews.com/Processing-Packaging/Pack-designed-to-reduce-chewing-gum-litter-claims-developer [Accessed on 16 May 2010]. Chewing Gum Action Group 2009. Success sticks for chewing gum litter campaign [Online]. Available at http://www.chewinggumactiongroup.org.uk/_assets/documents/pdf/success%20sticks.pdf [Accessed 17 May 2010]. Project Management Institute 2008. ANSI/PMI 99-001-2008. A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 4th Ed. Pennsylvania (PA): PMI. UK Parliament Office of Science and Technology 2003. Chewing gum litter. Postnote [Online] Sept. 2003 (201). Available at http://www.parliament.uk/documents/post/pn201.pdf [Accessed on 16 May 2010]. Read More