Good Answers Moving - Research Proposal Example

Project Charter Preparers Initials Prepared By Project Ref No. Project Prepared Contacts Phon Contact Good Answers To: Distribution From: Joe Storum  Assignment Project Manager authorized as project manager for the (Good Answers Moving to The New Office Space) effort. Project manager is designated to ensure customer satisfaction and to shepherd the project to a successful conclusion, as described in this charter.______will be responsible for internal communication and cooperation with responsible functional managers included in the distribution list. Responsibility The project manager will  Be the primary point of contact for (Good Answers), (Moving Company) and (Colombia Management)  Ensure team members know their responsibilities  Track team member performance  Track overall project performance  Prepare a detailed project plan, and obtain agreement to that plan from the related functional managers  Maintain a project binder containing all pertinent project data  Report project status to management Authority The project managers authority includes  Authority to direct the project team  Access to (customer name) on all matters related to this effort.  Access to the functional managers on all matters related to this effort  Control of the project budget  Access to financial reports related to project expenditures, including time and attendance  Renegotiation with functional managers to delegate responsibility and authority to functional organization team members Scope Statement The current work space for Good Answers is becoming a limitation factor for the company operations and growth, employees’ satisfaction, powerful assistance for our clients and response to the rapidly growing market demand. Moving Good Answers to the larger office space will provide sufficient space for the growing number of employees, suitable storage space for operations equipments that are lying in hallways, and enough room for the future required technical support operations. The company employees will have more spacious offices and their will be an executive suite for senior management. The aim of this project is to move Good Answer to the new office space, located 10 blocks away, within the specified budget. The activity for the move will start on med of July and to be completed by September 1st. Moreover, the move will have no affect on the planned IT-system upgrade. Authorizing Signature Name: Joe Storum Title: Good Answers/ Facilities Head  Project Requirements Document  Preparers Initials Prepared By Project Ref No. Project Name Date Prepared Contacts Phone Contact Customer Good Answers  BACKGROUND As Good Answers is growing exponentially, moving the company to a larger classy office space became a mandatory task, as a response for the growth. In order to maintain the highest employee satisfaction, the new space will accommodate the growing number of employees. The move will avoid tripling the number of employees in one office. The selected location of town for the new office building, 10 blocks away, will be quite the up-and-coming area over the next decade. Therefore, the new location will reflect the actual growth and impress a successful image about the company. Moreover, the new office building is next door to the Chamber of Commerce, which will be a marketing opportunity for the company and increase number of clients. However, this project will also ensure a classy look of the new office space. Moving Good Answers to the larger office space will provide sufficient space for the growing number of employees, suitable storage space for operations equipments that are lying in hallways, and enough room for the future required technical support operations. The company employees will have more spacious offices and their will be an executive suite for senior management. The current office space is 20,000 square feet on two floors while the promised new location will be 35,000 square feet in one floor, third floor of the building. The occupancy of the new facility tentatively is planned on August 1st, while the lease of current facility will be over by10th of September. The new location will accommodate the need for 5,000 square feet to store the overflow of equipment, currently being stored in hallways. Also, the new office space will accommodate the required 8,000 square feet for the expansion of technical support operations The aim of this project is to move Good Answer to the new office space, located 10 blocks away, within the specified time and budget with the minimum possible downtime. The activity for the move will start on med of July and to be completed by September 1st. Moreover, the move will have no affect on the planned IT-system upgrade. Building the new facility for the aimed project will not have a direct cost to avoid sinking the available cash flow; the project may cost from 200,000 to 300,000 $. This will give more flexibility for the company for better use of cash flow for the year operations. An agreement had been signed with Columbia Management to build out the new facility at no direct cost but in exchange for a higher rent.  PROJECT OBJECTIVES The Objective of this project is to move Good Answers during the summer time (July ,15th to July 30th) to the new office building, which will increase floor space by 15,000 square feet, in order to acquire the needed space for the expansion of technical support activity, storage area for operation equipments and increasing number of required employees’ offices. Therefore objectives can be described as: To move Good Answers to the new office building that will expand floor space from 20,000 to 35,000 square feet, with minimum downtime, from 15 of July to 15th of August. To allocate storage area for operating equipments To allocate working space for the upcoming expansion in Technical support operations PROJECT PHASES / DELIVERABLES Planning project roadmap, establishing project team members, and identifying quality standards for the project, by end of May Final agreement will be signed with Colombia Management for the allocation of new office building, 1st of June. Division heads can provide their input about their division location in the new office building, 10th of June. A contract will be signed with Joes brother-in-law “moving company” to move Good Answers offices and equipments 30th of June A facility team will be arranging the new office location, purchasing furniture as required and coordinating executive suite and each division location with senior management, 7th of July. Transferring main building signs as well as offices’ signs, 20th of July Transferring furniture and offices packed materials to new office location, by 30th of July Transferring of telephones and networks of Good Answers to new location, by 25th of July Current office building will be cleared out of any Good Answers related items, by 10th of August. Project team will be following up any raising item due to the move and the project will be closed out on 15th of August. Any farther issues will be handled by facility division. Marketing unit will be responsible to announce and direct customers to the new office location, 1st to 15th of August. KEY MILESTONES Signing final contract with Colombia Management for the new office building. Contracting with Joe’s brother in-low to move Good Answers items to new office building Divisions allocation (mapping) and purchasing required furniture for the new office location Packing office equipment and documentations Moving offices equipments and documentations to new office building Uninstalling and reinstalling of telephone lines and network Close out the project and issue a final report  ASSUMPTIONS The whole company, Good Answer, will be moved to the new office building. All employees will be cooperative during the move. The offices move will start med of July and finish by end of July. There will be enough storage area for operation equipment There will be enough working area of required Operation support activity. All divisions will be aligned in the new location in a productive way. The IT upgrade project will not be affected by the move.  RISKS Lack of cash flow Un-optimum organization of divisions, in the new office building, functional-wise Reluctance of employees or resigning Delaying IT upgrade project Longer downtime period than planned Losing clients Not redirecting customers to the new location Loss of market Unable to manage the growing market and increase of operation during the summer time. KEY RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS The below recourses are required during the moving period Team members from all company divisions to assist the project activity during summer time. Representatives from financing division, Technical Operators, Facility division are also required to help in activity related to contracting, allocation of Technical Operation Expansion and storage area, respectively. A contract with Colombia Management for the new office building. Finance division to handle the renting contract with Colombia Management. A Contract with Joes brother-in-law moving company to relocate Good Answers items to the new office building. Purchasing of new furniture for the new office location CONSTRAINTS Internal and external constraints are described below: Time limitation as the project should be carried out with minimum downtime Startup of IT upgrade project on September 1st Low availability of cash flow to be used for the project Packing of individual offices is the primary cost for the move Increasing work loud to employees as the company is growing Reluctance of some employees toward the relocation Selecting the project team member Allocation of office space for the project team Communication between team members during the network downtime period INTERRELATED PROJECTS Complete IT system upgrade by IT division ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA Project must move all offices and equipments to new location Project must have a minimum Downtime period as low as two weeks Project must provide enough storage area for operation equipment Project must provide enough space for required technical operation activity Project must not affect the upgrade of IT system Project must not utilize a huge cash flow of the company Project must evacuate current location by end of August. Employees should be satisfied with the new location. Project should be started and closed as planned. REVIEWS All revisions will be recorded in the below table: Name Date Reason For Changes Version COMMUNICATION PLAN A daily morning meeting will be held for project manager with team members A daily requirements activity sheet will be issued, as printout and electronically, by project manager and shared with team members and senior management. A daily report will be issued by the project leader, as printout and electronically, about the project progress and will be shared with senior management and team members. A weekly meeting will be held for team members with senior management. Meeting minutes will be written and shared with senior management and team members. A weekly report (printout and electronically) will be shared with senior management and team members about the project progress. Senior management can input their comments about the project by e-mail or printout to project manager, otherwise during the weekly meeting. CHANGE MANAGEMENT PLAN After the project startup, any changes to the scope will be handled through the following procedure: 1. Task list Adjustment: Changing the scope may require an adjustment to the number or duration of the tasks. The task constraints will be adjusted to meet project schedule. 2. Resources Adjustment: As the scope of the project may change, the resources assigned to tasks will be adjusted accordingly. 3. Costs Adjustment: Overall costs of the project could be adjusted or reduced as the scope may change. However, fixed cost for a particular task may be adjusted to manage any scope changes. 4. Evaluate the Impact of any changes to other interrelated projects: Testing the effect of the change on the schedule Update assignment information in the resource pool so other projects that are using the resource pool will have the most-up-to-date information. Verify that any adjustments to project tasks do not cause problems for interrelated projects (IT system upgrade). Review resource workloads to ensure that there is no a resource overallocation or under-allocation after reassigning tasks.  5. Communicating any assignment changes to senior management and team members as printout and electronically. If the project scope, task list and resources were modified, involved management and team members will be informed by a printout and electronically (by e-mail or Project software). FINANCIAL ANALYSIS The cost of moving Good Answers to the new office building is ranging from $ 200,000 to $300,000. However, the company has a clear problem with cash flow. Therefore, the company controller (Sal Reigh) has established an agreement with Colombia Management for them to build out the new facility at no direct cost to Good Answers but in exchange for a higher rent. So, the company will not need a big mount of cash flow that may affect the company operations. The other type of cost is for the moving company that will move Good Answers offices and equipments to the new location. The primary cost for moving such company is the packing of individual offices. This cost can be minimized by letting Good Answers employees to pack their offices by them selves and with the help of Facility division and janitors. Boxes will be ordered directly and provided to employees. Therefore, financial analysis can be summarized as: The contract cost with Colombia Company to build the new facility ranges from $200,000 to $300,000. Good Answers has a clear cash flow problem to offer for this move. Good answers controller arranged an agreement with Colombia Company to build the new facility at higher rent, and avoid high spending of cash flow. The primary cost of moving Good Answers stuff is packing individual offices. However, Good Answers could provide boxes to employees and assist in packing their offices, in order to minimize the primary cost. SIGNATURES , Project Leader ___________________ name, Facility Division Head ___________________ Ima Prez, Good Answers president  ___________________ Read More