Happy Coffee: Key Features of the Project - Coursework Example

?HappyCoffee: Key Features of the Project Preface In the paper we are to give our overall observations, theoretically and practically, on the key features of the project that was mentioned in the instructions. Therefore, in the Chapter 1, “Key Features of the Project,” we are giving laconically all traits of the future project in its cohesion. Then, Chapter 2, “Production Plan,” which is consisted of different management and marketing strategies, must be divided into four main parts, as “Team Management Strategies,” “Client Management Strategies,” “Asset Management Strategies and Risk Assessment.” Moreover, there are also chapters on software and hardware analysis, along with quality procedures, which must take part in the organic cafe. In general, all these aspects of the project are mentioned in corresponding chapters, being able to produce the sufficient image of the future project, with its pros and cons. Key Features of the Project In order to analyze the key features of the project, we should assess critically the client's needs and the target audience, demonstrating awareness of the main characteristics of this project in relation to the client’s needs, the target audience, the current trends in the industry and the quality standards expected. Accordingly, The Client, HappyCoffee, a new chain of coffee bars in London serving only organic and fair trade coffee and food, wants a web site to disseminate information about the location of the bars, the coffee and food menus and the special organic coffee and food they serve. This means that they expect a rich media website with photographs, a video showing the bars, a blog where customers can leave comments; also, they want a mini Flash game for marketing purposes, which should have a coffee/food-related theme. Therefore, The Client is based in the UK; the production of the entire project should be completed in six months; the client will provide the text content; the client will not provide the visual assets, video, etcetera; all the media assets will have to be produced by SuperNewMedia; main target audience for this project: potential customers in London, mainly aged 20-40, and tourists visiting London. So, after a thorough investigation of the client’s needs and the target audience, in this Chapter 1, dedicated to the brief analysis of the key features of the project, we must bring some considerations on the current trends in the industry and the quality standards expected. Specifically, nowadays in contemporary London coffee bars’ industry we can elucidate such inevitable traits: popularity of organic and fair food and coffee; (Allen and Albala, 2007, p. 288) reducing of prizes toward the organic and fair menus when they go in combination with non-organic or unfair types of production; inclining of new media services which are as usual proposed within a unified set of services in the cafe; level of the client expectations’ meeting is arisen. (Sandhusen, 2000, p. 216 - 218) Furthermore, quality standards in London organic and fair food and coffee’ cafes, which we are expected to meet, could be proposed as following: these highly quality expectations are now related to not only food or coffee services, but rather to the additional services, including New Media support, web site designing, video materials, promoting clips, etcetera; also, these expectations demand a certain team philosophy and cooperation from all levels of its activity, both with top management and common workers; moreover, high motivation level is demanded from the employees in order to meet all the client’s expectations; then, they demand not only sufficient team cooperation, but also developing an effective marketing conception. All the aforesaid explanations are not of abstract character, because now it is commonly held that coffee chain provides its clients with the good basic functions, but an emphasis concerning quality standards transfers on rather supporting materials and services. (Sandhusen, 2000, p. 218) Therefore, in order to maintain the key features of the project with the client’s expectations and the target audience, it is necessary to connect the aforesaid rubrics with the current trends in the industry and the quality standards that are expected now within a market. In fact, all future chapters will be dedicated to such a set of problems, including: definition of the main production phases and production life-style; discussion on outsourcing, recruitment strategy, and the identification of need for freelancers and subcontractors; analysis of software and hardware requirements required for this project; team management strategies and internal communication systems and strategies; client management strategies; asset management strategies, digital rights management, copyright issues associated with the project; provisions for crisis and risk management systems; quality procedures, testing and provisions for de-briefing of production. Production Plan In the body of the Production Plan it is necessary to discuss the recruitment strategy, providing details of recruitment channels/tools; also, possible need for subcontracting parts of the production to another company or to freelance staff must be regulated, along with tasks, section of the project which plans to outsource and benefits/problems associated with the outsourcing strategy. Additionally, Appendix A will provide Gantt chart time-line and task allocation, defining the main production phases and production life-cycle, and Appendix B will identify the key team members that will be needed for this particular project, adding a summary of team members and their desired skills plus their employment status. Thus, our Chapter 2 begins from the analysis of suitable recruitment strategy, including details of recruitment channels/tools. For meeting the expectations of the Client, recruitment strategy must be operated in a two-fold manner: firstly, main staff of common workers and management personnel; then, cooperating with freelancers, subcontracting parts, and another companies (as for outsourcing, see Overby, 2007). As for the first part, team must support a one set of productive values, according to which it can be organized properly; as for the organic food and coffee’ chain in London, it could be respectable behavior toward the clients, communal spirit in the team, and organic/fair values in gastronomy. Presumably, atmosphere of health competition must be provided since the recruitment period, in order to unite in the collective only individuals with high motivation, good labor activity, health food’ values, and respectable behavior toward his/her peers and clients. Furthermore, let us give our considerations on possible need for subcontracting parts, as well as for outsourcing (for example, another company or freelance staff), along with such management strategy benefits and problems. Secondly, this recruitment strategy, pointed on both health care and organic food system and strong cooperative values between the peers within a productive team, must contain also interests of subcontracting parts, outsourcing, and freelancers, because of high client pressure only in the end of the week or in the evenings; therefore, freelance staff may be suitable due to half-time job graphics and busy times only in the end of the day and week. Additionally, outsourcing i.e. involvement in the project other subcontracting parts (Overby, 2007) is also can be considered as a relevant strategy when speaking in terms of recruitment due to other producers’ products, health and organic food and coffee, which ingredients are needed by the Client: presumably, it will be tea and coffee, milk and whit, ginger and cardamom, chocolate and butter, eggs and fruits producers, whose production areas are situated near metropolitan area. (Canavari and Olson, 2007, p. 37) Therefore, after thorough analysis of the recruitment strategies, we have to force some theses on the most specific traits of such campaign. Firstly, we are in a strong need for outsourcing producers (of goods which must be bought speedily in the metropolitan area); there is also demand for the freelancers, due to the predominantly half-time jobs; and, finally, our team recruiting process must be concentrated around common staff’ productive values, cooperation, respectable manner, health and fair food values, combining with the extremely strong motivation and personal purposes in the team. Software and Hardware Analysis Based on number of team members (Appendix B, approximately ten common workers and 10 freelancers as constant personnel of the cafe) and Production Plan, we can provide an analysis of software and hardware requirements required for this project (moreover, Appendix C show which hardware and software is necessary for each team member). If HappyCoffee, or the Client, expect a rich media website with photographs, a video showing the bars, a blog where customers can leave comments, and a mini-Flash game for marketing purposes, combining with a fact that all the media assets have to be produced by SuperNewMedia, we can state that: few web cameras must provide a sufficient audiovisual information for that website during the ordinary day in the cafe; one person will be operated as a web-coordinator and web-consultant, the other will be as web-designer, and the third one will provide a blog support (therefore, three freelancers’ jobs because of their distant and irregular character). Also, one person must be needed for promoting cafe in the social networks, another one for the web-sites, and the third/fourth ones for being able to create an appropriate advertisements’ content (therefore, four on-line jobs for the cafe’ regular personnel). These seven jobs will be operated through a local net with an assistance of net-books, using Adobe set of programs. Team Management Strategies Furthermore, after being focused on our Production Plan’ traits and Hardware and Software analysis, we should explicate team management strategies in order to define a type of internal communication systems and strategies which will be accessible through the aforesaid tools of recruiting procedures (values and outsourcing’ partners) and possible hardware and software tools. So, to declare and discuss chosen management style, we need to put an emphasis on what team management tools and strategies will be employed during this production, along with the identification and evaluation of the communication strategy, that is why our attention within the Chapter 4 will be focused predominantly on the communications systems/tools and the policies that will be adopted to manage the team during the production cycle. Firstly, team management strategies, style, procedures, and values concerning this cafe will be concentrated around an implementation of principle of transparency which means that top management will be granted evidently, and this highly granted workers of no common order, on the contrary, will be viewed and operated as common workers in the cafe, making visible the principle of egalitarian action within the production cycle, based on horizontal ethics, values, and principles or serving. Secondly, internal communication strategy must be based presumably on the values of team management strategies, i.e. responsibility, respectability, health care, and organicism. Specifically, such horizontally organized egalitarian structure will communicate internally using principles of freedom, liberation, emancipation, and confidence. Consequently, employees with high motivation obtain their road to success, being granted not only emotionally within the team but also financially. Client Management Strategies Then, after being able to find out how we could maintain the company values inside our team, we should give some considerations about client management strategies, just for indentifying and evaluating the client management strategies that may be employed during this production. Therefore, we must force some theses on how we could maintain the effective communication with the Client within the client management cycle. In fact, client management strategies can be defined as a wide range of principles toward the clients, which are held by the specific company. Accordingly, in the HappyCoffee organic chain of cafe only responsibility, respectability, health, and meeting expectations of the clients must be regarded as the ruling principles for the success competitive existence within such sector of business in metropolitan area. Furthermore, every client’s request should be understood as a request of your peer, to whom you are held a horizontal subordination. Presumably, creating an atmosphere of total melody of friendliness may be proposed as a vital moment for the promotion and gaining popularity in London; moreover, client must feel that as the friends of him/her there are flow only positive intentions, which will actualize in the organic and fair vegetarian system in the cafe. (Canavari and Olson, 2007, pp. 23 - 27) Asset Management Strategies and Risk Assessment Assessing management strategies, digital rights management, and copyright issues associated with the project, we must not only discuss strategies for media asset origination and asset sourcing, but also need to think about provisions for crisis and risk management systems, which are connected strongly with identifying and evaluating the asset management tools and strategies that could be employed during the production (Appendix D shows the main risks associated with this production and the mitigating strategies to minimize or eliminate such risks). Thus, demonstrating awareness of the copyright issues associated with the project and of Digital Asset Management and Digital Rights Management strategies and tools, we have to add that this issue can cause many risks and perhaps even lead the company to crisis if it will not be regulated; also, some requirements for obtaining content and for the potential ethical issues in relation to media production should be stressed additionally. (Rosenblatt, 2001, p. 178) Actually, due to the copyright, media asset, and ethical issues, all media assets must be produced by the aforesaid group of media-experts which were mentioned before, in order to reduce risk level, because it is so hard to identify authorship concerning the production which origin was mediated somehow by a chain of technological degrees (for example, idea could be brought from the other author, but this image or consequence of images may be framed in other way). (Jacobsen, Schlenker, and Edwards, 2005, pp. 46 - 63) So, our media assets and audiovisual production must be created in the real time, edited, and shared: simply, no plagiarism relatively to other authorship materials’. (Mauthe and Thomas, 2004, p. 12) Quality procedures Ultimately, it is important to define the quality procedures, tests and provisions for de-briefing of production, including Quality Assurance strategies, usability and technical testing and evaluation. The next question within this Chapter will be the implementation of quality procedures and testing including the potential use of subcontractors. Factually, Quality Assurance Department must provide quality procedures, tests, and provisions for de-briefing of production. (Duram, 2010, pp. 89-93) Presumably, all technical basis must be tested approximately two or three times per week, therefore two or three tests must be provided in the cafe. (Rose, 2005, p. 41) Then, quality procedures may be represented as not only through a means of constant checking but also through a set of irresistible rules for the ingredients, food preparing, communication with clients, and additional services (for example, media assets). Additionally, after every negative response from the clients, tests for increasing qualification of organic food and services must be taken place (Givens, 2008, pp. 113-125); also, and it is one of the most principal moments in the whole structure of the Production Plan, potential subcontractors (coming from the outsourcing element) are potentially dangerous in terms of food safety therefore they oblige for testing their good independently, with an assistance of public Open Commission of Food Safety. (Feldman, 2005) Conclusion To conclude with, it is necessary to add that these chapters, “Production Plan,” “Software and Hardware Analysis,” “Team Management Strategies,” “Client Management Strategies,” “Asset Management Strategies and Risk Assessment,” and “Quality Procedures,” constructed relevant and detailed explanation on the key features of the project themselves, without any additional suggestions. But, we are only to force a statement that even if our paper sounds theoretically, this is practically colored theory, which can be simply applied to the organic food chain of restaurants in London, HappyCoffee. Also, I believe that such investigation could be regarded as helpful in increasing of the audience of healthy food supporters. References Allen, G.J., Albala, K. (ed), 2007. The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food and Drink Industries. New York, NY: ABC-CLIO. Canavari, M., Olson, K.D. (ed), 2007. Organic Food: Consumers’ Choices and Farmers’ Opportunities. New York, NY: Springer. Duram, L.A., 2010. Encyclopedia of Organic, Sustainable, and Local Food. New York, NY: ABC-CLIO. Feldman, S. 2005, February. Quality assurance: much more than testing. Queue, 3(1), doi: [Online] Available at: . [Accessed 22 Jan. 2012]. Givens, D. Ian et al., 2008. Health Benefits of Organic Food: Effects of the Environment. New York, NY: CABI. Jacobsen, J., Schlenker, T., Edwards, L., 2005. Implementing a Digital Asset Management System: For Animation, Computer Games, and Web Development. Los Angeles, CA: Focal Press. Mauthe, A., Thomas, P., 2004. Professional Content Management Systems: Handling Digital Media Assets. London: Wiley. Overby, S., 2007. ABC: An Introduction to Outsourcing. CIO.com. [Online] Available at: . [Accessed 22 Jan. 2012]. Rose, Kenneth H., 2005, July. Project Quality Management: Why, What and How. Fort Lauderdale, Florida: J. Ross Publishing. Rosenblatt, B. et al., 2001. Digital Rights Management: Business and Technology. London: M&T Books. Sandhusen, R.L., 2000. Marketing. London: Barron's Educational Series. Read More

 

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