Project Management of the Ashleigh Music Festival - Case Study Example

? Managing Projects The Ashleigh Music Festival (Project Management) Part A: Important stages of the project The important stages,processes or steps of this project can be categorized as the initiating stage, the planning and designing stage, the executing stage, the monitoring and controlling stage and finally the closing stage (Adams 1996). The project has be executed within a loan budget of ? 300,000. The Ashleigh Council has awarded the Ashleigh Music Festival Limited (AMF Ltd) the tender to manage the entire music festivals. The Ashleigh Music Festival is a three day event that will be held at an outdoor site which has already been identified. The Ashleigh Music Festival Company has been tasked with the responsibility of managing this project and ensuring that it is successful. This essay will discuss how the Ashleigh Music Festival as a major project can be executed so as to successfully organize and execute it. This essay will also discuss the key issues of the Ashleigh Music Festival project such as the key tasks to be completed so that the festival can be ready for opening, the importance of using project management skills and techniques and the skills and competencies required of the project team among others. Part B: The importance of Project management tools The Ashleigh Music Festival is an important event the needs to be properly managed so as to ensure that it is successful. Effective project management techniques and processes need to be applied to this project for a number of reasons. These project management techniques and processes may include the creation of a business case, defining the scope of the project, being clear about the goals and objectives that need to be achieved by the project, coming up with a viable project plan and selecting the best project team to execute the project (Archibald 1992). The first reason why it would be important to use these project management techniques and processes in the Ashleigh Music Festival is because the project management team will be provided with the opportunity to take charge of the available resources so as to ensure that the team produces the highest quality deliverables that are on time and within the set budget (Bradford, Duncan & Tarcy 2000). This is much easier when project management techniques and processes are used to plan and execute a project (Cleland 1994). The second reason why it would be important to use project management techniques and processes in the Ashleigh Music Festival is to ensure that all set deadlines for the project are met and that all the necessary actions have a timeline at which they should be executed and achieved (Burt, Dobler & Starling 2003). When project management techniques and processes are applied, deadlines for each action are given. This means that all the actions will have a timeline during which they should be carried out and completed successfully (Cleland & Gareis 2006). This increases the chances of the entire project succeeding as opposed to when there are no set deadlines. Defining the scope of the project is important because it will help the project to focus on what it is set to achieve, and nothing else. It will enable the project team to remain on course and focus their attention on only what the project is set to achieve. Producing a project plan will outline all the processes that need to be conducted and show how they shall be executed. The plan will act as a guide for all the actions that take place during the project’s life cycle. Getting the right team together is also one of the most important factors that will determine whether the project is successful or not. The project team is the heart of the project because it is responsible for planning for it and executing it. Creating a business case is necessary because it will provide a solution to the problems likely to be experienced in the project. Essentially, project management entails a number of processes and standard control systems that will ensure the success of projects like the Ashleigh Music Festival. The project management techniques and processes require a number of processes or steps so as to ensure that they are successfully implemented. These processes or steps can be categorized as the initiating stage, the planning and designing stage, the executing stage, the monitoring and controlling stage and finally the closing stage (Adams 1996). The Ashleigh Music Festival first has to be initiated. This is the first phase of the project. The initiating stage will basically entail the determination of the nature and scope of this project. A business problem is identified and a business case is defined so as to various solution options. At this point, a feasibility study is necessary so as to investigate the effectiveness of each of the solution options in addressing the problems of the project (Galens & Katherine 2007). Final recommended solutions are necessary after investigating the effectiveness of each solution in addressing the problem (Harrison & Lock 2004). Once the recommended solutions have been approved, the project is initiated so as to deliver the approved solutions. The terms of reference of the Ashleigh Music Festival will be identified at this point by outlining the objectives and the structure of the new project (Harvard Business Essentials 2006). The project manager who will be in charge of the entire project team of the Ashleigh Music Festival is identified. He or she will be responsible for identifying and selecting a project team and establishing a project management or office environment (Harvard Business Review 2001). The initiating stage is one of the most crucial because if it is not performed well, then all the other stages are likely to be affected, hence the likelihood that the project will fail. The scope of the Ashleigh Music Festival is limited to providing a festive experience to the people who will attend the events. The event is a three-day music festival that will be held on a site that has a capacity of 30,000 people. Part C: The Project Management Team This project will require a core site team. The nature of the Ashleigh Music Festival dictates that a lot of technical requirements are taken into consideration. The core site team will therefore be made up of a sound engineer, a lighting engineer, a health and safety advisor, an electrical engineer and a construction manager. The project team will be responsible for various aspects of the project that are related to each member’s area of specialization. The greatest needs of this project include the booking of acts, ticketing, catering, promotion and marketing and licensing. The technical requirements of the Ashleigh Music Festival include the electrical requirements, the sound requirements, lighting requirements and construction of the main stage. Health and safety issues also need to be addressed in this project. Accommodation and hospitality are necessary for the booking and provision of the acts. The acts will be performed by bands which will need to be hired. The tickets will be provided through an agency that will add the amount on its own booking fees. The agency will charge a fee for the design, printing and distribution of the tickets. Caterers will be asked to pay so as to attend the Ashleigh Music Festival since they can recoup these costs through the sales that they will make at the festivals. The project management team will also be responsible for promoting and marketing the Ashleigh Music Festival. Promotion and marketing will entail creating awareness about the events so as to make as many people as possible to attend it. All public and social events require to be licensed by the local authorities. This licensing will specify and speculate particular conditions in regard to traffic, site access, hours of operations and sound levels. A financial analysis of the costs of carrying out the above activities needs to be done so as to know the exact amount of money that will be needed to make the project successful. Generating electricity for the Ashleigh Music Festival will be left to the electrical engineer. According to the electricity needs of the events, the project is set to hire two power generators, one small one and one large one at the cost of ? 2,500 and ? 7,500 for 5 day each. The electric section will also require distribution boxes to drive certain devices such as light amplifiers. The board/breakers together with their cables can be hired for ? 250 for a 5 day period. The sound department, headed by the sound engineer, will require sound equipment such as speakers, bass speakers and power for the sound equipment. The speakers will cost ? 15,000 while the bass speakers will cost ? 600, all for a period of three days. Amplifiers will also be needed to drive the speakers. The amplifiers will cost ? 500 each for a three day period. In addition, a mixing desk would be necessary so as to combine the instruments and the microphone. The cost of hiring the mixing desk for 3 days is ? 1,000. Lighting is also a major need of the project. A lighting engineer is in charge of the lighting during the event. Six primary colored lights called par-can lights will be needed for the stage. These par-can lights will be hired at a cost of ? 300 for a period of three days. Spotlights are also necessary because for projecting a circular spot onto the stage which will be used to illuminate the individual artists as they perform. Other lighting equipment that will be needed include the LED soft-wash bar to be placed in front of the stage, a lighting desk for controlling the light show, lasers for creating moving effect, soft wash lights for creating atmosphere and background color, intelligent moving lights, large display screens and stage pyrotechnics. All these equipment are estimated to be hired at an average cost of ? 49,500. All these processes will be done in collaboration with the construction manager who will be responsible for ensuring that all the different parts of the project that need to be physically constructed are well coordinated. Health and safety concerns must also be catered for. Since many people will be gathering at a single place, the event management team has to select a health and safety advisor who will be on site to advice the project team on matters related to health and safety. The amount of sound that will be released by the sound system also has to be regulated so as to avoid trouble with the authorities and also to protect the health of those attending the Ashleigh Music Festival. At the planning and designing stage, the project needs to be planned at a more detailed level. This stage is meant to plan the time, resources and costs that will go into the entire project. The planning stage involves the creation of a project plan, a resource plan, a financial plan, a quality plan, a risk plan, an acceptance plan, a communications plan and a procurement plan. A project plan will outline all the activities, timeframes, tasks and dependencies of the entire project. A resource plan will list the materials, equipment and labor required to execute the project. A financial plan will identify the costs of the materials, equipment and labor (Phillips 2003). A quality plan will provide the control measures, quality targets and assurance. An acceptance plan will list the criteria that need to be met so as to gain the acceptance of the people who will be attending the customers. The communication plan will list the content that needs communicated or the information that needs to be informed to the various stakeholders. Once this is done, the project has been planned in more detail and is ready to be executed (Yukl 2010). The Ashleigh Music Festival has a period of about one year to be planned for. The activities that need to be done in order for the project to be successful include planning for the project, preparing of tickets, seeking permission through the relevant local authorities, promoting and marketing the events and preparing the site for the events. The labor that will be required will be determined by the members of the project team, namely, the sound engineer, the lighting engineer, the health and safety advisor, the electrical engineer and the construction manager. They will also be responsible for estimating the costs that will go into acquiring the equipment, materials and labor which fall under their departments (Pinto & Kharbanda 1995). At the executing stage, the project team is responsible for executing all the tasks and activities that have been listed in the project plan. The execution involves the actual carrying out of all the activities and processes that have been listed in the project plan. The team ensures that all these activities are successfully implemented one by one (Lock 2007). People and resources are coordinated by the project manager who is assisted by the project management team. This is done so as to ensure that all the efforts are directed towards the success of the project. Activities are also integrated and actually performed in line with the project plan (Kerzner 2003). Monitoring and controlling involves a series of management processes that are undertaken in order to monitor and control the deliverables of the project. This entails analyzing the progress and performance of the project in relation to the goals and objectives. This is meant to check whether the quality objectives are being met as the project progresses. This is aimed at identifying problems in a timely manner and taking the necessary corrective actions. Ongoing project activities are measured and their effectiveness is identified so that problems can be identified and corrective measures taken (Ireland 2006). Closing happens when the final deliverables are released to all those that they were directed at. The project documentations are handed over and all the contracts are terminated as the closure of the project is communicated to the relevant stakeholders. All activities are finalized and the project is formally closed (Meredith, Samuel & Mantel 2006). 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