Project Management and Video Game Market - Case Study Example

Critique of the Video Game Market Research Project Management Plan Executive Summary This document, a critique of a Project Management Plan (PMP) by the Creative team will be investigating to find out if the plan follows the standards laid out for the proper implementation of such a plan. I will use the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) as the main reference point, evaluating the project plan by the creative team against the required standards, and the appropriate level of detail to meet the project requirements. I will also cite other documents and data from the internet as well as sample other books that have information regarding project planning. I will be doing a spot check on the key areas of a project plan, how has the Creative team excelled in the development of the plan, have they met the requirements? If not what were their failing point and what would be the remedy to the issue at hand. I will go through each section step by step. Introduction This document, a critique of a PMP by the creative team will be investigating to find out if the plan follows the standards laid out for the proper implementation of such a plan, I will use the PMBOK(Project Management Body of Knowledge) as our main reference point. Making references to see whether the said project plan by the creative team meets the required standards and have every detail and requirement met to precision. I will also cite other documents and data from the internet as well as sample other books that have information regarding project planning. I will be doing a spot check on the key areas of a project plan, how have the Creative team excelled in the development of the plan, have they met the requirements? If not what were their failing point and what would be the remedy to the issue at hand. I will go through each section step by step. Name They have called the project the ‘VGMR project’. This stands for Video Game Market Research. According to the plan which is to carry out a research into the video game market, I find the name to be self-explanatory and straight to the point hence passing to be an appropriate title for the project. The name reflects the project’s nature. Description The description explains the findings of the research which is crucial in the plan as these findings are what would determine whether the project is viable or not. The description provides the much needed information although it doesn’t give the time and cost estimates. Sponsor’s Details The sponsor details are relatively shallow. The project management plan has giving us the name, role and position of the sponsors without giving us a way or means of contacting them. Such information is important since a sponsor is the individual who has provided financial assistance and is from within the performing organization. This is a crucial person with whom all form of legal information is required. Project Manager and Team Details The project manager is listed together with the team. Their roles, names and positions have been listed. This has been done well and has shown relevant information about the participants but again, it has not shown information such as their contact details. Deliverables The plan has laid out a detailed list of deliverables. These include getting a focus group, research report, online survey and coming up with a business case. The plan explains them very well. Product related deliverables are the only category that is listed. Reference Details The facts in this document are gotten from a case study done in the related field. The facts act as guideline to the whole project. The team also relies on the research they carried out. Definitions The document uses a few acronyms which are clearly defined giving any person who reads it the meanings. Organisation Organisation Charts This is a display of the names of the whole team involved. The PMP that we are critiquing has a detailed chart showing the hierarchy of the team involved. It clearly shows the sponsor, consultant, project manager, as well as the team members. The names and roles of the said participants have been stated clearly. Project Responsibilities The RAM (Responsibility Assignment Matrix) clearly shows the activities assigned to each member of the whole team, what kind of work and how many activities the member has been assigned. In this section the document proves to be a good document. Management and Technical Processes Management Objectives Management objectives have been given in the form of number of days that are required for a particular job. They have been listed as shown: There will be no work during the weekends therefore weekends are not included in the number of working days. There will be no overtime rates, public holidays should be noted, and there will be no work during public holidays. There will be tea and lunch breaks as per awards and contracts. The following dependencies have been listed: The project charter is dependent on the kick-off meeting minutes, Planning is dependent on the project charter, the scope statement is dependent on Initiation, the work break down structure is dependent on the Scope statement. The schedule is dependent on the work breakdown structure and the network diagram is dependent on the schedule. Project Controls The plan is to use weekly status reports which should be verbal and submitted on the team’s wiki, lessons learned which consisted of mistakes that were learned in version 1 and the involvement of the project manager in every decision, a change control mechanism which stated that any changes made to the plan should be communicated to all the members via email and a wiki which would be created and maintained to provide links to all documents regardless of the version thus meaning the wiki would act as their repository for the documentation of the project. The use of a wiki, change control mechanism and noting mistakes made help in controlling the activities being carried out. Risk Management The plan consists of two elaborate ways of handling risks. These are risk assessment and risk matrix. Risk Assessment The plan states that all possible risks are categorised in two ways i.e. Probability (Likelihood of the problem occurring) and Impact (how the team and project would be affected) Risk Matrix The matrix offers a good insight on possible risks and how such risks should be handled if the team is to encounter such huddles. The document offers the solutions to expected problems very well. Project Staffing The PMP clearly show the activities each member is expected to undertake in a nicely drawn table. The tables also shows the types of people required but it doesn’t show the total number of people required to carry out an activity. One has to count to get the total figure. Technical Process The documentation is done well. It has followed the guidelines of a project management plan. It’s easy to read, understand and use the information. It incorporates the seven phases of the system development life cycle. The team has used the appropriate method. Work to be done Major Work Packages The work has been organized very well. This document shows how the project is divided into the 5 major activities. It also clearly shows the ‘sub-activities’ to be carried out in those major activities. The plan really ensures the different work packages communicate with each other too. The scope is included in the executive summary but it is not explained in detail anywhere. Key Deliverables The plan is to come up with an efficient way of incorporating video games into the learning system. This is a very good idea which will ensure that learning system for the young generation is captivating. Other The work is assigned to an individual team member and this ensures every person has to play their part. The plan doesn’t include the hardware or the software that would be used in the project. That isn’t good since the success of any I.T. project lies on the hardware and software used. Without prior test to ensure what they’ll use can lead to unforeseen difficulties when executing the project. The only assumptions stated are those regarding the budget. The project doesn’t state any other assumptions which is not good since we know every project is built upon certain assumptions. Schedule Summary The document doesn’t provide a Gantt chart but instead uses a table to show the projects schedule. That table is what the document refers to as a Gantt chart. The table has 5 rows for each of the 5 major activities involved in the project with the number of days and the date in which the activities are expected to run. This is not bad although the team should have come up with an explicit Gantt chart. The Gantt chart in Appendix 5 is also not clear. Detailed This section is done in a really great way. The document states what should be done on a weekend and even on holidays. The document also shows the dependencies between the project activities’ and also provides a network diagram. These are the protocols that guide the team. The document shows a critical path in one of the tables but the table is drawn very poorly. Other The project schedule assumes that the tasks will be accomplished in the time provided. This is very risky since anything might happen. That is not good. Budget Summary The cost of the project is first broken-down well into project manager’s, team members’, project execution and reserve costs then the total cost is stated. The plan doesn’t state if the money is available. Detailed The document states the amount to be paid to all the team working on the project and the money to be used in all the activities of project execution. The document has a very good table with all the expenses that the project would incur. Other The plan is very elaborate when it comes to financial matters. It provides all that one needs to know about the project. It also provides the assumptions made for every dollar to be accounted for. Conclusion This project is a good one since it tries to provide a solution to a problem that bothers different many people all over the world. It’s also a project that can be done with ease since it’s a matter of developing a good video game. The plan is also a good one as it offers the required information to get what the project is about, how it will be implemented and the results to be expected. I prefer to say the plan is good due to the different assessments in the different parts of the plan. The assessments show that the plan meets more than 85% of the requirements of coming up with a Project Management Plan according to Project Management Body of Knowledge. References Missy A., Anna A. & Rebecca Manning (2011) Video Game Market Research Project Management Plan 2.0 Ballarat: University of Ballarat Schwalbe, K. (2010) Chapter 2. In Project, Program, and Portfolio Selection and Brief Guides to Project 2007 and @task, (pp. 1-38). USA: Kathy Schwalbe, LLC. William R. (1996) A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Newtown Square: Project Management Institute Read More