Project Plan for Organisation of Music Festival - Case Study Example

PROJECT PLAN FOR ORGANISATION OF MUSIC FESTIVAL Introduction and Relationship of Project to Me I am an event management contractor specialised in developing project plans for occasions like games, wedding parties, funeral ceremonies, bazaars, picnics and a host of other parties. We have just been hired by a music promoter to develop the project plan for a one day music festival to be held in Greenwich Park. This piece of work, therefore, is to show how we get about the entire process of developing the project plan for a given project. Since we are the major contractors for this project, we are developing the project plan so that the promoter would use it as the base of implementation of the activities of the music festival. By undertaking such a report, I would earn income and gain more experience in my field, while my client would be able to get professional guidance on how to carry out the music festival project. At the same time, other stakeholders would benefit by getting a good grasp of the role they need to play to make the project a success. This would subsequently guide them in the future and avoid the hurdles of developing a new project plan each time a new project idea is conceived and due for implementation. The purpose of this paper has several parts. The goal is to develop the objectives, scope, and work breakdown structure for the project; develop the logic of the project to the lowest level possible and illustrate this in diagrammatic form; detail the team structure and responsibilities that are deemed appropriate for the project, including how the client structures their team to interact with the project team, and define the types of contracts that would be implemented for the various sub-contractors involved in the project. Objectives The objective of this project is to develop a project plan for the organization for a one day music festival to be held in Greenwich Park. For the organisation of the musical festival to be a success on the part of the promoter, a detail project plan would be developed to incorporate all the activities and guide the promoter on what steps and decisions to make. To meet up with these objectives, the following plan would be followed and proposed to the organiser: Definition of deliverables Definition of the work packages Estimation of the work to be performed Scheduling of work packages Manage resource availability Create the budget Integrate the schedule and the budget Identify key performance indicators Identify critical success factors Scope For the scope of this project, it is being undertaken for a target audience of 5,000 people. In addition to this, the plan is being developed for the musical festival to take place one month from today. Work Breakdown Structure of the Project The work structure is divided up into five different groups, each of the groups being composed of two team members that are responsible for the actions described herein. The six teams in the work breakdown structure are hall, musicians, finance, logistics, and safety and security. One of the five teams is hall. Underneath hall falls renting the hall and coordinating the hall arrangement and decoration. This is a very important step as the initial appearance of the location when project attendees first walk in the door will have a lot to do with the success of the project and whether or not a favorable first impression is created. First impressions last a long time. The second team is musicians. The work to be performed by this group includes contacting and contracting with musicians and promoting the festival. They are also responsible for contracting for ticket sales, and printing and distribution of tickets for sale. The third team is finance. This team is responsible for drafting a budget for the festival and performing a cost benefit analysis of the festival. They are also responsible for arranging and conducting a meeting of the budget and organizing committee, and budget study and approval. The fourth team is logistics. This team is responsible for contracting with the security company and catering company and transporting musicians and musical instruments. They are also responsible for making arrangements for media coverage of the project. The fifth team is safety and security. This team is responsible for contracting with the paramedic's team and making arrangements for ambulance service. They are also responsible for the process of contracting with their insurance company for accidents and injuries. The project network structure is as shown in the above diagram, which is broken into five main subcategories under the music festival: hall, musicians, finance, logistics, and safety and security, as they were described above. Each of the five main subcategories contains a list of responsibilities or tasks for those who are assigned to each of the five teams to produce. There will be two members of the 13-member project team assigned to each column appearing in the project network structure. The 13th member is the supervisor, so he will be responsible for overseeing the entire operation in order to make sure it conforms to the necessary standards, everyone is doing their job, the results are satisfactory, and that the outcome is in alignment with the desired outcome expressed by the customer. Project Logic Map Inputs Goals Outputs Outcomes In order to create a logic map like the one represented immediately above, the company must include some important information. First of all, each team member must write down their own vision of how they would like to see the project turn out. Then, any documents produced from the initial step need to be copied and distributed to every member on the team. A meeting should be held to discuss the documents, discuss any differences, and work together to reach a conclusion regarding the main outcome that is in the best interest of the organization. Then, a logic map should be created (Cerlim, 2008). A logic map consists of "project outputs, project activities or inputs, and intermediate goals. The definition of the project outcomes begins (and often ends) with agreement about the main outcome(s) of interest. The inputs are the 'big ideas' brought together at the outset of the project. They may reflect resources and activities in the real world or theoretical constructs. The intermediate goals represent states of affairs that bridge between inputs and outputs. Their creation may well be the principal work of the project" (Cerlim, 2008) Project Team Structure Detailing the team structure has to do with resource loading and task scheduling and is detailed in the work breakdown structure diagram shown above in the work breakdown structure section. The structuring of the client's team to handle this project would depend on the number of employees it has. If the number of employees were given, then I would have proceeded to making a resource loading chart for the client would strictly follow. However, my team is an eleven-man team comprising the overall project director, and ten other persons. Each of the five major tasks (musicians, hall, finance, logistics, and safety & security) is handled by two team members to ensure a supportive system of task management and control. In effect, the thirteen members of my team would be working in collaboration with the client. To achieve success in such collaboration, the client would be asked to make a framework of its employees in the same format that my company made its own framework to come up with the work break down structure. For instance, when it comes to making contacts with the musician, a member from my team would work in collaboration with those responsible for making contacts in my client's team. Such collaboration is basically to guide members of my client's team on how much time they must spend on making contacts with the musicians, how much time they spend in signing the contracts, how much time they must spend in transporting the musicians as well as all other issues related to keeping contacts with the musicians. As can be seen from the project duration chart below and the previous diagram, the major task of musicians falls on the critical path and should be managed with scrutiny, with particular attention to time and the number of resources employed on the sub activities. That said, this is the same procedure that would be followed to implant a spirit of collaborative work between my team and my client's team. Project Duration Chart Number Task Start End Duration 1 Renting hall 1/1/2008 1/4/2008 3 2 Hall arrangements and decoration 1/2/2008 1/5/2008 3 3 Contact and contract with musicians 1/1/2008 1/20/2008 14 4 Promotion of festival 1/1/2008 1/31/2008 22 5 Contracting for ticket sales 1/1/2008 1/4/2008 3 6 Printing and distribution of tickets for sale 1/1/2008 2/1/2008 23 7 Drafting of budget for festival 1/1/2008 1/4/2008 3 8 Cost benefit analysis of festival 1/1/2008 1/4/2008 3 9 meeting of budget and organizing committee 1/1/2008 1/4/2008 3 10 Budget study and approval 1/3/2008 1/8/2008 3 11 Contracting with security company 1/7/2008 1/10/2008 3 12 Contracting with catering company 1/7/2008 1/10/2008 3 13 Transporting musicians and musical instruments 1/28/2008 1/31/2008 3 14 Arrangements for media coverage 1/7/2008 1/10/2008 3 15 Contracting with paramedics team 1/11/2008 1/16/2008 3 16 Arrangements for ambulance service 1/11/2008 1/16/2008 3 17 Contracting with insurance companies for accidents and injuries 1/10/2008 1/15/2008 3 Project Subcontractors The major subcontractors to be involved in this project include: the security company, the catering company, the paramedics & safety team, the transportation company for the musicians and other aspects of the band, the media, the website developer, the decorating company, and the accounting firm to draft and make estimates on the budget. Given that these contractors vary in the products and services they offer to the project as well as the duration for which they would be contracted, the types of contracts signed with them would also vary. Beginning with the catering company, they would be supply the kind of food the nutrition specialists find appropriate for this kind of ceremony. As such, the entire process would be left in their hands with very little control from our client. This means the type of contract signed with them would be a turnkey contract. This is a term mostly used in construction projects, but very much suits the circumstances under consideration. Given that the services to be provided by the other subcontractors do not reflect that of the catering company, they would all have the same type of contract defination. The type of contract that suits here is the performance or per unit contract. References 'EFX: Evaluation support for FAIR and X4L projects.' (2008). Cerlim. Available from: http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/projects/efx/toolkit/project-logic.html Read More