Project management

COMPUTER SKILL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS IN SCHOOLS

Group: Internal 3

Table of Contents

Contents 1. Selection 2 2. Organisation 6 3. Project Plan 9 4. Stage plan or exception plan 14 5. Quality Management 20 6. Risk Management 22

1.1. Product Description

The project proposal is computer skill development workshops in schools where the organisation will conduct Microsoft office suit skill development workshops for year 7 students. The workshops aim to develop student’s computer and Microsoft office competency in order keep up with educational standards.

1.2. Explain the process your group used to select the project proposal, include any structured and comparative analysis, and describe the process and how you came to your decision

Proposal Analysis

Weighted Scoring model

Analyzing the above data we have selected Zephyr’s project proposal of conducting a workshop of year 7 middle school. We have chosen it because the proposal has a higher score and therefore going through with the proposal would result in more success. The proposal has a projected of low to mid cost for going ahead with. The project encompasses a very large amount of community engagement. Which in turn raises the corporate profile of the organization and demonstrates corporate social responsibility resulting in happier stakeholders. Conducting the project has a predicted probability of success being likely. In addition, all the project proposal from our group were equally beneficial and worthy but we chose to go with Zephyr’s as we concluded in our group meeting that this project will create a foundation for the students which will eventually help them in their higher studies and is also very beneficial for the community.

1.3. Selection rationale

According to the proposal the project conducts workshops for students in their seventh year of schooling free of charge. Whilst allowing the students to learn through one on one engagement with team members and acquire the computer competency skills required by education standards. Therefore, the proposal satisfies the criteria of being beneficial to the community.

The time constraint for the project was that the project is to be completed within 1 year, as per the proposal the project will commence from the 29th of January and be concluded on the 27th of September hence it can be said that the project will comply with the time constraint provided by the organisation.

The estimated cost for the project according to the proposal is between $28,332 and $44,068, the best-case estimate being $28,332, the likely case estimate being $35,800 and the worst-case estimate being $44,068. Therefore, this satisfies the criteria of having a project that can be completed with a budget between $25,000 and $50,000.

The proposal also satisfies the strategic intent of the organisation as it demonstrates that the organisation’s social responsibilities are being acknowledged through engaging with local communities and educating students. The proposal will both raise the business’s profile and benefit the community while also making the stakeholders happy.

Thus, it can be said that the project proposal aligns with the aligns with the specifications and criteria provided by the Organisation.

2.1. Describe how the project is to be structured and managed

2.1.1. Aim to align the organisational structure with the size of the project

The project will be structured and managed following the PRINCE2 methodology in 4 levels of management.

The structure will be project board, project manager and team manager. Each role has its own responsibilities for a level, that will be detailed below.

Corporate or Program management Level: This level is responsible to commission the project and identify the executive and also define the project tolerances. The Executive is responsible for appointing the team members, this is a senior role to ensure the project is always valuable, but executive is not directly involved in the workshops.

Directing level: This level is managed by the project board, which is the middle school. They have responsibility to approve time and location, ensure it is available to hold the workshops, provide the resources, and are responsible for electricity, water, monitoring student and their safety.

Managing level: The Project Manager is responsible for this level. They control and manage the project on a daily basis, they communicate, manage finance, monitor the process, solve problem. The project manager’s primary responsibility to ensure students achieve some advanced computer operation and file management skills after workshop, the workshop is organized successfully within the budget and in the specified number of days.

Delivery level: The team members directly instruct students, so they should have advanced IT skills They are responsible for ensuring the workshop start and finish on time, the teaching and learning are carried out smoothly, handle arising situations promptly and report workshop's progress to the project manager.

2.2. Explain why you structured the organisation of the project in the way you have. E.g. What parts of PRINCE2 have you used and left out and explain why

The change authority is left out because this project is not for financial purpose, nor a type of project with high costs incurred or changes, therefore it is not necessary to has a Change authority, the Project Board is able to complete this role.

The Project Manager is indispensable in every project, especially in the Initiating a Project process. Finding stakeholders, ensuring the project is on schedule. It acts as a bridge between other parts of project.

The project support is not a part of the project. Because the team members, team managers are the one who directly communicate to students, welcome them and teach them, there no need administrative services, the Project manager and Team manager are able to do this role.

2.3. Describe the customer supplier environment (identify stakeholders where possible)

The environment for said stakeholders would primarily be within the schools where these instructional workshops would take place. All of those affected include participants involved with either attending or teaching the workshops. These can be identified as the following.

Students:

Middle school students ranging from years 7 will be the target consumer as these workshops will be integrated into their schooling schedules, being negatively affected could relate to possible decline of study in other schooling units.

Project Board (Schools):

The project board within the school are a primary stakeholder because they must determine the details of every project that affects themselves, the students as well as other stakeholders to ensure they are happy.

Employees / team members:

The workshop will have qualified team members that will assist in hosting these direct workshops to students, their skill and associated costs must be considered before implementing the workshops.

The supplier environment becomes vital in this case because without the location and the agreement from the schools to allow these workshops to be held. This will include the associated costs of supplying available classrooms as well as computer equipment in order to deliver students and other stakeholders a seamless product that will impart vital skills that can be applied for future related uses.

2.4. Describe your communication strategy

Communication strategy is a way to communicate effectively, smoothly with the client and the team while setting the standard of how data and information will be shared among the team members. In this project, the main communication strategy preferred is face to face. The Face to face meetings have been scheduled for every Friday after the lecture. Secondary communication is a group chat where members can instantly contact others. For communicating with the higher management regarding progress update, email communication is preferable in which the project manager will update the progress of project or any project-based request through emails.

Communication strategy chart

2.5. Describe the methods you will use to: (for both Project Plan and Stage Plan)

2.5.1. Estimate cost

2.5.1.1. Describe how cost estimates will be determined

2.5.1.1.1. Include any tools or techniques used

For cost estimation of the project, bottom up estimation technique will be utilised and the preferred tool for this is MS Project. First, the work breakdown structure of the project will be developed and once the durations are assigned to each activity, various cost elements including material costs and wages of team members will be assigned to each of the activities. MS Project will then automatically calculate the total budget of the project.

2.5.1.1.2. Include a definition of variable and fixed costs

There are both variable and fixed costs associated with project. The variable costs will include the wages of the team members and the fixed costs will include material costs that will be required for the project.

2.5.1.2. Describe how the costs will be managed

2.5.1.2.1. Include an explanation of a flexible budgeting process

Flexible budgeting process will be utilised in order to ensure the budget is uniformly allocated over all the aspects of the project and ensure there is no cost overshoot in the project.

2.5.2. Estimate time

For time estimation, MS Project software will be used, and the work breakdown structure of the project will be entered the same. Durations will be assigned to each activity in order to estimate the total duration of the project.

References:

Ray, S. and Ray, S. (2019). Understanding Critical Path in Project Management. [online] ProjectManager.com. Available at: https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/understanding-critical-path-project-management [Accessed 24 Sep. 2019].

Internal 3 1

Dobson – 291065, Gaurav - s296065, Harpreet – 326290, Rabindra – 306120, Tam – 301529, Alvin – 290871, Ngan - 311496