Assignment : Case 2

Resource Planning & Project Costing/Financing

Resource Planning

List down the types of resource required for the whole project. Common types of resources can be grouped as:

a.) Finance i.e. $$$$

b.) Human resource

c.) Equipment (general and/or specialised)

d.) Infrastructure

e.) Skills and know-how

f.) Technology

Note that not all resources listed here are applicable for this assignment. Think about it, which is more relevant.

Resources can also be categorized as internal and external. As a general rule of thumb, it is always good practice to use resources that are internally available within your client's organization; because internal resources are cheaper as well as easier to control and monitor. However, diverting internal resources to project work may cause disruption to the daily operations of the company and therefore comes at a cost (called 'opportunity cost').

External resources are sourced outside when they are not available within the organization (e.g. external consultants & contractors). Use of external resources is usually costly, and difficult to control. On the other hand, use of external resources may be cheaper for the company if they are only used one-off for this particular project.

For those of you what wants to take a step further in your assignment, you can write about the pros and cons of using internal vs. external resources in this particular project; and also why you propose to choose one over the other. This allows you to demonstrate to the examiner that you have put the effort to critically think about this assignment.

Project Costing & Financing

Assignment in Case 2 does not provide the budget for the project. You will be required to determine the cost of each individual tasks (again from referring to WBS) and add them up together to get your total budget.

As described during class, there are a number ways you can do the breakdown the costs:

a.) Estimation by percentages (%) of each tasks out of the total budget

b.) Using piece rate e.g. labor (pounds per person-day X no. of persons X no. of days)

You will be expected to write in your report of how the budget will be used. Using charts like bar-chart or pie-chart will probably help the examiner to see better your allocation of costs.

You may also choose to discuss and propose to your client the available means of financing for this project (e.g. internal funding, loan from bank etc.) ; as well as the risks associated with each type of financing. For those of you who are familiar with finance and accounts, you may be aware that there is always a recommended debt-to-equity ratio for companies.

Assignment : Case 2

Organisational Breakdown Structure & Project Scheduling

Organisational Breakdown Structure (OBS)

Use your WBS as basis to develop your OBS; to assign positions to the individual tasks or work packages in your WBS. You can assign name of positions to each tasks. The roles and responsibilities of each position should also be clearly stated.

Remember that you can assign the same person to different tasks as long as the tasks are not to be carried out at the same time.

Your OBS should look something like your WBS. Write a brief explanation on how you develop your OBS and what it represents. Refer to your notes or other reference books.

Project Scheduling

You can use the Gantt Chart to illustrate your project schedule. Gantt Chart is quite common in communicating project timelines to all stakeholders as it is easy to develop and understand.

You can either use Microsoft Excel or Word (Tips : Use the Table function from your top menu bar) to draw up your Gantt Chart.

You can also put into the Project Schedule a number of Project Milestones to highlight the completion of different stages of your project. Project milestones is used to lay down important achievements during the course of the whole project. Successful completion of the different milestones at different stages of the project will ensure the overall project can be completed on time.

Usually, Project Milestones can be determined also from the WBS where the major completion of tasks or work packages can be taken as the milestones.

Some students may also choose to include Network Diagram and even Critical Path as part of the Project Scheduling. I will leave it to individual students to decide. However, before you can do this; you must be able to estimate realistically the duration for each individual tasks (taken from your WBS) as well as precedence for each tasks (meaning; what tasks need to be completed before the next task).

However, there is no need to go too detailed into the schedule. What is important is that you can show the examiner that you know what project management tools to use, when and how to use it. This same approach should also be used for the other sections.

Question from Your Fellow Student

1.) Is it need a introduction & conclusion for Task 1?
Not necessary

2.) As my assignment (draft - Task 1), i put the appendix after each answer / question, is it ok, or all appendix should put in 1 side only for appendix in the last of Task 1 ?
The word 'Appendix' means that you'll need to put them at the last section of Task 1.

3.) Is the Table content's wordings will calculate in?
No

Question from Your Fellow Student

Dear Sir,

Would you kindly explain what actually they wanted us to do in this part of the Task 2 question:-

"The analysis should include the skills and competencies required by the Project Manager, along with the project management process. Use examples of the concerns, stages, processes, leadership, administration & control problems associated with managing the lifecycle of this major project."

Thank you.

Answer:

On the skills and competencies required by the Project Manager (PM), remember what I said about the diagram in my Lecture Two, Slide No.7? In the slide, the PM must have the People Skills, Project Management Skills, Technical Skills, Integration Skills and Knowledge of the Organisation he is in.

People Skills refers to the ability of the PM to lead and motivate his/her project team members towards completing the project tasks and achieving the project objectives within the specified time, cost and scope. I have not cover this part with you all yet.

Project Management Skills refers to plan, implement, monitor and control all elements and resources in the project. This is similar to the skills required from a typical manager but within a project environment. If you have worked in a project before, you would appreciate want I mean by 'project environment'. A project environment is always bounded by tight schedule and limited budget, lots of unforseen problems and troubleshooting.

Technical Skills refers more specific set of skills. For example, if it is an IT project; it would be expected for the PM to have a background in IT in order to effectively manage the project. In the context of Task 2, what would you think the technical background of the PM should be?

Integration Skills refers to the ability of the PM to merge or integrate all his/her skills above in order to manage this project effectively. This usually requires the PM to have certain level of experience and maturity to do so.

As for the Knowledge of the Organisation, this is quite basic and straight forward i.e. the PM must know and understand well the organisation that he/she is working for the project. Nevertheless, this brings to the question of whether to appoint the PM internally from the organisation or to employ an external PM. Both has their pros and cos; you should highlight and discuss this in your report.

I have not covered some of the components in my lecture, will do so over the next few lectures. Don't worry too much about it.....

As for the second part, I would suggest you look for case studies in the Internet to get more insight into this part. It'll help you to develop your thoughts and ideas in this direction. As noted in my previous entry, you can go into the Project Management Institute website to look for their case studies. No need to go through all but just the few relevant ones would be enough.

Good luck!

Assignment : Case 2

Case 2

This is to continue from my previous posting (17-November) after Project Deliverables.

To recall back, Project Deliverables are specific things that you'll need to do or achieve in order to meet the Project Objectives and deliver the project to your customer.

In the context of this assignment, you have to ask yourself; what are the individual things that need to be done by your customer (Touprom) to open the 2nd depot 250 miles down south in order to meet their objective of strategic expansion?

Always remember, the depot we are talking about here does not only consist of the physical warehouse. It also involves the 'software' part i.e. various systems such as IT system, logistics system, goods handling system, management system etc. These systems are important as the company is in the business of renting construction equipment to their customers.

On top of that, the mobilisation of resources (people, office, equipment etc.) and products from the 1st depot to the 2nd depot is also a major deliverable by itself.

In your report, describe briefly what these deliverables are (say, one short paragraph for each)? How do you propose to measure the completion of these deliverables? In project management, completion of any deliverable is ususally considered a milestone in the overall project; bringing the project closer to completion. As an example, handover of the completed warehouse from the appointed contractor to the owner i.e. Touprom can be considered as milestone.

6. ) Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

WBS will be discussed with you in Lecture No.3. Nevertheless, I will briefly highlight about it here.

Here's some important points about WBS:

a.) WBS is a systematic process to 'breakdown' the whole project into small tasks or work packages.

b.) WBS is to be carried out after the Project Deliverables have been identified and described.

c.) WBS is the first thing that should be done in project planning. It should preceeds all other planning work such as project scheduling, network digramming, project team formation, project costing/budgeting etc.

c.) Each task or work packages can then be assigned to different people in the Project Team. These tasks may be carried out by the company's staff or sub-contracted out.

d.) WBS allows the whole project to be easier to plan, schedule, monitor and progress to be measured.