The purpose of this assignment is to define and explain the activities that comprise every project in the project life cycle. Listing all activities enables students to understand the sequence of the project activities, their importance to the overall project, and how project inputs and outputs contribute to the project’s overall success. As students display project activities graphically in a chart, this visual representation reinforces an understanding of how project activities flow from one to the next.
Scenarios
Scenario 1: Software update
You work for a small shipping company and warehouse. The owners have decided to update the software used for tracking, shipping, receiving, and inventory. Fifteen computers need to be updated. Hours of operation are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Each computer must be updated manually by one of two trained employees, both of whom must be borrowed from other managers. The update procedure consumes 4 hours of the updater’s time and generates an additional 1.5 hours of computer downtime. The work must be performed at a central loading station, away from the current location of the computer.
Scenario 2: Training on a new process
You are on a project management team for a medical association with three office locations. Each location has five administrative assistants, two records specialists, two transcriptionists, one office manager, three nurses, and three doctors. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) recently changed the standard operating procedure for releasing patient privacy information. All personnel must be trained in the new policies and procedures. Training hours per position are as follows: administrative assistants require 2 hours, records specialists require 3 hours, transcriptionists require 1.5 hours, office managers require 5 hours, and nurses and doctors require 1 hour. All offices reside in the same metropolitan area, within a 30 mile radius.
Scenario 3: Create an employee incentive program
You work at a for-profit university. Due to strict accreditation regulations and laws related to Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 for institutions offering federal financial aid, your organization cannot offer traditional sales bonuses for employees who enroll students. Recently there has been a decline in employee morale. Senior management thinks that a new employee incentive program might boost employee morale.
Scenario 4: Smartphones for upper management
Your company currently provides all executives with Internet-enabled smartphones. To save money, your company has decided to expand the smartphone program to all employees who currently have a company cell phone and laptop. Ten senior managers expect to be priority recipients of the new technology, 100 employees currently have a company laptop and cell phone, and 15 employees have not yet been assigned company equipment. Funding will be approved if the initiative will save money in the long-term.
Scenario 5: Adding company vehicles
You work for a major grocery chain. A special department handles internal investigations of employee theft and fraud. The investigators must travel to individual stores to interview suspects. Stores may be in the same city or several hours away. To protect the identity and personal property of the investigators, your company provides a company car when traveling to store locations. The four investigators share one company car. Each investigator uses the company car on average 2 days per week. Scheduling conflicts with the company vehicle often delay interviews and interfere with investigations. A recent performance analysis indicated that positive resolution to an investigation diminishes with delayed interviews. The company president is considering adding three more company cars to its fleet and changing the policy so that each investigator is assigned his or her own vehicle.
Choose a scenario from the: Scenarios.
****Define activities for a project based on the scenario you choose. You must include the following:
•Identify the scope of the project.
•Define the needs of the stakeholders.
•Create a WBS (work breakdown structure) for the project.
•List necessary tools and techniques.
•List activities, activity attributes, and milestones for the project.
Sequence the activities in a chart or diagram.
Format your charts/paper consistent with APA guidelines.
Submit your chart or diagram with a brief introduction (use information from the Scenario as a brief Statement of work (SOW)) to the appropriate assignment page.