Project Motorcycles: The Comprehensive Project Plan - Assignment Example

? of affiliation: Describe the project scope and project management plan. Align your plan to the overall strategy that you had recommended to the senior executives in Assignment 2. The project scope for the company is to come up with the most fitting project organization that will used in the manufacture of larger touring class motor cycles. The project organization ought to be one that will give room for management and simplicity in the execution of the various tasks accrued to this project. For projects of this kind, the management structures often play a very crucial role hence should be careful selected to ensure smooth flow of information as well as proper coordination of activities. For this plan to be achieved, the project based management structure was recommended (Haugan, 2008). This structure gives the managers high degrees of control and power, hence making them suitable for administration and supervision purposes. Since the structure places the manager at the central point of essential resource control, he will be in proper place to coordinate all the activities and ensure sufficiency in attainment of the set goals and objectives, in a manner that is compatible with the budget and set quality of production (Kerzner, 2013). Relative to the organization scope of producing larger touring motor cycles, this type of management structure will be effective in achieving the target. 2. Analyze the type of staff that your company would need in order to make the manufacturing switch to motorcycles with larger motors. Staff has been known to play a very essential role in any manufacturing concern. For a successful shift into the manufacture of motor cycles with large motors, the selected staff has to be competent enough to accommodate and handle the scenario. Staff competency can be analyzed in a number of ways; through the factors and attributes that they need to possess to qualify as persons capable of producing the best. One of the main attributes that the staff must possess is high or improved levels of professionalism. Professionalism can be defined as the levels of expertise through which an employee is qualified to handle a given task. Professionalism goes handy with the educational levels of the employees. They must have pursued their career along this line to make them qualify for the performance of this task. It is also important to ensure that such certification was obtained from a reputable institution of higher learning that has valid accreditation. Similarly, the staff must possess adequate experience in the area. The company may choose to either hire individuals who already posses the necessary knowledge and skills for the task, or may select inexperienced persons and then provide them with in-service training under seniors who already posses the necessary skills. Mostly, the selection of this is done depending on the company’s financial capabilities. Staff with such capabilities and attributes can provide an easy shift from the current products to the intended larger tour motor cycles. Using this type of staff alongside the proposed project management structure will ensure easy control and coordination of activities within the organization. 3. Prepare four (4) team-building strategies for handling the newly formed team. Discuss the manner in which the strategies that you have prepared may positively or negatively affect productivity within the company. For effective team building in any organization setting, managers need to have a clear framework of activities. Such a framework will guide them in the manner their activities take place and the best way to coordinate the various activities. There is an underlying assumption that the managers can create and build working teams in their day to day interactive activities (Meredith & Mantel, 2012). Such makes it easy for them to coordinate and sufficiently make the members of the organization work towards achievement of the set organization goals. For a manager to successfully set up team work, the following strategies can be relevant in ensuring this. The first step is identifying the characteristics that are necessary for team success. A number of behavioral scientists have often argued that the presence of desirable team characteristics in any setting can highly facilitate the success level of that team. Thus, the manager needs to keenly observe the interpersonal and technical skills of the members and check on their relevancy to the team goals and objectives. For instance in cases where a team is formed for problem solving purposes, the managers selected must possess the power of command. Some of the team characteristics that may be required at this point include listening, shared leadership, open communication, willingness to share, self-assessment, networking and civilized disagreements among others. Secondly, the managers need to measure the existing team climate and the capability to establish a proper team profile. Researchers have linked the presence of good and required team characteristics to high efficiency in team performance. Thus, the managers must find a means of measuring the level of existence of these team characteristics among the team members. This can be achieved by questionnaires, observation of individual team members and consequently interviewing the members. In this process, the managers can also evaluate the deficient team characteristics and come up with the correct interventions (Tonnquist, 2009). Thirdly, identify the team characteristics that are lacking. At this point, focus needs to be placed on poor performing teams. The manager should observe the manner in which such teams are operating and the elements that they may be lacking. They can then use these to assess the levels of performance of other organizations and come up with proper interventions for them. Finally, the improvements that had been noted in the previous step needs to be implemented. This is one of the most critical strategies in any team development. This is because it is normally at this juncture that planning and analysis get to be reality. Also at this point, the manager needs to perform a detailed job analysis to fully understand the roles that each of these persons need to play. For the improvements to be more effective, the manager may opt to seek inputs from other fellow managers who had successfully gone through the process. The help of experienced managers or seniors at this point is highly relevant and important for the team success, especially if the team is still in its infancy stage. 4. Analyze the role of the project manager that this project would require. Examine three (3) characteristics of an effective project manager that are relevant to this particular expansion project. Provide a rationale for the response. Project managers play a very important role in coordinating the project team activities to achieve the desired objectives. While performing their roles, the project managers tend to put focus on both the lion term and short-term activities. In the ancient times, the role of project managers were limited to focus on large and more technical projects, however, this has changed over time and their roles narrowed down to small and even less technical projects. Within their functions, the projects managers have the mandate of defining project scope, making an estimation of project costs, gaining approval from the stakeholders, assessing projects progress and controlling various activities of the projects. Some of the characteristics of effective project managers may include the following: Good Interpersonal skills. This is the ability to manage people effectively. It is the responsibility of the project managers to coordinate the activities and the efforts of the subordinates and the technical staff that work on the project. It is paramount that they possess the relevant leadership and interpersonal skills to help in motivating the workers towards achieving the set goals. They must also be able to prudently navigate their competitors in the field without any harmful form of competition (Tonnquist, 2009). Efficient organization skills: these skills are necessary for keeping the project running and on budget. These skills enable managers to assign tasks, resources and keep watch of the basic elements of the budget to ensure success and quality in attainment of the organization goals. Communication skills: in most cases, the project managers normally act as the link between the top management and the technical team. He should thus posses excellent communication skills to enable them reach both groups. Some of the crucial information that he should always communicate are the project objectives, problems and challenges, as well as the periodic report on the project progress. The above characteristics are important and can place managers in proper positions to achieve the desired organizational objectives. These are equally the characteristics that most theories of management have highly emphasized on when determining quality management practices for any given organizational setting. 5. Emphasize the importance of identifying critical path on projects and the manner in which one would allocate resources to all of the activities on the critical path. Identifying the critical path of a project is of much significance to a manger. They facilitate planning and resource allocation. Through the critical; path, the manger will know the time that the it will take them to complete the project. The critical paths also help managers to know the critical tasks that need to be completed first ahead of other tasks within the project life. Through the use of critical path, the manger can focus on a number of things that the project may require for success. The manager can also forecast the various shorts that they may ran into in the course of the project. They can therefore help the manager make appropriate arrangements prior to starting the project (Thornley, 2011). Allocating resources on the critical path is simple; the steps followed here include drawing the network diagram and then identifying the critical path. Upon identifying the critical path, the manager can establish the amount of time that the project is likely to take and the resources that are likely to be used in the project. 6. Outline the elements of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and pricing and costing strategy. Delineate the fundamental ways in which the project in question is composed. Work break down structure refers to a chat where the critical work elements are illustrated in a manner that reveals their relationships to the main project as well as to one another. Due to their graphical nature, they can assist a manager in predicting the project outcome depending on the various scenarios put in place. When preparing a work break down structure, the manager first states the objectives of the business and then identifying the various tasks necessary for the completion of the project (Schwalbe, 2009). The primary objectives are shown at the top and more specific details given as the list proceeds downwards. The pricing and costing strategy is normally very fundamental and needs to be addressed wisely. One of the basic questions that need to be reviewed is the objective of setting the particular price. Pricing and costing is important since it determines the overall success of the business in terms of sales volumes. One of the basic elements that must be covered in pricing include the cost, also, the dynamics of demand and costs, competition and the market structure needs to be put into consideration. The set prices for the motorcycles should be one that will facilitate competition in the market and ensure high sales volumes. In addition, one factor that most buyers look for is the product longevity, utility, maintenance and future price adjustment (Project Management Institute, 2013). The prices must therefore be set in such a manner that will maintain the market competition. 7. Develop the following using designated project management software (e.g., Microsoft Project): a.Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) b.Gantt chart c.Assigned ResourcesAttach the project file that contains the items that you have developed. References Haugan, G. T. (2008). Effective work breakdown structures. Vienna, Va: Management Concepts. Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Meredith, J. R., & Mantel, S. J. (2012). Project management: A managerial approach. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Project Management Institute. (2013). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide). Schwalbe, K. (2009). Introduction to project management. Boston, Mass: Course Technology. Thornley, G. (2011). Critical path analysis in practice: Collected papers on project control. London: Routledge. Tonnquist, B. (2009). Project management: A complete guide. Aarhus: Academica. Read More