GW Restaurant Project - Essay Example

GW Restaurant Project Contents Executive Summary 2 Task 3 Task 2 9 Task 3 11 Conclusion 14 Executive Summary The GW Restaurant Project is intended for successful establishment of the new restaurant, what is needed for expansion of George Wright's empire. In the Task 1 project participants are listed and project duration is calculated. It is supposed that all project participants are working without overtime. Then the Work Breakdown Structure is determined and Gantt chart is built. There are seven great phases and four milestones in the GW Restaurant Project. Network Diagram for the project is built and the critical path is indicated. Resources that are involved in the project with time and costs are also included in the project plan. In the Task 2 new start date for the project was determined and therefore new critical path with the earliest completion date is generated. Then consequences for the project completion date and costs are explained. In the Task 3 project risk management analysis was made, first draft risk register is produced, and mitigation strategy is described. Task 1 Project management is growing in importance because almost every organization has projects of all sorts. Every new product developed, every new structure built, every new movie, every political campaign - is a project. Project is an activity with a specific objective, finite duration (start & end dates), and limited resources: money, people, and material. The project life cycle passes sequentially through four stages: 1. Defining 2. Planning 3. Executing 4. Delivery (Grey & Larsson 2000, p.6) There are a number of procedures for successful project management. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is used to provide a framework for breaking the project into small pieces. The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) measures and controls development progress on the project using probabilistic activity times. The Critical Path Method (CPM) put equal emphasis on cost as well as time - and activity times were taken to be deterministic. Now PERT and CPM are merged and offered in software packages - variables can be treated as probabilistic or deterministic, as appropriate. A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart developed as a production control tool in 1917 by Henry L. Gantt, an American engineer and social scientist. There are now many other PM tools available, for project design, analysis, control, and decision-making, such as Microsoft Project 2002. The ultimate goal of the project is successful establishment of the new restaurant named GW Restaurant. The project is important for expansion of George Wright's empire. Team has become an increasingly important part of business success. Efficient people management can lead the project to good result, while inefficient one often becomes the main reason for project failure. Therefore a great responsibility is incumbent on project manager. The project manager has sole responsibility and authority for project and contract direction and control, however he or she may delegate single or multiple responsibilities. A Project Management Plan is commonly used to document key management parameters in a central location and is updated throughout the project focusing on recognition of changes in program planning and management of those changes. (WBDG Project Management Committee 2005) As Gray and Larson write, projects must have a defined endpoint - this is contrary to the ongoing duties and responsibilities of traditional jobs. (Gray, C.F. and Larson, E.W. 2000, p.2) Duration of the GW Restaurant Project is 52 days; it starts 1st October 2005 and finishes 9th December 2005. All project participants are working without overtime. I think that absence of overtime produces more effective and qualitative work of personnel. Also if something goes wrong, it would be possible to make the team work on weekend and in that way to keep time limits. The time schedule for the project is built based on the Work Breakdown Structure. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is used to provide a framework for breaking the GW Restaurant Project into Stages and Activities and then organizing them in a logical way. The resulting structure should serve as the basis for estimating resource requirements, costs, and schedules. The Work Breakdown Structure for the GW Restaurant Project: 1. George Wright Restaurant 1.1. Stage 1 1.1.1. Project Start 1.1.2. Complete Market Research 1.1.3. Purchase Suitable Building 1.2. Stage 2 1.2.1. Undertake Building Alterations 1.2.2. Select Interior Decorations 1.2.3. Decorate Interior 1.3. Stage 3 1.3.1. Order Dining Furniture 1.3.2. Order Kitchen Equipment 1.3.3. Install Kitchen Equipment 1.3.4. Lodgement is Ready 1.4. Stage 4 1.4.1. Interview 6 Applicants 1.4.2. Make Offers to Selected Applicants 1.4.3. Personnel Hired 1.4.4. Train New Personnel 1.5. Stage 5 1.5.1. Create Menus 1.5.2. Order Tableware 1.5.3. Test Menu Items 1.5.4. Place Food & Drink Order 1.6. Stage 6 1.6.1. Design Invitations for Opening 1.6.2. Decide Guest List 1.6.3. Print Invitations 1.6.4. Despatch Invitations 1.6.5. Contact Press 1.7. Final Stage 1.7.1. Order Flowers for Table Displays 1.7.2. Grand Opening 1.7.3. Project Closure The Work Breakdown Structure is also displayed at the left of the Gantt chart in Figure1. Figure1. The Gantt chart of the GW Restaurant Project So there are seven great phases, or Stages in the GW Restaurant Project: Stage 1. Purchase Building - 13 days Stage 2. Decorate Building - 19 days Stage 3. Equipment - 3 days Stage 4. Personnel Hiring - 8 days Stage 5. Menu - 10.5 days Stage 6. Invitations - 4 days Final Stage. Opening - 1.5 days Stage 2 Decorate Building certainly depends on Stage 1 Purchase Building. I assume that Stage 3 Equipment depends on Stage 2 Decorate Building because installation of equipment and furniture may depend on some building alternations that will be made during Stage 2. Stage 4 Personnel Hiring does not depend on any of the Stages 1-3, so it can begin as soon as George Wright becomes free. Stage 5 Menu depends on Stage 3 Equipment because menu and tableware should be designed in accordance with interior and furniture. Stage 6 Invitations depends on both Stage 4 Personnel Hiring and Stage 5 Menu and the Final Stage Opening requires that all previous Stages must be completed. A milestone is a key event selected for its importance in the project. (Glossary of Project Management Terms 2000) The project has four milestones: 1. Project Start - 1.10.2005 2. Personnel Hired - 24.10.2005 3. Lodgement is Ready - 1.12.2005 4. Project Closure - 5.01.2005 The brief Network Diagram is shown at the Figure 2. It is broken into two parts to become more readable. From the Network Diagram it is possible to see that Stage 1 and Stage 4 are not critical, while all other Stages are critical. Figure2. The Network Diagram of the GW Restaurant Project Resources that are involved in the project with time and costs are given in the Table 1. Table 1. Resource costs. Resource Cost (/hr) Time (hrs) Cost (total) George Wright 50 172 8,600 Beth Thomson 30 204 6,120 Rob Chandler 25 40 1,000 Angela Williams 20 32 640 Patricia Edwards 25 100 2,500 PJ Construction 18 136 2,448 Matthew Morrisey 18 40 720 Total 724 22,028 So, the project total lasts for 724 hours and costs 22,028. Task 2 The critical path is a sequence of activities through a project network from start to finish, the sum of whose durations determines the overall project duration. (Glossary of Project Management Terms 2000) If a new start date is 15th October 2005, the new critical path is generated and the earliest completion date is 27th December 2005. In other words, two weeks of delay with the project start causes 18 days delay with its finish. This happens because of weekends: 15th October is Saturday, so the real work on the project can start only on Monday, 17th October. If 'Undertake building alternations' takes 5 days longer, the project finishes 3rd January 2006 and the length of the project becomes 57 days long. Corresponding Gantt chart is shown at the Figure 3. Figure3. The Gantt chart of the GW Restaurant Project start 15th October This happens because 'Undertake building alternations' is a critical task. Tasks that cannot be delayed without affecting the project finish date are called the critical tasks. Critical tasks are those that have no slack. Slack is determined by the early finish and late finish dates of the tasks in the schedule. An early finish date is the earliest date that the task could finish, based on its start date and scheduled duration. A late finish date is the latest date that the task can finish without delaying the project finish. The difference between early finish and late finish dates determines the amount of slack. For critical path tasks (tasks that have no slack), the early finish and late finish dates are identical. If 'Undertake building alternations' takes 17 days instead of 12, cost of PJ Construction resource became:176 hrs * 18 = 3,168. Therefore, additional expenses because of this become: 3,168 - 2,448 = 720. So if 'Undertake building alternations' takes 5 days longer, it will delay the project delivery for 5 days and cost additional 720. Task 3 Project risk management is a subset of project management that includes risk identification, risk quantification, risk response development, and risk response control in an effort to identify, analyse and respond to project risks. (Glossary of Project Management Terms, 2000) A distinguishing characteristic of the project is that it is nonroutine and has some unique elements. This is not an either/or issue but a matter of degree. Accomplishing something that has never been done before requires solving previously unsolved problems and using breakthrough technology. On the other hand, even basic construction projects that involve established set of routines and procedures require some degree of customization that makes them unique. (Grey & Larsson 2000, pp.2-3) First draft risk register for the GW Restaurant Project is given in Table 2. Table 2. First draft risk register for the GW Restaurant Project Risk Probability of Occurrence Cost Impact Expected Loss Delay of the project start for two weeks 0.5 0 0 (but loss from arrangement violations may occur) 'Undertake building alternations' may take 5 days longer 0.8 720 576 Project may come out of time limits, so George Wright or Beth Thomson should work overtime 0.9 0 0 (but loss from their overload and tiredness may occur) Other project participants should work overtime 0.9 1,200 1080 Mitigation strategy is used to reduce risk by lowering its chances of occurring or by reducing its effect if it occurs. (Glossary of Project Management Terms 2000) I suggest monitoring as a possible mitigation strategy. Monitoring of the project must involve collecting, recording, and reporting information about a project's performance. The monitoring provides the project manager with information that helps to develop informed and timely decisions and increases project control. I plan all participants of the GW Restaurant Project to write reports for every activity. I suggest the following form of report: 1. Activity Number and Name. 2. Start and End Date 3. Responsible Person 4. Description (performance, cost, and other characteristics) The fundamental purpose of project control is to allow the project manager to intervene in activities and events to avoid failure and achieve success. I plan to use both negative and positive feedbacks. Negative feedback corrects the system when it deviates from its intended path. Positive feedback keeps a system moving in a direction it is already going, like a snowball rolling downhill where the larger it grows, the larger it grows. Both of them are useful for the project because positive feedback may form a vicious or virtuous circle, while negative feedback keeps the system on course. Conclusion GW Restaurant Project has a specific objective, finite duration, and limited resources: money, people, and material. Following procedures for successful project management are used in GW Restaurant Project: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Network Diagram (ND) Critical Path Method (CPM) Duration of the GW Restaurant Project is 52 days; it starts 1st October 2005 and finishes 9th December 2005. The project total lasts for 724 hours and costs 22,028. If a new start date is 15th October 2005, the new critical path is generated and the earliest completion date becomes 27th December 2005. If 'Undertake building alternations' takes 5 days longer, the project finishes 3rd January 2006 and the length of the project becomes 57 days long; in this case the project costs additional 720. Following risks are identified: Delay of the project start for two weeks 'Undertake building alternations' may take 5 days longer Project may come out of time limits, so George Wright or Beth Thomson should work overtime Other project participants should work overtime. So, expected loss is evaluated as 1080. The project monitoring and control are chosen as mitigation strategy allowing the project manager to intervene in activities and events to avoid failure and achieve success. For this I plan all participants of the GW Restaurant Project to write reports that provides the project manager with information that helps to develop informed and timely decisions and increases project control. Bibliography: Clifford F. Gray & Erik W. Larson (2000). Project Management, McGraw Hill Hendrickson C. (1998). Project Management for Construction. Fundamental Concepts for Owners, Engineers, Architects and Builders (online). Available: http://www.ce.cmu.edu/pmbook/index.html Introducing Project Management Concepts. (n.d.) (online). Available: http://www.claremont-controls.co.uk/white/whi003d.htm Kelly, M. (2001). Gantt Chart tutorial. Retrieved October 22, 2005 from Information Processing and Management (IPM) Lecture notes, McKinnon Secondary College (online). Available: http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au/la/it/ipmnotes/ganttpert/gantt-tute/gantt-tute.htm Glossary of Project Management Terms. (2000). Ed. Michael Hougham. The Association for Project Managers (online). Available: http://www.apm.org.uk/GlossaryOverview.asp WBDG Project Management Committee (2005). 'Project Planning & Development' (online). Available: http://www.wbdg.org/project/planningdevelopment.php Read More