The Gantt Chart
Based on this module’s case, create a Gantt chart for your project
(rewards program)
starting next month and for the duration of the project. The Gantt chart is an essential tool for monitoring and representing a project plan. As with WBS and Network Diagram, select a tool to create the chart.
Include rationale for your Gantt chart. (1 page)
· Link back to Goals and Measurement in Case 1.
Describe critical milestones. (1/2 page)
Contingency Planning
Identify one critical risk that could prevent meeting a deadline or goal. (1/2 page)
Develop a contingency plan for the risk. (1 page) Be sure to support your analysis with research.
Effective academic and research writing requires a 3rd person voice. This will be written in 3rd person. Do not use any quotations. Refer to yourself in third-person as “project manager” or write about what the “project team” will do, rather than saying “I” and “we.”
References:
M2 Chapter 11 Managing Project Risk
23 pages
6 Dangers of Managing Your Projects Using Spreadsheets (3:29)
Create a Gantt Chart from a Network Diagram
Gantt Charts, Simplified – Project Management Training (3:10)
How to Build Gantt Charts in Excel (4:45)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5sVxDlhiMo
Finding Gantt chart templates in Excel (:49)
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PROJECT SELECTION AND INITIATION
Problem the Project will Resolve
Roosters Inc. is a security company that offers guards to hotels and high-end homes and
apartments. It has been identified that the organization has not been performing to its optimum
due to poor performance. Poor performance has been identified through the failure of employees
in performing their duties as well as meeting their required standards within the workplace. The
management does not offer adequate and frequent training, rewards, and disciplinary actions to
the workers and as a result, the workers are not well motivated to fulfil their duties. The
employees argue the organization management does not take time to address organizational
policies to new employees which leads to uncertainty among the employees. Poor performance is
a significant issue in an organization, the proposed project will aid in resolving this issue by
allowing the organization to develop disciplinary procedures, reward programs, and other aspects
that will ensure the workforce is motivated towards meeting the organizational goals.
Planning Phase
Other than the proposed project, there are other steps that can be taken to solve the
problem of underperformance in Roosters Inc. The management can set clear and achievable
expectations for the workforce. New employees can be given who will take them through
orientation. The employees should be allowed to give feedback as well as suggestions to the
management, and vice versa. If an employee does not improve on his or her performance after
the indicated steps, suspension demotion, as well as termination, will follow. In order to achieve
the goal of rectifying underperformance in the organization, the steps that will be taken are
setting achievable targets for the employees. This will enable the performance of the employees
to improve gradually.
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PROJECT SELECTION AND INITIATION
Project Scope
Some of the steps that need to be completed to achieve the goal are 1) distribution of
bonuses- providing the employees with a prefixed bonus amount to employees who have
achieved the set targets and objectives is a crucial way of enhancing performance through the
project. 2) Offering rewards for working extra time- this is a crucial approach to motivate
employees to work for longer hours and still ensure that quality results are achieved. 3)
performance-based reward- this approach will be measured either at the departmental level. This
will ensure that performing employees will not only be rewarded but also, they will be
recognized. Additionally, the organization may reduce monotonous in the workplace by making
various changes aimed at making the workplace more interesting. Lastly, the organization will
offer special training to enable the team to feel more motivated as well as expect promotion
within the organization.
Goals and Measurement
SMART objectives
SMART objectives are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and
Time-bound. The specific goal of the organization is to ensure that underperformance is
eliminated within the organization. This goal is measurable by the number of people who will
meet the set organizational target through their monthly performances. This goal is achievable
because the workforce is provided with the needed resources such as training and a reward
program. The employees are given one month to implement what they have learned in the
training program. The goal is relevant because with increased performance in the workforce
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PROJECT SELECTION AND INITIATION
results in overall increased performance for the organization (Thornock, 2016). The set timeline
for this goal will be one year.
Success Criteria
The success criteria for the project should ensure that the objectives are specific
(Ogbeiwi, 2017). This means that the specific goal for the project should be to ensure that
underperformance is adequately addressed through training programs, offering incentives, and
other related rewards to be able to meet the overall goal of the organization. To be able to
achieve measurable goals for the project, the project administration needs to ensure that each
employee’s performance is adequately evaluated to determine their individual performance in
alignment with the organizational goals. The success criteria for achieving achievable goals are
to ensure that the set goals are realizable as well as they are achievable. The success criteria for
achieving the realistic goal are to ensure that each developed goal is in alignment with the
organizational objectives. The success criteria for achieving the time-bound goal are setting a
specific timeline for each goal to be achieved which will ensure that the performance of each
employee is adequately evaluated.
Tools for measurement
Some of the tools that can be used for measuring the objectives are Goalscape which
offers visual features and reporting options for organizing goals in wheels. The size of each
wheel tends to represent the importance of each wheel. This ensures that the goals are separated
by category. Milestone planner is another tool that can be used. This application is simple to use,
and it can be used for both individuals and groups. It allows them to see the progress in their
project as well as to measure their goals. Lastly, another tool that can be used by the organization
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PROJECT SELECTION AND INITIATION
is Goals on Track. This software teaches individuals how to create SMART goals as well as how
to achieve each step (Aghera, 2018).
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PROJECT SELECTION AND INITIATION
References
Aghera, A. (2018). A randomized trial of SMART goal enhanced debriefing after simulation
to promote educational actions. PubMed Central (PMC).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5785177/
Ogbeiwi, O. (2017, July 2). (PDF) Why written objectives need to be really SMART.
ResearchGate.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318390296_Why_written_objectives_need_
to_be_really_SMART
Thornock, T. A. (2016). How the timing of performance feedback impacts individual
performance. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 55, 1-11.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2016.09.002
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5785177/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318390296_Why_written_objectives_need_to_be_really_SMART
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318390296_Why_written_objectives_need_to_be_really_SMART
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2016.09.002
1
PROJECT PLANNING
WBS and Project Schedule
Work Breakdown Schedule
As shown in the figure below, the Work breakdown schedule (WBS) defines the project.
As shown, everything undertaken in the project is displayed in a single and easily understandable
chart. It breaks down the project’s most complex and crucial activities into small and manageable
segments. In the employee reward project, they will be five critical stages of the project, which
will enable the smooth running of the project, and in addition to that, there will be accountability
in each step (Zhu et al. 2020).
The project might look easy to execute but considering that the company will incur costs
and resources to undertake the project, it will be wise to make sure that every execution process
is brought to account to avoid mismanagement of funds. In summary, the below WBS describes
the deliverables needed for project completion, and this will enable the project team to be
focused and keen on what they need to achieve (Zhu et al. 2020).
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PROJECT PLANNING
https://online.visualparadigm.com/w/vwxriyzo/diagrams/#diagram:workspace=vwxriyzo&proj=
0&id=1
Project Network Schedule
As shown in the schedule network diagram (SND) below, it further breaks down the
WBS structure by describing the project deliverables and, in addition, offers the timelines of the
project. This is simply giving a picture of the “What,” “When,” and “who” of the project and
shows the order of how the activities will be carried out and the logical relationships of the
activities (Tao & Dong, 2018).
In the below SND diagram, the critical path is the start to the project design and
recommendations stage to project team selection to project review and documentation and finally
completion, taking twelve days to ensure the project is complete. Identification of the critical
path is essential to the project team leaders as it will enable them to have an accurate estimate of
https://online.visualparadigm.com/w/vwxriyzo/diagrams/#diagram:workspace=vwxriyzo&proj=0&id=1
https://online.visualparadigm.com/w/vwxriyzo/diagrams/#diagram:workspace=vwxriyzo&proj=0&id=1
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PROJECT PLANNING
the project’s total duration. It will help identify task dependencies, resource gathering and
determine the project risks.
Also, in the identification of critical tasks that have no slack and ensure on-time
completion, monitoring of the project progress and measuring of the schedule variance, enable
use of schedule compression methods and measuring of the schedule variance and most
importantly, it will allow for the prioritization of tasks and create realistic project schedules. The
critical path in the below sequence is created using the critical path method to allow the project
manager to create a project schedule and estimate the total project duration (Adeyemi, 2021).
Some of the crucial components of the critical path that are important to identify are the earliest
start time (ES), the latest start time (LS), the earliest completion time (EF), the latest completion
time (LF), and the float.
The below SND diagram will be used in the project to discuss the sequences and
dependencies and the communication from the company; it is also the basis of identification of
critical paths, for instance, the chain of events that have the most extended duration. Overall, the
project comprises five stages: project start, project planning, project approval and team selection,
project review and documentation, and project end and follow-up. This handy visualization tool
will help speed up the project’s activities (Tao & Dong, 2018).
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PROJECT PLANNING
https://www.edrawmax.com/online/share.html?code=6e52042e739711eca5f10a54be41f961
https://www.edrawmax.com/online/share.html?code=6e52042e739711eca5f10a54be41f961
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PROJECT PLANNING
References
Adeyemi, B. (2021). Determining effective permeability at reservoir scale: Numerical
simulations and critical path analysis (Doctoral dissertation).
Tao, S., & Dong, Z. S. (2018). Multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling problem
with alternative project structures. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 125, 333-347.
Zhu, M., Wang, S., Zhang, L., & Zhang, Y. (2020). Research on mobile cloud service model
based on WBS. In MATEC Web of Conferences (Vol. 309, p. 02013). EDP Sciences.
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