3 pages

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)

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.

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

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

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).

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://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2016.09.002

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).

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

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).

PROJECT PLANNING

https://www.edrawmax.com/online/share.html?code=6e52042e739711eca5f10a54be41f961

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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