Operations Management And Project Management Techniques For Organizational Planning And Effectiveness

Project Overview and Scope

According to The Guardian (2017) more than 300000 persons in the Great Britain are homeless. According to the statistics, almost one person in every two hundred persons does   not have a house or is living in one which does not fulfill the basic necessities.

To curb the problem of homelessness, London School of Business and Management is organizing a fund raising event in the month of May, 2018 under the project titled as ‘Charity for Good’ .It has been launched for the welfare of the homeless people.  The duration of the project would be 3 months starting from 1^st of March, 2018 to 31^st of May, 2018.

The project targets to collect £2018 from the fund raising event. The requirements of the homeless people such as food, drinks, and bath and body products would be taken care of with the help of funds raised by this project. Also, a campaign would be held under this project which would encourage the homeless to collectively appeal to the government to build affordable homes for them (Fitzpatrick et al., 2017).So, this project along with the various aspects related to time, cost and risk management have been discussed below in the report. 

The fund raising event under the project ’Charity for Good’ would be launched in the College’s premises. The rationale for organizing the fund raising event would be to help the homeless and to take care of their requirements (Holzer and Baum, 2017).

The scope of the project is to minimize the problems faced by the homeless people and cater to their needs.

The objective of the project is also to organize a campaign to encourage the social service groups to appeal to the government to construct affordable homes for the homeless people (Homeless Link, 2017). A team of students from London School of Management would be helping to make this project successful. The fund raising activity would consist of selling of the tickets of the dance program conducted in the campus of the college. The duration of the project would be 3 months, starting from 1^st of March, 2018 to 31^st of May, 2018.

In this regard, several team members and the students of the college would be invited for performing in the college’s campus. They would be convinced to contribute in this social cause.

The stakeholders of the project are the  event organizers- the students and the staff members , the management of the college, the government and the money donors, the homeless people for whom this event is organized and the audience with the help of whom the money would be generated.

Project Rationale, Scope, Objectives and its duration

The responsibility of the organizers of the event and the management is to organize the event properly and to raise appropriate funds so that these can be allocated to the homeless people . The government and the money donors shall be responsible to donate charity for this event and to not demand their money back till the completion of the event. The homeless people have the responsibility to not to misuse the money and the products donated to them and to use them judiciously. The audience has the accountability to participate in this fund raising activity and to purchase the tickets so that revenue can be generating for this fund raising activity. 

A team of students comprising of 13 would be required for the completion of the project. A leader would be selected amongst them. He would be supervising and managing the work of all the teams. The remaining 12 students would be divided in the groups of three each. So, in all there would be four groups of three students each. The roles and responsibilities of each of them are stated in the Work Breakdown Structure below: 

There are certain constraints faced by the team in implementing the project. It includes higher donor expectations, increased regulation related to charity fundraising and cuts to traditional funding streams (The Guardian, 2017).

The assumptions relating to the project are that the donors are generally generous and caring people. They want to know the purpose for which their donations would be utilized. They are individuals therefore differ in their interests, habits and responses (FSI, 2016).

Apart from that, it is assumed that it would turn into a successful project and gain lots of appreciation from the donors. The team would be able to gain more output with less funds by managing it well (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2017).

According to The Charity Commission (2013) section 3 of the fundraising rules summarizes the principles which the fundraisers should follow while taking the responsibility for charity fundraising.  Also, the fundraisers should act in the best interest of the charity. The fundraisers are responsible for protecting the resources and integrity of the charity.

The fundraisers should comply with the rules and regulations of Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016. Also, there are various compliances such as data protection law. The Code of Fundraisers Practice should also be followed by the fundraisers (MacQuillin, 2016).

Project stakeholders and their roles and responsibilities

With the help of the procured funds, £ 1000 can be spent in arranging food and other facilities for the homeless people. £ 1018 can be spent in arranging health care services for them.

The formulation and implementation of the financial plans related to the fundraising event for the welfare of homeless people should be well monitored and observed so that the maximum facilities can be accessed by the homeless people. However, due to lack of funds, there might be some constraints in availability of facilities (Hafez, Aziz and Elzebak, 2015).

Project time management is the effective utilization of time through productivity and efficient planning. There are various tools and techniques for project time management. Some of them are:

1. Project Schedule Planning:In order to develop the schedule, the various activities would be defined followed by their sequencing and assessment of their resources and time taken to complete the task. In this case, the activities related to making necessary arrangements for the performing students and the budget planning would be defined followed by their sequencing and assessment of the financial and non-financial resources and time taken for their completion would be stated.
2. Project Scheduling Terms: The Project Scheduling terms help in interpreting and communicating the plan. Some of them are:

• Backward Pass: It is a critical path calculation procedure which calculates the earliest date of the activities on the network. It works backward to find activities whose start and end date was the latest (Ramadan and Borgonovi, 2015).
• Forward Pass: It is a technique to move forward to calculate the duration of the activity.
• Critical Path: The critical path of the project is the order of the activities which are the longest time consuming activities. It will help in determining shortest time to accomplish the goals of the project (Keleckaite and Meiliene, 2015).
• Project Network Diagrams: A project network is a graph or a flow chart in which the terminal elements are to be completed through the terminal elements and their dependencies. 

(Note:  Longest path as per the critical path= 1, 2, 3, 4, 6= 20+15+10+20 =65 days)

• Slack time: Float or slack is the time that a work can be deferred without having an impact on the deadline of the other tasks or the project’s final delivery date. The former is known as free float and the latter is known as total float (Charity Times, 2013).

1. Project Crashing: It is used to shorten the project schedule. It is also used to supplement the skilled project resources to critical path tasks.  
2. Project time estimates: Time estimation helps in setting the deadlines and planning of the project and understanding its results. 

1. Project Gantt chart:A Gantt chart represents the time span of the project divided into sub parts on its horizontal axis and tasks on its vertical axis. The horizontal bar of different lengths projects the sequence, time span and timing of each task (Carcaño, Suárez and Ibarra, 2015).

Risk can be understood as the possibility of the failure of the project. Risk Management is the policy of the organization optimizing the investments and the risks to reduce the probability of failure. Thus the elements of risk management are Risk identification, Risk Analysis, Risk Treatment   and monitoring (Rahman, Wang and Mohamad, 2015).

Risk identification is recognizing and recording probable risks which can affect the performance of the project. In this project, the risk of the loss of funds and data has contributed to the problems faced by the project .Managing the event with low budget also remains a risk for the team.

Risk Analysis answers to certain questions such as what is the extent of the risk. Loss of data and funds can have a negative impact on the management of the project.

Risk Treatment:   Risk treatment involves analyzing the various options to reduce the risk such as risk avoidance, reduction, transfer and acceptance. The highest rated risk of low procurement and loss of funds due to theft can be reduced through conscious management of funds.

Risk monitoring and review: It involves regular checking and surveillance .The outcomes of the activity should be an input of the review and continuous improvement of the firm’s risk management framework. The team leader and professors should consistently monitor and review the areas which are prone to risk and adopt appropriate methods to mitigate them.   

Risk matrix is used to define the level of risk by taking into consideration the possibility of the occurrence of the risk against its severity of results. It is used during risk assessment and management decision making (Magistrale, 2017).    

Project team with roles and responsibilities

Conclusion 

Hence, to conclude, as the project manager of the project’ Charity for Good’, I would endeavor by all means to make this project successful. The scope and the objectives of the project are to cater to the needs of the homeless people and to provide them medical facilities. There should be more homeless shelters and amenities for those in need, so that they are able to live a life of dignity and integrity like the rest of us.

In order to make this project a successful one, our team have procured funds from the government and friends and family. But the constraint here is lack of funds .Had there been more funds, the team would have catered to a large number of poor and needy. With the help of proper management and planning, the team would attempt to accomplish its objectives. 

References 

Bodicha, H. H. (2015) How to Measure the Effect of Project Risk Management Process on the Success of Construction Projects: A Critical Literature Review. The International Journal of Business & Management. 3(12), pp. 99-112.

Carcaño, R.G.S., Suárez, G.A.C. and Ibarra, A.J.G. (2015) The Use of Project Time Management Processes and the Schedule Performance of Construction Projects in Mexico. Journal of Construction Engineering.2015, pp. 1-9.

Charity Times (2013) Cost control for charities: maximising the impact for target causes by making budgets go further [online]. Available from:  https://www.charitytimes.com/whitepapers/m-hance/2october2013/Cost-control-for-charities-Charities-whitepaper.pdf on 23^rd February, 2018.

Department for Communities and Local Government (2017) Homelessness [online]. Available from: https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Homelessness.pdf on 22^nd February, 2018.

Fitzpatrick, S., Pawson, H., Bramley, G., Wilcox, S. and Watts, B. (2017)The homelessness monitor: England 2017. London: Crisis.

FSI (2016) The Charity Sector in 2016[online]. Available from:   https://www.thefsi.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/The-Charity-Sector-in-2016.pdf on 23^rd February, 2018.

Hafez, S. M., Aziz, R.F. and Elzebak, H.M.M. (2015) Optimal Techniques for Cost Reduction and Control in Construction Sites. Journal of Human Resource Management.3 (3), pp. 17-26.  

Holzer, H. J. and   Baum, S. (2017) Making College Work: Pathways to Success for Disadvantaged Students. Brookings Institution Press.

Homeless Link (2017) Supporting women who are homeless: Briefing for homelessness services [online]. Available from:    https://www.homeless.org.uk/sites/default/files/site-attachments/Supporting%20women%20who%20are%20homeless%20March%202017_0.pdf on 23^rd February, 2018.

Keleckaite, M. and Meiliene, E. (2015) The Importance of Project Management Methodologies and Tools in Non-Governmental Organizations: Case Study of Lithuania and Germany. PM World Journal. 6(7), pp. 1-17.

Luppino, R., Hosseini, M. R. and Rameezdeen, R. (2014)Risk Management in Research And Development (R&D) Projects: The Case of South Australia. Asian Academy of Management Journal. 19(2), pp. 67–85.

MacQuillin, I. R. (2016). Fundraising’s ethics gap: a new theory of normative fundraising ethics. Plymouth: Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy, Plymouth University.

Magistrale, J. (2017) Advising California Nonprofit Corporations. CEB.

Rahman, H.A., Wang, C. and Mohamad, F. S. (2015) Implementation of Risk Management in Malaysian Construction Industry: Case Studies. Journal of Construction Engineering.2015, pp. 1-7.

Ramadan, M.A. and Borgonovi, E. (2015) Performance Measurement and Management in Non-Governmental Organizations. IOSR Journal of Business and Management. 17(2), pp. 70-76.

The Charity Commission (2013) Fundraising legally and responsibly [online]. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fundraising-legally-and-responsibly on 22^nd February, 2018.

The Guardian (2017) Five big issues all fundraisers face [online]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2017/jul/03/five-big-issues-all-fundraisers-face on 22^nd February, 2018.

The Guardian (2017) One in every 200 people in UK are homeless, according to Shelter [online]. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/08/one-in-every-200-people-in-uk-are-homeless-according-to-shelter on 21^st February, 2018.

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