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PROJECT BLUEPRINT
INTRODUCTION
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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 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 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 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 Feasibility Assessment
Project Description
The project is “A Reward Program for a Soft-Drinks Company.” The purpose of the project is to create a program that will reward and recognize the efforts of employees at the workplace. It is expected that the program will increase employee retention and play a significant role in creating a more positive workplace environment. Additionally, the reward program will help enhance employee engagement, which will lead to increased productivity of the company. The soft-drinks company where the project will be supported is called Sky Beverages. It is in New York and is currently the fourth-largest soft-drinks manufacturer in the United States. The company has experienced a drop in sales and a rise in employee turnover. Pertinent research into the issue has revealed that there is a need to improve employee engagement and retention, which in turn will improve the company’s productivity and overall sales.
Market and Competition
Inside the organization, the end-users of the project will be the employees. These are the individuals who will directly benefit from the reward program. Several key performance indicators (KPIs) will be defined and used to measure the work performance of the employees. The rewards will then be offered to the employees if they meet or surpass the KPIs. Outside the organization, the end-users of the project will be the consumers of the company’s products. It is expected that the reward program will directly impact the company’s productivity. In turn, consumers will get better services and products. It is also vital to note that the completed project will serve additional groups of stakeholders. Apart from the consumers and the employees, the project will also serve the shareholders. It is expected that the value of the company’s shares will rise by at least 15%. This means the shareholders will get more profits for their stakes and that the company’s brand will grow within the community. All these stakeholders will be consulted in the five phases of the project life cycle. This cycle saves time and ensures every stakeholder is focused (“The 5 Phases of a Project Life Cycle,” n.d.).
The competition in the soft-drinks industry is very fierce but is dominated by two companies: Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Suttles (2021) reports that the top three brands account for 35 percent of the market share. Therefore, smaller companies like Sky Beverages must be very innovative and creative in their business strategies to stay afloat and increase their market shares. The size of the soft drinks market in the US is currently valued at $253.7 billion with this figure expected to rise by 5.1% over the next decade (Size, 2018). Therefore, Sky Beverages can utilize the Reward Program to influence its overall growth and ensure it benefits from the forecasted growth in the soft drinks company in the foreseeable future. Competitors control the majority of the market through aggressive marketing strategies and innovative product designs. More so, they actively engage the consumers to ensure they make products that will be well-received by the masses. Consequently, the selection criterion of the project is to keep up with the competitors (“Chapter 7: Starting a Project,” n.d.). The reward program will help Sky Beverages maintain the current employees and attract top talent, which in turn will increase its productivity, sales, and market share.
Technical and Resource Requirements
According to SHRM (2018), HR Departments should allocate around 1% of their payroll on rewards and recognition. Therefore, Sky Beverages will structure its budget to ensure that 1% of its payroll goes into the implementation of this program. The reward program will cover three costs: service awards, peer-to-peer recognition, and manager-to-peer recognition. A conservative approach will be taken when starting the program. Therefore, there will be an allocation of $200 per employee divided as follows: Service Award ($100), Peer-to-Peer Recognition ($50), and Manager-to-Employee Recognition ($50).
Recommendations
Based on the findings of this assessment, this project is deemed viable. For starters, it has been determined that the implementation of the project will take up 1% of the company’s payroll. This is a significantly low amount to start the project with and can be increased in the future depending on the program’s success. Second, it has been deduced that the competition in the soft drinks industry is very intense. Considering that Sky Beverages is not a major player in the industry, it must be innovative to increase its market share. The reward program will help Sky Beverages maintain the current employees and attract top talent, which in turn will increase its productivity, sales, and market share. Finally, all these stakeholders will be consulted in the five phases of the project life cycle. Therefore, the program will be kept in constant supervision to ensure it attains its goals and helps the organization to grow.
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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).
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 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).
https://www.edrawmax.com/online/share.html?code=6e52042e739711eca5f10a54be41f961
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Gantt Chart Rationale
To ensure on-time completion, the project’s large activities must be controlled to ensure that the schedule is followed, and the deadlines are met. Failing to finish a task out of sequence, the rest of the project will be affected, leading to late delivery and higher costs (Scully-Allison & Isaacs, 2021). In this project, the Gantt chart is designed to convey the information on schedule visually, and it outlines the tasks involved in the project in their order, which is shown against the timescale. This gives an overall overview of the project, its associated tasks, and, most importantly, when each task is supposed to be completed.
Some of the steps that were considered to enable the creation of a comprehensive structure of the Gantt chart include Identification of essential tasks, with the help of a work breakdown schedule, a list of all the essential tasks was established, and then each task was given an estimate of the earliest start time and the approximate duration for completion. Another important step involved identifying task relationships; this is to identify the tasks that are either sequential or parallel and how dependent some tasks are on others. This gave the project a deeper understanding of organizing the tasks and scheduling the activities on the chart.
The Gantt chart can help the project team prevent overload of resources by delegating the task to different teams without overwhelming the team in the process; it also helps track the project’s progress because, on completion of a certain task, the Gantt chart is updated. Also, the project team is given more clarity and motivation as the project members can see the deadlines of their tasks and finally, it provides accountability to the project (Scully-Allison & Isaacs, 2021).
Critical Milestones
Some of the critical milestones in the project are the project review approval, which is a high-priority task and a crucial decision that will determine the completion of the project. This is because, in this stage, there will be consideration of the need for the project as per the presented recommendations. The project involves monetary value, which the management has to decide whether it is a logical step (Goldberg et al., 2021). Another project milestone is the approval of the project plan; this is a crucial step because it involves selecting the team to conduct the project. Hence, if the recommended selection is approved, it will ensure on-time completion of the project.
Project start is another important milestone as the on-time start of the project will mean that the deadlines will be met, but if the project fails to start on time, the schedule might be overwhelmed to meet the deadlines. The deliverables are another milestone, and in this project, the employee reward is the deliverable; if the deliverable is prepared to be delivered on time, the project’s progress can be measured when the employee reward is delivered.
Critical Risk
It is crucial to analyze the project’s critical risk to help in minimizing the magnitude of the risk. The idea is to establish a proactive approach rather than a reactive project management approach, ensure that the project is completed within the stipulated time. This will also help cover all the loopholes that the risk brings (Dong et al., 2018, July).
One critical risk that the project is likely to incur is cost risk. If there happens to be mismanagement or shortage of project funds resulting from other constraints will be a threat to the completion of the project. When the project’s cost becomes higher than the budgeted funds, the risk might interrupt other operations.
Contingency Plan
Some of the strategies designed in the project to help in risk mitigation are risk avoidance strategy, this is by the project team outlining all the costs that are anticipated and also account for any cost that could arise in the middle of the project so that the consequences of going over budget might not be very fatal (Burton et al., 2021). Another strategy is risk control; the project team will design control methods that will detect possible issues with the project’s budget. Some of the strategies for risk control used include a management focus, the decision-making process and finding loopholes in the project funding before any issue arises.
Transference of the cost risk is another strategy that will help the project mitigate the risk. In this case, transference for cost will include holding the accountants and the finance team for any issue arising concerning the budget. Transferring this risk will enable the management to focus on the finance and accounts tea and, in turn, will enable the project team to focus on their responsibilities. Another important strategy to help mitigate the project’s cost risk is the watch and monitor risk; this involves watching for and noting any changes that can affect the impact of the risk (Burton et al., 2021).
In this case, monitoring the risk will involve the budgeting team to evaluate and help monitor the cost risk by creating a reporting routine and listing all the project expenditures. This is an important strategy that will allow the project to continuously assess the budget and adjust any cost plan effectively (Burton et al., 2021). Also, another strategy for mitigation of the cost risk for the project is assuming and accepting the risk cost. This strategy can be used to identify the impact of the cost risk and develop plans to lower the risk of going past the set budget so that all the members of the project are aware of the risk and the possible consequences.
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Project Execution and Control Principles
Principle 1: Understand the Problem
Understanding the problem means looking deep to see what the project seeks to achieve. It is critical to analyze the outcome as it helps keep the problem and see the crucial requirements, making it keen that every project is different and requires a different approach to solve each input. Thus, the issue needs to be analyzed from different perspectives to diversify the outcomes with the project team. The design will only be best if its structure is clear, and no uncertainty can be applied.
Understanding the project can be applied when keeping the project intact, mainly in dealing with war-torn societies and project management projects. The outcome becomes clear when one understands that every project is unique, and planning and implementing reconstruction in one area can differ from reconstruction in other regions. Thus, stakeholders on each side need to focus on the constraints. The solution can be done by applying consultation and coordination between stakeholders and other parties in project involvement. It means having consistency in communication among post-war communities can help examine the various risk management options (Earnest, 2019).
The solution input in the project and the execution process can work if the entire team and the consumer have the same vision and image about the project to save time, empower and give quality output in time, which is vital in developing sustainable project management. All the other processes such as monitoring and control, procurement and coordination all rely on the principle’s outcome in understanding the problem at hand which the consumer has and how it needs to be solved.
Principle 2: Focus Relentlessly
The project management output mainly relies on the input of all stakeholders and how each of the project deliverables will be nailed in the best outcome. It means that prioritization in the project will be given to reflect on the development of sustainable project management outcomes and based on the vision and an understanding of why the project is being undertaken in the first place. Good consideration of how focusing works relentlessly can be explained by developing the scope, work breakdown structure, and other deliverables in the project development. Good focus ensures that risks can be noticed early and developed to feature all the potential changes within the set roadmap of the project development.
Focusing relentlessly can be applied to the project using diversified inputs to apply different project management and theories such as process control and systems engineering theory and engineering practices to ensure that project outcomes work at ease. A good example that can be seen is the managing-by-project (MBP) methodology which shows how as project outcomes develop, the project needs to transition with its impending change and business requirements requiring reorganizing and restructuring of the outcomes. Thus, having a dedicated input on all the factors makes it possible to have positive performance (Parnaby & Towill, 2009).
In conclusion, having a structured outcome of project management through focusing relentlessly can help reach the final goal through sustainable actions, risk management, change in scope, and organizational learning in project management in the case study to focus on a cohesive approach over facing a solution that is not compatible with the proposed outcomes.
Application of the principles
The application of the two principles can apply in the project at hand for the creation of a reward system to feature the problem needs. The company is looking to develop a system that can see potential input in consumers and offers the required reward system that will offer inclusivity and deeds to be developed with the option of flexibility with the changes in the organization. The two principles are set to offer a very diversified approach in the implementation and execution of the project to feature all the said outcomes from the initial phase to a conclusion.
In principle one, understanding the problem, the focus is normally attributed more to knowing what the organization seeks to achieve, aligning the organization’s objectives with the objectives of the team, and ensuring that all concepts are captured. Thus, the implementation process works best when stakeholder interest and the project team all work together while steering the project to reach the proposed outcomes. A good example is the development of scope and work breakdown structure that set the project in line with other adjacent expectations to see the project through the lanes with all the other interested parties (Earnest, 2019).
In principle two, which is about focusing relentlessly, it means that the project upon being started and having understood why the company is opting to choose the project in the reward system and the problem is solved, the focus will be set to see all objectives are realized all together. As the project team start implementing the project, focusing helps make sure the project is aligned with the hopes and changes happening within the organization and that objectivity is highly attributed through the application of theories and changes that make all the outcomes sustainable (Parnaby & Towill, 2009)
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Rewards Program Project Assessment
Measuring the rewards program project success while ongoing and after its completion is an essential task. One of the key reasons is that the information collected is precious in providing learning opportunities for improvements. Also, more importantly, it offers the opportunity to assess the program’s effectiveness. To have a balanced and realistic view of the project’s success, objective and subjective criteria need to be used (Frefer et al., 2018). With that in mind, using the SMART approach, some of the factors that would be considered for measuring the project success include the scope, project schedule, budget, project team satisfaction, employee and management satisfaction, and quality.
The project’s scope is the expected result of the reward program and what is required to complete the project. Measuring the project’s scope would help determine if it achieved its intended objectives within the provided framework. The project schedule would evaluate if the deadlines were met and how far behind the project’s schedule. The project budget, which is considered one of the most critical factors that help determine the project’s success, would indicate the ability of the project team to deliver the project within budget.
Project team satisfaction, which is more of a subjective aspect of measuring project success and often, in most cases, is overlooked, is vital in determining the experience and insights of the project. Team satisfaction should be at the top of the success measurement criteria. In addition to the team satisfaction, the project needs to get the employee and the management feedback to determine the project’s success. Finally, it is measured using the quality aspect; the point of the reward program project is not just to deliver but to exceed expectations, and hence it is vital to track quality and make changes and improvements where necessary (Frefer et al., 2018).
Feedback from internal stakeholders in the company is a crucial factor in developing a successful reward program. This entails the project team, the immediate team involved in the project, the management, and the employees. There are various ways the project could gather feedback from the stakeholders; in this project, it is crucial to develop a feedback plan to help gather feedback from the concerned stakeholders. Some of the methods of feedback collection are email and chat, project team meetings, and feedback reports (Boaz et al., 2018).
Email and chat would be practical to get feedback from the project team, and a chat platform be designed; for instance, a room specifically for feedback can be created in Microsoft teams. This is a convenient method as feedback can be shared virtually anytime, and the input can also be saved for referencing later. The project team and the management can hold team meetings to let the project team share and discuss the findings of the project; this is important as it provides opportunities to share updates, allows for asking follow-up questions, and feedback clarity with the ones sharing it (Helfer & Munter, 2019).
Another important method to gather feedback from the internal stakeholders is through feedback reports. The stakeholders would be provided with spreadsheets to input their project experience, then after an agreement, the project team using information from the stakeholder’s data period will generate reports (Helfer & Munter, 2019). The feedback report is vital, including both qualitative and quantitative data. The feedback can be shared anytime, and the information in the report can be saved for future reference.
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