Project Management Principles

Project Background

A project started is based upon understanding the criticalities relating to the company with the help of which it could manage to overcome from all the challenges and issues which it is facing. The report prepared includes the discussion related with the market research and the aspects with which ATC could the decisions effectively in the target market and will be able to continue with its business and will build its forested estates in relevant way. Project initiated will include data relating to the outsourcing process and supply chain management system of ATC (Norman, et. al., 2011).

ATC is a private company working in the Australian market in which organisation is working with growing the Australian Pine and selling them to the traders. Company is dealing in forestry business components and is managing the supplies of the same. Company is currently using antiquated technology, systems and various ranges of operations on the estate. Charlie is a CEO of ATC who remains indulged in the practices of bringing some or the other innovative ideas and ensuring that various modernize practices could be applied with which company could grow and achieve all its targeted goals and objectives. Charlie is planning to develop a vertical integrated supply chain management system so that company could manage to control growing of the trees on the ground and also could manage the production of the structural timber and manage their transportation process in an effective manner (Mavridis, et. al., 2016).

ATC is facing various set of issues like clashes among the stakeholders is increasing, facing issues with the natural disasters like drought, wildfires, cyclones, flooding, insect attacks etc. The research and development team is working upon evaluating the root cause of the problems so that better plans could be developed and implemented with which plantation process and could manage the sale procedures.

Hence, the project initiated will include evaluation of all the plans and procedures and will include date relating to integrated supply chain management system it could adopt so as to manage the plantation process and its supplies in a relevant way (Lock, 2013). To manage the project Stacy and Charlie have budgeted $10,000. Further data related to ATCs decisions relating to the plantation procedure will be provided.

The project initiated will include goals and objectives of ATC, the key deliverables required to be obtained at each stage, strategic alignment of the project will be done (Mainga, 2017). The project developed will also include key milestones, the requirements of the project, limits and exclusions, risk matrix, project budget, communication management plan and several set of recommendations which will help ATC in managing its plantation process and production work will be provided at the end of the report.

Project Goals

• To develop a project plan which could give a proper direction to ATC in managing its decisions regarding the supplies of the company and managing the production work.
• To understand the criticalities of the production work and research and develop the best practices which could help ATC in overcoming from the challenges and issues which are affecting its growth.
• To identify all the possible strategies with the help of which a more stringer supply chain network and decision making system could be developed for ATC with which it could manage all set of supplies and make the timely deliveries of the plants (Mavridis, et. al., 2016).
• To research and develop the procedures with which ATC could manage the production of timber simultaneously and fulfilling the demands of the customers

Project Objectives

• To identify and evaluate the more effective production processes with which the sale could be enhanced by 15% within the 6 months.
• To research and develop the ways with in the budget of $10000 so that an effective supply chain process and inventory management system could be developed within 1 year (Norman, et. al., 2011).
• To identify and evaluate the best possible ways to increase the plantation of timber by 10% within 1 year (Liu, 2012)
• To provide training to the employees so that the productivity could get enhanced by 10% within the 6 months

Project Deliverables

Key Deliverables Description

• Developing Scope Scope of the project must be developed in a well in advance form
• Conducting Research It is important that a proper research must be conducted so that information related with Land could be gathered in an appropriate manner and corrective decisions related with the production of plants could be taken.
• Setting Priorities It is important that priorities related with the tasks required to be completed must be set by the manager of the project working on it. This will help the project team members in completing the tasks within proposed deadlines (Lock, 2013).
• Developing Communication Plan A communication plan must be prepared to manage the flow of information.
• Developing a Proper Supply Chain Network A strong and effective supply chain network will be done based upon the project plan. The supply chain network designed will help ATC in managing the supplies of plants in a proper way.
• Training the Team Members A proper training plan will be developed including all set of training needs required to be implemented. It will be assured that the project team members managing the project could manage production work more effectively and fulfil the requirements of the people available (Mainga, 2017).
• Handing Over the Project This is a last phase in which information related with the completion of the project will be provided and the project will be handed over to ATC which will ensure that the project initiated includes every single required aspect.

Strategic Alignment of Project

• Project initiated will be based upon developing a proper plan for all the project team members so that they could work effectively upon the project initiated.
• Priorities will be set for all the tasks and allocation of roles and responsibilities will be done so as to ensure that confusion could get reduced and all things could work in a proper flow.
• Application of appropriate project management techniques tools will be done so that the work started could be processed properly (Mavridis, et. al., 2016).
• Risk Management plan will help in setting the priorities and mitigating the uncertainties.

Project Schedule

Milestones

S.No. Project Activities Initiation Date Completion Date

1. Evaluating end Defining Issues Faced by ATC 01/06/2019 05/06/2019
2. Defining Project Scope 05/06/2019 10/06/2019
3. Setting Project Priorities 10/06/2019 12/06/2019
4. Defining Project Requirement 12/06/2019 15/06/2019
5. Training Project Team Members 15/06/2019 20/06/2019
6. Evaluating best Suitable Supply Chain Networks 20/06/2019 25/06/2019
7. Conducting Meetings 01/06/2019 30/06/2019
8. Identifying Project Risks 25/06/2019 26/06/2019
9. Cross Checking Project Requirements 26/06/2019 28/06/2019
10. Terminating Project 28/06/2019 30/06/2019

(Miller, 2009)

Gantt Chart

Project Requirements

Project initiated is related with providing appropriate set of solution to ATC with which it could manage to overcome from all set of issues and challenges it is facing (Norman, et. al., 2010). To provide an assurance that ATC could overcome from all the issues and challenges.

Understanding the key requirements of the team working upon the project and all the stakeholders will lead to manage the project functions (Norman, et. al., 2011).

For the project it is important that appropriate tools must be used which could help in making the predictions of the budget and the expenses that would incur in each activity and processes.

Appropriate training plan is required to be developed so that the project management team could work effectively upon the project and could manage the future project requirements.

It is necessary that a risk matrix must be prepared which could help in identifying corrective project tools and techniques with the effect of which evaluation of the relevant set of strategy with which the production process could be done and all the supplies could be managed appropriately (Pigott, and Hobbs, 2011).

It is necessary that a communication plan must be developed so as to ensure that the employees working could remain informed and work accordingly upon all set of updates and procedures of the project.

Limits and Exclusions

The scope of research is very less as it is hard to manage all the requirements and conduct a proper research for ATC with which it could manage to adopt the best possible procedures with the effect of which appropriate production processes could be adopted (Levin, 2007).

The project initiated does not guarantee to evaluate all the risk factors as it is based upon the predictions and forecasting which could get changed according to the change in the requirements of the market or change in climatic conditions.

Evaluation could be made that the organisation is facing issues in finding the good location for the production and plantation process which could have a huge impact on the sales and revenue of the company

It is being evaluated that it is really hard to understand the stakeholder’s requirements associated with the project and is difficult to manage all set of requirements accordingly. Hence, it could be possible that the stakeholders attached with the project could get affected (Liu, 2012).

CEO of the company will be responsible for all the inspections and decisions related with the supply chain management process and lands at which the plantation is required to be done.

Decisions related with the inventory management systems will only be taken by the CEO of the company on the basis of which the application and implementation of the system will be done in ATC.

Work/Process Breakdown Schedule

Risk Management

This section will include data related with all the risk factors which could affect the project of ATC (Lock, 2013). It is necessary that all the associate risks must be identified at the initial stage only so that relevant set of decisions could be taken so as to mitigate all the risk factors. Hence, a risk management plan and a risk matrix will be developed which will help in taking corrective decisions and mitigating all set of risk factors.

Risk Management Process

1. Identification of the Associated Risk Factors
2. Categorizing the associated Risk
3. Risk Probability
4. Prioritizing Risk
5. Evaluating Risk Impact
6. Allocating Responsibility
7. Developing Strategies to Mitigate the Risk
8. Implementation of the Associated Risks
9. Monitoring
10. Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Strategies

(Mainga, 2017)

Project Budget

A project budget is developed based upon the future aspects which will help project management team and manager in understanding the procedures required to be applied and the decisions required to be made. The budget is being prepared on the prediction basis and assurance is being made that the project initiated must flow within the same procedures (Mavridis, et. al., 2016). This will help the project management team in managing all the aspects accordingly and will help in completing the project within the set requirements and the budget which is being decided.

Activities Expenses ($)

• Conducting Daily Meeting 1000
• Research and Development 4000
• Training Project Team Members 2000
• Managing Supply Chain Networks 1000
• Managing Plantation 1500
• Managing Change 500
• Total 10000

Communication Plan

Communication Strategy

The project is based upon managing all the criticalities that ATC is facing and it is important that all the processes must be used appropriately so that the work could be processed in a smooth and subtle way. Hence, in the project initiated, open door policies will be used by the project manager (Miller, 2008). The open door policies will provide freedom to all the project team members in escalating the information and talking relevant set of decisions regarding the project and managing the same in an appropriate manner.

The open door policy will also help project management team in indulging in a direct discussion with the management and will help them in getting appropriate solution of the issue which they are facing regarding the project initiated.

Purpose of Communication Strategy

The communication strategy developed will help both internal as well as external stakeholders in managing the decisions and taking corrective actions related with all the procedures (Miller, 2009). It is important that an appropriate communication plan must be developed which could help the project management team in taking corrective actions and remaining informed regarding all set of policies and procedures. The communication strategy developed will provide a suitable support to all the stakeholders and managing the entire project related decisions in an appropriate and effective way.

Communication Strategy

External Stakeholders

Government: All set of permissions will be taken in a well in advance for regarding the plantation as well as cutting of the trees. Proper license will be taken so that the trees could be sold without any hindrance and legal objections (Norman, et. al., 2010).

Customers: Assurance will be made that the project initiated could help in making a strong supply chain network so that the supplies of the trees could be managed appropriately and on time deliveries could be made.

Internal Stakeholders

Charlie: Charlie is a CEO of ATC and it is necessary that the project initiated must help in fulfilling all set of requirements related with the project. For Charlie it is necessary that the project initiated could help ATC in overcoming from all the issues and challenges it is facing.

Project Manager: It is important that proper support must be provided to the project manager from the side of the management with the effect of which assurance could be made that all the project deliverables could be achieved and work process could be managed in an effective and relevant way (Norman, et. al., 2011).

Project Team: It is necessary that the project team must get proper support from the project manager and training must also be provided to them so that they could manage the work processes in an appropriate way. It is also important that the project management team must work towards to manage the project in an effective manner. It is important that the project team members must be given decision making authority and must be given the authority to provide suggestion directly to the management so that corrective actions could be taken within appropriate time.

Communication Plan

Internal Information Management Plan

Medium Activity Responsibility Frequency Comment

Meetings Conducting Daily Meetings Project Manager Daily It is necessary that meetings must be conducted on daily basis so that team members could remain up to date and work accordingly

Emails Sharing Progress Report Project Team Members Daily It is important that project team members must share their daily work done so as to ensure that corrective decisions could be taken by the management

Mid meetings Sharing Project Report Project Manager In every 10 Days It is important that information related with the project update must be shared with Charlie so that updates could be maintained.

External Communication Plan

Medium Activity Responsibility Frequency Comment

Government Letter Taking proper License Before initiating the project It is important that a letter with all the documents must be shared with the government so that ATC could get proper license.

Customers Orders Taking Orders Before Initiating the Project It is necessary that before initiating the project orders must be taken from the customers so that the production process could be managed accordingly.

(Pigott, and Hobbs, 2011)

Recommendation

On the basis of the given case study, it is to be seen that Australian Tree Corporation is facing several issues which need to be solved as soon as possible for developing the sustainability of the organization.

ATC leased the company land from a state owned organization which ended up having some legal issues which made the employees of the organization use the limited range of technology for executing the operations and functional activities of the organization.

For that purpose, company need to acquire a legal advisor that can give a set of proper guidance for the purpose of fulfilling all the required legal terms by the effect of which company could be able to run the functioning and activities of the organization in a successfully manner without any interruptions.

Another issue that ATC is facing is accountability of product as it does not have any idea about how much quantity is to be grown and how much from it to be sold. For solving this issue, organization should hire a professional accountant who can suggest the manager of the ATC about how much demand is generating into the market and how much quantity and variety of the trees should be produced by the organization.

Therefore, the demand and supply of the product could be managed in an effective and efficient manner. It has also been evaluated as per the case study that the present year ATC is struggling to meet the targets of the company due to natural disaster that hit the region.

Proper evaluation of the internal as well as external environment should be done by the organization in order for eliminating or reducing the impact of natural disaster that could impact the functioning of the ATC. Understanding all the aspects relates with the issues and problems of the organization will help the organization to develop a set of proper planning by which the target and goals of the organization could be achieved.

Conclusion

It is to be analysed after completing all the aspects regarding this project that with the help of this project ATC could be able to attain sustainability and will be able to achieve its target in effective and efficient manner. This prepared project report will help the ATC in providing a set of proper direction and guidance to the manager and the other team member of the organization about what should they have to do in order to achieve the target and that assistance and guidance will help them to lead a path of success and sustainability.

References

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2. Liu, J. (2012). Microfinance Risk Management with Work Breakdown Structure. Journal of Financial Risk Management, 01(03), 38-41.
3. Lock, D., (2013). Project management. Farnham: Gower Publishing.
4. Mainga, W. (2017). Examining project learning, project management competencies and project efficiency in project-based firms (PBFs). International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 10(3),122-133.
5. Mavridis, P., Gross-Amblard, D. and Miklós, Z. (2016). Using hierarchical skills for optimized task assignment in knowledge-intensive crowdsourcing. In Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on World Wide Web. 843-853.
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