Event Planning and Project Management Lessons

The assignment focuses on documenting lessons learned in the context of event planning and project management. It includes a checklist for tracking completion status, a compilation of results, details about a closure meeting, and the preparation of a closure report. The document also provides summaries of relevant resources such as books on event planning and risk management for small businesses, along with a reference list.

[Name]

PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Project Description..................................................................................................................................3
Measurable Organizational Value (MOV)....................................................................................................3
Scope Management Plan.............................................................................................................................4
Project Scope...........................................................................................................................................4
Project Management Methodology.........................................................................................................4
Project Resources....................................................................................................................................5
Work Breakdown Structure.........................................................................................................................5
Project Risk Analysis and Plan......................................................................................................................6
Risk Identification....................................................................................................................................6
Risk Assessment.......................................................................................................................................7
Risk Register............................................................................................................................................7
Quality Plan.................................................................................................................................................7
Validation Activities.................................................................................................................................8
Closure Checklist..........................................................................................................................................8
References.................................................................................................................................................13
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
Introduction
BT & Sons Farming Equipment is an entity that does business primarily in the agricultural
sector. The company started organizing an event called RALS or Riverina Agriculture and
Lifestyle Show to showcase the modern advancements in the agricultural industry. Throughout
the years, RALS has grown to be a large event wherein it sees thousands of visitors every year.
For the management and organization of this event, BT & Sons had created a dedicated
organization called as Globex. In the recent years, RALS had outgrown itself to a point where
it’s highly difficult to sell tickets to the event using the manual system that they had been using
since the beginning. As a result, they had planned to develop a comprehensive system that would
automate the process as well as add several other features to ease the work of Globex associated
with it. The document presented below is an outline for the development of this automated
system.
Project Description
Globex wishes to replace the manual ticketing process for RALs by implementing an intelligent
automated system. This new ticketing system would also be capable of capturing, storing and
processing information as well as managing and reporting that information. Globex has
approached Virtucon for the development of this ticketing system. The entire development of
this new system would be handled by Virtucon itself using project management for which the
details are embedded below.
Measurable Organizational Value (MOV)
Area of Impact
Area Rank Impact
Strategy 3  Increasing the foothold in the market
 Enhancing the competitiveness among competitors
Customer 1  Faster ticketing experience
 Better information availability
 Streamlined process of ticket booking
 Simple and easier process
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
Financial 5  Increased ticket sales would follow an increase in the donation
 Increased ticket sales would also give rise to increased profits
Organizati
onal
2  Increased efficiency for management and operations
 Decreasing cost because automated system would cut down on
operations
Social 4  Local businesses
 Lifestyle products
 Agricultural equipment supplier
 Farmers
Desired Value
 Better: Overall the services quality as well as satisfaction of customers
 Faster : Operatons processing and activity handling
 Cheaper : Cost of operations owing to automated system implementation
 Do More : Increased donation flow as well as profits due to increased ticket sales and
sponsors
MOV Metric
Area Rank Impact
Strategy 3  Improvement in the positioning of Brand
 Improvement in competitiveness of RALS
 Increased visitor flow can be easily handled by volunteers
Customer 1  Visitors waiting time would be reduced
 More time is made available to the event
 Access to information is seamless
 Faster booking of tickets
Financial 5  Cost reductions
 Improved data processing
 Improvements in cash flow as well as control over different
costs
 An increase in overall revenue and profits
Organizational 2  Easier allocation of all works
 Capacity of volunteer’s are enhanced
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
 Faster and error free planning, evaluation and scheduling
Social 4  Business development opportunities
 Benefit to farmers from all kinds of updated information
 Linking of suppliers of agricultural equipment
 All of the members from the community can enjoy the show
Timeframe for MOV
Elements enumerated above could be fully achieved in a time span of 140 days.
Summary of MOV
The development of this project would add value for BT & Sons as well as Globex and would
achieve better quality of work, greater customer satisfaction, cost-effective operations, simpler
transactions and ticket processing and reduced dependency on labor (Miller, 2008).The areas that
are going to be impacted by this new project from least to most are financial area, social,
strategy, organizational and customer in this order. The projected benefits include a reduction of
25% in costs, an increase of 20% of profits as well as increase of 35% donation received by the
sponsors at RALS.
Scope Management Plan
Project Scope
In Scope
 Capturing of information as well as gathering of all the associated volunteers. This would
include capturing of information such as name, contact details, organization details,
educational background, availability information, vouchers allocated, their schedule,
preferred roles among other things.
 Capturing of information related to roles for volunteers and these include name of the
role and its description, selection criteria, required participation and the organization
involved with it.
 Management as well as coordination of the volunteer activities include :
o Sales of tickets at the gates
o First Aid kit
o Setting up of the site
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
o Cleaning up of RALS event before and after the event
o Handling of site maps and visitor goodies bags
o Maintaining a lost and found box
Out of Scope
 Any negotiations with third parties whatsoever in terms of providing equipment’s and
tools needed for the project.
 Any activity associated with advertisement and promotion of the project
Project Management Methodology
A variety of project management techniques have already been defined. Among the most
standard and widely used is the PMBOK guidelines called as Project Management Body of
Knowledge. PMBOK is follows a phase-wise development approach towards the project. Under
this, the project lifecycle phases have its own set of strategies and techniques to move ahead. The
principal phase in PMBOK strategy is the initiation phase that incorporates the start of the
venture. The next stage is the planning part of the project wherein scope definition, partner ID,
action arranging, plan estimation, danger appraisal and spending estimation is given. It would
then be followed by the execution phase wherein the core part of the project is undertaken that
would ultimately lead to the advancement of the project. There could be different problems that
show up in this particular phase, however, PMBOK outlines different techniques to deal with
them. At the same time, any changes that are added to the project, PMBOk has strict guidelines
on how to manage them phase by phase so that it does not end up disrupting the project. These
changes are controlled in a structured manner throughout the lifecycle of the project. Towards
the end of the project is the closure phase wherein all the outlined requirements are fulfilled.
(Bilkent, 2016).
Project Resources
Role Organization Responsibilities Timeframe/s
Program Sponsor B T & Sons
Farming
Equipment
Has the obligation to provide all the
requirements as well as specifications
for RALS system and the time
Entire duration of the
project
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
duration for the project.
Program
Manager
Globex Interacting via meetings or
teleconferencing with project team as
well as virtucon for approvals and
required artifacts together with
assistance in project allied activities.
Entire duration of the
project
Volunteer
Management
Associate
Indigenous
Community
Volunteers
(ICV)
Providing the team with a detailed list
as well as other information of
volunteers that include their age,
demographics, qualification and
names among others.
Entire duration of the
project
Volunteer
Management
Associate
Other not for
profit
organizations
that will be
providing
volunteers
for RALS
Providing the team with a detailed list
as well as other information of
volunteers that include their age,
demographics, qualification and
names among others.
Entire duration of the
project
Project Manager Virtucon Creating the project plan, submitting
it to the stakeholders, allocating
responsibilities, keeping a track of
resources, reviews and meetings both
extern and internal.
Entire duration of the
project
Project Leader Virtucon Assisting project manager for
achieving objectives and completion
of all assigned tasks
Entire duration of the
project
Technical
Consultant
Virtucon Architecturing the entire information
system and preparing a
documentation for the same for the
Initial part of the project
timeline
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
project team
Resource Groups Virtucon Assisting project leader in their
project requirements as well as
completing of all assigned tasks
among other allied activities.
Throughout the project
timeline Project
Technological Requirements
 Hardware: Networking hardware and computing hardware that are required for the
development and management of the system.
 Software : Required operating systems, development and designing tools, testing tools,
database creation and administration tools as well as reporting tools
 Network : Implementing and configuring the network, stress testing the network and
security wise hardening of the network
Facilities
 Providing equipment and tools that are needed for the success of the project
 Creating of project requirements which are needed for the project
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
Work Breakdown Structure
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
Gantt chart
Project Risk Analysis and Plan
Assumptions
 Project would be completed based on the schedule outlined
 All the project environments would be setup well in advance so that the initiation and
execution of the project goes well.
 The hardware and software requirements would be taken care of well in advance as well
as their installation of setting up of the network
Dependencies
 Bandwidth of the network available for Globex
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
 Project sponsor so as to make the specifications and requirements available for team of
the project
 Signoffs and approvals from the sponsor and the manager of the project
Constraints
 The estimated duration of the project would be 140 days and the project would not be
altered in any way and under any circumstances whatsoever
 All of the budget associated with procurements of tools and other equipment’s would be
chargeable
Risk Identification
Risks are identified based on various factors and are present in each and every phase of the
project
 Technical risks in Initiation Phase
 Resource risks in Planning Phase
 Schedule and Budget Overrun in Execution Phase
 Requirements inflation in Control Phase
 Quality risks in Closure Phase
Risk Assessment
Assessment of the risks is a component of the overall risk management plan that is aimed to
analyze the risks that are associated with the project. Identified risks are further classified into
acceptable or non-acceptable risks based on their assessed results and the strategy to accept or
transfer the risk (Clarizen, 2016).
Risk assessment would be carried out based on qualitative methods so as to understand the
ranking and severity of risks.
Risk Register
N
o.
Ra
nk
(1
lo
we
st
Risk Descriptio
n
Categ
ory
Root
Cause
Triggers Potentia
l
Respons
es
Risk
Owne
r
Probabil
ity
Impa
ct
Status
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
5
hig
hes
t)
R
1
3 Techn
ical
Risk
Technical
failures as
well as
changes in
operatabili
ty or
technologi
cal issues
Initiat
ion
Techno
logical
advanc
ements
At the
time of
project’s
initiation
Assessin
g the
technical
environ
ment
which is
available
with the
organizat
ion as
well as
presentin
g the
modifica
tions
highlight
ed in the
project’s
charter
documen
t
Techn
ical
Exper
t
Medium Mediu
m
Mitigati
on
strategy
and
team
meeting
s
R
2
3 Resou
rce
Risks
Inadequac
y of
required
skillsets
Planni
ng
Human
resourc
e
applies
At the
time of
planning
phase
Revising
of the
recruitm
ent
policy
and then
re-hiring
the
required
skilled
personne
l
Projec
t
Mana
ger
Medium Mediu
m
Mitigati
on
strategy
and
team
meeting
s
R
3
5 Sched
ule
and
Budge
A
deviation
from pre-
determine
Execu
tion
Mis-
commu
nication
rework
During
the
executio
n phase
Re-
allocatin
g all
responsi
Projec
t
Mana
ger
Low High Mitigati
on
strategy
and
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
t
Overr
un
d schedule
and budget
bilities
and also
re-
configuri
ng the
budget
based on
the latest
updates
team
meeting
s
R
4
5 Requi
remen
ts
Inflati
on
Scope
creep
Contr
ol
Mis-
commu
nication
rework
At the
time of
project’s
closure
Revising
the
project’s
strategy
and
confirmi
ng to
changes
in
requirem
ent from
the
sponsor
of the
project
and
demand
for
schedule
and
budget
enhance
ment
Projec
t
Mana
ger
Low High Mitigati
on
strategy
and
team
meeting
s
R
5
2 Qualit
y
Risks
Bad
quality or
inappropri
ate
standard
output
Closu
re
Incomp
lete
validati
on and
verifica
tion of
the
system
At the
time of
project’s
closure
Verificat
ion and
validatio
n for
project’s
activity
to ensure
there is
no
compro
mise on
Projec
t
Mana
ger
Low High Mitigati
on
strategy
and
team
meeting
s
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
quality
and
security
of the
project.
(Brandei
s, 2016)
Quality Plan
Quality is an important factor for the project and therefore it would be ensured at each and every
single step of the project instead of ensuring at the end of the lifecycle of the project. There
would be a series of testing that would be done in order to ensure that the project being
undertaken falls well under the acceptable quality standards that have been highlighted earlier.
The quality assurance as well as testing of the quality would be undertaken via agile
development framework wherein testing activities are carried out in parallel to the project rather
than towards the very end of it (Dds, 2016).
Verification Activities
Verification activities includes a set of evaluations criterias that are again carried out at each and
every step of the project so as to ensure the project strictly follows the requirements. Following
set of deliverables would be verified before the project changes hands.
 Verification of the entire source code
 Project plan documentation verification
 Verifying the project closure report
 Verifying the charter document of the project (Francis & Horine, 2016)
 Verifying the communication plan of the project
 System design verification
 Verifying the implementation plan of the project
The activities that are utilized for verification of the above-mentioned components include the
following
 Walkthroughs
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
 Reviews
 Inspections
Validation Activities
Actual system that has been developed would be validated against a set of requirements so as to
ensure the project to be developed follows the specifications outlined by the organization. To
ensure the same, a series of project testing needs to be done. These testing are varied and
different from one another. These testing includes the following:
 Sanity Testing
 Performance Testing
 System Testing
 Regression Testing
Closure Checklist
Checklist would be created for the closure stages of the project that lists all kinds of activities
that are needed for the project before the entire project is marked as completed. This would help
the project manager as well as the project team to remember if they are completed.
Project Name: RALS Rostering system development
Project Description: A rostering system needs to be developed so as to manage tickets and
volunteering activities for the event.
1. Project Implementation and Acceptance
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
Mark (x) if
completed
Below mentioned deliverables should be duly accepted and completed:
 SOW or Statement of Work
 Overall plan of the project
 Change Management Plan
 Project Budget
System’s functional requirement
System’s technical requirement
System testing
Security testing
Allied systems integration
Migration of data
Backup of data
Recovery plan
10. Licenses
11. Procedure management
12. Installed applications
13. Artefacts documents for the project
14. Project acceptance test
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
2. Final Documentation
Mark (x) if
completed
1. Documents that have been archived includes:
 Project Requirements
 Project Charter
 Scope of Work
 Project sign-off
 Acceptance
2. Repository is required for storing all kinds of records
3. Personnel Plan
Mark (x) if
completed
1. Personnel
 Transfer of Knowledge
 Project completion updates communicated to team members and
customers
 Team members realization
 Access modified or revoked for all team members of the project
2. Training
 Skills identified
 Training provided
3. Feedback
 Team member’s feedback documentation
 Team members performance documented
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
 Feedback given to supervisors
4. Lessons Learned
Mark (x) if
completed
1. Compilation of results
2. Closure meeting complete
3. Completion of closure report
Allen, Judy (2009) Event Planning: The Ultimate guide to Successful Meetings, Corporate
Events, Fundraising Galas, Conferences, Conventions, Incentives and Other Special Events.
John Wiley & Sons.
Author Judy covers interesting theories on event management and different processes that
are used in the event management and planning. A good hands-on exposure has been
conveyed in the book and elements like team selection, formation, location selection,
procurement considerations, program development, stakeholder management and
even performance evaluation has been covered in the book.
Campbell, David (2005). Risk management guide for small business. NSW.
This journal article by David explores the aspects of risk management for SME based
organizations. It provides indicators, checklists, tools and templates that are used for 5
different real-life based projects. David also goes into details about risk identification,
analysis and evaluation which an important part of the risk management plan.
Schwalbe, Kathy. (2005). Introduction to project management. Jenson Books Incl.
Introduction to project management by Kathy Schwalbe is an important book when it
comes to understanding PMBOK principles. The book provides techniques and tools
that helps explain 10 different areas for PMBOK. It covers different project
management stages that includes planning, initiating, monitoring as well as controlling
and closing. This would be useful while selecting a correct project management
methodology as well as creation of project charter.
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
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PROJECT CHARTER - RALS
References
Bilkent, (2016). Retrieved 20 September 2016, from
http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~cagatay/cs413/PMBOK.pdf
Brandeis,. (2016). Common Challenges in the Project Life Cycle | Brandeis University.
Projectmgmt.brandeis.edu. Retrieved 20 September 2016, from
http://projectmgmt.brandeis.edu/resources/articles/common-challenges-in-the-project-life-
cycle/
Clarizen,. (2013). Risk Management - Lifecycle. Clarizen Success. Retrieved 20 September 2016,
from https://success.clarizen.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/203996078-Risk-
Management-Lifecycle
Dds,. (2016). Retrieved 20 September 2016, from
http://www.dds.ca.gov/ConsumerCorner/MakeComplexintoSimple/AdaptationSamplesMee
tingRulespg9-16.pdf
Francis, D. & Horine, G. (2016). The Purpose of the Project Charter | PMP Exam Cram: Project
Initiation | Pearson IT Certification. Pearsonitcertification.com. Retrieved 20 September
2016, from http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/articles/article.aspx?
p=102300&seqNum=2
Miller, S. (2008). Overview of Measurable Organizational Value (MOV) – Sheep Guarding
Llama. [online] Sheepguardingllama.com. Retrieved 20 September 2016, from
http://www.sheepguardingllama.com/2008/01/overview-of-measureable-organizational-value-
mov/comment-page-1/
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