Project Management for Overseas Family Vacation Plan

This document provides a project schedule for an overseas family vacation plan including work breakdown structure and Gantt chart. It also explains different types of dependencies and effort-driven tasks. Additionally, it discusses managing variations and its effects on the planned project.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Overseas Family Vacation Plan
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:

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Table of Contents
Part A: Create a project schedule.....................................................................................................2
1. Develop work breakdown structure (WBS) for the project.....................................................2
2. Gantt chart for the project........................................................................................................3
Part B: Time planning and control...................................................................................................7
1. Different types of dependences...............................................................................................7
2. Effort driven task.....................................................................................................................8
Part C: Managing a variation...........................................................................................................8
1. Updated Gantt chart included variation...................................................................................8
2. Explanation of changes implemented and its effects on planned project..............................10
References......................................................................................................................................12
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................13

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Part A: Create a project schedule
1. Develop work breakdown structure (WBS) for the project
Figure 1: Work breakdown structure
(Source: Created by author)

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2. Gantt chart for the project
WBS Task Name Duration Start Date Finish Date
0 Overseas family vacation plan 21 days Sat 9/14/19 Fri 10/4/19
1 Planning of family vacation 21 days Sat 9/14/19 Fri 10/4/19
1.1 Choosing of destinations 3 days Sat 9/14/19 Mon 9/16/19
1.1.1 Scotland 1 day Sat 9/14/19 Sat 9/14/19
1.1.2 Paris 1 day Sun 9/15/19 Sun 9/15/19
1.1.3 Italy 1 day Mon 9/16/19 Mon 9/16/19
1.2 Booking of flights 4 days Tue 9/17/19 Fri 9/20/19
1.3 Finalizing the budget plan 7 days Sat 9/21/19 Fri 9/27/19
1.4 Finalizing the project plan 3 days Sat 9/28/19 Mon 9/30/19
1.5 Arranging for the
accommodation 3 days Tue 10/1/19 Thu 10/3/19
1.6 Started the journey 1 day Fri 10/4/19 Fri 10/4/19
2 Scotland vacation plan 5 days Sun 9/15/19 Thu 9/19/19
2.1 Reaching Scotland from Perth 0.5 days Sun 9/15/19 Sun 9/15/19
2.2 Reached the accommodation
place 0.5 days Sun 9/15/19 Sun 9/15/19
2.3 Check in the hotel 0.5 days Sun 9/15/19 Sun 9/15/19
2.4 Going through Tourist
Information Outlets 0.5 days Sun 9/15/19 Sun 9/15/19
2.5 Visiting Scotland 4.5 days Sun 9/15/19 Thu 9/19/19
2.5.1 Search for the places 0.5 days Sun 9/15/19 Sun 9/15/19
2.5.2 Loch Ness 0.5 days Sun 9/15/19 Sun 9/15/19

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2.5.3 Loch Lomond 0.5 days Mon 9/16/19 Mon 9/16/19
2.5.4 Attending the conference at
Edinburgh 3 days Mon 9/16/19 Thu 9/19/19
2.6 Leaving for Paris 0.5 days Thu 9/19/19 Thu 9/19/19
2.7 Milestone 1: Completion of
Scotland vacation 0 days Thu 9/19/19 Thu 9/19/19
3 Paris vacation 5 days Fri 9/20/19 Tue 9/24/19
3.1 Reaching Paris from Scotland 0.5 days Fri 9/20/19 Fri 9/20/19
3.2 Reached the accommodation
place 1 day Fri 9/20/19 Sat 9/21/19
3.3 Check-in the hotel 1 day Fri 9/20/19 Sat 9/21/19
3.4 Fresh up at the hotel 1 day Fri 9/20/19 Sat 9/21/19
3.5 Going through Tourist
Information Outlets 1 day Fri 9/20/19 Sat 9/21/19
3.6 Visiting Paris 3.5 days Fri 9/20/19 Mon 9/23/19
3.6.1 Search for the places 0.5 days Fri 9/20/19 Fri 9/20/19
3.6.2 Eiffel tower 0.5 days Sat 9/21/19 Sat 9/21/19
3.6.3 Louvre museum 0.5 days Sun 9/22/19 Sun 9/22/19
3.6.4 Cathedral Notre-Dame de
Paris 0.5 days Sun 9/22/19 Sun 9/22/19
3.6.5 Arc de Trionphe 0.5 days Mon 9/23/19 Mon 9/23/19
3.6.6 Montmartre 0.5 days Mon 9/23/19 Mon 9/23/19
3.7 Leaving for Italy 1 day Tue 9/24/19 Tue 9/24/19
3.8 Milestone 2: Completion of
Paris vacation 0 days Tue 9/24/19 Tue 9/24/19
4 Italy vacation 5 days Wed 9/25/19 Sun 9/29/19

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4.1 Reaching Italy from Paris 1 day Wed 9/25/19 Wed 9/25/19
4.2 Reached the accommodation
place 1 day Wed 9/25/19 Wed 9/25/19
4.3 Check-in the hotel 1 day Wed 9/25/19 Wed 9/25/19
4.4 Going through Tourist
Information Outlets 1 day Wed 9/25/19 Wed 9/25/19
4.5 Visiting Italy 4 days Wed 9/25/19 Sat 9/28/19
4.5.1 Search for the places 0.5 days Wed 9/25/19 Wed 9/25/19
4.5.2 Rome 0.5 days Thu 9/26/19 Thu 9/26/19
4.5.3 Venice 0.5 days Thu 9/26/19 Thu 9/26/19
4.5.4 Milan 0.5 days Fri 9/27/19 Fri 9/27/19
4.5.5 Florence 0.5 days Fri 9/27/19 Fri 9/27/19
4.5.6 Cinque Terre 1 day Sat 9/28/19 Sat 9/28/19
4.6 Leaving for Perth 1 day Sun 9/29/19 Sun 9/29/19
4.7 Milestone 3: Completion of
Italy action 0 days Sun 9/29/19 Sun 9/29/19

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Figure 2: Gantt chart
(Source: Created by author using Ms Project)
Part B: Time planning and control
1. Different types of dependences
The sequence of project tasks into the project schedule is based on dependencies such as
hard/mandatory and soft/discretionary. Following are two types of dependencies which are
explained as:
Mandatory/hard dependency: This dependency is presented to relationship which is
inherent in nature of the project work. The second activity cannot perform if the first activity is
not completed (Kerzner 2017). It is seen that tasks are contractually needed where no tasks are
implemented until mandatory tasks are being fulfilled.
For example, consider two activities 1.2 and 1.3. When 1.3 has mandatory dependency on
activity 1.2, then it is stated that 1.3 is not performed until 1.2 is completed.
1.2- Booking of flights and 1.3- Finalizing the budget plan
Discretionary/soft dependency: This dependency reflected on how the project team can
anticipate work to be completed. It allows the project team to optimize flow of effort throughout
plan. The activities can take place equivalent time as other activity can happen (Schwalbe 2015).
The project manager can use it to create float on project schedule.
For example, consider two activities 1.2 and 1.5. Both of the activities are independently
occurred. The project manager selects to create 1.5 dependent on 1.2.

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1.2- Booking of flights and 1.5- Arranging for accommodation.
2. Effort driven task
The effort driven task is defined as scheduling of the project tasks as effort driven. The
task is effort driven when the project keeps entire work of the particular task at current value
regardless the total resources assigned to that particular task. The selected effort driven task from
the WBS is finalizing the project plan. The total duration required to complete this particular
activity is 7 days. The project manager can shorten the duration of this task by shortening the
total amount of resource units required to complete the work. It is not changing the entire amount
of work for that particular effort driven task.
The duration of the task is estimated by using the effort driven scheduling method where
amount of work required to finish the selected task is remained constant and there is no matter
how many of total resources are being assigned and total effort applied to that task (Fleming,
Quentin and Joel 2016). As the human resources are being assigned to the effort driven tasks,
then duration of the task is calculated on automatic basis focused on user defined work in hours
and allocated resources. Therefore, the task is performed on scheduled time as well as duration.
Part C: Managing a variation
1. Updated Gantt chart included variation
There is variation of the schedule in the project plan where the project schedule is ahead.
The schedule variation is negative which is indicated that the project tasks longer time to
complete as compared to its scheduled time. It leads to increase in project variations on delivery
date. There was an incident which occurred when the family is at first destination country. On

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the day before depart; the younger child is attacked in street. Due to this incident, there was a
delay of a week due to police care and hearing at the court which held in 7 working days.
Therefore, the travel plan is again organized to manage the events.
WBS Task Name Duration Start Finish
0
Overseas family
vacation plan
28 days Sat 9/21/19 Fri 10/18/19
1
Attack of the younger
child
7 days Sat 9/21/19 Fri 9/27/19
2
Planning of family
vacation
21 days Sat 9/28/19 Fri 10/18/19
3 Scotland vacation plan 5 days Sun 9/29/19 Thu 10/3/19
4 Paris vacation 5 days Fri 10/4/19 Tue 10/8/19
5 Italy vacation 5 days Wed 10/9/19 Sun 10/13/19
With the risk associated with changing as well as extending of the holiday, there are
schedule and cost risks which are occurred. Due to hearing in the court, the schedule is increased
by 7 days and the budget cost is increased due to again re-organize the travel plan and
cancellation of the ticket at last moment and again booking of the tickets. There are changes in
the planned project activities by a week.

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2. Explanation of changes implemented and its effects on planned project
The changes which are implemented into the project plan are schedule and budget
changes. The schedule change provides impact on the project progress by increasing the total
duration of the project and causing project delay. Change in the project schedule as well as
project plan incurred the project cost. Each hour the project is being delayed will incur the
project cost. The project delay due to project schedule changes can reduce the return on
investment (ROI). It is the financial gain that the project can bring minus the project costs. When
the project is delayed by 7 days, then each minute it leads to loss of the project cost. This project
plan is consisted with complex project schedule involved resources those are working on the
project activities (Heagney 2016). In the provided project plan, there is a single change in the
project due to addition to extra activity like attending hearing at the court with 7 working days,
and then this singe task can impact on other dependency project tasks and entire project duration.
Apart from the project schedule change, there are also budget changes due to re-organize
of the travel plan. Due to sudden change in the existing travel plan, the project cost is increased
because of cancellation of the flight tickets, re-schedule of the accommodation and re-schedule
of the vacation. There is sometimes unavailability of the project stakeholders as well as lack of
time to complete the visits schedule (Kerzner 2018). In this case in order to control over the cost,
the project manager is required to reduce the visiting places by omitting some of the places so
that they can control over the budget plan and schedule control.
The options which were considered to meet with the project objectives with constraints
on the holiday such as:

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1. It is assumed that the financial of the project is not increased due to delay in the entire
project plan.
2. The scope of the project is not changed as the project is again organized as per the
previous travelling plan.
3. The project manager should lessen some of the places they planned to visit earlier so that
they can reduce the delays in some extent.

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References
Fleming, Quentin W., and Joel M. Koppelman. "Earned value project management." Project
Management Institute, 2016.
Heagney, Joseph. Fundamentals of project management. Amacom, 2016.
Kerzner, Harold. Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence. John Wiley &
Sons, 2018.
Kerzner, Harold. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.
Schwalbe, Kathy. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning, 2015.

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Bibliography
Binder, Jean. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management
across borders. Routledge, 2016.
Kerzner, Harold. Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and
monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.
Kerzner, Harold. Using the project management maturity model: strategic planning for project
management. Wiley, 2019.
Lock, Dennis. The essentials of project management. Routledge, 2017.
Marchewka, Jack T. Information technology project management: Providing measurable
organizational value. John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
Turner, Rodney. Gower handbook of project management. Routledge, 2016.
Verzuh, Eric. The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.