Procedures for Effective Communication and Documentation in Project Management

The Communication Matrix provides a role identity for each stakeholder, specifying the information content, frequency, technique, and format required for their roles. It outlines reporting requirements for sponsors, business team, project manager, project staff, application owner, and project management office. The matrix includes specific communication flows for charter, project plan, project schedule, status reports, issue log, scope change management, lessons learned, post-implementation review, and documentation strategy. Furthermore, the assignment discusses the use of Microsoft Enterprise Project Management software to manage and control project activities, enhance supply chain efficiency, optimize return on investment, and improve transparency.

Project Proposal
Organizing a three-Day Conference event
Date: 12 September 2016
PROJECT PROPOSAL

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TABLE OF CONTENT
PROJECT PROPOSAL...............................................................................................3
PROJECT OVERVIEW..................................................................................................3
PROJECT OBJECTIVES................................................................................................4
PROJECT SCOPE & DELIVERABLES.............................................................................5
PROPOSAL COMPONENTS..........................................................................................5
PROJECT TEAM ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ............................................................7
RISK MANAGEMENT...................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................10

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Project Proposal
Project Overview
The present case in this project concerns the organizing of three day
conference by the ABC event management agency in collaboration with the
International Council of Management Research for the University of Arizona. The
conference will be targeting international as well as national individuals who have a
scholarly interest in the conference theme. For the international participants it is
desired that they must be passport holders so that there are no problems in
organizing the visa. The entire details regarding the conference will be shared with
the prospective participants with the help of a temporary conference website which
will be specifically designed for furnishing the detailed information to the participants.
The participants will be able to gain the details regarding the conference, the
program schedule, registration procedure and fees as well as the procedures to
reach the conference venue, the alternatives for lodging etcetera along with the
facility to download required forms via this website portal. The website will also
enable the participants to communicate their concerns by contacting the Advisory
Committee; the international participants will also have the facility to contact the
representatives from the U.S. Embassy via this website portal. The portal will also
have a section that can deliver the requisite information as per the unique queries of
the respective participants. The conference would be sponsored jointly by the
International Council of Management Research and the University’s Computing
Research Centre. The project planning requires the need for outlining various types
of actions; in words of Kerzner (2013) a general project plan establishes the “scope,

4
time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, risks, procurement and
closeout of the proposed event” where as another set of authors Dinsmore &
Cabanis-Brewin, (2006) identify project plan with “the work authorization plan, work
package plan, cost planning and schedule planning and so on to control the project
progress.”
Project objectives
In this case the project objective is to organize a three day conference for the
researchers, academicians and industry practitioners who are engaged in big data
management and the related areas. The initial planning for the conference requires
the organizers or the project team to discern and define the theme of the event
precisely first and thereafter explicitly in terms of the various sub-themes that can be
entwined together with the main theme. There after a specific date has to be chosen
keeping in mind the convenience of the participants, the feasibility of the organizers
as well as the event theme and agreed upon by the project management team. The
project charter for the proposed project of organizing the three-day conference is an
important document that yields the description regarding its precise purpose, project-
objectives, the success criteria as well as the specific project requirements and it is
drafted at its initiating planning. The success criterion of this project is determined by
the participation rate in the conference which is evaluated across local, national and
international participants. Then the second aspect that will help in evaluating the
success of the conference would be the total number of papers presented which are
bifurcated further across the different themes of presentation.

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Project Scope & Deliverables
The next document that is pertinent for the planning for the project process is
the project scope statement that presents the comprehensive summary of the results
the project will produce along with describing the necessary assumptions and
inherent constraints. It is used as a written confirmation of the results the project is
designed to yield. The project scope in this case comprises of the various
interactions and activities that are undertaken to accomplish a successful
conference. In order to document the project scope statement a successful kick-off
meeting would be conducted with the various stakeholders involved in the process
who actively brainstorm together to discuss the various aspects of the project and
arrive at the most feasible, economic and efficient way to carry out the project
(Burke, 2013). Here the recruitment and organization of the different work groups
takes place and the supporting conference staff/assistants are identified within the
organization.
The financial planning for the conference initiates with the determination of the
budget as well as listing the different kinds of possible expenditure along with the
identification of the funding/ income sources.
Proposal Components
On the basis of the project scope statement, the primary Quality Assurance
process deliverables for the project of organizing the three-day conference are
identified as:(1) ensuring the presence of globally acclaimed guest speakers

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(2) ensuring the participation of international guests (3) the presentation of at least
25 papers in each of the theme pertaining to the subject (4) the publication of the
conference proceedings with the best 30 papers presented during the conference as
well as directing their publication to good quality journals. The list of these
deliverables serves as a guide map that directs the further course of the project. The
project manager reviews and approves the framework for quality management;
oversees the adherence to activities that ensure project quality along with ensuring
completion of project within the stipulated timeframe. Thus it is seen that the Project
Scope for the above mentioned project encompasses the participation of the local,
national and international researchers, academicians, scholars and industry
practitioners as well as presentation and publication of the papers which are the end-
outcomes the project will produce along with the constraints on the budget and
resources along with the assumption that the topic chosen for the conference.
The important stakeholders in the project as well as the project team ought to
be in agreement with the different terms specified in the scope statement as this will
ensure that there is little conflict while executing the project. Such an arrangement
will ensure the project success even before the actual beginning of the project work.
However the scope statement of the project needs to be supported with a proper
justification; it also needs to imbibe the traits products or services traits as well as the
inherent characteristics of the results to be produced. Then the acceptance criteria
should clearly outline the necessary criterion for the project deliverables; objectives,
the restrictions, the inherent project assumptions as well as the excluding criterion.
The anticipated modifications that can be introduced during the process are also
integral constituents in the Scope Statement. Thus it can be seen that this statement

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enable the stakeholders to procure an understanding of the work deliverables and
ascertain if there is an alignment between the product acceptance criterion and the
relevant outcomes. The groups required for the project management process are
distributed across the activities of (i) initiating the project (ii) project-planning (iii)
project-execution (iv) supervision and (v) project-closure.
Project team roles and responsibilities
In order to organize a successful conference the project team will be
bifurcated across the organizing committee, the hospitality committee, the project
team leader who will be called the convener of the project of organizing this
conference. Then with respect to the scheduling of the conference as per the
different themes the availability of the concerned chairpersons and the coordinators
will be made. The primary assumptions with respect to the prior consent from the
resource persons; speakers are identified on the basis of the brainstorming
discussions in the first week even before the kick off meeting. Then the tentative
guidelines regarding the costs and the resources are located as well. Once the
project constraints are identified then a kick off meeting will take place where in the
commonly agreed upon primary assumptions with respect to costs, resources as well
as the schedule are discussed and thereafter the project related responsibilities are
distributed across the different team members. Here the specific role and
responsibility of the individual is fixed as a part of the bigger group and the individual
expectations are explained to each team member. For example, the hospitality
committee is entrusted with the charge of arranging the food and lodging of the
resource persons, participants as well as the event organizers.

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With respect to the detailed planning the deadlines for receiving the
abstracts, the early bird offers on the participation charges for different categories
such as students, research scholars, academicians/faculty as well as industry
practitioners are fixed. The creation of these project milestones help in organizing
the tasks. The list of accommodation outlets that can be organized is made along
with enlisting the tariffs. These activities are performed before launching the
brochure of the conference, as these details need to be incorporated there in. The
kick off meeting of the project helped in identifying the time frame for each of these
activities as well the activities that are expected to follow such as the selection of the
abstracts for the conference and sending the necessary communication to the
authors; receiving the fee for participation and confirming their presentation in the
final schedule.
The in accordance to the identified activities the work break down structure
of the conference along with the specified time frame is chalked out. The meeting
was also instrumental in exploring and evaluating the various possible alternatives
and further the lists of potential consequences of the identified outcomes are also
ascertained. It was also seen that what the prospective likelihood of these
circumstances is. With the mutual discussion it was resolved that the determination
of the optimum alternatives will be made with the help of the quantitative approaches
like decision tree analysis. It is expected that the quantitative approaches coupled
with the qualitative insights yield better decisions especially when the decisional
alternatives are to be located in the case of uncertainty regarding states of nature.
Then during the planning phase itself a discussion was also made regarding the
assessment to be undertaken with respect to the project related criteria and in this

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context, it was located that the visual strategy such as the network diagram can be
useful in locating the minimum project duration. Here the different activities required
for the accomplishment of the project are identified and with the help of the mutual
discussions it was seen that what the order of precedence and succession among
these activities is so as to be able to understand their interdependence. Also the
group also discussed that what the estimated time of these activities are and
whether these activity durations can be regarded as the deterministic or they are
probabilistic. Once this is done the activities and their durations are recorded and
from this a representative network of the project was created which was later used to
arrive at the minimum duration of the project. The entire meeting was conducted to
facilitate the coordination among the project team members and locate the
appropriate ways to communicate regarding the project. The due dates for the
postings and the intermittent events are identified and the individuals responsible for
these events were fixed during the meeting.
Risk Management
The above mentioned list proposed for the initial planning of the project is by
no means exhaustive as it is intended only to cover the situations which have been
anticipated in advance. However, it is to be seen that there can be unpleasant
happenings with the people, resources or otherwise that cannot be ascertained in
advance and the planning and thinking process requires to cater to these erratic
changes or the operational, socio cultural and other risks too as and when required.
This is a pertinent step while planning the project.

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References
Burke, R. (2013). Project management: planning and control techniques.
Dinsmore, P. C., & Cabanis-Brewin, J. (Eds.). (2006), “The AMA handbook of project
management”, Amacom
Kerzner, H. R. (2013), “Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling”, Wiley.

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Initial project
Project Plan of a 3-Days Conference
Date Created: 13 September 2016
INITIAL PROJECT PLAN

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Executive Summary
The present document exhibits the initial project plan for organizing the
conference in terms of the activities it comprises, the estimate of the project budget
along with the breakdown of costs. It identifies the areas of risk and outlines the
contingency plans too. The various procedures for communication are emphasized
and the WBS is presented. The scheduling time and costs estimates are also
identified along with a discussion on the management of critical path. The quality
parameters for the project are identified with respect to the productivity, operational
excellence and customer satisfaction. The communication needs of the organization
will be best served with the software Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management
(EPM) Solution which furnishes an end-to-end support for the project; its four-fold
solution advantages can be comprehensively compressed as improvement in
visibility, optimization of the value, improving the effectiveness of the project as well
as in accentuating the efficiency of the project operations. The document presents
the resource requirements, the anticipated project milestones and their projected
process durations along with furnishing the gravest risks will become a priority to
observe and resolve. Accident or individual risks need to be accepted while
operations risk needs to be mitigated by substantive savings.

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Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..........................................................................................12
PROJECT OVERVIEW.............................................................................................14
PROJECT OBJECTIVES......................................................................................... 16
PROJECT OUTCOMES........................................................................................... 16
CHALLENGES......................................................................................................... 18
SCOPE MANAGEMENT.......................................................................................... 18
WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE.......................................................................19
TIME ESTIMATES....................................................................................................24
RESOURCE SCHEDULING.....................................................................................25
TOTAL RESOURCE COST......................................................................................25
RISK MANAGEMENT PLAN....................................................................................27
Individual Risk................................................................................................................27
SOCIO-CULTURAL RISK.........................................................................................................27
Operations Risk..............................................................................................................27
Technology Risk.............................................................................................................27
PLANNING ABOUT POTENTIAL RISKS.....................................................................................28
CRITICAL PATH MANAGEMENT............................................................................28
QUALITY TARGETS ............................................................................................... 31
QUALITY CONTROL PROCEDURES.........................................................................................31
MEASUREMENT OF QUALITY.................................................................................................32
COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES & PROCEDURES.............................................33
DOCUMENTATION STRATEGY................................................................................................35
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................36

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Initial Project Plan
Project Overview
The present case in this project concerns the organizing of three days
conference by the ABC event management agency in collaboration with the
International Council of Management Research for the University of Arizona. The
conference will be targeting international as well as national individuals who have a
scholarly interest in the conference theme. For the international participants it is
desired that they must be passport holders so that there are no problems in
organizing the visa. The entire details regarding the conference will be shared with
the prospective participants with the help of a temporary conference website which
will be specifically designed for furnishing the detailed information to the participants.
The participants will be able to gain the details regarding the conference, the
program schedule, registration procedure and fees as well as the procedures to
reach the conference venue, the alternatives for lodging etcetera along with the
facility to download required forms via this website portal. The website will also
enable the participants to communicate their concerns by contacting the Advisory
Committee; the international participants will also have the facility to contact the
representatives from the U.S. Embassy via this website portal. The portal will also
have a section that can deliver the requisite information as per the unique queries of
the respective participants. The conference would be sponsored jointly by the
International Council of Management Research and the University’s Computing
Research Centre. The project planning requires the need for outlining various types
of actions; in words of Kerzner (2013) a general project plan establishes the “scope,
time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, risks, procurement and

15
closeout of the proposed event” where as another set of authors Dinsmore &
Cabanis-Brewin, (2006) identify project plan with “the work authorization plan, work
package plan, cost planning and schedule planning and so on to control the project
progress.”
1. The exercises of team building that can be useful while organizing the kick-off
meeting for enhancing its effectiveness are discussed as follows:
a. The participants or the stakeholders are first requested to express their
expectations from the project in an explicit manner and hence it is required that
they are given an informal environment that encourages them to identify the
ingredients that make the project successful.
b. With the suggestions procured from the participants all the resources pertinent
for the success of the project are identified and organized in accordance to the
way they are required in the different project activities.
c. The scheduling of the project is decided by asking the participants to determine
the linking that exists between the various project tasks; it helps in tracing the
predecessors and successors and organizes the entire project in a structured
manner.
d. The technique of brainstorming can be instrumental in deciphering new project
ideas and for outlining the milestones for the project.

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Project Objectives
The SMART objectives for the project are summarized as under:
1. Outlining the target population for the project (type of discipline and themes to be
covered)
2. Outlining the programs to be provided to the targeted members (facilities)
3. Outlining the capital and infrastructural requirements (space, building,
equipments)
4. Outlining the staffing requirements (suppliers for material, the regular staff etc.)
5. Outlining the insurance, safety policies (under the law of the land)
6. Outlining the budget for different requirements
7. Arranging the money to fund expenditures on capital requirement as well as to
bear the running costs
8. Implementing the project plan
Project Outcomes
The entire chain of sequence that commences with the project initiation process
followed by its development as well as its implementation is a gigantic endeavor as
there are number of variables involved. The team in-charge needs to organize the
human resources, resources, scheduling issues, clients’ requirements etcetera within
the allocated budget. Then in addition to these the exposure of the projects to the
unpredictability in the contextual environment further intensifies the task complexity
and project handling. The success of a project might be ascertained provided that it

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is able to achieve either or the entire success criterion such as (i) ability to furnish
the requisite quality, (ii) all laid down project objectives, (iii) compliance with the
needs of the client, (iv) timely completion of the project and the entwined activities as
per the stipulated schedule and (iv) attainment of the goals within the allocated
budget.
The attainment of the project success is highly dependent on the organizational
leadership which is an instrumental factor in ascertaining how the project is
conceived, planned, organized as well motivating, supervising and controlling the
human resources so that the project goals are accomplished successfully. It is
precisely the organization and coordinated approach that decides the success of any
project; thus it is critical how the different activities are aligned with the organizational
requirements and its resources (Cleland & King, 1988).
The intricacy in designing and managing the projects makes it mandatory for the
project manager to ensure a perfect balancing the various constraints and resources.
The documentation of the project requires laying down a Project Charter which is a
crucial project document. This document is conceived during the initiation phase of
the project and serves an important role in planning the project. It enlists the guiding
information that determines and describes the primary project purpose, its
objectives, and the success criterion along with the specific high-level necessities of
the proposed project. This charter document explicitly spells each of the above
mentioned points in depth and helps in the determination of the fundamental
outcomes that can be realized through the process of Quality Assurance. The
present project intends to invite the researchers, academicians and the industry
practitioners working on Big Data management together on one forum and allow the

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interactive and enriching discussions. The project requires the creation of the web-
site that will furnish the requisite information to communicate and correspond with
the participants.
Challenges
It is ensured that the project plan document has a perfect alignment and
cohesion among the different project components as it ensures that the project is
benefitted through this integration and collaboration. It is also considered here that
the delivery schedules of the project are apt managed by interfacing the project
constituents in a structured and regulated manner. Then another challenge and
complexity faced by the project management team is managing the various
stakeholders in the process in a coordinated way. It is a great learning to plan and
organize the entire project by weaving its different constituents; it yields immense
insights about the development of the project idea right from its conception till
implementation that can be useful for the management and handling of the live
projects.
Scope Management
Before proceeding for the documentation of the project scope statement to
organize a successful conference it is required that a kick-off meeting is conducted in
the following manner.

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The identification of the stakeholder’s categories to be invited for the kick-off meeting
is the first task that needs to be done. Since the kick-off meeting is an important
activity for the project that needs to be undertaken before the project
commencement hence the tentative list of significant representatives from the
various stakeholders’ categories is made; this team is entrusted with the
responsibility of locating optimum and feasible alternatives for the project activities
(Burke, 2013). The culmination of the meeting witnesses the distribution of the roles
and responsibilities to the different individuals involved in the project; it also imparts
the team members the knowledge about the project objectives along with clarifying
the doubts they have regarding the execution of the project.
Work Breakdown Structure
The various phases of the project are then organized in a structural form that
indicates the strategy for rolling out the project’s initially. According to Kerzner
(2013), the logical framework that organizes the various activities in the project in a
coherent manner is called as projects’ work breakdown structure (WBS); it enlists the
several activities in a step down fashion, wherein each task is decomposed into sub-
activities and they are arranged in different hierarchical levels thereby yielding a
process-driven structure that exhibits the way to attain the project deliverables. The
construction of a WBS which is process-centered requires:
• the scheduling of the project phases at level one
• the scheduling of the checkpoints or the milestones at level two.

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• the scheduling of the required activities for completion of the milestones at level
three.
• any additional levels that might be required for reliable estimation of costs and
schedule are placed at the subsequent level based on hierarchy and
• locating all the project deliverables.
Figure 2: Work Breakdown Structure for Project
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Outlining the mission, objectives and goals of the organization that
needs to be accomplished via this conference
Drafting the administrative policies, identifying the requirements
(infrastructure, human resources etc.)
Arranging the resources and executing the plan
Outlining the budget and forecasting the previous estimates, the
sources for obtaining the funds, grants and subsidies from various
agencies
Level 4

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The organizing committee has to take care of the following pertinent issues. They
have to:
Arrange for the venue, which can be within the premises of the University as
well as outside. It is decided that the conference will be carried in the auditorium of
Department of Information Technology while the accommodation will be at varied
places in accordance to participant requirements. Apart from this, catering needs for
meals, lunches, tea and coffee breaks etcetera need to be considered; the suppliers
for conference stationery need to be located and the respective price quotations
should be invited; the local accommodation for non-paying delegates need to be
arranges as well as the requirements such as translation services and equipment for
international delegates will be seen. At the end the journals that will take up the
responsibility of publication of results of conference need to be identified and the
evaluation report publishers are located. In order to ensure the comfortable stay of
the conference participants it is seen that the necessary transport requirements need
to be taken care of. The event organizers need to make arrangements for the shuttle
bus that can carry participants from their place of stay to the conference venue and
vice versa. Then for the out-station candidates and the guest speakers the
organizers need to furnish transport for the site visits as well. For website
development the following WBS is adopted:

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Activities Against Desired Outcomes
Outcomes Activities
Web site layout - Develop web site layout
Web site text ready - Develop content of web site
Product’s images ready - Obtain images of products
- Process the images to post in the web site
Network ready - Install internet access
Hardware installed - Install web server hardware
Web server installed - Install web server software
Internet capacity on
maintenance of web content
- Install software for content management
- Develop internal capacity on maintenance of web
content
Internal capacity on
maintenance of web server
- Develop internal capacity on maintenance of web
server
Internal capacity on
communications with clients
- Develop procedures for communications with
clients
- Develop templates for communications with clients
- Develop internal capacity to deal with clients

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The relationship between the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and
Milestones together forms the Project Schedule Matrix (Turner et al., 1992). The
initial milestones of the project include the planning of the project and to gain the
approval from MOE to initiate this project.
Time Estimates
Project milestones along with the corresponding process duration are exhibited in
the following table.
S. No. Project Milestones DURATION (Days)
1 Project Management Plan finalization & its presentation to ABC 3
2 Getting the contract approved by ABC 1
3 First project meeting with ABC 1
4 Organizing the marketing campaign 120
5 Contacting the universities which are USA accredited and ready to
entwine with ABC for the event
35
6 Contacting as well as finalizing the sponsors 30
7 Finalizing the participants after screening 90
8 Fixing the venue 60
9 Scholarship distribution 3
10 Meetings pertaining to the project After every 15 days
11 Risk Management Analysis Concurrent
12 Updating the Project Management Plan as and when required Concurrent
13 Archiving the files/documentation 7
14 Feedback surveys from ABC/non-ABC universities’ members 14
15 Success/Failure reports 7
16 Final meeting with ABC to submit the necessary reports 1

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Resource Scheduling
Project Manager will be responsible for reviewing and approving the Quality
Management Framework; overseeing the project quality activities and ensuring that
the project is completed in the schedule timeframe (Burke, 2013). He is also
responsible for mitigating any risks or issues relating to the quality of the project.
Project Management Team Members will be responsible for ongoing quality revision
and providing feedback on deliverables and the project schedule. The Team is to
constantly find new innovative methods to improve the quality standards for ABC.
ABC Representatives will be responsible for providing feedback to the Project
Management Team to assist in determining the quality revisions. Event Sponsors will
be responsible for providing essential project resources (funding) to ensure project
activities can proceed to the set quality standards. Marketing Team will be
responsible to provide promotional material and plans to a high quality standard.
Total Resource Cost
The marketing will be outsourced. The allocated budget for print media
comprising brochures, welcome packs is $20,000. The advertising campaign
comprises email flyers, targeted social media awareness, promotional video
production as well as the ABC and event-specific website budgeted at $20,000. The
budgeted cost is $5,000 per day with the event running for three days. The
negotiations with the University will yield some waivers in exchange for the
international promotional value that this event will bring to the campus.

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The attendance of around 300 for the 3-day event is expected and the budget
on the food and drinks is fixed at $50 per person ($15,000 total) which shall be
covered by a major sponsor. A celebratory awards dinner will be organized on the
final night to congratulate all the participating teams as well as to award the prizes to
the winners. The event is estimated to cost around $30 per person ($9,000 total and
an additional cost of $500 for lighting and musical entertainment) and it will be
ticketed at $90 per person. The cash prize for the winners of the student challenge is
set at $5000 to be presented by cheque. A labor commitment of 3 staff members for
8 hours per week over 28 weeks charged at $50 per hour which totals $36,960
($33,600 + GST $3,360) is estimated. The 3 project management specialists to the
host country will be sent to coordinate the smooth delivery of the event. The
specialists will work for 10 hours each day @ $50 per hour ($3,300) with flight
disbursements of $7,500. A sensitivity analysis is also included to account for cost
increases or decreases and the flow on effect to other components of the project.
Our sensitivity analysis shows a 20% fluctuation in expected revenues and
expenses. In this analysis, the lowest expected revenue ($128,000) would be
$36,525 short of the highest expense ($164,525). For invoice and expense
reconciliation, we will present weekly cost progress reports that will outline what was
spent, for what reason and what value was gained for the organization.
Other considerations include a ‘check and balance’ system for expenses to be
approved by another staff member. This ensures authorization compliance is
improved and chance of fraudulent behavior is reduced (Gray et al., 2006).
Emergency funds for contingencies can be accessed by secondary authority only to
stop the outflow of funds toward a specific issue. The contracts between the ABC

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and external consultants is to be managed in-house and negotiated, stored and paid
by one staff member to save multiple handling and time.
Risk Management Plan
The various risks associated with this project may be categorized as under (Kerzner,
2013):
Individual Risk
Due to personal injury, accident or health issue impediments may be
observed causing slow progress in the course; delay or miss in timely reporting and
perception-expectation gaps etc.
Socio-cultural Risk
Delays in schedule or misinterpretation of information may arise due to
cultural differences across teams working in projects.
Operations Risk
Expenses may blow out of proportion if the sponsorship funds fail to meet the
project expenses.
Technology Risk
Obsolescence in learning may be realized on completion of the course due to
fast moving changes in technology.

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Planning About Potential Risks
The gravest risks will become a priority to observe and resolve. Accident or
individual risks need to be accepted while operations risk needs to be mitigated by
substantive savings.
Critical Path Management
The scheduling of project helps in estimating the projected completion time. In
certain cases the repeated nature of the tasks involved in the project, the activity
durations are known with certainty and hence the optimum project completion time
can be determined but in projects with activities that are probabilistic in nature
technology and advanced management tools have provided more strength to the
functions of the project office, time to time as more organizations are adopting the
project management tools and techniques in its various operations (Westland, 2006).
For example, if a network diagram with a well represents the different activities in the
project specified predecessor and successor activities as shown below then the
critical path could be determined using the technique of network analysis.

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AON Diagram
The forward pass is completed and the Early Start, Es and Early Finish, Ef dates are
filled on the diagram and in the columns of the above table. The longest path
involves the nodes 1,2,3,5,7,9 and 10 and the work packages on the critical (longest)
path are A, B, D, H, K and L. It is shown as thicker line on AON network. Using
forward pass method, the earliest start times for all nodes/activities are calculated as
the maximum of the earliest finish time of the preceding activities and the earliest
finish time are calculated as the sum of earliest start times and the activity duration.
For A, Es=0 and Ef= Es+ Activity duration (6) = 0+6 = 6
G
B
A
C
D
E
F
H K
J
I
L
Es=0
Ef=6
Ls=0
Lf=6
Es=6
Ef=18
Ls=6
Lf=18
Es=6
Ef=16
Ls=8
Lf=18
Es=18
Ef=29
Ls=24
Lf=35
Es=29
Ef=39
Ls=30
Lf=40
Es=18
Ef=27
Ls=18
Lf=27
Es=40
Ef=50
Ls=40
Lf=50
Es=27
Ef=35
Ls=27
Lf=35
Es=35
Ef=40
Ls=35
Lf=40
Es=18
Ef=33
Ls=20
Lf=35

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For the activities which have two or more predecessors the maximum among the
values of earliest finish time of predecessors is taken as the earliest start times, for
example in the case of activity D, the two predecessor activities are B and C with
earliest finish times 16 and 18 respectively, hence for D, the earliest start time is the
maximum between 16 and 18 which is 18 units. The backward pass is completed
and the Late Finish, Lf and Late Start, Ls dates are filled on the diagram and in the
columns of the above table. Using backward pass method, the latest finish times for
all nodes/activities are calculated as the minimum of the latest start time of the
succeeding activities and the latest start time are calculated as the difference of
latest finish times and the activity duration.
For L, Lf=50 and Ls= Lf- Activity duration (10) = 50-10= 40
For the activities which have two or more successors the minimum among the
values of latest start time of successors is taken as the latest finish time, for example
in the case of activity D, the two successor activities are G and H with latest start
time 31 and 27 respectively, hence for D, the latest finish time is the minimum
between 31 and 27 which is 27 units. The slack values as the difference of Early
Start from Late Start are shown in the last column of the above table. It can be seen
that the work packages on critical path, i.e. A, B, D, H, K and L have zero slack.
Activities Nodes Predecessor Duration Early
Start
Early
Finish
Late
Start
Late
Finish
Slack Are they
on
CriticalP
ath?
A (1,2) None 6 0 6 0 6 0 Yes
B (2,3) A 12 6 18 6 18 0 Yes
C (2,4) A 10 6 16 8 18 2 No
D (3,5) B,C 9 18 27 18 27 0 Yes
E (3,7) B,C 15 18 33 20 35 2 No
F (3,6) B,C 11 18 29 24 35 6 No
G (5,8) D 3 27 30 31 34 4 No
H (5,7) D 8 27 35 27 35 0 Yes

31
I (6,9) F 10 29 39 30 40 1 No
J (8,9) G 6 30 36 34 40 4 No
K (7,9) E,F,H 5 35 40 35 40 0 Yes
L (9,10) I,J,K 10 40 50 40 50 0 Yes
Quality Targets
The project outlines the different strategic objectives pertaining to various
quality perspectives which are mentioned in the following table:
Focus Strategic Objectives
Customer Satisfaction To Ensure World Class Academic Quality
Standards
To Deliver High Customer Satisfaction
Information Systems Increase capability of Information System
Operational Excellence To Enhance productivity
Productivity To Improve the resource and Capacity Utilization
Productivity To Reduce Operational Cost
Skill Development To Impart best Opportunities Of Training And
Development To The participants
Quality Control Procedures
The organization uses stringent quality control procedures such as
acceptance sampling plans, Schwartz control charts for mean and range, the use of
quality circles etcetera to ensure that the different processes adhere to the requisite
quality.

32
Measurement of Quality
With respect to different quality objectives the enumeration is done using
different metrics as listed in the third column of the following table and the
corresponding quality targets are shown in the fourth column of the same table.
Focus Strategic Objectives Metric Target
Customer
Satisfaction
To Ensure World Class
Academic Quality Standards
To Deliver High Customer
Satisfaction
Participant’s feedback
with high star ratings
indicators of customer
satisfaction index(CSI),
Perfect
scores along all
dimensions leads to a
score of 100%
Ratings on average
3.5-5 out of 5 or CSI> 7
on a scale of 10,
Audit rating >85 %
Information Systems Increase capability of
Information System
Percentage Of
Processes With Real
Time Feedback
> 95 %
Operational
Excellence
To Enhance productivity Process Cycle Time As minimum as
possible for differed
processes involved
Productivity To Improve the resource
and Capacity Utilization
% Utilization >85%
Productivity To Reduce Operational Cost Average Cost/Unit < 100 $ per unit
Skill Development To Impart best Opportunities Average Training Approx 15 hrs training

33
Of Training And
Development To The
participants
Hours Per participant,
Total Training Cost
Divided By Total
Headcount,
Percentage of
participants trained in
process and quality
management
in an year,
total training
cost/participant
dependent on the kind
of training imparted
Communication Strategies & Procedures
Once the needs of the different stakeholders are determined, it is identified that
what are their specific reporting requirements and accordingly it is decided that how
the distribution of the information to the respective stakeholders shall take place.
The Communication Matrix that is represented in the following table creates a
role identity for each stakeholder with respect to the appropriate communication flow
and explicitly specifies the inherent information content, kind of frequency, format
and information pertaining to their roles.
Information
Content
Frequenc
y
Technique Sponsors Business
Team
Project
Manager
Project Staff Applicatio
n Owner
Project
Managemen
t Office
Charter Once Formal
communicatio
n
Approve Review Responsible
for
generation
Inform,
consult,
Comment,
Active
participation
Approve Informed,
Review

34
, Review
Project Plan Once Formal
communicatio
n /hard
documentation
Approve Review Responsible
for
generation
Informed,
consult,
Comment,
Active
participation
, Review
Informed Informed,
Review
Project
Schedule
Monthly E-mail Review Active
participation
Responsible
for
generation
Informed,
consult,
Comment,
Active
participation
, Review
Upon
request
Informed
Status Reports Weekly Meetings/E-
mail
Informed Upon
request
Responsible
for
generation
& Approval
Active
participation
Upon
request
Upon
request
Issue Log Upon
requests
Meetings/E-
mail
Informed Active
participation
Responsible
for
generation
Active
participation
Upon
request
Upon
request
Scope Change
Management
Upon
requests
E-mail/ hard
documentation
Informed Active
participation
, consult,
App
Responsible
for
generation
Active
participation
Informed Informed
Lessons
Learned
Once Meetings/soft
electronic
documentation
Active
participatio
n
Active
participation
, Review
Active
participatio
n
Active
participation
Upon
request
Responsible
for
generation
Post
Implementatio
n Review
Once Meetings/soft
electronic
communicatio
Active
participatio
n
Informed Active
participatio
n
Informed Upon
request
Responsible
for
generation

35
n
Documentation Strategy
The filing of the documents shall take place in a systematic fashion at the
project management office that will be entrusted to record the communication in a
sequential, date wise manner. The use of the Microsoft Enterprise Project
Management software will prove beneficial in the management and control all
different kind of activities related to the project. It will be yielding a standardized
mode to communicate among the project team members in a governance framework
all across the organization and outside. The software will also be strategic in
consolidating the data essential for the project including the data on the wastes
including the solid wastes as well as the electronic and energy related wastes
(Westland, 2006). The software will provide a centralized repository for maintaining
the business and IT investments. The use of the software will help in enhancing the
efficiency of the supply chain thereby yielding an effective mechanism to make the
timely delivery of the project and program portfolios thereby optimizing the return on
investment involved in this project. The advantage of the software also includes the
better transparency in the project activities and enabling the project coordinator in
controlling the existing portfolios.

36
References
Burke, R. (2013). Project management: planning and control techniques.
Cleland, D. I., & King, W. R. (Eds.). (1988), “Project management handbook” ,Vol. 2,
Van
Dinsmore, P. C., & Cabanis-Brewin, J. (Eds.). (2006), “The AMA handbook of project
management”, Amacom
Gray, C. F., Larson, E. W., & Desai, G. V. (2006). Project management: The
managerial process.
Kerzner, H. R. (2013), “Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling”, Wiley.
Project Management Institute. (2008), “A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge: PMBOK® Guide”, Project Management Institute.
Turner, J. R. (1999), “The handbook of project-based management”, Vol. 92),
McGraw-Hill, London
Westland, J. (2006). The project management life cycle. ISBN, 749445556, 5-37.