Bloomsbury Institute: Comprehensive Graduation Ceremony Project Plan

This project plan outlines the comprehensive management of a graduation ceremony, scheduled for November 2021, with a budget of £7000 and a project duration of less than three months. The plan encompasses key project management areas including scope management, which defines project activities, objectives, assumptions, constraints, roles, and responsibilities. Time management is addressed through an activity base table, Gantt chart, and network diagram, ensuring timely completion. Cost management includes a detailed cost breakdown and baseline, adhering to the budgetary constraints. Risk management identifies potential issues, provides analysis, and offers action plans. Communication management defines stakeholders and establishes a communication plan to ensure effective information flow. This project plan serves as a practical guide for organizing the graduation ceremony, integrating essential management functions to ensure a successful event.

Managing Operations -
Project Plan
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Project Plan......................................................................................................................................3
Scope management.....................................................................................................................3
Time management.......................................................................................................................5
Cost management........................................................................................................................7
Risk Management.......................................................................................................................9
Communication Management...................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
Project planning and management is a process that starts pre-conception of a project and
continues till the conclusion of the event. Management of a project requires all managerial
functions like planning, organising, staffing, controlling, etc. to be performed within a time
frame in a cost bound manner (Jaime and et. al., 2016). This report undertakes project planning
for organising a graduation ceremony. The event is scheduled to take place in November 2021.
Allocated budget is maximum of £7000 and project time frame is provided for less than 3
months. Scope management, time management, risk management, cost management and
stakeholder management for the project has been undertaken below.
Project Plan
Scope management
Project description
The mentioned project is about organising a graduation ceremony scheduled to be held in
November 2021 in the allocated budget which should not exceed £7000. Project planning is
precursor of event planning and includes taking preliminary decision about bifurcation of
activities, division of roles and responsibilities between students and help teaching staff. Further,
risk related to project planning and stakeholder management is to be observed.
Objectives
It refers to the targets upon which project planning will be based (González-Marcos and
et. al., 2016). To complete a project successfully in a time-bound manner within provided
budget, it is very important to set SMART objectives that helps in both planning and controlling
function of the project.
Objective - “To plan a graduation ceremony within 3 months at about 90% of the
provided budget of £7000.”
Scope
Project scope is a outline of multiple aspects of the project like included activities,
resources' distribution, timelines and other project boundaries. This projects aim to clear out all
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activities that will enable successful organisation of graduation ceremony. Graduation ceremony
is an event wherein students will be conferred with their degrees and certificates. Therefore, the
focus is on organising an event that is able to stay in memories of students in all positive manner
(Lutsenko, 2018).
Assumptions
This project is held in November 2021 and therefore, it is assumed that all the pandemic
related restrictions would be lifted by then and there will be no restrictions on travel, on
assembling of large masses and further, there will be no restrictions in the market, so that project
resources cost would not exceed than the planned one.
Constraints
Project planning includes venue management, cost management and resource
management (Ciric and et. al., 2018). However, considering the limited budget and targeted
objective, it might face constraints limited to budget and sponsors. Further, time is limited and
the market is not fully functional yet due to pandemic and therefore, might face related
constraints. In addition, there can be other external factors that can create constrains and
contingencies.
Project roles and responsibilities
This project would be organised by the Students' Body in coordination and with support
of their teachers. Below mentioned are the division of roles and responsibilities to clearly mark
their duties and help them perform their best in cohesion with other team members.
Project Team Roles and responsibilities
Project Manager Discussion and approval of all project activities like budgeting
and stakeholder communication management.
Head of the departments Help in determining sequence of project planned activities
Departmental teaching faculty Oversee execution of project activities in communication with
students' organisers and will divide students in teams according
to the activities assigned such as food, sound and light,
properties, etc.
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Student leaders Head of teams designated to perform various activities and
responsible for the performance of their individual team
members.
Student – volunteers Part of various activities team and will be responsible for the
role assigned to them their team leaders and teachers.
Security Their role is to oversee smooth execution of project event and
will be responsible to accommodate guests and parents in the
ceremony (Nguyen, Chih and García de Soto, 2017).
Work-breakdown structure
Work-breakdown structure is the breakdown of the project scope into the various groups
of activities and their sub-components, in order to ensure maximum efficiency in the project
performance.
Time management
Activity base table
Activity base table refers to determining sequence of project activities and their
dependencies over each other to clear the path of successful execution of project (Lechler and
Yang, 2017).
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Number Activities Duration required
to complete
Predecessor
1 Budgetary decision 7 days
2 Team formation 15 days 1
3 Venue decision 15 days 1
4 Food and catering 20 days 2
5 Light and sound 15 days 2
6 Order medals and graduation caps 30 days 3
7 Sending invitations to guests' and parents' 45 days 3
8 Arranging Security 45 days 3
9 Activities and rehearsals 29 days 5
10 Event 1 day 9
Gantt Chart
Gantt chart is used to determine project duration and the sequence in which work
activities are divided to be performed in most optimised manner (Hermano and Martín-Cruz,
2019). Project duration provided for the event is 3 months and the events is scheduled to take
place in November. It has been assumed that it is a one-day event and will take place on 25 th
November, 2021. Therefore, accordingly project planning from 3-months prior has been
illustrated below:
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Network diagram
Network diagram is the representation of all project activities in a nutshell (Momeni,
Yaghoubi and Aliha, 2019). They reflect the connections between the activities and helps
determine schedule of the work to help increase performance of the organisation.
Cost management
Project Cost Breakdown
It has been provided that project should be completed within £7000 and it has been taken
as SMART objective that project should be completed within 90% of the budgeted cost i.e.
£6300. With the objective to complete the project within £6300, following cost breakdown has
been determined:
Cost Particular Budgetary allocation (in £)
Total budget allocated 7000
Less: 10% target 700
Budget cost 6300
Expenses:
Food 850
Music, light and sound 650
Photographers 500
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Venue expenses - rent and decorations 700
Costumes and other properties 900
Medals and certificates 450
Accommodation 1200
Security 550
Cleaning 500
Project Cost Baseline
Project cost baseline refers to approved time phased plan (Andler, 2016). It is prepared
post preparation and approval of the detailed budget. This act as standard for actual performance.
Further, it acts as tools to check how much project plan has changed from planning to
implementation phase.
Activities September
Payments (in £)
October
Payments (in £)
November
Payments (in £)
Total
budgetary
Allocation
Food 200 350 300 850
Music, light and sound 150 500 650
Photographers 200 300 500
Venue expenses - rent
and decorations
350 350 700
Costumes and other
properties
400 500 900
Medals and certificates 100 100 250 450
Accommodation 400 200 600 1200
Security 100 150 300 550
Cleaning 200 300 500
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Risk Management
Risk identification, analysis and action plan
Risk Analysis Person
responsible
Action Plan
Budget Constraint High College
authorities
Budget is limited and on top of it, aimed
to save further 10%. Therefore, all
activities must be timely conducted and
lowest bidders must be given contracts
to save cost.
Time delay Moderate Team leaders Project has been provide sufficient time
to be organised. However, in case any
activities delays, back ups must be ready
to support the project as time delay can
increase cost (Sholarin and Awange,
2016).
Security lapses like
theft
Moderate Security team Security team has been hired and will be
kept on keen vigilance to avoid such
incident and in case it happens, frisk
checking would be done to regain
situation.
Stampede Low Security team Security team is there to ensure any
unfortunate incident doesn't take place
but precautionary, ambulance and fire
brigade team would be available at
event site to help.
Environmental risk Medium Head of the
departments
Event is happening in later November
and it is likely that some environmental
issues arise which are not possible to
control. However, solutions like covered
venue and heating facilities will be
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made available to control adverse
impact of the situation (Kaim, Härting
and Reichstein, 2019).
Food related risks Medium Food
managing team
No food supplier or stall would be
allowed without quality check and in
case of some adverse situation,
ambulance and doctors would be present
on venue to handle the situation.
Traffic issues Medium Traffic
volunteers
team
Team of volunteers would be in-charge
to ensure no traffic jam issues arise in
institute due to event.
Waste generation High Cleaning team Large gathering is bound to create heaps
of garbage. Its safe disposal is to be
ensured by cleaning team. Further,
biodegradable products and recycle
would be promoted.
Communication Management
Stakeholders
Stakeholders are those individuals and groups which have direct and indirect interest in a
project (Silvius, 2019). They could be internal and external to the project management team.
Internal stakeholders in this project are those groups which are present within institute and
participant of the project team such as college authorities, student – volunteers, student leaders,
teachers, head of department and student-participants. External stakeholders are those groups
which are involved with the project planning however, are not present within institute such as
suppliers, guests and parents. Below mentioned is the power interest matrix for the project
shareholder to develop appropriate communication plan accordingly:
 Manage closely – These are stakeholders with high power over the project and are also
interested in project plan. Therefore, these groups must be completely engaged with like
student leaders and supervising teachers.
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 Keep satisfied – These are stakeholders with high power but are less interested in
knowing every know-how about the project. Therefore, they must be informed of all
major decisions and other information can be intimated as a periodic report. For example,
college authorities and head of departments.
 Keep informed – These are stakeholders with low power but high interest in the project.
Therefore, they just need to be informed and communicated with when necessary,
otherwise just intimated. For example, student-volunteers and suppliers (Martinsuo and
Geraldi, 2020).
 Monitor – These are stakeholders with both low power and lesser interest in the project
planning. Therefore, they just need to be monitored and intimated information which
pertains to them. For example, student-participants, guests and parents.
Communication plan
Level of communication with shareholders is dependent on the level of influence those
shareholders wield on the project (Maratou, Chatzidaki and Xenos, 2016). Below mentioned is
the stakeholder communication plan as per the level of influence they wield:
Stakeholder Level of influence Communication plan
Student leaders High They must be informed of every development
that pertains to their team as well as they be
informed of project progress in general.
Supervising teachers High They must be kept in the loop of information of
project progress and informed every
development as they are responsible to oversee
smooth planning and execution of the project.
College authorities Medium They need to be only informed of major
decisions such as related to finance, suppliers,
guests, etc. and for other information, just need
to provide a written mail informing about
periodic development.
Head of the departments High They must be kept in the loop of information of
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project progress and informed every
development as they are responsible to oversee
smooth planning and execution of the project.
Student-volunteers Medium They need to be informed every decision that
affect their performance and duty assigned to
them and for rest, they can just rely on their
team leaders (Lauren and Schreiber, 2018).
Suppliers Low They need to be informed the decisions and
details that are concerned to them. It can be both
written or oral intimation.
Student-participants Low They need to be informed the decisions and
details that are concerned to them. It can be both
written or oral intimation.
Guests Low They need to be informed the decisions and
details that are concerned to them. It can be both
written or oral intimation. However, written
intimation is preferred (Siemens, 2016).
Parents Low They need to be informed the decisions and
details that are concerned to them. It can be both
written or oral intimation. However, written
intimation is preferred.
Conclusion
Above report is based on planning project for organising a graduation ceremony and
accordingly scope management, time management, cost management, risk management and
stakeholder management has been observed.
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References
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Silvius, G., 2019. Making Sense of Sustainable Project Management. Annals of Social Sciences
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