Turning Levi Jeans Around: A Project Management Plan (MBA642)

This report presents a comprehensive project management plan aimed at revitalizing the Levi Jeans brand, which experienced a market failure. The analysis begins with an overview of Levi's business, followed by a detailed project plan based on the PMBOK framework, encompassing initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closure phases. The plan includes specific success criteria, a justification for the chosen project management software (Trello), and a discussion of the required data for each stage. The report emphasizes the importance of effective communication, risk management, and stakeholder engagement to achieve project success. It also addresses the critical aspects of role allocation, strategy development, and customer focus. The report provides a strategic roadmap to turn the project failure into a success.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Business Overview..........................................................................................................................2
Project Plan......................................................................................................................................3
Success Criteria...............................................................................................................................6
Chosen Software for the Project......................................................................................................7
Required Data to complete the Project............................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Project planning is the vital contributor to the project success. Project plan provides the
shared vision about the accomplishment of the project. Planning of the project gives the clear
idea on the team member’s responsibilities and other person’s responsibility of the organization,
who contributes to the project goals and objectives (Heravi, Coffey and Trigunarsyah 2015). It
helps in organizing the project work and it can be used for preventing the extraneous tasks of the
project activities. Project plan is very strong mechanism for communication, verbal interaction
and supplementing. It can be the vital reference for the project team that can be used with the
other stakeholders of the organization. This report analyses the failure of the project, which is the
project of Levi Jeans. This report provides some of the strategic approach for making the project
of Levi Jeans successful. This report analyses the factors of the failure of the project and evaluate
a proper planning for the project for managing the task and team, which will lead the project to
success.
Business Overview
Levi’s is a private organization of clothing and it is known globally for the brand of the
denim jeans ‘Levis’. Levi Strauss and his brother Jacob Davis founded this organization in the
year 1853. Although the organization started producing the denim in the entire year of 1870 but
until the year 1920, the modern jeans were not produced (Downey 2016). The business became
successful to develop the image of their brand worldwide by selling their main products like
jeans, belts, hats and skirts. However, the brand faced failure because of the no use of the
strategies and formal methods and there was a lack of effective communication at all the stages.
There were multiple reasons for the failure of the brand Levis such as it became uncomfortable

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than before, the company focused on the style rather than the comfort. Instead of emphasizing
the core values of the brand, the company became confused the jeans with the limitless arrays of
various styles. However, by planning the project properly, all these failure factors can be reduced
and make it successful again.
Project Plan
The planning of the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) organizes the
process of project management into fives effective stages. The stages follow the project life cycle
and the project manager can go back to planning stage in case of error or failure in order plan the
project again properly (Kerzner 2017). Followings are the stages of the project management
plan, following which the organization Levis can make their company successful.
Initiation
In the initiation stage, the project should be authorized and generated. The project
manager or the project leader should create an overview of the project of the organization. In this
case, the project can be initiated again by evaluating their brand value and effective product and
this way the loss can be recovered with proper start (Gonzalez 2014). This is the conception of
this project. In this stage, the team members and the team leader should to explore the ideas and
should research after determining the prospect of the project. In this stage, the sponsors and the
stakeholders will be convinced that their idea will worthwhile and will embark on the project,
which will give a successful outcome (Jeng and Huang 2015). All these aspects in this stage will
help in determining if anywhere the project will be feasible enough or not for starting the project.
After the decision is made about the project for proceeding effectively then the project will move
to the following stage.

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Planning
In this project management body of knowledge, this is included with the multiple areas in
which the project success of Levis is related directly to the planning, which will be performed by
the project management of Levis. The main document of project management of Levis should be
created in this stage. In this stage, the success factors should be created, which will include the
budget and schedule of Levis and there will be many small factors, which should not be
overlooked by the team. The project manager should identify the work of this stage and the
boundaries need to be created in the scope statement. The products of the Levis should be listed
in this stage and the project manager should break down the task into small tasks. The timelines
and the deadlines of the tasks need to be determined for the delivery of the project (Zachko and
Kobylkin 2018). The project manager should estimate the cost of the products of Levis and
should roll up the entire project budget. The roles and responsibilities of the project team
members should be identified and the acquisition method of the team members will be created.
The quality standard for the Levis project needs to be identified and the control metrics and the
quality assurance will be created (Kerzner 2019). The most essential factors of the failure of the
Levis project is risk management plan, which is the key factor of the project success and this
must be determined and analyzed for ensuring that the project is under control.
Execution
In this stage, the tasks of the project will take place. The project manager of Levis will
direct and manage the work of the project and the team will carry out the task. After that, the
deliverables of the project will produce and the successful project will be delivered to the
sponsors. Two main documents of project management are there in this stage such as stakeholder

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communication and project status updates (Serra and Kunc 2015). Communication was one of
the major issues of the failure of Levis. The stakeholders of the organization should
communicate with the own information and term which is specific to stakeholders. During the
execution of the project, the communication should be performed according to the project
management plan (Cagliano, Grimaldi and Rafele 2015). Another factor of this stage is the
project status update in which the project manager should update the regular work status as the
requirement of the project plan. These updates are included with the schedule, cost and status of
the future projection.
Monitoring and Controlling
The project manager of Levis must monitor the project and the progress after the
execution of the project by analyzing the project. After the execution stage, by doing meetings
and taking feedbacks from the stakeholders can be very effective in the evaluation of the project
success. In this stage, if the project manager notices any error in this stage, he or she can go back
to the planning stage for proper planning (Yang and Tamir 2015). However, the project manager
should ensure that every stage of the project is aligning to the project goals and success. Proper
monitoring and controlling of unwanted factors could help in completing the project of Levis
with the estimated budget and time. The reason behind the failure of the project of Levis can be
analyzed in this stage, which will alert them for not repeat the same thing.
Closure
The closing of the project is the stage, which is mostly minimized by the project
managers. This happens because the budget is gone. However, the closure stage of the project is
extremely vital stage, this is visible to the stakeholders, and this can affect the success of the

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project (Serra and Kunc 2015). In this stage, the project manager needs to ensure that everything
is done as per their planning and after getting the positive feedback from the stakeholders the
project manager can close the project effectively and successfully.
Success Criteria
The effective strategy of project management is needed in turning the project failure in to
the success of the project. The reason of the failure of the Levis project is analyzed in this report
so that the project manager does not repeat the same. This is very vital that the factors of the
failure of the project of Levis are known by the team members for avoiding any error in the
current project. The project manager and the team members must be aware of the factors for
suggesting other positive approaches in this project (Frefer et al. 2018). The project manager
should allocate the role and responsibilities of the team members very carefully to the right
person so that the person can perform with the hard work and integrity. Every team member
needs to have the positive approaches towards the goals of the project. Distribution of the work
is very vital in the project. The success factor of the project will be dependent on the support of
the management. The management of the organization needs to be dynamic to manage any error
and complexity in their project. There was lack of communication in the previous project of
Levis. Therefore, there should be an effective communication among the team member so that
they can effectively communication with other about any discussion of the project. This can help
the project to recover from the failure very much. There was also lack of formal strategies and
method. For this, the project manager should create some effective strategies and generate
unique ideas for making the project successful (Beleiu, Crisan and Nistor 2015). The team
members also need to participate in the task proactively so that they can lead the project to

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success. Moreover, the company needs to think about the demand and comfort of the customers
who are going to use their product. If the company is providing the desire product to the
customer then this can be one of the success factors of this project.
Chosen Software for the Project
For the effective project management of the company Lavis, Trello can be the most
valuable project management tool (Ostergaard 2016). Followings are the benefit of using the PM
tool Trello, which can benefit the project team in completing the project effectively and
successfully.
Flexibility
Trello is best known for its flexibility. The free account of Trello has multiple features to
customize the project. This project management tool runs in any types of web browser and offer
application for both Android and iOS. All the factors of Trello culminate for ensuring that
anybody who is able to connect to internet can use the features of Trello. As this is an online-
based tool, this can be easily accessible from anywhere anytime.
Familiarity
Trello adds multiple features in their tool by taking the features from multiple project
management tools, which make easy to use for the team members (Horváth 2019). For example
if any team member is familiar with any other tool, he or she can use Trello as well very easily as
this will provide the similar whiteboard for the project.
Collaboration

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The ability in collaborating is very vital feature in any project management tool for
managing any projects. Trello creates collaboration between the team members easily and this
software makes the work very fun experience. This tools has multiple features including making
the private or public board and adding the deadline or checklist for displaying the goals and
objectives of the project.
Required Data to complete the Project
 The data needed for initiating the project is the idea and the title of the project with the
budget, timeline and associated stakeholders.
 The data needed for planning the project are data for project resources, risks, schedule
and deliverables.
 The data needed for the execution stage are updates of the progress and feedbacks from
the stakeholders and the resources that are going to be used in the execution stage
(Kendrick 2015).
 The data needed for the monitoring stage are approaches of the team members for
completing the project effectively and the errors that can occur in this stage.
 The data needed for the closure stage of this project are the project report and successful
project deliverables.
Conclusion
This can be concluded from this study that for the failure of the previous project of Levis,
there were multiple factors, which can be turned into success by planning the project properly
again with the collaboration of the team members and the team leader. By following the five

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IPECC stages of project management, the project team and the team leader can lead the project
of Levis towards the success. By concerning about the reason of the failure, the project team can
avoid the risks again. For the successful project, Trello can be best software for the organization
Levis as the tool provides multiple features, which can help the team members for completing
the project successfully.

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success. Interdisciplinary Management Research, 11(2), pp.59-72.
Cagliano, A.C., Grimaldi, S. and Rafele, C., 2015. Choosing project risk management
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Massachusetts Press.
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