Project Management Plan for McDonald's Customer Service Globalization

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This project analyzes the impact of globalization on McDonald's customer service.

Managing successfully a business
project

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................2
P1. Devise project aims and objectives for a chosen scenario...............................................2
P2. Produce a project management plan that covers aspects of cost, scope, time, quality,
communication, risk and resources........................................................................................2
P3. Produce a work breakdown structure and a Gantt chart to provide timeframes and
stages for completion.............................................................................................................3
M1. Produce a comprehensive project management plan, milestone schedule and project
schedule for monitoring and completing the aims and objectives of the project...................5
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................7
P4 Carry out small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research
methods..................................................................................................................................7
M2. Critically evaluate the project management process and appropriate research
methodologies applied and the reliability of different research methods applied.................9
Task 3.........................................................................................................................................9
P5. Analyse research and data using appropriate tools and techniques.................................9
P6. Communicate appropriate recommendations as a result of research and data analysis in
order to draw valid and meaningful conclusions.................................................................13
M3. Evaluate the selection of appropriate tools and techniques for accuracy and
authenticity to support and justify recommendations..........................................................14
Task 4.......................................................................................................................................15
P7. Reflect on the value of the undertaking the research meet the stated objectives and own
learning and performance.....................................................................................................15
M4. Evaluate the value of the project management process and use of quality research to
meet stated objectives and support own learning and performance.....................................15
Conclusion................................................................................................................................17
References................................................................................................................................18

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Work breakdown structure..........................................................................................4

Introduction
During the project management, the main factor to optimise the use of the capabilities and
constraints to achieve the defined goals and objectives. The project management process is
not only to execute the project is systematic manner but also to deliver the outcomes with
high accuracy and reliability within the defined constraints of the time and cost. The report
will discuss the impact of the globalisation on the customer services of the McDonalds and
for that; the project is planned for the capabilities and constraints with the establishment of
the goals and objectives. Later, work breakdown structure and Gantt chart is used to achieve
the optimal use of the resources systematically. The research also will be completed through
the literature review, data collection and data analysis process. The own performance and
contribution in the research also will be measured and monitored.
1

Task 1
P1. Devise project aims and objectives for a chosen scenario
About the project concept
Customer service is required in an organisation to engage the customers in business decision
making, resolve their issues within time and establish the communication for understanding
with market trends and expectations (Taylor, 2017). The customers make the organisation
reliable and liable toward the customers.
Aim
The project has the aim to study the globalisation and customer services and understand the
potential impacts globalisation can draw on the customer services of the McDonalds.
Objectives
 To study the need and importance of the customers services in business function and
globalisation in business practices.
 To study the impacts of the globalisation on the customer services of the organisation.
P2. Produce a project management plan that covers aspects of cost, scope, time, quality,
communication, risk and resources
Project definition
The project is planned to analyse the importance of the customer services for the McDonalds
and impacts of the globalisation on the customer services. The project is being planned to
understand the capabilities in the market, business operations and customer market to adopt
the changes and earned high profitability and continuance through the globalisation.
Scope: The project scope can help to understand the suitability of the project and outcomes
for the organisation. There are mainly two scopes for the project:
Business scope: The organisation can deduct the cost of operations through outsourcing, low-
wage employment in other countries and the implication of cheaper technology. The project
will deliver the work breakdown structure and Gantt chart for project planning (Nicholas and
2

Steyn, 2017). Critical path analysis is also used to determine alternative paths and risk factors
during processing.
Product scope: The customer services can get better support, services and reliability through
the increased reach to the customers within cost. Customers also can get answers to their
queries in their native language. Globalisation can optimise the cost on the communication
technology and service availability.
Cost: It is assumed that the project can last go for $1500 including the cost of market
research, literature sources, the time consumed and validation techniques.
Time: Time of eight weeks is estimated as appropriate for the research including the time of
the project definition, initialisation, planning and execution. Also, time of data collection,
analysis and documentation are also included in it.
Quality: Project has use of regular meetings, personal interaction, progress monitoring and
goal mapping to ensure that the quality of the project is effective (Too and Weaver, 2014).
The project manager is liable to monitor the quality and establish the change process if
required.
Communication: Emails, telephonic conversation and personal interactions are some of the
major methods of communication. The project has use of the reporting process to ensure that
communication is no-repudiated for resources.
Risk: Risk assessment and mitigation techniques can be used in the project. Risk avoidance,
transfer, mitigating and accept are used as potential strategies for risk handling.
Resources: The project has three resources to support the execution. There is also a limitation
of the resources as well as assets to ensure the effective execution (Hill, 2013). The resources
are parallel distributed among the activities to achieve the performance.
P3. Produce a work breakdown structure and a Gantt chart to provide timeframes and stages
for completion
Work breakdown structure is required to create the systematic view of the activities so that
resources and capabilities can be arranged effectively. It can optimize the time and cost for
the project and deliver the modular structure for the project execution whereas Gantt chart is
3

useful to monitor the project progress with alignment to goals and objectives. It helps to
increase the performance and quality through effective monitoring.
Figure 1: Work breakdown structure
Table 1: Gantt chart
Activities/week First Second Third Forth Fifth Sixth Seventh Eighth
Definition
Select subject
Identify scope
Initialization
Conceptualization
Research gap
analysis
Gathering assets and
requirements
Understanding
project management
process
4
DefinitionSelectingsubjectIdentifyingscopeofresearchInitializationConceptualizationResearchgapanalysisPlanningExecutivesummaryCostTimeConstraintsRiskQualityStrategicalignmentsSchedulesandmilestoneScopeanalysisDesigningResearchmethodselectionLiteraturereviewQuestionnaireSamplingDataanalysisMonitoringandcontrollingPerformancereviewProjectlogbookClosureDocumentationClosetheproject

Planning
Capabilities
Constraints
Risks
Scope
Designing
Research method
selection
LR
Questionnaire
Data sampling
Data analysis
Controlling and
monitoring
Performance review
Project logbook
Project closure
M1. Produce a comprehensive project management plan, milestone schedule and project
schedule for monitoring and completing the aims and objectives of the project
Besides the above components of the project management plan, the following elements are
required to consider for effective planning.
Executive summary: It is required so that individual can understand the goals, objectives and
outcomes of the project with conceptualisation on the project area. The executive summary of
the project has the inclusion of the definition of the globalisation and its impacts on the
customer services.
Strategic/organisational alignments: The project stakeholder analysis is the main part of the
alignment as it helps to integrate critical stakeholders for their requirements and expectations.
The customers are a major stakeholder for the project to get benefits and quality on the
services whereas the organisation and employees also play a vital role to define the strategies
and approaches to move toward the globalisation (Kerzner, 2018).
Feasibility assessment and contingency plans: Currently, the organisation is in the stable
situation so that the organisation can easily align for the globalisation functions. It also can
5

afford the cost, quality, time and research work. The possible situations can be used to
continue the operations on the current strategies. If the impacts are adverse on the business
related to customer services, then the continuance plan can be used. The project has a relay
on the traditional customer services to ensure contingency with project execution.
Constraints: The project has the limitation of the resources, time and skills. The constraints
can impact the quality and performance. However, effective resource distribution, parallel
activity execution and guidance are expected to achieve the desired outcome.
Project schedule and milestones: Gantt chart of the project defines the project schedule for
the activities and their outcomes (Martinelli and Milosevic, 2016). Following is the milestone
schedule for the project to achieve the desired outcomes on time with quality and
performance.
Deliverables Due date/duration Critical dependencies
Project issues: The impact of the changing market conditions and emerging trends on the
globalisation practices are significant issues for the project to lead the accurate results.
However, the project manager will consider the current values and parameters for the
outcome analysis.
Change management: First, the change request is reviewed and approved by the project
manager, and then the related alignments and changes are initiated on the project. The change
management process is defined to control the outcomes.
6

Task 2
P4 Carry out small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods
Suitable research methods
The qualitative research method is useful for the project to collect the information on the
globalisation and its impacts on the customer services. The research method can help to
collect data through the books, journals, newspapers, magazine and other sources. Statistical
and theoretical information can help to use the already work and optimise the performance
and quality (Morgan, 2013). Also, the use of the quantitative methods can help to get more
reliable and accurate data through the questionnaires, interview and survey. Both ways are
suitable to support the performance and quality of the research whereas they also help to
integrate the related sources in research work.
Qualitative research- Literature review
According to Gibson (2013), globalisation is a process an organisation can use to influence
the other organisational globally or achieve the operational scalability in the global market.
The authors have defined that the globalisation of the customer service is increasing as the
customers are diversified for the language, interaction and communication methods in
different countries. According to Yi and Gong (2013), McDonalds has business operations in
several countries and therefore, the vast customer market needs support and communication.
Customer services are used in the organisation to engage the customers in the business
process so that more reliable and accurate information can be driven on the customer
demands and market trends. Globalisation has impacted the organisation for the employment,
wages, international trading and agreements, competition, customer market and growth
factors.
According to Crawford (2015), the globalisation has provided reach to the developing
markets so that the organisation has high profitability with sole control on the market
demands. Also, globalisation of the customer services at the developing destinations has
helped to reduce the cost, complexities and integration barriers. More reliable and effective
services can be provided through the native language, store and reach to the customers.
7

Globalisation has helped to develop the local touch-points for customers and enhanced the
quality and performance in customer services.
However, Rathi (2013) has argued that the globalisation also has impacted the customer
services for the reliability. The outsourcing and offshore services have impacted McDonalds
for trust management among the customers. The organisation is also facing the increasing
number of the conflicts and issues due to poor cultural and social value integration and
changing perspectives of the customers on the services.
Quantitative research- Questionnaire
1. Do you think, customer services can be outsourced to other organisations?
a) Yes b) No
2. Is globalisation increased competition among business and so that cost on customer service
is reduced?
a) Yes b) No
3. Has McDonald’s benefits of the distributed customer services?
a) Yes b) No
4. Is customer satisfied with the globalisation impact for the employment and wages at
destination?
a) Yes b) No
5. Do you think, customer satisfaction increased with globalisation as they have scope to get
support in their native language and environment?
a) Yes b) No
6. Are you agree that the outsourcing of the customer services may impact the risk on the
business for data security and protection?
a) Yes b) No
7. Has globalisation benefits for McDonalds to achieve comparative growth and profitability?
8