Developing a Project Management Plan for Levi Jeans' Success

This report presents a comprehensive project management plan aimed at revitalizing the Levi Jeans brand, which experienced market failure. The plan follows the IPECC model, encompassing initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closing phases. It includes an analysis of the reasons behind the failure, identification of success criteria, and the selection of MS Project as the most suitable software for managing the project. The report details the data required at each stage of the project plan, emphasizing the importance of stakeholder involvement, effective communication, and continuous monitoring to ensure the project's alignment with its objectives and budget. The proposed plan aims to leverage lessons learned from the past, incorporating innovative strategies and market trends to reposition Levi Jeans for success. The report highlights the role of the project manager and the team in driving the project towards its goals.

Running head: DIFFERENT STAGES IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
DIFFERENT STAGES IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Background................................................................................................................................2
Project Plan................................................................................................................................3
Success Criteria..........................................................................................................................5
Software that can be used in the project.....................................................................................6
Data needed in each step of complete project plan....................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Project planning refers to the process that is made use of for establishing the scope of
the project, stating the objectives and taking necessary steps to achieve these. This can be
considered as the most vital process constituting project management. The project
management plan can be said as the output of the project planning process. The project
management plan consists of the scope of the project along with its objectives. In order to
create a project plan certain steps need to be followed. The scope along with the value of the
project plan needs to be understood, extensive research needs to be conducted, project plan
outline needs to be there and a clear idea of the deliverables. In this case, the failure of Levi
jeans will be analyzed and a project plane developed so that their failure can be turned into
success. The project plan will define the approach as well as the process that Levi can make
use of to make its jeans a success. The reason behind the failures should be analyzed properly
so that according to it project plan can be prepared. The outline of the project will help in
organizing thoughts and formulating things that might be useful for the project.
Background
Levi is a classic brand and owes its roots to a Bavarian immigrant in the dying years
of battle for the American West. It is said to be as the largest producer of pants and its
product including tailored slacks, hats, belts and skirts. The company has its headquarter in
San Francisco. The company has been successful in creating its brand name. The failure of
Levi jeans can be attributed to many reasons that include bad strategy and bringing so many
different variations to the market at a time. The failure of a product to capture the market can
be attributed to bad project management and undefined project goals. In order to make it a
success a proper project management plan needs to be adopted by the company and work
proceeded according to the same.

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Project Plan
A project is divided into five different phases as per the project management body of
knowledge. The phases may or may not be carried out in a chronological order. For example
when there are some alterations in the project, the manager can get back to the planning
phase (Kerzner 2017). Thus for this reason these phases are termed as process groups. The
process groups are as follows:
1. Initiating- In the project initiation phase the project needs to be created as well as
authorized. Here in this context the project is to make Levi jeans a successful product and
help the company to get out of the loss. In this stage a project charter will be developed and
the stakeholders identified. The project charter will help in incorporating the project as well
as assign a project manager for the same. The scope statement, budget of the project and the
primary stakeholders in this case will be defined. The project’s scope is to turn the failure of
Levi jeans into success (Varajão, Colomo-Palacios and Silva 2017. Initial budget for the
project needs to be allocated in this phase. The stakeholders of this project are managers,
customers, executives, marketing personnel and many more. The initiation is a major step as
according to it the project will be planned and started.
2. Planning- This is the phase that is generally not given that much of importance. In the
project planning phase there are various sub-parts containing information about the success
factors, scope of the project, the project deliverables, schedule, human resource plan, risk
management plan, change in procedures and procurement management plan. The budget of
the project is also included in this (Fleming and Koppelman 2016). In the case of Levi jeans
the success factors can be the fixed budget of the project and associated schedule. Knowledge
management, new strategies for the product, teams should be allocated for developing new
designs and top management support. A project fails or succeeds depending on the planning

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it is backed up with. Levi jeans were launched and there was no such plan as the management
was over confident about the success of the product thinking of the brand name that they
already had.
3. Execution- This is one of the most important steps and project is implemented as per the
plan made previously. The team members play an important role in the execution stage and
the project manager is responsible to guide them to achieve the goals. The roles and
responsibilities should be well distributed among the team members and other who are
associated with the project. There is a huge difference in coming up with a whole new project
and making a failed project successful (Jamali and Oveisi 2016). Thus in this case of Levi
jeans, the project manager should ensure that the team members have required skills to be a
part of the project. Their skills should be supported by proper resources so that the project
can be executed in a proper way. The deliverables should be checked by the project manager
as
4. Monitoring and controlling- Execution is not enough because once the project is executed;
it is the duty of the project manager to see that the project is proceeding well. The feedback
of all the stakeholders should be taken so that the failure of the jeans can be turned into
success. At every stage, project manager needs to check that the project proceedings are
aligned to the defined scope (Muriana and Vizzini 2017). Proper monitoring of the project
will ensure that it gets completed on time and does not exceed the budget that was decided
earlier. In this stage the risks can be identified that led to the failure so that the same can be
mitigated.
5. Closing- This is an equally important step and project manager should close the project and
before the closure, it should be ensured by the project manager that the jeans meet customer

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expectations and what was that which was not liked by them (Padalkar and Gopinath 2016).
The feedback of the customers can help a lot in turning the failed project into a success.
Success Criteria
In order to turn the failed project into success, the company needs to have an effective
strategy. The reasons behind the failure of the project should be analyzed so that they can be
mitigated in this project. The factors that led to the failure should be listed and discussed
properly so that each of the stakeholders of the project understands the same. The distribution
of work should be done as per the requirements of the various departments involved in the
project and individuals with proper skills and knowledge should be hired (Meredith, Mantel
and Shafer 2017). The success factor depends on the support and proactiveness of the
management as well. The management should be active enough to handle the complexities of
the project at any time and it should be ensured that they do not keep tasks pending.
This project is a failed one and thus before restarting the same, proper plans should be
done and brainstorming can be of great help in this case. Brainstorming can help the project
manager to get various ideas that can help support the scope of the project. The members who
were a part of the previous project should be consulted and included in the team so that their
knowledge on this project can be made use of this time. Communication in between the team
members can be said to as the key to a successful project and thus it should be ensured that
every team member has good communication skills (Chaves et al. 2016). The ideas of the
members should be taken in case of the modifications that can be done to the jeans so that
these can be incorporated in the new products. The company can analyze the ongoing trends
and design products accordingly and work on bring in some innovativeness in the materials
used for making the jeans. Bringing in innovativeness can be a competitive advantage and
can turn the failed project into success.

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Software that can be used in the project
The software that can aid the company in their venture is MS Project. In this case
project management software such as MS Project can help the project manager to manage
and organize the project deliverables (Lewis, Chatfield and Johnson 2019). This will help the
project manager to achieve the set goal and manage the different facets of the failed project
so that it can be made a successful one this time.
MS Project should be chosen as it has many advantages, as given below:
1. Flexible- MS Project can be relied upon for this task as it has been released 30 years ago
and can be said to be one of the earliest software having lot of experience (Kendrick 2015).
The features are frequently updated so it can prove to be beneficial for the company.
2. Ease of integration- MS Project can be easily integrated with other tools of Microsoft such
as Outlook, Access Excel, Word and many more.
3. Different channels for communication- MS Project will give easy access to tools such as
Outlook, Skype and many more that can help in proper communication between the team
members (Svejvig and Andersen 2015). The team can be kept connected by using these tools
and this also provides many communication choices. In a project, proper communication is
said to be a key success factor and thus the software can act as the medium to enhance the
same.
In the project planning and scheduling stages MS Project can help in prioritizing the
tasks related to Levi jeans; properly manage tasks by helping the manager to define the
various activities involved and providing a team calendar. The timeline of the project can be
viewed helping the company to keep sync in between the schedules (Lewis, Chatfield and
Johnson 2019). By making use of MS Project, the manager can bring in collaboration within

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his team. The features of MS Project such as file sharing, team dashboard and sharing of
client data help in enhancing collaboration (Wen and Qiang 2019). The resources of the
project can be managed well by the project manager by making use of MS Project. MS
Project will help the manager to generate reports that can tell about the progress of the
project.
Data needed in each step of complete project plan
In the initiation phase of the project the data required are main aim of the project, the
stakeholders in this case, budget and timeline.
In the planning phase, the data required are project deliverables, schedule, human
resource and risks associated with the project.
In the execution phase, the data required are how the project is proceeding, the
resources used, leftover resources and feedbacks.
In the monitoring and control phase, the data required are how the team members are
working, are they able to meet the project requirements, if they are facing any problems and
what can be altered in case there is a problem.
In the closing phase, data required are the list of deliverables that have been
successfully done and what are aging behind.
Conclusion
The project manager has to take up the responsibility to turn the project into a success.
The combined efforts of the project manager and his team can help in making the Levi jeans
project a success. Learning from the mistakes done previously can help in this scenario. The
project manager needs to follow the IPECC model ensuring that this project is planned as
well as executed well. The success criteria mentioned in the discussion needs to be

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considered by the company so that the project yields positive results this time. The use of
project management software can help the project manager to have a control over all the
proceedings of the project in a proper and organized way. Brainstorming can help the project
manager to come up with ideas that can be incorporated in this case. Thus, it can be said that
in order to turn this project into a success, the support of management serves a vital part.

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References
Chaves, M.S., Araújo, C.D., Teixeira, L., Rosa, D., Júnior, I. and Nogueira, C., 2016. A new
approach to managing Lessons Learned in PMBoK process groups: the Ballistic 2.0
Model. International Journal of Information Systems and Project Management, 4(1), pp.27-
45.
Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management.
Project Management Institute.
Jamali, G. and Oveisi, M., 2016. A study on project management based on PMBOK and
PRINCE2. Modern Applied Science, 10(6), pp.142-146.
Kendrick, T., 2015. Identifying and managing project risk: essential tools for failure-
proofing your project. Amacom.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Lewis, C., Chatfield, C.S. and Johnson, T.D., 2019. Microsoft Project 2019 Step by Step.
Pearson Education.
Meredith, J.R., Mantel Jr, S.J. and Shafer, S.M., 2017. Project management: a managerial
approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Muriana, C. and Vizzini, G., 2017. Project risk management: A deterministic quantitative
technique for assessment and mitigation. International Journal of Project
Management, 35(3), pp.320-340.

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Padalkar, M. and Gopinath, S., 2016. Six decades of project management research: Thematic
trends and future opportunities. International Journal of Project Management, 34(7),
pp.1305-1321.
Svejvig, P. and Andersen, P., 2015. Rethinking project management: A structured literature
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Management, 33(2), pp.278-290.
Varajão, J., Colomo-Palacios, R. and Silva, H., 2017. ISO 21500: 2012 and PMBoK 5
processes in information systems project management. Computer Standards & Interfaces, 50,
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Wen, Q. and Qiang, M., 2019. Project managers’ competences in managing project
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