Project Management: Eagle Eye Project Schedule and Resource Analysis

This project management assignment analyzes the Eagle Eye project, focusing on schedule development, resource allocation, and risk management. The project schedule, initially developed in MS Project, underwent revisions to address over-allocation issues and resource constraints, extending the project duration. The document includes a memo outlining the project's completion date, duration, and costs, along with a detailed breakdown of potential risks and mitigation strategies. Different types of meetings (kickoff, planning, review) and effective meeting practices are discussed. The assignment also compares organizational structures, proposes a flat organizational structure for the project, and emphasizes the importance of company culture. Changes in the project schedule, including the impact of additional resources and component delivery times, are analyzed. The project also suggests cost-saving measures by reducing the duration of certain project activities and improving processes. References to project management literature are provided.

Part 1
The current task was to develop the project schedule. The project schedule can be found in
the accompanied MS Project file EagleEyePart1. No specific assumptions are considered till
this point of schedule development as per the requirements. Two new tasks inserted:
1.5.6: P1 Build Complete
1.6.6: P2 Build Complete
Part 2
1. Over-allocation issue resolved and the schedule can be seen in MS Project file
EagleEyePart2.
2. Resolving resource issues:
a. The issue of over-allocation was resolved by changing the duration of the activities to the
available dates.
b. Due to resource constraints, the overall schedule extended from the originally expected.
c. Few of the tasks that changed on the critical path are Component Selection, Durability
Testing, PCB modifications, Tolerance Analysis, and others.
3. Additional Milestones
As per the new addition, the latest date to contact the production manager is Monday,
October 09, 2017 and the RA house is 06.03.2017 which is eight weeks before RA testing.
4. Memo
To: Ms Engineer
From:
Date: 19.05.2017
Re: Eagle Eye Project Update
The expected date for the project completion is May 18, 2018. The total duration is 315 days.
However, if the booking of the RA house is ignored, then it is 268 days starting from March
27, 2017. The resource constraints were the main reason that led to the extension in the
project length. Tasks such as preparation of software specification could be reduced from 18
to around 4 to 5 days to save time. The cost for the project is shown in the below table:
Task Name Total Cost
Electronics $82,560.00
Software $122,400.00
Mechanics $115,200.00

Verification $63,720.00
First Prototyping $46,000.00
Second Prototyping $46,000.00
Total for the project $476,440.00
5. Risk Management Planning
a. Matrix
Risk Impact Likelihood
of
occurrence
Degree
of
impact
Action
trigger
Responsibilit
y
Response
plan
Employee
left
Need
more time
to
complete
project
Low High Mitigate Project
Manager
Hire new
employee
Duration
extension
More cost High High Mitigate Project
Manager
Complete
project on
time
Poor scope
identification
Confusion
and order
change
Low High Mitigate Project
Manager
Ensure
project scope
are defined
appropriately
in the
beginning
Less
resources
More time
to
complete
project
Medium High Mitigate Project
Manager
Ask for more
resources
from top
management
b. The risks can be mitigated, avoided, or transferred to other entities. The risks that can be
mitigated are those that have high likelihood of occurrence but can be handled with less
financial consideration. The risk that has high likelihood of occurrence and need large
finances to handle is avoided. The risk that has low probability of occurrences but can large
financial impact the project is transferred.
6. a. Purpose of different meeting types:
The different types of meetings are kickoff meeting, planning meeting, and project review
meetings. The kick off meeting is conducted to start the project. It is the first thing that is
done when the project is started. In this meeting it is ensured that all the internal stakeholders

are aware of the project objectives and the goals. Here, the responsibility is of the project
manager to bring all the members on one page. The planning meeting is conducted to plan the
whole project. It generally takes places at the top management. The planning meeting is
conducted before the project starts. The meeting is conducted among the key external
stakeholders to ensure that all the requirements of the project are brought on the table and an
appropriate plan is developed (Turner, 2014). The project review meeting is conducted to
review the project completion and is conducted at the end of the project completion. The
project review meeting can also be conducted at different stages as the project progress to
ensure that the project is on the track.
b. The effective meeting can be run by considering the prerequisites such as the requirement
of the particular meeting, predefining the agenda of the meeting and identifying the intended
output from the meeting. The meeting can be handled well if all joining the meeting are on
the same page of the project progress. The meeting effecting effectiveness can be improved
by various methods (Kerzner, 2013). As for instance, the project manager can inform the
team members and other stakeholders to prepare what is to be discussed in the meeting
beforehand. Also, it should be ensured that instead of confronting others in the meeting, the
members should focus on having constructive conversation.
7. a. Organizational structure comparison:
Organisational Structures
Project
Characteristics
Functional Matrix Autonomous
Weak
Matrix
Balanced
Matrix
Strong Matrix
Project
manager’s
authority
PM has
functional
power
Act more as
assistant
Authorized
to take
actions
Full authority
but under top
management
Lesser
authority
Resource
availability
Resources
are made
available by
designated
individual
Resources
are made
available by
designated
individual
Resources
are made
available by
designated
individual
Resources are
made
available by
designated
individual
Resources
are made
available by
designated
individual
Who controls
the project
budget
Finance
manager
Project
Manager
Project
Manger
Finance
Manager
Project
Manager
Project
manager’s
role
To handle
the entire
project
To guide
team in
project
To guide and
handle team
in project
To handle
project
Act as
support
Project
management
administrative
staff
Ensures
operational
activities
Less active
role
Less active
role
Strong
administrative
role
Less active
role
b. The organizational structure for the current project is shown in the diagram below:

The suggested organizational structure is flat in nature. The reason behind this structure is
allows the team members to have direct interaction with the project manager and have
detailed discussion whenever is required. The communication will be open and the project
manager will act more as the guide and less as authority. It will allow freedom to the
employees to work on their own (Heagney, 2016). The organizational structure that has been
suggested for the project will aide in the development of the culture that will motivate the
employees to accomplish the project objectives.
8. The company culture will be based on the freedom to act as per the individual
understanding. The presence of autonomy to the employees will allow them to think outside
the box and bring more ideas to the work. However, if the project team are packed with
authority of the project manager, then they will stop thinking on their own and will be more
like robots. Therefore, to ensure that to implement a culture of learning, autonomy is
provided to the employees. One of the best examples is Google where the employees are
given ample freedom to act and work which helps them come up with right ideas to support
the organizations and various internal projects (Meredith et al, 2013). The formation of a
good company culture is always a necessary aspect to ensure that the employees are well
motivated and are working as per the desire of the management. The project manager and the
top management can ensure that the right culture is developed by self-involving into the
project. The open and autonomous orientation also requires that the team members are more
qualified and require lesser guidance in handling the project.
Part 3
1. Requested change incorporated in accompanied MS Project file EagleEyePart3.
Project
manager
SE ME TE PE TW EE

2. a. The additional resources have no impact on the task duration. The addition of the
resources to the tasks is likely to reduce the effort of already existing resource and nothing
more than that.
b. The change in duration of the delivery time for the servo component led to the change in
the durations of few of the tasks.
c. The change in time for the P2 mechanical modifications led to the overall shift in the
project durations.
3. Question repeated. Same as 2 (above)
4. Here, there have been multiple variations in the project schedule in the later stage.
Moreover, the resources of the project are limited this has impacted the duration of the
overall project. This has led to the increase in the budget for the overall project. One step that
can be taken to ensure that the project budget is handled well is reduction of the duration of
certain project activities. The two project activities have been identified whose duration can
be reduced to some extent and they are:
- preparing software specifications
- P2 mechanical modifications.
The duration of these activities can be reduced to half to ensure that the budget can be
reduced to some extent.
Other changes that can be suggested for the reduction of the cost are by improving the
process or looking for alternative for the particular activity. The process improvement will
eventually take to the reduction in the overall project duration and reduced wastage of
resources, thus saving some cost.
References
Turner, J. R. (2014). The handbook of project-based management (Vol. 92). New York, NY:
McGraw-hill.
Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Meredith, J. R., Mantel Jr, S. J., & Shafer, S. M. (2013). Project management in practice.
Wiley Global Education.
Heagney, J. (2016). Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt
Assn.