Management: Work Breakdown Structure and Schedule 

Executive Summary

This paper is composed of three plans (Project plan, Operational plan and technical process plan) which lead the organization to achieve its goal. The goal of this publishing company is to increase to increase the number of subscribers for its magazine ‘Alive’. Before creating a plan the challenges that the organization is facing has been identified. It was found that the marketing and competition was the major challenge.

The project plan is composed of five aspects – project overview, WBS, project organizations and managerial process. The project overview is made based on the project goal and the strength, weakness, opportunity and threat on the product “alive’ are identified through SWOT analysis. The project charter includes stakeholder analysis, role of a project manager and project team, team contract and project deliverables. The WBS includes the critical path analysis, Gantt chart, dependencies of the project, resource requirements, budget requirements, the project schedule and the project responsibilities. The project organization includes the organization chart, organization boundaries and interfaces. The managerial process includes the various steps that have to be followed while developing a plan, assumptions made in the plan, the dependencies and constraints, risk management, monitoring and controlling mechanisms.

The operational management plan includes the operations strategy, process improvement plan, operational efficiency and calculation of profit by using decision tree. This section explains about the time period required and the profit that can be achieved by the company when this plan is implemented.

The technical process/information plan involves the information system objectives which include short term and long term, hardware requirements, soft ware requirements, database technical support, information management reports and information security. This section explains about the features that are currently using in company and that are required to increase the efficiency of the company.

Introduction

A project is mainly designed in an organization to overcome the challenges they are facing. The challenges can be internal and external to the organization. The internal challenges can be solved by modifying the policies and procedures in the organization. The external challenges cannot be solved very easily. It requires a continuous diagnosis and monitoring of the external environment and the competitors.

Project Management is the planning, organizing and managing of the resources for achieving successful completion of a project by achieving its goals and objectives. “A project management framework involves Scope management, Time management, Cost management, Quality Management, Human Resources Management, Communication Management, Risk Management and Procurement Management.” (Haughey, 2009).

Before getting into the project work, a proper planning is required to achieve the project goals which are set by the project plan. In this project plan, the goal of the project is to increase the membership by 50% within the 9 months. For accomplishing this goal, the first thing is to identify the challenge that is faced by the organization; and based on that challenge the process to be performed in the project has to be designed and developed.

A successful project management should take into consideration the operation management which involves the flow of work process. The primary challenge of every project management is the accomplishment of the goals which is set for the project. This process manages the inputs to produce outputs from specific activities. The secondary challenge is the time period, scope and the resource allocation process for the project performance. Project management also involves Information Management Plan which provides the overall means of effective and efficient coordination between Departments; access to relevant data and documents; use of less labor; enhancement in organizational and departmental techniques etc.

Given below is the plan that combines project management, operations management and information management to successfully meet the challenge of achieving 50% increase in new membership within first 9 months.

Project Management Plan

Project Goal

The goal of this project is to achieve 50% increase in new membership within first 9 months of the year 2010 for the health and fitness magazine, Alive. For achieving this goal, we will first start with a SWOT Analysis. This will cover the strength, weakness, opportunities and the threats for the product, Alive.

SWOT Analysis

Project Charter

Stakeholder Analysis

“Stakeholder analysis is a term used in conflict resolution, project management, and business administration to describe a process where all the individuals or groups that are likely to be affected by a proposed action are identified and then sorted according to how much they can affect the action and how much the action can affect them. This information is used to assess how the interests of those stakeholders should be addressed in a project plan, policy, program, or other action.” (Stakeholder analysis, 2009).

A Stakeholder Analysis has to be carried out to know who are going to be the key owners and how they can be won over. So, the first step here is to identify who are our stakeholders. We should work out their power, influence and interest, so that we know who we should focus on. We also have to develop a good understanding of the most important stakeholders so that we can know how to win their support. We will also have to find out which stakeholder is likely to advocate and support our project. In this case our stakeholders are going to be the Investors, the Managing director and the Vice President.

The Managing director is going to have high power and influence over all the projects including the production and marketing of Alive.

The investors will influence all decisions with regard to investing capital, budgeting etc.

The Vice President will be responsible for all managerial decisions that have to be taken for all the operations of the organization.

Project Manager

The project manager will be responsible for planning, execution and closing of the project. His basic responsibilities will include creating page plans and assisting in writing and creation of the magazine from start to finish, creating supplement titles, selling advertising to make the magazine self-financing, and determining on the targets to be achieved for the new membership.

Project Team

The project team will have a team leader who reports to the Project Manager. The other members of the team will be Writers, Sr. Writers, Sub Editors, Editors, Graphic Designers, Photographers, marketing executives and researchers.

Team Contract

A team contract helps a team accelerate the team’s development by establishing procedures, roles for the working of a successful team and achieving efficiency of work. A team contract can enhance a group’s team work by making the team members to focus on definite tasks. The following team contract can be used in case of this project.

(Team contract, 2007).

Project Deliverables

Project Deliverables are a checklist of tasks to be completed to achieve a specific objective. The project deliverables will include:

• Research report on the market analysis
• Research report on present ‘Alive‘ members.
• An article catering a new set of readers every week.
• Editorial from the readers in every forthcoming edition.
• A page on the current events happing in various locations.

Work Breakdown Structure and Schedule

Work breakdown structure is the process of breaking down the large and complex project into smaller parts. Each part of the project task is done separately in order to do the project more easily and quickly. First of all, the project manager should make good plan and divide the work to the employees. While planning, the cost needed for the entire project should be considered and the project should be done according to the plan and available budget. “The work breakdown structure (WBS) is a powerful tool for expressing the scope or extent of a project in simple graphic terms. It represents the project in terms of the hierarchy of deliverables and services it will produce.” (Concept: Work breakdown structure, 1997). The components are organized in different levels in a hierarchal model and some works are done individually and some are done by group. The lowest level in the WBS is done independently and the highest level is done by groups which is the more complex and important part of the project. In a magazine publication, there are many tasks to do like production, copyediting, designing, printing, advertising, distributing and so on. As the work is divided among the workers, they become efficient in particular work and they can do the work assigned to them very fast. Developing or managing a large project takes more time to complete. As the task is divided into groups it can finish very fast and saves time.

Work break down structure of this company.

1. Analyze the actual requirement and problems in the organization

   1. Analyze the resources, cost, time and tools needed for the project development.
   2. Analyze the expenditure and income of the organization.
   3. Analyze the customer’s requirements.
2. Identify constraints

   1. Examine the current condition of the organization
   2. Check the performance of the workers/ training deficiencies.
   3. Analyze the equipments used in the organization for their function.
3. Improve process.

   1. Provide necessary training to the team members.
   2. Appoint the workers in particular job to increase their efficiency.
   3. Use the latest tools like computer, color printer etc.
4. Project completion phase

   1. Steps in the project have to be properly learned.
   2. The reviewing of close out checklist should be done.
   3. The advantages and disadvantages have to be examined carefully.
   4. Make sure all activities of this company are included in the project.

It is a best mechanism for evaluating and organizing the real cost and time needed for developing a project; moreover for estimating and controlling the performance of the workers in their job. WBS is the most excellent technique for the project management and development.

Critical path analysis

Critical path analysis is a tool for managing and scheduling the project in an efficient manner. This method plans the tasks to be done in the project management and also identifies the time needed to finish a job. It also sets the steps to be taken in the activities and shows the resources required for the project development. In this critical path method, the activities in the project are done in sequential manner, i.e. only after the completion of one work, the other will start and time is allotted for the completion of a particular work. So, implementing such a method in an organization like magazine publication is very beneficial for them. As the task is done in sequential manner in the critical path method there is no chance of incompletion of a task. Providing current and relevant data is the success factor of this type of organization; so if any of the work delays it affects them badly. So, in the critical path analysis the time required for completing a particular work is recognized it can finish the work without delay. Therefore, the organization can lead in a smooth way without any risk. The critical path and Gantt diagrams are shown in fig -1 below;

Gantt chart.

Dependencies

Dependencies are the connection among the task in the project management. “In project management there are four possible types of logical relationships: finish to start (one activity must finish before the “to” activity can start), finish to finish (the activity must finish before the “to” activity can finish), start to start (one activity must start before the “to” activity can start), and start to finish (one activity must start before the “to” activity can finish).” (Task dependency, 2009, para.1). In finish to start dependency method, only after the completion of first task the second task will start. So, implementing this method in magazine publication, first task is acquisition and only after the completion of this task the second task i.e. the copyediting will start. In finish to finish dependency, both tasks are not needed to finish together. The second activity need not finish at time if the first activity is finished i.e. when the marketing task is completed the distribution task can be completed. Next is the start to stat dependency. In this dependency, both activities are not required to start together; only the first activity needs to start before the second activity; so the marketing should start before distributing. Finally, the start to finish dependency; in this dependency the second activity cannot finish before the starting of first activity. So, when the editing and designing task begins the printing task cannot finish. This mechanism is very useful because the task can finish properly and at correct time and when the tasks are required to complete together.

Resource Requirements

In the development or management of project, one of the basic things needed to perform the activities in the project is resource. It includes data, people, materials etc and the success of any organization depends on utilizing the resource without any wastage. All the workers in an organization are also responsible for attaining their goal, so that they should take active role in the activities of the business. In an organization like magazine publication, the major resources required are electronic resources, editor, authors, and tools and so on. If any of the resource is not available, the overall task cannot be performed efficiently and effectively. Today, technology is growing very fast; so the organization should implement the latest technology to develop their business. For the growth of a magazine publication, use the latest tools like computer, color printer, internet service to increase efficiency and for rapid growth of the business.

Budget Requirements

Budget requirement is the total cost required for the completion of the project. It includes all the costs that will be spent in the completion of the project including the labor cost, travel cost etc. In this project, the budget is prepared according to the estimated costs. A magazine publication needs a lot of money for the activities to be conducted for the publication of the magazine, like payment of salary to workers, for advertising, distributing etc. The total budget required for this project is $75,000. The organization should complete the project within the allotted budge.

Schedule

The schedule of the project is the time needed for the completion of the project. It is the time between the start and completion of the project. A work breakdown structure is needed for the creation of a project schedule. The project schedule is estimated according to the work breakdown structure or else the schedule may become inaccurate. The time required for the completion of each of the activities is included in the schedule. The starting date as well as the finishing date of the work has to be estimated properly. The budget required to carry out each task are as follows;

Project Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the project manager to control the entire task in the project development to achieve the predetermined goal of an organization. The project manager provides the essential guidelines and orders to the workers to do the work in efficient manner. There are many activities in a magazine publication which is divided into different departments like editing, designing, printing and so on. If proper training and guidance is provided to the workers, they can do their work well and it is the duty of the project manager to examine the entire performance of the workers and provide necessary guidance to them. So, through efficient management, the tasks will run in smooth way and the business objective can be achieved.

Project Organizations

Projects are unique in nature and involve a special team for its operation. In every project there will be a problem and the teams are designed to provide a solution. A special organization is formed for performing these functions and such an organization is termed as project organization. The project organization consists of a core team which acts as supporting factor to the project manager. The project manager is assisted by a project team. The objective of the project team is to assist the project manager and perform the task with high quality.

Organizational Structure/chart

The structure of the organization is developed based on the products produced by the organization. The project organizational structure is responsible for regulating the functions performed by each person in a project team. The project manager is responsible for the overall controlling of the project work and he is supported by a group of person which consists of a project team. The project teams are organized to perform a specific task, and after completion of the task that particular group is dispersed. The structure of the project varies according to the project and the task to be performed. The selection of the organization structure is done mainly based on the specific characteristics of the project and the constraints that are caused externally. The external constraints include the policy of the organization at present. A balanced matrix structure is considered to be more effective than the weak matrix and strong matrix. There is a saying that an “absolute power results in absolute corruption.” (Russell, 2008, para.3).

The project organizational structure designs the way in which the project has to be carried on. The goal of the project organizational structure is to complete the task which is assigned to them. The work is completed at the right time and at the given quality. It also focuses on obtaining good results from the project work. In a matrix structure, the power struggles happen frequently. This struggle will result in damages for both the project and the organization. In some cases the resulting damages cannot be identified at the initial stage.

Organization Boundaries and Interfaces

The group is a publishing company. The customer and the delivery executives are responsible for identifying the organization chart with respect to the project and promote and communicate to the customers. The customer line managers are responsible for controlling the project and giving more value to the customer requirements regarding the project. The delivery line manager is responsible for the delivery of the projects. Acceptor is the person responsible for describing the product characteristics and finally receiving it when it is complete. The project manager is responsible for managing the overall operations of the project work and concentrating more on delivering quality products to the business. The steering committee is comprised of two persons. The acceptor and the project manager and also includes the line manager of the respective function. They monitor and control the quality of the project. The acceptor team defines and accepts the completed works. The delivery team is responsible for managing the project organization and project delivery.

Managerial process

The managerial process involves planning, organizing, directing and controlling the project function. Before getting into project work, the first thing is planning about the project. In this stage, the start up time, the finishing time, the amount of resources required etc are discussed. After planning, next comes the executing and organizing function. In the organizing function, the tasks are allocated among different persons in the project team. This is done by the project manager who is responsible for the overall functioning of the project. The project manager will provide necessary guidance to perform the work in an effective and efficient way. The works allocated to different members will be monitored and controlled by the project manager and deviations in the work will be identified. And finally it is the closing stage where the project work is completed within the specified time. This can be presented in a diagram;

Assumptions, Dependencies and Constraints

An assumptions section identifies the assumptions that are critical to the project. The company has to increase 50% of membership within 9 months. The assumptions include the factors that affect the performance of the project. For increasing its membership, the company has to concentrate more on advertising and marketing. So, it is assumed that the procurement of raw materials, advertising and marketing the product are considered to be the most critical part in this project. Dependency section identifies the dependencies that are affecting the performance of the publication company. All the activities in the project are dependent on each other. The designing, editing, printing and delivering activities are dependent on each other and mistakes in these activities will affect the performance of the project.

Constraints section identifies restrictions or limitations the project is facing. The internal constraint is that there is no effective training programme for the project teams and the external constraints refers to the competitors’ strategy in marketing their products.

Risk Management

Risk management is a process whereby the risks that are associated with the performance of the project are identified and analyzed. For identifying and analyzing the risk, the better way is to categorize them. This helps in identifying the risks systematically and provides a clear understanding and awareness about the risk that are associated with the project. The processes involved in risk management are planning risk management, identifying the risk, analyzing the risk, planning the response from the risk and finally monitoring and controlling the risk. When all these steps are performed systematically, the risk involved in each step in performing a project can be identified very easily.

Monitoring and Controlling Mechanisms

The monitoring and controlling process enables the organization to understand the various aspects that lead to the deviations in the project performance. This process shows the progress in the organization. The quality of the project is verified by using various quality management systems and the gap between the expected quality and the actual quality is identified. Any corrective measures required are also undertaken in the monitoring and controlling process.

Operations Management Plan

The operations management plan is mainly developed to show how a business is operating and when project management is concerned it involves the efficiency of the project. This is mainly engaged in managing the resources that are required for completing the project work at a high quality.

Operations Strategy

An operational strategy is mainly designed to provide an effective plan for the overall functioning of the project. There are certain components that are involved in the operational strategy. They are designing and developing the production system which is engaged in the production of product and services, selecting and developing the process technology, allocating the resources effectively and planning for facility.

Process Improvement plan

Process improvement plan deals with improving the activities that are directly related with the project work. The real issues in the organization are focused in this approach and are implemented fully in the organization through a step by step process. All the actions that must be performed should be selected through brain storming and a framework for the complete process must be designed. All the goals and problems should be identified, and based on these the action plan has to be made.

Operational Efficiency/Operational Effectiveness Improvement

Operational efficiency refers to the worthiness of the work done. The projects that are developed are analyzed and monitored. Their ability to meet the requirements specified by the customer company is also analyzed in this process.

Decision Tree – Profit Calculation

In this project, the decision tree involves some steps for calculating its profit in the completion of the project. The activities are

• Identifying the decision making objective. Here, the main objective of the project is to increase membership by 50% within 9 months in the year 2010. For accomplishing this goal, the company has to concentrate more on marketing activities especially the advertising function.
• Identifying and analyzing the constraints that are related with the decision making process. The important constraint in this project is lack of training provided to the project team and competitor’s strategy of advertising.
• All the possible actions are listed based on their preference

  • Market study
  • Market analysis
  • Competitor analysis
  • Selecting appropriate advertising strategy
  • Implementing the advertising strategy
  • Analyzing the result of implementing the new advertising strategy
  • Calculating the returns
• The events that come out from each action are identified. All the actions are related to each other. One set of action gives out a result which leads to other set of performance.
• All these actions are combined together to achieve the determined standards. The determined standards refer to the end result that is expected to achieve from this project.

Based on the decision tree, the company can calculate its profit by taking into account the expense incurred for each step and the returns they gain totally from it.

In this decision tree table, the ‘A1’ indicates the decision related to the procurement of the material. This gives way to the decision related to cost of raw materials ‘E1’ and the cost of human resources ‘E2’ required for the project. ‘A2’ indicates the production of magazine and it involves printing cost ‘E1’ and editing cost ‘E2’. ‘A3’ indicates the decision related to the marketing. The marketing decision is related with the cost incurred in the packing of the product and the advertising strategy

Technical Process/Information Management Plan

Information System Objectives

Information system has turned out to be one of the unavoidable parts of the organizational process. “It has become increasingly important for information system professionals to understand how the objectives of an information system relate to the organizational goals.” (Peterson & Kim, 2000, p.1). There are certain issues that must be kept in mind in order to increase the number of subscribers for the magazine ‘alive’. The objectives of the information system are broadly classified into four levels; they are system, user, organizational and strategic level. These are implemented by looking short term benefits and long term benefits. For all these, more priorities are given to the organizational levels rather than user and strategic levels. The information system has become more critical nowadays for implementing best strategic operations in the organization. The objectives in the information system must include both short term and long term which must have benefits for all the levels of organization. While designing an information system for an organization certain criteria should be met. The designed information system must be reliable and efficient. Otherwise result got from this will be unusable. A very good information system of an organization can provide lots of advantages, such as strategic and competitive advantages. Building infrastructure for technology integration has become top priorities while implementing information system activities. Apart from different levels mentioned above, there are different phases for information system development and implementation. The first phase is the need for the system must be identified. Second phase is logical and physical design has to be considered and how a system has to be built must be considered. Once these first two phases are over, procedure for implementation of the system can be started. Once these are implemented, maintenance, updating and revision have to be undertaken in regular intervals or all these are to be done over a period of time. These lifecycle requires number of checks and evaluation of goals in all phases. Thus this information system development life cycle must be considered has both short term and long term. Only then organization will get benefits from this implemented information system.

It is actually developer’s idea that runs overall while implementing the information. Developers have to interpret, define and execute proper steps needed for information system for magazine publication company. He need to understand the strategy needed for this company. Otherwise, benefits getting from the information system may not be good or best. For this, a proper imagination about the information system and organization are needed to consider properly by developer in order to get success. For this, developers need to have role orientation and task orientation in order to function properly.

Short term objectives and long term objectives for different system levels are explained below.

Short term objectives

At system level, implemented system for magazine publication company must be bug free. That means bugs won’t be coming up in between the process, which will affect the flow of organization. As in case of user level, the implemented system must satisfy the needs of the user. If it was in organizational level the objectives must meet the effectiveness of operations undergoing in business. Objectives for strategic level should be considered for improving customer service.

Long term objectives

In case of long term implementation, objective must be different from short term. In system level the implemented system must be easily maintainable. It is because considering the long term benefits, if any problems happen in between, recovery should be made very easily; otherwise it will affect the flow of organization. In case of user level, most priority must be given to increase the productivity of managers. If it is in organizational level, priority for objectives must be given for generating the operational benefits and last level is strategic level in which importance must be given to cooperative partnership. All these objectives should meet consistently in order to get success in the business.

Hardware/Software Requirements

“Computer hardware and software satisfies the organization’s requirements.” (EPA requirements for quality management plans, 2001, p.14). Just having these requirements in a company won’t ensure success. Proper implementation is necessary. It includes assigning or describing the processes, which includes roles and responsibilities of management and staffs in an organization. This involves lots of work such as development, installation and testing of hardware and software. Apart from this, it also includes maintenance, controlling and documentation of hardware and software. These are very important to ensure continuity of the business. A proper knowledge about all these is very important to achieve success. According to the requirements, changes must be made in the specifications of the hardware and software. This is very important. If this is not met, everything will be in upside down state. Performance of the hardware and software must be checked at regular intervals. Overall obsession to highlight here is meeting the requirements of the organization. With the available software and hardware if organization finds any kind of difficulties to meet the requirements of the organization, then analysis has to be done in this case and suitable up-gradation for software and hardware must be made in order to meet the requirements and get proper success in the business. Also, proper care should be taken to ensure proper storage of the data as there are lots of data to be stored in the system.

Database Technical Support

Database technical support is very important for proper maintenance of the data in the organization. This should be in tactics; otherwise it will affect the organization. A database administrator must be placed for the purpose of administration of data. He/she must ensure that everything is going in sequential order or in proper manner. If any problems happen or any data loss occurs, it will affect the reputation of the company. So, administrator must always take back up of the data properly to make sure everything is going fine and all data of the company are secure.

Information Management Reports

It means the regular up-dating of information systems by information professionals. This is very important and the company people must be aware about latest happenings in the information system. It includes what are all the features currently used in terms of information system and its analyzing is also very important to ensure whether this is enough for the company or not. This also includes proper planning and also what all things are needed for upgrading the existing technology.

Information Security

This is to ensure proper security for the information stored in the magazine publication company. There will be lots of data stored in the company as a report and in many other forms or in any other manner. All these data must be stored in proper manner i.e. all data can be stored in encrypted manner for ensuring more security. Other methods to provide security is all kinds of information should be kept away from intruders. This is achieved by enabling firewall in to the network of a company. Also, strong authentication helps to provide more security to the information. All these guarantee security to the information stored in the company.

Conclusion

This paper includes the project management plan, operational plan and information technology plan for the company to increase the number of subscribers for the health and fitness magazine, Alive. This company is facing both the internal and internal challenges, so in order to overcome this, effective project management policy has adopted. The work breakdown structure, schedule, operational plan, managerial process and technical process has prepared for this company to achieve their goal. This plan depicts all the essential elements that must be taken into consideration while performing project activities. An efficient project plan is the result of the effective execution and planning of the project manager as well as project teams.

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