XYZ Organization And Its Holiday Trips Project

Objective of the Holiday Trip Project

Question:

Discuss about the Planning And Management Of Holiday Trip.

XYZ is a Singapore based organization that provides web based solutions to its customers. The organization deals in three primary domains as Healthcare, Finance and Real-Estate. The organization comprises of an employee base of 500 employees and is in its expansion phase. It is spread over seven countries and has twelve office locations world-wide. The organization has managed to develop a good reputation in the market owing to its excellent customer service and support.

A team of ten employees of XYZ organization have been rewarded with an opportunity to experience a holiday trip by the organization owing to their excellent performance and success in their respective projects. The project includes the organization and successful management of the entire trip. The project team must cover the identification of the scope in terms of the selection of destination, designing of the cost and schedule, booking formalities and likewise (Mallery, 2011).

The primary project objective is to make sure that the entire holiday trip with the company is successfully organized and managed. The objectives are as listed below.

• To identify the holiday destination and book the travel tickets and hotel for every individual in the team.
• To organize the VISA formalities for all the interested individuals
• To develop a travel itinerary and distribute the same among all the travelers

• List of the travelers that will be holidaying with the company
• Approved visas of all the travelers
• Detailed travel itinerary
• Confirmation of hotel bookings
• Return flight tickets for all the travelers (Henderson, 2004)

• Finalization of the destination – 11^th August 2017
• Complete list of the travelers – 14^th August 2017
• Return flight tickets – 15^th August 2017
• Approved Visa – 24^th August 2017
• Detailed itinerary – 31^st August 2017
• Booking confirmation of the hotels – 4^th September 2017

• Valid passport will be necessary for all the travelers holidaying with the company
• Every traveler must fulfill the eligibility criteria to travel to Australia
• There must not be any pending responsibilities on any traveler travelling with the company
• There must not be a severe medical condition for any member

• The company will not be responsible for the refunds if the traveler chooses to back out seven days prior to the travel dates
• There will no upgrades provided to the travelers in the flight or the hotels (Seethamraju, 2012)
• The company will not cover the expenses of shopping for the travelers.
• The entire holiday shall be completed in the period of ten days including the travel dates (Gulledge, 2002)

Task	Project Manager	Finance Officer	Travel Expert	Associate 1	Associate 2
Planning of the Project	R	R		S	S
Booking of the Tickets	S	S	R	S	S
Visa related formalities			R	S
Itinerary of the Project		R	R		S
Hotel Bookings				R	S
Finalization and Closure	R			S	S
R = Responsible S = Support/Assist

	Project Time	Project Scope/Performance	Project Cost
Constraint	X
Enhance		X
Accept			X

Project Priority Matrix

Three factors viz. time, cost and scope will be of prime importance for the project on holiday trip with the company. These factors will be required to be analyzed and understand to decide the priority on all of these three project factors.

• Constraint

The holiday trip that will be carried out by the company will include a number of bookings and other formalities such as booking of the flight tickets, hotel bookings along with the acquiring of the visa documents for all of the travelers. Also, the travelers that will be holidaying will have a number of company responsibilities. Altering of the dates may lead to delays and penalties due to the non-fulfillment of the required duties. Project time will therefore be a primary constraint that shall not be altered in any situation (Yang & Tamir, 2015).

• Enhancement

Project time and cost are the factors that will not be possible to be enhanced. Although, project scope is one of the project factors that may be enhanced in terms of the type of the hotel, places to be covered in the itinerary and so on. Project scope that may be enhanced may include travel itinerary along with the booking categories.

• Accepts

There can be certain variations that may be accepted in terms of the cost associated with the project. The project budget will be designed in advance. There may be changes in the price of the flight tickets or tariffs that are charged for the hotels (Sunde, 2011).

Project Priorities Matrix

The project priority has been designed as per the matrix that has been illustrated above. The project factors and the priority associated with each of the factor have also been displayed in the matrix above (Mohapatra & Patnaik, 2011).

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) displays the packages and sub-packages associated with the project in the form of a hierarchical diagram.

In case of the project of a holiday trip with the company, a 3-level WBS has been designed. The same has been illustrated below comprising of the packages and their respective sub-packages as well.

• Design of project budget and schedule

The project budget along with the project schedule must be designed.

• Project Scope finalization
• Project scope statement shall be designed and approved.
• Identification of travelers and Selection of the travel destination

The candidates willing to travel with the company shall be enquired about their preferred choices and desired destination for holiday. The travel destination shall be finalized as per the choices received along with the project budget and schedule.

• Desired travel dates from the travelers

The travel dates shall be collected from all the travelers.

• Confirmation of travel dates

The travel dates shall be finalized as per the schedule.

• Gathering of demographic information

The travelers shall be inquired and their respective demographic information shall be gathered.

• Booking of return tickets

Return flight tickets for all the travelers shall be booked.

• Collection of passports from the travelers

Passports shall be collected from all of the travelers.

• Collection of other required documents

Documents such as identity proofs and photographs shall be gathered from the travelers.

• Filling of the visa application

Visa application shall be filled by all the travelers.

• Submission of visa

The visa shall be submitted for all the travelers.

• Collection of the approved visa

Visa shall be collected and approved for the travelers.

• Identification of the cities to be travelled in Australia

Itinerary shall be based upon the cities that must be covered in the holiday.

• Identification of the places to visit in every city

Every city shall be mapped with the places that shall be visited.

• Distribution of the itinerary to travelers

Itinerary shall be shared with the travelers.

• Acquiring of feedback from the travelers

Feedback on the itinerary shall be collected.

• Inclusion of the changes in the itinerary

Changes shall be made in the travel itinerary.

• Finalization of the itinerary

Itinerary shall be confirmed and circulated.

• Check on the availability

Availability check shall be performed on the hotels for each city as per the travel dates.

• Check on the reviews and ratings

Hotel reviews and ratings shall be checked.

• Selection of the rooms

Hotel rooms shall be selected.

• Payment for bookings

Booking payments shall be made for confirmation of the booking.

• Distribution of tickets to the travelers

Travelers shall be provided with the tickets along with their visas.

• Preparation of the closure report (Marle, 2014)

Closure report of the project shall be prepared.

Time-phased budget

There are many project activities that will be carried out in the project of holiday trip with the company.

A project budget is necessary for the project to make sure that the expenses associated with the project are determined in advance and are controlled at the time of project execution. The budget for this project has been designed using time phased budgeting technique. The entire project will be carried out in a period of four weeks and the project budget on the basis of these four weeks has been shown in the table below.

Also, a chart displaying the budget as per the project progress has also been included.

Holiday Trip with the Company	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4
1.1. Planning
1.1.1. Design of project budget and schedule	250
1.1.2. Project Scope finalization	200
1.1.3 Identification of travelers and Selection of the travel destination	150
1.1.4. Desired travel dates from the travelers	50
1.2. Booking of the tickets
1.2.1. Confirmation of travel dates	50
1.2.2. Gathering of demographic information	120
1.2.3. Booking of return tickets	12000
1.3. Visa Related Formalities
1.3.1. Collection of passports from the travelers		100
1.3.2. Collection of other required documents		100
1.3.3. Filling of the visa application		2500
1.3.4. Submission of visa		1000
1.3.5. Collection of the approved visa		1000
1.4. Itinerary preparation
1.4.1. Identification of the cities to be travelled in Australia			200
1.4.2. Identification of the places to visit in every city			200
1.4.3. Distribution of the itinerary to travelers			100
1.4.4. Acquiring of feedback from the travelers			150
1.4.5. Inclusion of the changes in the itinerary			350
1.4.6. Finalization of the itinerary			100
1.5. Hotel Bookings
1.5.1. Check on the availability			250
1.5.2. Check on the reviews and ratings			250
1.5.3. Selection of the rooms			250
1.5.4. Payment for bookings				15000
1.6. Finalization and Closure
1.6.1. Distribution of tickets to the travelers				250
1.6.2. Preparation of the closure report				300
Cost per week	12820	4700	1850	15550
Cumulative cost	12820	17520	19370	34920

Conclusion

Project planning and management play a very important role for every project. In the project of holiday trip with the company, planning plays a crucial role. Project scope has been identified and included in the project scope statement. The entire project will take four weeks to complete and the budget allocated for the same is SGD 35,000. Significance of the project management tools such as Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) along with project schedule and budget are necessary to understand the project details.

References

Gulledge, T. (2002). Business process management: public sector implications. Business Process Management Journal, 8(4), 364-376. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14637150210435017

Henderson, L. (2004). Encoding and decoding communication competencies in project management ? an exploratory study. International Journal Of Project Management, 22(6), 469-476. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(04)00014-6

Mallery, M. (2011). Project Management Portal (PMP) from the University of Washington Information Technology Wiki – https://wiki.cac.washington.edu/display/pmportal/Project+Management+Portal. Technical Services Quarterly, 28(3), 365-367. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07317131.2011.574546

Marle, F. (2014). Assisting project risk management method selection. International Journal Of Project Organisation And Management, 6(3), 254. https://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2014.065255

Mohapatra, S., & Patnaik, A. (2011). Sustainability in HRIS implementation through effective project management. International Journal Of Project Organisation And Management, 3(1), 78. https://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2011.038865

Seethamraju, R. (2012). Business process management: a missing link in business education. Business Process Management Journal, 18(3), 532-547. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14637151211232696

Sunde, L. (2011). Net-present-value cost/time tradeoff. International Journal Of Project Management, 13(1), 45-49. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)95703-g

Yang, Y., & Tamir, G. (2015). Offshore software project management: mapping project success factors. International Journal Of Project Organisation And Management, 7(2), 111. https://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2015.069613