Project Schedule For NIM Convocation 2011

Task names, duration, start and finish dates

The documented schedule for the project is as follows.

As per the projected schedule for the preparation of the convocation, the earliest start date for the project is 30/12/2010 when the formal announcement has been made for the project. The projected latest start scenario is 5/1/2011 within which the project must be started in order to complete it within time.

The most probable scenario is that that formation of the technical committee and initiation of the project work will start on 6/1/2011. If the projected schedule is followed for the entire course of the project, the entire project will be finished by 10/3/2011, a day before the convocation. The start date for the project is 6/1/2011 because the formal meeting and the visit to NCR for event reference will take time up to 5/1/2011, after which, the formal process for the project can be initiated.

Some possible risks and issues that may be faced during the course of the preparation of the convocation are as follows.

Time Risk – The main risk of the project is time risk that has created the biggest obstacle to the preparation for the convocation. Since, the time is extremely limited (roughly 2 months) and cannot be extended in any case (as the convocation date is fixed at 11/3/2011). Hence, the preparation and all related activities must be completed within the specified date without any failure. There are many activities in the project that will be hard to complete within the limited time and hence, in order to complete them successfully, additional manpower is required.

Contractor Risk – Another major risk involved in the project is the issue with the contractors. If reliable contractors are hired without sufficient screening and background check, they will not be able to deliver proper quality of work for the project and hence, the project will not be completed within time. Furthermore, if the quality of work provided by the contractor is not satisfactory, there will be no additional time to hire new contractors and restart the activity. Hence, in order to avoid this problem, the project team must actively take time for screening and background check of the contractors before handing the contract to them.

Online Development Risk – As per the plan for the registration of the students, an online portal will be developed and opened through which the students will be able to register participation in the event. However, if the online development is not done in a secure environment, the development process may fail due to injection of malwares, viruses and others. Hence, during the development process, the project team must ensure providing a secure development platform and environment with system resistance against external attacks to the developers.

Lack of Accommodation – Another risk that may arise for the project is the lack of sufficient accommodation for the students and their parents participating in the convocation program. Hence, in order to avoid this risk, the project team must first finish the registration process before preparing the accommodation. After the list is developed, the accommodation can then be prepared so that there is sufficient space for all the students and their parents.

Projected scenarios

Late Delivery – Another major risk for the project is the late delivery of supplies (for instance, the convocation gowns and the medals). Due to late submission of orders or lack of interest from the supplier, the medals, gowns and other supplies may arrive late and hence, they will not be received in time for the convocation process. Hence, the company must ensure the orders are placed much earlier to the event and the suppliers will be able to supply the materials within time for the convocation.

Lack of Event Management Experience – The final major risk involved in the project is the lack of sufficient event management experience among the staff members of the college. This is mainly because the convocation process was never held in Nagpur campus before and the staff members have never participated in organizing an event of this size. In order to prepare better for the event, two staff members visited the NCR campus for gathering data regarding the event management of the previous convocation events that took place in the NCR campus of the college.

The Central India campus may have adopted the process for hosting the convocation event of 2011 is learning from previous years’ data and manage the event accordingly. It is evident that the campus director wants to follow the example of the NCR campus that has hosted the event several times in the previous years. However, he also does not want to copy exactly NCR’s plan for the management of the event. Instead, he wants the staff members to learn from the NCR’s data to learn to develop their own project plan. The director has also set a project timeline and a budget that must not be exceeded so that the convocation could take place in the fixed date and time.

The campus has done well in identifying the issues that may occur during the project and in preparing the list of deliverables for the project. In spite of the lack of event management experience among the staff members, they have still managed to identify the activities that must be completed during the preparation of the event and also the issues that can be faced due to a number of limitations in the project.

The performance has been weak in the announcement for the event as well as the measures taken so that the preparation could be completed before the convocation event. Since, this campus is hosting the event for the first time; the announcement should have been made much earlier. This would not only provide the staff members to think more about the event but would also prevent the measures that are to be taken at the current situation. The measure taken in the current situation is the reduction of the course of the final year students, which should not have been done. Early start to the preparation would have required such measures as the students would have been able to complete their courses as well as attend the convocation in the campus on time.

The data collected by Mahesh and his team can be used as reference to learn how to develop and manage such a large size event. The director has clearly stated that NCR’s data can only be used as reference for this event but should not be copied in any case. Hence, Mahesh and his team can learn about the estimated budget and the required steps that should be taken in order to manage and execute the event successfully.

There are a number of conclusions that Mahesh can reach from the data he has gathered from the NCR campus. The conclusions are as follows.

• The data reflects the amount of time and resources needed to execute the event.
• The data reflects a list of activities involved in the project, although this can be changed as required to suit the Nagpur campus’s requirements.
• The data reflects the amount of manpower and the contractors required for the successful execution of the event.

Finally, Mahesh can reach a conclusion regarding the entire list of activities can be completed within time or not. Based on the available time and resources for the project, he can report to the director regarding which activities can be excluded from the event.

References

Boud, D., Cohen, R. and Sampson, J. eds., 2014. Peer learning in higher education: Learning from and with each other. Routledge.

Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.

Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.

Kerzner, H., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Larson, E.W. and Gray, C., 2013. Project Management: The Managerial Process with MS Project. McGraw-Hill.

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Mir, F.A. and Pinnington, A.H., 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International journal of project management, 32(2), pp.202-217.

Nicholas, J.M. and Steyn, H., 2017. Project management for engineering, business and technology. Taylor & Francis.

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