A project plan needs to have a corresponding proposal. The latter is a summary of the whole project highlighting the tasks to be performed. It breaks down important tasks into stages giving details on the various activities to be carried out and requirements of each task. The project proposal can be used by the management to plan for the project and evaluate its progress. It helps the management to avert shortcomings in the project and development stages (Wideman, 2010).
Woody’s plan of managing the project was based on the wrong foundation. A project calls for the involvement of all stakeholders at all stages. The conception stage was in accordance with the provisions of project management, but the planning stage was left to one party only, who contracted an external company to implement the expansion plan.
This company had not participated in the development and conception stage, and so did not understand the requirements of the Woody Project. It had not been involved in budget estimation activities and in the determination of the project timeframe (Wideman, 2010).
This was a setback to the project’s timeline and budgetary allocations. Lack of planning on handling of human resource for the project was evidenced by the fact that an inexperienced person was given the role of running the project. The professional services engaged lacked proper guidance from the management of Woody’s Company.
If I were to be given an opportunity to run the project, I would not have contracted professional services to carry it out. I would have taken charge of the project as I would have been grounded on the project requirements. I would also have incorporated the stakeholders in the various phases of the project. All procurement and other requirements would have been supervised and ran according to the proposed plan.
The project plan had many loopholes, which led to inefficiencies. It did not address the aspect of changes and thus limited the development of the project. Inclusion of contingency plans and control structures to accommodate these changes is important (Wideman, 2010).
When room is provided to accommodate the changes and appropriate structures put in place to respond to them effectively, the project development team will be able to analyse these changes and come up with appropriate actions. The team will also be better placed to determine whether the changes are necessary or not.
The final product of the project must be of the desired quality. To understand what quality is, one needs to analyse the project targets. If the targets are met successfully, then this is good quality. The targets of the project can be conceptualised as been SMART (Roberts, 2009: Par 3).
The specific objective of the project has to be met and it should be clear and precise. The objectives define the direction of the project, and so a clear definition of the same is the first step in ensuring project quality and success. There should be a measure of the project achievements. For example, Woody’s project, if completed, should have renovated and improved the production space of the company. It would also have added value to the premises.
The project objectives have to be attainable (Roberts, 2009: Par 3). They must be within the company’s budget and within a specified period of time. The financial allocation should also be realistic to ensure proper project development and completion. The company should ensure that the team has capacity to deliver the desired output (Roberts, 2009: Par 3).
The relevance of the project is also a measure of its quality. The aim of the project should be tied to its objectives. The output needs to have significant impact on the company and worth the cost spent on the project.
The allocation of the time period for the project also needs to be in relation to the amount of work to be carried out. Too little time may lead to hastened actions and decisions that may not be good for the project, whereas too much time may be costly. Thus, the timeline has to be right to enable the team achieve the project’s objectives (Roberts, 2009: Par 3).
The quality requirements makes sure that the project team is keen when analysing the terms of the project, the time period, costs and allocated financial resources. The project head must ensure that these aspects are put into consideration before embarking on the project. There must be an individual designated to evaluate the quality of the outputs at different stages in relation to desired standards (Roberts, 2009: Par 3).
In Woody’s project, Leadbetter lacked the understanding of quality of a project as interpreted in project management. This resulted to lack of objectivity in the project, requiring a rewrite of the software codes. This took more time than previously envisioned (Wideman, 2010).
The project concept is the initial stage in which the ideas of a project are first visualised. This is in regard to observations and requirements.
A good baseline plan would have provided an opportunity to change the time and also accommodate the delays in execution of tasks. This would have revealed to the team members the possibility of the project not being on schedule. If activities in the critical path had floats, it would have averted the delays and wastage of extra days that were needed (Wideman, 2010).
The cost is likely to amount to $16 million. The guestimation is calculated by estimating the costs of the different tasks in the project. The different costs can be presented by the team members to the team leader who calculates a median of the values. After the project is completed, the real cost is compared to the estimates (Wideman, 2010).
In this project’s life cycle, costing has not been taken as a factor. The costs have been derived from the different tasks. Mr Cashman had made a guestimation of the total cost and a rough estimate of the same, not exceeding $16 million. With the knowledge on these costs, he was sure that the contracted firm should have a lower price quotation than his figure because his estimates were on the higher side. By filing it away, he made it his own reference of the total costs.
This was an opportunity to get the right market price for the project. The other option would have been to involve the contractors in the cost analysis and management process. This would have provided him with an opportunity to arrive at a more reasonable cost (Wideman, 2010).
Woody’s should have contracted different companies for different tasks. For example, the building and construction would have been tendered to a single company, while the provision of materials would have been given to another company. This would have been cheaper and would have enabled the team members allocate tasks without any problem.
Contracts are always awarded to companies that have a record of delivering and performing the contracts satisfactorily. The companies need to be vetted by considering their performance track record.
The lack of coordination and inappropriate procedures in putting together a project in Woody’s resulted to the failure of achieving the main objectives of the project. The building was completed, more space was availed, but it was not put into proper use. This is due to lack of morale by the staff and also under utilization of the equipment as identified (Wideman, 2010).
The deficiencies in the final output were an indication that the overall objective of the project was not achieved. This can be attributed to the improper procedures followed and lack of a good plan in the execution of the project. Lack of experienced project managers was also a factor in the derailment of the Woody’s project. The project failed to achieve the targets set.
References
Roberts, T. (2009). Project plans: 10 essential elements. Web.
Wideman, M. (2010). Woody’s 2000 Project: Expert project management case study. Web.