Overview

This is an assignment composed of two cases.

Case A seeks to assess the use of the essential tools that a project manager should handle and the ability of students to report the most relevant results and insights of the execution of a project. Students must take the role of consultants and deliver an analysis and recommendations about the revisions conducted on the project.

Case B assesses the ability of students to interpret information about a project and translate it into project management language to be then analysed using the tools learned in class. Like any project, many definitions of tasks and times might be ambiguous or unclear, or some clients may not have information about it. Therefore, the student must be able to add assumptions to their analysis and understand that every project, by nature, presents variability and uncertainties.

Requirements

1. Read Case A and Case B on the following pages – read the Overview, Requirement and Deliverables for each case carefully.
2. Complete this assessment individually. The University’s Academic Integrity policies regarding cheating, plagiarism and third-party assistance apply. Turnitin will be used.
3. For this assignment, you may use generative artificial intelligence (AI) software, such as ChatGPT, to assist you in an appropriate way. Things that would be considered appropriate include:
   • summarising information.
   • to help generate ideas.
   • refine your writing.

   However, the work to submit must be substantially your own work, you must carry out your own analysis, write your own text and create your own figures and charts.

Deliverables

• The assessment must be submitted electronically to CANVAS | OPSMGT 357 | Assignments | Individual Assignment before 23:59, Friday, 11 April 2025. The file to be submitted must be named “IndAssignment_yourUPI.docx”.
• All late assignment will receive 5% marks penalty per late day if you have not been granted an extension of time. Assignment will not be accepted after Sunday, 13 April, 2025.
• Submit a report for Case A with its own cover page, analysis, and issues addressed to the client (Ben Keith – NAC).
• Submit a report for Case B with its own cover page, analysis, and issues addressed to the client, (Sophie Smith – AET).

Course Learning Outcomes addressed.

This assessment is marked out of 100 marks and is worth 40% of the coursework grade.

This assessment addresses the following learning outcomes:

1. Analyse and assess the needs of organisations with respect to managing projects.
2. Apply and assess the inter-disciplinary nature of Project Management concepts, with respect to
   their wide application and the multiple stakeholders involved.
3. Effectively use software and other analytical tools to develop competence in the management of
   projects.
4. Develop generic skills in time management, analytical reasoning and decision making, for problemsolving in the context of project management tasks.

Case A: Next Auckland Scooter Project

Overview

Ben Keith, a product manager at Next Auckland Company (Next Auckland), had just submitted a proposal for funding to the new product review committee. He recommended that Next Auckland introduce, through its retail distribution network, a new children’s scooter based on a popular cartoon character. Ben felt that if he could launch by Christmas, Next Auckland could take advantage of what he felt would be strong market demand. However, due to the volatility of the market for these types of products, Ben could not be certain that the product would have the same level of market acceptance the following year. It is now March 3, 2025, and Ben knows he will have to manage the timing of the project carefully to launch the Scooter by October 6, 2025 – just 31 weeks away.

Since Ben is an experienced project manager, he has established a preliminary list of activities for the Scooter Project, as shown in Table 2. However, he has sought advice from the teams who will do the tasks, and they have suggested the following changes to the preliminary list of activities:

• Development Engineers commented on their need to check the outcome of Product Design and Manufacturing Study at the same time before moving to Product Design selection. In other words, it would be ideal if those tasks finish at the same time, so they can check their outcomes on the same day. Assume the time needed to check both outcomes is negligible (you don’t need to add more days to their durations for ‘outcome checks’).
• The duration of the task “order components” takes 7 days. However, after ordering, shipping takes an additional 10 days.
• The duration of the task “order production equipment” takes 10 days. However, after ordering, shipping takes an additional 15 days.

Table 3 shows the personnel assigned to the Scooter project. However, concerned about the delivery, Ben has made some calls and managed to contract additional personnel to work on specific activities on the project. Since there is a staff shortage at Next Auckland, he requires the use of only additional resources that assist in meeting the deadline. The available personnel and impact on activity duration are presented in Table 4 (note: the additional resources cannot be assigned to other tasks).

Next Auckland is a relatively small company and uses a strong priority matrix to ensure they utilise their very limited workforce. The Project Priority Matrix for the Scooter Project is:

Table 1. Priority Matrix for Scooter Project.

Note: The project team works eight-hour days, Monday through Friday, but not on public holidays. The following public holidays are observed in New Zealand in 2025: New Year’s Day (Jan 1st), Day after New Year’s Day (Jan 2nd), Waitangi Day (Feb 6th), Good Friday (Apr 18th), Easter Monday (Apr 21st), Anzac Day (Apr 25th), King’s Birthday (Jun 2nd), Matariki (Jun 20th), Labour Day (Oct 27th), Christmas Day (Dec 25th), Boxing Day (Dec 26th).

Table 2. Activities needed for the new product introduction.

Table 3. Scooter Project Resources

Table 4. Additional Resources

Requirements

Ben needs to analyse the potential execution of this project carefully, and he seeks advice from students in the BUSINFO 710 course. You are asked to provide as much insight into the feasibility of executing this project with the information given.

You can use the following questions as guidelines to prepare a report to Ben.

• How long will it take to complete the project? Will the project be able to be completed by the October 6, 2025, deadline?
• What activities should Ben manage closely and avoid any delay?
• Is the initial plan feasible?
• Are there resources overallocated?
• Do you suggest a new feasible plan?
• Which additional resources would you choose to complete the project? You may need to explain your choices and the reasons for not choosing other options.
• How much is the project estimated to cost?
• What activity is estimated to cost the most to complete?
• It might be a good idea to show Ben the project’s cash flow.

Note: You can skip some questions or add new ones. It is your decision as a consultant.

Deliverables

• Prepare a maximum two-page summary with insight and recommendations to Ben. Show simple tables or graphs summarising relevant information, but do not include Gantt charts, Network Diagrams, etc, in this part. Leave detailed work for the technical section of this report.
• Use the recommended report structure (adapt the names for headings and subheadings to communicate the contents of each section accordingly):
  • Cover page.
  • Table of contents
  • Analysis of the business scenario and recommendations to the client (two-page summary)
  • Technical report (to showcase the tools you used to justify your recommendations)
• Label any images clearly and consistently in your report – for example: Figure 1: Gantt chart.

Note: You do not need to write an Executive Summary, Introduction, or Conclusion. Referencing and citations are also not required.

Case B: Advantage Energy Technology Data Centre Migration

Overview

Sophie Smith, network administrator at Advanced Energy Technology (AET), has been given the responsibility of implementing the migration of a large data centre to a new office location. Careful planning is needed because AET operates in the highly competitive petroleum industry. AET is one of five national software companies that provide an accounting and business management package for petroleum marketers and gasoline distributors. A few years ago, AET jumped into the “application service provider” world. Their large data centre provides clients with remote access to AET’s complete suite of application software systems. Traditionally, one of AET’s primary competitive advantages has been the company’s trademark IT reliability. Due to the complexity of this project, Sophie will have to use a parallel method of implementation. Although this will increase project costs, a parallel approach is essential if reliability is not to be compromised.

Currently, AET’s data centre is located on the second floor of a renovated old bank building in downtown Corvallis, Oregon (the USA). The company is moving to a new, one-level building located in the recently developed industrial complex at the Corvallis International Airport. On February 1, Sophie is formally assigned the task by the Vice-President of Operations, Dan Whitmore, with the following guidelines:

• From start to finish, it is anticipated the entire project will take two to three months to complete.
• It is essential that AET’s 235 clients experience no interruptions or periods of inactivity.

Whitmore advises Sophie to come back to the Executive Committee on February 15, with a presentation on the scope of the project that includes costs, preliminary timeline, and proposed project team members.

Sophie had some preliminary discussions with some of AET’s managers and directors from each of the functional departments and then arranged for a full-day scope meeting on February 4 with a few of the managers and technical representatives from operations, systems, facilities, and applications. The scope team determined the following:

• Two to three months is a feasible project timeline and preliminary cost estimate is $80,000—$90,000 (this includes the infrastructure upgrade of the new site).
• Critical to the “no interruptions” requirement is the need to completely rely on AET’s remote disaster recovery site for full functionality.
• Sophie will serve as project manager of a team consisting of one team member each from facilities, operations/systems, operations/telecommunications, systems & applications, and customer service.

Sophie’s Executive Committee report was positively received, and after a few modifications and recommendations, she was formally charged with responsibility for the project. Sophie recruited her team and scheduled their first team meeting (March 1) as the initial task of her project planning process.

Once the initial meeting has been conducted Sophie can hire the contractors to renovate the new data centre. During this time Sophie will figure out how to design the network. Sophie estimates that screening and hiring a contractor will take about one week and that the network design will take about two weeks. The contractors must be ready to begin construction as soon as the network design is complete and have no idle time between their hiring and the start of the renovations. The new centre requires a new ventilation system. The manufacturer’s requirements include an ambient temperature of 67 degrees to keep all the data servers running at optimal speeds. The ventilation system has a delivery time of two weeks. Sophie will also need to order new racks to hold the servers, switches, and other network devices. The racks have a three-week delivery time.

The data centre supervisor requested that Sophie replace all the old power supplies and data cables. Sophie will need to order these as well. Because Sophie has a great relationship with the vendor, they guarantee that it will take only one week delivery time for the power supplies and the data cables.

Once the new ventilation system and racks arrive, Sophie’s team can begin installing them. It will take one week to install the ventilation system and three weeks to install the racks. The renovation of the new data centre can begin as soon as the contractors have been hired and the network design is complete. The contractors tell Sophie that construction will take 20 days. Once the construction begins and before Sophie installs the ventilation system and racks, the city inspector must approve the construction of the raised floor.

The city inspector will take two days to approve the infrastructure. After the city inspection and after the new power supplies and cables have arrived, Sophie’s team can install the power supplies and run the cables. Sophie estimates that it will take five days for his team to install the power supplies and one week to run all the data cables. Before Sophie can assign an actual date for taking the network offline and switching to the hot remote site, he must get approval from each of the functional units (“Switchover Approval”). Meetings with each of the functional units will require one week total. During this time, he can initiate a power check to ensure that each of the racks has sufficient voltage. This will require only one day.

Upon completion of the power check, she can take one week to install her test servers. The test servers will test all the primary network functions and act as a safeguard before the network is taken offline. The batteries must be charged, ventilation installed, and test servers up and running before management can be assured that the new infrastructure is safe, which will take two days. Then they will sign off the Primary Systems check, taking one day of intense meetings. They will also set an official date for the network move.

Sophie is happy that everything has gone well so far and is convinced that the move will go just as smoothly. Now that an official date is set, the network will be shut down for a day. Sophie’s team must move all the network components to the new data centre. The team will do the move over the weekend—two days—when fewer people are online using the service.

Requirements

• Generate a priority matrix for AET’s data centre migration project.
• Develop a WBS for Sophie’s project. Include duration (days) and predecessors. Do NOT include the initial planning phase from 1st Feb – start from 1st March 2024. Provide as many assumptions as needed (some information needs your own interpretation and assumptions).
• Draw a Gantt Chart for this project, identify the critical path(s), and estimate the project duration.

Note: Base your plan on the following guidelines: eight-hour days, seven-day weeks, no holiday breaks, and March 1, 2024, is the start date.

Deliverables

• Prepare a consulting report to the project manager, Sophie, to communicate the information in the requirements section.
• Use the recommended report structure (adapt the names for headings and subheadings to communicate the contents of each section accordingly):
  • Cover page.
  • Table of contents
  • Analysis of the business scenario and recommendations to the client (two-page summary)
  • Technical report (to showcase the tools you used to justify your recommendations)
• Provide tables and figures (e.g. graphs, screenshots, etc.) to justify your answers. Any tables and figures provided must be entirely readable at the default zoom scale in MS Word – marks will be deducted if answers aren’t easily read.
• Label any images clearly and consistently in your report – for example: Figure 1: Gantt chart.

Note: You do not need to write an Executive Summary, Introduction, or Conclusion. Referencing and citations are also not required.