Details: You are working with your team leads to create the
project schedule. You are very concerned about the intersections between the
teams, so you all are starting with the major milestones, working backward from
the new product launch.
Sales of the new product are going to start in nine months
and the new CRM system needs to be in place six weeks prior to that so the
sales force can get their customer and prospect information entered in time for
the big marketing mailing going out three weeks prior to the product being
available. You have one team working on the marketing program (and the mailing
is just one of their deliverables); this team is being led by Jennifer from
marketing. You also have another team working on the CRM implementation, being
led by Ben from IT. The two teams will intersect at the sales force
training-training on the new system, the new product, and the new marketing
program. After talking with the sponsor and customers, it was determined that
the training approach would be holistic; the marketing process would be taught
using the new system-not two separate classes, but one integrated class.
Instructors will come from both the IT and the marketing teams. You are unsure
which team leader should be responsible for training-it will depend upon the
resources and dependencies.
Using the list of tasks below as a starting point, create a
schedule by adding tasks, dependencies, efforts, and descriptions of the skills
required to complete each task. Also determine the start and end dates based on
the dependencies and effort. (Assume your resources have 50% availability to
the project). The schedule should contain between thirty and sixty
tasks/sub-tasks. Use Microsoft Project, Excel, Word, or any other appropriate
tool to document your schedule. You will also need to define the team members
you will need. For each team member you will need, create a bulleted list of
skills/expertise he/she must have to complete the assigned tasks. For the effort,
describe your rationale for your estimate.
Determine training objectives.
Create training outline (objectives, modules, topics, and
content).
Define activities.
Create instructor guide.
Create participant materials.
Create activity guide.
Review training materials.
Conduct pilot training class/test training materials.
Deliver training to all of sales force.
Objective: Create a project plan which includes cost,
scheduling and risk assessment
Describe methods for activity defining, activity sequencing,
activity duration estimating, schedule development, and schedule control.
Develop and apply Gantt Charts, CPM and PERT techniques to
project management
Using the schedule for the training team in this project,
discuss what you will share with Ben and Jennifer’s teams and the sponsor
during the project kick-off meeting. In addition to the appropriate schedule
information, explain the approach that you used to build the schedule an any
scheduling assumptions you made. Be sure to identify the critical path and
where the activities of the two teams intersect.
