Project 1
Based on the project of the Asian Tsunami Benefit Cricket Match, imagine you are project managing that project and identify who might have been key stakeholders and their needs and develop an outline of a communications plan.?On 26 December 2004 an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred in the Indian Ocean, just off the western coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The sudden vertical rise in the seabed by several metres displaced massive volumes of water, which resulted in a tsunami that devastated the shores of Bangladesh, Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, South India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and as far away as Kenya and Somalia. The earthquake and tsunami were thought to have caused over 200,000 deaths, while whole sections of coastline were devastated, destroying the businesses and homes of millions, triggering a widespread humanitarian response.?Throughout Australia many appeals were launched to raise money for humanitarian agencies to provide relief to the many injured and traumatised survivors.?The international cricket community launched one such appeal. With cricket being a popular sport in many of the affected countries, especially India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and several Sri Lankan players' families injured in the tsunami, the cricket community decided to organise a charity cricket match to raise funds for the relief effort. The match between an Asian team and Rest of World team, featuring some of the world's best players from Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, England and Bangladesh, was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 10 January 2005.?Organising the charity match was a remarkable exercise in project management. With a busy international cricket calendar, organising matches between international teams usually takes approximately a year, yet this match was organised in the days immediately after the tsunami struck and played just 15 days later. Cricket Australia, the governing body of cricket in Australia, volunteered to organise and host the match and quickly set about the complicated process of organising the match.?Among the many tasks that needed to be completed were gaining permission from cricket's world governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC) to host the match, as well as the blessing of the game's regional governing body in Asia, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), and the individual cricketing authorities in each of the countries which provided players for the match.?The next step was to gain support from the International Cricket Players' Association. This was quickly obtained, as the players were keen to support the match. Organising the teams proved to be a difficult exercise. Although Australia, Pakistan and the West Indies were playing in Australia at the time, the New Zealand, Indian and Bangladeshi players were at home, as were Sri Lankan players who had cancelled the remainder of their tour to New Zealand after the tsunami struck. The majority of the English team and all of the South African players were engaged in a cricket series in South Africa at the time and, unfortunately, the best players from these two teams were unable to participate.?Among the many other tasks that had to be completed were gaining permission from the Melbourne Cricket Ground's owners, the Melbourne Cricket Club, to use the stadium for the match and arranging to get the players to Melbourne from all around the world at short notice.?Publicising the match via television and print media, preparing a pitch, issuing tickets and designing and making players' uniforms, tasks that usually take months to prepare, were all accomplished promptly. A wide range of sponsorships were organised, including a one million dollar naming rights sponsorship, and hundreds of corporate boxes were sold at short notice during the traditional summer holiday period.?Negotiations were also required to be undertaken with construction unions and building contractors to stop work for a day, as the Melbourne Cricket Ground was in the middle of a redevelopment in preparation for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. In addition, enough staff to run a match with a crowd of 70,000, such as ground staff, curators, security personnel, catering staff and cleaners, needed to be obtained.?The match proved to be a tremendous success, raising over $15 million for the relief agency World Vision's Asia Tsunami Appeal.?Create a communications management plan based on the scenario provided.?
Project 2
Identify the main information management considerations for the project Connect Up.? Connect Up project?A large state government department sought the design and establishment of:
1 An intranet facility within and across the department to enable internal communication and reporting.
2 A secure online facility to enable communications with other departments.
3 A portal to enable access to specified areas of department functions/ information.
4 A reporting system that would enable costing to be calculated on a user pays basis for external users. This part of the system includes an extensive database of contracted organisations, including their funding arrangements with the department.
The head of the department approached Aject International to provide a submission that would include a business case for development and implementation of such a system.?Profile of the client?The government department had a newly elected Minister who was required to sign off on the proposal and on the finished product and required periodic reporting. The Minister was under intense pressure at the time to reduce the budget deficit and to report increased efficiencies. This invariably brought resistance and opposition from those who were fearful of losing their jobs.?Project higher authorities?The department was divided into three main areas with a senior executive at the head of each. The proposal had the strong support of two of the three executives. The third believed the work should be undertaken internally to protect the jobs of the existing staff in the information technology service area.?The sponsor?The sponsor for the project was a senior staff member from the section of the department managed by the dissenting senior executive.?Quality measures?Success of the project was dependent on winning over the support of departmental staff who wanted to see that it improved existing arrangements, as well as other end users of the system external to the department. They also needed to be consulted about the specifications for the new system.?Time frame?The project ran for 12 months and included the design, development and implementation of equipment and infrastructure, trialling and training of all users (no further training was to be delivered once the project was completed). The time frame was very tight and a key issue was seeking and incorporating feedback from end users at a time at which they were unfamiliar with the product.?Project scope?Since no one internally seemed to have the capacity to understand or scope the requirements for the system, specifications were left fairly open, relying on Aject to provide what it believed to be the best-fit solution to the problem: to increase efficiency across the organisation.?The project team?Aject International agreed to pull together a consortium which included three other companies as subcontractors: AJC, SPS (Software Performance Systems) and Orbit.
1 Aject provided the project manager and three of its 20 staff assisted in project administration.
2 AJC specialised in designing system architecture and troubleshooting. It had just picked up several large contracts in Asia and was experiencing a substantial demand on its resources so needed to recruit additional staff to provide the technical expertise to the project.
3 SPS was a small but vibrant company which undertook all the communication and consultation activities with stakeholders and the end users of the system throughout the project and provided training to them in the latter stages of the project.
4 Orbit specialised in data management systems and designed, installed and piloted software modifications (it used off the shelf software). It was also responsible for procuring all required hardware and software.
Project communications?Managing project communications across the team was carefully considered since team members were located in different states and each one had substantial existing business commitments. Throughout the project team members struggled with implementing the communication processes agreed in the original communications plan. Despite this the project was able to come in on time, but did require some minor modifications to the scope of the final product to accommodate changes in technology between the beginning and end of the project.?
Project 3
A small consulting company has been contracted to project manage a large research and development project which includes contractors spread over 10 locations.?The key stakeholders to the project include the authorising agent which is a national government department, the client which is an agency acting on behalf of the department and seven main groups of consumer/ industry bodies that will have a vested interest in different parts of the final product, but all of whom want to be included in information about project progress.?In 500-1,500 words outline:
1 Main communication issues to be addressed.
2 Types of communication resources that might be required.
The pitfalls to be aware of in communicating with stakeholders.