Assessment 2:
Project Plan and Reflective Statement
The project is for providing training to the employees of the more than 100 restaurants of a fast food restaurant chain company. The benefit or the rationale of doing this project is that customer complaints regarding customer service in the restaurants of the company have a gone up sharply. They have become very frequent. If corrective steps are not taken immediately, then the company will lose competitors and its competitive advantage. The project will result in giving better customer service skills to the employees of the restaurant chain. The skills that employees will get will benefit them and the organization in the medium and long term. Successful implementation of the project will strengthen the competitive advantage of the company to a great degree. It will be able to successfully counter to the competitive threat that is there in the fast food restaurants industry (Agarwal & Schakleton, 2010).
The main aim of the project is to improve the customer service levels in the restaurants of the company by giving customer service training to the employees of the restaurants of the company. The project will achieve its aim by achieving the following objectives:
1. Identify the training needs of employees and managers working in the restaurants of the chain, in the area of customer service.
2. Make a training plan on the basis of the training needs of the employees.
3. Implement the training plan.
4. Assess the outcome of the training plan, 6 months after the implementation of the plan.
The problem is that customer service complaints in the restaurants of the company have gone up sharply in the last one year. This has resulted in significant increase customer dissatisfaction level from the restaurants of the company. Quality of customer service is the most important source of competitive advantage in the industry in which the company operates.The current situation is one where the restaurants of the company have started losing customers because of deterioration in the quality of customer service. Loss of customers means loss of revenues. And loss of revenues means lower profitability.
If this problem is not solved soon then it will result in the company permanently losing its competitive advantage. Its brand name will get permanently impaired (Vishwanath, 2016). So this project is one of critical importance. If the project turns out to be a success in achieving its goals and objectives, then it will solve a major problem that the company is facing.
Much thought was given on how the problem of deteriorating customer service in the restaurants of the company can be solved. The options for solving this problem appeared to be very limited. One option was to replace the employees in the restaurants of the company with new employees who are better trained and better skilled in providing customer service. But implementing this option would have caused massive disruption in the operations of the restaurants of the chain. Terminating all the employees of the restaurants and then hiring new employees to replace them would prove to be a project that is extremely difficult to implement (Kotler & Keller, 2018). It would also be very unfair to terminate all the employees of the restaurants of the chain. It would have meant termination of the services of more than 1000 employees. Therefore this option was found to be not feasible and therefore was rejected.
The second option that came up was to give more training to restaurant employees and managers so that they become more efficient and effective at giving customer service. After much consideration it was decided that this option is the one that is practically feasible. It will solve the problem of deteriorating customer service, if it is implemented successfully. Therefore this option has been recommended.
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) breaks down a project into simpler work tasks (Heagney, 2017). These work tasks need to be done if the project is to be completed (Burke, 2013). The WBS helps in giving a clear and better idea of the details of the project (Bull, Shaw, & Baca, 2012).
The WBS of this project is as follows:
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Customer service training project
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Development of the business case of the project
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Identify the customer service training needs of employees of the restaurants
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Forming the project management team
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Making the project charter
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Estimate the budget of the project
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Estimate the schedule of the project
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Implementation & monitoring
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Conducting training in each restaurant of the chain
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Doing customer survey for assessing the effectiveness of the training program
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Filing project closure report
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Activity
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Estimated time
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Sequence
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Development of business case of the project
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15 days
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1
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Forming of the project management team
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7 days
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1
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Making of project charter
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14 days
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1
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Making of elaborate project plan
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30 days
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2
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Implementing the training program in all the restaurants of the chain
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180 days
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3
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Evaluation of the success of the training program in terms of improving customer service
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15 days
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4
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The duration of the project will be 12 months. In six months training will be completed in all the restaurants of the chain. 6 months after the completion of the training, random customer surveys will be done in some of the restaurants of the chain. These surveys will assess the customer satisfaction level by asking customers their feedback on the customer service that they have recently got in the restaurants. If the surveys reveal that customer service quality has improved significantly after the implementation of the training project, then the project will be considered a success and will be closed. However, if the surveys reveal that customer service has not improved significantly after the implementation of the training project, then reasons for the failure of the project will be analyzed. These reasons will be put in the project closure report. In that case, this closure report will become the basis for further project that can be done so that the goal of high quality customer service can be achieved.
The Critical Path Method (CPM) is being used here to identify the critical activities in this project. Critical activities are those activities of the project, which if delayed, will delay the entire project (Bull, Shaw, & Baca, 2012). Non-critical activities are those activities where some delay can be made without delaying the entire project (Heagney, 2017). Timely completion is very important for this project. Therefore it is necessary that the project management team has a clear idea about what the critical activities in the project are. They can then keep a close watch on these critical activities in order to ensure that they do not get delayed.
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Activity
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Estimated time
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A
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15 days
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B
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7 days
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C
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14 days
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D
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30 days
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E
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180 days or 6 months
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F
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Last 15 days of the 12th month
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In the above critical path diagram:
Activity A is development of the business case of the project.
Activity B is forming of the project management team.
Activity C is making of the project charter.
Activity D is making the elaborate Project plan. It will involve identifying the training needs of employees in the restaurants of the chain. This activity will require the project management team analyze common customer complaints regarding the customer service in the restaurants. This activity will also require the project management team to randomly visit some of the restaurants of the chain to do direct observation of how customer service is being provided by the employees.
Activity E is implementing the training program in all the restaurants of the chain. The training programs will be conducted by the project management team.
Activity F is Doing customer survey at the end of 12 months to identify whether the goal of significantly improving customer service has been achieved or not.
The critical path is the longest path running through the project. All the activities lying on this critical path are critical activities. In the case of this project, three paths can be seen going through the project. One is A-D-E-F; the other is B-D-E-F; and the third is C-D-E-F. From the estimated times of each activity, it can be seen that A-D-E-F is the longest path running through the project. Therefore A-D-E-F is the critical path. All the activities lying on the critical path are critical activities.
Risk management is one of the critical factors of success in any project (Darnall, Russell, & Preston, 2012). Without effective risk management, chances of the project ending up as a failure go up. In the case of this project, risk management involves identifying the key risks before the project; assessing the impact of these key risks if they materialize; probability that these key risks will materialize; prioritizing the risks; and having suitable risk response strategies.
A risk before this project is quality risk. Quality risk implies that the quality of training that is given to employees as part of this project is not of good quality. The project will fail in achieving its goal of significantly improving customer service if the quality of training that is provided to employees is not good. The probability of materialization of this risk is medium. The impact of the risk, if it materializes, will be very high because it will cause the entire project to fail. Due to its medium probability of occurrence and high impact, this risk is a high priority risk for this project.
The estimated budget of this project is more than 1.2 million dollars. There is still the risk of actual costs exceeding the budgeted cost of the project. The probability of occurrence of this risk is high because the project will be implemented across more than 100 restaurants of the restaurant chain. The impact of the materialization of this risk can be high if actual costs exceed the budget costs by too much. Actual NPV of the project will vary from the estimated NPV by too much in that case. Due to this high probability of occurrence and high impact in case of materialization, this risk is a high priority risk for the project(Catambay, 2017).
There is also the risk of the project not being completed within the scheduled timeframe. The three parameters of success of any project are that its final deliverables are as per quality specifications; it is completed within its estimated budget; and it is completed within estimated time. The scale of implementation of this project is large because it will be implemented across more than 100 restaurants of the company. The risk of the project going beyond its schedule by the time it is completed is high. The impact of materialization of this risk will be significant if the project gets delayed beyond the schedule by many days. Due to the high probability of occurrence of this risk and its high impact, this risk can also be classified as a high priority risk for the company.
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Risk
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Probability of Risk
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Impact of Risk
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Risk priority
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Risk response strategy
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Quality risk
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Medium
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Very Severe
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High
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Risk minimization through tight quality control at every step of the project
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Cost risk
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High
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Severe
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High
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Risk minimization through tight cost control
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Risk of delay
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High
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Severe
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High
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Risk minimization through tight control of the time taken for completing every activity, especially the critical activities
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The key resources required for implementing the project include a detailed training document. This training document will explain in detail the content of the training that will be provided to employees in each restaurant of the chain. The training will be given by the project management team in a training session of 2 hours. The project team will visit each restaurant of the chain and give this training session to the employees. The training sessions will be held on a week day, when demand is not at its peak, in the morning, before the restaurants open. The human resource department will make all the arrangements for the travel and stay of the project team members to the different restaurants of the chain.
The project team will consist of the project manager; Human Resource Vice-President of the organization; Operations Vice President of the company; Marketing - Vice President of the company; Quality Control - Vice President of the company; a Project Manager; and two external training consultants who have experience and expertise in implementing such a project in the hospitality or restaurant industry.
Financial resources are the most important resource required for implementing this project. The company has adequate access to financial resources that will be required for implementing this project. Given the revenues, profitability, and cash reserves of the company, the cost of implementing this project is not very high. All the resources that will be required for implementing this project are easily available.
Vice- President of Human Resources of the organization will be part of the project management team. She will be responsible for communicating with all the restaurant managers. She will communicate to the restaurant managers the time and schedule of the training sessions in their respective restaurants. She will also give her inputs regarding the present state of the human resources working in the restaurants of the company. This will help other members of the project team in identifying the training needs of the employees more accurately.
One of the critical factors of success for this project is communication. The communication plan is mainly about communicating with key stakeholders on a regular basis. Feedback of the key stakeholders will be taken whenever the need for such a feedback is seen. The key stakeholders of this project are the customers of the restaurants of the company; the employees and managers of the restaurants of the company; the shareholders of the company; the management of the company; and the project management team that is responsible for implementing this project. Feedback given by the customers will be analyzed while identifying the training needs of the employees in the area of customer service.
Successful implementation of this project will result in great benefits for the company in the short, medium and long term. It will significantly improve customer service that is given by employees in the restaurants of the company. Improvement in customer service will result in creation of more satisfied customers. This will strengthen the competitive advantage of the company. The restaurant industry is a highly competitive industry(San-Jose & Jose-Luis, 2013). Without providing good quality customer service, the organization will not be able to sustain and strengthen its competitive advantage.
The NPV analysis of this project is presented in the business case of the project. This NPV analysis clearly shows that the project will have a significant positive NPV. This means that this project will end up creating significant value for shareholders of the company (Kotler & Armstrong, 2016). It will also create significant value for other stakeholders of the company(Dang, Li, & Yang, 2018). It will result in creation of better customer service for customers of the company; it will make employees of the organization better trained and more skilled; and it will make the restaurants of the chain more efficient and effective.
The project should therefore be undertaken. Its risks are not very high. The risks of the project are such that they can be managed without reasonable difficulties. The company has all the resources required for implementing this project. The company has all the financial resources that will be required for implementing this project.
It is recommended that this project plan should be approved. The project should be implemented without any delay. Any delay in implementing this project will cause significant losses for the company. It will increase customer dissatisfaction to such a level that many loyal customers may stop coming to the restaurants of the company because of poor customer service. Therefore, successful implementation of the project is a necessity for the company, if it wants to survive in the long term. The project should be treated as one of critical importance.
What are the learning and insights that I gained?
Developing the business case for this project gave me significant amount of learning and new insights. I got the opportunity to apply the concepts and theories that I learnt in the module in the areas of project management and NPV analysis, in a real life like situation. While applying these concepts and theories, I realized the practical relevance of the subject of project management. I understood the importance of a systematic approach to project management in real life projects. When I was going through the theory, at many places I wondered at the need for being so rigorous and systematic while doing simple projects. I could not appreciate the importance that was being put on project planning and risk management. But after developing the business case and the project plan for this project, I now fully appreciate the importance of project planning and risk management.
The significance of developing the business case of the project
It is important in the initiation stage to develop the business case of a project. The business case helps in understanding whether it will be worthwhile to do the project or not. Every project requires expenditure of time and other resources (Bull, Shaw, & Baca, 2012). In the case of larger projects, the expenditure on time and resources can be very significant. So it is important that the organization does not undertake any project which is not going to create any value for its stakeholders (Darnall, Russell, & Preston, 2012). The business case helps in understanding the value that the project can create for its stakeholders (Damodaran, 2014). If the business case shows that the organization will not create any value for its stakeholders, then the idea of the project can be abandoned right at that stage, without any further expenditure of resources on the project (Vishwanath, 2016). If the business case shows that the project will create significant value for the stakeholders and it has a positive NPV, then the project can be taken to the next stages of the project lifecycle(Barnes, 2019). The importance of business case that I learned from doing this project will prove to be very useful in my future career as a manager in the corporate world. I intend to have a long term career in the corporate world. This career will require me to act as manager in future. As a manager I will be involved in managing organizational projects too.
The significance of project plan
I also understood the importance of project plan. The project plan should be as elaborate as possible. Tools like WBS can give a very clear picture of how things will take place during the implementation stage of the project. This considerably reduces the risks during project implementation. The risks that any project faces, come up during the implementation stage.
I also understood the significance of having a risk management plan. This risk management plan is a very important aspect of the project plan. Without a risk management plan, the risks before the project cannot be identified. It is by identifying and prioritizing all the risks before the project, that effective and efficient risk management can be done. The risk management plan not only identifies the risks before the organization, but also identifies the risk response strategy in case of each risk. The risk response strategies explain which risks can be eliminated; which risks can be minimized; and which risks will be accepted. Risk management plan can also give out the contingency measures that will be taken in case any of the risk identified actually materialize. By making the risk management plan, the project manager and project management team get a clearer understanding of the project and the risks before it.
The learning gained from making the business case and project plan for this project is going to prove useful during my entire future career. It will make me a better employee and better manager in my future jobs with different types of organization. I have surely become a better planner and risk manager. I have realized the utility and usefulness of various risk management tools like WBS, CPM etc. Right application of these tools can make the entire exercise of project management easier. The application of these tools is a necessity while managing large and complicated projects that have many stages and aspects. Large projects cannot be done successfully without a systematic and rigorous approach to project management.
Agarwal, V., & Schakleton, M. (2010). Advanced corporate finance. Lancaster school of management, Available at: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/shacklem/acf2010.pdf.
Bull, L., Shaw, K., & Baca, C. (2012). Delivering strategy: organizational project management and the strategic PMO. Project Management Institute , https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/pmo-opm-performance-strategy-6075.
Burke, R. (2013). Project Management Techniques. Burke Publishing https://www.bookdepository.com/Project-Management-Techniques-Rory-Burke/9780958273343.
Damodaran, A. (2014). Applied Corporate Finance. New York: Stern School of Business.
Darnall, Russell, & Preston, J. (2012). Beginning project management. Lardbucket Available at: https://2012books.lardbucket.org/pdfs/beginning-project-management-v1.1.pdf.
Heagney, J. (2017). Fundamentals of project management. WorkSmart Available at: https://www.nesacenter.org/uploaded/conferences/SEC/2014/handouts/Rick_Detwiler/15_Detwiler_Resources.pdf.
Vishwanath, S. (2016). Corporate finance. Sage Available at: https://117.211.153.211:8001/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1121/1/CorporateFinance-TheoryandPractice.pdf.