CASE STUDY

CHOKLET is a retailer of fashion goods operating in a highly competitive marketplace. The Board of the company has given the go-ahead to redesign the company's website to make it more convenient for customers to use. The project is currently at week 12 and there are problems with the functionality of the site and the fact that it is not easy to navigate. The Project Manager, Khaleel, has expressed concern about the rising costs of the project and the time needed to improve the functionality. He estimates that the change to the functionality will delay the project by three weeks. Khaleel understands that improved customer satisfaction (by making the website easy to use) is important. There will also be diminishing returns since the increased levels of customer satisfaction obtained by the change in functionality will be offset by the increased time and cost spent. The Board has had feedback from the project team members who have complained that there has been a lack of visibility of the project manager. Team members have said that they were unaware of any deadlines as they had not been shown any plan or schedule of work and this had made it difficult to prioritize tasks and understand how they can contribute to the project. The Board of CHOKLET has called an emergency meeting with the Project Manager in order to come up with some immediate solutions which address the project slippage. It has been recommended that Khaleel also needs guidance on how to improve his management of project teams before he leads any future projects.

1)Project Schedule : Do NOT make a schedule, but instead list a table listing major areas of work from your WBS, and describe the methods you would use to obtain time and effort estimates for each area of work) and who would be responsible for providing that information or estimate. You may give an overall estimate of project duration or effort, or estimates for some specific work packages, but do not give a complete Gantt chart. (If you give estimates, indicate how you derived them)

2. Project Budget : Do NOT make a budget, but instead list a table showing major activities from your WBS, the resources required to do that work and the method to be used to obtain a quotation or cost estimate for each item. (Consider personnel, materials and equipment / facilities required in your resource planning) As with the schedule question, you may give an overall estimate of the project cost, or cost estimates for specific deliverables, but if you do, you must explain how they were developed.