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Overview You are assigned to a project team that is responsible for a Regional Financial Reporting Upgrade Project. This project will implement a new financial reporting application and process in all three branch offices of the Pecos Region (Alameda, Brackenridge, Carson). The new reporting process will align the monthly financial reports with recent changes in the Federal Tax Code and reduce the time required to prepare the returns. It will also facilitate the sharing, review and integration of financial report inputs from each of the branch offices in the Pecos region. Your project team has already begun the planning efforts for this project. Your immediate focus is to develop a schedule for the implementation of the financial reporting upgrade. Specifically, your schedule should include the following activities: Kick-off meeting. The purpose of this meeting will be to review the schedule and plans for the implementation effort. Each of the team members will have an opportunity to ask questions and to coordinate on the activities they will perform. This meeting can be completed in less than a day. Software Installation and Test. The new financial reporting application will need to be installed at all three of the branch locations. After it is installed it will need to be tested to ensure that it functions properly on each of the local systems. The tests will also ensure that the new system accurately draws the required data from the existing repositories. Ernest, your IT specialist will perform the installation and test and believes he can complete the tasks at a single location in two to three days. Financial Specialist Training. At each location, a small team of selected financial specialists will receive training in the use of the new application, along with a detailed discussion of the new reporting requirements and the reporting process. The software application must be installed and tested before the training can be conducted. Jessica, your training specialist is already prepared to conduct these sessions and estimates that it will take her 1-2 days at each location depending on the expertise and rate of learning of the branch specialists. Initial Monthly Report Preparation. At each location the small teams of financial specialists will prepare the initial monthly report to be submitted to the regional office using the new software application and following the new process. At each branch this activity can not begin until the software is installed and tested and the training is complete. In time, these specialists should be able to complete the monthly reports in 3-4 days, but for this initial report, the planners at the regional office anticipate it may take 5-8 days to prepare the reports. Regional Consolidation of Monthly Financial Reports. Once she receives the monthly financial report inputs from each of the branch office; Maria, the regional financial specialist, will integrate the inputs and prepare a consolidated regional monthly financial report. Maria estimates that it will take 3-4 days to complete the consolidated report. Now, in preparation for your team kick off meeting, you will need to develop the implementation schedule. Specifically, you must complete these task: - Sequence the activities - Estimate the duration of each activity - Determine the project duration - Produce a Gantt Chart for the project The activity templates for this project are on slides 3-5. The legend at the right indicates where you should record the early start (ES), early finish (EF), late start (LS), late finish (LF), Duration (Dur) and slack (SL) for each activity. Submit your file in the assignment folder in Blackboard. Software Installation and Test Alameda Branch Software Installation and Test Brackenridge Branch Financial Specialist Training Brackenridge Branch Initial Report Initial Report Preparation Brackenridge Branch Initial Report Preparation Carson Branch Regional Consolidation of Monthly Financial Reports Gantt Chart