Please help to answer the Case study Questions.

These Q's are based on Part 1 of this case study project,as well as the Introduction and Business Description in the case study. Read the Introduction, Business Description and Part 1 of the Case Study - Orca is Moving, comprisingEvent #1 to Event #6.

Case study:

Case Study: Introduction This is a business case study. It is an integral and required component of the Monarch Diploma of Project Management Training Course. This case study describes a ctitious organisation and events which follow the development of a somewhat typical project. It is a project that should be easily understandable by all students, without needing any specific industry or technical knowledge. Despite this case study not being real. it is based on realistic circumstances such as you may encounter in your work. You are expected to take it seriously and to place yourself into the story as the person described throughout as "You\". You may then consider and report your response to the described events to show how you would manage this project. You will need to appreciate the business circumstances, events and decisions described. be able to explain to your trainer how you would manage the situations presented and demonstrate competencies that are included in the course. You may feel that you need to add some material that is not provided by the case study or to assume some additional information on occasion. to clarify some of the circumstances. If you do this. make sure that you document these additions or assumptions with your work. This case study is not just material to support your assessment. It also provides a learning experience; it describes good and bad project behaviour. Reading through the situations that unfold in this story will allow you to compare the approaches taken here to similar circumstances that happen in many, real projects. This case study explains how 'soft skills ', such as personal presentation and behaviour in meetings can have a real impact on results. These issues are outside of the range of your normal studies. but are vital to good project management. Throughout the case study. there is frequent reference to the Project Management Framework [PMF}. This is a collection of documents that describe and assist good project management practice. These documents are provided with your course material. so you can access the guides and templates to which the story refers. You will also probably need to keep the PMF Glossary of Terms at hand to clarify any acronyms or terms that are used. As you move through the course. you will be asked to read and consider the events of this case study. You may be asked to reect on how you have handled real situations which are similar to those described or to develop project documentation based on the case study events. and submit these for assessment of your competency in each module of the course. The case study project is described by a series of events and you will only understand these if you have read the preceding events. so work through this case study one step at a time. as directed. Case Study: The Business Description Eat-Dut-lnns Family Restaurants (EOlFR) is a chain of family friendly restaurants in suburban locations across the country. They specically market to families as a provider of healthy and interesting meals that are an alternative to home cooking. They are open seven days for breakfast. lunch and dinner and offer a highly standardised menu for each. with each restaurant having a few additional menu choices appropriate to the demography of the surrounding area. All menu items are promoted as being nutritious {except for a few of the more decadent desserts]. The business has always avoided selling takeaway food, preferring to offer home meal ambiance in a dining room environment at a trusted. convenient location. There has been strong recent business growth from expanding the number of restaurant outlets and from effective advertising and increasingly sophisticated marketing promotions. The latest campaign has been particularly successful in developing a strong appeal for children by offering a Pokemon-style smartphone app allowing players to win prizes by locating and capturing virtual objects called 'Eatees'. Patrons can nd these in the meals and around the restaurants by using the promotional phone app. Parents have been very supportive of this campaign as the higher value Eatees are usually associated with the healthier menu choices. \fCase Study: Event #1 The Project Opportunity Apparently, Gervase stumbled upon a real estate bargain [his words} with an ofce and warehouse premises in Penrith. It is modern, well located to transport, spacious and at the right price and it seems that this is the perfect place to relocate the lCompany's central administration and warehouse (again, all his words}. In an emergency meeting of the Board, approval was given to go ahead and make an offer on this property, which has now been accepted. You are (quietly) curious to know if this property is really so suitable as, to your knowledge, no needs assessment has been conducted and you are sure that no consultation has taken place to find out the requirements of the managers or staff. Nonetheless, it is happening. Recently, word has reached Gervase from some of the senior managers that you are showing considerable ability to organise the 'spccial projects\Case Study: Event #2 A Project is Burn The ofce coflee machine is much hated. It reflects the age and disrepair of the building that it and you work within. 1With seemingly great effort. the poor quality brewn liquid seeps slowly into your cup, and you appreciate the short break that it provides. But, as you drink. you remain unsettled by your recent visitor and you decide to take a walk around the block to clear your head. carefully avoiding Ruby Lou's. Without any destination in mind. you find yourselfwalking around a small when park, e'the main street. There are children playing but you pay them no heed. You have other things on your mind. You do have some experience with property moves, a]though never for an ofce like this and not for ajob ofthis size. You can see that this will be complex. and there will be lots ofthings to consider. Your gut tells you that the timcfrarne is inadequate, but you already know that gut-feel will never be taken seriously it'you are to challenge the decision of an executive. You have no idea what 'pnm'ngj'on in charge offers ' really means. l[San you direct the other managers and their staff? Can you authorise purchases? You currently have authorisation to sign off purchases up to $3110 and you know that this will be totally inadequate for the expenses that will be required. What will be the consequences ifyou can't do this successfully? Will there be any recognition ifyeu do? What does success even look like? Where to start? What to do now? Your head lls with questions as you tlep down on a bench in the little park. But you need answers, not questions. The park should be calming, but you cannot relax- Rather than slowing down, your brain picks up speed. How you wish you had nished, or even started. the en-linc project management course. Surely that would have prepared you the today's events, but right now you will have no time for study. Then you remember something about that course. The material provided to you so far included a project management framework. When you loekcd through it briey the ether night, you saw that it included a set of processes to describe all aspects efa project and the steps to follow. Maybe that will be a good starting place for this challenge. Hurrying back to the ettice and your desk, you search and nd the website ter the course provider. log in as a registered student and review the resources. The training course does indeed provide a Project Management Framework [whatever that means]. It's referred to as a PMF. When you open the download folder, you see that the PMF contains lots of decurncnts. There is something there about roles that seems to describe what a project manager dees. You will certainly need to look at that, but not light new. There is a Project Management Plan template. but it looks complicated. You then nd a document called the Project EriefTemplate that can he used to document the initiation of a project. That does look more interesting. It is not too complex. and it seems relevant. so you print it out and read it through quickly. Bingo! This appears to be a great guide to the rst things to be done on a project. Now you can see that there are some important and urgent things that need to be defined before any work can happen. You teel as though you have stopped spinning your wheels and found some traction to move tbrward. HHere's hoping,\" you say aloud to yourself, \"that I am headed in the light direction.\" Pritha. Drew's new PA, leeks at you quite strangely. and then she hurries past your workstation. Case Study: Event #3 Getting Approval Filling in the Project Brief Template was a useful thing to do. You believe that you have dened the issue to be addressed. but it leaves you a little concerned. It was quite a simple document and there was nothing in it about getting on with delivering a solution - or even for planning the work to be done. \"It's a process," you say aloud to reassure yourself. \"Baby steps." Then you quickly look around to see ifanyone was within earshot. You really must stop talking to yourself. So, what's next'.l l[Iver the weekend, you have read the PMF Processes Guidelines for assistance in lling out the Project Brief. or at least you read the early parts ofit and skimmed the rest. The Briefdescribes a decision-making hierarchy to: the project. You have boldly put your own name down in the document for the role of Project Manager, and you have determined that lIervase must be the Project D'WTICF. At home, last night, you read a helpful explanation of project roles in the Roles Guidelines from the PMF. You found that really helpful in explaining project authority and decision making and so you are fairly condent that these are the correct people to assign. A project, you discovered, is an identied. separate business entity. Yours now has a name to ensure that it has its own identity. You have called it the 'Drca is Moving\" project. quoting the boss's opening words on the subject. But what authority does this document have without approval? Willi increasing condence, you head upstairs and enter the carefully guarded otce ofthe CED. After a cordial. if slightly frosty greeting from Jerry. lEervasc's private secretary. you ask to see the boss for a moment. Responding to his questioning glare. you explain that it is important to have this document approved and signed off. \"Leave it with me." says Jerry, gahbing the document from your hand with a flourish and depositing it in one ofthe many trays around his desk. \"When do you need it by?" \"Today, ifpossihle" you stammer, and are about to explain the urgency. but Jerry has already busied himselfwith another task. so you decide you had better leave him to it. On the assumption that your Project Brief will be approved. you start thinking about what you should do next. You read. in that PMF guide, that projects have a beginning and an end and that, for well managed projects. the time in between is divided into sequential stages. You even printed out the neat diagram showing the stages in the lite ofa project. It was called the \"Pin-up Diagram'. and so that's what you did', you pinned it up on the wall of your workstation and. as you look at it now. you notice that each stage produces a document that records the work done in the stage and the plans for the following stages. \"Sn, ] have nearly nished Stage 1,\" you think. \"This can't be too difcult." The Project Briefleads you to the second stage, Evaluation. This will involve some planning activities and these will result in producing a Project Business Case, a document that sets a direction for the delivery of the project. You also read that project managers plan their work. and use a Project Management Plan {PMP} to record the details of what has happened and their plans for what comes next. You are already realising that there will be extensive docLunentation associated with the project. you have created a folder on the work drive of your PC. it now contains the draft Project Eriefand a blank template for the PMP. You have also had the insight to make a diary note record ofthe brieng meeting that you had with Gervase on Friday. lIEIbviously. one skill that a project manager must develop is that ofrecord keeping. Another is to gain a good understanding ofthe many acronyms. You have found a glossary ofproject management terms in the PMF and that has now been copied on to your smartphnne. You have already needed to reference this glossary on several occasions. You remember that time is tight and you need to start doing something to get the move moving. Should you book the removalists perhaps. or draw up floor plans for the new ofce'? You start making notes; a list ofthings to do. You go onlinc to research office tit-nuts and removalists. Your to-dn list becomes long but you cannot specify any ofit on your own. You don't know what facilities will be requimd at the new office, or the sizes ofworking spaces orthc quantities ofmaterials needed. And it is so piece-meal. it seems that it would take forever to compile a work list and then how would you know ifit was complete? Dr comprehensive? Quite lost in your thoughts as you work on your list, you glance up. startled to see Jerry quietly standing by your desk. He has your document, which he places in front ofynu with aplnmb. \"Have fun with that,\" he says as he sashays offto the next errand on his busy agenda. \"Clh. Thanks," you murmur at the space where he recently was. \fCase Study: Event #5 Separating the Project By the time you head out to meet Maddy, you are carrying a edgling plan. You have worked on little else, but there is not much to show for it. You had hoped to present her with a list of the work to be done, maybe a timetable, but you are nowhere near that yet. You are meeting at Ruby Lou's to discuss the project's direction and roles. She suggested the meeting place. Her email said that she had nally received a note from Gervase about her taking on the executive role for the project. It was a very short message, and so she was looking forward to you lling her in on the details. The bar is pleasant, if a little dated, with dark tables, exposed brick walls and studded brown leather couches. There is an alcove near the back courtyard that is generally quiet and seats six to eight people. It's almost like a private room. Great for a business meeting away from the office as long as you order coffee and avoid the wine list. Although quite late in arriving, Maddy seems relaxed, unhurried. \"We've always done projects pretty badly around here." She is already into the conversation as she throws her bag onto the seat, shakes your hand and sits down. \"The tout of the Botany offices was catastrophic. I had newly hired staff who had to work out of their homes for weeks because their ofces were not ready. And it cost us a bomb so much more than we had budgeted. Coffee?\" She waves to the waiter, who walks over, and you both order. \"Every time we launch a new marketing campaign, we end up working day and night to meet the deadline. We are always so hurried that we make stupid, unnecessary mistakes. We could really use a good example of how to do this sort of thing properly for a change. Are you going to give us that?" She certainly is direct. \"Well, 1..., I am trying to," you stutter. u"t'ou see, llve never really done this before. Not properly anyway. But I am really keen to make a good job of it and [ am learning as [ go. The problem is though, the learning slows me down. The planning takes forever." \"At least you are planning," she says, with a wry smile. \"Start by telling me what we are trying to do here and what you want of me. Then we can take a look at how we are going to get there." You tell Maddy about Gervase's instructions and you give her a copy of the accepted Project Brief. She scans this quickly. \"ls that all we have, so far?" she asks. \"We need to dene and agree the situation before we start planning the work to be done," you explain. Then you pass her an extract from the PMF on the role of the Project Sponsor. \"This explains your intended role in the project.\" The coffee has arrived, and she sips as she reads. \"Wow. I really am expected to carry the can for this, aren't I?\" She looks straight at you over the top of her cup. \"Well, yes. As far as being accountable to Gervase and, through him to the Board," you explain. \"But if I am the Project Manager, then I need to do the planning, resourcing, delivering and reporting. I'll need you to get me the funding, approve any purchases or contracts and to see that the other managers work with me on this." \"Well, yes. As far as being accountable to Gervase and. through him to the Board." you explain. \"But if I am the Project Manager. then I need to do the planning1 resourcing. delivering and reporting. I'll need you to get me the funding. approve any purchases or contracts and to see that the other managers work with me on this.\" \"And. as 1 am trying to do things the right way,\" you continue1 \"I've made a rst cut of dening the scope of the project. I don't really know yet what aspects I am expected to manage; what we will be taking to the new location and what we will need to buy. So. I've made a lot of asstunptions. Can you please take a look at this and give me your thoughts?\" You pass Maddy the project scope statement that you have been working on. \"Sure." she says. \"But before 1 agree to take this on, tell me." her eyes are still xed on you. \"Has Helen relieved you of your normal duties?I Does she understand that you will be totally buried in this until the middle of next year?" You try to disguise the reddening of your face. You are dumbstruck. 1|With all of your enthusiasm for the new challenge. you have completely forgotten to report to Helen on any of this. Helen 1|IiI'ign is your immediate line manager and, although she leaves you alone for most of the tinie1 you realise that Maddy is absolutely right and that you do need to seek your manager's permission and support to continue with what you are doing. \"Well," she continues, guessing your answer from the colour of your ears. \"we can't make any further plans until you sort things out with your manager. Call me and let me know how things work out." She stands and gathers up the papers you've given her. \"Thanks for the update. l'll go through these.\" As she turns to leave, she pauses. \"1 tie hope that Helen is UK with you continuing with this," she says. \"Something tells me that we will he better e\" with you managing it. I have no idea how we are going to get into that new building without you. Case Study: Event #6 Finding Stakeholders You arrange to meet with Helen in her office the following morning. \"Howdy stranger," she says, with veiled sarcasm. Helen is efficient. Tall, good looking and extremely professional. She is, you think, the perfect choice to manage corporate services. \"We haven't seen much of you around here lately." You start to talk about yourjob, and end up having a long talk. You go back through your feelings of the declining workload, of your job insecurity and how you have been helping out other managers. ul've had good feedback on what you have been doing," she says. \"Perhaps, if we ever get to do performance reviews around here, we should take a look at your career aspirations. I've been thinking that we should investigate setting up a corporate projects group. Perhaps we should talk to HR about you doing some training in this area." You tell her that you would be really keen to develop this u'ther, but right now you have a much more urgent problem. Then you detail the job that Gervase has assigned to you and you give her a copy of the updated Project Brief. She is frowning as she reads it. \"Gervase asked me to take charge of this, and I'm still working out what that means. [ know that I should have sought your approval as soon as this happened," you say, \"but I was so caught up in the challenge. I've been putting every spare moment into learning how to do this sort of work properly." \"And not putting much time into managing our properties," Helen interrupts. \"Look. Don't sweat too much on this. Gervase mentioned to me in passing that he had asked you to manage the office move, so I was wondering when you were going to talk to me about it. I am UK with you doing this, but we need it to be done well. I wasn't working here when we set up this building, but all I hear about it are horror stories. If that were to happen this time, it will impact our business very badly. We are much bigger now and much more dependent on centralised administration.\" She stands up and starts to pace around the ofce. You think it best to remain quiet. \"So, the immediate problem is to work out who will manage the properties section since you won't have the time to do that for a while," she continues. "The second issue is to see that you get the support you need to do this new job well." After a good deal of irther discussion, you leave Helen's ofce with her approval. Not only that, she has decided to talk with Tricia in Procurement about Arnold, one of her staff, taking over your property managers role. He has had relevant experience and, as the new purchasing system has now settled down, Tricia's section has more staff than are needed. After a good deal of further discussion, you leave Helen's ofce with her approval. Not only that, she has decided to talk with Tricia in Procurement about Arnold. one of her staff taking over your property manager's role. He has had relevant experience and, as the new purchasing system has now settled down, Tricia's section has more staff than are needed. Proactively1 you had prepared a stakeholder requirements template for Helen to complete. As head of Corporate Services1 Helen is responsible for a big portion of the Company's staff and facilities. This was an opportunity to seek out her needs for the new office. She was impressed with your preparedness and she agreed to get right on to this. You reflect on how useful that Project Brief has been. This has given you the authority to do what you need to do. Everyone you have talked to so far has respected the project and your role in it. Your confidence is growing but you know that you are going to need a lot more cooperation to get this elusive plan together. And then. to deliver Heading straight to Maddy's ofce, you try a friendly wave as you pass by Pritha, who sits at a desk next to Drew's office. She pretends not to see you. \"Come on in." calls Maddy in response to your knock. She closes a large... brightly coloured le1 puts down her oversized pen and waves you to a chair. \"How did you go with Helen?\" \"It went really well1 thanks,\" and you relate the key points of your earlier conversation. She nods thoughtfully. \"So, it seems that we are good to go,\" you say. \"It will be great if Arnold agrees to take on the properties work. It would be an advancement for him, and I would appreciate having someone around to talk through the is sues.\" Maddy then tells you that she is happy to accept the role of Project Sponsor. She has read the guidelines extract that you left with her and she passes you back a copy of the Project Brief with her signature added. next to yours and Gervase's. \"Quite a teamy\" she quips. Now let's get on with it and make this a project to remember. But this time," she adds quickly1 \"I hope we will remember it for all the right reasons.\" \"You told me that our previous projects have been catastrophic - I think that's the word you used.\" you enquire. \"Who was in charge of these?" \"That'sjust the point," says Maddy despondently. \"No one was or we all were. Who knows? We just blundered on through. No one was accountable. Everybody pushed the interests of their own section. The tout contractor tried to meet everyone's requests. He was sweet, and he tried his best1 but he was way out of his depth with this one. Nothing was ever nished on time. We couldn't even agree what \"on time' meant. anyway. But, the worst of it was that we never learned anything from this asco or from any of our past projects. Every time we do something like this1 we make the same old mistakes.\" She sits back in her chair put her ngers together and stares at them for a while. \"This company is totally focussed on its operations." she says, eventually. \"That's not such a bad thing; we do a good job. But we need a broader viewi moving forward. We see that selling our franchises and selling meals in restaurants are the only things worth doing. All other activities are Iess important, so we don't put enough resources into them and we don't try to be good at them.\" She goes quiet for a bit. \"And I'm reaIly worried.\" she says eventually. \"The world is changing faster than ever and, if we don't learn how to make changes to our business efciently and effectively. then we are going to be left behind. Right now, we are out in front and [ want to stay there.\" 1|When you tell her that Helen is in the process of listing all of her requirements for moving her department to the new ofce Maddy pulls over her keyboard. \"We need all of the senior managers to do that..." she says. \"I'm going to send them all an email telling them to expect a visit from you1 very soon. I'll start it by telling them what we are trying to achieve and that this is to be given a high priority. They will need to understand your role in this and that they will be expected to put some work into the planning. I'm only giving them 3 days to get back to you. [s that UK? If anyone is less than cooperative, come and see me about it.\" She types away quickly while you watch. \"Now. Is there anyone else you need to contact for their requirements?" \"Sure.\" You smile... as you pass a pre-prepared requirements template document to Maddy. \"Here's one for you to ll in.\" A lntroductom Section A.1 Purpose Provide a clear statement of the purpose of this document hot the purpose of the project. This document describes and denes the need for a project. The Project Brief has been prepared as the major outcome of the Project Initiation Stage to set the direction for this project. to dene its management and to authorise work on it to proceed. Upon acceptance. this Project Brief records an agreement between stakeholders to progress the project to the next stage. This agreement is for the specic intention of continuing to realise the project objectives. subject to the planning process conrming that the project has a reasonable prospect of achieving the Project Owners expectations for the performance of the project and its benets. A2 Author 3: Ownership This document was commissioned by MW [generallyr the Project Owner} to initiate sound planning and management for the project. It has been prepared by WK (generally, the Project Manager}. The Project Brief will become the property of the Project Owner on acceptance and its maintenance will be 1trested with the Project Manager for the life of the project. A.3 Approvals Required The Project Brief requires the approval and signature of the Project Owner who should only provide such approval if they accept the document. in many organisations this may also require the approval ofthe Proiect Management Ofce ['Pr'iiin. The Project initiation Checio'ist may be used to ensure all necessary work has preceded the deveiopment of this document. All Document Maintenance Once approved, this Project Brief can onlyr be varied by the agreement of the signatories. Any variations should he recorded on a Project Variation Record and led as an extension of this document. A.5 Document Structure This document uses a standard structure and is comprised of 3 sections. Section A Introductory Section introduces and identifies the document and denes its purpose, scope and history. Section B Results Section contains the findings and recommendations that have resulted from the work that this document records. Section C Continuance Section records the next actions recommended for the project and approvals for this document.