Software Training Project

SOS IT Company has $50,000$ employees in its headquarters. The company wants to increase

employee productivity by setting up an internal software applications training program for its

employees. The training program will teach employees how to use software programs such as

Windows, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Project $2013.$ Courses will be offered in the

evenings and on Saturdays and will be taught by qualified volunteer employees. The instructors

will be paid $$40$ per hour. In the past, various departments sent employees to courses offered by

local vendors during company time. In contrast to local vendors$$ programs, this internal training

program should save the company money on training as well as make its people more

productive. The human resources department will manage the program, and any employee can

take the courses. Employees will receive a certificate for completing courses, and a copy of the

certificate will be put in their personnel files.

The company has decided to use off$-$the$-$shelf training materials, but is not sure which vendor$$s

materials to use. The company needs to set up a training classroom, survey employees on what

courses they want to take, find qualified volunteer instructors, and start offering courses. The

company wants to offer the first courses within six months. One person from human resources is

assigned full$-$time to manage this project, and top management has pledged its support of the

project.

Project Scope Management

Some of the tasks specific to this project will be to:

$1.$ Review off$-$the$-$shelf training materials from three major vendors and decide which materials

to use.

$2.$ Negotiate a contract with the selected vendor for the materials.

$3.$ Develop communications information about this new training program. Disseminate the

information via department meetings, e$-$mail, the company$$s intranet, and fliers to all

employees.

$4.$ Create a survey to determine the number and type of courses needed and employees$$

preferred times for taking courses.

$5.$ Administer the survey.

$6.$ Solicit qualified volunteers to teach the courses.

$7.$ Review r$$sum$$s$,$ interview candidates for teaching the courses, and develop a list of

preferred instructors.

$8.$ Coordinate with the facilities department to build two classrooms with $20$ personal computers

in each, a teacher station, and an overhead projection system $($assume that the facilities

department will manage this part of the project$).$

$9.$ Schedule courses.

$10.$ Develop a fair system for signing up for classes.

$11.$ Develop a course evaluation form to assess the usefulness of each course and the instructor$$s

teaching ability.

$12.$ Offer classes.

Project Time Management

Enter realistic durations for each task and then link appropriate tasks. Be sure all tasks are linked

in some fashion to the start and end of the project. Assume that you have six months to complete

the entire project.

Project Cost Management

Assume that you have four people from various departments available part$-$time to support the

full$-$time Human Resources person, Pedro, on the project. Assume that Pedro$$s hourly rate is

$$40.$ Two people from the Information Technology Department $($Sanjay and Xiao$)$ will spend up

to $25$ percent of their time supporting the project. Their hourly rate is $$50.$ One person from the

Marketing department $($Maria$)$ is available $25$ percent of the time at $$40$ per hour, and one person

from Corporate $($Josh$)$ is available $30$ percent of the time at $$35$ per hour. Enter this information

about time and hourly wages into the Resource sheet. Assume that the cost to build the two

classrooms will be $$100,000$ and enter it as a fixed cost.

Using your best judgement, you should assign resources to the tasks. You should view the

resource graph for each person and if anyone is overallocated, you should make adjustments.

For this assignment you should prepare a report in Word with the following:

$1.$ Gant Chart and Network Diagram for the project

$2.$ Schedule table to see key dates and slack times for each task

$3.$ Budget report for this project

In addition to the report, you should also include your Microsoft project file.