MGT201A : Project Management - Case Analysis - Assessment Answer

Project Management Assignment

Assignment Task

1. Develop a stakeholder analysis for your example project. Identify as many stakeholders as you can using Exhibit 5.3. List stakeholders by name and title where possible. Then prioritize the listed stakeholders as in Exhibit 5.4. Be very specific regarding what each stakeholder is interested in. Recognize some stakeholders may have an interest in multiple aspects of the project process or results. Create a Stakeholder Matrix (register) like exhibit 5.6.
2. Describe the activities you are using to build relationships both within your core team and with other stakeholders. Create a project decision-making guide for your project like Exhibit 5.7. List specific examples of decisions to the extent you can.
3. Create a stakeholder engagement assessment matrix like Exhibit 5.8.
4. Develop a communications matrix for your project like Exhibit 5.11. Be sure to use considerations in Exhibit 5.10 for ideas regarding purpose, structure, method, and timing for each communication need.
5. Document a project meeting with an advance agenda, meeting minutes, issues log, and Plus Delta form of evaluation like Exhibits 5.13 through 5.16.

Introduction

The aim of this project is to transform the company website of Dressed by Saab from the current static website to a modern, interactive and dynamic website. The final product of the project is hoped to be bringing an increase in sales for the company by reaching new markets as they will begin to sell from the online store in addition to the physical store. Upon launching the new website, Dressed by Saab will seek to partner with a major local courier company to enable home delivery of purchased goods. Before commencing on the project, it is necessary to develop this plan which will guide the stakeholders along. The project plan is the first and most important preliminary step in project development (Schwalbe, 2015).

Stakeholder analysis

This analysis provides a breakdown of the major project influencers and beneficiaries. The stakeholders in this case can be described either as those who will contribute to the process or those who will be affected by it (Brugha & Varvasovszky, 2000). The following are the key stakeholders:

Sarah Wolf – Sponsor

Sarah Wolf, together with her spouse Tim Wolf, co-owns the company. Although she is not a director at the company, she owns some equity. She is going to be the main financier of the project.

Kevin Strutter – Project Manager

He is the project manager. He will be in charge of the project’s affairs from planning to delivery of the final product.

Tim Wolf – CEO

He is the company’s top executive officer and the one who requested the upgrade.

Table: Stakeholder identification and prioritization matrix

Project decision-making guide

During the project, different stakeholders will naturally have to make different decisions regarding the project (Burke, 2013); which will normally be intended to maintain or bring the project back on track (Szambok & Klein, 2014).

Stakeholder engagement, assessment matrix

This assessment is aimed at evaluating the level to which different stakeholders are absorbed into the project. If a stakeholder is at engagement level other than that which is desired, measures should be taken to bring them to the desired level. Such measures could include actions such as explaining a module of the project to the relevant stakeholder (Payton, Morais & Heath, 2015). Note: C refers to the current level of engagement while D is the desired level of engagement.

Project meeting

Advance agenda

Project team: Client and executive stakeholders maintenance team. It was further agreed that the development team should be no more than ten people and no less than seven.

Meeting evaluation

The meeting adequately addressed the agenda. Some issues regarding the number of project developers arose, but they were resolved.

Issues log

Project meeting plus-delta evaluation

This evaluation looks at what went well in the meeting and what can be improved in subsequent meetings. We must acknowledge that motivation is crucial in project development (Prigmore, Taylor & De Luca, 2016) and thus the necessity to avoid negative project commentary

Conclusion

This project plan has covered the necessary basics to commence the project. It has identified the stakeholders, project communication strategies, issue resolution and meeting formats. All these elements can be considered the foundations upon which the next steps in developing the project can follow. The plan has also established a decision-making strategy which is a critical component of any project. Having completed the plan, the next steps as established in the preliminary stakeholder meeting can follow.