Today’s business environment requires competency in project management. In this assessment, you will explain how project management concepts can help an organization achieve its goals. You will take on the role of a market owner who goes through all five phases of project management (i.e., initiation, planning, execution, control, and closure) to launch a new catering service. As you complete the assessment, think about past projects you have initiated, planned, executed, controlled, and closed. Your experience in planning past projects can help you recognize possible risks and functions that will need to be managed in this performance assessment.
Scenario
You are the owner of a local organic food market in an urban area at the crossroads of four farming communities that supply fresh, organic foods. As the owner of the market, you are interested in growing the business.
Customers in the area have been asking local vendors for more organic and locally sourced fresh food options. You decide to create a catering service for clients within 25 miles of the market to celebrate the market’s 10-year anniversary. You plan to start this catering business in 30 days to address the increasing market need for organic, fresh catering. Catering orders will be prepared and packaged at the organic food market and then driven to the customer’s location. Lunch orders will be delivered within 60 minutes of receiving the order. Special event catering orders will require one week to fulfill the order. The catering company has one van that will be used exclusively for catering services.
You have identified the following goals for this catering business:
- The catering business will need to be able to sell the same quality, organic foods that are sold in-store and supplied daily.
- The catering customers can be no farther than 25 miles from the store so that food can be delivered within an hour.
- The catering business should be profitable within one year.
- The cost of developing the catering business should not negatively impact the in-store retail operations budget, staffing, events, and farmer partnerships.
You plan to launch the catering business by providing a free catered lunch to the first 10 businesses that subscribe to the weekly lunch catering services. The catered lunch for each business will be for up to 30 people and will be held at a local conference center ballroom at noon on a day of the customer’s choosing. The budget for this launch of 10 catered lunches is $7,000.
Two weeks before the launch, you are working with catering staff to calculate the costs of the launch to date, review tasks that need to be completed, and assess the overall impact of catering on in-store retail operations. You learn that the costs associated with the launch of the free catered lunches have already exceeded $7,700. Additionally, a local farmer that provides the fresh lettuce for lunch salads notifies you that the lettuce will not be available in time for the catered lunch. No other local farmers have lettuce available for purchase, and the only option is to use nonorganic lettuce in order to keep the menu as communicated to the 10 businesses subscribing to the weekly lunch catering services.
A financial company representative wants to inquire about possibly financing your company for this project. The representative sends a request for information to you as listed in the requirements for this task.
Requirements
Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. The similarity report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide.
You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.
Tasks may not be submitted as cloud links, such as links to Google Docs, Google Slides, OneDrive, etc., unless specified in the task requirements. All other submissions must be file types that are uploaded and submitted as attachments (e.g., .docx, .pdf, .ppt).
A. Discuss how you would plan the catered lunch project by completing each of the following 5 distinct project management phases:
- Project initiation
a. Describe the project and the need for the project. Include information from the provided scenario for support.
b. Identify three relevant stakeholders and discuss how the project impacts each stakeholder.
c. Discuss whether the project is feasible by addressing each of the three triple constraint components: scope, cost, and timeline. - Project planning
a. List three milestones for the project plan and provide a timeline for each milestone.
b. Write a SMART goal for the project.
c. Identify two different potential risks to this project’s success and describe how each risk could be managed. - Project execution
a. Discuss a way to address being over budget by 10 percent. Include information from the provided scenario for support.
b. Discuss a way to address a scheduling conflict that could affect the timeline of the project. Include information from the provided scenario for support. - Project monitoring and control
a. Discuss how scheduling conflicts and budget constraints could affect the scope of the project. Include information from the provided scenario for support. - Project closure
a. Discuss two ways to change how the project was planned, considering the timeline and budget conflicts that were encountered.
B. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
C. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.
Rubric
A1a:Project Description and Need
Competent
The submission describes the project and the need for the project and integrates information from the provided scenario for support.
A1b:Stakeholders
Competent
The submission identifies 3 stakeholders relevant to the project and clearly discusses how the project impacts each identified stakeholder.
A1c:Project Feasibility
Competent
The submission discusses the project’s feasibility by addressing each of the 3 triple constraint components, and the discussion is consistent with the scenario.
A2a:Milestones and Timelines
Competent
The submission lists 3 milestones and a timeline for each milestone, and all provided components are plausible for the project.
A2b:SMART Goal
Competent
The goal for the project includes all 5 SMART aspects (i.e., specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound).
A2c:Risks
Competent
The submission identifies 2 different potential risks and describes how each risk could be managed. The identified risks are plausible and relevant to the project.
A3a:Budget
Competent
The submission discusses a way to address the project budget being over by 10 percent, it is plausible, and it integrates information from the provided scenario for support.
A3b:Scheduling
Competent
The submission discusses a way to address a scheduling conflict for the project. The discussion is plausible, and it integrates information from the provided scenario for support.
A4a:Scheduling Conflicts and Budget Constraints
Competent
The submission discusses how scheduling conflicts and budget constraints could affect the scope of the project. The discussion is plausible, and it integrates information from the provided scenario for support.
A5a:Changes to Project Plan
Competent
The submission discusses 2 ways to change how the project was planned, and the discussion addresses the timeline and budget conflicts encountered. The discussed changes are plausible.
B:Sources
Competent
The submission includes in-text citations for sources that are properly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized and a reference list that accurately identifies the author, date, title, and source location as available.
C:Professional Communication
Competent
This submission demonstrates correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence fluency. You have demonstrated quality professional communication skills in this submission.
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