See attached
DELIVERABLE
This deliverable requires you to create a project charter, a WBS in pictorial inverted-
tree format, and an MS Project file for the project.
The WBS pictorial can be put together using any software you wish. One easy way to do this is
to use the MS Excel org chart template. Stormboard (which currently has a free subscription),
Visio, MS PowerPoint, etc. are other tools you may wish to consider. A neat and
very legible
hand-drawn version is also acceptable.
Your Microsoft Project file must clearly reflect the structure of your WBS inverted-tree pictorial,
should show all activities under each work package, their duration, and their dependencies
(predecessors), as well as clearly show the critical path (or paths) colored in RED. In addition,
add a column to your MS Project file labeled “OWNER” and place in it, for each activity, the
name of the team member who identified that activity and provided and verified correctness of
the duration and predecessors of that activity.
Gizmotron’s Product Rollout
The selected project should bring out real-world consideration and challenges, so it should not be too simple or trivial. Here are basic assignment requirements which will ensure that your project is not too easy or too challenging:
Make sure that there are three or four main deliverables (first level of WBS)
Have between 10 to 16 work packages (“leaves” of the WBS)
Have between 25 to 40 activities
The activities should have a reasonable amount of concurrency, meaning that it should be
possible to perform some of them in parallel.
Gizmotron’s Product Rollout
Note: The information in the project description below provides most but not all information that you will need to develop reasonably sound scope, schedule, and cost baselines for the product rollout project. There are some deliberate minor gaps in the information that will require you to use some common sense and judgment, even some plausible intuition/guesswork in a very few cases. Seldom will youencounter real life projects that are detailed to 100% accuracy and perfection, so this project is intended
to demonstrate that there is some room for judgment, flexibility, reasonable assumptions, and common
sense in project management, as opposed to investing unreasonable amounts of time and effort in
striving for complete perfection and accuracy (which are usually not attainable anyway!). Hence, there is
no one right “solution” here. Different teams could come up with slightly different scope, schedule, and
cost baselines. When you work through this assignment as a team, do not waste time quibbling over infinitesimal details. Strive for a “roughly right” but logically and practically sound approach which you can defend if you need to.
Gizmotron is rolling out a new product in several metropolitan areas in the US. For the purposes of this assignment, let us restrict our attention to the Chicago area. An extensive marketing campaign is being planned in eight Chicagoland suburbs. For the purposes of this assignment, you may group the campaigns for the eight suburbs, so there is just one Chicagoland campaign as opposed to eight separate ones.
The Chicagoland marketing campaign comprises three major efforts, which are distinct but interrelated, meaning that there are dependencies between activities in the three efforts: Publicity, events, and sales/marketing. Here is a brief description of each of the three efforts:
1. Publicity: News of the event needs to be disseminated. This will be done via mailings (of a
brochure) and media (radio and TV ads). Mailings require graphics design, developing a
brochure (based on the graphics design and content provided by the sales/marketing effort),
and a two-part mailing campaign: paper-mail as well as e-mail. The paper-mail campaign is to
occur a week after the email campaign has ended (because the email campaign will generate
some leads on who should be targeted in the paper-mail campaign). The media component has
two aspects: radio ads and TV ads, each of which requires scripting and slotting (when to run the
ads). Some details associated with the various activities are:
a. Graphics design is based on “intelligence” provided by the sales/marketing effort that provides
the graphics design team a draft proposal of the key types of messages to include and also some
content to back-up those messages. (The graphics design team may further refine the content.)
Graphics design takes 8 business days (after the draft proposal has been received). Its total cost is
approximately $5,000.2. 3.
b. The brochure takes 4 business days (after graphics design is completed) to finalize and the cost is
about $2,000
c. The e-mail campaign commences right after the brochure is ready and takes 1 business day (cost
$6,000). A week after the email campaign ends, the paper-mail campaign commences and lasts 3
business days (cost $5,000).
d. Scripting for the radio and TV ads take 3 business days and 7 business days (respectively), costs
being $2,000 and $5,000 (respectively). The scripting is also based on the draft proposal from
sales/marketing. The slotting effort for the radio and TV ads takes 2 business days each (at a cost
of $1,000 each). The radio ad slotting uses a radio listener report done by the sales/marketing
team, and the TV ad slotting uses a TV watchers report, also done by the sales/marketing team.
The radio and TV ads run over a period of 10 business days, commencing immediately after
slotting has been finalized.
Events: The events effort comprises venue identification and setup, catering, and agenda
finalization (speakers, entertainment, giveaways, etc.). Venue identification and setup as well as
catering are contracted out to companies who can be trusted to complete on time and budget.
Venue identification takes 5 business days (cost $2,000 for eight venues) and must be
completed before the brochures are finalized (simply because the addresses are needed for the
brochures). Venue setup is the act of determining how much space to rent at the venue, how
the space will be organized, etc. This cannot be started until after the mailing campaigns (paper
and email), radio and TV ads have run (because campaign statistics/viewership is used to
estimate event attendance). Venue setup (for all 8 venues) takes 6 business days and costs
$5,000.
Catering cannot be started until after the mailing campaigns (paper and email), radio and TV ads
have run, and (for all 8 venues) takes 6 business days to finalize, with catering costs dependent
on projected attendance. From historical data, catering costs are estimated to average $4,000
per venue.
Agenda finalization requires contracting (for speakers, entertainment, etc.) and product
promotion planning (displaying, demonstrating, giveaways, etc. of products). The contracting
and promotion planning are both dependent on projected attendance. Contracting (for all 8
venues) takes 6 business days and the total costs are anticipated to be around $60,000 (which
includes speaker fees). Total promotion planning duration is 10 business days (cost $35,000,
which includes product giveaways).
Sales/marketing: This effort comprises (market) message development, marketing analysis,
surveys, and legal approval. Message development is broken into two parts: draft proposal development (5 business days, $5000) and executive approval (2 business days, $1,000). The message development does not start until after the surveys are completed. The survey effort comprises focus groups (10 business days, $15,000) and web surveys (4 business days, $6,000). Marketing analysis includes development of a radio listener report and a TV watchers report, each of which takes 3 days and costs $2,000. The surveying effort requires legal approval (2 days, $1,000 for each approval) prior to conducting focus groups and web surveys, and the draft proposal requires legal approval after it is developed (and before it is released to the
promotions team).
