1) You are a manager at Winsome Manufacturing Company, a company that produces plastic storage containers and sells them to the home consumer through home sales events. At the company's quarterly meeting, the head of marketing described a new product to be introduced in the first quarter of the next fiscal year, approximately nine months from now. The product will be a room-sized plastic storage unit suitable to the outside of the home; it is similar to a competitor's product but will have significantly more features. This product will open new markets for the sales channel, lay the foundation for add-on products, and generate new revenues. You have only seen preliminary sketches of the potential product but are very excited by the new product.

The project will require participation from the design, production, purchasing, shipping, sales, and marketing departments. Winsome Manufacturing owns a line of injection molds suitable, so all manufacturing will be done in-house. The project manager for this project has not yet been selected, but that decision is expected to be made in the next week.

You have been asked to come to a preliminary project initiation meeting that will result in the identification of the project sponsor and creation of the project charter. In preparation for the meeting, answer the following questions:

Who are the project stakeholders? How will they be involved in the project?

Who should be the project sponsor? Why?

From which department should the project manager come? Why?

What are the expected results of the project?

What is the project charter?

What value will it add?

What problem will it solve?

What are the ramifications for not doing it?

Answer the questions listed, and prepare to submit them with the charter.

Then write your charter, which should include the components of background, problem statement, and rationale. The background should identify the person/role/department requesting the project. The problem statement should describe the business opportunity the project will address. The rationale should describe the impact of not doing the project and may refer to a business case that you create. You should define the business value expected from the new product. Length of the charter should be 1-2 pages, approx. 4-6 paragraphs. (Remember: All assignments should be APA Formatted)

Please submit your assignment.

For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.

2) You are the manager of the production department, and the project manager will come from your group. This will be a first, as normally the project managers come from the marketing department. You need to assess the various people in your group and identify the person with the best skills. You will start by creating a job description for the position, focusing on the skills needed.

Prepare at least 5 paragraphs that list skills that are needed by the project manager for each phase in the Project Life Cycle, emphasizing the differences in skills needed between the various phases. Next, craft a high-level job posting that identifies the responsibilities, the skills required, and the experiences needed.

3) Because of your grasp of what needs to be done and your leadership skills, you have been chosen as project manager for this project. Your first order of business as the project manager is the development of the scope statement. Your boss has asked to see the sales deliverables. You have met with the sales manager and have a general sense of what support the sales team will require for the new product.

Background on Winsome's Sales Structure:

The home sales force is actually managed (and contracted) through Winsome's sister company. This sister company purchases products from various manufacturers, brands them, educates the sales representatives, and markets the products to the home sales event customer. Winsome's sales department is responsible for setting prices, generating sales forecasts, monitoring sales activities, helping the sister company incorporate new products, and identifying new sales opportunities. In some cases, Winsome's sales department has attended the sister company's quarterly branch manager sales events and presented information on new products. The marketing materials are jointly created by Winsome and the sister company.

For the sister company to begin its branding and sales force education activities, it needs to have the product specifications, photographs of the product, pricing structures, and marketing materials.

You have a follow-up meeting with the managers of the sales and marketing departments next week. At that time, you will review a detailed write-up of the scope that describes what is included, as well as what is excluded.

In preparation for the meeting, create a 2-3 page description of the project's scope only as it relates to the sales and marketing activities.

Describe the deliverables the team will produce, what type of information it will contain, and the level of detail expected.

Identify the exclusions to the scope.

Define any assumptions you are making about the rest of the project's scope that impacts your decisions around the sales and marketing scope.

Include an additional page to identify key points you will share in your conversation with the managers, identify their possible objections, and detail your response to those objections. Emphasize the assumptions you are making, what you expect the sales department to do, and any follow-up that still needs to be done around the scope.