Plan and PowerPoint Instructions

Logistics

Throughout this course, you will be working on a Group Project. The Instructor will put you into specific groups, and then each group will select a team leader. After the team leader is chosen, he/she must develop a plan for organizing the team and must assign individual members' responsibilities and activities. Each group will develop and submit a Project Plan and PowerPoint presentation for establishing a Project Management Office within an organization. The team will be consultants to Galaxy Industries and develop a Project Management Office (PMO) for this company. The Project Plan must address all PMI process groups and knowledge areas.

Project Plan: The plan should address all plan components, sub-plans, and knowledge areas. Specifically, the project plan should incorporate references to all of the plan components (Project Charter, Work Breakdown Structure), sub-plans and knowledge areas (Cost Management Plan, Quality Management Plan, Human Resource Management Plan, and Communications Management Plan). The length of the project plan will vary according to the length of your supporting documents. Refer to the provided Project Plan template and modify it to meet the needs of your group and use it as a resource to show you the appearance of a typical Project Plan.

PowerPoint: The PowerPoint presentation should support the Project Plan. It is recommended that you provide 2 PowerPoint slides per topic addressed in your Project Plan. There are 6 plans and components, and the project plan itself that you are describing, along with a title slide and a reference slide. With this in mind, your presentation should be at least 16 slides.

Introduction

Galaxy Industries, a traditionally organized company, has asked your consulting firm, Project Management Consultants (PMC) to define and implement a Project Management Office (PMO) within the company. The sponsor for the project is the CEO, John Smith. The CIO is Joe Brown, and the COO is Sue White.

Mr. Smith wants Galaxy to assist him in developing the Project Charter and Mr. Brown will be working with Galaxy to develop the Project Plan (and sub-plans). Mrs. White has requested that the plan include the development of a Project Management Intranet Site so that internal staff will be well informed as related to project progress, problems/risks, and issues.

Galaxy Industries Environment

Galaxy is a small company that sells home accessories such as lamps, pictures, end tables, rugs. They purchase many of their products from manufacturers in the US, England, France, Italy, and China. They sell to gift shops in the US and have an Internet site that sells to worldwide customers. Their Internet sales are now exceeding their US sales. The company is in a solid financial condition, with sales expected to rise 25% within the next year (because of the success of their on-line sales). Because of their revenue and sales growth, they have hired new staff in their warehouse operations, sales and information services. They have partnered with CISCO for network services, FedEx for shipping services, HP/IBM/Dell/Microsoft for computer hardware and software services.

Some of the problems Galaxy is facing are: inability to process orders within 24 hours; rising transportation costs (due to higher fuel cost); inadequate employee training; increased demand for internal IT services related to their Web Site, sales, financial reporting, and warehousing/shipping; inability to keep up with information technology advancements and trends; and high personnel turnover in IT, marketing, and sales. All of these problems have been addressed in the company's strategic plan.

PMC's Environment

PMC has 55 Project Managers and 275 project support staff. The company mandates that all project managers obtain their project management professional (PMP) certification. PMC has assigned 1 project manager and 2 project support staff to the Galaxy account because this project is very small in size.

Project Pre-Initiation

Galaxy has just completed their strategic plan, and one of the strategies to be implemented is the development of a PMO. This strategy was given high priority as it will eliminate and/or reduce the problems associated with internal projects not being completed on time and within budget. Successful completion of internal projects is crucial to the continued success of the company, as these internal projects support the sales, marketing, accounting and warehousing functions of the company.

PMC's Project Manager has met with Mr. Smith and has obtained adequate information for the development of a Project Charter and Scope Statement. He has learned the following from Mr. Smith:

Galaxy has 3 project managers, however, none of them are PMP certified, and they are not centrally located. Two project managers work in Information Services and the third works in the COO's office. Mr. Smith wants all of Galaxy project manager's to obtain their PMP certification.

Galaxy has 8 projects in progress and 10 projects that have not been approved or prioritized. One project manager has four projects, and the other two have 2 projects each.

Galaxy has no formal project management methodology, policy, or procedures. Project progress reporting is sent out weekly Department heads (via email).

Galaxy does have an empty location for the PMO office (located across from the Accounting Offices); however, office furniture and equipment will need to be purchased and phone/fax/network services will need to be installed.

Galaxy does not have a software package for tracking projects and has asked that this be a part of the project plan.