Software Training Program

ABC Company has 50,000 employees and wants to increase employee productivity by setting up an internal software applications training program. The training program will teach employees how to use Microsoft software programs such as Vista, Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Access 2010, and Project 2010. Courses will be offered in the evenings and on Saturdays and taught by qualified volunteer employees. Instructors will be paid $40 per hour. In the past, employees were sent to courses offered by local vendors during company time. In contrast, this internal training program should save the company money on training as well as make people more productive. The Human Resources department will manage the program, and any employee can take the courses. Employees will receive a certificate for completing courses, and a copy will be put in their personnel files. The company is not sure which vendor's off-the-shelf training materials to use. The company needs to set up a training classroom, survey employees on desired courses, find qualified volunteer instructors, and start offering courses. The company wants to offer the first courses within six months. One person from Human Resources is assigned full time to manage this project, and top management has pledged its support.

1. Project Scope Management

Create a WBS for this project and enter the tasks in Project 201 0. Create milestones and summary tasks. Assume that some of the project management tasks you need to do are similar to tasks from the Project Tracking Database example. Some of the tasks specific to this project will be to:

a. Review off-the-shelf training materials from three major vendors and decide which materials to use.

b. Negotiate a contract with the selected vendor for its materials.

c. Develop communications information about this new training program. Disseminate the information via department meetings, e-mail, the company's intranet, and flyers to all employees.

d. Create a survey to determine the number and type of courses needed and employees' preferred times for taking courses.

e. Administer the survey.

f. Solicit qualified volunteers to teach the courses.

g. Review resumes, interview candidates for teaching the courses, and develop a list of preferred instructors.

h. Coordinate with the Facilities department to build two classrooms with 20 personal computers each, a teacher station, and an overhead projection system (assume that Facilities will manage this part of the project).

i. Schedule courses.

j. Develop a fair system for signing up for classes.

k. Develop a course evaluation form to assess the usefulness of each course and the instructor's teaching ability.

l. Offer classes.

2. Project Time Management

a. Enter realistic durations for each task and then link appropriate tasks. Be sure that all tasks are linked in some fashion to the start and end of the project. Use the Project Tracking Database as an example. Assume that you have six months
to complete the entire project.

b. Print the Gantt Chart view and Network Diagram view for the project.

c. Print the Schedule table to see key dates and slack times for each task

3. Project Cost Management

a. Assume that you have four people from various departments available part time to support the full-time Human Resources person, Terry, on the project. Assume that Terry's hourly rate is $40. Two people from the Information Technology department will each spend up to 25% of their time supporting the project. Their hourly rate is $50. One person from the Marketing department is available 25% of the time at $40 per hour, and one person from Corporate is available 30% of the time at $35 per hour. Enter this information about time and hourly wages into the Resource Sheet. Assume that the cost to build the two classrooms will be $100,000, and enter it as a fixed cost.

b. Using your best judgment, assign resources to the tasks.

c. View the Resource Graphs for each person. If anyone is over allocated, make adjustments.

d. Print the budget report for the project.

4. Project Human Resource Management.

a. Assume that the Marketing person will be unavailable for one week, two months into the project, and for another week, four months into the project. Make adjustments to accommodate this unavailability so the schedule does not slip and costs do not change. Document the changes from the original plan and the new plan.

b. Add to each resource a 5% raise that starts three months into the project. Print a new budget report.

c. Use the Resource Usage view to see each person's work each month. Print a copy.

5. Project Communications Management

a. Adjust the timescale on your Gantt chart to enable the chart to fit on one page. Then paste a copy of the Gantt chart in PowerPoint. You can use your Print Screen button to copy the image and paste it into PowerPoint. Also add key milestones to the Timeline and copy it into a second PowerPoint slide. Copy and print out both slides in Power Point on one page.

b. Print a "To-do List" report for each team member.

c. Review some of the other reports, and print out one that you think would help in managing the project.