Hunstville Project

The different types of communication a project manager may use include oral communication, written communication, team meetings, project reports, presentations, and project updates. Janis Clark has her work cut out for her in order to effectively communicate with the Downs and Pokorski in order to make the project successful.

Oral communication would be the first major communication method Clark needs to use. Whether it's through a phone conversation or a one-on-one meeting, Janis needs to break the ice with these two especially since she will now be in control of their prototype which was not approved when they presented it to the board not long ago. She will need to have these two on her side working with her instead of against her. Softening them up and highlighting their value to the new project is a must for her.

From the get go, Janis enlisted a couple of motivated individuals. They've already got the task list put together. Now it's a matter of sharing this information with the key individuals. Written communication such as a list of objectives, task list and task assignment document is a sure way of communication to make sure that everyone who is part of the project knows what they're doing. Having a paper trail is far more effective than communicating responsibilities orally where the tendency for people to forget if far greater.

Sharing the task list and clarifying the responsibilities is an ideal task for team meetings. More importantly sharing the task list with the Downs, and Pokorski will help define their level of commitment and also give them a good idea about when these commitments should be made. Through interactive communication and feedback these two can certainly provide a lot of information, knowledge and experience especially for the new prototype. Dows and Pokorski have practically done a lot of work when it comes to the prototype. It is only natural for them to try to take over the project especially when their area of expertise is called upon. As an effective project manager Janis has maximize to use of communication to clearly define the roles of each person on the project so she can be the project manager and everyone else can perform their assigned duties.

Amidst the experience the company has in the industry and the good crew it has gathered to undertake this project, there are risks involved that could jeopardize the project. Three of these risks are: Ego clash and dispute over responsibilities, Janis's automatic assumption that workers will without a doubt be willing to transfer to Huntsville, and the third risk is the fact that the company has decided to bank its southern market expansion on the new prototype equipment product and Janis is also thinking of introducing a new product of her own that wasn't originally part of the scope.

Starting with probably the most critical risk to the project, it is very obvious that egos might easily take over and hinder project progress. The history behind using the prototype and its masterminds as major components can easily fire back and either delay the schedule until conflicts are resolved, the budget as a shift in resources may likely happen, or the scope of the project might dramatically change due to the conflict in the ideas of the project's major key players.

Let's face the facts; while getting a raise and moving from Milwaukee to Huntsville may sound very enticing to many workers, some just prefer the stability over it all. Forcing this type of workers into relocating might cause some of them to simply quit and find employment elsewhere. So it is not a wise assumption that everyone will simply accept the offer to relocate.

The company is investing a hefty sum amount of money on this project. Not to mention the fact that this project is expected to expand its southern share of the US market. Kicking off the project with a prototype may either bring huge success or disastrous failure. The latter could potentially ruin the company's reputation or at least set back a hefty amount of money. The creation of a new product will definitely change the scope of the project, therefore its finances and possibly even scheduling. Janis does have a big budget to play with but creating the new product will definitely introduce new challenges and risks will be associated with these challenges.

Schedule Report

Considering the facts obtained from the schedule Gantt chart such as the start date of 04/17/2009, and the duration period to finish each needed task for the Huntsville/Alabama project, it is obvious that the plant will not be ready by the end of 2009 as per Janis's requirement. The projected plant readiness date is July 8, 2010, a little over six months after the date Janis desired. Furthermore, the calculations show that this Project needs 66 weeks for total completion. Based on adding the 66 weeks to the start date it is easily concluded that the deadline set by the board of director, June 30, 2010, will not be met. The Gantt chart calculates the project completion date as July 22, 2010 which will make it two weeks late for the Board's desired finish time.

In order to ensure the deadline of 06/30/2010, Janis has a few options to pick from. She can engage with Downs and Pokorski early before the project start to try and identify if there are ways to improve the time it'll take to launch the plant. After all they have been running the Midwest plant which has been running very effectively and efficiently. In addition these two were the original individuals to introduce the prototype equipment, so they will definitely have a lot of knowledge and experience to share with her that can improve the duration time of many tasks.

Another option available to her is to reduce duration times during the planning phase. Some of the tasks that could be accomplished quicker for example are selecting an Architect where she can shave a week from that duration time. Same goes for selecting a real estate consultant and the general contractor. Another task that can be accomplished quicker would be the building construction. Since Janis has extra money available to her for the project completion, she can consider spending more money on this task to increase the resources available to complete this task and save a lot of time so that project deadline isn't impacted.

If no compromise can be made on any of the tasks, then one way Janis can finish the project on time is to start the project 3 to 4 weeks earlier than the desired start date of April 17, 2009. For example if she were to change the project start date to March 25, 2009, the finish date calculated in the Gantt chart without changing the duration of any of the tasks becomes June 29, 2010.