Project Plan for Whitbread World Sailboat Race

Project Plan for Whitbread World Sailboat Race

Project deadlines and budgets are key factors that must be evaluated when implementing a project. A project manager is responsible for creating a final project schedule and budget. Implementing a project on schedule and with in a set budget is critical to the project's success.

In this paper, an alternative solution is introduced to help Bjorn and his team meets their project deadline. There are many ways to reduce the duration of a project. Adding resources, outsourcing project work, scheduling overtime and fast-tracking are just a few of the different methods that can be used to reduce a project's duration, (Gray & Larson, 2005, p.284). "Reducing the time of a critical activity in a project can be done but almost always results in a higher direct cost," (Gray & Larson, 2005, p. 281). It is important to evaluate the cost associated with the project duration reductions methods and assure that the budget can accommodate those measures.

Bjorn Ericksen Project Strategy Analysis

Bjorn Eriksen has been selected to be the project manager that represents his country in the annual Whitbread sailboat race. Bjorn is responsible for putting together a team to design and construct the sailboat that will be entered into the race, and train the crew that will be sailing the boat. Karin Knutsen and Trygve Wallvik have been assigned team leaders for this project and will dedicate their entire time to the project. Bjorn knows that the deadline for this project is critical and "assigning professionals full time to a project avoids the hidden cost of multitasking," which helps the speed of the project, (Gray & Larson, 2005, p.285).

Bjorn's goal is to win next year's Whitbread race for his country and live up to his recent fame as the "best designer of racing sailboats in the world," (Gray & Larson, 2005, p. 305). The project team presents a schedule and cost analysis to implement the project. The schedule for normal time shows a time duration of 126 weeks at an estimated cost of $2.9 million. Karin and Trygve also present the schedule for crash time. The crash time schedule shows time duration of 108 weeks at an estimated cost of $4.7 million. Bjorn has set a project budget of $3.2 million and must have the project completed in its entirety in 45 weeks. The team must find a way to reduce the project's duration while staying within the project budget.

Plan to Reduce Project Duration

Crashing to reduce the project's duration is not an option because it exceeds the budget that has been set for this project. Two approaches will be taken to get this project completed within the 45 week time period. First, resources will be added to the project. "The most common method for shortening project time is to assign