COIT12208 The Mo Mo Factory Outlet Project: Assessment Item 2 Answer

COIT12208 Assessment item 2 — Individual case studyIntroduction and Student Guide

This assessment item is to be completed individually.

The case study simulates a project management scenario where the student takes on the role of project manager.  The case information is not complete so where necessary students will have to argue the pros and cons of any assumptions they make. If necessary, students are expected to find relevant information in the academic literature to justify their answers and provide appropriate references.

The following information is provided to assist students to develop their assessment solution:

• Product development case description
• Specific assessment questions that must be answered
• Information regarding the submission of the assessment 
• Marking guide 

Important notes regarding assignment submission

1. You must aim to submit your assignment at least 1 hour before the due date. This will avoid unnecessary late penalties if you have any technical issues while submitting your assignment.
2. If you do have a problem uploading your assignment online and cannot get help from TASAC, make sure that you email your assignment files to your tutor before the due date. This will allow your tutor to view the work that was completed before the deadline. Note that you will also be required to submit the assignment online through Moodle.
3. Any drafts in Moodle may be automatically submitted by Moodle at the due date. However, you must not rely on this for your submission. Note that this does mean that you should not leave something uploaded as a draft if you do not want it to be submitted automatically. If you upload after the due date (this includes students with extensions) you must ensure that you press ‘submit for marking’ or you may incur a further late penalty.

Preparation for the assignment

1. You must complete the MP practicals 1 and 2 before you start this assignment.
2. You must also complete practical 3 before you attempt to add resources to your assignment.

You are required to take your Microsoft Project practical’s and this assignment to your tutorial/practical classes from week 3 onwards. The course is scheduled to commence the practical’s in week 3 and you are expected to start work on this assignment in week 6 (or earlier).

The Mo Mo Factory Outlet Case Description 

The last four years had been a roller coaster ride for the companies three founders Raju, Vaneet and Dipesh. The readymade Nepalese’s dumpling (Mo Mo) business had exploded before their eyes.  Their choice of street front premises had proved very successful. As the business expanded they were able to grow with the acquisition of a warehouse at the rear of the property from which they were able to manufacture and dispatch there product to restaurants and supermarkets across Sydney and with the capacity to produce product for the whole of Australia and beyond.    

The next stage of growth comes with some substantial constraints which will direct the nature of future projects.  The easiest thing to do, is more of the same but that requires extending the geographic reach of its distribution which in turn, pushes up costs. The last few months have shown that the wholesales customer base would not tolerate the required price increase. Forays into the Brisbane and Melbourne markets have cost the company dearly and left the company strapped for cash. The only positive outcome from these trials, was the knowledge gained to structure air flight delivery to those capitals.

To revitalise the company’s fortunes and to pay for the up keep of the company yacht,  Rakshya, Aashish and Dipesh have put together a plan to grow the business and change the business model and revenue stream of the company.   

The Mo Mo Factory are to risk cannibalising there exiting business and to start selling directly to the general public. The project will involve setting up retail outlets in 10 shopping centre food court in each of the three eastern seaboard capitals. 30 shops in all. 

As old Alumni’s of CQU Rakshya, Aashish and Dipesh had come to the college and requested your help to turn their plan into a set of MS project worksheets. You will carry out this work individually with the assistance of your tutor.

You have responsibility for scheduling the work of a team of 16 professionals and will need to manage their labour, accommodation and air travel costs. Other transport and material costs will be incorporated into the Mo Mo Factory’s operational cost centre and will not be included in your MS Project plan. You also do not need to include your our own labour cost/resources and that of Rakshya, Aashish and Dipesh in the MS project files.

Rakshya, Aashish and Dipesh have left some notes that formed the basis of the plan and your structure for your WBS in your Ms Project in this table below. 

1. As no additional resources have been added so the cost has remained the same. But it has taken more time to complete a project as no resources was over allocated in the second schedule. So the duration of project has increased. 
2. No, there is no potential problem as the predecessor rules among the tasks has remained the same. 
3. The memo is given below. It is intended for 

Memo

To: Owners of Mo Mo Factory Outlet 

Cc: 

From: Project Manager 

Subject: Completion of the Planning Stage of Mo Mo Factory Outlet Project 

Date: 

We are writing the memo to inform you that the completion of the planning stage of Mo Mo Factory Outlet Project. It has been assumed that the project will commence from 10^th June 2019. And the project has been estimated to be completed by 8^th June 2019. The total duration of the project is 245 days. 

As there is a limited number of resources for the project and there are various dependencies among the project activities, so it is taking a little longer to complete the project without over allocating tasks to any resources. It is recommended to add more resources for some tasks to reduce the total duration of the project. 

The direct costs for different resource types of the project has been given in the following table. The total cost of the project has been estimated as $741,360.00. 

Please find the project schedule in the MMFO_PartAQ2.mpp file attached to this memo. Please feel free to contact us for any clarifications and more information. 

Thank you. 

1. Two tasks have been covered in project files MMFO_PartAQ3.mpp and  MMFO_PartAQ4.mpp

2. As the resources were lesser and most of the resources had over allocation issues, so the resources BA, PS, SE, CH, EM, and MA were selected. 

3. The table is, 

4. Some of the tasks under system development, staff acquisition and training, Marketing and promotion have been shortened by adding more resources. There is no changes in the total cost of the project but the duration has been changed. This is because the amount of work was same even though it was handled by more resources and due to some dependencies, the total duration has changed and increased even after allocating more resources. Hence, it is recommended not to allocate more resources to the project. Rather it may needed to resolve the over allocation issues. 

5. Project quality 

1. Two quality issues related to the project may be, 
   1. Lack of quality management planning for the project from the beginning 
   2. And there are lack of testing for the entire information system. For example, there is no dedicated quality assurance plan or system testing, and acceptance testing. 

1. Other tasks are, risk management and quality management. These two tasks must continue in parallel to the project life cycle to ensure effective quality and risk management process. Without those tasks it will be difficult to handle risks during the project and without quality assurance it will be difficult to verify and validate the final outcome of the project. Hence, these two tasks are important for the overall success of the project. 

Part B: Revising the Plan

1. Sprint changes 

2. Impact of changes on project duration 

3. Impact of changes on project cost 

4. A project manager can take different approaches to monitor the progresses of sprints. For example, a project manager can conduce meetings with the team members working in a sprint on daily basis and can take updates from them. Then the project manager can mark a sprint as completed while monitoring the Gantt chart for the overall progress of the project.