Relocation Of The Office Premises To Banbury

Answer :

Introduction

The present report considers the Office premise relocation project in a low-cost area in the lowest possible costs. The selected project aims to complete relocation of the office premises to Banbury, Oxfordshire within 6 months. 
Activity 1

1.1 Appraise the business objectives listed above and identify the projects which will be needed to carry out the relocation successfully.

Based on the business objectives listed in the case study the following lists of projects has been proposed which would help in delivering the business objectives outlined. 

• Office premise relocation project in a low-cost area in lowest cost possible
• Interior design project for the new office premises
• Reduction of operational costs associated with accommodation
• Implementing a management information system to increase efficiency and decrease operational costs
• IT infrastructure restructuring project for better support 
• Human resource training and management project for improving the human resources capacities and retention for reducing costs associated with recruitment and selection

1.2 Considering your list of projects, develop the necessary project subdivisions and produce high-level estimates of the resources needed to complete one of these projects including time and costs.

From the list of the above projects, the present report considers the Office premise relocation project in a low-cost area in the lowest possible costs. The selected project aims to complete relocation of the office premises to Banbury, Oxfordshire within 6 months’ time. Considering this project, the project subdivisions will be provided in the form of a WBS while the alongside presenting a resource, time and cost management plan. 

Work Breakdown Structure with necessary project subdivisions

Figure: WBS with project subdivisions

Source: (Inspired by Project Management Institute, 2009)

Time management plan

Table 1: Time management plan

Source: (Project Management Institute, 2009)

Cost and resource plan management plan

Table 2: Cost and Resource Plan

Source: (Inspired byProject Management Institute, 2009)

Activity 2

1.3 Describe and evaluate a suitable methodology for your chosen project

A project management methodology can be described as a system of practices, techniques, procedures and rules that are used and followed by the people associated with the project. Project management methodology requires establishing principles, themes, frameworks, processes and standards in order to help in providing a structure to the way the projects must be delivered. While a wide range of project management methodologies such as SCRUM, waterfall, agile, PRINCE 2 and PMBOK is available, it is necessary to choose one particular methodology. For the current project, the waterfall methodology has been suggested which involves a cascade of steps to be followed in a simplified manner under a long lifecycle for achieving the final project outcome. For this project, the waterfall would be the best methodology because all the requirements are defined at the beginning and each step is undertaken after completing a previous step which fits the project time management plan best. This methodology is simple and requires little need for adaptations unless absolutely necessary because all the project requirements are defined during project management planning phase. This leaves the execution and closure phase to be completed in a cascade. The methodology is simple is also easy to follow (Kerzner, 2009). 

1.4 Assess the feasibility of this project

The feasibility of the project can be assessed based on considering the risks and issues associated with the project and detailing a management plan for dealing with the threats. The following risk planning helps in identifying the risks and problems along with a management plan.

Table 2: Risk Assessment and plan

Source: (Hillson, 2009)

Most of the risks identified can be mitigated through proper planning and have the possibility of reduction or transfer. Hence, the prospect of successful project closure is high which makes the outline project feasible in nature.

2.1 Include a structure for the management and administration of the project

Managing a project requires establishing a hierarchy of command which is represented as management and administration structure. Based on the requirements of the project the following management structure has been demonstrated.

Figure 2: Management and administrative structure for project management  

Source: (Azimi et al. 2011)

The Structure detailed above is a hierarchy structure. The project being a waterfall project involves a series of tasks to be completed as a cascade. Thus, in relation to the project methodology, a hierarchy management structure would establish a chain of command for reporting the project progress and taking all the project decisions. Such an arrangement contributes to the administration of the project by detailing which element of the plan communicates to which element. For instance, the resource manager responsible for managing the resource requirements and their usage reports to the accounts manager because the accounts manager is responsible for managing the project budget and would indicate the utility of budget and resources to the project assistant who would then report the progress to the project manager. This way the project manager would not be responsible for managing all aspects. Similarly, the project team responsible for individual tasks would report to the administrative officer responsible for project administration. The project administrative officer also reports projecting assistant (Burke, 2013). 

2.2 Define the Roles and Responsibilities of Staff and Project Manager

During the relocating process of the office, each individual staff member, as well as the project manager, has a set of fixed duties that they must carry out with full responsibility. The staff members should work while cooperating with each other and also assist the project manager to carry out the project plan successfully.

Roles and Responsibilities of Staff: the staff members would have individual roles. However, some common functions and responsibilities are there for all staff members. The staff members must contribute to the overall project objectives. Each team member must complete and deliver the task assigned to them. They must provide knowledge in their respective field of expertise. Moreover, staff members should cooperate with users for establishing and meeting business requirements and must help in the documentation process and assist the project manager (Colin and Vanhoucke, 2014).

Roles and Responsibilities of Project Manager: Unlike the staff members, the roles and responsibilities of the project manager are more vital and diverse. It is the responsibility of the project manager to develop the project plan. The project manager must manage and deliver the outcomes as per the plan. Moreover, recruitment is also a responsibility for the project managers. Thus, project staff members are recruited by the project manager based on their skill sets. The entire team is led and managed by the project manager. Establishing a project schedule and determining whether each phase is going according to plan or not. The project manager must assign tasks to each individual team member based on their respective field of expertise. The executive managers and other higher officials should be provided with regular updates and progress report by the project manager (Colin and Vanhoucke, 2014).

3.2 Demonstrate the interpersonal skills required for effective project management

The job description of the project manager

Organisation's name: ABC Company based in Center of London

Types of the industry: Consultancy service provider

Job Designation: Project manager

Location: Banbury, Oxfordshire

Reporting authority: Managing Director

Roles and responsibilities: The responsibility of the project manager is managing the project team and other people associated with the project, crucial decision making relating to the project, defining the scope and feasibility of the project, preparing a project plan, overseeing and managing resource allocation and budgeting, risk analysis and management, alongside evaluating and measuring the project progress.

Person Specification

Educational qualification: at the least, Post-graduation degree/ diploma in operation and project management (MBA in PM) / Masters in operation research 

Employment conditions: Must be available for working in shifts, must be employed under contract during the project tenure

Required demographics: 

1. Age: 35 to 50 years
2. Gender: Both Male and female can apply

Interpersonal Skills and abilities: The interpersonal skills and abilities that the project manager requires include skills for operations management and project handling, leadership qualities, communication and motivation skills, human resource management skills, as well as decision making and problem-solving attitude. A project manager must have these skills because he or she is the key person responsible for the outcome of the project and associated decision making, the entire project team depends on the project manager for guidance and decision-making determining the success and failure of the project. Leadership and motivational skills are vital alongside human resource management skills because the manager is responsible for handling the team, the other people residing in the hierarchy alongside, suppliers, distributors, contractors for raw material supply effectively. When conflict occurs the leadership skills would help in negotiation and mitigation of conflict (Darren, 2012). 

Activity 3

2.3 Prepare a detailed project plan

Table 3: Detailed Project Plan

Source: (Kerzner, 2013)

Gantt chart

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Figure 3: Gantt chart

Source: (Kerzner, 2013)

Table 3 represents a detailed project plan in the form of a project schedule, and figure 3 represents a Gantt chart. Presenting the project plan in the form of a project schedule has the benefit of presenting the project milestones, the predecessors, and the duration to reach each milestone. The start date and end date presents the tentative start and end date of the milestone tasks. The plan also details the tasks that are to be accomplished for reaching the project milestones. Such as schedule presents a clear idea regarding what must be done, when these must be done and what estimated time could be taken for the tasks. The path details the route that could be taken to accomplish the project along with the duration of the shortest time that would be required to follow the path (Kerzner, 2013). 

Activity 4

3.1 Describe and Assess Alternative Project Team Structures

Analysing the project report points to some of the risks and issues that may occur when carrying out the project plan as per estimation. The relocating of the office also has some potential risks that may occur during the execution of the plan. Such risks and issues may include lack of knowledge and experience of the project staff, inability to use advanced software and technological devices, quitting a job during an ongoing project, unsupportive management, etc. This is why alternative team structures are necessary to deal with any sudden problems that might occur. The best alternative is to create an independent project team which can act completely separated from the organisation. This also helps to avoid multiple leadership problems in a team which may lead to chaos and instability in the team structure. For this reason, a separate alternative team structure is required where each individual is focused on their own specific goals and manage only a fixed amount of company employees and function. The alternate project structure is as follows.

Table 4: Alternate team structures

Source: (Meredith, and Mantel Jr, 2011)

Having such an alternative structure helps in maintaining the balance in the organisation where each responsible individual can focus on their own field of expertise and chances of the clash between them are minimised to a great extent (Meredith, and Mantel Jr, 2011).

3.3 design processes for quality management of the project

Quality management of the project is an essential part of project management. The process of quality management is detailed in the following figure. 

Figure 5: Quality management process steps

Source: (Gamaliel al., 2013)

As per figure 5, there are a total of 6 steps in the quality management process for the project. Each of these steps under the process details certain activities. 

Quality Inspection: Under this step, quality inspection is executed under which the documentation relating to the project, the resource and budgeting information, the task list and task responsibilities are reviewed in order to determine the project progress (Gyawali et al., 2013). 

Quality review: under quality review, the code compliance is checked. The codes associated with health and safety regulations and other aspects of project management such as construction, design and electrical arrangements in the new office are checked under quality review. The occupancy certificates are checked as well. If all the quality status is in order then the quality assessment is done (Gamaliel al., 2013). 

Quality Assessment: Quality assessment determines whether quality compliance has been maintained or not. 

Quality Assurance: This step assures that quality compliance has been maintained. If any gaps are found then, those gaps are filled through necessary actions.  

Quality control: This is achieved through quality inspection, review, and assessment followed by assurance. 

Total Quality Management: The above steps are followed by organisation-wide activities and aspects result in achieving TQM.   

3.4design procedures for how project change proposals will be managed

Sometimes project undergoes change or modifications request. In such a case, the following process should be followed in reference to the office relocation project.

Step 1: Determine the scope of the change: This is the first step in the process under which the project manager will explore the scope of new changes, followed by assessing their impacts on key stakeholders as well as an existing project plan. Based on this evaluation process, it will become easy whether the modification or change request is feasible or necessary would be determined (Hazır, 2015). 

Step 2: Determine the scope of incorporating changes: under this step, the impact of new changes in existing project plan on scheduling, budgeting information, resource requirements, project management structures and other aspects will be determined.  Based on this assessment a Change Request Form will be developed including various information about the needs of alteration (Hazır, 2015).

Step 3: Gain approval or rejection of the changes: The change request form prepared in the predecessor step would be sent to project change control board for the approval. This process will either take few days or few weeks. 

Step 4: Communicate the changes and implement approved change request: If approval is gained from project change control board regarding the changes within the office relocation project plan, the new modifications will be made in existing plan followed by communicating those to the project team members and other elements of the project management and administration structure.

Figure 6: Change management process

Source: (Hazır, 2015)

Activity 5

4.1 Identify issues and risks that may impede a project

The office relocation project could be harmed and delayed impacted by certain risks and issues. The issues are detailed in the following table.

Table 5: issues and risks that may impede a project

Source: (Svejvig and Andersen, 2015)

5.1 The issues and risks likely to be encountered in the final stages of a project

Some issues and risk could potentially occur during the final stages namely exiting old premise and relocating to the new premise of the project. These are as follows

Table 6: issues and risks that may occur during the final stages of the project

Source: (Svejvig and Andersen, 2015)

4.2 Design and describe systems which can be used for Monitoring and appraising the status of a project

For monitoring and appraising the project status, the following processes must be undertaken for the office relocation project.

Documentation: The first aspect of monitoring is the meticulous documentation of each stage of the project recording the progress of the tasks and activities. This forms the basis of comparison between perceived progress with actual progress thereby identifying any delays or tasks completed ahead of schedule (Colin and Vanhoucke, 2014). 

Regular meetings: regular meetings such as weekly meetings of 2 or 2 times a week held with the project team and project manager would help in informing the team, and the manager regarding the progress and discussions in the meetings would help in risk identification and elimination (Chiu-Chi et al., 2013). 

Define roles and responsibilities: By allocating the roles and responsibilities to the right person, the project manager would ensure that tasks are completed on schedule. 

4.3 Design and describe systems which can be used for Detecting and managing issues arising in the course of projects

Detection and management of issues arising during the project course is a necessary task and can be done using the following two systems. 

Issue Log: An issue log usually details issue type, description, target resolution date, identifier, priority,  timing, and owner allowing the team to raise issues safely and in a methodical manner. It helps in monitoring and allocating the specific responsibilities to individuals to mitigate the each and every issue, understanding and evaluating the issues more critically, recording the issue resolution for future reference and project learning and monitoring overall project health and status. Hence an issue log will ensure that issues are raise methodically and in timely manner (Colin and Vanhoucke, 2014).

Risk/Impact Probability Chart: 

Source: (Hilson, 2009)

It is an excellent system that provides a useful framework for helping the project manager and team to identify and prioritise the risks based on which a plan is developed to manage the risks. The impact of the risk is determined by determining the probability of occurrence and severity of the risks. High impact risks require risk planning, reduction, avoidance, transfer while low impact risks could be accepted and dealt with accordingly. Such a chart provides the opportunity to understand the risk at the very early stages of project management(Burke, 2013). 

Activity 6

5.2 Assess the necessary project tasks to be completed in the final stages of a project

The final tasks that must be completed in the final stages of the project must be assessed by determining the project process, results and future actions such as handover. The following table represents the assessment. 

Table 7: Assessment of tasks accomplished during the final stages

Source: (Author)

Conclusion

The entire team is led and managed by the project manager. The project manager must assign tasks to each individual team member based on their respective field of expertise. The executive managers and other higher officials should be provided with regular updates and progress report by the project manager. The project would help in complete relocation of the office premises to Banbury, Oxfordshire within 6 months’ time.