GROUP ASSIGNMENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 2020
Executive summary
This research study shed light on the project management process of any business. In order to perform this task properly, researcher has used a provided case scenario based on an Australia based pharmaceutical company, Crayon Pharmaceuticals.
In this connection, researcher has provided a clear outline of the project and by identifying various non functional and functional project requirements; it has evaluated skills of project team members.
Moreover, by using project management software, researcher has constructed Gantt chart, WBS diagram and network diagram to provide a clear understanding related to time management and estimated time period for the completion of the entire project.
It is also to be noted that, based on these diagrams, researcher has provided a stakeholder analysis for the concerned comp-any and in this regard risk management plan has also been evaluated.
At the completion of the entire study, some recommendations have also been provided here.
Project report plan provides a clear but brief outline regarding the entire project and this is beneficial to estimate times and required cost amount before starting a concerned work.
Through this research work, researcher has shed light on the skill development process that is needed in the selection and project initiation process to receive a suitable project outcome.
In this context, to provide a detailed discussion on project management process, a case study of an Australia based pharmaceutical company, named Crayon Pharmaceuticals has been evaluated here.
Major aim of this project assignment is to construct a research based project planning for the selected organization by considering the entire set of parameters by defining required entities for accomplishment of project.
Being an Australia based pharmaceuticals manufacturing organization, Crayon Pharmaceuticals is involved in global product selling to various retail centers.
It is also to be noted that it is also supplying various raw materials to other pharmaceutical companies and this is also a global faction.
Managing department of concerning organization is focusing on business transformation on a worldwide basis and in this connection it has been decided to implement Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Customer (B2C) and this involves involvement of System Application Product (SAP) by utilizing Order to Customer (O2C) protocol, payroll system, Human Resource Management (HRM) practice, logistics maintenance, Siebel Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution and Supply Chain Management (SCM).
Thus, based on all of these requirements, researcher has developed a project plan outline to accomplish each business requirements.
The concerned project is proposed to be stated on 14th October 2019 and it is going to be accomplished on 18th of March, 2020.
Project requirements: Non-functional and functional
In order to accomplish any objective of a project properly, some requirements are needed to be fulfills and all of these acts as positive catalysts of project accomplishment.
Andersen & Grude (2018) has divided the entire project requirements into two basic divisions, such as Non-functional and functional requirements.
Figure 1: Types of project Requirements
(Source: created by researcher)
In this connection, while defining functional project requirements, Croxatto & Greub (2017) has stated that, this refers to those elements that are able to provide specifications of a system.
Hence, while considering business expansion process of Crayon Pharmaceuticals, its business rules, transaction methods, administrative and managerial functions, authentication and authorization process, and legal requirements can be identified as the functional requirements of it business expansion process.
All of these determinants are necessary to mention its project management process specifically.
In case of non-functional requirements, Kerzner (2017) has exemplified capacity of system, availability, reliability, security manageability and environmental contributions as the representative parameters.
In this connection Shah, Gochtovtt & Baldini (2019) has added with the previous statement that, these parameters outlines the work process of a system to attain specific accomplishment peaks.
Thus, environmental condition, reliability of the business of Crayon to the other pharmaceutical companies, capacity of business process are the non-functional system of this organization and in this connection, it is also to be noted that, maintenance of non functional determinants is necessary to attain expected outcome at the project completion point.
Figure 2: Project requirements of Crayon Pharmaceuticals
(Source: Created by researcher)
Accomplishment of a successful project is solemnly dependent over project team member and this is relatable with skills of those team members.
As commented by Chih & Zwikael (2015), project team member selection and team management is the initial step for implementing any project within existing business process.
From the case study, the following recruitment has been performed to continue effective business expansion project:
| DESIGNATION | NAME |
| Program director | Adam Cunningham |
| Program manager | Jake Black |
| Project managers | Tom Weilding
Paul McKenna |
| Program steering committee | GM for supply, logistics, retail, HRM and Customer service |
Table 1: Project team members of Crayon Pharmaceuticals
(Source: Created by researcher)
Project scope determination and Work Break Down structure (WBS)
Project scope determination is a part of project planning and it involves determination of project goals.
In the opinion of Schwalbe (2015), project scope determination process is beneficial to engage more stakeholders as it provides a detailed and transparent detail about concerned project.
In case of Crayon, business expansion is the expected project outcome and this involves a proper cost management and fund collection process. Stakeholder management through project scope determination can be beneficial for this organization to engage more stakeholders or to enhance involvement of existing stakeholders.
In case of the selected organization and its project, it is to be noted that, this involves implementation of B2B and B2C business process by incorporating SAP O2C, Siebel CRM, SCM, Logistics management, HRM management and stakeholder management.
The following Work Break down (WBS) structure provides a clearly understandable viewpoint regarding project scope determination:
 |
Figure 3: WBS structure for Crayon: Project scope determination
(Source Created by researcher)
It is also to be noted that, scope of concerning project can be determined by three interconvert able processes such as scope estimation, time estimation and resource allocation. Thus, based on these three parameters, Crayon’s project scope can be evaluated.
Figure 4: Project Scope estimation procedure
(Source: Created by researcher)
Any project requires involvement of some systematic steps within its accomplishment path way.
de Carvalho, Patah & de Souza Bido (2015) has segregated these steps into four major parts, such as project initiation, project planning, project execution and project closing.
All of these steps are also present in case of business expansion project of Crayon Pharmaceuticals.
Figure 5: Project life cycle
(Source: Created by researcher)
Based on the provided case study, required time for each step of business expansion process can be estimated as follows [Refer to Appendix 1]:
| PROJECT LIFE CYCLE | PROJECT ACTIVITIES | TIME ESTIMATION | |
| NUMBER OF DAYS | DATE RANGE | ||
| Initiation | Development of project plan | 10 | 14/10/2019 to 25/10/2019 |
| Project scope evaluation | 3 | 28/10/2019 to 30/10/2019 | |
| Project feasibility study | 5 | 31/10/2019 to 06/11/2019 | |
| Establishment of project charter | 3 | 07/11/2019 to 11/11/2019 | |
| Project team construction | 7 | 12/11/2019 to 20/11/2019 | |
| Planning | Implementation of B2B customer solution | 10 | 21/11/2019 to 04/12/2019 |
| B2C customer solution application | 15 | 05/12/2019 to 25/12/2019 | |
| SAP O2C incorporation | 14 | 26/12/2019 to 14/01/2020 | |
| Payroll management | 10 | 15/01/2020 to 28/01/2020 | |
| HRM | 6 | 29/01/2020 to 05/02/2020 | |
| Execution | Logistics | 5 | 06/02/2020 to 02/12/2020 |
| SCM | 3 | 13/02/2020 to 17/02/2020 | |
| Siebel CRM solution | 10 | 18/02/2020 to 02/03/2020 | |
| Closing | Project evaluation | 3 | 03/03/2020 to 05/03/2020 |
| Project sign off | 1 | 03/03/2020 to 06/03/2020 | |
| Project result analysis | 5 | 09/03/2020 to 13/03/2020 | |
| Project documentation | 2 | 16/03/2020 to 17/03/2020 | |
| Project conclusion | 1 | 18/03/2020 to 18/03/2020 | |
Table 2: Time estimation
(Source: Created by researcher)
Based on the business objective of Crayon Pharmaceuticals, it can be stated that, this company is producing various pharmaceutical goods and apart from this it is also involved in supply of raw materials for various other pharmaceutical companies.
As demonstrated by de Carvalho, Patah & de Souza Bido (2015), any business activity demands involvement of a proper resource management process and this is the key way to achieve success.
Thus, maintaining logistics and supply chain management process, this organization can determine and allocate its resources effectively.
· Network diagram and Gantt chart
The following two diagrams are made based on project process of Crayon and these are made by using Microsoft Project software:
Figure 6: Network diagram
(Source: Created by researcher)
Figure 7: Gantt chart
(Source: Created by researcher)
By evaluating the aforementioned project credentials and project steps, the entire cost of the total business expansion process can be estimated.
Based on the opinion given by Andersen & Grude (2018), cost of any business process can be estimated by proper activity evaluation, but the actual cost may differ slightly from this.
Thus, depending upon this statement and considering the entire business activity of Crayon, its cost can be estimated as $1,000,000.
On the basis of the entire evaluation, it can be concluded that, the entire project plan quality of the business expansion project of Crayon Pharmaceuticals is a good one.
As this company is supplying its produced goods to worldwide organization and also supplying raw materials to other pharmaceuticals, it must be careful in the project planning and execution process.
Evaluation of Gantt chart, WBS diagram and network diagram is helpful in this context.
According to Croxatto & Greub (2017), project constraints and project requirement evaluation is necessary fort project decision. This has been evaluated for the concerned organization.
Major stakeholders of any pharmaceutical company are: corporate management group, regulatory bodies of concerned country, marketing team, development and research team, customers and end users that are consumers.
This is also true for Crayon and in this case, government body of Australia is the responsible regulatory person.
Project management planning provides a clear understanding related to company objective and it is advantageous to bring positive developments in stakeholder management process (Kerzner, 2017), a better engagement of stakeholder can be fruitful for Crayon in the process of its business expansion.
· Communication planning for project continuation
Project continuation demands establishment of proper communication planning is required (Kerzner, 2017). In this connection, it is to be noted that, such communication is to be established among program directors, program manager, program steering committee members and other responsible members of business expansion of Crayon Pharmaceuticals.
In case of business expansion in worldwide range, any business body has to be careful to manage its risks. This is also true for Crayon Pharmaceuticals.
As opined by Chih & Zwikael (2015), any pharmaceutical business must assess risk factors regarding chemicals and as a little carelessness can cause fatal incidents, such companies must be very careful in manufacturing process.
Thus, to attain the sweet fruits of business expansion, managing authority of Crayon must be focused on SCM process, logistics and chemical usage process.
Moreover, it is also important for it to use skills of its employees efficiently by incorporating HRM practice and this is beneficial for maintenance of healthy practice in chemical manufacturing process.
In this step, the entire project planning is to be evaluated.
As demonstrated by Schwalbe (2017), this deployment planning is helpful to evaluate project outcome at the end point of project completion and this also helps to evaluate each phase of project management [Refer to Appendix 2].
Thus, base on this, Crayon Pharmaceuticals can evaluate its project management planning to bring positive improvements in future progress. In this case, the project deployment planning can be demonstrated as follows:
Conclusions and Recommendations
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that, implementation of project management is beneficial for managerial department of any organization to conduct project activities properly to attain project deliverables.
Moreover, the aforementioned elaboration is also beneficial for an individual to detect project scopes and other determinants for a suitable project result achievement.
In this connection, project issues have been evaluated and based on this some recommendation is also provided.
| RECOMMENDATIONS | DISCUSSION |
| Recommendation 1: CRM practice | In order to implement a proper CRM practice responsible managing authority must gain a clear idea regarding customer demand and preference to ensure business expansion. |
| Recommendation 2: Logistics | As this company is supplying products in worldwide range, logistics management is necessary to mitigate supply chain management related problems. |
Table 3: Recommendations
(Source: Created by researcher)
Andersen, E. S., & Grude, K. V. (2018). Our tribute to Rodney–and the importance of goal directed project management. International Journal of Project Management, 36(1), 227-230. < https://paperdownload.me/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/6160-tribute-rodney-importance-goal-directed-project-management.pdf>
Chih, Y. Y., & Zwikael, O. (2015). Project benefit management: A conceptual framework of target benefit formulation. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), 352-362. < https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/35011/14/01%20Chih%20and%20Zwikael%20Project%20benefit%20management%202015.pdf>
Croxatto, A., & Greub, G. (2017). Project management: importance for diagnostic laboratories. Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 23(7), 434-440. Accessed from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1198743X17302124, Accessed on: 9th October, 2019.
de Carvalho, M. M., Patah, L. A., & de Souza Bido, D. (2015). Project management and its effects on project success: Cross-country and cross-industry comparisons. International Journal of Project Management, 33(7), 1509-1522. < http://iranarze.ir/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/9341-English-IranArze.pdf>
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. US: John Wiley & Sons.
Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. US: Cengage Learning.
Serra, C. E. M., & Kunc, M. (2015). Benefits realisation management and its influence on project success and on the execution of business strategies. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), 53-66. Accessed from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263786314000519, Accessed on: 9th October, 2019
Shah, S., Gochtovtt, A., & Baldini, G. (2019). Importance of Project Management in Business Analytics: Academia and Real World. In Aligning Business Strategies and Analytics (pp. 81-94). Springer, Cham. < http://dlib.scu.ac.ir/bitstream/Hannan/562383/1/9783319932996.pdf#page=94>
(Source: Created by researcher)
Appendix 2: Benefits of Project management
(Source: http://www.synquis.com/blog/benefits-of-project-management-software)
