Reference no: EM132324767 , Length: word count:5000
Project Management Assignment -
Green Initiative Research Projects - You are working for an international firm with over 100,000 employees located in several different countries. A strategic goal is to help improve the environment while increasing revenues and reducing costs. The Environmental Technologies Program just started, and the VP of Operations, is the program sponsor. A program manager and a steering committee made up of ten senior executives are overseeing the program. There are several projects underneath this program, one being the Green Computing Research Project. The chief investment officer, and project sponsor, has given this project high priority and plans to hold special interviews to hand-pick the project manager and team. The project sponsor is also a member of the program steering committee.
The main purpose of the Green Computing Research Project is to research possible applications of green computing including:
- Data centre and overall energy efficiency
- The disposal of electronic waste and recycling
- Telecommuting
- Virtualization of server resources
- Thin client solutions
- Use of open source software, and
- Development of new software to address green computing for internal use and
- Potential sale to other organizations
The budget for the project is R500,000, and the goal is to provide an extensive report, including detailed financial analysis and recommendations on what green computing technologies to implement.
TASKS -
1. Research green computing and projects that have been done or are being done by large organisation such as IBM, Dell and HP. Expand your definition of green computing to include all of the topics listed in the background scenario. Describe each citing an example of how at least one organisation has implemented one area of green computing.
2. Prepare a project charter for the Green Computing Research Project. Assume the project will take six months to complete and the budget is R500 000.
3. Create a work breakdown structure (WBS) for the project showing work to level 3 or 4 (as appropriate). The WBS should be based on the deliverables in the project charter.
4. Develop an activity list showing activity dependencies based on the work packages from the WBS. Draw a network diagram for the activity list and determine the critical path activities.
5. List all resources that will be needed for the project. Discuss the possible resource scheduling problems that might occur and ways to overcome such problems.
6. Based on the activity list, develop a cost estimate with sub-totals at each level and calculate the total estimated cost. Discuss the estimates and explain how costs are allocated. Thereafter discuss efforts made to save cost.
7. Compile a risk register for the project, showing TEN (10) important risks. Analyse these risks and provide possible responses when they occur. Discuss how such risks may be controlled.
8. List and describe FIVE (5) quality standards or requirements related to meeting the stakeholder expectations.
9. Develop a communication plan for the project, and include inter-alia, meetings, venues, attendees required.
10. Summarise, the overall project cost, the project benefits, and the general strategy.