Reference no: EM13803949

Product Development Case Description

Xyzzy is a medium sized company that develops and manufactures mobile data collection devices. You are an employee of Xyzzy and work as project manager in the product development department. The people involved in this case are:

• You are Ms. Andersen, the project manager.
• Mr. O'Brian is the Director of Product Development.
• Ms. Horsell is the Director of Marketing and Portfolio Management.
• Ms. Thomas is the Human Resource Manager.
• Functional line managers in the research and development department.
• Engineers and members of your project team.

You have been leading a small team of experienced engineers conducting a technical feasibility study to investigate if it is possible to modify one of its standard products to create a product variant to satisfy the needs of a local organisation involved in environmental management. You are planning to hold a M1 Milestone Concept Review on Friday 16th August 2013. (For the purposes of this assignment assume that this is next week.) The concept review is one of the milestones in the company's product development process.

The need for the new product has been identified by the marketing department lead by Ms. Horsell, Director of Marketing and Portfolio Management. Ms. Horsell provided your small project team with a product brief, outlining the special end user, sales and service requirements to supplement the requirements already established for the standard product. She also developed the business case for the product and believes that there is a market for this variant of the product beyond the customer with the original requirement/request for the modified product.

Assessment Part A

For part A of the assessment you must complete the following tasks and questions. Read all the questions before you commence the tasks.

1. Ms Horsell has asked you to use Microsoft Project to develop the project schedule. Note that Ms. Horsell has also asked you to include the milestones at the top of the task list in your schedule.

 

Develop the schedule and make sure that you

a) Include the milestones at the top of the task list (underneath the project summary task at the top of the task list).

b) Include the resource allocation details on the schedule.

c) Resolve any resource allocation issues. Assume that the project is constrained to the resources listed in the case study description above.

d) Have an appropriate project name as the top of the task list and have all other tasks indented below this heading. Note that by having the overall project summary task and the milestones at the top of the task list the automatically generated outline numbers / WBS numbers will not correspond to the WBS numbering in the specification. However, you should introduce a WBS column and manually enter the numbering required to keep the work breakdown numbering specified in the assignment. The WBS column should be placed before the task column.

e) Make sure that the holidays described in the "general information" are not included in the available working days for your project.

2. In this question you must identify the critical path in your schedule.

a) The bars of the tasks on the critical path must be automatically highlighted in the Gantt chart view of your project schedule (in the .mpp file). The marker should be able to view all tasks in the project when they open the .mpp file.

b) List the tasks on the critical path in your answer to this question in the Word document.

3. Include additional "milestones" (tasks with 0 duration) in your schedule to show the latest date you need to contact:

a) the production manager to ensure that the facilities are booked for the prototype builds (i.e. two milestones - one for each prototype build).

b) the type approval test house to ensure that the facilities are booked for the type approval.

c) According to your schedule when is the latest date that you need to contact:

• The production manager to book the facilities for the first prototype build?
• The production manager to book the facilities for the second prototype build?
• The type approval house to book the facilities for the type approval?

Note that these additional milestones should be listed at the end of the milestones list at the start of the project and should be highlighted in the task list in yellow using the "background colour" icon on the task ribbon. This is to allow your marker to locate them easily.

1. Write a memo to the director of product development, Ms. Horsell outlining:

a) the expected completion date of the project, assuming it commences at M1;

b) the total duration of the project;

c) an explanation of the main factors that cause the project to require that length of time

d) the estimated labour cost of the project after the M1 concept review. Present the costs in a table showing the costs for the following:

• Planning workshop
• Electronics
• Software
• Mechanics
• Verification
• Prototype 1 build
• Prototype 2 build
• Documentation
• Production of devices for customers
• Total for the Project

 Assume that you will send the project schedule as an attachment to the memo.

5. Generate a "who does what report" using the Microsoft Project reporting facilities. The start of a "who does what report" for a different project is shown below. Include a screenshot of your "who does what" report as the answer to this question in your Word document.

6. Is there any way that the overall duration of the project can be shortened without removing any tasks? (Justify your answer. Be specific and describe any tasks that you would target and what you might do that could reduce the length of the project.)

7. Describe what the project manager needs to do to ensure that the project runs smoothly and completes on time. Give a detailed answer describing procedures, processes and anything else that you believe is important both in general terms and specifically for this project

8. Is there any way that the cost of this project could be reduced? (Justify your answer. Be specific and describe any implications (apart from the reduction in cost) that could result from you suggestion(s). You are only required to discuss one suggestion to answer this question.)

9. Are there any project related supporting activities, plans, events or tasks that you might have overlooked?  If they were overlooked describe how this could impact on the project.  .

Assessment Part B

Mr. Production reviews your project schedule and requests that both the prototype builds also include the participation of one engineer from electronics and one from mechanics. You will have to update your schedule as you agree with this proposal.

You are now 1 week after the M1 milestone and the display supplier has been revised the delivery time. This is one of the components required for the prototype 1 build (not the prototype 2 build). The delivery time is now expected to take 5 weeks. (This will impact on the duration for task 5.1.)

In addition, you are advised that the type approval and regulatory approval tests are now expected to take only 2 weeks.

Based on the additional information given above complete the following tasks:

1. Amend the project schedule incorporating the request from Mr. Production, the change to the delivery time for the display and the new estimated times for the regulatory approval task.
2. Describe the impact of  each of the changes, i.e. what is the impact of:
   1. the requirement for the additional resources on the prototype build on both the duration and the cost of the project?
   2. the change in delivery time for the display component on both the duration and the cost of the project?
   3. the change in the time for the regulatory approval tests on both the duration and the cost of the project.
3. Are there any options that you would consider instead of making any of these changes? Explain.
4. What is the new duration for the project? What is the new expected completion date for the project?

Assessment Part C

You have been advised that there will only be two software engineers available for the project.

1. Modify your resource details so that there are now only 2 software engineers available.

1. a) Does this result in a resource over-allocation issue in your schedule?

b) If so, resolve the resource over-allocation issue. If you had to resolve a resource over-allocation issue explain how you resolved the problem(s). If you did not have to resolve a resource over-allocation issue, explain how you would have resolved the resource over-allocation issue. a resource over-allocation issue using Microsoft Project.

Has this change impacted on the duration of your project? Explain why/why not.

Has this change impacted on the sensitivity of the network? Explain why/why not.