QUESTION
You are required to prepare a blog for interested stakeholders.
- You should
- Indicate the full scope of the project, including the WBS (LO1) and
- conduct a SWOT and TOWS analysis (LO2, LO3, LO4).
- Provide recommendations about how to run this project (LO2). You must take into consideration possible interests and attitudes of the Board and other stakeholders (LO2), as well as the limited resources (time, human, financial – LO3, LO4, and technological- LO8) available. This section includes setting out a series of tasks (LO6) bearing in mind resources available (LO3, LO4), so that you can compile a realistic illustrative network analysis and the critical path for the project you scoped under 1.
- Highlight to the Board the risks and barriers (LO6) that they may come across in attempting to implement your recommendations, some of which might be related to resources (LO3), and how to deal with them (LO2, LO4). You will also need to discuss how this would relate to the company culture (LO2).
You need to provide three reports to the Board each containing 500 words maximum. Each report will address one of the points above. As you are developing your project management skills, it is expected that you will be using theoretical concepts from the discipline which are appropriately referenced to support your reports. You can attach appendices with any graphs relating to answering the above requirements.
SOLUTION
Scope of the Project
The main scope of the project is to set-up an International School by the name of “Blooming Masterminds” in India and it would take in total 2 years and five months in total to start and finally finish the project including the subsequent planning for next ten years for construction and expansion of the school. The International school should provide specialised and quality –class educations using an internationally recognised curriculum with a co-educational system to all the students of varied nationalities in safe and secure environment (Case Study: The International School of ABerdeen, 2010).
Project objectives
To plan and Construct an International School in India by the name of “ Blooming Masterminds”, by the December, 31st, 2014 with a budget of 10 crores in the first phase of two years and in the subsequent ten years the budget allocated for the project is 50 crores INR.
- To increase the annual revenue of about 30% over the next two years after fully functionality.
- Open 10 new Branches across various states in India in coming 5 years.
- To become an established and renowned educational institution within a span of 5 years.
Project Deliverables
The main deliverables which are expected from the International School project during the first three years of operation are (Dennis P. Miller, n.d.):
Project Planning Phase
- Brief project Description
- Obtaining Site approval
- Establishing Project Steering Committee
- Identifying Major Project milestones
- Using Risk Management Plan to identify and mange the risk associated with project
- Obtaining a cost estimate for project
- Confirming the sources of funding for the project
- Obtaining the Financial Expenditure Approval from the needed delegates from Regional Office
- Getting Site Approval
Project Execution Phase
- Preparing Plans and Documenting the Contracts for the International School.
- Getting the Building Act Compliance for School building
- Calling the tenders/ Quotes as per the State policies
- Evaluating the offers.
- Preparation and submitting the Letter of Acceptance
- Obtaining Construction Program , Cost Schedule, and Site specific Requirements along with Safety Plan and Work Statement Method
- Issuing Progress Payments once the works are being validated and signed off by the Project manager (Project plan, School Managed Facility Plan, n.d.).
Work Break down Structure
The comprehensive classification of Project scope is called work breakdown Structure (WBS) (Devi and Reddy, 2012).
The below depicted diagram shows the WBS for setting up an International School in India:
Figure 1: WBS for International School set-up
SWOT ANALYSIS
The uses of the analysed SWOT and TOWS in the international school being set up in India have been depicted in the table below:
|
Internal to the company |
STRENGTHS
|
WEAKNESSES
|
|
External to the Company |
OPPORTUNITIES
|
THREATS
|
REPORT 2
Recommendations on Running the Project for Setting International School in India
The Analysis of the interest and the attitude of the Board Members and the other Stakeholders, along with the limited resources like the Time, Human Resources, Financial Resources and technological resources available in India. There is a need to develop a launching strategy which should be developed before launching the International School in India.
Launching Strategy
The first and the primary step should be Pre-announcement, so that various stakeholders get to know and get affected by the news about the launch of the new international school in India. The agents or the partnering universities all across the globe should be made part of the launching announcement which should be done well ahead of inauguration so that wide array of stakeholders get attracted towards the new international school (Tan Minh. Vu, 2010).
Dealing with Government Departments in India
A clear-cut strategy needs to be developed because we know well in advance that government permissions take lot of time so we need to apply for various permits and obtain legal permissions well in advance so that by the time the site is getting constructed we are able to obtain the required permissions. Obtaining sanction for opening from the government would take two months.
Dealing with Competitors
The countries like China and Australia are posing a threat to the new schools as they are providing better education system, but the English speaking staff and quality education system will definitely beat the Chinese education system, which are lacking in good English communication. Same time by developing a competitive fee structure and additional courses for students we can tackle the Australian international schools like by providing residential boarding for the students on campus will be an added advantage (Tan Minh. Vu, 2010).
GANTT CHART AND NETWORK DIAGRAM
The attached MS Project document by the name International School in India clearly indicates that time is the most important and constraint in the whole project because all the tasks are falling on the critical path except for the construction of gardens and playgrounds for students. SO ensuring and completing all the tasks on time is very critical for the project to be on time.
REPORT 3
Risk and Barriers
The international school setup in India will encounter several risks and barriers because each and every organisation is subject to risk (Tusler, 1996). But with effectual planning management, the uncertainties could be managed and the key to successful project completion is planning for the risks identified well in advance. If the project planning for the uncertainties and risk predicted are correct, then the project execution will be done without any hindrances and the setting up of international school in India would be done successfully (INSIGHT YOUNG 09-10 Indian youth trend report, 2009).
With the growing spending power the people in India are ready to spend money on the education of their children to make their future bright (Indian youth in a transforming world: attitudes and perceptions, 2009). This is the reason why the education business is thriving be it international school or national school everything runs successfully in India as per the Indian culture. Moreover the children from various countries get government grants for further higher education which is much cheaper in India as compared to other countries. Thus the foreign students get government grants or cheap loans for higher education.
The only constraint in the Indian Education is that here in this country the Trusts run such big education related ventures where in there should be at least four boards of directors or stakeholders, and not an individual. However this matter can be handled by appointing four boards of directors and getting government approval for the educational institution and the profits can be distributed as salaries (India, China rich households to double by 2010: survey, 2006).
After the inauguration of the international school and admission of the students, the money collected would be used for expansion of the educational institution, so that it becomes globally competitive in the education industry within five years only. But there is risk of not getting as many student admissions as desired in initial stage; this will lead to failure of expansion plans, because of lack of funds for subsequent ten years. Thus we can get over this issue by having collaboration or joint venture with renowned institutions which are already of great repute so that new students get attracted and good amount of profits can be earned in initial stage only because the future of the international school depends upon the initial number of students joining the institution.
Another risk which is a feature of Indian government agencies is time taking procedure for getting approvals , so the institution should follow all the norms strictly and take the follow ups regularly so that they can get all necessary approvals on time. If there are any links with higher government officials they should also be utilised to get over this problem of delay in getting approvals.
Advertising and participation in International Trade Fairs and Educational fairs will give good amount of publicity to the school on international platform. More students can also be attracted using the platform of Social media like creating a dedicated page of the international school on Twitter and Facebook will give international exposure and attract students all across the globe including India. Thus the project plan of setting up International school in India would be successful globally.
Bibliography
Case Study: The International School of ABerdeen (2010), [Online], Available: http://www.envue-ltd.com/10-09-21%20Envue%20Case%20Study%20-%20ISA.pdf [16 May 2012].
Dennis P. Miller (n.d) Building Your Project Work Breakdown Structure — Visualizing Your Objectives, Deliverables, Activities and Schedule.
Devi, T.R. and Reddy, V.S. ( 2012) ‘Work Breakdown Structure of the Project’, International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications, vol. 2, no. 2, March-APril, pp. 683-686.
‘India, China rich households to double by 2010: survey’, Financial Express (17 November 2006).
Indian youth in a transforming world: attitudes and perceptions (2009), [Online], Available: Programme for comparative democracy [16 May 2012].
INSIGHT YOUNG 09-10 Indian youth trend report (2009), [Online], Available: http://www.slideshare.net/kaustavsengupta/insightyoung0910-indian-youth-trend-report [16 May 2012].
Project plan, School Managed Facility Plan, [Online], Available: education.qld.gov.au/strategic/eppr/facility/./projectplan.doc [16 MAy 2012].
Tan Minh. Vu (2010) ‘The Hague University of Applied Sciences’, SCHOOL OF EUROPEAN STUDIES, May.
Tusler, R. (1996) Project Risk Management Principles, http://www.netcomuk.co.uk.
Tusler, R. (1996) Project Risk Management Principles, [Online], Available: http://www.netcomuk.co.uk [16 May 2012].
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