Project Management

Week 6 10%: Create a final presentation from your project explaining what you have achieved in your team’s project. The more visual (i.e. less writing/words) the better. Due by April 2, 2022.

The final grade of the team project presentation 10%. (Virtual class should record their presentation in Zoom and save the recording in their team project file for submission)

 

Project Name: Promoting Growth of Local Learners for Northeastern University’s CPS Project Management Program

The presentation should address the following:

An overview of the team project from these perspectives:

1. Business case, why the project was needed and how it was justified

Business Case

1.0 Background & Business Problem

The determination for Northeastern University CPS Boston to foster the adoption of expansion of the students’ intake is meant to bolster the capacity of students enrolling in the Project Management course. The low number of students who are seeking for the   Overtime, Northeastern University has seen a decrease in local enrollment in the school’s Project Management Program. This is both due in part to an increase of focus on foreign and out of state student enrollment, as well as decease in promotion of project management to the Massachusetts local community.

 

2.0 Strategic Case

The project fits into the objectives and strategic needs of NEU in that it helps it accomplish the determination of providing education to the community. As an academic institution, the organization has the objective of ensuring that it acquires the ability to have a progressive solution to the needs of members of society (Herman & Siegelaub, 2009); (Zadeh, n.d.).   In order to increase local student enrollment while maintaining existing interest, northeastern will look to shift their focus on increasing local awareness through networking and recruiting as well as enhanced financial aid and scholarship opportunities.

 

 

 

 

 

3.0 Project Overview

The project is meant to ensure a revolution within the Project management department towards increasing students. The students’ initial low turnout made it difficult to advance situations that are focused on creating progressive management of the situations. As such, it became critical that the project had to be implemented to safeguard the department from collapsing. Scope: Budget: Budget will be based on the breakdown of the following criteria. This budget will then be predicted and adjusted accordingly over a 5 year span. Project Plan: -Local advertising and networking: Part of the project should involve studying the target audience and giving some focus to outreach and communication. This may be via job fairs, business conferences, or presentations. -financial aid/ Scholarships: targeting Massachusetts undergraduate students or professionals looking to gain certification in project management. A typical deterrent of continuing education is often cost. Part of this project will include promoting financial aid or reimbursements. Scholarship opportunities may also bring in an increase in applications. Assumptions: there will be increased growth overtime. Constraints: Since PJM is becoming more popular on a global level, what can we do to still make it as relevant on a more local level? Also expected market competition.

 

4.0 Expected Benefits

The expected benefits after implementing the project are the increase of students within the Project Management department. The other beneficial factor that would materialize after implementing the project is increased revenue. Since the students would be expected to pay for their academic fees, the institution would therefore be able to recoup the monies that would ensue from the project and transform it to income for the shareholders (Herman & Siegelaub, 2009). These are the expected benefits accruable from the project.   Beyond an increase in local enrollment, promoting the CPS Project Management Program will have continuous long term effects. With increase enrollment comes increase confidence in the program, generating more enrollment overtime. It is predicted that year one will expect the least amount of growth. The first few years will be the rollout phase- but should increase quickly overtime. This project will benefit the business not only by increased local enrollment for the Northeastern Boston campus, but if the project proves to be successful, can be implemented at other Northeastern campus’ as well. The end goal is to have an obvious and consistent increase in enrollment by year 5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.0 Financial Considerations

The financial consideration for the project depends on the organization’s determination to have the project have a positive outcome in a short time. Therefore, decisions must be made based on the model that would give effective results.   Advertisement: _­­­—k over the course of 5 years         -Staff: to promote the program (networking)         -Seminars/classes/presentations: CPS is very inviting for professionals of any age to progress their understanding of            project management.           (Increasing networking could be done by having a booth at local conferences, giving presentations, advertisements, etc) Financial Aid: —k over the course of 5 years           -Young professional scholarships or ‘small business scholarships’ could be given to promote applications Local Learning Opportunities: workshops or webinars (intro to PJM may spark an interest in pursuing a degree)

 

6.0 Risks

The risks involved in the project are implementation of the project with the capital intensive venture, and the project fails to establish the profits that are expected. Therefore, in this provision, it becomes critical for the management to adopt feasible forecasting of the project to ensure that the projections of the project are to realize the expected progress to achieve the reality of the expected income generation (Herman & Siegelaub, 2009); (Zadeh, n.d.).   -It’s important to not over shift the focus on local students as to undermine or cause a divide from foreign and non resident students. -With an offering of financial aid or scholarships, it’s important to evaluate whether this is a financially stable idea -Market competition (must find a way to stand out)

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.0 Timeline

The timeline for implementation of the project and realizing the profits are expected to be six months. The scope of a project depends on the objective of the individuals who are targeted in changing their objectives and agreeing with the organization’s proposals. This dimension would thereby depend on the marketing department within the organization.   The predicted timeline of 5 years would be reasonable enough to see results. Since this project relies heavily on spreading awareness of the program and what if offers, it may need a few years to gain traction.

 

8.0 Recommendations and Next Steps

The first recommendation for the institution is to ensure that it engages the community through an effective marketing strategy. The importance of adopting this approach is to sensitize the community on the importance of developing project managers to resolve the problems experienced (Zadeh, n.d.). The other recommendation is for the university to focus on quality rather than quantity. Advancing the model of creating grandaunts who can make a difference in the organizations that offer them job opportunities would elevate the recommendations towards the students from the institution (Zadeh, n.d.). This factor would create demand for students who complete the course. The next step for the organization is to ensure that it captures the market’s specific needs in designing its curriculum for the course. This approach would provide the organization with an opportunity to solve the inherent problems within the department.   It is recommended that the initial numbers and demographics of the current project management program are evaluated. Beyond the current and average percentage of nonresident vs resident students, it’s important to look specifically at the demographics of the currently enrolled local students. Are most of these students coming from Northeastern’s undergrad program? Are they local managers looking to expand their knowledge of PJM?  Are they young professionals or seasoned professionals? Since a lot of this project is going to rely on identifying a target audience, it’s important to do your due diligence prior to.

 

References

Herman, B. & Siegelaub, J. M. (2009). Is this really worth the effort? The need for a business case. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2009—North America, Orlando, FL. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Zadeh, A. A. (n.d.). Project Management Practices. PJM6000, 1–18.

 

2. Project charter & scope statement

Executive Summary

Where did this project come from?

Northeastern University

Why is it being done?

The project aims to increase the enrollment of students into the university’s CPS project management program within a 5 year period. The project is also the foundation on which the university will continue to enroll more students into the program in the future. The various activities in the project will help to increase interest into the program among the community members.

What impact will the project create (internally, externally)?

Internally, the project will increase the enrollment of students into the CPS project management program; the project will experience growth in terms of population and revenue on the long term. Externally, the project will help to popularize the program to the local and international communities. The project will help people to realize the place of the program in the contemporary society (Gibson, Hardy III, & Buckley, 2014). The advertisements and other networking will help to foster interest in the project management program among the community members.

What strategic plan does it contribute to?

The project contributes significantly to the university’s strategic plan to educate the community. The university is determined to increase the number of students enrolled in the program over the next five years and this project will contribute to its efforts in great ways. By advertising the program and its benefits to the community through various media outlets, the university will create interest in the project management program and will persuade potential students to enroll (Sama, 2019).

What does the customer receive/not receive by project end?

There are two different customers to this project including the university, students, and the general public. The university will get to increase its enrollment statistics into the program; the increased enrollment will in turn popularize the program to the community. The university will also experience financial growth in the long run as the number of students increase. The students will receive education that has become more popular over the recent years and its demand will continue to grow into the future. The world needs project managers as it struggles to overcome various challenges while creating new ways of life.

What key assumptions are driving this project?

The project is assumed to foster an increase in the number of students in the university’s CPS project management program over the next 5 years. The project assumes that the program will have grown in popularity after the five years.  Year one is expected to have the least amount of growth but is expected to increase gradually overtime.

 

What risks could challenge project success?

The main risk to the success of the project is financial losses. The project is quite capital-intensive and failure to achieve its objectives will take a toll on the program. Another risk is the fact that the activities chosen may over-focus on the local learners which may cause a divide between them and the foreign students. The project’s success may be influenced negatively by market competition; many universities are realized the need to promote various programs to improve the enrollment statistics and promote financial growth.

 

 

Goals

What business/organization goal(s) does this project support?

The main goal of the university is to increase the number of students in the project management program over the next 5 years. The university also aims to grow financially. Another goal of the university is to popularize its project management program among the community, which is a strategic plan to develop competitive advantage. The project will also support the university’s determination to educate the community in ways that help to effectively navigate the contemporary world.

What business need is being satisfied by this project?

The project fulfills the need for the organization to grow financially and to increase its enrollment statistics in it various programs in the long run. Here, we are looking at the need for strategic initiatives to focus on the improvement of interest in the PJM program for local students, as well as filling in capability gaps for marketing of the program in relation to these local learners.

Objectives

What, specifically, needs to be done to meet project/customer requirements/expectations/goal?

• The project management team needs to develop clear messages about the project management program.
• The team needs to select the most effective media outlets to inform the communities about the program. Identify the best and most effective form of outreach.
• The team has to develop a plan to secure sponsorships and financial aid.

What is the target of the project?

• The target of the project is to inform the communities about the project management program.
• The project also targets to showcase the importance of the program to the contemporary society

Scope:

What does the work of the project to meet goal include/not include?

Work Includes	Work does not Include
Media adervertisements
Networking: Workshops and seminars
Preparing and offering scholarships

 

Phases ⁄ Deliverables:

What are the major components of work to meet the goals/objectives/scope?

What are the customer, process, and project deliverables within each phase?

 

Phase	Description of Phase	Deliverables
		Internal	External
Phase 1	The phase will involve the first one year of the project. The phase will involve all activities of the project including advertisements and other networking activities	Increased enrollment in project management program	Increased popularity of the program among communities
Phase 2	The phase will involve the next four years. The activities from the first phase will be carried into this phase.	Increased enrollment and financial growth	Improved human resources in the field of project management (Smith, Pelco, & Rooke, 2017)
Phase 3	The phase will involve completion of the project	Increased enrollment and financial growth	Improved human resources in the field of project management

 

 

Assumptions:

What unknowns are being made known in this project?

What uncertainties are considered true, real, or certain for planning purposes?

What trial balloons are being floated to verify information?

 

 

Assumption	Rationale	Probability of Assumption being True	Impact to Project if Assumption is not True
Increased enrollment in the project management program	Networking, advertisements, and financial aid to students will encourage them to enroll for the program	The chances of the assumption being true is about 99.99%	The university will experience improved enrollment in the project management program
Gradual increase	The first year is expected to see the least amount of growth, whereas years 4 and 5 are expected to see the most	The chances of the assumption being true is about 90%	This would either indicate the project is failing or the project is doing greater than expected faster than expected
The program enrollment will experience continued growth after the five years	The project will have accomplished its goals after the five years which will form the foundation for continued growth	The chances of the assumption being true is over 70%	The university will experience improved enrollment in the project management program

 

Risks:

What events could jeopardize this project’s success?

 

Risk	Supporting Detail (Analysis to be continued in Risk Management Plan/ Register)
Increase in costs may drive away consumers	-due to the current economic climate, deterrents such as inflation, supply chain setbacks from covid, and lack of disposable income may hold learners back from making the commitment to continuing education
Decrease in opportunities to promote the product	Covid restraints lack in person networking. While web based seminars are still welcomed, it may be assumed to be less affective.
Inability for funding	With heavy weight of the project put into scholarships and financial opportunities, if the university is unable to allocate enough fundings there could be less of an opportunity for success

Constraints:

What is restricting this project?

What standards, regulations, technologies, resource availability impact this project?

Constraint	Supporting Detail
Covid	Covid restraints on social interactions may make it more difficult to promote the program as effectively.
Funding	Funding opportunities for additional scholarships and financial aid would be a decision of the school.
Regulations for Private Schools	Since Northeastern is a private university, there is currently no ‘in state tuition’ to support local students.

 

Initial Project Sizing

Budget:

What are the estimated costs to complete this project (document variability, range, precision at this point)

 

• Cost for networking ($5,000/year for 5 years) = $20,000 total
  • Networking to professionals
    • Booths at conventions
    • Small intro seminars/webinars
  • Networking to Students
    • In school networking to undergraduate students
  • Financial aid ($20,000/year for 5 years)= $100,000.00
    • Cost for scholarships (3 scholarships awarded for $5,000/per student for 1 year) = $15,000.. $75,000 total
    • Remainder ($5,000/year…$25,000 total to be allocated towards):
      • tuition reimbursement
      • in state tuition benefits
      • fee waivers
    • Since the project plan is based on allocations of a set amount of money, there is no real need to rely on reserve funds. However, from project management experience there should be an expected $10,000 for year one to remain in reserves. This number will be reevaluated after year one.
    • Total Cost of project $25,000 per year + $10,000 reserves= $35,000/year
      • ANNUAL BREAKDOWN:
        • Networking: $5,000
        • Scholarships (3): $15,000
        • Additional Tuition funding: $5,000
        • Total: $25,000
      • Total cost of project over the course of 5 years= $125,000 + $10,000 reserves*

*Reserve to be evaluated annually

What is the financial justification for this project?

BENFIT COST ANALYSIS/RETURN INVESTMENT:

-Networking:

Let’s assume that Northeastern will hold approximately 10 networking events over a 6-month span. 5 events geared towards professionals and 5 towards current undergrad students. It is expected during the first year, for every 10 events, at least 1 student will become enrolled. Since based on the schedule there will only be 6 months of networking, it is expected a return of 1 student. Through increase understanding from trial and error, we can assume there will be an addition of 1 student per following year. Year 2 and beyond will include closer to 1 full year of networking (20 events=2 students+1 student per year of growth).

Year 1- expected 1 student ( +$35,000)

Year 2- expected 3 new students (+105,000)

Year 3-expected 4 new students (+140,000)

Year 4-expected 5 new students (+$175,000)

Year 5-expected 6 new students. (+210,000)

At some point, it is expected that this increase will reach its maximum and is expected to plateau.

 

-Funding:

By giving out 3 scholarships of $5,000 that is automatically enrolling 3 new students into the program. With the average cost of the program being $35,000, doing this over the course of 5 years is an automatic enrollment of 15 new students with a return investment of $450,000 over the course of 5 years (or $90,000/year).

 

What financial gains are there to doing/not doing this project?

-Each new student that is enrolled, assuming they are 100% committed to following through with the program, will represent $35,000 (over the course of an assumed 1-5 years). There would be great financial gain from doing this project

 

-By not doing this project, it is assumed either nothing will change, or the enrollment numbers and income will remain low or continue to decrease.

High Level Schedule:

When are the phases/deliverables planned to begin/end?

 

Phase/Deliverable	Time
Phase 1 Project Charter Design	3/11/2022	–	4/1/2022	1 month to establish a plan
Networking begins	4/10/2022	–	8/1/2022	Presentations. Networking. Events.
Financial aid applications accepted	7/1/2022	–	8/1/2022
Financial aid rewarded	8/22/2022	–	9/1/2022	Prior to fall semester
Semester 1 begins
Network Year 2 begins	9/1/2022	–	5/1/2022

 

Milestones:

What major points are important to communicate/measure against? When should/will they occur?

 

The project needs to flow with the school year. Although with CPS and graduate school students can generally begin during any time of the year, the schedule should roll with a September start date.

Phase 1

Milestone 1: Networking with professionals. This should occur throughout the entire year. Where scholarships should be promoted to be awarded nearing the beginning of august.

 

Milestone 2: Similar to professionals, networking to undergraduate students should be done during job fairs and closer to mid school year and typical graduation times.

 

Milestone 3: Financial aid and scholarships will be awarded in August.

 

Milestone 4: determining enrollment success. The marker for this will be at the start of every Fall semester. This will help keep track of change over time. After the first fall semester, the first year should be reviewed and the project should be reevaluated.

 

Resource Requirements:

What specialized resources are necessary to complete this project?

 

Team Member	Role	Responsibility
Northeastern	Sponsor	Responsible for funding
Laura, Sai, Zhihong	Project Manager	Responsible for keeping track of the project. Making sure networking is being done and milestones are being met.
Teachers, students, Northeastern Alumn, employees	Educators/students (networking)	Responsible for networking and promoting the program
Financial Aid Department	Financial Dept.	Responsible for discussing additional financial opportunities for all local students

 

Management Approaches:

Communication Type	Stakeholders	Frequency	Agenda/ Content	Responsible	Distribution Media
Passive	Administrators, teachers, staff members	Monthly	To resolve issue and bring everyone on one point	Project managers	Meeting, Conference
Aggressive	Teachers, students, parents	Monthly	To control and enforce the effective implementation of project	Project Managers	In-person
Submissive	Students, administrators, teachers, families	Weekly	To avoid the conflicts	Project Manager	Texts, seminars, in-person
Manipulative	Local business leaders, elected leaders, parents, teachers, students	Often	To gain advantage and smooth implementation of project	Project Managers	Meetings, phone call, emails
Assertive	Teachers, community members, students, parents, administrators	Throughout the program	To build trust among stakeholders	Project Managers	Social media, texts, meetings

 

Sign-offs/Reviews:

At what points will management/customer/team/peer reviews be conducted? For what purpose?

Who signs off on the project reviews?

(Laura)

			Reviews
Title	Review type	timeline		Sign-off	outcome
Sponsor (Northeastern)	Review funding	Sponsors should be updated every 6 months. Once in the fall and once in the spring.		Northeastern will sign off on this review	The outcomes should be guarantee in projected budget
Customer (northeastern)	Review progress	Norteastern here is both the sponsor and customer. They should be updated quarterly		The project manager and northeastern will sign off on this review	Progress reports will help vouch for funding. If the customer is not impressed with the progress they might choose to reevaluate money allocations
Project Manager	Performance Review	Quarterly.		Northeastern	Review the success of the project manager.

 

Acceptance Criteria:

Acceptance Criteria	Detail	Priority	Requestor
Increase in local enrolment	The customer acceptance can be measured by the increased number of local students in this program	Priority is given to local students. Highest Priority. All resources (time, cost, staff, effort is given to this). This will be reviewed at the end of each year (fall semester)	Priority should be all the students.
Increase in revenues	It can be measured by the income generated from the amount of fees.	Priority is profit (annually)
Increase in application	It can be measured by the number of application for the program	Priority is quantity (this will be reviewed monthly)
Less cost	It can be measured by the cost incurred for the promotion and implementation of the project.	Priority is saving. It will be less cost demanding to gain enrollment via networking than financial aid. (this will be reviewed monthly)

 

Impacted ⁄ Interdependent Projects

 

Project	Interdependency Relationship
Undergraduate Project Management Programs	(input/outputs)These programs acts as a predecessor to the pjm program. Greater communication with and ties to these programs could directly benefit this project by increasing undergraduate interest for continuing education
Projects to foster local learning	The project will raise the focus on local education and hence increase the number of local’s applicant for the program.
Project for marketing and campaigning of importance of project management	This project will introduce the project management program to the local students hence will lead to more local applicants.
The scholarship and financial aid grants	This project will encourage local student’s enrollment through granting many financial aid and scholarships.

 

References

Gibson, C., Hardy III, J. H., & Buckley, M. R. (2014). Understanding the role of networking in organizations. Career Development International, 19(2), 146-161. doi:10.1108/cdi-09-2013-0111

Sama, R. (2019). Impact of media advertisements on consumer behaviour. Journal of Creative Communications, 14(1), 54-68. doi:10.1177/0973258618822624

Smith, J., Pelco, L., & Rooke, A. (2017). The emerging role of universities in collective impact initiatives for community benefit. Metropolitan Universities, 28(4), 9-31.

 

3. Stakeholder management & communication plan

Stakeholder Analysis Overview-

Stakeholders are largely the people who should be considered in accomplishing project objectives and whose interests and backing are pivotal to its prosperity. Stakeholder analysis distinguishes all essential and optional stakeholders who have a personal stake in the issues with which the venture or strategy is concerned (Derakhshan, et al., 2019). The objective of this analysis is to foster an essential perspective on the human and institutional scene and the connections between the various stakeholders and the issues they care about most. A company can have several stakeholders being internal and external, some of the internal stakeholders are employees, managers, owners while external stakeholders are suppliers, society, government, creditors, shareholders, and customers. A stakeholder analysis is necessary before taking a lead of the projects by the project manager as it helps them in eradicating and reducing the risk of achieving the set targets of the projects (Friedman and Miles, 2006). A stakeholder analysis can be beneficial for the project to recognize the concern of various stakeholders regarding the project and the way they are going to affect the projects. This also helps to identify the conflicts that could arise among them while working on the projects and the opportunities that would come with the stakeholders. Moreover, this analysis will let the project manager which stakeholders need to be encouraged at a certain period of the ongoing project. Besides, it provides ways to eliminate and reduce the negative influence of selected stakeholders. This analysis can be done at any phase or time of the project as this will indicate which stakeholder is essential for the project and which is not. This stakeholder analysis can be done with just three steps where in the first phase the potential stakeholders are identified with their positive and negative influence on the projects. This step can be done using a stakeholder analysis matrix asking questions such as what is their mandate, the potential role for the project, marginalized or not, and the keys. In the second step, the importance of stakeholders can be assessed while the third step identifies how they can be engaged using the stakeholder grid as shown in the figure above (Oleksiv, 2013).

Stakeholder Analysis Introduction-

During the project initiation phase, one of the most important tasks beyond establishing the project itself is to first identify the stakeholders involved. By identifying who will be affected by the project both directly or indirectly, project managers can design a plan within the project to best communicate and work with individuals or groups based on their specific desires and needs. For the project of Promoting Growth of Local Learners for Northeastern University’s CPS Project Management Program, the process of identifying stakeholders included internal evaluations of possible influencing stakeholders within the project team, discussions directly with the sponsor to identify their stakeholder assumptions and considerations, as well as external evaluations from outside project managers and project teams that have previous experience with projects of the same type. Internally, the project team reviewed all aspects of the project charter and identified potential stakeholders based on their interactions, influence, and dependencies on both specific pieces and overall outcome of the project. Working directly with the sponsor, Northeastern, internal and external stakeholders as well as potential positive and negative stakeholders were also identified. Internal stakeholders were classified as members or groups of the project that were working within the project itself. This category included the project sponsors and project teams. External stakeholders were identified as those influencing or being influenced by the project on the outside – mainly being the clients – in this case students looking to enroll. Once the project manager and sponsor identified the project’s stakeholders to the best of their ability, a stakeholder register was created to further identify and list the characteristics and influence they will have on the project. Following the internal design of the preliminary stakeholder register, external evaluations from previous similar projects were considered that both added to and altered the original stakeholder register. Influence from outside project managers gave insight into additional external stakeholders as influenced a well as highlighted which stakeholders had influenced a project positively and those that had potential to influence a project negatively. For this project, the initial stakeholder register was created prior to evaluating similar projects as to not be too heavily influenced by their outcomes.

*SEE PROJECT CHARTER PDF (week 4)

4. If change was needed what mechanism would manage that – Integrated Change Control (change request management)

Report / Executive Summary –

This project is designed to increase the enrollment of students into the university’s CPS project management program within a 5 year period through the process of increased networking and outreach as well as financial aid and scholarship opportunities to local learners. Initially, within the scope of the project, a budget of $20,000 per year for 5 years ($100,000 total) was allocated to financial aid, which was designed to provide three $5,000 scholarships per year with an additional $5,000 per year to be allocated to smaller scale aid such as instate tuition fee waivers, benefits, and reimbursements. After presenting this budget proposal to the student financial service office, it was determined that a total budget of $100,000 towards scholarships for this project was denied, and only allowed for $75,000 for scholarships towards this project.

Scholarships have seen to be a proven method for increasing enrollment and should continue to be incorporated into this project. Therefore, it is highly recommended and requested that Northeastern rework’s this scholarship budget to adjust to the decrease in funding while still optimizing enrollment.

**assignment not yet submitted.