You have been selected as the project manager for the Green Computing Research Project. The company’s CIO, Ben, is the project sponsor, and Ito is the program manager for the larger Environmental Technologies Program that this project is part of. Now you need to put together your project team and get to work on this high-visibility project. You will work with Ben to handpick your team. Ben had already worked with the HR department to advertise these openings internally as well as outside the company. Ben had also used his personal contacts to let people know about this important project. In addition, you are encouraged to use outside consultants and other resources, as appropriate. Initial estimates suggest that about $300,000 budgeted for this project will go to internal staffing and the rest to outside sources. The main products you’ll produce will be a series of research reports—one for each green computing technology listed earlier plus one final report including all data—plus formal project proposals for at least four recommendations for implementing some of these technologies. Ben also suggested that the team come up with at least 20 different project ideas and then recommend the top four based on extensive analysis. Ben thought some type of decision support model would make sense to help collect and analyze the project ideas. You are expected to tap into resources available from the Environmental Technologies Program, but you will need to include some of those resources in your project budget. Ben mentioned that he knew there had already been some research done on increasing the use of telecommuting. Ben also showed you examples of what he considered to be good research reports. You notice that his examples are very professional, with a lot of charts and references, and most are 20–30 pages long, single-spaced. Ben has also shown you examples of good formal project proposals for We Are Big Pharma,and you are surprised to see how detailed they are, as well. They often reference other research and include a detailed business case. Tasks 1. Prepare a project charter for the Green Computing Research Project. Assume the project will take six months to complete and the budget is $500,000. Use the project charter template (charter.doc) and examples of project charters in Chapters 3 and 4 as guidelines. Assume that part of the approach is to select the project team as quickly as possible. 2. Since people will request changes to the project, you want to make sure you have a good integrated change control process in place. You will also want to address change requests as quickly as possible. Review the template for a change request form provided on the companion Web site (change_request. doc). Write a two-page paper describing how you plan to manage changes on this project in a timely manner. Address who will be involved in making change control decisions, what paperwork or electronic systems will be used to collect and respond to changes, and other related issues. 3. Document requirements for your project so far, including a requirements traceability matrix. Use the template provided (reqs_matrix.xls). Also include a list of questions you would like to ask the sponsor about the scope. 4. Develop a scope statement for the project using the template provided (scope_statement.doc). Be as specific as possible in describing product characteristics and deliverables. Make assumptions as needed, assuming you got answers to the questions you had in Task 1. 5. Develop a work breakdown structure (WBS) for the project. Break down the work to level 3 or level 4, as appropriate. Use the template on the companion Web site (wbs.doc) and samples in the text as guides. Print the WBS in list form as a Word file. Be sure to base your WBS on the project scope statement, stakeholder requirements, and other relevant information. Remember to include the work involved in selecting the rest of your project team and outside resources as well as coordinating with the Environmental Technologies Program. Use the project management process groups as level 2 WBS items or include project management as a level 2 WBS item to make sure you include work related to managing the project. 6. Use the WBS you developed above to create a Gantt chart for the project in Microsoft Project. Use the outline numbering feature to display the outline numbers (click Tools on the menu bar, click Options, and then click Show outline number). Do not enter any durations or dependencies. Print the resulting Gantt chart on one page, being sure to display the entire Task Name column.
