Project Management Gap Analysis for GRD Corporation

I. Project Scenario

You are employed by a local consulting firm that specializes in evaluating Project Management skills within organizations and teaching Project Management to the business community.  Your position is Business Analyst (BA); there are a number of other business analysts employed by the consulting firm. Recently you became a team member for the GRD Corporation Project.  

GRD Corporation is a well known large company in Edmonton. The company currently employees over 100 project managers who work on a variety of projects from construction to event planning to new product development.

GRD Corporation executives have noticed that there are issues with some of the projects they work on. About 10% of past projects have been delivered later than when they were due. Another 30% are over budget.  Your consulting firm has been hired to find out why this is happening. To do that, your team will conduct a gap analysis for GRD Corporation.

A gap analysis is a business resource assessment tool enabling a company to compare its actual performance with its potential performance. At its core are two questions:

Where are we?

Where do we want to be?

Your consulting firm has been hired by the GRD Corporation to identify a number of gaps within its project management methodology. You will focus your research on the responsibilities of project managers who work for GRD Corporation and the approaches they use to complete projects. After assessing the data you have collected from GRD Project managers, your team will make recommendations to improve the operations at GRD. Your recommendations must be S.M.A.R.T.

Specific, Measureable, Action oriented, Realistic and Time oriented

Your team has developed a survey that is used to collect data on the project management processes currently in place at GRD Corporation. Feedback from the project managers will be collected and collated. This data will then be compared to the best practices recommended by the Project Management Institute.  

Your team has determined that it will use the following process to complete the task:

1. Using a survey (already createdand must be used), collect data through interviews with the project managers in the GRD Corporation.

2. Collate the data and perform a basic statistical analysis on the survey results.

3. Present your findings and recommendations in a formal report.  Will prepare this report for your facilitator.

4. Present your findings to the GRD Corporation executive team at a formal presentation.

II. First Steps

II. First Steps

Thoroughly readthe instructions for this assignment (the above scenario and all of the information in the following sections).

MEMO ONE: Form a team of four members. Send a memo to your facilitator stating who the team members are as well as team members’ phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Use proper memo formatting. Microsoft Word has several templates that can be used.

Remember, GRD Corporation is NOT a REAL COMPANY. You will be interviewing REAL project managers in Edmonton and they will play the role of project managers within GRD Corporation.

You will be creating:

Project Binder(Section III),

Conducting an Interview(Section IV),

Survey Analysis (Section V) and

Writing a Report(Section VI)

III. Project Management Deliverables (Binder Material)

Memo 1 to instructor (re: team members)

Ten house expectations/rules

Team contract

TWO Attendance records (part 1 to hand in with binder, part 2 to hand in with report)

Mission statement

Charter for Your Consulting Co.

Work Breakdown Structure

Responsibility Matrix

Memo 2 to instructor (re interview locations and dates)

Confirmation letters (2)

Completed surveys for collation (2)

Business cards (2)

Thank you letters (2)

Individual Time Logs (part 1 with binder, part 2 with report)

Agenda (each team member)

Warm up (each team member at meetings)

Minutes for meetings (each team member)

Other Planning Documents (Gantt, Team Bonding Report)

Individual Lessons Learned (hand in with the GRD Corp. Report. Mark is assigned to binder))

Binder Organization

Establish a project binder.

Team Rules And Contract - Within the team, establish a minimum of ten team expectations/rules. These expectations must be agreed to by the team. Prepare a separate team contract that will bind you to the rules.Have all team members sign the rules and contract, and place both documents in your team binder.

Use the binder to keep track of all of your meeting minutes, agendas, memos, letters and other documentation. The entire team is responsible for the content of the binder. All meeting documentation is to be included in the binder. This includes Agendas, Meeting Minutesand any other documents.

Warm-up - Each team member is responsible for conducting a "warm-up" for at least one meeting.  The member responsible will record the warm-up procedure and the observable results on paper. Examples of warm-upsinclude: a discussion around the weekend; a game; a walk to get coffee.

Agenda - Each team member must prepare one agenda prior to a team meeting.  

III. Project Management Deliverables (Binder Material)

Minutes - During meetings, record the main issues of the meeting as minutes.  Each team member will be required to prepare minutes at least once. The agenda and minutes are separate

All documentation produced to complete the requirements of this section is to be filed in your team binder in chronological order, with the most recent documentation first.

Team Lead Role- The role of team leader will alternate betweenteam members. Each person on the team must be team leader at least once. The team lead assignment must be documented in meeting agendas and meeting minutes. So whoever is performing that role for that meeting must be identified. The team leader delegates tasks to team members, sets meeting times and dates in cooperation with the other team members, keeps track of attendance, and keeps the official copy of all documentation. ****Meetings with project sponsor are not counted as team meetings.

Attendance - Using a table, prepare an attendance recordand place it in your team binder.  It must be maintained at every meeting.  These meetings include all Project Management classes where you work on your project as well as meetings held external to class time.  The record will illustrate any absences or late arrivals.

Time Logs - In addition, prepare individual time logs to keep track of the actual time and tasks individuals have worked on for the team project.  Please include each individual’stotal hours at the completion of the project. Time logs must be signed and viewed by all team members.

Mission Statement - As a team, prepare a mission statement for your team’s work on this project. Remember that you are analysts working for your consulting firm.  The mission statement should reflect your work for GRD Corporation and your work within that firm. Keep the mission statement in your team binder.

Charter - Prepare a Project Charter for your consulting firm based the template provided on the Moodle site.  

WBS - As a team, prepare a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).Maintain the WBS in every class and keep it in the team binder. A checklist is provided for you on the Moodle site. That is a place to start to build the WBS.

RAM - As a team, prepare a Responsibility Matrixand refer to it at each meeting.  This will remind team members what they had agreed to contribute.

Gantt - Other planning material, like a Gantt Chart, must be included in the binder.

Include signed academic integrity forms in the binder.

Include the Team Bonding report in the binder.

Peer Eval- Each student must provide feedback on the team success. The peer evaluation form is at the end of the instruction manual or elsewhere on the Moodle site. The instructor may use a different form. Forms must be submitted with the report or directly to the instructor. (The mark is assigned to both binder and report)