Case Study: Manchester United Soccer Club Essay.

Background of Manchester United Soccer Club

Nicolette Larson was loading the dishwasher with her husband, Kevin, and telling him about the first meeting of the Manchester United Tournament Organizing Committee. Nicolette, a self-confessed “soccer mom,” had been elected tournament director and was responsible for organizing the club's first summer tournament.

Manchester United Soccer Club (MUSC) located in Manchester, New Hampshire, was formed in 1992 as a way of bringing recreational players to a higher level of competition and preparing them for the State Olympic Development Program and/or high school teams. The club currently has 24 boys and girls (ranging in age from under 9 to 16) on teams affiliated with the Hampshire Soccer Association and the Granite State Girls Soccer League. The club's board of directors decided in the fall to sponsor a summer invitational soccer tournament to generate revenue. Given the boom in youth soccer, hosting summer tournaments has become a popular method for raising funds. MUSC teams regularly compete in three to four tournaments each summer at different locales in New England. These tournaments have been reported to generate between $50,000 and $70,000 for the host club.

MUSC needs additional revenue to refurbish and expand the number of soccer fields at the Rock Rimmon soccer complex. Funds would also be used to augment the club's scholarship program, which provides financial aid to players who cannot afford the $450 annual club dues.

Nicolette gave her husband a blow-by-blow account of what transpired during the first tournament committee meeting that night. She started the meeting by having everyone introduce themselves and by proclaiming how excited she was that the club was going to sponsor its own tournament. She then suggested that the committee brainstorm what needed to be done to pull off the event; she would record their ideas on a flipchart.

What emerged was a free-for-all of ideas and suggestions. One member immediately stressed the importance of having qualified referees and spent several minutes describing in detail how his son's team was robbed in a poorly officiated championship game. This was followed by other stories of injustice on the soccer field. Another member suggested that they needed to quickly contact the local colleges to see if they could use their fields. The committee spent more than 30 minutes talking about how they should screen teams and how much they should charge as an entry fee. An argument broke out over whether they should reward the winning teams in each age bracket with medals or trophies. Many members felt that medals were too cheap, while others thought the trophies would be too expensive. Someone suggested that they seek local corporate sponsors to help fund the tournament. The proposed sale of tournament T-shirts and sweatshirts was followed by a general critique of the different shirts parents had acquired at different tournaments. One member advocated that they recruit an artist he knew to develop a unique silk-screen design for the tournament. The meeting adjourned 30 minutes late with only half of the members remaining until the end. Nicolette drove home with seven sheets of ideas and a headache.

As Kevin poured a glass of water for the two aspirin Nicolette was about to take, he tried to comfort her by saying that organizing this tournament would be a big project not unlike the projects he works on at his engineering and design firm. He offered to sit down with her the next night and help her plan the project. He suggested that the first thing they needed to do was to develop a WBS for the project.

After reading the case study, Manchester United Soccer Club, answer the following questions.

1. What are five characteristics which help differentiate projects from other functions carried out in the daily operations of the organization?

2. Why is the implementation of projects important to strategic planning and the project manager?

3. The technical and sociocultural dimensions of project management are two sides to the same coin. Explain.

4. What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of the functional, matrix, and dedicated team approaches to managing projects?

5. How are projects linked to the strategic plan?

6. What are the six elements of a typical scope statement?

7. What questions does a project objective answer? What would be an example of a good project objective?

8. What does it mean if the priorities of a project include: Time–constrain, Scope-accept, and Cost–enhance?

9. List three kinds of information that are included in a work package?

10. When would it be appropriate to create a responsibility matrix rather than a full-blown WBS?

After reading the case study entitled, Manchester United Soccer Club, and completing Section 1 of this assignment. Write up report using the Reporting Guidelines.

• Project Background and Description

• Project Scope

• High-Level Requirements

• Deliverables and Milestones

• Stakeholders

• High-Level Timeline/Schedule

Q 1.

The five different characteristics of the project that helps in differentiating projects from different other functions carried out in the daily operations of the organization are as follows:

Defined life span: It is identified that the life span of the project elaborates the number of days that is needed for completing the entire project. It is very much different from other functions that are carried out in daily operations.

Well-defined objective: The project objective depicts the significance of the project and it is found that the project objectives are quite different from other functions.

Involve people from different departments: It is found that there are number of stakeholders from different departments who are involved in the project and their functions are quite different from daily operations.

Project life cycle: The entire life cycle of the project must include the entire period of project execution from initiation.

Specific cost, time as well as performance requirements: The cost, time as well as various performance requirements that are required in the project is very much different from other functions that are carried out in daily operations.

 It is identified that implementation of project is important to strategic planning because strategic plans are generally implemented with the help of projects that is new product product, new plant or new information system. On the other hand, implementation of project is advantageous to project managers because project manager is the key person who is mainly responsible for executing the entire project on budget, time as well as within specifications so that the customer of the project is satisfied. It is identified that is the project is not linked to strategic plan of the organization then the resources which are assigned to the project are wasted and as a result the requirements of the projects are not met.

The technical as well as sociocultural dimensions are considered as two side of a single coin as project managers are the person who is very much experienced as well as skilful in both the areas that are technical as well as sociocultural dimension. It is identified that successful project managers found themselves comfortable with the both areas of project management and works properly for making project successful in both aspects.

Advantages
Functional	Matrix	Dedicated
It is a radical alteration in basic structure of the parent organization	It utilizes resources across functional as well as project duties	It do not disrupt the structure of the parent organization.
It helps in providing maximum flexibility within different functional units	The project mainly focuses on the designated project manager	It mainly focuses on the project.

Disadvantages
Functional	Matrix	Dedicated
Lack of appropriate project focus	Stress can be easily induced by various superiors	Technical expertise are generally limited to the people of the team.

It is identified that projects are mainly linked with the strategic planning as projects helps in representing the method through which the strategy is mainly implemented. It is found that as project are quite important, the best way of maximizing the scare resources of the project is by using proper as well as effective priority scheme which helps in allocating various types of resources within the portfolio of the project that helps in balancing risk and contributes properly within the strategic plan.

Need for a summer invitational soccer tournament

 The various elements of typical scope statement are elaborated below:

 Project objectives: The project objective elaborates the need as well as significance of thee project that will be developed.

 Deliverables: The deliverables of the project illustrates the elements which are delivered by the project.

  Milestones: The milestones are considered as a tool that is mainly utilized for marking specific points along a project timeline.

Technical requirements: The various technical needs as well as requirements of the project are mainly elaborated.

  Limits and exclusions: The limits or risks that obstruct the project progress are also illustrated with the help of limits and exclusions.

 Reviews with customer: The reviews of the customer are also incorporated with the scope statement of the project.

The project objective helps in answering the various deliverables of the project for which the project us implemented. In addition to this, it also elaborates the time as well as budget that are mainly required for executing the entire project successfully.

It is identified that a good project objective helps in elaborating the time as well as budget which is required for making the project successful.

 It mainly means that the project must be completed on the date that is assumed by the project manager. It is found that the entire scope of the project must be scaled properly for meeting costs as well as time objectives and also helps in providing number of opportunities for reducing the entire cost of the project.

The three types of information which are included within the work package are elaborated below:

• Work for accomplishing the project segment
• Time for accomplishing the work package
• Time phased budget for the entire work package and the entire cost that is needed for total work package
• Resources needed for completing the work package successfully
• Monitoring various points for measuring the entire project progress during implementation of work package

 It is quite appropriate to create proper responsibility matrix rather than full blown WBS when is project is quite small. It is identified that when the project have very much limited scope then it is analyzed that work breakdown package enhances both the time as well as cost of the entire project. It is found that full-blown WBs is generally designed to be utilized in large projects.

Project background and description

 The project focuses on the “Manchester United Soccer Club” which is located with Manchester, New Hampshire. It is identified that the organization was formed in the year 1992 for bringing various recreational players to proper level of competition so that they can prepare themselves for the Olympic development program. It is identified that cub 24 boys and girls in team which is mainly affiliated in context to Hampshire Soccer Association as well as granite state girls Soccer league. The directors of the club broad have decided to sponsor one of the tournaments of summer for generating revenue. It is analyzed that hosting tournament of summer is considered as one of the popular method that helps in raising huge amount of funds. MUSC team generally assists in competing with various tournaments in each summer with different locales in New England. It is identified that this tournaments helps in raising funds up to $70,000 for the host club. MUSC requires additional revenue for refurbishing as well as for expanding the number of Soccer fields.

The project scope is divided into in scope as well as out scope:

In scope: The in scope of the project includes:

• Organizing tournament for Manchester United Soccer Club
• Hiring proper qualified referees
• Creating appropriate entry fees
• Sale of tournament t-shirts
• Development of silk-screen design for the tournament
• Completion of entire project within assumed budget and time

Out Scope of the project includes:

• Training session will not be arranged for the players
• Fee concession facility is also absent

The high level project requirements include:

• Documenting the significance of qualified referees
• Contacting local colleges
• Buying rewards
• Procedure of charging entry fee
• Sale of tournament t-shirts
• Development of silk-screen design for the tournament

The project deliverables include:

• Development of document for project plan
• Documentation of project charter
• Documentation of significance of qualified referees
• Procedure of charging entry fee
• Documentation of project

Milestones

Task Name	Expected date
Completion of planning phase	Wed 25-10-17
Completion of initiation phase	Fri 10-11-17
Completion of execution phase	Wed 20-12-17
Completion of closure phase	Mon 08-01-18

 The project stakeholders are listed below:

Stakeholders	Responsibilities
Project manager	The project manager is the person who is responsible of initiating, planning, designing, executing, and monitoring as well as closing the entire project successfully. They have engaged in resource planning, cost estimation, documentation, risk analysis and many more.
Project organizer	The project organizer is the person who organizes the event and was responsible of making proper decisions. They also involve in analyzing the risk and identify proper strategies or methodologies that are helpful in making resolving the risks that are associated with the entire project. It is identified that every decision of the project organizer bring positive outcome on the objectives of the project.
Sponsor	Project sponsor is the person who is responsible of taking the entire project accountability. The project sponsor assists in providing proper business expertise as well as guidance to the project manager so that they can work properly for making the entire project successfully
Financial manager	Financial manager are the person who mainly engages in the project for managing the finance of the organization. The financial manager helps in preparing reports which is mainly needed by the law. They also helps in managing the Flow of cash as well as various financial instruments.

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
Organizing tournament for Manchester United Soccer Club	74 days	Wed 27-09-17	Mon 08-01-18
Planning phase	21 days	Wed 27-09-17	Wed 25-10-17
Creating project plan	4 days	Wed 27-09-17	Mon 02-10-17
Creating resource plan	3 days	Tue 03-10-17	Thu 05-10-17
Creating financials plan	3 days	Fri 06-10-17	Tue 10-10-17
Creating quality plan	4 days	Wed 11-10-17	Mon 16-10-17
Creating risk plan	3 days	Tue 17-10-17	Thu 19-10-17
Creating communication plan	4 days	Fri 20-10-17	Wed 25-10-17
Milestone: Completion of planning phase	0 days	Wed 25-10-17	Wed 25-10-17
Initiation phase	12 days	Thu 26-10-17	Fri 10-11-17
Developing tournament case	4 days	Thu 26-10-17	Tue 31-10-17
Undertaking feasibility study	3 days	Wed 01-11-17	Fri 03-11-17
Establishing project charter	2 days	Mon 06-11-17	Tue 07-11-17
Appointing team members	3 days	Wed 08-11-17	Fri 10-11-17
Milestone: Completion of initiation phase	0 days	Fri 10-11-17	Fri 10-11-17
Execution phase	28 days	Mon 13-11-17	Wed 20-12-17
Documenting the significance of qualified referees	4 days	Mon 13-11-17	Thu 16-11-17
Contacting local colleges	5 days	Fri 17-11-17	Thu 23-11-17
Buying rewards	6 days	Fri 24-11-17	Fri 01-12-17
Procedure of charging entry fee	5 days	Mon 04-12-17	Fri 08-12-17
Sale of tournament t-shirts	4 days	Mon 11-12-17	Thu 14-12-17
Development of silk-screen design for the tournament	4 days	Fri 15-12-17	Wed 20-12-17
Milestone: completion of execution phase	0 days	Wed 20-12-17	Wed 20-12-17
Closure phase	13 days	Thu 21-12-17	Mon 08-01-18
Reviewing project	11 days	Thu 21-12-17	Thu 04-01-18
Stakeholder's sign off	1 day	Fri 05-01-18	Fri 05-01-18
Documentation	1 day	Mon 08-01-18	Mon 08-01-18
Milestone: completion of closure phase	0 days	Mon 08-01-18	Mon 08-01-18

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