Project Management For 3-Day Sydney Holiday With Friends - An Essay.

You and your friends will travel to Sydney for a holiday for 3 days (72 hours). Each person has a budget of AUD 1500. This trip should be organized in terms of project management. If you are a project manager, you need form a team of five people. The team members can be represented by A, B, C, and D respectively. Please prepare a project document outlining the following:

(1) Define the objectives of this project 

(2) Define scope of this project

(3) Create the work breakdown structure (WBS)

(4) Sequence and estimate the duration of the project activities (use project network diagram or Gantt chart) (20 marks) (5) Estimate the cost for the project activities (detailed to each activity, use table or Gantt chart).
 

Project Objectives

The report aims in development of a schedule and cost plan for five friends who are travelling to Sydney for a holiday for 3 days. For this project, a schedule for 72 hours has been prepared. Certain assumptions are made while developing the schedule for the project. The report identifies the scope and objectives of the project and delivers a work breakdown structure. The sequence of activities are presented in the report in form of a work breakdown structure. A schedule Gantt chart has been prepared for the project as well. The cost of each and every activities of the tour is calculated and the details are indicated in form of a cost table.

The objectives “Travelling to Sydney” project are as follows-

• To develop a schedule for the Project
• To estimate the time required for completion of each activity
• To estimate the cost of the entire project

The in-scope requirements of “Travelling to Sydney” project are as follows-

• To ascertain that the project is completed in 72 hours
• To ascertain that the project is executed in the allocated budget. Each friend has a budget of AUD 1500, which indicates that the total budget of the project is AUD 7500
• The schedule estimate includes the travelling and the resting time

The out-scope requirements of the project are as follows-

• The estimation has no scope for adding other activities apart from those mentioned in the schedule
• There is no scope of extending the holiday as the budget of the project is fixed

The schedule estimation is done considering both in-scope and out-scope requirements of the project. Certain assumptions are considered for developing the schedule of the project, which are discussed in the later section of this report.

The WBS of the project, generated from project scheduling is represented in the picture below-

Figure 1: Showing the Work Breakdown Structure of Travelling to Sydney Project

The work breakdown structure in the figure above represents the works to be completed in a time span of three days.

The time for completion of the activities related to “Travelling to Sydney Project”  and their sequence is indicated in the table below-

Table 1: Representing sequence of task and their duration

The predecessor in the table above indicates the sequence of the task, while the duration column indicates the total time required for completion of each project activity. In development of the task sequence, the holiday destinations that the friends have planned to visit is considered. The destinations include the major tourists’ attraction in Sydney. The time allocated for each activity is based on the total time the group of friends will be spending on Sydney. However, if there is a change in the tourists spots the friends are travelling to, the sequencing process can change as well. It is expected that the group of friends will be following this sequencing activity in order to ensure that their holiday to Sydney gets over within 3 days or 72 hours.

The scheduling of the project is indicated in the figure below-

Figure 2: Showing Gantt chart of Travelling to Sydney Project

The picture above indicates the project Gantt chart. The Gantt chart is generated with the help of a scheduling software MS Project. The Gantt chart represents the tasks or the activities that are involved with the holiday planning of the group of friends. From the Gantt chart in the above figure, it can be observed that every tasks are following a sequential structure. Therefore, each task associated with the Sydney project contributes to the critical tasks of the project. The schedule of the travelling to Sydney project is calculated in a way that the entire project is executed within the time of 72 hours. The Gantt chart of the project represents the start date and the end date of each activity associated with the holiday project. The time allocated for this project is in hours as it is assumed that the group of friends will be visiting the more than one tourist spot in a day.

The cost of each activity estimated for the project is represented in the table below-

Table 2: Representing the Cost Estimation of the Project

The figure that is indicated below is representing the project cost in Gantt chart view -

Figure 3: Representing the Project Cost in Gantt chart View

The table and the figure above indicates that the total cost of the project is $7,450. Thus, it is possible to complete the project within the set budget of $7,500. The budget of the project is set on basis of the money available with the group of friends. While estimating the cost, a standard rate for breakfast, lunch and dinner is considered.

The schedule and cost estimation of “Travelling to Sydney Project” involves certain major assumptions which are as follows-

1. The cost of travelling, lunch, dinner and other activities are considered for 5 people
2. It is assumed that the holiday will not be extended beyond 72 hours
3. It is assumed that hotel and travelling cost will not change during project implementation.
4. The entire scheduling activity is done with the help of the scheduling software MS project. While scheduling the activities, a 24 hours format is chosen for the scheduling activity. The scheduling involves the resting time of the group of friends as well.

Conclusion

The report discusses the schedule and the resource needs of holiday in Sydney for 72 hours. A group of five friends are going on a holiday and therefore, cost of every task is estimated on basis of five people. The report gives an idea of the objectives and scope of the project. The details of schedule estimation is discussed in the report along with the details of cost. It is observed that the travelling to Sydney project is completed in a budget of $7,500. However, certain assumptions are considered for developing the schedule and the budget, which are discussed in the report as well. The group of friends are expected to follow the schedule prepared in order to spend their holiday within the set budget. 

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