Prioritization And Management Of A Food Test Laboratory Project

Importance of Establishing Project Priorities

1a) Project Priorities and the Project Priority Matrix 

Establishment of the project priorities is important for a project team to consider. Prioritization of the project works, helps in better management of the risks and issues in a project. The project aims in setting up of a Food Test Laboratory and therefore the priorities of the project are needed to be set. The criteria associated with project priorities includes constrained criteria, enhanced criteria and accepted criteria of the project.  The project priorities of the Food Test Laboratory project is indicated in the table below.

	Time	Scope Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	Cost
Constraint	X
Enhance		X
Accept			X

Table 1: Indicating the Priorities of the Food Test Laboratory Project

Data from the above table indicates that time is a constrained criteria of the project. Time is considered to be a constrained criteria particularly because the launch of the Food Test laboratory is needed to be launched on 1 July 2019. The project aims in coinciding with the Asia Food Safety Convection’s Opening Day. The scope of the project can be enhanced while any changes in the cost of the project is needed to be accepted. Setting the priorities of the project will help in better management of the Food Test laboratory Project.

The Food Test Laboratory (FTL) is a high priority project and therefore it is necessary to choose the members for the project team, who have experiences, knowledge and the technical skills that are needed to manage a project. The three personal attributes of the team members that is identified to be vital for the Food Test Laboratory Project are discussed in the paragraphs below.

Problem Solving:  The project team members should have an ability to solve the problems and disputes within the project team. Therefore, a team member having a strong ability of problem solving can be considered as one of the most invaluable assets for the project.

Availability: It is needed for the project team members to remain available when required. Therefore, availability can be considered as one of the important attributes of a team member. The FTL project team should look for human resources in a project who would be available when required.

Political Connections:  Members having close political connection and personal relationship with the stakeholders can act as an invaluable asset of the project.

From the above discussed points, it can be deduced that problem solving ability, availability and political connections are three key attributes of a project team member.

Personal Attributes of Team Members Required for the Project

A project schedule has been prepared as per the identified priorities and project constraints. The figure below indicates a detailed Gantt chart view of the schedule that has been prepared. The figure indicates the name of the task, duration of the task, task predecessors and the resources in the Gantt chart.

The work activities that are indicated in red in the above figure represents the critical path of the project.

From the developed Schedule, the project completion date is identified. From the figure above, it is observed that the finish date of the project is Monday 01-07-19. This is the launch date of the Food Test Laboratory that will be developed as a part of this project. In this context, it can be said that certain resource conflict is observed in the project schedule which is needed to e addressed.

Along with the presented information of the project schedule, the resource needs and their cost are identified as well. With the help of MS project, a state of total project cost is developed which is indicated in the figure below.

The figure indicates the total cost of the project by calculating the resource needs and the resource allocated for each task of the project. From the figure above, the effort and the cost required to conduct this project can be easily calculated or estimated.

As indicated earlier, the schedule that has been prepared in the MS project gives rise to certain resource conflicts. The resource conflicts in the FTL project are indicated in the figure below.

The figure above indicates that the project manager and Mary is over allocated with task giving rise to resource conflict. This resource conflict is needed to be addressed in order to ensure an effective management of the FTL project.

The problem of resource conflict is aimed to be solved with the Auto resource levelling feature in the MS project. The figure indicates the use of automatic resource levelling feature of MS project.

The figure above indicates that the problems of resource conflict is aimed to be solved with the auto resource levelling feature in MS project. However, it is seen that certain conflicts cannot be resolved with the Auto Resource Levelling feature. The picture below indicates the schedule of the project after auto resource levelling.

The resource conflict could not be solved mainly because the project manager has been allocated with majority of the important tasks in the project. Since the resource conflict cannot be resolved with the auto resource levelling feature, certain alternatives to solve the resource allocation problem is needed to be identified. Two approaches that can solve this resource conflict problem are as follows-

1. It is within the FTL project scope to appoint an Ad-hoc Admin who can assist the project manager when required.
2. The activities in the project cannot be fast paced and therefore, more resources can be added to project to reduce the working time. Temp Engineers can be hired to assist Mary in her work.

Gantt Chart View of the Schedule

From  the above two options, it can be concluded that for the FTL project, the option of appointing ad-hoc admin to assist the project  manager in the FTL project is considered to be a more feasible option.

From the cost perspective as well, the first option seems to be more feasible. The cost of the ad-hoc admin is $600, while that of the temp engineer is $700. Therefore, appointment of ad-hoc admin as a solution of solving the problem of resource conflict is justified in this case.

After solving the resource conflict problem, the status date and the baseline of the project is changed. The figures below indicate the change in status data and the baseline of the project.

A change in the schedule of the project is observed due to incorporation of Fipronil Testing. The Activity 4, that is designing of the Food Test Programs have increased from 13 days to 17 days resulting in change in the cost and schedule. There is a scheduling conflict as well, which in indicated in the picture below.

The important achievements associated with the Food Test launch Project is indicated in the points below-

1.  The most significant accomplishment of the project is that the project is able to fulfil its aim. The aim of the project was to launch a Food Test Laboratory on 1^stJuly 2019. The scheduling is done on basis of that, which is an important accomplishment.
2.  On request of AVA, the FTL project team incorporated Fipronil testing in their FTL project. The incorporation of testing of Fipronil in the FTL project is another important accomplishment of the FTL project team.
3. Although there was a conflict of resources in the project, the project could incorporate Fipronil Testing with the help of Peter. Therefore, ensuring resource availability is another important accomplishment associated with the FTL project.
4. The Fipronil Testing is incorporated in the project on request of AVA. Since the FTL team was able to incorporate Fipronil testing in the project, it can be expected that the requested funding for the FTL project from AVA will be allowed. This is another important accomplishment of the FTL project.

The figure below indicates the Gantt chart view of the project indicating the task mode, task name, duration, predecessor, start date and finish date.

The figure above indicates the Gantt chart view of the MS project schedule indicating the Task Mode, Task Name, duration, predecessor, start dare and finish date of the project. From the figure above the date of completion of the project is found to be Tuesday 02-07-19.

The cost performance index of the project is needed to be computed. The CPI can be computed in the MS project as well. The cost performance index of a project can be calculated with the formula is Earned value/ Actual Cost. The cost performance index of this project is -> $182,860/ $189,440 = 0.9652 ~ 0.97.

The figure above indicates the CPI of the project. The CPI generated from the MS project indicates that the CPI of the project is 0.97, which matches the CPI calculated manually.

Incidents	Actions
Resource Conflict in project scheduling	The problem of resource conflict could have been avoided if appropriate resource availability was ensured prior to the beginning of the project.
Egg Contamination and Test of Fipronil Insecticide	It is a part of change management and therefore a planned changed management approach could have eliminated the problem.
Appreciation and change in project cost	Effective budget estimation could have eliminated the problem of budget overshoot in the project.

The table above indicates the controlling approach of the incidents that have occurred in the project.

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