Project Management For Company Retreat – Project Priority Matrix

Objectives

Hongkong Poster is a software development company that provides solutions and web-based services to its customers. It has built itself a reputation in the field and has an employee strength of over 1000 people. The company handles both short and long-term projects. The company had completed a project that was being in development since the last 15 months and it was handled by a team of 25 people. The project allowed Hongkong Poster to generate good amount of revenues and in-turn the company decided to provide a company retreat to the members of the team. As a result, a trip to Malaysia was organized and the entire expenses was borne by the organization. This trip is treated as a project and as a result it will be managed using PMBOK principles which would help in managing of project’s budget, schedule, quality, risks and communications in an efficient manner. Many other techniques and methodologies provided in the PMBOK guide would be used in order to manage and govern the project so that it becomes a success  (An Overview of PMBOK – The nine elements of Project management, 2016).

The main objective of the given project is of a retreat that will be provided to employees of HongKong Poster within a defined budget of SGD 70,000. Following key goals of the project must be fulfilled.

• To complete the booking of 2-way air tickets for each of the team members based on the dates given by the majority.
• To complete the booking of hotel rooms on a twin-sharing basis of each room.
• To create a complete itinerary of the entire trip.

• Preparation of a complete list of all the team members who are going for the retreat.
• Approval of visas for all of the team members.
• A detailed preparation of itinerary for the retreat.
• Confirmation of the hotel rooms required.
• 2-way air tickets for each of the members.

• Venue selection dates would be – 1^stDecember, 2018
• Finalization of team members would be on – 4^thDecember, 2018
• Booking of Air Tickets would be by – 15^thDecember, 2018.
• Finalization of Visa would be by – 17^thDecember, 2018
• Preparation of the complete itinerary would be by – 19^thDecember, 2018.
• Arrangement in terms of the hotels would be – 24^thDecember, 2018.

The technical requirement for the project comprised of the below items:

• Every team member needs to have a passport that is valid.
• Every team member needs to be eligible for applying for Malaysian Visa.
• Every team member must be granted the Malaysian Visa.
• Every team member must be medically fit enough to travel for the required dates.  

• The company retreat would not be covering the expenditure of shopping that would be done by the team members (Baguley, 2013).
• The tickets provided to the employees would be of economy class and any upgrades whatsoever will not be covered under the company’s expenses/
• The team member will not be allowed to travel if that member is critical to any other on-going project of the organization.
• The hotels booked will be on twin-sharing basis and if a member prefers single-occupancy then the same shall not be covered by the company.
• The trip overall would be concluded within a span of 7 days including the dates required for traveling.

Hongkong Poster management review committee

The proposed project of company retreat to another country is directly monitored by 3 key factors: scope, cost and time. This is defined by a matrix, project priority matrix, shown below: 

	Time	Scope/Performance	Cost
Constrain	X
Enhance		X
Accept			X

Project Priority Matrix

 (Microsoft, 2016)

The mentioned factors above are accepted in one of the three forms i.e. either they are  constraint, enhance or accept.

• Constraint

It can be observed that all the three factors can act as constraint in the company retreat project because neither they can compromise with finalized dates nor they can extend the scope beyond the acceptable limit. Cost is always a concern for any project. But time will be the biggest constraint among three. This is so because every employee has certain role in the organization and they have certain responsibilities to perform. Hence, even a day extension in the trip can adversely impact the performance of other projects in which they are involved.

• Enhance

Among the three factors, only scope has a space for enhancement because time and budget are restricted and the project has to be completed within their limits. Both of them are fixed and no changes can be made in them under any situation. With respect to scope, facilities which are provide to the team members, can be enhanced anytime. Along with this, any other services can also be enhanced within the budget area (HEALEY, 2017).

• Accept

Deliverables

Though, cost is constraint and cannot be enhanced but in most of the projects, a 10% margin is saved for any unlikely risk or situation. Hence there will be a slight deviation in the budget. For instance: this deviation can be used for buying extra food items for the team. 

Following are key work packages of proposed project of company retreat:

• Recruitment of resources

The resources include both team members and non-human resources. In this package four sub-activities shall be executed i.e. the initial meeting shall be kick-started which includes framing scope and requirements of the project; venue shall be selected depending on the availability; a complete project plan shall be prepared and selecting 2-3 dates for conducting the retreat.

• Travel ticket booking (air-tickets)

In this package three sub-activities shall be executed i.e. travel date is finalized after consulting the team members are their respective project deliveries; data of all team members shall be gathered to group them as per their interests and ages and return tickets of all team members are booked using these details.

• Approve Visa

In this package five sub-activities shall be executed i.e. manager shall collect passport details of all team members along with documents required for filing application visa. The documents may include ID proof, address proof, educational certificate, salary slips. Next sub-activity is to get all team members to fill the visa application forms. After this, HR manager files these application for visa approval. Finally, the visa gets approved for all team members and they shall be courier by the visa office.

• Travel visit map

In this package six sub-activities shall be executed i.e. manager lists all the cities to be visited by the team and may form a part of travel plan. Map of every city is circulated among the team members. Team provide its feedbacks to the manager and depending on the feedbacks, final itinerary is decided. Once the changes are made, final travel plan is circulated among the team members (Heerkens, 2015).

• Book hotel

In this package four sub-activities shall be executed i.e. a list of hotels is prepared depending on the cities to be visited and dates for which retreat is planned. Then a final choice of the hotels is made and tickets are booked. The hotel rooms shall be booked depending for employees on twin sharing basis.

• Arrangement of Permits

In this package four sub-activities shall be executed i.e. there are some spots in cities which require permits for visit. In order to get permits, all the documents and data of team members are shared with the permit office. After cross checking them, permits are issued for the team and couriered by the permit office.

• Finalize and Share

In this package, final review of permits and travel plan is done. This will be shared by the managers with all team members. 

The cost of the proposed project has been estimated using the time-phased technique. It has two key benefits: first it provides cost of value statement of business and secondly it offers risk contingency plan.

Task Name	1st week	2nd week	3rd week
Company Retreat to a country
Recruit resources
Kick-start meeting	500
Selection of venue	250
Prepare project plan	450
Choose 2-3 dates for retreat	150
Booking of air tickets
Select travel date	150
Collect team detail	200
Book return ticket for team	30000
Approve VISA
Get passport details	3000
Get visa related documents	3000
Fill Visa documents for all team members	600
File application for visa	3000
Collect visa	150
Travel visit map
List the cities to visit		500
Itinerary design for each city		1500
Share created itinerary with team members		1000
Get feedback		1000
Accommodate changes in the plan		600
Finalize travel plan		600
Book Hotel
Prepare hotel list to visit		500
Search hotel data		700
Get availability dates of the hotels		600
Create hotel booking on sharing base		30000
Obtain Permits
Finalize travel spots  which need permit		500
Share visitors data with permit office		500
File application to get permit		4500
Get permits		1500
Finalize plan
Finalize all data and gathered information			450
Share final information			450
Cumulative cost	32050	66450	67150

References

An Overview of PMBOK – The Nine Elements of Project Management. (2016). Brighthub Project Management. Retrieved 4 August 2016, from https://www.brighthubpm.com/certification/19525-an-overview-of-pmbok-nine-elements-of-project-management/

Baguley, P. (2013). Project management (4th ed., pp. 12-14). London: Hodder Education.

HEALEY, P. (2017). PROJECT MANAGEMENT (3rd ed., pp. 14-17). USA: ROUTLEDGE.

Heerkens, G. (2015). Project management (pp. 20-21). [Place of publication not identified]: Mcgraw-Hill Education.

Microsoft (2016). Priority Matrix. Retrieved 4 August 2016, from https://www.is-toolkit.com/workshops/priority/ProjectPlanningPriorityMatrix.pdf

Structure, H. (2016). How to Create a Work Breakdown Structure – For Dummies. Dummies.com. Retrieved 4 August 2016, from https://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-create-a-work-breakdown-structure.html