American College of California Market Place of African Ethnic Art Paper Please, in depth, research the commercial market for Ethnic African Art on the web. Then please submit a 300 word paper describing your findings, good or bad through this assignment. Please include images and active links to the found resources. Make sure that your research is on ethnic/tribal art, not contemporary or westernized painting made about Africa. Look to see what is out there that may be real or may be a scam. Be descriptive of the objects and be aware that some of these places are out to make a quick buck. You don’t need to be an investigator, just 300 words about the experience of searching out the market for authentic tribal art. Think of it as research you are doing before you make the purchase. Make sure you make your first post by Friday evening and then don’t forget to give feed back to others in the class in order to get full credit for the discussion. Deliverable 1 – Kingston-Bryce Kick-off Project Plan
Competency
Identify the role projects play in meeting the goals of an organization.
Scenario
You have just been hired as a Project Manager for Kingston-Bryce
Limited and have been assigned your first project. Kingston-Bryce
Limited (KBL) is a custom furniture manufacturer that specializes in
hand-crafted dining room tables. The Board of Directors has identified
an opportunity to purchase a competitor that also specializes in custom
furniture. The acquisition of the competitor will enable KBL to expand
operations and triple their workforce and will take 18 months to
complete. In order for this acquisition to be successful, you will need to
use your project management skills to ensure success.
Instructions
Your first task is to create a project plan for the Board of Directors
in Microsoft Word or Excel. The project outline is essential for
documenting all of the necessary tasks and milestones necessary to
complete the project. The project is expected to take 18 months to
complete, and the major milestones are broken up by quarters. You will
need to be creative and develop the following items as if you were
running the project.
Include the following (you will need to create these items):
•
tasks and milestones;
•
a project description;
•
key stakeholders;
•
timeline for the project.
NOTE – Be sure the documents display proper grammar, spelling,
punctuation, and sentence structure.
Resources
•
For more information that may help you with this assignment, see
Rasmussen’s Project Plan FAQ
•
Business Writing
•
Grammar Checking – How do I create a Grammarly account?
examples
Extra credit nat chart
Milestone and nat graph
Grading Rubric
CLASS MATERIAL
•
Module 01 Introduction
Module 01 – Introduction
In this module, you will have the opportunity to master the following
competency:
•
Identify the role projects play in meeting the goals of an organization.
Further, the content in this module will help you achieve the following
learning objectives:
•
Describe the role of project management in an organization.
•
Appraise the role of projects in meeting organizational goals.
•
Analyze the project management framework.
The Role of Project Management in an Organization
The Role of Project
Management in an
Organization
When you think about project management, many things may come to
mind, and some examples could range from small to large-scale projects
with complex plans for an organization. However, project
management applies to any project, large or small, long or short in
duration, and has definitive beginning and end dates.
Project management can be seen as the key to assisting organizations to
prioritize and organize strategic initiatives. In many cases, project
management turns a conversation or an idea developed in a meeting into a
realistic project. As you can imagine, project management is everywhere
you look, from personal to professional situations, and can be quite useful.
From a budgetary perspective, organizations are adopting project
management philosophies because it can assist with the reduction of
risks, cut costs, and improve success rates for projects.
Here are some of the most common areas that project management
addresses:
•
Helps to clarify the parameters of the plan for a project before it is
executed. This is a key component because the project manager will help
to define the scope and focus of a project before it begins.
•
Allows the project manager to establish a timeline for the project schedule
and plan. The project plan and timeline is critical to delivering a project
within budget and on time. With the proper tools and a good project
manager, this can happen.
•
Enables an organization to use different perspectives to create crossfunctional teamwork. This allows subject matter experts from different
areas of the company to work collaboratively on a project to foster
creativity.
•
Allows for the optimal use of resources that are dedicated to a project with
the creation of project teams. Organizations can benefit from using crossfunctional teams by taking on additional costs while gathering synergies
from collaboration.
•
Helps to control the budget for projects by itemizing and estimating costs
before a project begins. Budget control begins when the project manager is
mapping out the requirements for the project with the project sponsor and
identifying each task required for the completion of the project.
•
Ensures the quality of a project is managed through the duration of the
project by using the project manager.
Given the useful nature of project management, many organizations are
changing their perspective on project management. Many organizations had
a perception of project management as something that was cumbersome and
required too many additional resources. However, industry experts have
changed the reputation of project management into something that is
now routine or part of a normal operating schedule for a process.
As an example, project management could be used for a home renovation
that you might be doing. The general contractor that you hire might not be
a project manager per say, but they are managing different aspects of the
renovation. The contractor manages the scheduling of subcontractors,
vendors, and ensuring that the renovation is going to be completed on time
and on budget. You may not think of a renovation as using project
management, but it does. Project management is not just for an
organization; it can be used in many different capacities.
The major benefit of project management is the customizability of the
process. This customization can work for any organization because each
project is unique and will require dedicated resources for a limited amount
of time to accomplish the project goal. The flexibility of the process allows
for full scalability for any size project or organization.
For example, imagine that you are a project manager for a mid-size
organization and have been tasked to renovate the break room in your
office. The leadership team hopes to use your findings and project
structure from this project as a template for renovating multiple locations
that the organization owns. This renovation is an example of how
scalability can be used in project management. Scalability is something
that allows an organization control and structure when it decides to do a
project. From a larger perspective, think of project management as the
backbone of process and procedures for any project. To summarize,
project management allows for the synthesis of expertise, knowledge,
skills, techniques, and other tools to streamline the process of managing
projects.
Knowledge Check
The Framework of Project Management
The Framework of Project
Management
Project management operates within a certain framework. It does not
matter what size the project is, the project management process will
remain the same. There are common attributes that project management
uses:
From a structural perspective, there are five distinct stages of project
management.
The first phase of project management is initiating. The project manager
assembles a group of key stakeholders for a project, which is referred to as
the project team. The project team, once assembled, is briefed on the
project scope and all of the key deliverables and milestones.
The second phase of project management is planning. This phase is where
all of the timelines, tasks, deliverables, and activities are mapped out for
the entire project. In addition to mapping out the process, the project
manager will also divide the project team into small work teams to carry
out the task of the project.
The third phase of project management is executing. In the execution
phase, the project manager officially kicks off the work to begin the project.
The work teams have been assembled and now have a clear direction on
the tasks that need to be completed. This execution stage is when the
actual work begins on all of the deliverables to support a project.
During the process of assigning tasks, the project manager uses the work
breakdown structure (WBS) to identify the major deliverables for a project
and then divides those into smaller work categories for distribution to the
project team. Before assigning work to the team, the project manager must
break down each of the larger tasks into single person assignments to
create the detailed task level project schedule.
By breaking down the tasks into workgroups, the project manager has the
ability to track the costs of each task and simplify budget reporting. Each
task will “roll-up” to a major project deliverable for budget purposes.
Here are guidelines that the project manager should follow when creating a
work breakdown structure:
•
The top of the level of the WBS represents the final deliverable or goal of
the project.
•
Each sub-deliverable must contain a group of tasks that are assigned to a
specific workgroup.
•
Each group of tasks will define the cost, duration, and the tasks required to
produce the sub-deliverable for the project.
•
As a rule, each group of tasks should not exceed a duration of 10 days.
•
Each group of tasks is unique; therefore, groups of tasks will not be
duplicated across the work breakdown structure for the project.
The fourth phase of project management is monitoring and controlling.
This phase is where the project manager is monitoring processes and
tasks to ensure accuracy and quality. In addition to the monitoring, the
project manager may provide status updates and reports to show the
progress of the project.
The fifth and last phase of project management is closing. During the
project closeout, the project manager wraps up reporting, finalizes
outstanding invoices, provides final status reports and “delivers” the
project to the client and considers the project complete.
In summary, the phases of project management are universal and can be
used in any organization.
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