Interpret the following Project Status Reports from company ‘Ultra Safe’ and provide guidance to project sponsors on:

a. how to proceed with each project, and

b. justify which of the projects should be given the highest priority for use of shared resources as you can only afford to spend an additional $100,000 on one of the projects. You must choose only one project to support. You may not split the $100,000 between the projects.

Project 1: Project Status Report May 2nd

Project Summary

Project 1 will produce a prototype model of a safety cage for prisoner transport that can be easily fitted to many models of vehicle, proposed product name is ‘Safe Ways’. This potential product was requested by the marketing department to meet a market need in private contractor prisoner transportation for the North American market. The marketing department believe the potential of this product for the company is in the region of $50 million profit annually if it can be produced at a cost of $1,000 and sold for $1,500 (a price point marketing believe represents the ‘sweet spot’ for the market segment they have identified).

Project Deliverables and milestones

Project Specifications (Marketing Department product requirements) January 10

High Level Design (Engineering) February 15

1st Pass Model (Project Team) March 15

Field Test 1 April 1

2nd Pass Model (Project Team) April 15

Field Test 2 May 1

3rd Pass Model (Project Team) May 15

Field Test 3 June 1

Project Review and Closure June 15

Major Issues and their impact

Issue 1: Marketing were two weeks late with the project specifications, which the engineering department argued were too vague. After three weeks of back and forth between engineering and marketing a workable specification was agreed.

SPI: 0.9

CPI: 1.1

ETC: $750,000

Change Requests

Accepted: None to date

Open: Request to increase the project budget by $95,000 to compensate for the time lost to marketing and engineering issues.

Risks

Risk One: Engineering are concerned that the large variation in sizes across vehicles models used may negatively impact the possibility of developing an appropriate product. We have started the process of exploring the most used vehicle models for prisoner transportation to reduce the possibility of the product failing (this work will cost $5,000). Marketing have said if we do this we may reduce the potential market for the product by 10%.

Project 2: Project Status Report May 2nd

Project Summary

Project 2 will produce an update model of our best-selling ‘Safe_n_Sound’ in house ‘safe room’ product. This update model was requested by the marketing department to meet a market need for enhanced security and increased comfort and to allow us to hold and grow our market share as competitors launch their latest high comfortable ’safe room’ models.

The marketing department believe the potential for the updated model of this product for the company is in the region of $40 million profit annually if it can be produced at a cost of $30,000 and sold for $45,000 (a price point marketing has said our competitors cannot compete against). Should we delay and not update the model they believe we are likely to lose $10 profit annually until our product is no longer a viable product for the market place within four years.

The budgeted cost for the project is $1,000,000

Project Deliverables and milestones

Project Specifications (Marketing Department product requirements) March 10

High Level Design (Engineering) April 1

1st Pass Model (Project Team) April 15

Field Test 1 May 1

2nd Pass Model (Project Team) May 15

Field Test 2 June 1

Project Review and Closure June 15

Major Issues and their impact

None to date

SPI: 1.01

CPI: 0.9

ETC: $720,000

Change Requests

Accepted: None to date

Open: Request to reduce the project deadline by two weeks to allow for launch at a new trade show in Los Angeles, allowing for a bump in advance sales and taking market share from our competitors. This change request will cost us an additional $100,000 in project costs.

Risks

Risk One: Reduce the project deadline by two weeks to allow for launch at a new trade show in Los Angeles, allowing for a bump in advance sales and taking market share from our competitors in the region of $1,000,000.

Response: Hire additional personnel for development and trade show launch at a cost of an additional $100,000 to the project – needs management approval.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Project one can turn out a example model of a security cage for unfortunate transport which will be ... View the full answer