Project Scenario

Introduction

This course allows you to apply the project management knowledge and skills learned in the previous eight Project Management Professional Certificate (PC) courses. You can take a preparation test for the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) at the end. We recommend that you complete all previous studies before beginning this.

You will receive a real-world scenario and able to complete numerous hands-on activities. We will also provide templates and guidance to help you create a portfolio of artifacts to demonstrate your expertise and readiness for higher levels of responsibility in project management.

You will be assessed on the following skills:

• Analyze a completed business case to drive the creation of a project charter
• Create a project charter and stakeholder register
• Develop a work breakdown structure (WBS), network diagram, and high-level budget to support a predictive project
• Develop user stories, complete a product backlog, and develop a sprint backlog to support an adaptive or Scrum project segment
• Complete support planning for the predictive project segment, including a quality management plan, a communications management plan, and a risk register
• Analyze a burndown chart and Kanban board to determine the status of the adaptive Scrum segment of the project and propose corrective actions
• Analyze a change request to determine the most appropriate recommendation and develop a status report for the ongoing project
• Prepare a final project closeout report

The Scenario:

Acme Health Innovations (AHI) primarily provides advanced skin care products. Their product line includes advanced technology solutions, such as beautification wands, massagers, facial treatment devices, infusers, spot treatment lights, wrinkle removers, and a variety of other different facial treatment devices. These products are of high quality. However, they must keep pace in a growing and competitive market.

Key Corporate Contacts:

• CEO: Mary Lin
  • Key project advocate and supporter
• Sponsor (Marketing): Mary Smithers
  • Project approval and funding
• Project Manager (Marketing): Cary Manning
• IT: Priya Service
  • IT lead
• Marketing Director: Ram Samuels
  • Operational lead, advisor, Subject matter Expert (SME)
• Finance Director: Oscar Money
  • Manage and control funds disbursements.
• Project Core Team (Marketing): Keiko Tanaka and Jose Garcia
• Product Owner (PMO): Cal Hamer
  • Product backlog management, Voice of the Customer (VOC)

The leadership team at AHI recently launched a strategic initiative to improve its understanding and analysis of its target market on a real-time basis. AHI has a robust marketing department. However, marketing analytics depends on numerous disconnected systems to provide the information needed to adapt to a changing competitive and technological environment.

The corporate team reviewed and approved a business case for developing an app for internal and external customers. This app will solicit, collect, and analyze information and data in critical areas and provide real-time analytics and information. The initial app will perform the following functions:

• Identify, understand, and address current and developing segments and target markets (External)
• Facilitate easier customer access to AHI products and pricing (External)
• Enable secure invoicing and order processing (External)
• Track current market trends in the skin care industry in real-time (Internal)
• Monitor customer interest and preferences for AHI products based on opinion analysis (Internal)
• Generate competitive analysis data by analyzing global sales data (Internal)
• Calculate AHI market share and trends by product category (Internal)
• Identify competitor products with the largest market share (Internal)

Benefits

AHI believes the design and implementation of this app will provide the following initial benefits:

• Enable faster introduction of new and updated products to the target market
• Improve the overall AHI customer experience
• Enable better positioning to be worked out through analysis of individual product sales
• Enable better business decisions
• Accelerate the testing of new product concepts
• Gain insights into current shoppers and demographics
• Enable improved brand tracking

Marketing Process

AHI uses a five-step marketing process. The leadership of AHI believes that this process can be improved as follows:

Step 1: Analyze opportunities:

• Get a better understanding of the customer needs.
• Get an improved analysis of competitive products.
• Analyze the market trend and estimate the long-term product feasibility.

Step 2: Select target market:

• Get accurate and real-time buyer demographics.
• Analyze potential market size and economic value

Step 3: Segment the market:

• Determine the demographic characteristics of buyers.
• Distinguish among different market segments.
• Target the segments and position products more effectively

Step 4: Determine market strategies:

• Make more 4-P decisions roduct, price, place, and promotion.

Step 5: Evaluate results and realign:

• Evaluate the sales data.
• Evaluate the financial data.
• Evaluate the market share data

The functions and stakeholders with their expectations from the app:

Stakeholder	Needs
C-Suite	Identify and understand current and evolving segments and target markets and engage with them
Marketing research	Identify competing products with the largest market share
Marketing strategy	Track current market trends in the skin care industry on a real-time basis Monitor customer interest and preferences for AHI products based on opinion analysis Generate competitive analysis data by analyzing global sales data Calculate AHI market share and trends by product category
Finance	Enable secure invoicing and order processing
IT	Financing of hardware and software Financing of app security Financing of additional storage capability Two new hires (technicians)
Customer (focus group)	Facilitate customer access to AHI products and pricing (external) Enable secure invoicing and order processing

Initial cost estimates:

Cost	Estimate
App development	$180,000
IT software and hardware	$15,000
IT storage	$15,000
Data feeds	$5,000
App security upgrades	$20,000
IT personnel (HR)	$15,000

Lab 4: User Stories, Product Backlog, and Sprint Backlog

Estimated duration: 1 hour 23 minutes

Scenario: Develop an Application (App) to Provide Real-Time Marketing Data

It is now time to begin the Sprint Planning for the project. The original project scenario defined functionality required by various stakeholders from the new App. Here is a quick review of the functionality requirements and a more detailed list of the needs of each role. This list will serve as a basis to develop user stories. The team also briefly reviewed the complexity level of each stakeholder's need. This will assist you in assigning story points to each user story.

Stakeholder	Needs	Initial Complexity Analysis
AHI Leadership	Identify and understand current and evolving segments Target and engage with emerging markets Access data feeds from all pertinent data sources Provide on-demand reports	Low to Moderate
Marketing	Track current market trends in the skincare industry on a real-time basis Monitor customer interest and preferences for AHI products based on views analysis Generate competitive analysis data through analysis of worldwide sales data Calculate AHI market share and trends by product categories Track sales and sales trends Provide on-demand reports	High
Finance	Allow for secure order invoicing and processing Provide real-time inventory and product availability reports Provide on-demand financial sales and forecasting metrics	Moderate
IT	Ensure App interfaces with new hardware and software Ensure App and new IT security upgrades are compatible Ensure IT storage meets App operational needs	Moderate
AHI Customers	Easy access to all AHI product offerings Secure invoicing Reliable order processing Confirmation of all transactions	Low to Moderate

Objectives

• Develop a User Story to support each stakeholder's need.
• Goal is five User Stories.
• Develop a product backlog for the five user stories created.
• Develop a Sprint Backlog to support your top two prioritized user stories. This sprint backlog supports sprint 1.
• All user stories will be shared for reference in the solution.

Exercise 1: Create User Stories

1. In the User Story Template, give each user story a title. Complete part I of each user story by role, need, and value. Your definitions may differ slightly from the solution.
2. Quantify acceptance criteria in Part II.

Note: At any point during the lab, you can refer to the example if you have any doubts.

User Stories Template

User Stories Example

User Story Title: Customer App Requirements I \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|} \hline \# & User Story Part I & \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{\begin{tabular}{l} User Story Part II \\ Acceptance Criteria \end{tabular}} \\ \hline Role & As a Colfee Shop customer & 1. Easy to access menu & 4. Order confirmation \\ \hline Need & I need easy access to order & 2. Pricing for all options & \\ \hline Value & To save time and reduce waiting & 3. Secure monetary transaction & \\ \hline \multicolumn{4}{|c|}{ User Story Title: Employee App Requirements I } \\ \hline# & User Story Part I & \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{\begin{tabular}{l} User Story Part II \\ Acceptance Criteria \end{tabular}} \\ \hline Role & As a store employee & 1. Order information clearly displayed & 4. Special instructions \\ \hline Need & I need real-time access to orders & 2. Customer's name & 5. Label generation \\ \hline Value & So 1 can prepare in a timely manner & 3. Desired pick-up time & \\ \hline \end{tabular} 13 User Story Title