PRJM6002
Project Planning, Estimating and Schedule Management
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Table of Contents
Work Break Down Structure (WBS) 4
Project Assumptions and Constraints 6
Hard (Mandatory) Dependencies 8
Soft (Discretionary) Dependencies 8
Embedded Project Plan Artefacts 10
Table of Figures
Figure 1 Work Break-Down Structure 4
Figure 4 Project baseline and cost 6
Executive summary
This document outlines the steps required to build an EV charging station that will be used to manage this project together with Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), project tasks schedule analysis, assumptions, constraints, and task dependencies. It also focuses on the role of organizing the work to meet the goals set for the project on time. Assumption includes the availability of equipment and funding sources. while limitations include short time and resource limitations. The hard, soft, and external tasks manage the order of project activities. Using these elements together becomes compulsory to make sure of the timely completion of the project and its implementation to meet stakeholders’ expectations which will help in the expansion of the EVs.
Introduction
This report focuses on regards to the project management of an EV charging station development providing the detailed WBS, project schedule, assumptions, constraints and interactions of tasks. All these project management tools are helpful in order to achieve the successful implementation of the project on time and within the given resources.
Work Break Down Structure (WBS)
This is used for providing a hierarchical view of the activities going to be performed in the project. In this project, this approach enables proper allocation, supervision, and regulation of tasks throughout the project lifespan.
Figure 1 Work Break-Down Structure
Project Schedule
The schedule of the project contains information about the timeline for the particular project with the start and end date of each activity. As well, it uses the Gantt Chart to present task durations, milestones and critical activities for that project. That is why, the schedule is more attractive since it enables identifying the sequence of the activities while also managing the time efficiently. In the project schedule, one can determine some project critical activities like approval of the project charter, coming up with the feasibility assessment, and the last board presentation.
A network diagram enhances the schedule by showing which tasks are best executed concurrently, and which depend on each other. Critical Path include site selection, feasibility of approval, and construction because they are directly relevant to the total project schedule.
Figure 4 Project baseline and cost
Figure 5 project cost overview
Project Assumptions and Constraints
Project Assumptions
Project assumptions are hypothetical factors supposed to exist in order to guide the planning phase of the project (Kane and Victor E. 2020, p.9). They are mostly beyond the purview of the project team but are vital for the effective running of the project. For this EV charging station project, the following assumptions are made:
Availability of Charging Equipment: It is presumed that all the EV charging equipment that will be required shall be easily accessible for purchase.
Permits and Approvals: It has been assumed that all the requisite permissions will be provided by the local authorities without much time lag.
Stable Funding: The funding for the project is assumed to have been available and constant up to the end of the project implementation period.
Market Demand for EV Charging: The amount of demand is assumed to be high within the target location so that the charging station is built.
These assumptions must then be closely watched because changes in any of them will affect the scope, time and cost of the project.
Figure 7 Project cost analysis
Project Constraints
Constraints are factors that set the boundaries within which a project is to be carried out these constraints include time, cost and resources. The EV charging station project faces the following constraints:
Time Constraint: This means that the project is working to a very tight schedule that spans only 111 days. Disruptions of important activities, like feasibility approval or construction, will affect the network’s critical path.
Budget Constraint: The project is funded and therefore comes with the advantage of having a known cash allocation to undertake the project and thus there is not much room for variation when it comes to such factors as material, labour or indeed provision for incidences that may come along with an additional cost.
Environmental Regulations: The project is required to meet the legal requirements of the selected country in relation to the environment and these may limit location choice or raise costs as a result of impact assessments.
Resource Availability: This is a scarce factor of production as skilled labour and construction materials are very hard to come by. Thus, any constraint during these phases, including construction, is most likely to lead to a delay (Hartmann, Sönke, and Dirk Briskorn 2022, p.4).
The time constraint is seen as having the most potent influence on the project. This means that any intervening activity in a project such as permit acquisition or final design can likely delay subsequent phases and prolong the project schedule.
Task Dependencies
The task dependencies describe the connections between project activities and illustrate the order of how activities need to occur (Pashchenko et al. 2020, p.5). There are three categories of dependencies in project management, namely, Hard (Mandatory), Soft (discretionary), and External dependencies.
Hard (Mandatory) Dependencies
These are the activities that are executed in the sequence for providing the sequence in which the work will get done and the result will be obtained. An activity like site assessment in WBS 2.1 will be executed before the finishing of the feasibility report that is activity WBS 2.2. The result of the assessment will be used for developing the report further (Oburu and Allan Ouma 2020, p.7) .
Soft (Discretionary) Dependencies
Soft dependencies are acknowledged to be less important or recommended rather than invulnerable. An example is the decision to finalize the business case (WBS Code: 3.2) before making preparations for the board presentation section (WBS Code: 4.1). Although these tasks might be conducted simultaneously, it is more optimal to have the business case ready before preparing the presentation (Alapartanen and Maria 2021, p.15).
External Dependencies
They are external to the team involved in project delivery such as approvals from third parties. In this project, an example of an external dependency is the acquisition of local permits (WBS Code: 2.1.3) which core is dependent on government authorities. Delays in the procurement of permits shall affect the commencement of construction exercises.
Conclusion
Plans that underlie the development of the EV charging station are numerous and rather complex thus, one has to manage the possible assumptions and constraints as well as define task interdependence. Some of the tools, such as the WBS, Gantt Chart, and network diagrams, help readers to plan timelines allocate resources and reduce risks. Such projects will be more important to the EV infrastructure as the acceptance of EVs increases among the people. Project management means that projects must be finished or completed in the given schedule at the according to the expectations of stakeholders involved.
Appendix A
Embedded Project Plan Artefacts
WBS
Gantt chart
Appendix B
References
Alapartanen, Maria. "Dependency management in a complex IT initiative." (2021). https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/506624
Hartmann, Sönke, and Dirk Briskorn. "An updated survey of variants and extensions of the resource-constrained project scheduling problem." European Journal of operational research 297, no. 1 (2022): 1-14. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221721003982
Kane, Victor E. "Using lean six sigma implied assumptions." The TQM Journal 32, no. 6 (2020): 1561-1575.https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/TQM-11-2019-0271/full/html
Oburu, Allan Ouma. "Effective project time management." International Academic Journal of Information Sciences and Project Management 3, no. 6 (2020): 47-55. http://www.iajournals.org/articles/iajispm_v3_i6_47_55.pdf
Pashchenko, Ivan, Duc-Ly Vu, and Fabio Massacci. "A qualitative study of dependency management and its security implications." In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM SIGSAC conference on computer and communications security, pp. 1513-1531. 2020.https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3372297.3417232
