The Buying Training Centre Equipment

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

A time scale specifies divisions of time. A useful time scale is generated

by any process which enables dates to be assigned to events.

Milestone

 A milestone is an event that receives special attention. It is often falsely put at the end of a stage to mark the completion of a work package or phase. 

In addition to signalling the completion of a key deliverable, a milestone may also signify an important decision or the derivation of a critical piece of information, which outlines or affects the future of a project. In this sense, a milestone not only signifies distance travelled (key stages in a project) but also indicates direction of travel since key decisions made at milestones may alter the route through the project plan.

"A milestone is a task of zero duration that shows an important achievement of a project. Milestones are a way of knowing how he project is advancing if you are not familiar with the tasks being executed. They have zero duration because they symbolize an achievement, a point of time in the project" www.community.claizen.com 15 dec 2010

Internal Milestones

Internal milestones of a project are very important and must be described clearly by the project management. Project manger should keep a close eye on the internal milestones to make sure every milestone has been achieved. The developer will be interested in major events and it is used by the project manager to monitor the progress of the system under development.

External Milestones

Some milestones relate to the outer world of a project and for which the project manager have o depend on external entities. E.g. external milestones can be requested by a customer for completion of a particular deliverable at a certain time.

Informal Milestones

Individuals in the project development team use informal milestones to observe their progress against the whole development project.

The timescales and milestones of my system are explained as follows

Buying /Acquiring a building for sales/training centre

First milestone of this project is to buy a building for my IT sales/training centre. It took us about two weeks to search for affordable premises

Buying Training Centre Equipment

My centre will not only be involved with computer sales but also raining for the staff that we have. This is an internal milestone and took about 12 days to buy and install these equipments.

Hire equipment

Options for hire of some equipment are necessary. Some equipment might be expensive to buy but easier to hire. In other cases it would be ideal to hire some equipment that would not be enquired for the long-term. 8 days were assigned to this milestone

Hire Buildings

For extra space instead of buying the building It is ideal to find allocations for hire. This could also be used for storage. 10 days were used for this milestone

Registration with government bodies

The organisation needs to register with government bodies to improve quality both for the training and sales sector. 7days were used in this milestone

Staff Hire

Hiring of staff was grouped in two stages. Those that were fully qualified and those that required training in the sales sector. 14 days were used for this milestone.

ISO Certificates

The company has to be registered with international standards. 20 days were used for this milestone

BSI Certificates

It is essential to get British standards for my IT sales and training centre. 20 days were used for this milestone

Opening

Opening is very important as it can automatically lead to good performance. Our vision is of "hit the ground running" when all the aspects are met timing will be very important. 5days will be used in this milestone

Task 2

Apply project planning and management tools to the system showing the following tools: Gantt chart, network diagram (e.g. EET, LAT, maximum span and total float) and show the critical path

Activity

Activity Name

Estimated

Time(days)

Dependency

1

Buying /Acquiring a building

14

-

2

Buying Training Centre Equipment

12

1

3

Hire equipment

8

1

4

Hire Buildings

10

1

5

Registration with government bodies

7

1

6

Staff Hire

14

4

7

ISO Certificates

20

5

8

BSI Certificates

20

5

9

Opening

5

-

LAT

Latest allowable time which specifies the latest time an activity may start in order to accomplish a task on time

Maximum span

Maximum span is the maximum time period that an activity has to be accomplished in

Therefore maximum span = LAT – EET

Total float

Total float is calculated as the maximum span minus the estimated duration. This is important when ascertaining the critical point within a project as activities have a total float zero are said to be on the critical path

Activity

Estimated duration

Maximum span

Total float

1

14

14

0

2

12

14

2

3

8

15

7

4

10

10

0

5

7

9

2

6

14

20

6

7

20

20

0

8

20

20

0

9

5

5

0

Critical path

Critical path is the critical area of the project . if we have any delay in the activities of the critical project , path area then the project will be delayed.

The diagram below is the critical path of my project

TASK 3

Discuss system documentation tools: quality assurance teams –quality review meetings – and cost estimate

Quality assurance

Quality assurance (QA) refers to the planned and systematic activities implemented in a quality system so that quality requirements for a product or service will be fulfilled. It is the systematic measurement, comparison with a standard, monitoring of processes and an associated feedback loop that confers error prevention. This can be contrasted with quality control, which is focused on process outputs.

In developing products and services, quality assurance is any systematic process of checking to see whether a product or service being developed is meeting specified requirements. Many companies have a separate department devoted to quality assurance. A quality assurance system is said to increase customer confidence and a company's credibility, to improve work processes and efficiency, and to enable a company to better compete with others (http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/definition/quality-assurance)

Quality assurance team

The QA team help machines, gadgets and leadership perform better. Their aim is for managers to become better leaders. The role of a leader is different from a manager. They are coaches. Coaches intuitively develop other people, attempting to help them attain their full potential; police enforce and impose rules. It is their job to catch people when they are doing something wrong. It can be difficult to learn this concept without the help of a quality assurance team, but integral to attaining success and profitability.

A QA develops the true leader so that they may know how to address problems, resulting in solutions that are a "win-win" for everyone concerned. (http://www.qaap.net)

In my project we have made sure that we do not compromise over quality. For this purpose there was a special team to keep check and balance the development process. Their main job was to monitor that project and make sure that all the quality procedures and equipments is used and tasks finished within the given timeframe

Quality review meetings

Purpose:

The purpose of this procedure is to define the methods used to review the Quality System that is in operation.

Scope:

This procedure applies to all Management Review Meetings, including their associated documentation.

Definition

Management Review: A structured meeting that must take place at regular intervals to discuss the functioning of the quality system of the EBME Department and to take action to correct it when necessary.

Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the Facilities Manager or the EBME Manager to conduct regular Management Review Meetings. It is the responsibility of the Quality Assurance Manager to ensure that this procedure is carried out.

Objectives of mangement review meetings

The objectives of the Management Review are:-

To establish that the Quality Assurance System is achieving the expected results, continuing to conform to the standard, and functioning in accordance with the established Operating Procedures.

To expose irregularities or defects in the System, identify weaknesses and make recommendations for continual improvement.

To review the effectiveness of previous corrective actions including those related to subcontractor and supplier performance.

To review the adequacy and suitability of the Quality Assurance System for current and future operations.

To review any complaints received, identify the cause and recommend corrective action if required including customer feedback.

To review the finding of internal / external audits and identify any areas of recurring problems.

To review the reports of non-conformities and evaluate trend information.

To review training requirements. Analyse all the above for trends and make appropriate improvements

"The central phase of the quality review process is the review meeting itself. During the review meeting the emphasis should be on error detection, in line with the criteria, and only limited discussion of corrective action should occur. It is important that 'personalities' and 'politics' are kept out of the review - in particular it is essential that the review remains focused on the review item and not on the presenter. For reviews that are 'complete' the action list tasks are allocated along with designated reviewers, to verify that the work is done. If the review ends abnormally it should be deemed 'incomplete'. Error lists and copies of annotated products should be brought to the meeting by each reviewer, or sent to the chairman before the meeting if the reviewer is unable to attend. If the review is deemed 'complete', then the chairman should forward the follow-up action list and all copies of the annotated product to the presenter together these represent all of the errors identified. The chairman should also distribute copies of the result notification to the presenter and the reviewers. A project exception report should be raised for any errors detected in non-review items"

http://www.getahead.uk.com/gwpm29-quality-reviews.htm

Cost estimate

"Approximation of the probable total cost of a product, program or a project computed on the basis of available information" www.businessdictionary.com 5 Dec 2010

Cost estimating is one of the most important steps in project management. A cost estimate establishes the base line of the project cost at different stages of development of the project. A cost estimate at a given stage of project development represents a prediction provided by the cost engineer or estimator on the basis of available data. According to the American Association of Cost Engineers, cost engineering is defined as that area of engineering practice where engineering judgment and experience are utilized in the application of scientific principles and techniques to the problem of cost estimation, cost control and profitability.

The magnitude of each of the cost components depends on the nature, size and location of the project as well as the management organization, among many considerations. The owner is interested in achieving the lowest possible overall project cost that is consistent with its investment objectives

In most construction budgets, there is an allowance for contingencies or unexpected costs occurring during construction. This contingency amount may be included within each cost item or be included in a single category of construction contingency. The amount of contingency is based on historical experience and the expected difficulty of a particular construction project. For example, my IT sales business will looks at these five different areas:

Design development changes,

Schedule adjustments,

General administration changes (such as wage rates),

Differing site conditions for those expected, and

Third party requirements imposed during construction, such as new permits.

Cost estimate of my project

TASK

ESTIMATED COST

Buying /Acquiring a building

£25,000

Buying Training Centre Equipment

35,000

Hire equipment

15,000

Hire Buildings

10,000

Registration with government bodies

2500

Staff Hire

12,000

ISO Certificates

2000

BSI Certificates

2500

Opening

1800

TOTAL ESTIMATED COST

105800