WBS Worksheet

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MG326 Project Planning Assignment

Problem Case Summary Wilmont’s is a top-ranked US retail pharmacy with more than 8,000 stores nationwide. The

company is secretly considering delivering prescriptions by flying drone. DroneTech, a small

firm in San Francisco, CA announced the approach in March, and Wilmont’s has made an

agreement with DroneTech to prototype this project in the San Francisco area. DroneTech will

provide the drone technology as well as the drone piloting and delivery systems, but will

customize its systems and business process to conform to Wilmont’s requirements.

You are the project manager assigned to lead this project.

 Wilmont’s has limited the project expenditures to a maximum of US$1,750,000 for this

prototype project and will implement it first in only four stores.

 The project begins next January 5 and the first customer delivery flight should take place

no later than November 30 to avoid harsh weather in the San Francisco area.

 You will need to plan tasks and assign team members to them from a list of people

involved in the project. Regular meetings need to be held with the team and

stakeholders as well as other forms of communication.

 Approval points are needed through the project sequence.

 Risks, testing, quality control and provision issues may develop.

 Issues in security, reliability, integrity, interfaces between the systems of the two

organizations and customer interaction are all considerations that must be made as you

plan the project.

 User training and other preparations will be required for system implementation. The

Wilmont’s Change Management Team will assist you in this effort.

Final schedules need to show a certain level of completion based upon a given date.

Problem Case: Part 1 Wilmont’s is a top-ranked US retail pharmacy company based in St. Louis, MO with

more than 8,000 stores nationwide and in all 50 states, and employing more than 244,000

people overall.

The company has engaged in a number of innovative business practices, and now they

are once again secretly considering breaking ground with an even newer concept – delivering

prescriptions and drugstore items by flying drone.

The concept isn’t new – a small firm named DroneTech in San Francisco announced the

approach in March, and they are looking to develop a relationship with drugstores nationwide

to launch the concept for real. Wilmont’s may be the big break they are looking for!

The Operations Vice President (George Cranston) of Wilmont’s wants to develop a pilot

project to get something moving and see how this works. George will provide the funds and will

oversee all aspects of this initiative. You are the Project Manager on Wilmont’s business

operations side who will manage the project generally for Mr. Cranston.

Mr. Cranston has made an agreement with DroneTech CEO and founder Jordan

Kempler to prototype this project in the San Francisco area, which is the home location of the

DroneTech organization where it developed the system. DroneTech will customize its systems,

interfaces and business process to conform to project requirements from Wilmont’s.

Mary Pearson is the Project Manager for Wilmont’s internal IT department, and she has

been assigned by CIO, James Connor, to lead the information systems development that will be

needed to support the initiative. Phillip Greenberg is the project manager at DroneTech who

will work with you. Generally, from the Operations perspective, the project will likely need to

accomplish the following:

 Develop a Wilmont’s online order entry process that will allow customers in the San

Francisco area to register their willingness to have a drone deliver their orders by means

of online entry or smartphone entry. There will be significant restrictions on the

approval of customers for this service, so there will need to be a segment of the process

to allow. Wilmont’s management to approve the customer, send a confirmation to the

customer, etc.

 Create reports for Wilmont’s management to provide information on sales, customer

reactions and key performance indicators that senior management will define for you.

 Create communications for customers electronically through email, online and through

mobile alerts as the customer requests.

 DroneTech will handle piloting the drones and delivery of the products.

They already have processes that handle order entry, delivery confirmation and a

mobile app, but they need to be customized for Wilmont’s so that customers don’t see these as

two separate companies. Eileen Seymour is the point of contact on the information systems

sidewith DroneTech and will be overseeing the team on their side. A price for this system

customization is not yet determined and the development of this proposal will be a part of your

project plan. You will need to build in the contract negotiations between Wilmont’s and

DroneTech as you develop the project plan as well. Members of the legal teams of both

organizations will assist you with this.

 Ensure that the relationship between DroneTech and Wilmont’s does not compromise

the security of Wilmont’s business information, the customer’s privacy and the

proprietary information about how Wilmont’s will use the drones for delivery. You will

work with Wilmont’s Information Security Management Team to accomplish this, and

William Scott is the project lead on that team for this project.

 You will need to identify basic business process requirements and then determine your

team members from the list of people given in this document as you move toward final

project planning.

 It has been determined that only four (4) Wilmont’s pharmacies will participate in the

prototype delivery system. These are in a close geographic area to one another, and

they are in a non-city environment consisting mainly of suburban homes and small

businesses. Customers in apartment buildings will not be permitted in the prototype

due to delivery issues. You will need to ensure that the four participating pharmacies

are fully ready to engage in this prototype by the time for first flight, and the drone

deliveries need to be seamless enhancements to Wilmont’s already top-quality delivery

processes for customers.

 The IT folks have determined that no additional IT infrastructure will be required for this

project from Wilmont’s, as all of that specialized technology is only on the DroneTech

side, and they will be including it in their proposal and a separate project plan that they

will give to you as a part of their contract. Wilmont’s can accommodate operating this

prototype system within their existing infrastructure that handles customer orders, but

those processes need to be enhanced in order to provide this delivery option and all the

management processes that must accompany them.

 Wilmont’s has allocated a maximum of $1,750,000 for this prototype project, although

this is only an ultimate constraint – you will eventually need to tell Mr. Cranston what

your project estimate will be, but you don’t have enough information about the project

design yet to be able to give such a budget figure. You have been asked by

Mr. Cranston to ensure that your project not only does not go over this figure, but that it is

under that total if possible. The two companies agreed that they would like to begin the

project on next January 5, and that their first customer delivery flight should take place no later

than November 30 to avoid harsh weather in the San Francisco area.

Of course, you also need to include specific steps and processes for:

 Regular Meetings with the Team, Stakeholders, and Cross-impacted areas of the

company.

 Approval points as needed through the project sequence.

 Points at which you will refine cost and staffing requirements (you do not need to

calculate costs or total staffing at this point)

 Points at which you will produce the various Project Plan documentation deliverables

discussed in class.

 Testing, quality control and provision for issues that may develop.

 User training and other preparations for system implementation. The Wilmont’s

Change Management Team, headed by Shirley Johnson, will assist you in this effort.

Summary of Personnel Involved in the Project (name initials are in brackets):

DroneTech Corporation Staff:

 Jordan Kempler (JXK), CEO and Founder  Phillip Greenberg (PAG), Project Manager – main point of contact

 Stephanie Williams (SMW), Senior Business Analyst

 Gerald Hasper (GPH), Flight Operations Manager

 Eileen Seymour (ERS), Project Lead, IT Systems

 Katie O’Ryan (KRO), Corporate Attorney – DroneTech

Wilmont’s Staff:

 George Cranston (GWC), Operations VP

 James Connor (JFC), CIO

 Mary Pearson (MJP), Project Lead, IT Systems Team

 William Scott (WKS), Project Lead, Security Team

 Julie Green (JRG) Pharmacy Manager Store #35864

 Steve Haskell (SLH) Pharmacy Manager Store #32185

 James O’Donnell (JLO) Pharmacy Manager Store #38734

 Wilma Marcy (WPM) Pharmacy Manager Store #33001

 You as Project Manager on the Business Operations side (Come up with your own

initials)

 Mary Kerstner (MJK), Business Systems Analyst

 Jonathan Perry (JSP), Retail Operations Assistant

 William Postner (WKP), Marketing Analyst

 Sherry Loganthorpe (SPL), Social Media Specialist

 Linda Thornton (LET), Online Customer Process Analyst

 Gerald Peritoni (GEP), Testing Specialist

 Elizabeth Walton (EMW), Senior Testing Specialist

 Shirley Johnson (SPJ), Change Management Coordinator

 Alan Swanson (AES), Attorney – Legal Department

 Denise Delgado (DLD), Financial Operations Analyst

Problem Case: Part 2 Please review the Part 1 Case Problem information as it is the general background and

requirements of the case. This information should be added to the following clarifications

regarding the project schedule:

1. Total Project Cost must not exceed Project Constraints. Project Schedule should begin

January 5, and should meet the schedule constraints as per the case for completion, etc.

You may assume 100% (1.0FTE) allocation to this project for each resource in the list

below. Load leveling is NOT required for this assignment, and over-allocation warnings

on your WBS will not be counted as a problem as long as the resource effort allocation is

reasonable.

2. It is critical that your assignment WBS is specific to this case problem in detail. You must

ensure that all required deliverables appear in your WBS specifically, and that each

includes design, development, testing and implementation as appropriate. Your WBS

must include project management steps for the charter/scope, risk management plan,

WBS, schedule, training and the required meetings to conduct and manage the project.

Do not include things like “procurement management plan” or “staffing plan” or “quality

management plan” as these are not a part of this case problem. A generic WBS is not

acceptable for this assignment. This is practice for you to see how you might deliver

such a detailed schedule for this case problem to your boss, and it will be evaluated that

way.

3. It is up to you to add the project management, communication, testing and training

tasks as needed to make the project successful. Use the information in the case and the

other assignments, along with your own ideas about how much effort is involved to

ensure a quality implementation overall throughout the project. Be sure that you do

not exceed the project constraints.

4. Remember that this project will be tight in terms of time and cost, so do not include

steps that are not really necessary for this particular project. You should schedule the

project from the beginning, including Charter/Scope, planning meetings, Risk

Management and Communication Plan development, WBS and schedule development –

these items need to appear in this schedule along with resource assignments and the

appropriate costs that go along with them.

5. Finally, you are required to indicate an appropriate quantity of tasks that have likely

been already in progress or completed. Assume that we are looking at your schedule on

June 27. Show which work packages would probably be at what stage of completion by

this specific time in the schedule. Use your own judgment based on the work package

finish dates, but be reasonable!