Project Management Case Studies Example

Introduction

Training and development for employees is a significant part of employee enhancement. Employees are known to achieve their full potential when they have the right skills and information to undertake their tasks. Also, of great concern is the need to ensure that the objectives of an organization is shared across all departments and branches so that there is one objective that is being strived to achieve. Project planning is a significant aspect that helps to point to the parties who are interested in a project how the project will be achieved and the parties who are concerned with the project (Turner, 2014). Project planning will have to be analyzed and assessed in order to ensure that there is an understanding of the direction and the requirements that a project will need in order to have successful project implementation. For project planning to be successful, there is a need to have the documentation of the requirements of the project, the schedule that will be followed, the deliverables of the project, and the project plan is created that will act as a guide in order to have successful projects. This paper will be a project plan that will be used for Enterprise Rent-A-Car to develop their training and development project for employees in all their branches. It will act to be a plan that will be used to achieve the training of all staff (Kerzner, 2013).

Business case

Enterprise Rent-A-Car is a company that is known for transportation in North America, Europe and Asia. There are branches that are found in England, where there are many branches in this country. Enterprise Rent-A-Car has ensured that each of the branches have their autonomy so that each branch is allowed to work their own innovation. One of the branches worth noting is that of North West branch. It is worth noting because it has made significant improvement in their strides to have an improved workforce and increase their sales. They have developed their brand in car hire so that they are known for spectacular services that satisfy many customers (Burke, 2013). The training and development plan for North West branch is to be adopted by the entire organization so that there is a need to have training in the entire organization in all the branches. It is from this that there is a need to have a project plan that will help the company to roll out their training and development to other branches in the network. Since the project will be rolled out in all the branches of the company, there is a need to have a project plan and schedule that will help to guide in implementing the project. In the quest to increase the value they offer to the customers, Enterprise Rent-A-Car are in the process of rolling out training and development for their employees. The case involves the rolling out of the project to all the branches of the organization (Burke,00202013).
There is a need to have project plan that will be followed in all the branches. One of the concerns is to have the project rolled out and implemented within the budget that is stipulated. The project has been planned to take a total of £200k and it should take approximately one year. The project will entail ensuring that all new employees that will join the company will have undergone a four-stage training and development that will empower them on the best practices for their branch (Larson, & Gray, 2014). Employees will be trained on what is required of them and have ways in which they will improve on the service that they will offer to the clients. They will have two stages having a training basing on what they do and the other phases on the general requirements on their jobs.
The rest of the staff, those who have been employed long, will also have to undergo training and development course that will help to relate to the experience of the employees so that they will be able to apply what they have been working on and have better ways of achieving the plans that they have in the company. The employees who have been working on the company will have to ensure that they understand the core objectives of the company and ensure that they achieve what they have been stated and planned to achieve in their entirety. The project will ensure that all employees are empowered so that productivity will be enhanced and increased in the entire working of the project (Schwalbe, 2013).
The approval of the project will be achieved after the Board of Directors have gone through the plan and have been satisfied with the project. It will be important to understand the issues and the concerns that the project will be done in this case. The project approval will also have to be sought from the US Branch where they are starting to gain interest on the project. After the project has been approved, there will be the need to ensure that there is an understanding of the project process and details (Meredith, & Mantel, 2011).

Project objectives

The project will be guided by the following objectives:
Stakeholder analysis
There are different stakeholders who will be interested in the project. Analyzing these stakeholders will ensure that the needs of the different stakeholders are met. The different stakeholders in the project will include the following:

Enterprise Rent-A-Car directors

Enterprise Rent-A-Car managers
Enterprise Rent-A-Car employees
Enterprise Rent-A-Car suppliers
UK Government
Investors
Transport government bodies and agencies
The stakeholders will have to be understood so that they project will have the interest of all the stakeholders. It is possible to stop a project because there are some project stakeholders who were not involved in carrying out the project. It is important to understand how the stakeholders will be satisfied in the entire project. The different stakeholders will need different degree of interest on the project. The different stakeholder have the following interest in the project. It is important to understand the interest so that the objectives will be achieved in the entire carrying out of the project (Leach, 2014).

Directors

The directors will have to be engaged in the project. They are the ones who will approve the project. They have to be informed and the objectives of the project should satisfy the directors. If they get dissatisfied with the project, there are high chances that the project will fail.

Managers

They are the ones who will be concerned with the implementation of the project. As the project manager, I will be engaged with the managers for guidance on how best to undertake the training in their departments. Since the project will involve having to understand the different working procedures of different departments, it will be important to engage the managers of the different departments. It will help to engage the departments and have a better way of undertaking the project.

Transport bodies

The transport bodies will have to be informed of what is happening in the organization. They should be made aware of any changes that might influence the working of the company. These changes will help them be aware of any regulations or policy that they might have to change.

Government

The government is a significant stakeholder who will have to be involved in all the undertakings of the project. They will have to be aware of the policies that have been put in place so that they know what is happening. The government will be concerned about the safety of the clients and the rights of the employees as they are undertaking the new training (Gido, & Clements, 2014). All these will have to be put in place to ensure that there is an understanding of how the project is being carried.

Investors

The investors will have to be informed on what is happening in the company so that they keep on investing in the company. They will have to be convinced that the have a reason to keep on having the money in the company.

Suppliers

Suppliers will have to be informed about the training so that they understand the changes and be prepared of the new changes that will be brought about by the training. The new changes, for example, will require that the suppliers bring training materials for the training sessions. The suppliers for training materials will have to be informed of the requirements of the company and how they should be prepared.

Performance management

There will be the need to have performance management so that the success of the staff will be understood. Performance management will be done through assessing employees, departments and branches. The profitability of the different branches will be assessed with the past performance. The profitability of the different departments will be assessed with the use of performance management (Gido, & Clements, 2014).
Also, employees will be assessed for performance management at individual levels. Their work will be assessed basing on the number hours they take to undertake a given job compared to the number of hours they used to take. Each department will also be assessed basing on the performance and the financial growth that the departments will have in the entire aspects. Like North West branch, the performance of each branch will be assessed with the organizational average sales and profitability. The popular means is the financial gains that is achieved in the long run (Turner, 2014).

Scheduling and milestones

For the project to be successful, there are different activities that have to be carried out in the course of the project. Some of the tasks that will be done include:

Prepare for the training

Meet the directors to discuss about the need for training
Have assessment of what will be trained
Discuss with the heads of departments about the training.
Seek approval
Seek approval from directors
Seek approval from US company
Seek approval from the government
Prepare training materials and venues
Have the training materials ready
Have the suppliers be informed of what will be required during the training
Book in advance of all the rooms that will be used for the training
Get the training guide from North West branch in the UK
Implement the training
Start with employees in other branches in UK
Undertake the training in Europe
Undertake the training in US
Assess the training
Assess the training impact on employees
Undertake a questionnaire where employees and management will be asked about how the training was and what has been achieved so far.
Project closure

Resources to be used

There are different resources which will be used in the course of the project.
The first resource is the trainers. The trainers will be used to have the staff make use of the training that has been used in North West branch. It will ensure that there is an understanding of the resources and the aspects that are needed in the project. The trainers will have to be available throughput the sessions that the training will take place (Heagney, 2011).
Another resource which will be required include the project manager. The project manager will have to ensure that the project has been implemented and successfully achieved. Effective projects will have to have effective project managers in order to ensure that there is an understanding of the project (Hill, 2013).
There will also be training venues that will be needed. Although there are halls where the training will take place, there will be times when outside venues will be needed. It will be the case if all the venues have been occupied and will need to have external training venues.
Constrains and risks
There will be risks that will be associated with the project. One of the constraints is time of achieving all the training of employees. The various branches and the fact that all the branches will undertake the training will affect the time that the project will be done and achieved. It is important to understand the time constraints so that it will be managed well.
Another constraints is that of financial aspect. The 200k pounds that are allocated to the project might not be enough to carry out the project to successful completion. It will be affected by inflation and the different costs of items in different places.
One risk of the project is that the service delivery might be affected by the training sessions. Employees might be required to get the training which will affect the service that customers will want. It might be a loophole which will make the company lose clients.
Another risk is that of change of regulations on the transport sector. It will affect the knowledge that might have been taught and will be a loss to the company. The knowledge and the skills that will be taught should meet the requirements of the clients. It should be relevant to the working of the client (Verzuh, 2011).
Communication to be used
There will be the need to have communication of the project progress. The management will be informed of the progress of the project through emails from the project manager. Employees will also be informed of the project through email conversation. There will be the use of meetings for managers and their staff from time to time when there is something important to be discussed. There will also be the use of teleconference communications for communication with other managers in other locations (Heldman, 2013).
Management of quality
Quality is a significant aspect that needs to be taken into consideration while undertaking the project. Quality will be achieved through ensuring all the sectors have prepared well for the training. The training materials will be assessed by the trainers to ensure that the training will be done with quality in mind (Rosenau, & Githens, 2011). There will also be assessment of the staff to ensure that they are satisfied with the training. They will have to be assessed on how they are satisfied with the training. All concerns of the trainees will be put into consideration.
Possible success/failure factors
One critical success factor for the project is that senior management should support the project. They should show commitment to have the project successful. Another critical success factor is having one goal for both the managers and the employees. Employees should be upbeat about the project. Without having one goal, it will lead to unachieved objectives (Reiss, 2013).
One failure factor is having objectives that are bot tailored to a specific location. In this project, there are different location. Each of the branches have their own challenges and business environments. It will be important to have training tailor-made to fit the different locations (Olson, 2014).
Future considerations
In the future, there will be a need to have training done at different times. Training can be done basing on department. Training cannot be done all at once. It will affect the success of the project. Another consideration is that there will be the need to have development of curriculum that will be followed while undertaking the training.
Recommendations
What can be recommended in this company is that all employees should be empowered and should understand what they are doing in order to have successful project. What can be recommended is to ensure that the training and development is done yearly.
Brief notes
There were meetings that were done by different team members.
There were meetings between the project manager and the managers. These were the notes that transpired in the meetings:
The project manager wanted the managers to have their staff prepared for the training
The managers wanted the project manager to inform them of the schedule and what could be trained
The managers wanted to know how they would get communications from the project manager.
The managers in all the branches were in participation of the meetings.
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