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Whitbread World Sailboat Race Essay

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University of Phoenix Terry Norris January 20, 2008 Project Plan for Whitbread World Sailboat Race This paper analyzes the Whitbread World Sailboat Race case scenario presented in chapter 9 in the Gray and Larson text, Project Management: the Managerial Process. The Whitbread World Sailboat Race is a nine month round the world race. Bjorn Ericksen has been chosen by his country to head up the project of getting a boat and a team ready for the race. The objectives of the project are to design, build and test a new vessel and select and train a crew capable of winning the race. The objectives must be completed within 45 weeks, the start of the race, and with a planned budget of $3.2 million. Initial projections show that the …show more content…

Analyzing crash times and costs we see that if each activity were crashed the project could be finished in 42 weeks, however, the budget would skyrocket to $4.952 million. Therefore, the team will need to analyze the project network and its critical path to determine which individual activities can be crashed while maintaining the integrity of the budget and the duration of the project. Plan to Reduce Project Duration Initial projections show that the current schedule will take 50 weeks to finish with a final budget estimate of $3.152 million. Although the project estimate comes in under budget, the time frame for completion extends beyond the acceptable 45 weeks. Before deciding which activities should be crashed, Bjorn and his team first need to have a clear understanding of the project’s priorities. To do this the team has first defined the project’s scope and decided to develop a project priority matrix. Defining the project scope sets the stage for developing a plan and its primary purpose is to define as clearly as possible the deliverables and to focus project plans (Gray & Larson, 2005). The team has stated the project’s objectives, defined deliverables, established milestones and technical requirements, which help define the project’s scope and establish priorities. With the imposed deadline, completion of the project on time should be the project’s top priority and thus becomes the

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