Planning a wedding using project management

Course-Long Project Charter (Wedding Plan)

The Charter should:

Follow the format as defined in the Week 2 Readings/Lectures for the "Project Charter ExamplePreview the document" posted;
Include your goal or background; why you decided upon this project (charters only have one goal);
Include background, objectives, scope, key resources, milestones, costs/budget, and risks;
Have at least six items for all of the elements except background and scope.
See Attachment and add to it

Important note: All Projects need a closeout with an evaluation, so be sure to include this in your charter milestones.

This is the second phase of your individual project; you will continue to work on it, add to it, and refine it throughout this course.

Pages 78 - 82, plus lecture/reading will help. Again this must be detailed.

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Reading/Lecture Overview
Objectives
By the end of this week, students should:

Understand what a project charter is and craft a project charter
Identify stakeholders and how to form a project team
Relate the four functions of management to Project Management
Understand how to identify and combat Scope Creep
Know the foundations of risk management and constraints as they relate to PM
Readings & Resources
Please read Chapters 6-8 of the textbook
Take a look at the basic charter example provided.
Project Charter Template (DOCX)Preview the document
Also, check the augmented lecture for the Week. It goes over a lot of these details and more.
Week 2 - Getting Off to a Good Start
Preparing the project
Ready Set Whoa.pdfPreview the document
The importance of closing out a project
Harvard Business Review: The Four Phases of Project Management Preview the document

Description of the project

The project is aimed at coming up with a wedding plan which will give all the parties involved an experience to remember. The project also is meant to help the team, and all the stakeholders involved know what resources may be needed to make the wedding a success. Project planning is a critical phase in every project undertaking, but the project team does not give it as much attention. The stakeholders will also be identified through the project. These are the fundamental entities which influence the success or failure of the project. Stakeholders have a crucial impact, and their opinions are as, and failure to include them in project planning then means their little or no support, dissatisfaction, and resistance during the project implementation (Eskerod& Jepsen, 2016). The project team selected will use the budget provided to come up with a plan which favors the bride, the groom, and the guests.

Definition of problem

Project execution is mostly affected by the planning that was carried out. Most of the wedding plans do not happen as expected and this is because in most cases, enough time is not dedicated to the planning phase. The planning phase gives a clear outline of the activities to be carried out, who is responsible for a particular event and what resources will be required to make the operations a success (Lock, 2017). There is every reason to avoid wedding project failures resulting from the inability to plan accordingly and putting everything in place. This plan is created in an attempt to ensure that the anticipated wedding achieves the objectives set and that pitfall is avoided. People do not just want to hold wedding events, and the whole thing is forgotten, everyone is moving away from this trend and want weddings worth memories years down the line. This calls for a plan.

Options and Justifications for Preferred Project

An alternative to the Preferred Project would be an in-house wedding project. In-house weddings involve a smaller number of people or the guests. In-house weddings are also less costly because the team does not have to hire a public place, the resources required are less compared to a hosted ceremony. The time-frame is admirable too because the project can be executed within the shortest time possible. Plans work on a fixed timeline (Lock, 2017). The ability to achieve the objectives within the set time is always a challenge for most project planners. An alternative project selected beside the preferred plan still acts as a back-up whenever the major project becomes hard or expensive to execute. The justifications for the alternative project are that it is less costly, decision-making will be faster, and the execution of the plan will not be as complicated.

Key Human Resources

The success of the project will be dependent on the coordination of efforts of some vital human resources. The planning phase of any project involves the successful incorporation of skills abilities and experience of critical human resources which make the essential decisions towards the execution of the plan (Heagney, 2016). The human resources responsible for this project are the project manager (wedding planner), technologists, and project sponsors, groom and bridal contributors. These are the key stakeholders responsible for the execution of the project and oversee every activity into its completion. This is the group of individuals to be blamed if the plan fails or if all the objectives are not met.

Schedule, Scope, and Budget

The project plan is to be implemented in a timeline of six months. The estimated budget is $15,000. The wedding will have 200, and the budget is meant to ensure the guests are all satisfied and happy during the marriage. This then tasks the project team to ensure that the project outcomes are as desirable.

Cost/Benefit Analysis

Every project was undertaken always has the positive and the adverse effects and uncertainties expected (Fleming & Koppleman, 2016, December). The risks or uncertainties expected with this project are poor weather which may completely disrupt the flow of events, the safety of the guests may be compromised by occurrences such as attacks or even by accidents, there may be high cases of in attendance by some , and this means wastage of resources used in planning for the number invited. However, this project also comes with its benefits. There are various factors which make this project worth undertaking. The cost of the project is affordable, and the project team may not need to be up and down writing additional proposals for funding. The project also takes care of the time factor which is one crucial element in every project execution. A plan should not take long before it is implemented. Long-term projects tend to fail, and most stakeholders withdraw at some point (Lock, 2017). The stakeholders and the guests too are easy to manage and plan for. Compared to what has been invested in this project and the benefits that accrue to the team, it is worth being undertaken. The financial interests of the guests are estimated at $25,000, slightly higher than the estimated cost of the wedding.

Additional resources needed for this project

Additional resources needed would consist of ceremony programs, party favors, the guest list, rented equipment, food and drinks, wedding cake, flowers, a DJ, photographer, videographer, wedding invitations, wedding day transportation, the reception site entirely arranged and decorated.

References

Eskerod, P., & Jepsen, A.L. (2016). Project stakeholder management. Routledge.

Fleming, Q.W., & Koppleman, J.M. (2016, December). Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.

Heagney, J. (2016). Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.

Lock, D. (2017). The essential of project management. Routledge.