Q41. Calendar Project (Note: The companies and people within the scenario are fictional.)
There has been a reduction in fie number of orders at the MNO Manufacturing Company due in part to the increased marketing activities of its competitors. To help counter this, the company has decided to create a promotional calendar for next year for all its current and prospective customers. The end product of this project will be a prepared calendar pack, ready for printing. The design of the calendar will be similar to one sent out previously, and must reflect the company image as described in the existing corporate branding standards. Another project is currently producing a new company logo when is to be printed on each page of the promotional calendar. The prepared calendar pack will consist of:
Design for each month – correctly showing at public holidays and new company logo Selected photographs- 12 professionally-produced photographs, showing different members of staff
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Selected paper and selected envelope – for printing and mailing the calendar Chosen label design – a competition to design a label will be held as part of this project List of customers – names and addresses of customers to whom the calendar will be sent.
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The project is currently in initiation and will have two further stages:
Stage 2 will include tie activities to: Create the customer fast using information from the Accounts and Marketing
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Confirm compliance with the Data Protection Legislation Create a design for each month – this will be done by the internal creative team Select and appoint a professional photographer Gather photograph design ideas from previous project and agree photographic session schedule Prepare a production cost forecast Select paper and envelope.
Stage 3 will include the activities to:
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Produce and select tie professionally-taken photographs Hold the label design competition and choose the label design Assemble the prepared calendar pack.
A production cost forecast, based on the options and costs for the paper, envelope, printing and marketing of the calendar is to be produced in stage 2. However, the actual production and distribution of the calendars is not within the scope of the project. The product cost forecast will be reviewed by the Project Board to determine whether tie project should continue.
It is now 05 October and the prepared calendar pack must be delivered to the print company by 30 November, to enable printing and distribution of the calendar in time for Christmas. The cost of the activities to develop the specialist products and the cost of the project management activities are estimated to be (GBP)20,000. There is a project time tolerance of +1 week /-2 weeks and a project cost tolerance of +(GBP)6,000 / -(GBP)6,000. A change budget of (GBP)500 has been allocated but there is no risk budget.
During stage 2, an early review of the photo design ideas from the Marketing department has highlighted the need for engineering machinery to be operating in the background during the photo sessions. This requires a change to the baselined Product Description for the photos. What action should the Project Manager take?