Project Plan Assignment Paper

Project Plan
Project Plan

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Project Plan

Project Summary

Project name: Reviving the nuclear power plants in Sumatra

Project start date: 08th April 2016

Project end date: 20th August 2016

Project goal: The goal of this project therefore aims at reviving and averting the dangers that the people in this region may face as a result of the destruction made on the Nuclear Power Plant and the risks that are also associated with the environment within this region.

Project location: Sumatra

Project need: Resolving the problems that may occur as a result of the damages that were experienced in the Sumatra Power Plant.

Project description: Considering the effects of the earthquake that left the city of Sumatra in loses, this project aims at developing the power plant that was damaged in this region.

Project budget: The estimated budget of this project is $800,000.

Success criteria: The project will be a success in the event that the funding’s required is gained and the factors that would cause a threat to the people living in this area and the environment itself are mitigated. Also essential is to get the power plant back to full operation.

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Project sponsor:                                        Tony Guwarty

Project manager:                                       Johnson Devuti

Project team:                                             Collins Scot– Financial Officer

                                                                  Henry Trump–Plants Supervisor

                                                                  Dorothy Fins– Risk Analyst

Introduction

Recently, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake hit the coast of Sumatra that was estimated to have occurred at a depth of 30km. According to sources, the fault zone is attributed as the main cause of the tsunami at roughly 1300km long, a factor that displaced the sea floor by meters. It is through this incidence that the nuclear power plants in Sumatra were damaged (Noue, Wijeyewickrema, Matsumoto, Miura, Gunaratna, Madurapperuma, & Sekiguchi, pp. 395-411.2007). It is reported that an estimated US $ 15 billion of property was damaged and close to 230,000 people reported dead

This project management plan therefore aims at resolving and averting the dangers that the people in this region may face as a result of the destruction made on the Nuclear Power Plant and the risks that are also associated with the environment within this region (Lapoint, & Haggard, pp. 73-85.2014). The plan therefore aims at restoring the power plant back into full functionality and establishing safe approaches that would mitigate such happenings within this area in the future.

Project Objectives

The objectives of this project remain in meeting the needs of the population who have over the past experienced disasters. The project also aims at adhering to the required standards in developing and reviving the Nuclear Power Plant including the time scales.

Project Scope

It is in this case essential to determine that the focus of this project management plan is in resolving the problems that may occur as a result of the damages that were experienced in the Sumatra Power Plant (Jovanović, Čolić, Dordević, & Mitić, pp. 69. 2012). The plan therefore aims at preventing damages that may be incurred in the future. The central objective lies in making the power plant fully functional including the development of safety approaches that prevent the reoccurrence of a similar incidence.

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Assumptions and Constraints

The primary assumptions of this project management plan lied in the projects funding that is assumed should come from the governments funding and international support that would be enough to fully complete the objective of this project (Zwikael, & Ahn, pp. 25-37.2011). Other minor assumptions include the availability of skilled manpower to complete the project process; another magnitude earthquake will soon follow and if the results turn out worse, the power plant owners would choose to close this plant and bury its operations.

The constraints of this project entail that escalation of the atomic reactor that would cause more damages to an uncontrolled proportion, the strong aftershocks, and the lack of skilled manpower to risk their lives in achieving the goals of this project (Klastorin, & Mitchell, pp. 68-80.2013).

Project Organization

A project manager will be selected to ensure that the sub-projects are managed with reports made to the corporate board of Sumatra Electric Power Company. The sub-projects with the project manager will therefore include:

  1. Ensuring that public relations with the governments and other agencies are conducted since this remains the crucial planning and execution approach.
  2. The handling of logistic and supply chain
  3. On-site mitigation
  4. The handling of the projects finances.

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Technical Processes

This project will therefore make use of an open method to try and develop the appropriate mitigation processes that may be essential after the process of evaluation that will be done by specialized teams of engineers and scientists (Allen, McLees, Richardson, & Waterford, pp. 1-15.2015). The fall-back approach will therefore make use of the experiences of other power plants to ensure that precautions are taken in a case where such disasters occur again.

The plan will ensure that a safety board is put in place that consists of international representatives from scientific agencies and from the government, who will design and develop appropriate mechanisms that would ensure this plan is fully functional in the prevention of human life and the environment.

Project Definition and Planning

Stakeholders Needs

To achieve the goals of this project, the plan will therefore ensure that the needs of the stakeholders are addressed in the manner below:

  1. Board of Directors-Will ensure that adequate support is provided in the development of this plant by also ensuring that the environment and the lives of the people are protected including the restructuring of a new approach in the reviving of the Nuclear Power Plant in Sumatra.
  2. Board of Directors –The board will ensure that proper modalities are developed with the aim of ensuring that this Nuclear Power Plant runs and supports the people within the vicinity.
  3. Sumatra Council-This council will ensure that developments are made within this power plant and the required supporting infrastructures are also developed for the people within this region. The board will equally ensure that the facility is safe from the destruction of human life even when earthquakes come and is also innovatively structured to meet the needs of the population.

Success Criteria

The success criteria for this project remains in meeting the criteria’s that have been developed that would see the success of the process of the project (Schmidt, 2009). Other success factors of the project include:

  1. Meeting the full standards of the project
  2. Completing the project within the stated time frame
  3. Receiving positive feedback from the community within this vicinity.

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Project Execution

Project Methodology

The project will be executed through the use of different approaches, with the Gantt chart planning tool utilized to control and report on the project (Lapoint, & Haggard, pp. 73-85.2014). The project will therefore be divided in 4 phases with each phase ending with the acceptance of the community. The projects director will therefore conduct an inspection of each of the projects phases within the first week upon receipt of the contract and a notification on this put in writing.

The Board of Directors will therefore have the mandate to inform the contractor about their joint decision in either accepting or rejecting the phases completed and also submit details on the areas that need to be improved within a period of not more than two days (Clements, pp. 345.2012). It is also essential to determine that the delays that will be experienced in completing the four phases of the project will be attributed to the contractor’s inefficiency to meet their targets and obligations within the projects time frame, a factor that would call for penalties.

  1. It is essential to note that in any case disputes arise within the project period; the Board will set up a panel of committee to review such disputes with the parties paying the costs.
  2. The community and the workers who will be working on this site will be provided with a health and safety training to ensure that they are secure in the plant.

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Project Governance

Project Structure

The project will be analyzed and structured as described in the Appendix1 with the project governance approach also implemented as detailed.

Risks and Risk Mitigation

During the process of the project, it is believed that there would be some risks associated during the process, a factor that requires the application of a risk mitigation process ad detailed in the Appendix 3.

Project Deliverables

  1. The projects deliverables will be determined as defined in the Appendix 4 that shows the work breakdown structure.
  2. It is anticipated that the project will commence on the 08th April 2016 and will be completed on the 20th August 2016 at a budget of $800,000.
  3. The contractor will therefore provide a warranty period of 5 years for the renovation.
  4. After the project period, the contractor will be expected to offer a 5 year agreement in monitoring the project after completion.

Commissioning Of the Project and its Conclusion

It is essential to determine that the Boards acceptance of the phases of the project may not be finally actualized considering the fact that this facility will also be utilized by the community, a factor that points of to the need of the communities approval of these phases.

The contractors will only down their tools when the Nuclear Power Plant is in a position to stand the calamities that may come in the near future with this tested on its ability to withstand force.

In this case, the Board will convene a meeting with the other bodies to make final conclusions on the tested facility and approve the project to validate the payment of the contractor.

The Client is the sole determining party of the outcome of the testing stage, notwithstanding the fact that the members of the commissioning team will include representatives of the contractor.

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Recommendations

In order to properly ensure that the project fully utilizes its functions and achieves success, it is essential that certain factors are considered:

  1. It is essential to ensure that the contractors understand the need of developing the Nuclear Plant into a stable facility that can stand calamities such as earthquakes and tsunamis.
  2. The central focus of the contractors should be in developing modalities that ensure the lives of the people and the environment are protected when such incidences occur again.
  3. Considering the fact that the community has in the past used this facility as their sources of power, it is essential that their trust is won again, a factor that will strengthen business ties in the future.
  4. Contractors should also be mindful of the fact that the use of noisy machines should be planned or incorporate the use of silencers.

Reflective Statement

It is essential to determine that the current world has been frequently faced by a lot of calamities that claim the lives of very many people in the society. Earthquakes are the trembling movements that crust the surface of the earth. These movements come with vibrations that pass through the earth in the form of waves; a factor that caused several loses within in an area (Noue, Wijeyewickrema, Matsumoto, Miura, Gunaratna, Madurapperuma, & Sekiguchi, pp. 395-411.2007).

Some regions experience tsunamis that occur as a result of the violent underwater forces that travel as tidal waves. This therefore determined the reason for the choice of this topic since many countries have over time been heavily affected by these calamities that destroy property and consume the lives of a people.

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In developing this project plan, I have determined the fact that the implementation part of this project may take quite a long time in completing. However upon going through the concepts of this study, I have identified the fact that the initiation stages and the planning phases of a project may require bit of time since this is what determined the success of a project (Parker, Parsons, & Isharyanto, pp. 552-573. 2015).

Through the projects phases, I have discovered that the element of teamwork plays a significant role especially when incorporated with communication approaches. This therefore points out to the need of the planning committee to consider these elements since this enables the objectives of the project to be achieved.

On the other hand, I have also received the relevant skills requires in developing the Gantt chart and in ensuring that the time frame is appropriately calculated (Heravi, Coffey, & Trigunarsyah, pp. 985-997. 2015). This skill will enable me to effectively plan projects in the future. However, it is also essential to note that there were some challenges that I experienced in the process especially in developing some of the charts with specifity on the Gantt chart. This therefore required an application of the project management tools.

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References

Allen, M, McLees, J, Richardson, C, & Waterford, D 2015, ‘Project Planning and Best Practices‘, Journal Of Information Technology & Economic Development, 6, 1, pp. 1-15, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 December 2015.

Clements, G. 2012 Effective Project Management. 5th ed. Canada: Cengage Learning International.pp. 345

Heravi, A, Coffey, V, & Trigunarsyah, B 2015, ‘Evaluating the level of stakeholder involvement during the project planning processes of building projects‘, International Journal Of Project Management, 33, 5, pp. 985-997, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 December 2015.

Jovanović, P, Čolić, V, Dordević, V, & Mitić, A 2012, ‘Implementation of Project Management in Managing Organizational Projects’, Management (1820-0222), 64, pp. 69-76, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 December 2015

Klastorin, T, & Mitchell, G 2013, ‘Optimal project planning under the threat of a disruptive event’, IIE Transactions, 45, 1, pp. 68-80, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 December 2015.

Lapoint, P, & Haggard, C 2014, ‘Design Prototypes Inc. Project Management (B): Planning The Alpha C306 Project’, Journal Of The International Academy For Case Studies, 20, 3, pp. 73-85, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 December 2015.

Noue, S, Wijeyewickrema, A, Matsumoto, H, Miura, H, Gunaratna, P, Madurapperuma, M, & Sekiguchi, T 2007, ‘Field Survey of Tsunami Effects in Sri Lanka due to the Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake of December 26, 2004’, Pure & Applied Geophysics, 164, 2/3, pp. 395-411, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 December 2015.

Parker, D, Parsons, N, & Isharyanto, F 2015, ‘Inclusion of strategic management theories to project management’, International Journal Of Managing Projects In Business, 8, 3, pp. 552-573, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 December 2015.

Schmidt, T 2009, Strategic Project Management Made Simple: Practical Tools for Leaders and Teams, Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost, viewed 6 December 2015. Zwikael, O, & Ahn, M 2011, ‘The Effectiveness of Risk Management: An Analysis of Project Risk Planning Across Industries and Countries’, Risk Analysis: An International Journal, 31, 1, pp. 25-37, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 6 December 2015.

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Public Finance Proposal and Presentation

Public Finance
Public Finance

Public Finance Proposal and Presentation

Introduction

This paper intends to discuss a proposal and a presentation on public finance. In order to present an appropriate discussion this essay will consider the case of Cedar City.

Public policies and processes that affect Cedar City’s budget

Cedar City’s budget is affected by financial planning. However, financial planning at Cedar City is influenced by strategic goals, the level at which services are offered, the previous budget for the city, property tax percentage increase, personal services offered within the city, and services which are non-personal and are influenced by historical information along with projections (Tate, Strong, Kraus, & Xiong, 2015).

Furthermore, if the department of financial planning in Cedar City finds it significant to increase operations of the existing service levels, the new budget plan accommodates the increased amounts. For instance, a recent increase in the budget of Cedar City was influenced by the amounts required for managing projects for software maintenance of the city (Tate, Strong, Kraus, & Xiong, 2015).

Additionally, reviews made by different departments in Cedar City regarding their assets, project plans for capital improvement, potential sources of funding, and recommendations made on timelines for construction also affect Cedar City’s budget (Sarantsev, 2016). Markedly, Cedar City’s budget is affected by discussions made by the manager of the city, the finance director in the city, and the city council regarding needs of the city, the impact legislations have on the needs, and potential issues in funding before the budgeting process begins (Tate, Strong, Kraus, & Xiong, 2015).

For instance, the recent budget for Cedar City was influenced by the need to finish up flooded buildings, policies restricting an increase in levies for property tax, and the maintenance of existing levels of service (Tate, Strong, Kraus, & Xiong, 2015).

The elements involved in Cedar City’s budget preparation, budget enactment, and budget execution

The preparation of Cedar City’s budget involves an increase in operational funding and drafting of changes to revenues earned. Therefore, the preparation of the budget requires that the finance department meets other departments for reviewing needs of Cedar City and preparing requests of Cedar City. The manager to Cedar along with the directors are involved in reviewing projects aimed at improving on capital, which determines the components of the budget (Tate, Strong, Kraus, & Xiong, 2015).

Reports are then created to be used in subsequent processes of the budget which also includes enactment. However, before enactment of reports made regarding the budget of Cedar City, finance department along with the manager of the city review the budget requests to determine the requests along with charges to be included in the budget being prepared (Tate, Strong, Kraus, & Xiong, 2015).

For instance, during the enactment of the recent budget for the Cedar City requests for information of property tax, made the budget to balance. Moreover, the amounts allocated to revenues were parallel to amounts allocated to expenditure (Rahman & Weller, 2014). The manager of the city also requested the including of projects of capital improvement in the budget.

Hence, enactment involves reviewing of merits and the prioritization of different projects as subject to other projects (Tate, Strong, Kraus, & Xiong, 2015). However, execution of the budget considers the overall impact relating to recommended funding, considerations made for operations, and the relationship of operations to the budget of the City along with associated tax levies. Moreover, the council has to be informed of the situation of the budget and a public hearing for the budget prepared in accordance with IOWA (Tate, Strong, Kraus, & Xiong, 2015).

Long-term Financial alternatives for the City of Cedar Falls

Cedar City has three main alternatives for long-term financing. The first alternative is government funding. The government provides different types of funds to the City of Cedar Falls. The funds include general funds, finances for special income, finances for investment projects, and finances for liability service (Mervis, 2016). The finances allocated to Cedar City by the government are aimed at accounting for different revenue sources and revenue uses of the government’s primary unit.

The second alternative for long-term financing is proprietary funds. Proprietary funds refer to enterprise funds along with funds from internal services. Proprietary funds are viewed as self-supporting since they are financed from user charges and user fees (Tate, Strong, Kraus, & Xiong, 2015). The third alternative for long-term financing is fiduciary funds which are trust funds and funds from agencies. Fiduciary funds are used in accounting for different resources of financing held in the capacity of a trustee.

Conclusion

Public finance is a topic of great interest for all cities globally. The essay above has efficiently discussed public finance by considering the case of the Cedar City. Consequently, a discussion on the process of creating a budget in Cedar City, enactment of the budget, executing the budget, and funding of the budget has been presented in the paper above.

Reference

Mervis, J. (2016). Budget 2017: Mandatory spending dims prospects for Obama’s budget. Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf4045

Rahman, M. & Weller, K. (2014). Preparation for and response to the flood of 2008 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. International Journal Of Emergency Management, 10(2), 180. http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijem.2014.066201

Sarantsev, V. (2016). Treasury system of budget execution: organizational model and prospects. Moscow University Bulletin Of Them. SY Witte. Series 1: Economics and Management, 15-20. http://dx.doi.org/10.21777/2307-6135-2016-3-15-20

Tate, E., Strong, A., Kraus, T., & Xiong, H. (2015). Flood recovery and property acquisition in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Natural Hazards, 80(3), 2055-2079. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-2060-8

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Project Management

Project Management
Project Management

Project failure in the business world is a result of lack of proper implementation of the project management principles. Most businesses focus on the partial implementation of the concepts, or they are in a rush to complete the project an aspect that results in poor project performance. The paper will evaluate the failure of Target Corporation expansion plan concerning penetrating the Canadian retail industry.

Project management refers to the application of knowledge, skills, methods, and concepts to ensure the requirements of a project are fulfilled. White elephant projects often arise more common in social projects than in business one due to the high amount of investment that is channeled in the achievement of the project (Larson & Gray, 2013, p. 11).

Target Company launched an impressive expansion project to Canada that ended up in complete failure. The company has a successful track record in the USA retail industry. The company building on this successful track record decided to venture into the Canadian market. In Project management, the time frame is set before the initiation of the project in this case the retail store had set a time frame of 10 months for the project to be completed (Megitis & Schuster, 2015, p.13).

Target bought 220 leases of the Zeller stores in Canada in January 2013, that was a declining Canadian discount chain store located in Hudson Bay. The retail store required extensive remodeling to improve its outlook as most of the stores had been neglected by Zeller store.

The immense desire to open the stores within the hyped time frame made the American retail store to ignore most of the project management steps that had been stepped up. The time frame set up was unreasonable for them to be able to open over 120 stores in Canada and stock them entirely (Megitis & Schuster, 2015, p.13).

In project management, comprehending the scope of the project does increase the success as the project team members can comprehend the magnitude of their operation. The magnitude and scope of the Target project were under estimated which resulted in poor coordination of the entire project. Target Company has a renowned design in their stores that sets it apart from other stores in the USA.

The retails store was focussing on bringing this concept to the Canadian market, but the poor state and design of the retail stores increased the magnitude of work that had to be done (Austen, 2014).

In project management, the managers and their teams work hard to control the level of uncertainties. In the case of the Target launch into Canada, it seems the complete evaluation of the project was not conducted to pinpoint all the hurdles that they were likely to face. The paper will delve incorporate the project management techniques and concepts in the evaluation of the reasons why the project failed immensely. Forcing the company to count their losses and close all the retail stores in the Canada and move back to the USA to regroup.

Project management: Project Life Cycle

All projects fall into five groups, which are an initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and finally closing. The initiation refers to the commencement of the project where the idea generated is evaluated to determine if it is viable and will benefit the goals and objectives of the organization. In this phase the decision-making team which in most cases is the top level management evaluate the feasibility of the project and the resources required to ensure the success of the project against the benefits (Kerzner, 2013, p. 15).

In the case of Target Company was successful in the USA market and they were looking for new opportunities concerning global expansion. The company preferred the expansion in the form of physical brick and mortar retail store to e-commerce. The selection of Canada as the suitable area to launch their expansion plan was based on the fact that the country is geographically close and the Target market was popular among most Canadians who had visited the USA (Dahlhoff, 2015).

This reduced the marketing and advertising cost that would be required to create customer awareness about the retail store. Another factor that was taken into account in the selection of the country was that they were facing minimal levels of recession when compared to the USA. This meant that the consumer had more disposable income compared to the USA consumers, hence increasing the chances of the retail store to make high levels of profits (Dahlhoff, 2015).

The second phase of project management is planning. The planning phase refers to creating a detailed outline that transforms the feasible idea into a plan. The plan does guide the execution of the project as it details the series of steps to be followed in the utilization of the resources. It does ensure that the project team members can manage cost, time, quality, change, and risk among other issues (Serrador, 2012, p.5).

In the case of Target Company, the retail store failed to come up with a comprehensive plan that would have increased the success of the company in their launch of the retail store. The first dent in their plan is that they bought Zellers stores that were widely known. It seemed like a good idea in the initiation phase as the retail store was built on a present store and they, therefore, did not need to start from scratch (Banjos & Trichur, 2014).

The defect in this plan was that the Zeller location was located in areas that were difficult to access and had limited storage spaces. The Canadian customers were expecting the launch of large retail stores in the country that were similar to those in the USA. The downpour on their expectations resulted in negative reviews from the customers an aspect that decreased their sales (Banjos & Trichur, 2014).

The third phase of project management is execution phase, which is the longest one in the project management lifecycle. The execution phase is when deliverables are created and completed. During this phase, the members involved in the project are informed of their roles. The project manager does monitor and controls the utilization of resources and expenditure as during this phase a lot of them are expanded (Burke, 2013, p. 23).

In building the deliverable, the activities are undertaken often vary with the type and scope of the project. The activities are often executed in either a waterfall or an iterative manner. In a waterfall, the sequencing aspect is introduced where the projects are run one of another until they are completed while iteratively the deliverables are made until the needs of the customers are met (Burke, 2013, p.23).

In Target Company the project was executed iteratively. The retail store had purchased 220 stores from Zeller, but due to the short time frame of 10 months when they were expected to open their stores they had to rush the remodelling and design. The project managers were forced to alter their waterfall sequence and bow down to the pressure to open the stores on time.

The number of stores to open was reduced to 122 to meet the organizations tight opening time. The aspect was the genesis of their downfall as the project managers were unable to recreate the stores to resemble the ones present in USA (Wahba, 2015).

According to Leach, (2014) the fourth phase of the project life cycle is focussed on monitor and control which focuses on ensuring that all the resources are utilized to achieve the goals of the organization. The resources that are monitored are time, cost, procurement, change among others (p.27). The Canada expansion project was poorly monitored hence the high losses that the company incurred.

The purchase of the Zeller store was a poor strategy. The company could have benefitted more from renting their stores that would have been easy to simulate to the retail stores that they have in the USA. Additionally, there were a lot of subprojects that were started within the main project that ended up overshadowing the main project.

The company’s marketing team had created a huge hype for the opening of the retail stores in the country. The hype placed a lot of pressure on the management and project team which resulted in them racing various components of the project to beat the unrealistic opening team set up by the management team (Wahba, 2015).

Time and cost management come into play within this phase. Time management is the process of managing the time spent in the completion of a project. The time sheet form or the Gantt chart is used to create a projective time scale that the project will run and provides guidance on ways to execute the project (Lewis, 2010).

As discussed in the paper the concept of time management contributed immensely to the failure of Target Company to launch their stores in Canada. On the cost management aspect, the company had underestimated some finances required to launch the project in totality (Sorensen, 2015).

Target market did not carry out an extensive study of the retail industry in Canada. There are many other retail stores in Canada that posed a huge challenge to the company like Wal-Mart. In most cases when a business enters a new market, they either have to start small and build their brand or merge with another corporation (Sorensen, 2015).

Change management refers to the process whereby alterations to the project scope are evaluated and approved for them to be implemented. The project encountered some changes when it stepped into the Canadian market, which they had not anticipated. In the case of Target Company, they were new to the Canadian retail industry and. They purchased Zeller who was one of the big discount stores in the company. The company was thrown into a big feat to not only set up their operations to meet the size of Zeller but to also meet the customer expectations of the Target retail store (Sorensen, 2015).

              Procurement and Logistics management focuses on the consolidation of all the suppliers and distributors under one umbrella. It ensures a seamless flow of supplies from the distributor to the requester. This aspect is enshrouded in building supplier/distributor relationship that enforces the spirit of confidence among them (Chen, 2015, p.1398). The confidence makes the suppliers and distributors go out of their way to deliver the supplies where they are needed.

Moreover, in the retail industry, the inventory notion cannot be ignored it is pertinent to the success of the stores. The managers of the retail store need to ensure that their warehouse is located at the central point that will enable them to access their requests on time (Leach, 2014, p. 27).

                       In the case of Target Company when they opened their retail store the happy bubble quickly busted when their customers encountered empty shelves in their different stores. Additionally, they had limited product offerings in their retail stores especially the products that were mostly stocked by their retail stores in the USA like Cherry Coke soft drink. The store does operate on the principle that they are a one stop shop, but in the scenario of Canada this was not the case. It increased negative reviews from their customers resulting in a sharp declining in sales and a damaged reputation in the country (St. Louis, 2015).

                   The problem is attributed to the fact that their warehouse was located at a far point from the retail stores. The poor positioning of the warehouse delayed the arrival of the orders to their 122 retail stores in different parts of the country. Moreover, the company had not established any relationship with the suppliers in the nation. The lack of supplier relationship affected the speedy delivery of products into the stores; most of the suppliers operated on a cash basis as the retail store was new and had no credit track record in the nation. The aspect resulted in them being unable to stock their stores with the products needed within the predetermined time frame to satisfy their customers’ needs (St. Louis, 2015).

The last phase of the project cycle is closing. In the closing, the entire life cycle is evaluated to determine if the objectives that initiated the project have been met. In the case they have been fulfilled, we then conclude that the project is successful in the case they have not been met the project is termed as a failure (Kerzner, 2013, p. 17). In the case of Target Company as discussed in the paper the expansion project was a total failure and resulted in not only immense losses that amounted $ 7 billion but also damaged the reputation of the retail store (St. Louis, 2015).

          According to Johnson, Scholes & Whittington (2008), stakeholders are the individuals that have an interest in the operations of the organization. The stakeholders might be actively engaged in the project concerning its completion. Additionally, the stakeholders have the power to influence the project either positively or negatively.  In other words, they are the main drivers of projects as they ensure that the resources are required to carry out the project are readily available.

           In the modern project management, stakeholder engagement has taken the central role. They are more actively involved in the running of the projects in different areas. The involvement of stakeholders in the organizations is a show of corporate responsibility. The stakeholders include investors, employees, customers, suppliers, distributors among others. All of them benefit directly or indirectly from the successful completion of a project (Tammer, 2009, p.4).

             Based on the stakeholder discussion, when they are ignored in the implementation of a project the chance of failure is higher. This was the case in the Target Company global expansion project in Canada; the stakeholders were not actively involved, hence the huge amount of losses. The customers’ needs were not taken into consideration to determine the type of retail stores that they wanted (The Globe and Mall, 2017).

The company worked on the assumption that the name Target will be enough to sell their product and services to the new market. Additionally, the customers have different purchasing behaviors to that of their customers in Canada. Moreover, they failed to include the suppliers and the distributors in their Canadian expansion plan (Penny, 2015).

Communication

            In project communication management the focus is often concentrated on a seamless information flow between all the parties involved in running the project. The first process starts with them establishing the channels of communication to ensure that all the members involved in the project can relay their concerns. The response structure involved in the communication process should be decentralized to enable faster decision making (Heagney, 2016, p. 36).

            Communication plays a role in integrating all the aspects of the project and ensures that in the case a problem is detected in one sector of the project, there is a prompt response. The medium of communications and response to situations is identified. A streamlined communication in all instances leads to the success of the project as all the members involved are reading from the same script (Heagney, 2016, p. 36).

   Taking this into consideration, the Target Company expansion project plan in Canada there was a limited communication that hampered its success. There was a communication breakdown between the suppliers, distributors and the retail store operates. This caused most of the store shelves to lack most of the commodities (Sorensen, 2015).

          Additionally, the communication between the management in the USA and the people set up to handle the operations in Canada was clouded with a lot of lies. The reports that the USA Target team received showed that the stores were performing at a slow pace and everything was going according to plan. The time when the management came to investigate they found a deplorable situation in most of their stores. The aspect forced them to close their stores a clear sign that the project was a big failure for the retail store (Sorensen, 2015).

Risk Management

            Project risk management refers to all the processes that are involved in the identification, analysis, and control of risk. It involves concentration on increasing the positive results of the project while reducing the negative effects. The process involved in risk management entails risk identification, risk quantification, risk response development and risk response control (Pritchard & PMP 2014).

              The process of risk identification focuses on the determination of the risks that have a higher chance of affecting the project (Pritchard & PMP, 2014). Target Company focussed on the superficial risk aspects that were going to affect the launch of their retail store in Canada. They analyzed the competition in Canada and to outwit Wal-Mart retail store they believed purchasing a known company will give them some head start, but this was not the case as the project failed (Span, 2015).

                A risk development plan refers to the steps that have been created to manage threats when they occur. It does focus on the avoidance, acceptance, and mitigation (Moran, 2015, p. 18). There is a high possibility that the company lacked a risk response development plan. The reason for stating this arises from the fact that when they started incurring difficulties in; filling their stores, expanding the spaces, and offering the products at affordable prices like their retail stores in the USA they decided to throw the towel (Shaw, 2015).

             The last step in the risk management plan is the risk response control. The risk response entails the execution of ways to manage the risk process. When it comes to controlling risk the first step that the company should have taken is to reduce the number of stores (Schwalbe, 2015, p.23). The 122 stores were unmanageable and did play a major role in the failure of the project.

Conclusion

           In conclusion, for a project to be successful all the concepts of project management have to be taken into consideration. As discussed in the essay the failure of the project was due to lack of a risk management plan, communication process, and non-involvement of the stakeholders. Target Company failed to carry out a detailed project control when they launched their operations in Canada.

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