Creating A Business Case For Establishing A Target Store In The UK

Introduction to the Case

Project management is defined as the practice of initiating, planning, executing as well as controlling the work of the project team in order to achieve the goals for meeting various success criteria within the specified time (Binder 2016).  It is found that the entire technique of directing and controlling the project from the initiation phase to the project completion phase will generally be divided into number of phases that are generally elaborated below:

Project initiation phase: According to Conforto et al. (2014), initiation phase is considered as the starting phase for the project, which generally starts with the development of business case. It is found that appropriate research on the project feasibility is generally undertaken in this phase in order to check whether the project that is undertaken is feasible or not.  The project managers are generally responsible of determining the stakeholders for finishing the activities that are associated with the project. In addition to this, it is found that in this phase, the project manager helps in outlining the requirement as well as purpose of the entire project.

Project planning phase: It is opined by Binder (2016) that planning phase is found as one of the significant phase that generally plays a great role in successfully developing effective roadmap for the project so that each team members of the project will follow that roadmap during project execution. This phase of the project generally starts with goal setting and the two most popular methods that are generally used for setting the goal include CLEAR and SMART. Additionally, it is found that the project scope is mainly elaborated that further reflects on the cost, quality as well as on the time of the project.

Project execution phase: This is the project phase where all the deliverables of the project are generally developed as well as executed. The tasks that are generally executed within this phase includes team development, assigning project resources as well as execution of project management plan.

Project closure phase: This is the last phase of the project where performances as well as progress of the project are generally analyzed (Kerzner2017). It is found that the project managers generally use number of key performance indicators in order to determine whether the entire project is executed within the expected time or not.

The development in the field of project management has created number of approaches for managing the project. The different approaches of the project are generally compared below:

Critical chain: Drouin, Sankaran and Muller (2016) stated that this approach assists in utilizing resources properly during the execution of the project. It is found to be one of the longest sequences of activities that are mainly constrained due to the presence of different resources that are required for the project.

Traditional project management: Martens and Carvalho (2017) opined that with this approach the project is mainly divided into five phases including the planning, initiation, execution, monitoring and control as well as closure. It is considered one of the simplest approaches that uses Waterfall model.

Extreme project management: Mir and Pinnington (2014) stated that it is found to be an open approach when it is compared with the traditional approach of the project. This approach is used when the projects are quite uncertain.

Project Objectives

PRINCE2: On the other hand, it is opined by Joslin and Muller (2015) that PRINCE2 is one of the current version of project within the approach off controlled environments. It is defined as one of the process driven approach that generally helps in dividing the entire project into number of stages that generally requires to be monitored for making sure that the entire project gets finished within the expected budget and time.

Event chain methodology: This approach generally deals with the analysis of number of events and chains, which generally can create number of impact on the project. It is used when the results of the projects are quite uncertain.

Process based management: According to Martens and Carvalho (2017), this approach is mainly structured in a very much rigid way and thus it is generally used in increasing the flexibility as well as adaptations for different unforeseen type of developments.

 It is found that process based management is found as one of the best approach for the developing the Target store. This is mainly because with the help of this approach, the project managers will be capable of breaking the activities of the project into smaller tasks that further helps in enhancing flexibility as well as adaptations of the projects for various types of unforeseen developments.

The paper mainly reflects on one of the retailer named “Target”. It is found that the Canadian people were drawn by the lower prices of the retailer and as a result they cross over USA in order to grab their shopping. After reaching to the point of maturity, the retailer wanted to expand their business to Canada as their relationship with the people of Canada seemed logical. In the month of March 2013, the retailer expanded and reached to a peak of around 133 stores in more than one and half year. However, the business of the retailer in Canada suffered and this is mainly due to some of the reasons including failures to meet the customers expectation, lack of proper quality and situational analysis as well as due to lack of appropriate risk management strategies. In order to resolve the issue, the organization wanted to develop the target store by developing the supply chain.

The project objectives are listed below:

• To live up to the expectations of the Canadian customers.
• To undertake proper stakeholder as well as situational analysis
• To establish supply chain for the retailer

 Management of performance or quality can be generally referred as one of the process that helps in collecting, reporting as well as analyzing the information about the project quality (Pollack and Adler 2015).  The performance or quality management for the development of the Target store is reflected in the table that is provided below:

Quality item	Verification
	Yes	No
Does the expectations as well as needs of the project are met?	——-	No
Does the project undertake appropriate situational analysis as well as stakeholder analysis	——	No
Does a proper supply chain is developed for the project?	Yes	——
Does the progress of the project is analyzed after the completion of each phase?	Yes	——-

 Stakeholder analysis is one of the procedure that helps in assessing the stakeholders for analyzing their needs and requirements. It is mainly used in order to identify the key stakeholders of the project who generally have vested their proper interest on the challenges and issues of the project about which the stakeholders of the project are concerned (Drouin, Sankaran and Muller 2016).  The table that is provided below reflects on the power and interest of the stakeholders who are associated with the project.

Stakeholder	Power	Interest	Unique facts
Project manager	High	High	The project manager has high power for motivating the team members for finishing the work and their interest within the project is also high and therefore they undertake different activities for finishing the project.
Human resource manager	High	Low	The human resource manager has high power but their interest in the project is low as their only work is to recruit the employees for the project.
Project planner	High	High	The project planner has interest and power in the project and as a result they are able to finish the work of the project on time and guide other project team members.
Project team	Low	High	The project team has low power and high interest in the project as they can only execute the work that is assigned to them.
Risk manager	High	Low	The risk manager has high power and they are generally capable of analyzing the risks that are mainly associated with the project.
Quality analyst	Low	High	The quality analyst has low power and high interest within the project as they are generally responsible of managing the quality of the project
Financial manager	Low	High	The financial manager has low power and high interest as they are only responsible of managing the budget of the project
Operation manager	High	High	The operation manager has high interest and high power and thus they are generally responsible of managing the various functions and activities of the project. They are also responsible of guiding the team members.

Performance Management/Quality

The project activities for the development of the Target Store is provided in the picture below:

Figure 1: Project activities

(Source: Created by Author)

The resources that are required including the budget of the project is reflected in the figure below

Figure 2: Project budget

(Source: Created by Author)

Constraints

The project constraints are as follows:

Time:  The project must be completed within the time period of 157 days otherwise the project manager will face number of issues and challenges.

Budget: The project must be finished within the budget that is around $101,040.00. If the project manager does not able to finish the project within the expected budget then it can cause number of financial issues.

Scope: The project must follow the scope so that the project for development of the target store can get completed within the expected time and budget.

The table that is provided below reflects on the risks that are associated with the budget including the steps for mitigating the issues.

Risk	Description	Impact	Probability	Mitigation
Insufficient budget	Due to insufficient budget, the project manager can face number of financial challenges in finishing the project and thus the progress of the project can get obstructed.	High	High	It is very much necessary to estimate the budget of the project properly so that the entire project can get completed within that budget.
Unskilled employees	Due to insufficient skill, the project manager faces lot of difficulties and challenges in executing the activities of the project.	High	Medium	Skilled employees for the project must be hired.
Schedule slippage	Due to slippage of project schedule, the project manager faces lot of difficulty in finishing the entire project within the expected time.	High	High	The schedule of the project must be managed for finishing the entire task within the expected time and budget.
Improper analysis of project situation	Due to improper analysis of project situation, the project manager faces lot of difficulties in developing the target store.	Medium	High	It is very much necessary to analyze the situation of the project for finishing the project within the expected deadline.

 The project communication plan for developing the target store is provided in the table below:

Communication type	Purpose	Frequency	Vehicle
Project progress meeting	The project progress meeting is mainly arranged in order to discuss about the progress of the project.	Weekly	Face to face, conference
Kick off meeting	Kick off meeting is mainly arranged in order to elaborate the objectives and goals of the project.	Once	Face to face, Conference
Monthly meeting	Monthly meeting is arranged in order to discuss the budget that is utilized for finishing the project.	Monthly	Face to face, conference

 The possible failure or success factors that are associated with the project are mainly elaborated below:

Effective management: If the project is managed effectively and it is completed within the expected time by fulfilling the goals and objectives of the project then the project is considered to be successful otherwise the project manager will fail in achieving success.

Time: If the project gets completed within the time that is expected by the project manager then the project is considered to be successful otherwise the project will be considered as failure.

Cost: Cost management is one of the significant factor and if the project manager is able to manage the cost of the project properly then the project must be considered to be successful.

 The various types of considerations for future operations of the project are listed below:

 Proper development of supply chain: Proper supply chain development is required for meeting the expectations as well as needs of the project quite effectively.

Effective management of the project: If the necessary to manage the project effectively within the time and budget that is expected so that the project manager does not face much problem.

Proper assumption: It is very much necessary to make proper assumption so that the Target store will be developed effectively.

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