Running Head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT PORTFOLIO

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PORTFOLIO

Baker Bros. Jewellery Limited

1/12/2023
University of Bedfordshire
Mihai Banica - 1820078
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Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................................2

1. Project time management...................................................................................................................3

1.1 Network diagram and critical path analysis.....................................................................................3

1.2 Activity list for marketing initiatives...............................................................................................5

1.3 Resource allocation and acquisition management, including resource loading and resource

levelling..................................................................................................................................................7

2. Critical discussion and reflection of the lessons learnt from the project...........................................9

a. Review of lessons from the project....................................................................................................9

b. Learning’s from working in a group................................................................................................11

c. Reflection of individual learning......................................................................................................12

Conclusion............................................................................................................................................12

References........................................................................................................................................14
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Introduction

Project management planning can be contemplated as a formal and approved

document that defines how the project is executed, monitored, as well as controlled

(Bondarenko et al. 2018; Xie, Li and Xu 2021). The chosen live project for Baker Bros.

Jewellery Limited (BBJL) is the foundation for the project management plan. The business

specializes in hand-selected diamonds of the greatest quality to guarantee sparkle at an

amazing price. The company's target market includes people who live a luxury or designer

lifestyle and have disposable money. The age range of the website's audience was 35 to

54, with a 60/40 split between men and women. The target audiences include those

interested in news, politics, shoppers or value shoppers, as well as sports and fitness. The

following project plan will be centered on expanding the client base through e-commerce

website optimization and future-proofing so that the business can provide customers with

rich experiences through enhancing user experience and customer journeys.

The BBJL's project plan is geared toward the execution of suggested marketing

measures as well as actions to grow the clientele. The project plan's potential deliverables

include marketing efforts and initiatives to increase customer base for persons aged

between 20 to 30 years old, improve the customer base, and future-proof the e-commerce

website. The project management plan considers project time management to evaluate and

create a timetable in addition to a deadline for project completion. The project plan includes

a critical path analysis, a network diagram, and a list of project activities. In order to enable

resource loading and leveling, the strategy also includes a discussion of resource allocation

and acquisition management. The study will further examine individual learning from project

work as well as lessons learned for the project by reviewing lessons learned from the

website development project. The report includes the results of the plan, including a

schedule, resources, and a list of project tasks.

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1. Project time management

1.1 Network diagram and critical path analysis

The project network diagram serves as a visual idea of the project plan that

describes the relationships between the project activities included in the plan through a

sequence of connected arrows and boxes (Calp and Akcayol 2018; Ford and Lyneis 2020).

It demonstrates how the project tasks are organized, and project management must

accelerate the execution phase. It is crucial for this project management plan since it helps

the project teams see the tasks they must do during the plan. It is given crucial project

context as it seeks to define the core aspects of task duration, project sequencing, and

dependencies.

Network diagram, critical path analysis and the Gantt chart are made just for

marketing initiatives section.

Figure 1: Network Diagram

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The analysis of critical paths is a method for managing projects that can outline the

project activities necessary to complete the assignment, the time required to complete each

project activity, and the connections between project activities (Pellerin and Perrier 2019;

Ballesteros-Pérez, Larsen and González-Cruz 2018). Apart from that, the longest sequence

of project tasks completed on schedule is considered the critical route from a project

management standpoint (Filippetto, Lima and Barbosa 2021; Kerzner 2022). They can

prioritize the project-related tasks by ranking them, ensuring that complicated tasks receive

the necessary attention. Additionally, it can reduce delays caused by the team skipping

important project duties (Meredith et al. 2020; Pellerin, Perrier and Berthaut 2020).

Likewise, the following path describes the shortest time to complete the website

development project for the jewelers concisely.

Figure 2: Critical path analysis

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1.2 Activity list for marketing initiatives

ID Activity Duratio
n Predecessor
s
1. Optimization of SEO 20 days 0
1
1. launch Google Merchant 25 days 1.1
2
1. launch social media content 15 days 1.1
3
1. launch new brands 30 days 1.3
4
1. Optimize newsletter 15 days 1.2
5 audience
1. Website design 15 days 1.5
6
1. Architecture design 20 days 1.4
7
1. Improvement in side 15 days 1.6
8 performance
1. Prototype design 25 days 1.8
9

Table 1: Activity list for improvement of the jeweler segment of the company

GANTT CHART
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Figure 3: Gantt chart

According to the above Gantt chart, Baker Bros. Jewelry Limited's project to execute

marketing efforts and an online store contains below phases.

 Optimizing SEO by improving the web content regularly, using alt tags and

introducing links on the webpage

 Launch Google Merchant by connecting the online shop to automatically add the

products, so the products can be present on apps like Search, Maps, YouTube and

more when customers search for company’s promotions

 Launch Social Media Content by adding emoticons, as well as teasers, slogans and

wordplay to increase costumers engagement with various objects, including product

or service offerings (Dolan et al., 2019)

 Launch of new brands from a digital marketing perspective involves contacting and

promoting the products through online Influencers which might become long-term

customers, partners, and bloggers (Digital, 2020)

 Optimizing newsletter audience

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 Website design is focusing on the architecture design, prototype design, and

enhancement of the e-commerce website's performance is part of building the

website following the project client's specifications.

The project planning is centered on determining the primary needs, developing a timeline,

and planning risks and changes for expanding the clientele. The market analysis entails

interviewing the target audiences and reporting the business requirements to create the

online store. The website's final development phase considers the user interface, content

generation and database installation.

1.3 Resource allocation and acquisition management, including resource loading and resource

levelling

The resource loading procedure in project management involves matching the total

number of staff hours to the project schedule (Tirkolaee et al. 2019; Chen et al. 2018).

Additionally, the project team members are given a portion of the project's work to do, and

they are given additional portions of the work to do until they have completed 100% of the

hourly work week (Klimek 2021; de Andrade, Martens and Vanhoucke 2019). Once the

project team reaches 100%, no more extra work is to be scheduled for them:

Resource Name Hourly Work

Project Manager 224 hrs

Identify business requirements 32 hrs

Develop planning document 24 hrs

Scope statement 40 hrs

Scheduling 24 hrs
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Requirement specifications 104 hrs

Budget Director 8 hrs

Plan changes 8 hrs

Website designer 216 hrs

Use cases 24 hrs

Prototype design 40 hrs

Page load speed 40 hrs

Embedded video 24 hrs

Google review widget 40 hrs

User interface 48 hrs

Database implementation 80 hrs

Marketing Manager 232 hrs

Interview of the target audiences 128 hrs

Optimisation of SEO 56 hrs

Launch social media content 16 hrs

Optimize newsletter audiences 32 hrs

IT Manager 160 hrs

Risk planning 16 hrs

Architecture design 24 hrs

Implementation of desktop mega

32 hrs
menu

360 product images 48 hrs

Industry award recognition 40 hrs

Website Developer 192 hrs

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Rollover images 16 hrs

Improve mobile navigations 40 hrs

Google tagging 80 hrs

Content creation 56 hrs

Marketing Consultant 96 hrs

Reporting requirements 16 hrs

Launch Google Merchant 32 hrs

Launch new brands 16 hrs

Improvement in the site

32 hrs
performance

Table 2: Resource and time

Resource leveling is necessary for project managers to comprehend the project's

crucial component (Rostami, Creemers and Leus 2018; Olivieri et al. 2019). When

resources are consumed, resource leveling signals that the project's start and end dates

should be changed to prevent conflicts. As for the discussed project, a total time of 1128

hours will be required by the combined resources. In the discussion context, all overworked

resources are properly leveled for better distinction.

2. Critical discussion and reflection of the lessons learnt from the project

a. Review of lessons from the project

The project plan is about the marketing initiatives and e-commerce website for Baker

Bros. Jewellery Limited. The main behind the project is to enhance customer experience
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and ensure that customer base gets increased. The lessons learnt from the project are as

given below:

1. The project being related to development of e-commerce website was broken down

into sprints so that the work could be manageable. The pre-requisites for the website

were decided on the first note and then work proceeded with. A proper discussion

needs to be done on the features of the website before proceeding with the tasks or

the activities in the project.

2. The most challenging part was that of coding and it was ensured that much time is

invested in it. The final results are dependent highly on this and thus in no way it

could be avoided. Every stakeholder needs to be involved highly in the project to get

an understanding of their expectations from this website and how it needs to be

developed with the exact features that meant to be(Kerzner2022). This is a crucial

step as after this only the coding will be done in a proper way.

3. Communication is something essential and thus project meetings were focused on.

The project meetings are to be conducted on a timely basis so that there is no gap

left in communication. Frequent or rather meetings at the right intervals will help

avoid unnecessary chaos in the later stages of the project. Being a website

development project there are many facets of it and thus miscommunication can

mean derailment from the main track of the project.

4. Changes requested at any stage of the project had to be backed by proper

justifications (Kerzner2022). Just demanding changes will not be accepted as that

means keeping demands maybe those that are just delaying the project and not in

any way related to the project. Meeting the project goals is a stringent requirement

and disgracing from it cannot be accepted. It is a lesson learnt that everybody should
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have the scope to come up with their suggestions in regard of this project but every

suggestion should be evaluated in terms of applicability in the context of the project.

5. It was also understood from the project that proper use of project management tools

is something that helps in better handling the activities. Most important thing is

maintaining the schedule and keeping the track of the ongoing status and no

compromise can be done in this case (Barronand Barron2022). In such a project

environment it is needed that a visual representation be provided so that there is

transparency maintained in their entire project life cycle. This will mean that

everyone involved will get a clear picture of the project activities and the proceedings

happening in the case. Clarity in the project activities is much needed.

b. Learning’s from working in a group

Working in a group is a challenge as maintaining your individuality you need to

contribute maximum to team work. There needs to be proper balance between individual

suggestions and team wise thought process so that proper decisions are made. Trusting

fellow team members is much needed to ensure that the work environment is friendly and

positive. There is a need to be specific with human networking when handling such

projects. In no way should personal matters hinder the professional bonding. Personal and

professional matter should be separated for better performance as a team. Conflict

management is another major factor when working in a team(Wideman2022). There are

high chances of conflicts happening in the project environment owing to the factor that

everyone is coming from different background and culture. Handling team conflicts is a

much-needed attribute in an individual working in a team. To ensure that the project

meetings do not get boring and everyone involved is pushed to give his 100 percent,
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different modes of information dissemination be known. In team meetings, presentations,

discussion forums, chat rooms and other such activities need to be included ensuring that it

is engaging and not boring and monotonous. I realised that when working in a group it is

needed that all should have the scope to show their talent. Work should be divided based

on the fact as to who does which thing perfectly. It has to be made a point that proper

tracking of the project activities be done so that no one lags behind. There has to be a

helping attitude towards everyone ensuring that all in the team make progress in the same

pace. Discussions should be fostered at every stage of the project as this can help address

any miscommunication and solve issues that in the long run can bother highly.

Communication skills are much needed and this is a prime thing to put up proper team

work. Opening up with the team helps develop a healthy relationship and that in turn affects

the project results highly. This is something to be done and also encouraged. The team

members need to understand their strengths and act as per it. They are to be specific with

the completion of the tasks and duties that are given to them.

c. Reflection of individual learning

I have learnt a lot from this project. I always had this notion that planning is a key to

successful execution of any project. This project experience just strengthened my belief in

compact planning and scheduling. Prioritizing the tasks is something to be done to ensure

that in the project stages important activities do not get ignored at any cost. Then again it is

always to be remembered that each task that is complex in nature should be broken down

into smaller parts so that it is easy to handle the tasks. The progress being made by the

team members should be tracked in a simultaneous manner so that everyone can be on the

same page throughout the project life cycle. I will also say that after doing this project may

patience level has drastically got enhanced. Communicating with the team, ensuring that

everyone is listened to is something that takes much patience level. Certainly, I have now
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become more patient than before. A greatest learning for me is that one should be

disciplined when working on any project and ensure to complete the tasks mindfully. It has

to be agreed to that much was learnt in the journey but the value of being punctual and

diligent at work understood better. Communication is a key factor when working and team

and is a determinant of the level of trust that is built among the team members.

Conclusion

The project conducted and the report developed on it suggests that time

management is a necessary thing when handling any project. Irrespective of the nature of

the project it has to be agreed to that proper methods and planning should be there when

going to conduct any project. Project management tools need to be chosen wisely and it be

ensured that every tool that is used adds value to the project. Scheduling and tracking are

the main activities that need to be prioritized. The project plan needs to include a critical

path analysis, a network diagram, and a list of project activities. In order to enable resource

loading and levelling, the strategy needs to include a discussion of resource allocation and

acquisition management. The significance of project management tools have been

understood. Such as the project network diagram serves as a visual idea of the project plan

that describes the relationships between the project activities included in the plan through a

sequence of connected arrows and boxes. It is crucial for this project management plan

since it helps the project teams see the tasks they must do during the plan. Then again, the

importance of team work and its impact on the project results figured as well. When working

in a team some factors such as communication, trust between the team members and

others need to be understood and kept in mind. Stakeholder engagement has to be good

as well to ensure that all decisions taken in the project are in the direction of achieving the

main goal. The project plan's potential deliverables includedmarketing efforts and initiatives

to increase customer base, improve the customer base, and future-proof the e-commerce
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website. The project management plan considered project time management to evaluate

and create a timetable in addition to a deadline for project completion. All this was kept in

mind throughout to ensure that the ultimate result is obtained.

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