Study of Dignity First Fund

Question: Discuss about the Study of Dignity First Fund. Answer: Introduction This project is based on providing homes to the homeless people in Queensland, Australia. This will require a suitable management plan that needs to be executed accurately in order to avoid excessive expenses and unwanted situations. In this project, homes will be built for the homeless people in the state of Queensland. It has been estimated from the survey that around 20,000 people are homeless in Queensland including children and families. The available budget for the project is $20,000,000. This report is based on preparing a suitable management plan for the project including some cost and budget estimations. Management Plan As per the objective of the project, several houses will be built for assisting the homeless people in Queensland, Australia. However, this will require a suitable management plan that needs to be executed accurately in order to avoid excessive expenses and unwanted situations. For the management plan, several factors are to be considered. These are follows. In Scope The following activities will be within the scope of the project. Survey of the total number of homeless men, women and children in the area where the project will be executed (for this project, it will be Queensland, Australia) Analysis of the requirements of the homes for the homeless people (single men and women, families and others will require different types of homes) Analysis and estimation of resources and labor required for the execution of the project Executing the project according to the plan Out of Scope The following factors will be out of scope for this project. Building of other utilities are out of scope of this project Supply of food and other domestic requirements are out of scope of this project Construction of an education system (school) for the homeless children are out of scope of the project Work Plan Based on the in scope, out scope activities and the available budget, the following work plan is to be executed. According to the project objective, homes will be built for the homeless people in the state of Queensland. It has been estimated from the survey that around 20,000 people are homeless in Queensland including children and families. The available budget for the project is $20,000,000. Hence, this budget is to be evenly adjusted for completing all the deliverables of the project. Of the 20,000 people, there are 3000 single men or women and 5000 families of 2, 3 or more members. Hence, 3000 single room homes and 5000 multiple room homes are required. Estimating there are 8000 homes to be built, a suitable area of land is to be procured. It has to be ensured that this area is well connected to public utility services and transport. Moreover, there should be adequate supply of food and water as well as opportunities for work. While building the homes, it is to be ensured that the homes are built with sufficiently good quality of materials. Human Resource Management Plan In any project, a human resource management plan is necessary in order to manage the people involved in the execution of the project. The following human resource management plan can be followed in order to execute the project in the right manner. Upper Management Team (Higher Authority) This is the highest level of the project management system consisting of the project manager, chief accountant, human resources executive (HR) and project evaluators. The project manager is responsible for preparation of the project plan and handing the plan to all the related members of the project. Moreover, the project manager is responsible for approval of any activity related to the project. The chief accountant is responsible for management and allocation of the resources to the project working team. The human resource executive is responsible for appointing all the workers who will work on the project including on-site manager, engineers, house builders and others. Finally, the project evaluators will have to keep tabs on the progress of the project and send daily progress reports to the project manager. Project Execution Management Team This management team is responsible for executing the project on the selected site and consists of engineers (civil and electrical), on-site managers and working team leaders. The civil engineers will prepare blueprints of all the homes that are to be built over the procured land and the electrical engineers will have to prepare a plan for the supply of electricity in the homes. On-site managers will convey daily work orders to the working team leaders. Moreover, in case of requirement of extra resources, the on-site managers will have to report to the project manager for procurement of those resources. On-site managers will also be responsible for procurement of building resources like cement, bricks, stone chips, mechanical instruments and others. The working team leaders will have to lead the workers in the building of the homes according to the prepared project plan. Workers and Volunteers The workers are responsible for building the homes according to the blueprints on the selected piece of land. These workers include masons, electrical technicians, plumbers and mechanical equipments experts. Some volunteers will also be involved for setting up the safety measures and other utility services for the workers during the construction phase. However, random people will not be appointed in any role. The higher authority will be selected among the experienced project managers and other personnel from the company. They will analyze the requirements of the human resources of the project and will appoint workers and other personnel in respective posts after thorough interview and discussion sessions. Cost Management Plan Cost management plan is an essential plan in any project and hence, a suitable cost management plan is necessary. There are two methodologies for the preparation of cost management plan. One of them is bottom up spending cost approach. In this approach, the aggregate spending plan is assessed and then apportioned to each of the divisions in the overall plan of the project. For example, if the bottom up approach is utilized as a part of this project, costs for each of the exercises in the project will be assessed one by one. After every one of the expenses is evaluated, all of the expenses estimation will be added to create a final assessed spending plan. This spending estimation report will be sent to the higher authority (project manager) for endorsement and assignment of the resources. There is another approach called top down approach. In this specific approach, at initially, the general evaluated spending plan is figured from estimation of various costs. After that, from the general spending plan, resources are apportioned to every office for spending in their exercises. The fundamental disadvantage of this approach is that the general spending plan is evaluated before real estimation of resources required for each of the exercises. Thus, over the span of some occasion or action, the apportioned resource may get utilized completely. For this, additional resources are required and this costs a considerable measure of time and also additional resources. Since, the overall budget is already fixed in this project, the top down approach is to be followed. According to the project report, the total allocated budget for the project is $20,000,000. This budget will be divided and allocated to the working departments of the projects as well as the salary department for payment of wages to the workers and other external personnel. The following cost management plan is to be followed for this project. Budget Activity $20,000,000 Overall Budget -$10,000,000 Procurement of Building Materials (cement, bricks, stone chips) -$500,000 Rents for Mechanical Equipments like Crane, Mortar, Cement Blender, Welder and Others -$6,000,000 Land Costs -$2,500,000 Wages $1,000,000 Remaining Balance The remaining balance is estimated to be $1,000,000. This balance is needed to be kept so that some amount of resources can be allocated to a department in case of urgent extra expenses or accidents. All the values in the table are estimated and may differ based on the progress of the project. Cost Baseline and Funding Requirements: Cost Baseline For the preparation of the cost baseline graph, a basic cost expense planning is necessary. This is shown in the following table. Cost Time $500,000 1st Month $700,000 2nd Month $4,300,000 3rd Month $10,000,000 4th Month $3,000,000 5th Month $500,000 6th Month Figure: Cost Baseline Graph (Source: Created by Author) In the cost baseline graph, the expenses have been plotted against the month of project activity. The project is estimated to be completed in six months and the project costs will be managed accordingly. From the overall $20,000,000 budget, it has been estimated that $19,000,000 will be spent on the course of six months in which, the 4th and 5th months will encounter maximum expenses as they coincide with the construction phase of the homes. The graphical representation gives an estimated idea regarding estimations in each month. Funding Requirements The funding requirements call for proper allocation of funds according to the needs of each activity in the project. If there is no parity in the funding to each department, the project will not be successful. For instance, providing a department with excess funds than required will result in loss of resource while providing insufficient funds to a department will result in incomplete works in the project. In order to avoid this situation, a suitable funding structure is to be followed. For this particular project, the funding structure to be followed is as follows. The overall budget for the project is $20,000,000. This budget will have to be segmented and allocated to the different departments of the projects and some amount will have to be saved for cases of emergency. The project manager will analyze the estimated resources for each department and will prepare a funding requirement plan. After the funds are ready to be allocated, the accountant and HR manager will allocate respective parts of funds to the team leaders of the working teams. However, whole amount of funds should not be allocated together. The funds should be made available phase by phase after project progress is reviewed by the project manager. In cases of emergency requirements of funding, the approval of the project manager will be needed before funds are handed over to a department. Conclusion In this project, a suitable management plan has been provided. This includes the project management plan, human resource management plan and the cost estimation plan. 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