Assignment title: Information
Assignment 2 – MBA670 – Project Management
Assignment Brief:
Prior to attempting the assignment questions please read the following
material which can be found as a link on your VLE or within the EBook:
http://edugen.wileyplus.com/edugen/courses/crs5658/simulations/vc/index.html#overview
Welcome to Cruise International
Overview of Cruise International
Mission Statement which includes:
Departments
Guest's Survey Form
Activities for Telemedicine System Implementation
Embarkation Process
Guidelines for assignment
This is an individual assignment
Ground your answer in relevant theory
Plagiarism and reproduction of someone else’s work as your own will be
penalized
Make use of references, where appropriate – Use Harvard or APA referencing
method.
Late submission implies a deduction of 10 marks per day
Structural elements should include an introduction, main body, and a conclusion
Weight – 50%
Word count guidance: 2500 words
Type of assignment: Essay
Start / Finish : Week 5
Learning Outcome Assessed: 1,2,3,4
Chapter 16: Project Management at Cruise International, Inc.
Details of Your Next Assignment
Cruise International, Inc. wants to launch a new onboard telemedicine procedure and
the project is time-critical. You need to provide project management assistance to
Susan Petersen in CII's Marketing Department as well as to Dr. Janelle Black at
Corporate Medical Services. Comments from your meeting with Susan follow.
"Hello, I'm Susan Petersen. Here's the project I have in mind for you. We have a new
telemedicine procedure ready to be introduced onboard our fleet of ships. This is part of
CII's efforts to make passengers feel more comfortable with the onboard medical care
and will be featured in our next publicity blitz. It is also much needed help that we have
promised the medical personnel working onboard. The procedure requires theacquisition, installation, and marketing of a new telemedicine communications system.
Dr. Janelle Black is responsible for its implementation. She has given me a list of
activities that need to be completed before the new system can be implemented. There
are four stages:
1. develop the criteria and systems
2. write the simplified operating instructions for using the system
3. order the hardware to support the system
4. Install the system.
5. Training of staff
At that time, the training of the medical personnel needs to be completed. When the
equipment has been installed onboard the Friendly Seas I and the medical
personnel are sufficiently trained, we will have a four week test period before
launching the new system and beginning installation in all of our ships. Take a look
at Activities for Telemedicine System Implementation."
"Since we are anxious for the project to be completed as soon as possible, we have
the option of paying additional costs to speed up some of the activities. For example,
the normal time required for the communications contractor to finalize criteria can be
reduced by one week at an additional cost of $1500. Another example is that
equipment could be shipped by UPS Ground and save one week. This would cost
an additional $2,000. Using FedEx would save two weeks but cost an additional
$4,500. The training period for the nurses can be reduced by one week if Human
Resources allows the nurses to work overtime at an additional cost of $1,200. For
the criteria development, $3,500 in overtime can be saved if this activity is allowed to
take five weeks to complete."
Assignment Questions :
1. Determine the absolute shortest length of time in which the telemedicine project
can be completed if none of the activities are crashed.
2. Determine the shortest length of time the project can be finished if activities on
the critical path are crashed.
3. Calculate the additional cost resulting from crashing all the activities possible.
4. Explain how you can minimize the additional cost of crashing the project while
completing the project in the same amount of time as determined in question 2.