QUESTION
Project Proposal: Installing solar devices on rooftop by Think delta
Assignment Guidelines
ANSWER
Project Management Plan on Installation of Solar Devices on Rooftops
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Purpose of Project Management Plan
New Zealand has been developing rapidly and is about to be counted in the list of developed nations. With this, the demand for energy remains on the rise. As such, there is an increased need to focus on renewable sources of energy for the nation. This will have long term impacts with numerous benefits such as reduced costs on energy production, pollution less environment among others.
The New Zealand authorities have decided to install solar panels on roof tops of residential areas as the first step towards achieving the above goal. The project will be handled by Think Delta, which is an innovative infrastructure development company. The project management plan will explain various processes involved in this installation project.
Following are the features of this project management plan:
- The Project Management Plan will serve as the official document for all the stakeholders including the clients, the New Zealand government, and the project team managers and workers.
- The plan contains implementation practices, budget and timeline of the project.
- Project Manager holds the responsibility and authority to execute all processes as said in this plan and other subsidiary plans.
- The plan will also be used to monitor the activities according to time and resources used, as well as evaluate the performance of the workforce.
- This plan may be timely revised after meetings of the stakeholders under the project manager, to improve the efficiency of the project. This will be done every two weeks, or in critical situations. [1.]
The installation project has been divided into four phases to help define the scope efficiently. These are:
- Project management: is the first phase including the contract to be signed between the two parties involved, budget and schedule, and all other relevant details
- Pre-construction: includes conducting surveys of the area in which panels are to be installed and recording all necessary data, and obtaining government permissions by explaining the project idea and benefits of it
- Construction: involves actual installation of the solar panels mount, the panels and aligning them according to the data collected in the pre-construction phase
- Post construction: involves completion of the construction report to be finally submitted to find the efficiency of the project, as well as completing the payment procedures to close the contract deal
The elements which are kept out of the scope of the project is the cost of human labour required for the project, since it depends on which parties are selected for the job and their pricing, and the preparation of area of installation which may require cutting trees, and obtaining relevant permissions for the same.
The project requires certain conditions to be met before beginning work. For this project, first is obtaining relevant government permissions for installation of the solar panels. Also, permission is also required to trim certain trees which are on the way of sunlight in the targeted area. Lastly, according to the government rules, daily wage workers are to be hired for basic processes and their procurement is assumed to be completed before the project.
2. Constraints:
The primary constraint for solar energy is the amount of available sunlight. The output varies with the cloud cover, area of the targeted roof and the length of day. Also, solar panels are generally poor in delivering heavy power which may be required while starting certain household appliances.
As described in the project scope, the installation project will be done in four phases. Leaving the fourth phase since it only involves construction report and payments, the other three phases will be carried out as per the following plan: [2.]
- Preparation of designs and signing of contracts:
- The installation project will be promoted to aware the citizens of this opportunity. This may be done through print media and banners.
- Designs for solar panel installations will be made according to the target area to maximise output
- Interested residents will be given contracts detailing them about the costs, time and benefits of the project
- Once the contract is signed, the project will go to the next phase. This phase is expected to be completed in 10 days.
- Installation of the solar panels:
- As assumed, the area will be clear for installation of the solar panels.
- The base mount and other basic work will be done by daily wage labours, while the skilled work will be done by the company team, under the guidance of managers.
- This phase will be the longest and is expected to take 30 days.
- Testing the installation:
- The angles and exposure to sunlight will be checked by the project team
- The output of installation will be monitored over a week to ensure smooth running of the systems. The entire phase is expected to last 10 days.
The implementation of the project will require the solar panels, their mounts, cables, housing units and testing equipment. The entire process is expected to complete within 50 days with a deadline of two months. The systematic procedure with deadlines will ensure timely and efficient completion of the project. [3.]
The following Gantt chart depicting the phases of the project will be used to monitor the activities of the project. [4.]
The Project manager will be responsible to keep track of timely completion of various activities of the project. He will direct various departments under him for the same. He will be using Gantt charts, updated on a daily basis to monitor the project.
The project will have following milestones, grouped by the phases:
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- Phase 1: Preparation phase – 10 days
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1
Promotion of the project
_
2
Preparation of designs
7 days
3
Signed contracts with clients
3 days
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- Phase 2: Installation – 30 days
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1
Base preparation
7 days
2
Mounts
5 days
3
Solar panel installation
7 days
4
Cables and connections
5 days
5
Housing Boards
6 days
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- Phase 3: Testing – 10 days
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1
Running tests
6 days
2
Analysis
2 days
3
Rectification
2 days
Responsibilities in schedule management:
- Project manager: Overall responsible for monitoring, and keeping the activities on track
- Project team: ensuring that they complete the tasks assigned to them on time
- Project stakeholders: aid the team and project manager to make key decisions and suggest ideas during team meetings.
The schedule will be constantly updated after every two weeks to keep track of activities and any delay on which immediate action is required.
The estimated expense for the project is as follows:
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Load Pattern
Load (WP)
Cost (NZ$)
30 Kw roof top system
3000 W
97845.60
Government subsidy 30%
29353
Cost after subsidy
68490
Registration charges
1000
Base construction
750
Wiring and other installations
500
Total (after subsidy) =
70,740
These estimates are done without taking into account the cost involved for the above assumptions.
The Project manager for the installation project will be responsible for monitoring the cost of the activities. At the end of two weeks, he will monitor the expenses done against the pre-identified plan. In case of minor changes of the order of five percent, he will decide the magnitude of action required, whereas in case of major changes of ten percent or more, a meeting with the stakeholders should be conducted to decide on further course of action in order to bring the cost down.
The budget will also be monitored after completion of each phase, such that if any phase exceeds the plan, the other phases will be acted on appropriately as decided by the team of project managers and stakeholders. All the changes made to the budget will be noted in the revised project management plan every two weeks.
The project aims to deliver a high quality alternative source of energy for the residents of New Zealand. The product will be ISO 9001:2008 certified and will be meet the best standards. For achieving this, Quality Assurance and Quality Control methods are to be set.
The Project manager will be responsible for maintaining the quality of work throughout the project. He will review the processes on a daily basis and the same will be discussed in meetings with the stakeholders. In cases of identification of bad quality work, immediate action will be taken with proper diversion of resources to meet the standards.
Also, during the third phase of the project, a quality specialist team will run the solar panel installations for a week and track the output of the system as well as look for errors. They will make sure that the customers and stakeholders are satisfied with the work. The team will utilize tools to measure the outputs and methodologies to keep track of processes daily throughout the week for achieving the quality control. Variables like power output, performance of the system with the requirement and variation over the entire day may be recorded and analysed for the same. After the completion of the project, specialists may inspect the systems regularly for smooth functioning of the system. [5.]
The installation project will require both skilled and unskilled labours. The unskilled labour will be required to transfer the raw materials, construction of base mounts for the panel systems and other minor activities. As per the New Zealand government law, these type of activities need to be given to daily wage workers. As such, the same may be procured before starting the second phase of the project by the procurement team. This may be done by contacting local labour associations. This set of work may be monitored by the team head of labours, who will be answerable to the Project manager.
Specialised workforce will be required for the project for a number of activities from conducting survey of the area which will help in the designing process, directing and helping unskilled labour in the installation process, and for monitoring the process after installation for quality control. This set of workers should have at least five years of experience in this field so that the quality standards are maintained. They may be hired from different associations, which will work under the management of Think Delta team and the Project manager.
Every worker will work under subsidiary managers of that particular phase, and those will be monitored by the Project manager to ensure proper completion of the project.
The Solar panel installation project will require human resource and technical systems. As such, there is no need for a separate team assigned for procurement. The technical systems including the solar panels, mounts, cables among others will be procured by the Think Delta team guided by the Project Manager, and aided by the stakeholders. The human resource will also be procured under supervision of Project manager by contacting labour associations. The skilled labour will be procured by Think Delta team.
The project manager will ensure that all the necessary requirements for the project are available to his team, including the necessary systems, tools for installation and monitoring and sufficient manpower. In case it is not, he may initiate procurement procedures for the same.
In cases when extra procurement activities arise, the final authority lies with the project manager. However, if the activity raises the budget of the project above ten percent, he may organize a meeting with the stakeholders for consultation regarding this procurement and its alternatives.
During the execution of a project, several conflicts may arise between different parties involved in the project. In this case, the project manager holds responsibility to negotiate between them and resolve the issues. In this project, following issues may arise:
- The government may not give permissions for clearance of the target area
- Labour association may not agree with the demands of the project manager and his team
- The residents may want to modify the design or are not satisfied with the result of the project
In these cases, the Project manager will take responsibility to sort these issues, which may also be discussed in the bi-weekly meetings. However, in case of a major conflict, he may take consultation from the entire team of stakeholders to solve it out.
The Project manager may adopt following tactics to negotiate an issue:
- Confront: Talk with the defaulting party, according to him, and confront them to rectify the problem
- Separate: provide different work timings or different work activities altogether
- Compromise: let the two parties sort it out by doing a compromise
- Withdraw: remove a serious defaulter
- The government: it desires to improve the quality of life of the citizens by promoting renewable energy. They will want effective functioning of the solar systems, without harming the environment during and due to installation
- The residents: desires cheaper and environmentally clean source of energy
- The company: timely and cost effective installation of the system and completion of the project
The project aims to deliver industry standard and compliant solar energy systems, with ISO 9001:2008 quality standard. The project will be compliant to the government permissions and standards as well as the standards of power output, heat generated, lifespan etc. of the solar system and the company will ensure the delivery of best product to the residents of New Zealand.
References
- PMBoK 5th edition. Retrieved from http://suncoastpmi.org/images/downloads/BusinessAnalysis/pmbok_5th_edition.pdf
- Guideline for PMP. Available online at https://www.projectmanagementdocs.com/template/project-planning/project-management-plan/#axzz5cs62fObz
- Guideline for PMP. Available online at https://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/biens-property/sngp-npms/ti-it/ervcpgpm-dsfvpmpt-eng.html
- Gantt chart. Available online at https://www.officetimeline.com/make-gantt-chart/microsoft-word
- Guideline for PMP. Available online at https://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/workgroup/commons/MN_Geospatial_Commons_Project_Plan_v1.3.pdf
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