Project 3 At the Hard Rock Cafe, like many organizations, project management is a key planning tool. With Hard Rock’s constant growth in hotels and cafes, remodeling of existing cafes, schedling for Hard Rock !i"e concert and e"ent "enes, and planning the annal Rockfest, managers rely on project management techni#es and software to maintain schedle and $dget performance. %Withot &icrosoft 'roject,( says Hard Rock )ice*'resident Chris +omasso, %there is no way to keep so many people on the same page.( +omasso is in charge of the Rockfest e"ent, which is attended $y well o"er --,--- enthsiastic fans. +he challenge is plling it o within a tight /*month planning horizon. As the e"ent approaches, +omasso de"otes greater energy to its acti"ities. 0or the 1rst 2 months, +omasso +omasso pdates pdates his &3 'roject 'roject charts charts monthly. +hen at the 4*month mark, he he pdates his progress weekly. At the /* month mark, he checks and corrects his schedle twice a week. 5arly in the project management process, +omasso identi1es - major tasks 6called le"el 7 acti"ities in a work $reakdown strctre, or W839:; talent $ooking, ticketing, marketing<'R, marketing<'R, online promotion, tele"ision, show prodction, tra"el, sponsorships, sponsorships, operations, and merchandising. =sing a W83, each of these is frther di"ided into a series of s$tasks. +he following ta$le identi1es 74 of the major acti"ities and s$acti"ities, their immediate predecessors, and time estimates. +omasso enters all of these into the &3 'roject software. +omasso alters the &3 'roject docment and the time line as the project progresses. %>t’s okay to change it as long as yo keep on track,( he states.
+he day of the rock concert itself is not the end of the project planning. %>t’s nothing $t srprises. A $and not $eing a$le to get to the "ene $ecase of tra?c jams is a srprise, $t an @anticipated@ srprise. We had a helicopter on stand*$y ready to y the $and in,( says +omasso. Bn completion of Rockfest in ly, +omasso and his team ha"e a 2*month reprie"e $efore starting the project planning process again. Please turn in a paper of one to two pages (page counting does not include cover and reference list) discussing the following questions,
. >dentify the critical path and its acti"ities for Rockfest. How long does the project takeD
Acti"ity time 'roject
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7
+he critical path is A**5*0*J*B +he project completion time is 2E weeks. 7. >dentify some major challenges a project manager faces in e"ents sch as this one. +o plan thoroghly all aspects of the project, soliciting the acti"e in"ol"ement of all fnctional areas in"ol"ed, in order to o$tain and maintain a realistic plan that satis1es their commitment for performance. +o control the organization of manpower needed $y the project +o control the $asic technical de1nition of the project, ensring that QtechnicalQ "erss QcostQ trade*os determine the speci1c areas where optimisation is necessary. +o lead the people and organizations assigned to the project at any gi"en point in time. 3trong positi"e leadership mst $e exercised in order to keep the many disparate elements mo"ing in the same direction in a co*operati"e. +o monitor performance, costs and e?ciency of all elements of the project and the project as a whole, exercising jdgement and leadership in determining the cases of pro$lems and facilitating soltions +o complete the project on schedle and within costs, these $eing the o"erall standard $y which performance of the project manager is e"alated.
