1. Project Schedule
Use Goods Company Inc. HRM Standardization Project. This WBS will serve as your starting
point. Further, we will use this WBS to understand how the primary project constraints (scope,
schedule and cost) are linked together and help us establish the baselines for our project. With
the scope baseline already created, the objective of this task is to create the schedule baseline.
Were determining how long it will take to deliver this projects scope. In other words, were
building the projects schedule.
Here's the summary of the steps required:
1. Create the structure of your schedule
2. Estimate the durations of the work
3. Sequence the work
4. Add milestones
5. Assign human resources
6. Identify the projects critical path Detailed instructions:
1. Create the structure of your schedule Use WBS to create the structure of your schedule in MS
Project.
2. Estimate the duration of the work Recall the estimating techniques in use today. We
commonly look for similar projects that were conducted in the past and adjust the durations for
the circumstances of our current project.
Since you dont have the ability to rely on past projects, I will not be critiquing the individual
estimates you make. However, your schedule must have a total project duration of 120 days (this
is 6 months assuming there are 4 weeks in a month and 5 working days in a week). This duration
applies to all 3 projects in our Case Study.
3. Sequence the work Some of the deliverables cant be started until others are finished. We refer
to this as dependency relationships. As you build your schedule, consider the nature of the work
being performed. Also, recall that project management work occurs throughout the project so be
sure to sequence this work appropriately. Create at least 5 logical dependencies in the MS
Projects predecessor column.
4. Add milestones
Milestones are markers that help us determine if were on track. They signify the completion of a
major deliverable.
In determining your milestones, think about the work you would want to celebrate with your
team and the communications you would have with stakeholders about major accomplishments.
Recall that the milestones you add are included in the requirement to have at least 50 lines in
your schedule.

2. 5. Assign human resources We want clear roles and responsibilities on our project. This is
critical in getting work done.
Assume you have a team of at least 10 people.
Create a resource sheet using role names like Senior Analyst, Junior Analyst, Project Manager,
Project Coordinator and Trainer. Ill leave it to you to research 5 more common role title in
project delivery
. Identify the capacity they will have to work on the project and assign a reasonable hourly rate
. Ensure all the tasks in your schedule have a resource assigned.
6. Identify the projects critical path The critical path is the series of activities that drive the
projects completion date. They allow us to effectively manage our newly created schedule. Use
the softwares functionality to highlight the series of the activities that determine the projects
completion date.
Additional task Notes:
1. Your task includes three parts:
a) Your modified WBS, if required. (PDF format is acceptable)
b) Project File (mpp format; NOT a PDF)
c) Screen Shot which shows your full name as shown below: Good Products inc. ("Good
Products") is a very successful UK based multinational corporation (MNC) with operations in
more than 60 countries and regions. Good Products is a consumer goods corporation that defines
its purpose as helping people live healthier lives. They employ over 40,000 people in 6
continents. Since the late 1800 s, Good Products has been widely successful in Europe. In 2018,
with a desire to continue their global expansion, they acquired a consumer goods company in
New Jersey, USA. Good Products' CEO, Philip Cowell was very proud of his latest acquisition.
Integrating this newly acquired company presented many challenges. The American company's
information technology systems were quite antiquated. In addition, organizational cultures were
very different. Good Products often changed the "rules" in the industry and hired innovative
leaders who were not afraid to make mistakes. The Good Products organization was also very
skilled at managing change. They were committed to empowering teams to experiment and
learn. This was a key success factor behind their continued international growth. On the other
hand, the American company was very invested in an accelerating stock price and heavily
penalized executives who failed to achieve goals. In addition, the organizational structures of the
two companies were very different. Good Products had a product orientation and the American
company was highly fragmented along functional lines. This fragmentation often resulted in a lot
of departmental conflict. Given the breadth of organizational change required, Good Products
hired a management consulting firm to help them successfully complete the integration of the
newly acquired American company. Lynne Harris was a project management professional from

3. the management consulting firm. Lynne was asked to put together a plan to implement Good
Products' CRM system (Salesforce) into the newly acquired American company's operations.
Before beginning this assignment in New Jersey, she spent 3 weeks with Good Products'
architecture development team located at the company headquarters in London, England. This
gave her an opportunity to review how Salesforce was configured for the Good Products
organization. Lynne had just finished a project assignment with Good Products' Home Health
Division in France and she was eager to remain with this organization as she had developed
many wonderful relationships. Lynne and her former project team received a significant bonus
for their success as they finished their last assignment significantly under budget and ahead of
schedule. Lynne was confident her success with Good Products would continue and the
management consulting firm that employed her was happy to see her take on this new
assignment. Lynne was tasked with migrating all of the American company's systems over to the
standard Good Products platforms. The first project was the migration of Good Products CRM
platform. This would be followed by two additional projects: 1) the standardization of the
Human Resources Management (HRM) "system" (policies, processes and technology) and 2) the
standardization of the Financial Management "system" (FMS) (policies, processes and
technology). With respect to the CRM platform at the newly acquired American company, it was
a "home grown" order entry platform and it was not cloud based. This was a real challenge for
the sales and service teams as they were largely mobile. This significant shortcoming caused the
majority of sales representatives to hold their customer information in their own Excel
spreadsheets. This meant that the customer information was very decentralized and out of sync
with the American company's official corporate records. In addition, many of departments in the
American company operated like independent silos versus an integrated organization. For
instance, the American company's Marketing Department struggled to get an accurate picture of
current client needs and they got little support from the Sales and Service organization. The
Marketing Department's promotional efforts suffered as a result. For instance, most of the email
campaigns failed to result in any new sales as almost 40% of the emails "bounced back" as
undeliverable. Not having current client information was really impeding sales. Getting the sales
representatives to use Global Products' cloud-based CRM system would be very challenging.
Aside from the data integration issues, the VP of Sales and Service at the newly acquired
American company was a highly independent and competitive individual who was not concerned
about the success of other departments. The VP, Roger Coleman, gave his team aggressive
targets and he just wanted results. In addition, it was well known that he was not supportive of
the company's recent acquisition by Good Products. Roger feared the loss of his independence
and worse yet, he assumed that the new CRM system would allow the executives at Good

4. Products to monitor the results of his team and impose additional approval requirements. Rogers
thought of all this was unnecessary bureaucracy. In the end, the only thing Roger felt good about
was the fact that Lynne Harris would simultaneously report to him and Philip Cowell, the CEO
of Good Products. Roger was given the authority to decide which members of his sales and
service teams would be "on loan" to the project. Roger made it well known that he would not
allow the CRM project to get in the way of his ability to achieve his sales goals. Since his team
was struggling to meet their sales targets and this was causing the American company to
experience some financial pressures, Roger didn't want any distractions. Lynne knew that this
project was going to be challenging. The CEO of Good Products wanted the CRM system to be
in place at newly acquired American company within 8 months as he promised his Board a quick
and seamless acquisition. A challenge of this magnitude required people with considerable
expertise. Lynne was fortunate to have most of the business
consultants she worked with on the last project join her on this CRM project. The consulting firm
allowed this as Good Products was an important client for the firm. With the sales and service
representatives from the American company acting as the end users on the project, Lynne's final
step was to get the remaining subject matter experts from the client organizations. She wanted
subject matter experts from the UK that were part of the original rollout of the CRM system in
Good Products. These subject matter experts were necessary because Lynne would have to
oversee a wide range of work on the project. Some of the key aspects of the work include sales
and service process redesign, system configuration, business analytics, testing, procedure
development, end user training, sales/service job redesign, people change management and
implementation. She also asked for an experienced Project Coordinator that could assist her with
all the project management deliverables of the project. During one of Lynne's planning sessions
with the newly formed international team, she was told the American company's IT managers
would impose numerous levels of approvals. After speaking with many of the sales and service
representatives in the American company, Lynne learned that the IT department valued tight
controls. Lynne was concerned about the controls so she decided to speak to the VP of Sales and
Service. Roger was not interested in getting involved. He told her the IT and Sales/Service
departments had their own goals and both were struggling to achieve them. They agreed to stay
out of each other's way and this was not going to change for this project. Lynne was grateful for
this experience, as challenging as it was, because it gave her some early insights into the
stakeholder management challenges that await her.
Intro to Project Management Case Study-Part 2 Lynne and team successfully migrated the Good
Products CRM solution (Salesforce) into the newly acquired American company. With the CRM

5. project completed, it was now time to initiate the standardization of the Human Resource
Management (HRM) "system" (policies, processes and technology) and the Financial
Management "system" (FMS) (policies, processes and technology). In addition, Good Products
decided it was time to address a key issue with their supply chain. Good Products decided to
retain Lynne and the management consulting firm to support them on three of these initiatives.
They were pleased with the work on the CRM project. In addition, bringing in a new
management consulting firm would be very time consuming for everyone involved. Lastly, given
the nature of these three projects, it was critical that the project management team had a good
understanding of the cultures of the two companies, and this is very hard to "teach" since many
elements of culture have to be observed to be appreciated. Human Resource Management
Standardization Project The organizational systems in the newly acquired American company
were very different than those founds in the UK company. This led to a goal of standardization.
In order to gain the buyin of American company's HR team, Philip Cowell, CEO of Good
Products, let everyone know he wanted the project management team to look for best practices
and put these best practices into place at both companies. This meant that it was possible for best
practices to be discovered in the American company and later implemented throughout the UK
based organization's various regional offices. However, most people on the project team knew
this was nothing more than a kind gesture because the newlyacquired American company's HR
practices, policies and systems were perceived to be very ineffective and inefficient. The
American company tracked employee satisfaction results and these results validated the HRM
challenges. A comparison of the top line employee satisfaction results in both organizations
revealed a huge gap. In response to the question "would you recommend this company to
members of your professional network and friends", an average of 82% of employees in the UK
organization answered "agree" or "strongly agree". However, only 51% of employees in the
newly acquired American company answered "agree" or "strongly agree" to a similarly worded
question. Sinead O'Sullivan, the HR lead from the CRM project, skimmed the comments from
survey participants and she noticed two themes: 1) lack of clarity around job responsibilities was
leading to employee frustration and 2) the belief that employees were not paid what they were
worth relative to the market and their peers inside the company was leading to a sense of
inequity.
Lynne realized that she would need to recruit a team of experienced HR professionals from the
management consulting firm. Lynne's partner at the management consulting firm confirmed
Sinead O'Sullivan would be assigned to this project. This was terrific news, and she hoped a few
more consultants like Sinead would become available soon. In addition, Lynne asked Philip's
executive team to identify at least 5 HR representatives from the UK and American companies.

6. Lynne spoke with Philip about this as she needed to ensure the representatives would be
employee focused and very knowledgeable of HR best practices. Lynne wanted the best and the
brightest to join her team. As Lynne began to think about the work required on this project, she
knew that a comprehensive assessment of the HR policies, processes and technology in the UK
and American companies would be time-consuming but critical. If done well, it would allow the
team to deliver outstanding recommendations in support of the standardization goal. Financial
Management Standardization Project Philip Cowell, CEO of Good Products, was all too familiar
with the financial management challenges at the American company. During the acquisition
process, he poured over the American company's financial statements in an attempt to assess true
profitability. He found the financial statements very challenging to comprehend. Philip asked his
CFO, Isla Johnson, to work with the CFO of the newly acquired American company and produce
a report summarizing the financial health of the American company. 2 weeks into this
assignment, Isla informed Philip that the work was not going well. The American CFO "carried a
cloud of mystery" and was rarely able to produce information when it was needed. Eventually,
the financial health report was produced but it offered Philip little insights. Afterseveral meetings
with the American company's CFO, Philip decided he needed to replace this individual with
someone who would offer objective perspectives and help the organization embrace the digital
technologies currently used throughout the Good Products organization. Just before the
project'skick-off meeting, Philip announced his choice for CFO at the newly acquired American
company. In a bold move, he appointed Isla Johnson to serve in the position for a transition
period of 2 years. Philip promoted a member of Isla's management team to take her place while
she held the CFO position at the American company. Once the integration of the newly acquired
American company was complete, the accounting and finance professionals in the US would
continue to report to Isla but she would return to the UK and resume leadership as the CFO for
all Good Products' global operations. Isla was very helpful to Lynne Harris throughout the
Financial Management Standardization Project. They shared the same objectives: 1) restore
integrity to the American company's financial management "system" and 2) implement digital
technologies in order to automate financial management processes.
Lynne was grateful that Claude Julien, her finance lead on the CRM project, was available to
work on this project. Claude had been with the management consulting firm for many years, and
he was known for his wit and zany sense of humour. He would be a huge asset to the team. Isla
Johnson worked with Lynne and Claude to identify finance professionals from Good Products
and the American company who would be well suited for this project. As Lynne began to think
about the work required for this project, she was excited about introducing SAP's financial
management system to the American company as it was working so well for Good Products.

7. Further, it was clearly a better solution than the "home grown" thick client platform that the
American company was currently using as this platform was not cloud based and was the source
of many operating inefficiencies. Isla was the champion of the SAP software selection decision
as CFO for Good Products so Lynne knew she would be fully supportive of the standardization
work that lie ahead. Claude was excited about creating a roadmap for the introduction of other
digital technologies like artificial intelligence (Al) and blockchain as they would help address the
existing pain points in the American company. A few of the pain points included: 1. financial
forecasts rarely hit the mark with an acceptable level of accuracy 2. quarter end close was very
time-consuming and reporting was rarely available before Day 15 of the new quarter 3.
administering vendor payments was highly manual despite the fact that almost 70% of the
American company's vendors had long standing contracts for the supplies, materials and
equipment they provided. In sharing these pain points with Lynne, Claude could barely contain
his excitement - he has tackled these financial management challenges in the past and the results
with the American company will be nothing but truly impressive. Seasoned consultants like
Claude knew that a comprehensive assessment of current state policies, processes and
technology is a critical part of any financial management standardization project. If done well,
these assessments would allow the team to deliver outstanding recommendations. Lynne loved
working with management consultants like Claude as they are so refreshing - the more
challenging the project the more excited they got. This was due in part to the fact that they know
the experience they gain on projects like this will help them to secure great project assignments
for many years to come. New Supplier Selection Project Good Products has a very successful
line of health care products that have attracted global consumer attention. In particular, they are
very proud of their skin care line that targets the aging population. This line, coupled with the
very successful brand of nutritional supplements that they also sell globally has delivered
impressive results over the last five years. However, in
the last six months, significant challenges have arisen with a particular supplier. These
challenges can be summarized as follows: 1. A plant-based ingredient, critical in the formulas for
their skin care and nutritional supplement products is in very short supply. This in turn has
prevented Good Products from being able to fulfill the demand for many of their products and
they worry consumers will begin to shift away from their brand in search of a product that is
more readily available. 2. Given the shortages identified above, the cost of the plant-based
ingredient has risen by 23% in the last 6 months. The Marketing team at Good Products has
resisted the growing pressure to increase the price of the affected products in their skin care and
nutritional supplement lines. They worry that the price increase will further incent consumers to
switch to a competitor's brand. However, the significant rise in cost has slashed their profit

8. margins and Pressure is mounting to begin passing on the cost increase to consumers. The
Manufacturing team at Good Products has signaled it's time to find another supplier of this plant-
based ingredient. The company that produces this ingredient has not been able to confirm when
their inventories will return to normal levels. Speculation in the industry is that it's going to get a
lot worse before (and if) it gets better. The VP of Manufacturing has heard from his colleagues
that there are competitive alternatives to this plant-based ingredient, but he has not had the time
to research this further. He's recommended giving this work to the consulting team because
there's a real sense of urgency. He's confident that the consulting firm will be able to identify a
new supplier and outline the work required to transition to this new supplier in a matter of
months.
1.0 Goods Company Inc. HRM Standardization Project 4.0 Execution 2.0 Initiation 3.0 Planning
21: Project Scope and Objectives 3.1 Conduct seed analysis and pap analywis 4.1 lomplenemt
HRM uandardination policio 22. Identify Stakcholdes and their needs 3.2 Develop HRM
standardization policies and procedurs 42 Conduct training for staff for new policies 23: Develop
Project charter and project phan 33 Dovelop a training dan to educate tuff on a new policy 4.3
Communicate the changes to stakdiolden 5.0 Monitoring and Control 6.0 Closing Phase 5.1
Moeitot the performance of the acw policy 6.1 Conduct a pos-implememation review lo evaluate
the uxcecs of the project 52 Fvaluate the effeciveness of the BCw policy 62 Crate a final repert
to documene the probject mutsones and lenons lamed 5.3 Address any compliance iswes or
violations.