Project 3

At the Hard Rock Cafe, like many organizations, project management is a key
planning tool. With Hard Rocks constant growth in hotels and cafes, remodeling of
existing cafes, scheduling for Hard Rock Live concert and event venues, and planning
the annual Rockfest, managers rely on project management techniques and software
to maintain schedule and budget performance.
Without Microsoft Project, says Hard Rock Vice-President Chris Tomasso, there is
no way to keep so many people on the same page. Tomasso is in charge of the
Rockfest event, which is attended by well over 100,000 enthusiastic fans. The
challenge is pulling it off within a tight 9-month planning horizon. As the event
approaches, Tomasso devotes greater energy to its activities. For the first 3 months,
Tomasso updates his MS Project charts monthly. Then at the 6-month mark, he
updates his progress weekly. At the 9- month mark, he checks and corrects his
schedule twice a week.
Early in the project management process, Tomasso identifies 10 major tasks (called
level 2 activities in a work breakdown structure, or WBS): talent booking, ticketing,
marketing/PR, online promotion, television, show production, travel, sponsorships,
operations, and merchandising. Using a WBS, each of these is further divided into a
series of subtasks. The following table identifies 26 of the major activities and
subactivities, their immediate predecessors, and time estimates. Tomasso enters all
of these into the MS Project software. Tomasso alters the MS Project document and
the time line as the project progresses. Its okay to change it as long as you keep on
track, he states.

The day of the rock concert itself is not the end of the project planning. Its nothing
but surprises. A band not being able to get to the venue because of traffic jams is a
surprise, but an 'anticipated' surprise. We had a helicopter on stand-by ready to fly
the band in, says Tomasso.
On completion of Rockfest in July, Tomasso and his team have a 3-month reprieve
before 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,

1. Identify the critical path and its activities for Rockfest. How long does the project
take?

Activity
time
Project
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U

Early
Start
34
7
3
3
5
6
4
2
4
4
10
2
3
8
6
7
20
4
4
3
4
6

Early
Finish
0
7
7
10
15
21
25
10
14
18
10
15
18
10
27
10
10
14
25
7
11

Late
Start
7
10
10
15
21
25
27
14
18
28
12
18
26
16
34
30
14
18
28
11
17

Late
Finish
0
7
18
10
15
21
25
16
20
24
21
23
26
28
27
14
19
23
31
13
17

7
10
21
15
21
25
27
20
24
34
23
26
34
34
34
34
23
27
34
17
23

Slack
0
0
11
0
0
0
0
6
6
6
11
8
8
18
0
4
9
9
6
6
6

V
W
X
Y

7
4
8
6

11
18
17
10

18
22
25
16

23
30
23
22

30
34
31
28

12
12
6
12

16

22

28

34

12

The critical path is A-D-E-F-G-O

The project completion time is 34 weeks.
2. Identify some major challenges a project manager faces in events such as this
one.
To plan thoroughly all aspects of the project, soliciting the active involvement of all
functional areas involved, in order to obtain and maintain a realistic plan that
satisfies their commitment for performance.
To control the organization of manpower needed by the project
To control the basic technical definition of the project, ensuring that "technical"
versus "cost" trade-offs determine the specific areas where optimisation is
necessary.
To lead the people and organizations assigned to the project at any given point in
time. Strong positive leadership must be exercised in order to keep the many
disparate elements moving in the same direction in a co-operative.
To monitor performance, costs and efficiency of all elements of the project and the
project as a whole, exercising judgement and leadership in determining the causes
of problems and facilitating solutions
To complete the project on schedule and within costs, these being the overall
standard by which performance of the project manager is evaluated.