Instructor Comments:
Your assignment this week is to develop and business case and project charter for your Capstone Final Project.
Your project needs more clarity. See my comments embedded in your paper.
The purpose of your project is unclear.
You discuss access to the market. What does this mean? The customer who buys milk in the store? The company that buys milk to make ice cream?
You discussed spoilage? What is the current spoilage rate and how will the project reduce that rate? What is the target rate?
You discussed selling milk. The project will not be selling milk. (I assume the project will create an organization, design and build the facilities to purchase milk from farmers, process the milk and sell the milk.) These are my assumptions you need to more clearly define your project.
My assumptions are based on our project schedule and cost.
You completed the construction and installed equipment in 20 months and trained employees in the last two months. You also have 15 employees for 12 months? This is NOT consistent. It appears you are paying employees $5,000 per year?
You state the project is a partnership. The project is NOT a partnership. A project is a temporary endeavor to create a unique product, service or result. What does the General Farmer Associations and the Government of Texas have to do with your project?
You indicate that the project will facilitate methods that will assist the improvement of milk safety. Does this mean the project is a research project? How does a project facilitate methods for improving milk safety? This needs more clarity.
You indicate that the project is aimed at solving milk spoilage. Is this also a research aspect of your project?
You indicate that the project will offer storage facilities for milk brought by farmers and “we” can produce cheese, cream, and butter. Is the project going to create a facility to produce milk products? This needs more clarity.
You indicate that the project will facilitate transportation. Does this mean the project will create a transportation organization? You also identified a product name: gold milk. How is this related to your project?
You indicated the project objective was to help farmers get a quick market. How will you measure this?
Your second objective was to eradicate milk spoilage. How will you measure this?
Your third objective was to ensure milk quality. How will this be measured?
Your fourth objective was to create a profit of 25% after the first two years of operation. Does this mean that profit? How does this compare to the industry standard? This is a reasonable expectation?
Project Outcomes:
You indicated that the first project outcome was the design and construction of milk storage areas. It is important to indicate the capacity, size, and technological aspects of the storage facility so that you can develop appropriate estimates of cost and determine the appropriate time frame for developing the project schedule.
The second outcome was the process for collecting milk from farmers and making payment directly to the farmers. Since the organization that is created by the project will be paying farmers prior to selling the product, the organization will be financing the operation. It appears that the project will be creating an organization that has the ability to create contracts with no farmers, managing operation that stores and transports the milk, then processes the milk into different products, and sells the products to buyers.
The size of this operation is not defined. Are we talking about 10 farmers, 100 farmers, or thousand farmers? Or is the number of farmers irrelevant? Does it depend on the quantity of milk that is produced?
The exact nature of the organization is not well defined. Is this a nonprofit organization? Is it a profit-making organization owned by the milk producers themselves? How will the organizational structure be established? Will there be a Board of Directors? Will the CEO be one of the farmers are we you hire outside expertise? Whether the organization be set up around departments such as: supplier relations, milk production and storage, milk produce, transportation, marketing, quality department, and safety?
Project success criteria:
You indicated that the project success will depend on meeting the project budget, deadlines, and requirements. Although this is true, it is true for all projects and does not necessarily need to be incorporated within the project charter.
You indicated price of milk and a reduction of milk losses will be success factors for the project. How will this be defined? The success criteria measures those things that can be defined at the end of the project. The price of milk five years after the project complete is not a measure of the project success. It is a measure of the organizational success derived from the project. These are two different concepts.
– Please read The Project Charter Template and do all modification based on the instructor comment.
– Also review the Assignment -2 Rubric to know the shortage in my grade exactly. in which elements.
