Project of Swallow Inc. CSR Water Project in Ghana

TASK: Based on your chosen project your team will be required to produce a project plan (6,000-word Business report) consisting of sections, whereby some of the sections will be carried out individually as indicated below:  the structure of the report:

Section 1: Project Charter, – Scope, – and Schedule management plan (LO1 / LO4) – Group task

Water Project by SWALLOW

1. Introduction

Safe Water and L.E.D. Operatives Worldwide (SWALLOW) is a non-profit organisation. The primary activity of the firm is to provide clean and high-quality water to the people of Ghana. It seems to be a corporate social responsibility project, which is associated with other organisations such as Students for global sustainability, Sustainable Approach for Life Skills Transformation, and Nyakongo Self-Help Group.  Key markets are developing countries, as the firm aims to serve communities which have no access to quality water. Substantial investment, time and finding volunteers are significant challenges.

2. Project Charter

 Project Aim and Purpose:

The project’s aim is to supply and install filters to provide drinkable water in order to facilitate standard drinkable water through already laid down pipes. Contribute to a healthy living environment thereby reducing death rate through water-borne diseases in the local community.

• 3 SMART objectives 

• Reducing water borne diseases like Typhoid, guinea worms, dysentery and others by 20% in local community schools in Nyakongo through sanitization.
• Creating awareness of water borne disease in the schools by 80%
• Training staff on how to use and maintain filters

Scope Statement 

• The scope of this project is providing filtered and drinkable water to Nykongo local community schools according to the health and safety regulation in Ghana. The proposed date for starting and ending of this project is within 27 months starting from February 2016 ending May 2019. Creating awareness and training school staff on maintenance of installed equipment.

• Budget Estimation & Project Timeline

Total Budget for this project is $65000. In 27^th months, the project will be completed.

• Project Assumptions & Constraints 

Cost can increase or decrease due to problems and constraints such as limited time, financial budgets, environmental challenges such as excessive rainfall and political issues. 

• Project Deliverables: 

3. Project work brake down structure

Work Break down Structure

Different activities have been defined by project management to break the project into different segments. 

4. Project Schedule

Network Diagram

• Defining Activities

Filter Preparation, drying filler material, placing filler material, fetching water, water quality, capacity building, and body construction are some key project activities.

• Sequenced Defined activities

• Listing & Estimating Sources 

• Material

The material will be purchased from local suppliers, as developing local suppliers is also a significant priority in the CSR process

• Staff

Local staff will be hired to complete this project. Almost 50 employees will be involved, which are to be gathered from other organisations.

• Project Schedule (Gantt chart)

Gantt chart

Activities/Months	1-2	3-5	6-10	11-15	16-20	21-25	26-27
Supplying filters	*
Filter Preparation		*
Drying filler material			*
Placing filler material				*
Testing water					*
Water quality						*
Capacity building/Training					*	*	*

 

Group members task

Section 2 ID 41294:  Project Risk Assessment and Management plan (LO2) – Individual

Section 3 ID 41304: Project Costing, Budgeting and Financial Appraisal – Individual

Introduction of Section 3:

The Section 3 will look upon the work break down structures, cost baselines, Marketing budgets, cash flow projections, financial viability of the project, its Return on Investment and Payback Period. This section is thus dedicated to looking at the financial aspects of the project.

Cost Baseline and WBS

Cost Baseline:

The cost baseline is that part of the project which handles the project cost and the pattern of its spending over the time. The cost baseline is usually the budget approved for the budget and the distribution of it over the project period. The format is used for the estimation, monitoring and control of the cost performance of the project.

Work Breakdown Structure:

The work break down structure is the deliverable of the project which is used for the organizing of the teamwork into manageable sections. As per PMBOK, it is defined as the deliverable oriented hierarchical segmentation of the work to be executed by the project team.

Work breakdown structure contains several activities, which are to be associated with both time and cost. The cost baseline starts from the water sanitation process, which includes filter preparation, drying filler material, placing filler material, fetching water, improvement of water quality capacity building and body construction (Burke, 2009). The Cost Baseline has been estimated to be near $ 137, 470 as mentioned in the task table below. For each of the work packages, separate costs have been estimated. The costs are based on the average costs required to complete these activities. The constraints of the inefficient workforce and time constraints are taken into account while considering the costs. The tasks are examined from the bottom up one by one. The last task to be completed in ranked 7^th and is estimated for cost first.

Body Construction:

The body construction is the last activity of the project which means the construction of the body of the purification plant.

It is the last activity or work package which is needed to be completed in the project. The task would start on 22^nd August 2019 and will end on August 1^st in 2020. The activity holds 271 working days which shows it will probably need a year for completion. As along with non-working days, the total days would be around 339 days. Body construction may take time and cost the company, as it is a part of the project closure. The cost of body construction is $25,220. It is the last activity of the project which needs completion. Before this, the Water quality activity needs to be completed in which Capacity building would be done ahead of it. The capacity building activity would need 60 days in total and would start from 7^th August 2019 and end on 21^st August 2019. The cost of the Capacity building also includes the 7200 costs of the capacity building.

Capacity Building:

This is the task in which the capacity will be build in order to cater with maximum people in minimum time. People will be trained for the sanitation and hygiene processes.

It is the one task which is under the Water Quality activity. The activity covers 33 days of the total 60 days given to the superior task of Water quality. Similarly, the cost held a major portion of the $14000 of the Water quality as well. The activity starts on the same start date as the Water quality as it comes under this activity and is a sub-task. The capacity building also takes 33 days along with $7200 cost. The company intends to facilitate maximum people in minimum time. It is an estimated cost, as improvements may increase or decrease the value of this activity.

Water Sanitation:

This is the process which is used for the cleaning and purification of the water in order to make it safe for drinking and other unsafe. The process helps in the removal of the impurities of the water.

The first work package that is going to be completed for this project is the water sanitation. This work package is going to be achieved when all of its sub-tasks are completed. The activity includes the sub-tasks of fetching water, placing the filler material, drying the filler material and the filter preparation. The total activity holds up 88 days of the project which is divided among the sub-tasks. The task starts on 6^th March 2019 and ends on 7^th May 2019. The total cost also is divided among the sub-tasks. The estimated cost of water sanitation is $ 98,250. It is the most critical activity in this project process. This activity is linked to different events, which have also been illustrated along with different costs.

Fetching Water:

This task deals with water fetching. It means that the water needed to be used will be collected in this task

It is the last sub-task of the whole main activity of Water Sanitation. The task takes 21 days in total and starts from 7^th June 2019 and ends on 5^th September 2019. The task takes up the 21 days leading to the Capacity Building Activity. Fetching water is a 21-day activity with a cost of $2000. Carrying water cost can also be increased due to the complexity in the process.

Placing Filler Material:

This task involves the placement of the filler material. Each of the purifiers is filled in the final location where each layer is filled at an appropriate depth for testing of the water flow rate.

It is the prior activity which needs to be completed before the start of fetching water. It starts from 24^th April 2019 and ends on 6^th June 2019 taking up 32 working days in total. The activity costs $2850 in total. It is the 3^rd activity in ranking in the whole project of water sanitation.

Drying Filter:

This deals with the process in which the filler material is spread over a plastic sheet to dry and then is covered with plastic sheet to be transported to the construction site.

This activity started after the filter preparation and is the 2^nd of the project activities. It needs to be completed to initiate the placing of filler material activity. The activity starts on 9^th April 2019 and then ends on 23^rd April 2019. For the start of this activity, the project manager needs to complete the filter preparation activity first. Acquiring the drying filler material is another primary activity, which can take 11 days. The cost of this activity is $28,600. Also, placing the filter material is one of the biggest challenges in the project process. The cost of this placement is low, but it seems tricky. The price is expected to increase due to the complexity of this activity.

Filter Preparation:

For the preparation of the fillers, quality sand and gravel were used. Three kinds of sieves for three kinds of fillers are to use, coarse sand, gravel, and fine sand sieves are to be used.

The first activity of the project, and the one on which necessarily every other task is dependent on this activity. Without the completion of this activity, no other activity can get started. The activity starts on March 6^th and ends after 24 working days on 8^th April. For Instance, the filter preparation, which is 24 days long, can take $64,800 on the company. The project management has to invest heavily in filter preparation, as it is the primary source of water sanitation or purification. In 24 days, the administration will gain access to quality filtration systems and prepare it with the help of engineers and labour.

It is a fact that the company will be working 33 days on the water quality process. The water quality process costs $7200, which seems moderate. Quality is not to be compromised, and an increase in the cost can be maintained.

The total project needs 419 days to complete. It is to be noted that relaxing days for any risk of delays is already included in this time frame. The price seems high, but some efficiency measures can be developed by the company to reduce the cost in the capacity building process. Accordingly, project management can calculate the total value and make further decisions. Now, it is to mention that the completion of all these activities within a limited time and cost is a significant measure. The financial constraint is always here. The project can be delayed due to many reasons. Any delay in the project may lead to an increase in the cost. An increase in the project cost is a substantial financial constraint, which is to be avoided at any cost. Lack of people’s skills and adequate resources may also increase the cost of the project in Ghana. Thus, this estimated cost can be changed or modified (Kloppenborg, 2014).

Task/Activities-Marketing: 

Item	April-June	July-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Total
Advertising
Print		$                   2,000	$                          2,000	$        2,000	$          6,000
Signs		$                   2,000	$                          2,000	$        2,000	$          6,000
Cable/Radio		$                   2,000	$                          2,000	$        2,000	$          6,000
					$        18,000
Production
Logo Package	$          2,500	$                   2,500	$                          2,500		$          7,500
Ads Design	$          1,000	$                   1,000	$                          1,000		$          3,000
					$        10,500
Promotion
Opening	$        13,000				$        13,000
					$        13,000
Total Marketing Budget					$        41,500

 

Forecasting Revenue Streams

The forecasting refers to the financial forecasting in which the financial data is analysed in order to create financial models, which will help in predicting future revenues.

The project management must derive the estimated revenue streams (Lester, 2007 ). The revenue streams of return can be determined or predicted by navigating the number of hours. In the below-mentioned table, all project activities are elaborated along with the number of days. In the end, the possible return on investment and revenue streams are calculated. Any change in the number of hours or days can create an impact on the revenue streams and return on investment (Burke, 2009). The project would draw $55 per hour revenue stream which is good for a start. The project will then spend a total of 3352 hours on its completion. The total project days needed are 419 days. It gives the total return of $184,360 and the total expenses of $137,470. The profit from the total project is $46,890. It gives a profit margin of 25% which is quite good. Furthermore, if we divide this profit against the investment or the total expenses, this gives the total ROI which is around 44%.

Financial Viability and ROI

Financial Viability:

This refers to the ability of the project to generate sufficient income in order to meet the debt commitments and operational expenses for allowing growth while maintaining the service levels.

ROI:

Return on Investment is the gain or loss generated from the project as relative to the investment made in it. This is used for analyzing the efficiency of the project.

The financial viability of the project is in the limelight due to the low cost. The return on investment seems moderate. However, the return on investment will be reinvested on the same project to contain some improvements with time. The objectivity has been communicated to all key stakeholders, as profitability is not the primary objective of the project. Four hundred eighty-three days of the project are enough to complete all key activities and make people gain access to high-quality water (Burke, 2009). The profit from the total project is $46,890. It gives a profit margin of 25% which is quite good. Furthermore, if we divide this profit against the investment or the total expenses, this gives the total ROI which is around 44.70%.

ROI:

Years	Cash Flow
0	(137,470.00)
1	61,453.33
2	61,453.33
3	61,453.33
Total Gains	46,890.00
ROI	44.70%

 

Payback Period:

Years	Cash Flow	Rem. Balance
0	(137,470.00)
1	61,453.33	(76,016.67)
2	61,453.33	(14,563.33)
3	61,453.33	46,890.00
Payback Period	2.76

 

Non-Financial Benefits

It is a fact that some non-financial benefits triggered the project. For Instance, as mentioned above, profitability is not the primary objective of the project. It is linked with the social responsibility to contribute to the sustainable environment and society. People’s health, happiness, access to water, and satisfaction are some nonfinancial benefits, and interestingly, these are also prominent project deliverable (Burke, 2009). In this non-profit organisation, this project must be streamlined by the company along with some critical non-financial benefits. The purpose is to show the intention of the company along with pertinent investment, and it is the right approach to attract more local and international investors (Project Management Institute, 2013).

Future Prospects

With time, the project cost can be increased due to different factors. For Instance, material outsourcing from local suppliers may be expensive as compared to international suppliers. On the other hand, if the project aims to acquire the material or equipment from local suppliers, the quality risk always seems here. Thus, cost and quality are not to be contradicted in this project. The total cost estimation is a result of the proper investigation of different activities and possible elements, which are associated. The main focus of this project is on non-financial benefits or outputs, as the firm has to reinvest the revenue or return. For Instance, the company can combine this project with other regions as well to streamline maximum benefits. However, some key cost and efficiency measures must be developed by the project management to keep the cost low. The firm cannot take any cost risk, as it is dependent, as far as the financial capability is concerned (Allen, 2007).  

Section 4 ID 41363: Project Procurement Management plan – Individual

Section 5 ID 41358: Project Stakeholder Management and Communications Plan – Individual Task

Section 6: Project Scope Management Plan including the Post Implementation Review

Measures and Mechanism

SWALLOW is intended to provide safe and quality water to poor communities in Ghana. It is a mega project, which is associated with corporate social responsibility as well. The post-implementation review contains some key project measures and mechanisms. Measuring the project is essential to derive possible success or make some changes to get expected or favourable results. Different project measures are below along with some key insights.

One of the prominent project measures is budget accomplishment. The project management has to predict the project budget, which is to be done initially. However, at the end of the project, success can be measured by examining the perfect execution of the budget strategy. For Instance, if the project management completes all activities in a limited budget, it can be considered successful. On the other hand, if the company has to expand the project budget to complete all project activities in Ghana, it may be a project failure. SWALLOW has to maintain administration and technical operations in a limited budget to complete the project. The project cost cannot be increased, and it can increase the risk. Thus, management can use this measure to evaluate project success.

Concerning the scope and baseline of the project, project management has created some key objectives. If project management meets these objectives in Ghana, it will be successful. For Instance, one of the most prominent goals is to contribute to a healthy community and enable access to safe and high-quality water. After the project completion, successful access to safe and quality water can be considered as project success. Similarly, to make the project successful, the management of the company must meet these objectives.

Also, relative to the baseline of the project, the company must measure success by evaluating possible brand awareness. In Ghana, people are not aware of safe and quality water and its impact on physical health. Brand awareness must be streamlined by this project to increase people’s assertiveness. Apart from it, SWALLOW can measure the success of the project by conducting stakeholder surveys. The stakeholder survey can help to obtain possible satisfaction or dissatisfaction. If the people of Ghana, which are the primary stakeholders of the project, are satisfied and loyal, the plan seems successful. Thus, these are some key measures, which are to be considered when evaluating project success.

Key Performance Indicator

Evaluating the project performance is imperative to ensure success. There are several key performance indicators to examine effective project performance. For Instance, the first key performance indicator is the possible return on investment. In Ghana, the project return for the management will be a healthy environment. After the completion of the project, people will be getting benefits. It will be an excellent return for the project team. Another project indicator or performance indicator is the difference between the planned budget and the actual budget. If the project activities mentioned in the work breakdown structure are completed within the proposed budget, it will be successful. Also, if these activities are completed below the planned budget, it will be called a high-performance project (Passenheim, 2014 ).

Along with these key performance indicators, less overdue project activities or tasks can indicate the high performance of the project. For example, the project team wants to maintain the capacity building at the end of the project. It can be delayed due to limited time and cost. If the Ghana project does not contain any overdue task, it may depict the high performance of the project.  The final key performance indicator for this project is effective resource utilisation. In Ghana, the company has to utilise available resources. Water, labour, management and financial resources will be used effectively and efficiently to improve the project performance.

Key performance indicators can be changed with time. Project management trends can be reversed in the future, and the firm may develop some new measures and indicators. Interestingly, these performance measures can be associated with objectives and baseline. Many activities trigger a high-quality water supply, and these performance measures can be obtained from these activities.

Balanced Scorecard Adaptation

Financial:  The firm has created measurable financial objectives for this project process. For Instance, the firm wants to reduce the difference between the planned budget and the actual budget. The project must be completed within the proposed budget. A limited budget is to be used to conduct all activities effectively. It is to mention that the quality is not to be compromised. Thus, financial capabilities must be linked to the effectiveness of different project activities.

Internal Process:  Financial capacity of the project can be used to improve the internal business process. Drying filler, facing filler, and improving the water quality are main activities or tasks, which are to be conducted in the internal process. Thus, due to financial conditions, the quality of the process can be maintained.

Learning & Growth: Financial and internal process efforts can help the project team learn different things. The project team will be working for the people of Ghana to improve health quality. It is a big thing to learn that the company should create awareness regarding possible benefits and deliverables. The most important thing is to increase assertiveness of people to predict the project result, and it is the critical learning aspect (Nagarajan, 2004).

Customers: As mentioned, SWALLOW is a non-profit organisation, which is intended to improve water quality and the physical health of people. Thus, financial, internal processes, and learning aspects can be linked to community development.

Key Deliverable of Handover Phase

Apart from providing high-quality water and creating awareness regarding possible diseases, the prominent deliverable of handover phase is people’s health. High-quality water, water-related disease protection, and knowledge are three deliverables, which are to be streamlined even before the project completion.

During the implementation process, project management should consider all these factors or insights to make a difference. Predictable project deliverables can help to create awareness in Ghana’s community. 

Section 7 Group task: Appendix section –

Appendix: 

Glossary

Definitions of:

1. Project charter is an agreement between all stakeholders to start and complete a project plan. Project charter is an important part of project management inception as it contains project objectives. This includes a clear plan of how the project will be organised and implemented. It also comprises elements such as project risk assessment and Management plan, project costing, budgeting and financial appraisal, project procurement plan, project stakeholder management and communication plan (ENANI, 2015, p. 853;855, Marchewka, 2014, p. 106 and Kerzner, 2017, pp. 391-392).

2. Rational or Purpose: Is a reason behind one’s decision. It is the why and how of a decision; its argument, principle and thinking (Gdc.design, 2019). On the other hand, in the context of a project management scenario, a rationale or purpose relates to identifying a project required needs, addressing and setting up required effective communication, managing stakeholders, competing project constraints and creating project deliverables (Project Management Guide, 2013 pg. 6). From my understanding, rationale or purpose from different contexts, justifies the principle underlying cause of action and hence uses terminology relevant to the topic which could sometimes be constraining.

4. Scope statement it is an agreement or understanding that fosters good communication between all project parties and covers project objectives such as budgets, deliverables, approval and others for and at a given period (Dionisio, 2017). The Project Management Guide (2013) indicated that a scope statement gives full detailed descriptions of the project and its products which comprises of the inputs, tool and techniques and outputs. My perspective is that a scope statement visualises and includes the total accomplishment of developing, monitoring and controlling of the project scope.
5. Deliverablesis an end product, a result gained or realisation from the process of an output or outcome (Bridges and Bridges, 2017). According to the Project Management Guide (2013) deliverables is a complete result of a product or service work or a project. Deliverables to my understanding could be an input or output that is a result of a process to completing a project.

5. Budget estimates it is forecasts of a plan or representative that estimates the cost of operation or activities of a given project (Spacey, 2017). The (2013) Project Management Guide indicates that the budget estimate determines the cost baseline by which project activities or work packages could be monitored or controlled. Budget estimates, to my understanding, are important elements of a project as they create order and give a cost starting point or baseline which includes the inclusion of cost assumptions and constraints.

6. Project assumptions and constrains, things that are thought to be true but that may not be genuine, called assumptions and constraints could be anything that restricts or dictates the activities of the group. Project assumptions and constrainsare factors that is out of control that could occur during the project life-circle and could impact outcomes of the project. These factors include changes in external environment such as political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal changes. Other factors that impact on project are organisational process assets including budget limitation, lack of knowledge and skills, guidelines and others. Therefore, projectsinvolveidentifying and analyse factors that mole likely occur during a project (Mabin, 2014, pp. 2-3, Hobbs, 2015, p. 17, Kerzner, 2017, p. 349 and UCDAVIS, 2013, p. 25).

7. Projects work brake down structure (WBS)is basis of project plan, containsvisual brake down of deliverables that sorts out the teamwork into reasonable areas that is displayed in hierarchical structure and graphical way (Miri Yemini, 2018, p. 44, U.S. Department of Energy, 2003, p. 2 and Burnett, 2012, p. 158). 

8. Project scheduleis a time management tool that is usedto shows sequential activities of the project that need to be accomplished over specificperiod from start to finish. Schedule can be presented in various formats such as calendar and Gantt chart graphical way to display schedules (Hinde, 2017, pp. 173-174, Ssempebwa, 2013, p. 2 and Kerzner, 2017, p. 385).

9. Project critical path: NETWORK DIAGRAM – It is a graph-based representation of problems; graph is used to analyse different views to the problems. The graph represents different fundamental issues in network connectivity.

10. PDM or CPM methodology PDM – This is known as precedence diagram method is used for scheduling activities in a project plan. This tool uses boxes such as nodes to construct events on the diagram. (Scholar99.com, 2019). CPM – This is a popular process used in project management plan and control work. It is used to determine activity from the beginning to end. (Burke, 2013).

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