Assignment 3: LASA – Project Planning – Developing the Project Plan and Determining Critical Path

1. Using the District4WarehouseMove WBS.xls provided, create a Microsoft project plan for the District 4 Warehouse Move project. Use the PDF document, Project Plan Check – District4Move, to check your work to be sure you have created your starting project plan correctly. Microsoft Project is required for this task. If you have not yet downloaded OpenProj, please click here and follow the directions to do so now.

   Note: you will need to insert a column to include your WBS codes, then you will need to sequence the tasks to show tasks by work package. It may help to review the Microsoft tutorial, Sequencing tasks in a project: http://www.project-open.org/en/project_tutorial

2. Based upon the details in the WBS and the project case, determine which tasks need to be completed first and which tasks are dependent upon other tasks to be completed prior to starting. Using this information identify predecessors in your project plan’s predecessor column. Complete the predecessor column by entering the line number of tasks that must be completed in order for each task to start. This will create your project timeline.

   Note: This is a critical step in the process to developing your critical path. It may help to review the Microsoft tutorial, Creating relationships between tasks: http://www.slideshare.net/dmdk12/creating-the-network-diagram-and-gantt-with-openproj

3. Using the View Network Diagram functionality within MS Project, determine the critical path for this project. In a MS Word document, list the activities that are on the critical path. Considering the risks identified in the risk table below, identify which risks would be most likely to increase your project timeline. Justify your responses.
4. Submit both your completed project plan and your MS Word document.

District 4 Production Warehouse Move Project – Risk Table

Submit your plan to M3: Assignment 2 Dropbox by Wednesday, December 3, 2014.

Written Assignment 1: Impact of Globalization Paper

Important Note: You can use your written assignments for each module in your comprehensive Final Paper, which is described in detail in the Final Paper section of the course Web site. Please review the requirements of the Final Paper early and plan your written assignments appropriately based on your Final Paper topic.

• Module objectives addressed: MO 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5

In this paper, provide a descriptive title or heading for your paper by focusing on topics or countries that interest you, and then discuss the following concepts: 1) globalization and the drivers of globalization; 2) the changing nature of the global economy; 3) compare and contrast the political and economic differences of at least two countries (e.g., India and the United States); and 4) discuss what managers can do to successful work with the opportunities and challenges present in this global economy.

Write your paper in 4–5 double-spaced pages in APA style. For this assignment, thoroughly discuss the topics mentioned and, when possible, provide specific examples or recommendations, and cite all of your sources. As a result of reading these concepts in the chapter, mention your recommendations for employees who want to be effective expatriate managers or professional in the twenty-first century workplace. You can paraphrase and quote relevant material from the chapter and cite the book’s authors and page numbers as you see appropriate. Make sure to use the textbook as a reference (along with any other articles/sources, if used).  

This is your first assignment in an APA format for this course; so be sure to include headings (such as “Global Management in Action at Toyota”), subheadings (such as “Efficiency and Effectiveness in the Automotive Industry” and “Levels of Management for Car Dealership”), page numbers, references, etc. in the required APA format. For example, if the title of your paper is “Management Problems in Modern Global Organizations” and you say there are six major management problems for modern managers—namely, 1) Failure to develop intrapreneurs/staff members, 2) Lack of openness to experience/not embracing diversity, 3) Not truly valuing the experience and expertise of an employee, 4) Job dissatisfaction/ When the manager is not happy, usually the employees are not happy, 5) Poor communication skills/ Not communicating expectations clearly, and 6) Unknowingly practicing Theory X/ Micro-managing—then each of these elements would be a subheading (under which you would discuss what each problem or opportunity really means and how managers or organizations can avoid them), and another final subheading for every paper would be “Summary” (where you discuss what the paper included, the results and any other final recommendations for future research or readings, etc.). Overall, instead of having one long paper under one title or heading, try to use several heading levels (perhaps Levels One and Levels Three of APA which are common for short papers). For example, if the title of your paper is “Functions of Management in the Global World,” then four subheadings could be “Planning the Chores,” “Organizing Departmental and Global Operations,” “Leading Personnel Across Borders,” and “Controlling Costs in Host-Country Operations,” and “Summary.” The main title would be a Level One heading (or title), which goes in the center of the page, and the four functions would be Level Three Heading, which would go on the left margin of the page and they would be italicized.