South American Adventures Unlimited
Project Planning and Management
Homework 1
South American Adventures Unlimited
Question 1
Adventures Unlimited is in the business of managing projects, with each tour being an individual project with objective of organizing and undertaking an experience in Central and South America. A project is defined as “a complex, nonroutine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs.”
As such, each project has a project life cycle with four distinct phases, namely, a defining phase, a planning phase, an executing phase and a closure phase, each with clear tasks to enhance project outcomes and comply consumer needs.
The defining phase can include clear objectives and responsibility matrix of the tasks all administrative staff and the five relatively stable guides are accountable for. Moreover, project-planning methods would also be helpful for South American Adventures Unlimited as each tour involves many details. These methods include Gantt charts and schedule matrixes. The proper use of these methods can reduce the likelihood of missing train connections, a problem occurred in the past. The Rodriguezes also need to accurately anticipate the costs (resource management) of all possible tours they think of undertaking long before their taxes are prepared so they can select the most feasible tours to operate using financial analysis such as payback method or net present value and risk analysis. During the execution phase, quality control, amongst other strategic factors needs to be maintained. For example, creating partnerships with certain restaurants that consistently provide good food in order to avoid food poisoning. The closure phase consists of evaluation of everyone’s work done and customer satisfaction, for do’s and don’ts for future tours.
Question 2
In order to improve the operation of Adventures Unlimited, the Rodriguezes, the administrative staff, and tour guides can
Homework 1
South American Adventures Unlimited
Question 1
Adventures Unlimited is in the business of managing projects, with each tour being an individual project with objective of organizing and undertaking an experience in Central and South America. A project is defined as “a complex, nonroutine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs.”
As such, each project has a project life cycle with four distinct phases, namely, a defining phase, a planning phase, an executing phase and a closure phase, each with clear tasks to enhance project outcomes and comply consumer needs.
The defining phase can include clear objectives and responsibility matrix of the tasks all administrative staff and the five relatively stable guides are accountable for. Moreover, project-planning methods would also be helpful for South American Adventures Unlimited as each tour involves many details. These methods include Gantt charts and schedule matrixes. The proper use of these methods can reduce the likelihood of missing train connections, a problem occurred in the past. The Rodriguezes also need to accurately anticipate the costs (resource management) of all possible tours they think of undertaking long before their taxes are prepared so they can select the most feasible tours to operate using financial analysis such as payback method or net present value and risk analysis. During the execution phase, quality control, amongst other strategic factors needs to be maintained. For example, creating partnerships with certain restaurants that consistently provide good food in order to avoid food poisoning. The closure phase consists of evaluation of everyone’s work done and customer satisfaction, for do’s and don’ts for future tours.
Question 2
In order to improve the operation of Adventures Unlimited, the Rodriguezes, the administrative staff, and tour guides can