Graduation ceremony for an online university

The facility has 750 online students who have completed their academic year and are expecting to graduate on the 6th of April 2018. Connecting with the online students during their graduation as they celebrate their achievement is of great essence to the faculty. Some of the online students will manage to attend their graduation ceremony in person. However, the travelling expenses may be too costly, difficult and time costing which might hinder most online students from attending the actual ceremony at the facility’s ground. Therefore, the university has decided to conduct a virtual graduation ceremony for online students. To deliver this project on time, there is need to work closely with the university finance manager. This will ensure that the project plan fits into the university budget and that all resources are allocated in the most appropriate manner.

The school has a budget of $12000 to cater for the ceremony. Since the university printing press has a machine of its own that can fold 8 ½ * 26 paper, Clifford, the university president will oversee the process. These booklets will include 5 papers on the inside and a colored booklet cover. Decorations should be perfectly done by 5th April. The seating arrangement done by the decorators should conform to the university program and should be labeled using the university logo. • Entertainment and Public address system The acquisition and testing of the public address system should be done by 5th April. The team in charge of entertainment should have issued invites to those who will be performing by 25th March. The school choir and any other person from the local community who might be interested in performing during the ceremony should submit their request by 25th March.

The team leaders should also ensure that there is commitment and dedication among their members. The project manager, the team leaders and the team members should all have an understanding of the importance of the project and its achievement so as to ensure the general goal is achieved. The RACI (Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed) document for this project will be very crucial in ensuring that each party and team member is well aware of their roles and responsibilities. Coordination of the project will be enhanced leading to successful completion and achievement of the project goals. The persons responsible for each task is well marked out in the diagram by (R), while those to be held accountable for the execution of the tasks who might not be involved directly in the implementation of the activity are marked out by (A).

Control is the process of tracking performance with regard to the agreed strategy and plan. Project control involves taking every corrective action needed to meet the objectives agreed on. Project control leads to an understanding and of the cost and time of a project and also leads to the influence of the same. Project control facilitates effective management and helps in better decision making. Some of the main things that will need to be controlled in the graduation ceremony project include: cost, quality, time, risks, communication, change and the plan. Due to the availability risks in every undertaking, there will a team charged with risk management who will come up with a backup plan in case of any uncertainties. Risks can also be controlled through coming up with a plan to prevent their occurrence or reducing the damage that could be caused by them.

The costs will also need to be controlled so as to ensure that the project runs within the budget. Every activity within the work structure will be monitored and allocated the needed amount of money and there will be a prior payment of deposits to the service providers. Reporting procedures will be established so as to track the costs that will be incurred. The timeline, the budget and the completion of work will be measured against the ceremony requirements to determine the success of the project. The success of the project will also be measured through stakeholder success where the stakeholders ability to perform will be assessed, through deliverable success where the quality of the ceremony will be looked into and through the total success of the whole process in terms of change, communication, timeline and budget control.