Strengths
Reviewing the Project Management Plan for Page Middle School that involves one-to-one laptop initiative, it is important to note that the major strength of the plan is its detailed vision and presentation. In other words, at every stage of the change preparation and implementation process, there is a precise step-by-step guide. Moreover, apart from the clearly outlined instruction as to the implementation and resources, the assessment has been thought through very well. In particular, the plan includes several different assessments that would be conducted throughout different stages of project implementation with the respective reports that will help the managers in charge of this project to see whether or not everything goes in agreement with the initial plan and what kinds of barriers need to be handled for the successful completion.
In addition, the Executive Overview Project Management Plan also has a significant strength that is the identification and inclusion of different stakeholders at various stages of the process. The participation of a diverse group of stakeholders will help the project management team to determine a wide scope of the potential issues and address the possible responses of the parties affected by the implemented change, thus ensuring a higher level of success, readiness, and compliance.
It is known that stakeholders are the parties the accomplish the primary and direct evaluation of the implemented change right while it is in progress; and in that way, knowing how to satisfy the needs of the stakeholders, use their insights for the benefit of the projects, avoid clashes between different participating sides, and inform the involved individuals and groups effectively about the occurring transformations are the necessary tasks of the project managers (Dow & Taylor, 2010).
Opportunities for Improvement
In the Page Middle School Plan, the major opportunity for improvement regards the risk management plan. Making it more detailed and explaining each of the potential risks could help developing a better and more effective set of solutions addressing the problems. Moreover, communications are some of the most critical aspects during the change implementation. In the plan, they are presented in a rather brief manner.
Moreover, in the Executive Overview Project Management Plan, the opportunity for improvement is the exploration of the issues related to communications. In particular, the inclusion of the directions and types of communication that needs to be delivered, as well as the kind of information passed in each of the communication sessions and how it should be received is rather important for the success of the overall projects (Dinsmore & Cabanis-Brewin, 2011).
Resources
As mentioned in the previous section, communications are the critical aspects of the project implementation; and that is why the Executive Overview Project Management Plan could benefit from a source focused specifically on this subject. The book entitled “Effective communications for project management” by Kliem (2007) provides on such communication issues concerning project managers as the construction of message, the importance of feedback, the relations between senders and receivers, to name a few.
In addition, to broaden the body of knowledge serving as the basis of the Page Middle School Project Management Plan and also improve the project quality, the managers and planners could rely on the book titled “Project health assessment” by Royer (2014), in which the author explored many problems typical to the evaluation and testing during the project planning and implementation and also provided tables, questionnaires, and templates helping to assess different aspects of a project. The major benefit of this resource is its comprehensiveness and clarity that will help any kind of project manager by providing guidance and assistance on the issues that arise at different stages of change planning, implementation, and evaluation.
References
Dinsmore, P. C., & Cabanis-Brewin, J. (2011). The AMA handbook of project management (3rd ed.). New York, NY: AMACOM.
Dow, W., & Taylor, B. (2010). Project management communications Bible. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Kliem, R. L. (2007). Effective communications for project management. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Royer, P. S. (2014). Project health assessment. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.