Jillian Best sends you notification of the big assignment she has recently been prepping for you. For the assignment, your team will make project management decisions in a retail store development for Terrapin Construction Supply, Inc. (TCS), which is challenging Lowe’s, Home Depot, Ace, and True Value in the home improvement and building supply markets. TCS is based in Frederick, Maryland, and now has 46 stores along the East Coast. “I know this team will do great on this project,” Jillian assures you.
Later in the day, TCS CEO Latoya Green joins your team to on a conference call to discuss the project in full: “We’re very glad you could take on this work on short notice. As you know, TCS has decided to expand into underserved international markets. There will be a press release later today announcing that our first international store will open 10 months from now.
“Jillian Best told us that this team’s prior international retail experience suits this job very well. I want you to create a project management plan that formally documents all the activities needed to open this new store in time. My assistant will email you some additional details. I’d like to review your plan in two weeks. I think that’s about it for now.”
You disconnect from the call and begin to think about everything you’ll need to keep track of during this project. From your research, you discovered that the average TCS store is 100,000 square feet with additional outdoor space for a garden center and a 200-space parking lot. The stores typically carry a minimum of 40,000 different products from more than 3,000 vendors worldwide.
TCS has already acquired land for the store, so your team will plan and execute store construction, fitting the store with fixtures and systems, stocking inventory, and hiring and training employees before the grand opening in 10 months.
Estimate Project Cost (FOUR Pages)
Your team has already identified the details of the work schedule in a work breakdown structure and visualized these details in a Gantt chart with a critical path. You also used your stakeholder management plan to determine who needs to be informed of progress on the project and when. And you’ve planned out responses to the risks you identified. Now, you must determine the cost to build and operate this store.
You must also estimate the costs of the required inventory inside the store and the hiring and training of employees to begin operations. Read Project Cost Estimating and Project Procurement for help in answering this question.
For this project, your team only needs to research and provide high-level budget estimates for the various work packages or the higher-level work activities. For example, building the store itself might be broken
down into design, site preparation (your company already owns the land), permit costs, plumbing, electrical, etc. Or, you may prefer to just use major categories such as design, build, and outfit. Consider other project procurements that may be required for your project. Develop your own project cost estimate template. While your research will yield material, labor, and overhead cost data in Brazilian Reals (BRL), for the purpose of this assignment, you will convert all cost figures to US dollars (USD).
Procurement Plan (TWO Pages) (see previous example)
[Discuss the important procurements needed for the project (e.g., construction contract).]
For references (ONE PAGE). Please use at least two references in the attached files as the primary references (per the professor’s request). The other three references can be outside the coursework.