Statement of Customer’s Need
The modern business environment is influenced by globalization and international mobility of individuals. As a result, companies demand more focus on diversity and leadership capabilities to manage professionally and personally diverse groups, communication and the conflict of interest, which may arise from the polarization of opinions. While companies provide internal training in face-to-face as well as virtual environments, there is an opportunity to improve the outcomes of diversity training by implementing an integrated training seminar, involving the practical and theoretical exercises and workshops with individuals from different companies and sectors. This cross-functional and cross-sectorial groups can significantly benefit in learning from own diversity (Bandick et al, 2001).
Assumptions
Based on the objectives of this project, several major assumptions have been made to support the development and execution of this project:
Companies are interested in outsourcing the diversity training activities;
It is possible to relocate the trainees for the period of training (5 days) from their actual geographic location;
Employees, undergoing the training are interested in it personally;
The viability and feasibility of the project is grounded on the ability of the project management to build a training team locally, highly competence and experienced in the subject;
The costs of the training built as an outcome of this project will be fixed throughout the period of 1 year and will be readjusted by the inflation rate starting month 13.
Statement of Work (SOW)
Project Scope
The scope of this project is wide, as the target audience for the training is any company, which faced the challenges in dealing with diversity or aims a building proactive and diversity-focused culture from within. The relocation of the employees for the training will be included in the charges and, thus, is possible for any organization. Moreover, marketing and promotion of the Diversity Training Seminar (DTS)will be done through social media and other internet channels, which makes the geographical scope ample, while maintaining the project team and process lean. That said the following Statement of Work (SOW) outlines the major elements, which determine viability and feasibility of the training seminar project.
Deliverables
The deliverable of the project includes the following elements (Gardiner, 2005):
Complete Training Seminar Outline;
Seminar Marketing and Promotional Strategy;
Administrative control and hiring of the personnel for conducting the training;
Developed Risk and Evaluation Frameworks for the training efficiency.
Interactive Mobile and Desktop websites for the project.
Based on the above-outlined deliverables, the DTS project outcome is the ready-to-market product in management and professional education.
Resources
The project will be led by a team of professionals with experience in management as well as educational industry. Considering the profile of the management team, the development of the project outline and timeline will be done internally. The following external human and fiscal resources, however, will be required to complete ensure that all the deliverables are presented to the evaluation:
A Team of trainers, working on DTS;
Application Developer hired externally to develop a mobile application and website for the DT project;
Training facility for practical adaptation of the course for the duration of development.
Schedule
The table below outlines the tentative schedule of the project:
Price
The administrative side of the project will be conducted and led internally by the team of individuals, interested in the project. That said there will be no expense, attributed to the administrative side during preparation. The management team will depend on the outsourced developers for mobile and desktop application and website and the occurring expenses will account for the major part of the project budget. It is estimated that the total budget required for the project will be USD$ 15,000, including:
Application and website development;
Administrative and travel expenses;
Soft opening and test course;
Marketing and promotion;
Preparation of the course material.
Risks
The project success will depend on the ability to develop a program, which will attract individuals with different background and, consequently, will generate sufficient return and profit. Some of the major risks include:
The failure to generate sufficient interest from potential clients;
Failure to attract professional staff for conducting the course;
Increasing fixed and administrative expenses, which may undermine the profitability of the training seminar.
The project will include a coherent risk assessment, which will segment the risk by the probability of occurring in three categories: (1) high (over 70% of probability), (2) medium (between 30% and 69% of probability) and (3) low (below 30% of probability). Based on this criterion, the risks will be either avoided, accepted, mitigated or ignored.
Expected Benefits
The project will benefit professionals and businesses, which are willing to increase performance in a diverse work environment. The training will provide its participants will required skills and tools to effectively work in diverse teams, build them and address such issues as communication, conflict and operational challenges, including time zones, virtual environment and other challenges (Sadler, 2003). For the investors, the project will benefit financially as well as bring the positive image to the brand.
References
Sadler Ph. (2003). Strategic Management. 2nd Edition. London: Kogan Page Limited
Gardiner, P.D. (2005). Project Management: A Strategic Planning Approach. New York: Palgrave McMillan Publishing.
Bendick M., Egan Jr., Lou M. Lofhjelm S.(2001). Workforce Diversity Training: From Anti-Discrimination Compliance to Organizational Development. Human Resource Planning, 24, (2), 10-25.
