PRINCE2 Practitioner Exam - Topic 2 Question 56 Discussion

Project Scenario

Calendar Project (Note: The companies and people within the scenario are fictional.)

There has been a reduction in fie number of orders at the MNO Manufacturing Company due in part to the increased marketing activities of its competitors. To help counter this, the company has decided to create a promotional calendar for next year for all its current and prospective customers. The end product of this project will be a prepared calendar pack, ready for printing. The design of the calendar will be similar to one sent out previously, and must reflect the company image as described in the existing corporate branding standards. Another project is currently producing a new company logo when is to be printed on each page of the promotional calendar. The prepared calendar pack will consist of:

Design for each month - correctly showing at public holidays and new company logo

Selected photographs- 12 professionally-produced photographs, showing different members of staff

Selected paper and selected envelope - for printing and mailing the calendar

Chosen label design - a competition to design a label will be held as part of this project

List of customers - names and addresses of customers to whom the calendar will be sent.

The project is currently in initiation and will have two further stages:

Stage 2 will include tie activities to:

Create the customer fast using information from the Accounts and Marketing departments

Confirm compliance with the Data Protection Legislation

Create a design for each month - this will be done by the internal creative team

Select and appoint a professional photographer

Gather photograph design ideas from previous project and agree photographic session schedule

Prepare a production cost forecast

Select paper and envelope.

Stage 3 will include the activities to:

Produce and select tie professionally-taken photographs

Hold the label design competition and choose the label design

Assemble the prepared calendar pack.

A production cost forecast, based on the options and costs for the paper, envelope, printing and marketing of the calendar is to be produced in stage 2. However, the actual production and distribution of the calendars is not within the scope of the project. The product cost forecast will be reviewed by the Project Board to determine whether tie project should continue.

It is now 05 October and the prepared calendar pack must be delivered to the print company by 30 November, to enable printing and distribution of the calendar in time for Christmas. The cost of the activities to develop the specialist products and the cost of the project management activities are estimated to be 20,000. There is a project time tolerance of +1 week /-2 weeks and a project cost tolerance of +6,000 / -6,000. A change budget of 500 has been allocated but there is no risk budget.

Whilst identifying the mailing costs for the calendars the Project Manager was surprised to find the costs could vary considerably depending on the size of the package and the delivery service used. For the purpose of this project, the Project Manager has selected an appropriate service but feels that a corporate standard for postage would have reduced the time and effort invested. It could reduce the company's overheads by up to 20k per year. How should the Project Manager record this observation within the project?