QSO 340 Module 7 Project Two Status Report example

Memorandum

To: Executive Director (Project Sponsor), Tri-River Regional Food Bank

From: Director of Operations, Project Manager

Date: [Date], end of week 30

Re: Warehouse management system project status and two decisions requested

Overall Health: Amber, Improving

The project is on track to cut over in week 36, before the November 15 deadline, and cost performance has improved since the week 20 review. It remains amber rather than green because of one open data migration issue and a staffing risk in the main warehouse. Two decisions are requested by next Friday: approval of the cutover go and no-go criteria in the final section, and approval of 6,500 dollars of contingency for an additional evening training session for warehouse staff.

Progress Against Milestones

System configuration was completed in week 26, two weeks later than the original plan but on the revised plan after the second vendor consultant joined in week 21. Warehouse user testing finished in week 28 with 41 defects found, of which 38 are fixed and three are minor display issues scheduled for the week 33 release. The pantry pilot began in week 27; six of the eight pilot pantries have placed at least two online orders, and the other two are receiving phone support. The second trial data migration was completed in week 29. Warehouse staff training begins in week 31 as planned. Pantry training, fast-tracked to overlap the last two weeks of the pilot, starts in week 31 with the eight pilot pantries acting as peer helpers for the others, an arrangement the pilot pantries proposed themselves.

Budget and Earned Value

At the end of week 30, planned value is 452,000 dollars, earned value is 438,000 dollars and actual cost is 471,000 dollars. The cumulative cost performance index has risen from 0.87 at week 20 to 0.93, and the schedule performance index from 0.90 to 0.97. The improvement reflects the change control freeze on custom fields and the consultant's speed on configuration. At the current cumulative index, the estimate at completion is about 624,000 dollars, within the 640,000 dollar total including contingency. Of the 60,000 dollar contingency, 24,000 dollars has been used for the consultant; 36,000 dollars remains (Fleming & Koppelman, 2010).

Risk Update

One risk has been retired: cold-rated scanners performed reliably in freezer testing at 5 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, although battery life is about 30 percent shorter, which is handled by a second battery for each freezer scanner at a cost of 1,400 dollars already within the hardware budget.

Two risks are new. First, the main warehouse supervisor, who is responsible for testing and training in the responsibility matrix, has scheduled surgery in week 34. Probability: certain; impact: medium. Response: the second-shift lead will shadow the supervisor during training in weeks 31 to 33 and take over go-live coordination. Second, the holiday food drive schedule has been moved earlier this year, with the first large deliveries arriving in week 37. Probability: high; impact: high. Response: cutover must finish in week 36 with no slack, which is why the go and no-go criteria below matter.

The pantry adoption risk remains open but is trending favorably given the pilot results. The project's largest remaining risk is not the software; it is the one week between cutover and the start of the holiday rush.

Open Issues

Issue 1: the second trial migration found that 3 percent of product records, about 420 items, have mismatched units of measure, such as cases recorded as pounds. Owner: inventory analyst. Action: correct in the source spreadsheets and rerun validation by week 33. Issue 2: two pilot pantries with part-time volunteers have not logged in. Owner: agency relations manager. Action: in-person visit in week 31. Issue 3: the funder's quarterly report template changed; the report has not yet been tested in the new system. Owner: project manager. Action: vendor to deliver the revised report in week 32.

Decisions Requested

Decision 1: approve the following go and no-go criteria, to be reviewed in week 35. The project will go live only if all open data issues are resolved and the final trial migration reconciles to within 0.5 percent of physical counts; at least 18 of 22 warehouse staff have completed training and passed a practical check; the funder report produces correct results from test data; and a two-week paper fallback procedure has been rehearsed. If any criterion is not met, cutover moves to January 6, after the holiday period, and the food bank continues on its current process (Project Management Institute [PMI], 2021).

Decision 2: approve 6,500 dollars from the remaining contingency for an evening training session so that second-shift warehouse staff can be trained without overtime pay, which would otherwise cost more.

The next status report will be issued at the end of week 32, following the reporting cadence set in the project plan (Kerzner, 2022).

References

Fleming, Q. W., & Koppelman, J. M. (2010). Earned value project management (4th ed.). Project Management Institute.

Kerzner, H. (2022). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling (13th ed.). Wiley.

Project Management Institute. (2021). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (7th ed.). Project Management Institute.