Du Keystone Conference: Initial Planning

DU Keystone Conference: Initial Planning

Describe the elements of scope for the project.

When scoping out the project for the upcoming Keystone Conference, which will be hosted by Ducks Unlimited, a project scope checklist should be completed to ensure that you have a key understanding of the elements that are needed for the project plan.

Defining the project objective for the national conference is the first step within the Project Scope checklist that needs to be completed, which will allow pertinent information of "what, when how, and why" to be addressed (Gray, Larson, 2009; p.92). The project objective for the Keystone Conference includes planning the national conference, which will be held in August 2013 in Charlottesville, South Carolina, ensuring that all tasks and resources are quantified and not to exceed $1.2 million. The next step within the project scope checklist is identifying the major deliverables that must be produced from the beginning to the end of the project. These deliverables include identifying sub-project leaders for each portion of the project, securing the venue, establishing the schedule and presenters for the conference, establishing group rates for travel (i.e., hotel and airfare). The third step within the project scope checklist is identifying major milestones that would be described as key control/check points within the project plan (Gray et al 2009). These events will provide stakeholders and other decision makers of the overall project important updates regarding the status of the project. Accomplishing activities to meet the overall deadline will ultimately help measure the success and failure of the project. The fourth step within the project scope checklist is identifying any technical requirements that would be needed for the project. Since the planning of the conference will include many virtual meetings computer equipment and possibly Skype, Facetime, or Web-Ex registration will be needed to allow for productive virtual communication between the twenty-six representatives and sub-teams that will be included in the conference.

The fifth step of the project scope checklist is identifying and defining limits and exclusions for the project (Gray et al., 2009). This step is important to ensure that the objectives and expectations are clear and that both the resources and budget are being used appropriately for the project. The Keystone Conference schedule would be one of the items that would need to be finalized as soon as possible to avoid false expectations and overbooking/commitments.

The last step of the project scope checklist is the overall project scope and strategy with both internal and external customers to ensure that they have a clear understanding of the direction of the project (Gray et al., 2009). This review also allows the stakeholders to provide their approval to move forward with the project based on what was presented.

Evaluate priorities, list them and explain your rationale.

According to Gray et al (2009; p. 96), the key steps in evaluating priorities is to identify "which criterion is constrained, which should be enhanced and which can be accepted" within the project. Since the Keystone Conference needs to be completed in 21 months (August 2013), time is a constrain that cannot be compromised. Given that there is a fixed budget of $1.2 million for the national conference, it is this student's opinion that cost is a criterion that could be enhanced, with a goal to control cost, targeting