Wedding in India
Plan a Wedding in India
Priya Sarveswaran
MET AD 642 Professor Warburton February 24, 2009
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Wedding in India
Table of Contents
Abstract Project Rationale Project Specification Project Scope Work Breakdown Structure Schedule Resources Cost Recommendations Project Scope Work Breakdown Structure Schedule Resources Cost Project Management Appendix 1: References Appendix 2: Tables and Figures
3 4 4 5,6 6 6,7 7,8 8,9 9,10 10 10,11 11,12 12, 13 13 14 15-25
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Abstract
Weddings are joyous occasions that allow the bride and groom to proclaim their love for each other in front of family and friends, but with the growth of the wedding industry the main purpose of the ceremony can be lost between elaborate centerpieces and over the top wedding cakes. The bride and groom envision a simple wedding with only close friends and family, and to avoid some of the material aspects of the wedding celebration the bridge and groom plan to be married in a small city in India. The budget has been determined to be a maximum of $20,000USD based on available investment. The bride and groom expect the budget to include travel plans as well as the wedding plans based on the exchange rate of the US dollar to the Indian Rupee. It is important to the couple they not overspend their budget and due to the simplicity of the wedding the bride and groom expect to plan the wedding between May 22, 2009 and August 3, 2009 with the assistance of their parents and the bride’s sister . To ensure the wedding occurs per the specification, budget and schedule the bride and groom used project management tools such as defining the project scope, creating a project network and identifying the critical path, and using the bottom-up method to estimate cost. The bridge and groom are anticipating through use of project management techniques their wedding will occur on time, on budget and according to their vision.
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Plan a Wedding in India
Project Rationale
A wedding is a celebration of love and commitment to one another in front of family and friends. With the booming wedding industry it can be easy to lose sight of the core reason of the wedding ceremony midst the selection of center pieces and elaborate wedding and reception venues. According to the Kiplinger Letter the average wedding not including the honeymoon costs $27, 000.
A recently engaged couple plan to avoid
the high cost of a wedding by planning a destination wedding in a small city in India. The couple’s vision is to plan a simple wedding ceremony and reception and be surrounded
by their close family and friends on their special day. Trichy, India is chosen as the wedding location as this is one of the groom’s favorite cities in India. To ensure the wedding occurs to specification, budget and schedule the bride and groom intend to use project management tools to plan their wedding.
Project Specification
The project goal is to plan an August 2009 wedding in Trichy, India at a maximum cost of $20,000USD, and the planning is to commence March 22, 2009 and be completed prior to August 3, 2009.
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Project Scope
General
Project Name: Wedding in India
Information
Project Manager : Bride
Goals
Plan an August 2009 wedding in Trichy, India. The maximum cost of $20,000USD. The planning is to commence March 22, 2009 and to be completed prior to August 3, 2009.
Deliverables
Plan the wedding ceremony Invite guests Plan the wedding reception Plan the trip to India
Milestones
Complete planning of the wedding ceremony Complete planning of the reception Complete travel plans to India
Technical
The hotel will be required to accommodate approximately 100
Requirements
guests, include amenities such as a pool and restaurant to entertain the guests, and be within close proximity to the chosen wedding and reception venues.
Limits and
The wedding is to take place in Trichy, India and the cost of the
Exclusions
wedding is to be contained to under $20, 000USD including travel of the bride and groom to India. The hotel has to accommodate approximately 100 guests.
Customer Review
Bride and Groom
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Work Breakdown Structure
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) provides a hierarchical outline of the project. All activities required to complete the project are listed within the WBS. Figure 1 outlines the individual work packages involved in planning the wedding in India. Completion of the individual work packages lead to the deliverables of planning the wedding ceremony, planning the reception, inviting guests and planning the trip to India. Individuals within the project team are assigned to the work packages for completion within set timelines as shown in the Gantt Chart (Figure 2). To set clear priorities within the project and to ensure the wedding is planned according to their vision a project priority matrix (Table 3) was developed by the bride and groom. The couple will accept scope and performance changes of the project, and the priority is to complete the project within the fixed budget and to minimize the time to completion of the wedding plans. The budget is fixed based on the funds available for the wedding. The bride and groom would like to finish planning the wedding earlier to avoid a last minute rush and to leave for India as planned on August 1, 2009.
Schedule
The project network (Figure 2) was developed to illustrate the sequence of activities to plan the wedding in India. The activities on the path are linked start to finish and the timeline is based on a 24hr schedule as the project team plans to work seven days a week. The project start date of March 22, 2009 was identified as this is when the family of the bride and groom are available to start planning the wedding and the completion date of August 3, 2009 was selected, because the bride and groom plan to arrive in India
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on that date and expect the wedding to be planned upon arrival. The critical path of the project network is identified in the red (Figure 2). The critical path is the deliverable of inviting guests to the wedding (determine wedding date/determine guest list/select the invitation/order the invitation/wait for invitations to arrive/send out the invitations/pay vendors/attend family meeting/fly to India). All activities on the critical path have zero slack and a delay occurring in any of these activities will cause a delay to the completion of the project by the number of days the activity was delayed by (pg. 158). There is only one critical path, but since all the activities on this path have zero slack this is a sensitive network and will need to be monitored by the bride to ensure the original critical path does not change. The key milestones of completion of wedding plans, completion of reception plans, and completion of trip plans to India are also highlighted within the network.
Resources
The project team will consist of the bride, groom, bride’s mom and dad, groom’s mom and dad and the bride’s sister. The bride is chosen to be the project manager as she has the traits of an effective project manager. Someone who sees the bigger picture, has personal integrity, is proactive, able to work well with others, has a general knowledge of wedding planning, and also her positive attitude (pg. 336). The team members are assigned to work packages as shown in Table 1 based on their past experiences, skill base (pg. 252) and to prevent resource over allocation. The groom’s parents will be travelling to Trichy, India during the planning of the wedding and are assigned the activities of
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selecting the wedding and reception venues, reserving the hotel, selecting the caterer and selecting the priest.
Cost
Bottom up estimate using detailed estimates for the WBS work packages is used because final cost and details of the cost (pg. 121) are important to the couple. The topdown approach was not chosen; because past data for similar projects and an experienced estimator were not available (pg. 121). The bride and groom determined the budget of $20,000USD based on investment available for the project based on savings of the bride, groom and their parents. To obtain the cost estimate two estimates of the direct cost of each activity are obtained and averaged. Table 5 lists the direct cost of each activity in Indian Rupees and Table 6 lists the direct cost of each activity in US dollars. The two estimates were obtained from management at Hotel Sangam and Breeze Residency in Trichy, India. The average direct cost estimate of the two estimates was used in calculating the total direct cost. A direct overhead cost of twenty percent was set to include additional costs associated with direct labor (project team). The direct overhead would be anticipated to cover expenses such as meals and transportation costs of the project team. A general and administrative overhead cost of twenty percent was set. Based on these calculations the estimated cost of planning a wedding in India is $16, 531.19 (Table 7) and is within the maximum budget of $20 000USD set by the bride and groom. The costs will be loaded near the end of the project as the vendors will have to be paid prior to the bride and groom’s departure to India.
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The bride and groom are also concerned about the time it will take to recover their savings after incurring all the wedding expenses. The payback method is used to determine the time for the couple to recover the cost of the initial investment of $20 000USD (pg. 33) and is calculated take approximately 2 years (Table 2).
Recommendations
Project Scope Scope creep is the change of the project over time (Heldman, 2005). To prevent scope creep a project scope management plan and a communications plan (Table 4) should be created during the defining stage of the project. The project scope management plan should include how the project scope was defined, how the WBS was defined, and the process for deliverable verification (Heldman, 2005). The project priority matrix (Table 3) will ensure the important aspects of the project will be maintained. The only constrained element for this project is cost and hence the project manager must ensure in the event of changes to the scope the set cost of the wedding is adhered to. If changes to the scope are required the changes should be discussed between the bride and groom and the impact on cost and schedule will need to be evaluated. Having a communications plan can aid in resolving problems as they occur and to prevent issues before they develop. The communication plan as described in Table 4 should provide information regarding project status reports, changes in scope, gating decisions, action items, deliverable issues, team status meetings, accepted request changes and milestone reports (pg. 109). The communication plan also states who the audience of the report is, the frequency the
Wedding in India 10 information is to be provided, the method of communication and the provider of the information.
Work Breakdown Structure The Work Breakdown Structure can be used as a monitoring system to ensure the project is on schedule and to track cost and performance (pg. 98). Individual work packages to planning the wedding are identified and resources and costs are assigned to each work package (Cooke & Tate, 2005). Completion of the work packages listed in Figure 1 by the project team can then be monitored by the bride. Performance can be tracked by supervision of the major deliverables by the upper management (Bride and Groom) and supervision at the sub-deliverable level by the project manager. A delay occurring in one of the work packages can provide the project manager with information as to subsequent delay to the network path the work package belonged to. The project manager can then be proactive to reducing the delay for the remainder of the activities in the network path.
Schedule Flexible start and completion dates of the project and the availability of additional resources can decrease the sensitivity of the wedding planning project. As this is a timeconstrained project an earlier start date of planning the wedding will allow for greater slack on the critical path and will decrease the sensitivity of the network. The project manager should consider negotiating an earlier start date with the project team or outsource resources for the time the project team is unavailable. An activity on the
Wedding in India 11 current critical path could then be delayed by the amount of slack available without delaying the entire project. Currently there is zero slack available to activities within the critical path and any delay to activities within the critical path will delay the project. As per the project priority matrix (Table 3) an earlier completion of the project is favorable as the bride and groom want to leave for India as planned and avoid a last minute panic before their flight. The time to complete the project could also be decreased through the use of additional resources for time critical activities. If a greater number of resources are available for activities within the critical path of inviting guests, the activities within the critical path can be completed within a shorter duration.
Resources The time to complete each activity can be decreased by recruiting friends to assist with wedding plans, or to recruit a greater number of resources and conduct a larger number of activities in parallel. Resource leveling may also be used to delay non-critical activities and reduce demand for resources for peak demand activities (pg. 238). The addition of resources to activities within the critical path will shorten the duration of activity completion as well as change the critical path within the network. The project manager will need to monitor changes to the network as a result of resource addition. Another method of resource utilization to facilitate the completion of the project is to outsource segments of the project. Time and cost is a priority of this project and if the bride were able to contract a wedding planner in India under the fixed budget of $20, 000USD the time to plan the wedding could be decreased. To monitor the performance of the project team Scheduling Performance Index (SPI) can be calculated
Wedding in India 12 on a weekly basis. SPI can be calculated by dividing the earned value of the activity by the planned value of the activity. A smaller fraction (eg. 0.4) will indicate the project team is not performing at 100% and greater effort will be required by the team for the remainder of the project to meet the target deadline. Schedule variance (SV) should also be used on a weekly basis to illustrate if the project is behind schedule. SV is the difference between the earned value (percent complete x original budget) and planned value of the activity (pg. 425). A positive value will indicate if the project is on or ahead of schedule. A negative value will indicate if the planning of the wedding is behind the target schedule date. Performance evaluation will enable the bride to assess any problems and enable her to get the project back on schedule.
Cost Cost variance (CV) should be utilized on a weekly basis to ensure the cost of each work package is per the baseline estimate. CV is the difference between the earned value (percent complete x original budget) and the actual cost of the work completed (pg. 425). A positive value will indicate the budget is per schedule or under budget, and a negative value will indicate the project is over budget. As the cost is constrained this evaluation tool will allow the bride to view the cost of the wedding as the planning progresses and be aware of any budget issues as they occur. If the project is deemed to be over budget shown by a negative CV the bride and groom may decrease the budget allocated to future work packages to ensure the overall budget of the wedding is met. At the start of the wedding planning a budgeted cost at completion comprising of the total baseline cost
Wedding in India 13 accounts should be calculated (Table 6). Using this baseline value the project manager can determine the cost variance at the completion of the project.
Project Management A project control plan should be implemented to monitor the time and cost of planning of the wedding. At each milestone team members should provide actual activity time, resource usage and actual cost of work packages completed. The data collected can be compared with baseline data from the WBS and through the tracking Gantt chart indicate the wedding planning progress at the end of each milestone. The progress should then be communicated to all project team members. Use of an outside consultant with experience in wedding planning can also improve management procedures by evaluating progress throughout the project.
Wedding in India 14 Appendix 1
References Bharatplaza (2006-2008). Retrieved February 9, 2009 from http://www.bharatplaza.com/index.php Breeze residency. Retrieved February 9, 2009 from http://www.breezehotel.com/tfacilities.htm Cooke, H.S., and Tate, K. (2005). Project Management . New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Expedia. (2009). Retrieved February 9, 2009 from http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll Gray, C.F., & Larson, E.W. (2008). Project management: The managerial process (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Heldman, K. (2005). Project management jump start. (2nd ed.). Alameda, CA: Sybex Inc. Hotel sangam. (2003). Retrieved February 9, 2009 from http://www.hotelsangam.com/home.html No problems for booming wedding industry. (2008, March). The Kiplinger Letter , 85(13) Parekh cards. (2004). Retrieved February 9, 2009 from http://www.parekhcards.com/weddingcards.asp?ct=10&cards=Hindu+Wedding+ Cards USPS. (2009). Send International Mail. Retrieved on February 2, 2009, http://www.usps.com/international/sendmail.htm XE. (2008). Retrieved February 3, 2009, from http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi
Appendix 2
Wedding in India 15 Figure 1: Work Breakdown Structure of planning a wedding in India 1.0 Plan a wedding in Trichy, India 1.1 Plan the wedding ceremony 1.1.1. Determine the wedding date 1.1.2 Select a venue for the ceremony 1.1.3 Determine wedding party 1.1.4 Purchase wedding outfits 1.1.5 Order flowers 1.1.6 Order wedding cake 1.1.7 Select priest 1.1.8 Select music (wedding) 1.2 Review completed ceremony plans 1.3 Invite guests 1.3.1 Determine guest list 1.3.2 Select invitation 1.3.3 Order invitations 1.3.4 Wait for invitations to arrive 1.3.5 Send out invitations 1.4 Plan reception 1.4.1 Select reception venue 1.4.2 Purchase reception outfit 1.4.3 Book photographer 1.4.4 Book DJ 1.4.5 Select MC 1.4.6 Book caterer 1.4.7 Plan the dinner menu 1.5 Review completed reception plans 1.6 Plan trip to India 1.6.1 Purchase plane tickets 1.6.2 Reserve hotel 1.6.3 Fly to India 1.7 Review completed plan for trip to India 1.8 Manage wedding planning 1.8.1 Pay vendors 1.8.2 Attend family meeting
Wedding in India 16 Figure 2: Gantt Chart of planning a wedding in India
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Activity
Determine wedding party Purchase wedding outfits Order flowers Order wedding cake Purchase reception outfit Select MC Fly to India Attend family meeting Select the invitation Order invitations Purchase plane tickets Fly to India Attend family meeting Determine guest list Send out invitations Plan the dinner menu Attend family meeting Determine wedding date Book photographer Pay vendors Attend family meeting Select music (wedding) Book DJ Attend family meeting Select wedding venue Select reception venue Reserve hotel Pay vendors Attend family meeting Select priest Book caterer Attend family meeting Total hours Table 1: Resource Usage
Bride
Groom
Bride's Mom
Bride's Dad
Bride's Sister
Groom's Dad
Groom's Mom
336 hrs 84 hrs 120 hrs 120 hrs 84 hrs 48 hrs 48 hrs 24 hrs 504 hrs 24 hrs 720 hrs 48 hrs 24 hrs 720 hrs 504 hrs 72 hrs 24 hrs 336 hrs 504 hrs 336 hrs 24 hrs 720 hrs 336 hrs 24 hrs 720 hrs 720 hrs 720 hrs 336 hrs 24 hrs 24 hrs 72 hrs 24 hrs 864
1320
1320
1200
1080
2520
120 hrs
Wedding in India 22 Investment Annual savings
20,000.00 12,000.00
Payback period
1.67
Rate of return
60.0%
Table 2: Payback method
Time Constrain Enhance Accept
Performance
Cost X
X X
Table 3: Project Priority Matrix
Information
Audien ce
Milestone report Project status reports
Bride, Groom
Changes in scope Team status reports
Bride, Groom Bride, Groom
Deliverables issues
Bride, Groom
Action items
Bride, Groom
Bride, Groom
Time Compl etion of milesto nes
Method of Communication
Provid er
Meeting
Project team
Weekly As require d
Telephone/email
Project team
Weekly As require d As require d
Telephone/email
Project team Project team
Team meeting
Project team
Telephone/email
Project team
Meeting
Table 4: Project Communication Plan
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WBS
1 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2
Activity
Direct Cost INR Low Average High
Plan a wedding in India Plan wedding ceremony Determine wedding date $25,000. 00
$30,000. 00
$35,000. 00
$41,412. 00 $14,700. 00 $6,000.0 0 $3,500.0 0
$44,897. 00 $16,100. 00 $6,000.0 0 $3,500.0 0
$48,382. 00 $17,500. 00 $6,000.0 0 $3,500.0 0
$21,000. 00
$22,000. 00
1.1.4
Select wedding venue Determine wedding party Purchase wedding outfits
1.1.5
Order flowers
1.1.6
Order wedding cake
1.1.7
Select priest Select music (wedding) Review completed ceremony plans Invite guests Determine guest list Select the invitation $20,000. Order invitations 00 Wait for invitations to arrive Send out invitations N/A Plan reception $25,000. Select reception venue 00 Purchase reception $25,740. outfit 00 $14,000. Book photographer 00 $12,000. Book DJ 00 Select MC $25,000. Book caterer 00 Plan the dinner menu Review completed reception plans Plan trip to India Purchase plane tickets N/A
1.1.3
1.1.8 1.2 1.3 1.3.1 1.3.2 1.3.3 1.3.4 1.3.5 1.4 1.4.1 1.4.2 1.4.3 1.4.4 1.4.5 1.4.6 1.4.7 1.5 1.6 1.6.1
N/A $30,000. 00 $30,615. 00 $16,000. 00 $16,000. 00
$35,000. 00 $35,490. 00 $18,000. 00 $20,000. 00
$27,500. 00
$30,000. 00
N/A
N/A
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1.6.2 1.6.3 1.7 1.8 1.8.1 1.8.2
$44,800. Reserve hotel 00 Fly to India Review completed plan for trip to India Manage wedding planning Pay vendors Attend family meeting $257,15 2.00
$67,900. 00
$91,000. 00
$309,51 2.00
$361,87 2.00
Table 5: Cost estimate of work packages in Indian Rupees (INR)
WB S
1 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.1.4 1.1.5 1.1.6 1.1.7 1.1.8 1.2 1.3 1.3.1 1.3.2 1.3.3
Activity Plan a wedding in India Plan wedding ceremony Determine wedding date Select wedding venue Determine wedding party Purchase wedding outfits
Direct Cost USD Averag Low e High
$514.6 7
$617.5 2
$720.3 6
$852.3 3 $302.5 4 $123.4 8 $72.03
$923.8 3 $331.3 5 $123.4 8 $72.03
$995.3 2 $360.1 6 $123.4 8 $72.03
Order flowers Order wedding cake Select priest Select music (wedding) Review completed ceremony plans Invite guests Determine guest list Select the invitation Order invitations $411.6 $432.1
$452.7
Wedding in India 25
1.3.4 1.3.5 1.4
1.4.2 1.4.3
Book photographer
1.4.4 1.4.5
Book DJ Select MC
1.4.6 1.4.7 1.5 1.6 1.6.1 1.6.2 1.6.3 1.7 1.8 1.8.1 1.8.2
9
7
$272.0 0
$272.0 0
$272.0 0
$514.6 7 $528.7 0 $287.5 6 $248.3 0
$617.5 2 $628.8 4 $330.0 1 $331.0 7
$720.3 6 $728.9 7 $372.4 5 $413.8 3
$504.5 9
$555.0 5
$605.5 1
$4,652 .00 $929.6 0
$4,836 .00 $1,409 .13
$5,020 .00 $1,888 .65
Wait for invitations to arrive Send out invitations Plan reception Select reception venue Purchase reception outfit
1.4.1
1
Book caterer Plan the dinner menu Review completed reception plans Plan trip to India Purchase plane tickets
Reserve hotel Fly to India Review completed plan for trip to India Manage wedding planning Pay vendors Attend family meeting $10,21 $11,47 4.08 9.99
$12,74 5.89
Table 6: Cost estimate of work packages in US dollars
Direct Cost (USD Avg) Direct overhead (20%)
$11,479.99 $2,296.00
Total direct costs G&A overhead (20%)
$13,775.99 $2,755.20
Total costs
$16,531.19
Table 7: Estimated cost to plan a wedding in India using bottom-up approach
Wedding in India 26
