PJM6000 3/6/2022
Sai Aishwarya Neelamraju/Laura Hudson
Business Case
Project Name: Promoting Growth of Local Learners for Northeastern University’s CPS Project Management Program
1.0 Background & Business Problem
The determination for Northeastern University CPS Boston to foster the adoption of expansion of the students’ intake is meant to bolster the capacity of students enrolling in the Project Management course. The low number of students who are seeking for the
Overtime, Northeastern University has seen a decrease in local enrollment in the school’s Project Management Program. This is both due in part to an increase of focus on foreign and out of state student enrollment, as well as decease in promotion of project management to the Massachusetts local community.
2.0 Strategic Case
The project fits into the objectives and strategic needs of NEU in that it helps it accomplish the determination of providing education to the community. As an academic institution, the organization has the objective of ensuring that it acquires the ability to have a progressive solution to the needs of members of society (Herman & Siegelaub, 2009); (Zadeh, n.d.).
In order to increase local student enrollment while maintaining existing interest, northeastern will look to shift their focus on increasing local awareness through networking and recruiting as well as enhanced financial aid and scholarship opportunities.
3.0 Project Overview
The project is meant to ensure a revolution within the Project management department towards increasing students. The students’ initial low turnout made it difficult to advance situations that are focused on creating progressive management of the situations. As such, it became critical that the project had to be implemented to safeguard the department from collapsing.
Scope:
Budget: Budget will be based on the breakdown of the following criteria. This budget will then be predicted and adjusted accordingly over a 5 year span.
Project Plan:
-Local advertising and networking: Part of the project should involve studying the target audience and giving some focus to outreach and communication. This may be via job fairs, business conferences, or presentations.
-financial aid/ Scholarships: targeting Massachusetts undergraduate students or professionals looking to gain certification in project management. A typical deterrent of continuing education is often cost. Part of this project will include promoting financial aid or reimbursements. Scholarship opportunities may also bring in an increase in applications.
Assumptions: there will be increased growth overtime.
Constraints: Since PJM is becoming more popular on a global level, what can we do to still make it as relevant on a more local level? Also expected market competition.
4.0 Expected Benefits
The expected benefits after implementing the project are the increase of students within the Project Management department. The other beneficial factor that would materialize after implementing the project is increased revenue. Since the students would be expected to pay for their academic fees, the institution would therefore be able to recoup the monies that would ensue from the project and transform it to income for the shareholders (Herman & Siegelaub, 2009). These are the expected benefits accruable from the project.
Beyond an increase in local enrollment, promoting the CPS Project Management Program will have continuous long term effects. With increase enrollment comes increase confidence in the program, generating more enrollment overtime. It is predicted that year one will expect the least amount of growth. The first few years will be the rollout phase- but should increase quickly overtime. This project will benefit the business not only by increased local enrollment for the Northeastern Boston campus, but if the project proves to be successful, can be implemented at other Northeastern campus’ as well. The end goal is to have an obvious and consistent increase in enrollment by year 5.
5.0 Financial Considerations
The financial consideration for the project depends on the organization’s determination to have the project have a positive outcome in a short time. Therefore, decisions must be made based on the model that would give effective results.
Advertisement: _—k over the course of 5 years
-Staff: to promote the program (networking)
-Seminars/classes/presentations: CPS is very inviting for professionals of any age to progress their understanding of
project management.
(Increasing networking could be done by having a booth at local conferences, giving presentations, advertisements, etc)
Financial Aid: —k over the course of 5 years
-Young professional scholarships or ‘small business scholarships’ could be given to promote applications
Local Learning Opportunities: workshops or webinars (intro to PJM may spark an interest in pursuing a degree)
6.0 Risks
The risks involved in the project are implementation of the project with the capital intensive venture, and the project fails to establish the profits that are expected. Therefore, in this provision, it becomes critical for the management to adopt feasible forecasting of the project to ensure that the projections of the project are to realize the expected progress to achieve the reality of the expected income generation (Herman & Siegelaub, 2009); (Zadeh, n.d.).
-It’s important to not over shift the focus on local students as to undermine or cause a divide from foreign and non resident students.
-With an offering of financial aid or scholarships, it’s important to evaluate whether this is a financially stable idea
-Market competition (must find a way to stand out)
7.0 Timeline
The timeline for implementation of the project and realizing the profits are expected to be six months. The scope of a project depends on the objective of the individuals who are targeted in changing their objectives and agreeing with the organization’s proposals. This dimension would thereby depend on the marketing department within the organization.
The predicted timeline of 5 years would be reasonable enough to see results. Since this project relies heavily on spreading awareness of the program and what if offers, it may need a few years to gain traction.
8.0 Recommendations and Next Steps
The first recommendation for the institution is to ensure that it engages the community through an effective marketing strategy. The importance of adopting this approach is to sensitize the community on the importance of developing project managers to resolve the problems experienced (Zadeh, n.d.).
The other recommendation is for the university to focus on quality rather than quantity. Advancing the model of creating grandaunts who can make a difference in the organizations that offer them job opportunities would elevate the recommendations towards the students from the institution (Zadeh, n.d.). This factor would create demand for students who complete the course.
The next step for the organization is to ensure that it captures the market’s specific needs in designing its curriculum for the course. This approach would provide the organization with an opportunity to solve the inherent problems within the department.
It is recommended that the initial numbers and demographics of the current project management program are evaluated. Beyond the current and average percentage of nonresident vs resident students, it’s important to look specifically at the demographics of the currently enrolled local students. Are most of these students coming from Northeastern’s undergrad program? Are they local managers looking to expand their knowledge of PJM? Are they young professionals or seasoned professionals? Since a lot of this project is going to rely on identifying a target audience, it’s important to do your due diligence prior to.
References
Herman, B. & Siegelaub, J. M. (2009). Is this really worth the effort? The need for a business case. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2009—North America, Orlando, FL. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Zadeh, A. A. (n.d.). Project Management Practices. PJM6000, 1–18.