Planning the project report

You are the new project manager at Garden Decks of Beauty, a local company for the past 12 years in the Lexington, Kentucky area. Your first assignment will be for the Melrose (Todd and Margo + two yippy dogs to drive the neighbors nuts) family who moved into their new home two years ago and now wish to replace the 8 foot by 3 foot slab of concrete, the stoop, which their backyard facing French Doors step onto with a new, luxurious deck area with hot-tub and accoutrements. Their backyard is 80’ wide and 120’ deep and runs at a 5% slope down straight to the back. BTW, Todd and Margo are Iron Triangle lovers – Time / Cost / Quality. Win them and you win their neighbors’ business.

Here are some of their basic requirements:

• A two area deck with the upper level (will step on from the French Doors), being a 5 meter by 7 meter rectangular area
• One end of the upper level will have a 5 meter by 3 meter by 3.5 meter tall pergola – you may use a kit or build and design from scratch
• You will have a single step down to the second circular area which will be 7 meters in diameter and have a 2.5 meter square hot-tub on the far side – this will need electrical and you will acquire and facilitate the installation through the vendor
• You will be able to step from the circular area to the yard on a paving stone path which will run out to the garden – the path will be 7 meters long and 1 meter wide – this path will have electrical yard lights
• There will be a 25’ diameter area half way down the path which will have a built in fire pit with seating (4 seats / benches) – the area will use gravel and border stones
• All deck areas will be edged with decorative railing
• The deck framing will set on 4”x4” footers which will be concreted 1 meter into the ground (below frost line) – you will used galvanized hangers to support frame supports
• The lower area will have built in flower boxes 2’x 3’ – three of them
• The upper area will have a gas grill with built in gas service
• You will need a building permit and it will cost 50 dollars
• All railing will have decorative lighting running along it
• Both main deck areas will be fully landscaped around the perimeter with plants, decorative stones, perennials, and bushes. – your team will do the landscaping
• You will have an experienced construction crew of 4 FTE’s which will cost $80/hour including benefits and 1.5 time overtime applies
• You will have a team of 2 experienced landscape professionals who will cost $75/ hour and overtime applies.
• Need a couple outdoor, 110 electrical outlets for Xmas lights, etc.
• You will need electrical you will vendor out – determine cost
• You will vendor out the hot-tub installation – determine cost
• You will need a vendor to install and run the gas-line – determine cost
• The deck will be fully sealed with a medium brown stain / preservative
• You will use treated lumber for all framing and you will decide on what product to use for surface boards (wood, synthetic, etc.)
• The upper level will have two built in seats near the grill area (wood) – not under the pergola
• You will need to determine the timeline – will precipitate from the Work Breakdown Structure
• Assume you have all the tools you need
• Any requirements not specifically stated are at your discretion.
• A 5 foot by 12 foot 2×8 raised bed tomato and pepper area just to the left of where you might walk off the center of the upper deck with drip irrigation installed and drip irrigation faucet at one corner of the raised bed.

You will need to create

1. Project Charter
2. RACI
3. Statement of Work (SOW)
4. Scope Document
5. Very Basic Drawing (https://financesonline.com/best-free-landscape-design-software/)
6. Procurement Process (materials and vendors)
7. Assumptions and Constraints Document
8. Risk and Issues log / matrix
9. Communication Plan
10. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) (can use EXCEL)
11. Quality Document
12. Change Request Process Document
13. Milestone Timeline Breakdown
14. Budget (Will precipitate from the Work Breakdown Structure)
15. Project status report – done on a deck slide to go to leadership weekly by COB Fridays – must include color coded status, budget section, risk section, issue section, current past achievements, work areas underway (Sunday)

How do I approach this?

Internet research is your friend – good Google topics = deck construction basics – hot-tubs for sale and installation – how to pick a gas grill – running a gas-line to my grill – landscape planning – all kinds of project related searches – estimating construction labor costs – any places like Lowes for all of your basic materials cost – building an in-yard fire-pit, procurement and contract basics – building a deck flower box – Wayfair for pergolas, building a pergola, YouTube, your textbook, etc.

I know:

-That many of you are thinking that I have no experience with construction, building decks, landscaping, etc. What you must realize is that when you seek employment as a project manager you will always have this conundrum of how much do I really need to know about the area of work the project lies within (telecom, IT, construction, travel, human resources, insurance, health care, finance, etc.) do be effective at my job. You will have potential employers who will think you need to know a great deal. You will meet folks like me who would advise that is not the case. What you must be ready to do is learn / absorb as much knowledge in the area of project work as soon as possible. Be ready to explore all of your options to gain and find the knowledge you need to function effectively. You need to have just enough vocabulary and knowledge to operate and communicate well and that will then continually grow as the project moves forward. This is part of what makes being a project manager such fun – it is never the same – never boring.