Acme Home Improvements has determined it essential that expansion into international markets take place immediately. Acme Home Improvements has initiated a joint venture with local partners in Mexico City to form Acme Home Improvements SA de CV. The intent of this partnership is to open Acme's first ‘Do It Yourself’ – (DIY) home improvement store outside of the United States, to meet the competition head on and establish a foothold in international markets.
This document spells out our plan for the project's success. The project's sponsor is the Acme CEO, Alex R.Fitzgerald. This project is the first step in his strategic initiative to expand Acme into international markets.
Based on assessments, it is critical that Acme SA de CV complete the opening of this store in 12 months or less with a budget of up to $7. 5 million. A key risk is Acme's lack of experience in international markets. As a result, we will rely heavily on our partners to help us mitigate 'soft' cultural issues and navigate local nuances of business. Because of the soft issues, remaining on schedule is a key driver of project success.
To mitigate risks to the project's critical path, we have built feeding buffers into the schedule, and added a project buffer to the project end. Our plan outlines staff responsibilities and a staffing plan for project execution. This staff has strong support from corporate headquarters, a defined scope, budget, timeline, and processes by which to execute the plan. Included in these processes is a structured change control process that ensures changes are relevant, followed through, and controlled.
In addition, this document, and the accompanying project plan clearly identify dependencies that can impact project execution.We have separated these dependencies into mandatory, external, and discretionary dependencies (Schwalbe, 2004). Doing this has enabled us to maximize scheduling efficiency. Acme SA de CV has an established technology infrastructure to draw upon. Our plan will leverage this technology through wireless local area networks, corporate servers, and use of project management software. Finally, we will utilize a feedback process to capture lessons learned for our future expansion into international markets.
