University of Phoenix
Terry Norris
January 20, 2008 Project Plan for Whitbread World Sailboat Race This paper analyzes the Whitbread World Sailboat Race case scenario presented in chapter 9 in the Gray and Larson text, Project Management: the Managerial Process. The Whitbread World Sailboat Race is a nine month round the world race. Bjorn Ericksen has been chosen by his country to head up the project of getting a boat and a team ready for the race. The objectives of the project are to design, build and test a new vessel and select and train a crew capable of winning the race. The objectives must be completed within 45 weeks, the start of the race, and with a planned budget of $3.2 million. Initial projections show that the …show more content…

The first thing looked at on the implementation plan was crash costs and if they could help reduce time and still remain within budget. Using times and costs on the scenario the budget is right on target with direct and indirect costs. Without crashing the length of time on the project is 50 weeks versus the mandatory 45 weeks. Within these boundaries, crashing is not an option unless costs are reduced elsewhere. While considering the crashing scenario a critical path for the project was developed to find out where time could be reduced to have an impact on the project. The critical path was a basis for all the solutions that were considered Performance of the vessel and its crew then is priority number two and is enhanced; winning the race is the team’s ultimate goal. The team then must accept the budget as the least important priority. As the project