SYMBIOSIS INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

KNOWLEDE AREA –
PROJECT INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT

SUBMITTED BY :

SMRITI DUREHA
C-52
 KNOWLEDGE AREA: INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT

STRATAGEM

Stratagem was an event for a panel discussion to be conducted on the topic of Union Budget.
The panel discussion was to be conducted on 10th February. The event was being conducted
under the guidance of the finance club faculty in charge. Right after the installation of the
junior team and handing over by the senior team a message was sent on the WhatsApp group
for the team about the allocated tasks.

Though there had been no formal face to face communication with respect to a plan for the
event either between the junior team and the faculty in charge or the junior team and the
senior team or for that matter among the members of the junior team itself.

Problems

1. Lack of a project charter for panel discussion: A proper charter wasn’t laid down which led
to problems of lack of authority to spend the budget. The students were restricted by the
administration and accounts department to arrange for honorarium for the panel members
ad moderator. Also, for identity cards and the banner, the team members were made to
write applications, which were to be signed by the faculty in charge, because they didn’t have
prior permission with respect to spending of the budget. a lot of tasks hence had gotten
delayed.

2. No formal event management plan: Without a formal plan there was no schedule or a
timeline as to what were the deadlines of different tasks such finalizing of panelist,
accommodation for the panelist, printing of the identity cards and banner for the event.

a. Designer of the banner: The design and the designer of the banner was changed
2 days before the event. Because a designer wasn’t selected in the planning
phase, there was confusion as to the designer, later on it was outsourced to the
editorial cell. There was a communication gap between the teams, due to which
the banner was finalized only a day prior to the event.

b. Vendors for the even weren’t confirmed: Vendors for the supply of food, printing
of the banner and identity cards weren’t confirmed, the team members weren’t
equipped with the contacts for the same, which had caused delays and confusion
right before the event.

c. Printing of the banner: The vendor’s contact for the banner printing was sourced
a day prior to the event, the design which was sent couldn’t be printed because
of the wrong file size and format. It got further delayed due to miscommunication
between our team and the editorial team. After finalization of the banner design,
the banner was delivered to the wrong institute, which was finally retrieved at 8
p.m. in the night whilst it was heavily raining.
 d. Research with respects to other events: Since there was no information collected
with respect to the other events to be conducted on the same day by other clubs,
on the final day of the event there was conflict with respect to the resources such
as the mic, the staff from the IT cell, corporate presentation members, display
board, 3-d letters to be put on board, trays, jugs, glasses.

e. Photographs of Felicitation: The initial mail had requisitioned photography cell

members to be present on the day of the event at 2:30 pm in the afternoon. While
a day prior to the event one of the panel members requested for the event to be
started half an hour before the scheduled time. An updated mail with respect to
the same wasn’t sent to the photographers, the communication gap led no
pictures being clicked for the felicitation.

f. Communication Gaps: There was no proper channel or guidelines setup for

communication among the members, with the faculty in charge, no one from the
core team was assigned to handle the official mail of the team which led to delays
in replying back at the appropriate time. A mail had been sent by the
administration department asking a team member to check the spellings on the
panelists’ name plate, but since no one had seen the mail, wrong spellings had
been printed on the name plates meant for the panel members which was noticed
right before the event. Communication gaps were also there with the editorial,
photography cells and vendors.

g. Presentation: A format for the presentation for introduction of the guests was
not set beforehand due to which the presentation was redone 5-6 times.

h. Lack of commitment and motivation: Because a proper plan hadn’t existed most
of the team member remain frustrated and weren’t committed enough towards
the execution the event.

3. Issues with monitoring and tracking the execution progress:

a. It had become difficult to track the execution progress of the event due to lack of
laid out goals and standards with respect to

i. Expenses incurred on momentous, banner, identity cards, transportation

for the panel members, food and their accommodation.
ii. Banner design: No standard design was set, pictures of the panel members
had to be changed over and over again due to last minute cancellations
and communication gaps.

4. Problems with integrating changes in the plan

a. With changes in the panel members over an over again, not only were delays
caused but also confusion with respect to the sourcing of the resources.
b. Changes in the timings of panelist’s arrival weren’t budgeted in the plan: An
updated mail with respect to the same wasn’t sent to the related stakeholders
such as the photography team, corporate presentation team.