Assignment requirements – based on the following Social Media Research Center case study

As the project manager of the Center Website you are required to present an initial project report to the project sponsor that includes the following specific project outputs to show how you propose to implement this project:

SWOT for the Social Media Research Center
Project charter for the Center Website Project 
WBS for the Center Website Project 
Stakeholder Register and Stakeholder Management Strategy for the Center Website Project
Milestone Report for the initiating and planning processes (for the Center Website Project)

As the project manager you may make any assumptions you think are necessary.

As you prepare your report, please don’t forget to format it so that it is easy to read and conforms to the standard report format. All referencing in the project material must be in accordance with the APA style guide. A guide to the APA style of referencing (the style now used by the Faculty of Business) is available at: http://www.csu.edu.au/division/studserv/learning/pdfs/apa.pdf

Social Media Research Center Case Study

During a meeting with his boss (Alex), Bruce has been asked to establish a researcher centre. The research centre, which will commence operations in February 2013 first as an informal research group, should be established by February 2016. Alex’s decision to proceed with this major project is spurred by the fact that an associated organizational centre, which researches in a closely related area, has recently ceased operations. There is also a tremendous pressure from Alex’s senior executives to produce high quality research that is focused in nature. In fact one of Alex’s senior executives’ comments was that Alex’s Unit does not have a clear identity when it comes to its scholarly research output compared to the one in Australian National University. After several meetings with subject matter experts (consultants) and a rigorous analysis of the current trends in research in the area of information technology it has been decided that the most appropriate research area for the proposed research center to focus on is social media. Fortunately several of Alex’s Unit staff are active researchers in this area. What made this direction even more attractive is that demand from master and doctoral students has been largely for programs in this area. Alex’s Unit also enjoys a very good relationship with an international expert in the social media area who has kindly agreed to offer his expertise to Bruce (the project manager). One of the projects within the Center larger project that Bruce has identified as important is the development of a website for the proposed centre. You are the manger of this project.