This assignment is designed to further assess your suitability for a role in the Project Management Office department. Specifically, this exercise seeks to assess your ability across the following competencies:
• Business Acumen
• Project Management Skills
• Systems & Technical Knowledge
• Structured & Logical Reasoning
• Problem Solving & Critical Thinking
• Communication & Presentation Skills
Good luck and thank you for taking the time to complete this exercise!
  
  INSTRUCTIONS
• Please review the hypothetical scenario on the following pages, similar to one you will encounter in your role, and outline your response as indicated on the assignment page
• Please prepare a 10 – 15 minute presentation, which will be followed by a Q&A, to discuss your approach and rationale with one or more Aritzia team members
• You may use any personal knowledge and/or additional industry research in order to answer the outlined questions, but you may not ask Aritzia employees (store or otherwise) any questions as part of your research
• Please provide the rationale for your recommendations, outline the relevant considerations for analysis, and include supporting tables and/or charts, as appropriate
• Clearly state any assumptions you need to make in order to complete the assignment, and the logic and rationale behind these assumptions
• Please submit your assignment using PDF or PowerPoint for summaries, and Excel for any supporting detailed work
• Please submit your response via email to your Talent Acquisition Lead and feel free to email with any questions
 
  SCENARIO
Aritzia is looking to leapfrog the competition in the fashion industry by creating a highly personalized service to engage our customers and build an experiential feel when shopping either online or in store. Our overall goals are to propel our brand and maximize sales.
As part of this, the Executive Vice President of Retail would like to provide Style Advisors in stores with an app to aid their ability to service customers – both when customers are in store and when they are at home. The app would include the following:
• Digital black book, providing customer information to our Style Advisors
• Product catalogue showing both online and in store inventory
• Communications platform to allow Style Advisors to call/text customers
The CIO has decided to purchase prepackaged software for the app however it will require integration to Aritzia’s systems to provide the data that our stores require. The app will be built in partnership with a vendor, and all the integrations and internal systems work will be completed by the Aritzia team. The EVP of Retail has allocated 2 dedicated business resources to the project team to make sure the app is fit for use and a success in our stores.
You have been assigned as the Project Manager for the design through closure stages of this project, and for the first step in your role you need to secure IT resources. You have scheduled a planning meeting with the two project stakeholders, the CIO and the EVP of Retail to review your proposed scope, org chart, and schedule.
 
  ADDITIONAL NOTES
• Our customer data is centralized in a cloud application managed by Aritzia
• Aritzia has an ERP system for the purposes of financial and inventory management
• To enable the communications platform, additional communications software would need to be built out and integrated to the app as well as Aritzia’s central systems
 
 ASSIGNMENT
 
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TOPIC
DELIVERABLE
1
Project Scope
Prepare a work breakdown structure to outline the project deliverables and workstreams/work packages.
1 slide
2
Project Org Chart
Prepare a project organization chart with the stakeholders, project team members, and external vendor. Please be specific regarding what IT departments need to be involved in building the app.
1 slide
3
Project Timeline
Prepare a high-level timeline outlining the key activities & milestones. Are there any blackout periods for go-live?
1 slide
4
Project Schedule
Prepare a detailed project plan outlining the proposed starts and stops of key activities for both IT and Business, from project design to closure. Please include approval gates, milestones, and dependencies.
The plan should be a visual representation of the overall project management approach and methodology.
1 slide + Excel/MS Project
5
Project Risk Register
Briefly outline any risks. What experiences in your past can you draw on to mitigate these risks?
1 slide
6
Additional Question
How will you know if the project was successful?
1 slide