PROJECT MANANGEMENT

PROJECT MANANGEMENT

A business case is a justification of why an organization should pursue a course action.  A business case is used to communicate to the management the need for undertaking the project and the estimatedbudget. The local authority wanted to come up with an Oracle-based system to optimize their delivery platforms. The system was aimed at standardizing processes and streamlining financial flows. Therefore, the objective was to come up with a system to meet the objectives of the local authority. However, the project team, given the task of coming up with the project, did not perform a good job. This is after the project manager received negative feedback from stakeholders. The stakeholders were not happy with the management approach undertaken by the project team.Stakeholders believed that the project team had not successfully delivered the project. The project manager was surprised at the feedback provided by the project stakeholders when the project was being handled. The challenge facing the project manager is that this was not the first time stakeholders had provided negative feedback. The previous two projects had been completed and delivered and but stakeholders provided negative feedback. The stakeholders had failed to provide an honest opinion during the project timeline. Therefore a new project team had to be formulated to complete the project. The project was responsible for ensuring that the local authority had an Oracle-based system. The system would ensure that the local authority was efficient in its activities.

The benefits of the I.T. project can be measured in monetary terms. Once the system was implemented, it could have several benefits to the local authority. The system would streamline financial workflows, and this would minimize the wastage of funds. The system would introduce key performance indicators that would make the local authorities effective in reaching their targets. The system would make the local authority efficient in its activities and enabling it to increaseprofits, reduce the cost of operations and saving labour hours (Azmi, 2007). The project would enable the local authority to reduce operational vulnerabilities. The Oracle-based systems would improve the skills and expertise of the local authority employees. The risks facing the project was if the client made additional requirements to the system. Another risk was that certain programmers and system developers might have left the project team before the project was completed. This would affect the project, especially if those leaving possessed critical information that would affect the completion of the project. Another risk is that the project team might obtain data from the local authority. Access to client’s data may lead to network vulnerabilities, causing a breach of information exposing the project team to legal risks. However, once the project is complete, the system will ensure that the local authority is efficient in its delivery of services (Keen, 2002)..

The cost developing and implementing the new system is higher than the system the local authority was initially using. The new system would include hardware and software costs, professional services costs as well as labour costs. Despite the cost incurred when planning and implementing the project, the system will have benefits to the local authority in the long term. The new system would ensure that the local authority enjoyed the following benefits. The benefits included increased collection revenues, reduction in operating costs and reduced labour costs. The new system might integrate several systems into a single system. Therefore, the local authority would the number of computers required to carry out the various tasks which now could be carried out by a single computer (Azim, 2007). The system would enable the local authority to make informed decisions and reducing the chances of the risk occurring. The system would improve employees’ skills and expertise. Since the project involved developing a system, system development becomes complicated with every stage. The project would be costly to plan and implement. The project would also be costly since the clients would require training on how to operate the system. I.T. projects can be affected by lack of creativity due to pressures of completing the project.

Task 2

After the identification of the project scope and deliverables, it was important to break the project into small activities. The reason for doing this was ensuring that the project is divided into small elements that can be easily managed. The process of breaking down the project into small elements is referred to as Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) (Zecheru, 2016, p.1).Planning of the project involved twelve steps which are included below.

• Setting the goal and scope of the study
• Selecting the project’s lifecycle
• Coming up with a team form
• Selection of the project team members
• Determination of the project risks
• Creating a Work Breakdown Structure
• Identification of tasks
• Estimation of the project size
• Estimation of the effort required to complete the study
• Identification of the task dependencies
• Allocation of resources
• Work scheduling

WBS is mainly divided into several levels, and the first level is the project. The second level consists of the project the most important deliverables. The third level is composed of deliverables that support the project. Designing a WBS is important is it assists in evaluating the costs and time required to complete the project.

The following is an outline of the WBS for designing the Oracle system.

• Oracle-based System
• Project Management
• Requirement Gathering
• Analysis and Design
• System development

4.1 HTML Design and Creation

4.2 Backend Software

4.2.1 Database Implementation

4.2.2 Middleware Development

4.2.3 Security Subsystems

4.2.4 Catalog Engine

4.2.5 Transaction Processing

4.3 Graphics and Interface

4.4 Content Creation

5.0 Testing and production

The WBS process consists of inputs, tools and techniques as well as outputs as outlined in the table below.

The project followed the following procedure.to come up with a critical path

1.0Initiating

1.1Selection of a project manager

1.2 Formation of the project team

1.3 Development of the project charter

2.0 Planning

2.1 Developing the scope statement

2.2 Creating WBS

2.3 Developing and refining other plans

3.0 Execution

3.1 Concept

3.2 System design

3.3 System development

3.4 Rollout

3.5 Support

4.0 Controlling

• Closing

Task 3

An ethical issue facing the project manager is the issue of conflict of interest. Project managers must do what is in the best interest of the project. Project managers are required to be diplomatic when it comes to stakeholder interests. The project manager needs to assess stakeholder needs and be in a position to handle conflict. The role of the project manager is documenting stating stakeholder interests and setting boundaries and tradeoffs (Shiuche, 2008). Negotiation and conflict resolution is necessary in case of a conflict. A project manager should be objective and avoiding taking sides. Some projects may fail due to certain issues.  In the case of project failure, the project manager needs to own up to the mistakes. Project managers have a social responsibility of ensuring that projects do not destroy the environment (Galvao, 2017, p.115). The project location should be in a place where the people will not be affected by the project. Project management should save natural resources to ensure other people enjoy them. Projects can also be involved in social activities such as building schools and hospitals (Kivila, 2017, p.1167). Projects should also provide employment opportunities to members of society. Project managers should ensure that the project activities are within the law (Yemini, 2018, p.93). In teams of the social, ethical and social responsibilities, the project manager did not have any challenges. The challenge had constant communication with stakeholders at the different phase of the project.

Task 4

The aim of the project was streamlining activities at the local authority. Therefore, the project team decided that the various department within the local authority required standalone systems. Apart from standalone systems, there would be the automation of services and processes within the departments. The project would reduce the time taken to perform certain processes. The benefit is that the local authority will receive payments and process payments for clients sooner. The local authority would have steady cash flows and increased revenue collections making sure the local authority has enough resources to sustain itself and provide services to the people. The new system would reduce inefficiencies in the local authority and minimize wastage of funds (Radujkovic, 2017, p. 607). The system would approximately save the local authority approximately $1000000 every month. The installation of the new systems will require hardware and software costs. The local authority would have to commit approximately ten full-time I.T. staff for one month. Their role is to ensure complete integration of the new systems.Staff affected by the changes will have to be trained on how to use the systems. The systems would affect clients and money was to be set aside to inform clients on the changes. The local authority also had to set aside money for compliance and legal reviews.Quality assurance of the project would also incur costs when dealing with issues that might have developed during the project. The costs would also be incurred even after the project completion to address failures that might have taken. Quality assurance was done to ensure the project met the client’s needs (Wong, 2018, p.123). Continuous improvement was necessary to monitor issues that might have come up during the project. Identifying and learning from these mistakeswas crucial to prevent mistakes in future projects. All these costs would add up to $4000000 but considering the amount that would be saved every month; it was justifiable to undertake the project.

Bibliography

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Galvão, G.D.A., Abadia, L.G., Parizzotto, L., Pião, R.D.C.S. and de Carvalho, M.M., 2017, December. Compliance and ethics for project management governance. In E.C.M.L.G. 2017 13th European Conference on Management, Leadership and Governance: E.C.M.L.G. 2017 (p. 115). Academic Conferences and publishing limited.

Keen, J. & Digrius, B. (2002). Making Technology Investments Profitable: R.O.I. Roadmap to Better Business Cases. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

Kivilä, J., Martinsuo, M. and Vuorinen, L., 2017. Sustainable project management through project control in infrastructure projects—International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), pp.1167-1183.

Radujković, M. and Sjekavica, M., 2017. Project management success factors. Procedia Engineering, 196, pp.607-615.

Shouche, S. (2008). Ethical project management. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2008—Asia Pacific, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Wong, W.Y., Yu, S.W. and Too, C.W., 2018, December. A Systematic Approach to Software Quality Assurance: The Relationship of Project Activities within the Project Life Cycle and System Development Life Cycle. In 2018 IEEE Conference on Systems, Process and Control (I.C.S.P.C.) (pp. 123-128). IEEE.

Yemini, M., Oplatka, I. and Sagie, N., 2018. Project Termination. In Project Management in Schools (pp. 93-102). Palgrave Pivot, Cham.

Zecheru, V. and Olaru, B.G., 2016. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in Project Management. Review of International Comparative Management/Revista de Management Comparat International, 17(1).