Project Selection and Planning

Project Selection and Planning

The process of identifying and selecting information system development projects

Project identification is a repeatable procedure for authenticating, recording, ranking, and finally approving the candidate projects within an organization. Project selection is a process in which the project idea is assessed helping in the selection of the project with the highest priority. Project identification and selection in information system projects involve four projects. They are identifying the potential development projects, classifying and ranking the projects, selecting the project for development, and Implementation of the chosen project.

Identifying potential development projects

Organizations have different ways in which they identify their projects. Various members of an organization can conduct the process. In Pin Valley Furniture, the CEO can conduct the process. The board of directors can form a committee to perform the process, and the selected committee member should have an interest in the information system. A senior information system manager or the development group can spearhead the entire identification process. The members of the user department can also decide on which project should be preceded. All the identification methods have their strengths and weaknesses, depending on who chooses the project. For example, a project identified by a senior information manager will be based on favors from his or her department (Kerzner, 2019). Alternatively, a project identified by a committee formed will replicate the miscellany of the committee, hence, leading to an irritable decisive focus. Projects have a narrow tactical focus considering the parties of identification. Members of the development group base their identification in an easy way that existing systems and hardware will collaborate with the proposed project.

The people who identify a project are also influenced by cost, risk, duration, and complexity.

 

Classifying and ranking information system development projects

This is the assessment of the quality of the potential projects identified and selected. The steering committee can do classification and ranking, top managers from the board of directors, the information development group, and the business units. The method used to get the quality of a specific project is determined depending on the size of the organization. The criteria to be used varies from one organization to the other. Some of the possible evaluation criteria when classifying and ranking projects are value chain analysis, where the information system project with the highest overall benefits is considered. Strategic alignment where the strategic objective that helps the organization achieve its long-term goals are foregone. Potential benefits this is the extent to which the project is bringing the profits and the duration of the benefits (Franco et al., 2018). Resources availability is the number of resources the project will require and its availability. Size of the project and the duration, this is the time taken for a project to be completed and the number of individuals required. Technical risks are the risks that will be encountered while running the project with given time and resources. In this phase, new projects are reviewed concerning the project already identified, whereas the ongoing projects are monitored. Out of our three projects, from the Pine Valley Furniture, one of them can be accepted.

Selecting the Information for the Project for the Development

This is the process most likely to facilitate the achievement of the objectives of the organization. The following factors should be considered while selecting a project. The resource availability, evaluation criteria, current business conditions, perceived needs of the organization, existing system, and ongoing projects, and perspectives of the decision-makers. This can only be possible after the decision-making process after following the evaluation criteria. By accepting a project means that the funding to conduct the next SDLC activity has been approved. The weakness of this method is that any project rejected in this phase cannot be considered for development. Its strength is that a project after rejection may be accepted conditionally either by a pending approval or the availability of resources needed. Another advantage is that the rejected project can be taken back to the original requesters who are advised to purchase or develop the requested systems themselves.

Implementation of the information system project

Considering the project selected the board of directors in Pine Valley Furniture should come up with ways to help in attaining the information system project objectives and help in maximum utilization of the resources available. In this, an increment commitment principle should be implemented. After every subsequent SDLC activity, the other members of the project team and the board of directors’ office should continuously reassess the project. By reassessing, they can know whether the project condition has changed in terms of cost, risks, and benefits. By this, they will know whether the project foregone is worthwhile or not.

Valuation Criteria

The three projects that are corporate, home and student furniture that is to be pursued by Pine Valley Furniture Company need to undergo a valuation process to determine the most viable project.  Some project sources reflect the broader needs of the organization, especially those from the steering committee and to managers. As such, the valuation criteria will consider the ultimate goal and objectives of the projects proposed. In this way, it will be possible to determine whether either of these projects cover the broader issues in the organization. A critical determining factor in the valuation process will be the determination of whether the project provides support for users in the ongoing types of projects and make sure they are involved early in the life cycle. You should also help the managers give reasons for doing the project. The description helps in the selection and determines which project will proceed to the project activities of initiation and planning. Each organization should have a process of classifying and ranking every project’s merit and its value to the company. In this case, the projects can be ranked in the order of their priority as follows: student furniture, home furniture and corporate furniture and this is based on the clientele to be served in terms of furniture demand.

Summary of the Project Initiation and Planning process

The planning process has involved the review of the existing clientele base and their demand levels for the company products. A review of the company resource stock has also been determined to ensure that it meets the demand. The planning process has seen the scheduling of the different company activities including sourcing of raw materials, sourcing of human capital, marketing, after-sales services, among others.

 

 

References

Franco, E. F., Hirama, K., & Carvalho, M. M. (2018). Applying System Dynamics Approach in Software and Information System Projects: A Mapping Study. Information and Software Technology, 93, 58-73.

Haber, M., & Kononykhina, O. (2018). A Comparative Classification and Assessment. Governance Indicators: Approaches, Progress, Promise, 11.

Kerzner, H. (2019). Using the Project Management Maturity Model: Strategic Planning for Project Management. John Wiley & Sons.