An Online Retailer - Assignment Example

? Project Plan Executive Summary Shipkart.com is an online retailer based in the United Kingdom. The organization has indentified a severe quality issue recently in the customer service departments. With the increasing number of customer complaints regarding the poor customer service delivery, the management has decided to design a project that will cater to address the quality issue related to response time, customized customer service approach, communication gaps and conversational conflicts. The project is to design a training and development programme which will be conducted by a training and development institute that will cater to address and improve the inadequacies within the customer service departments. This report is a project plan that involves the description of all the aspects of this project and the intricacies associated with it. The plan includes a project initiation document that explains the objective and the importance of this project. Thereafter a detailed work breakdown structure has been formulated explaining the entire task associated with the project. A staff plan as well as a budget plan has also been drafted in order to explain the management regarding the requirements of the project. A project schedule has also been prepared giving an estimate of the time required to bring the project to its conclusion. The project involves the implementation of various project management tools in order to ensure the feasibility of the project. Table of Contents Project Title 4 Responsibilities of the Project Manager 4 Project plan overview and critical assumptions 4 Project Initiation Document (PID) 4 Objective 5 Stakeholders 7 Internal Stakeholders 7 Work breakdown structure 8 8 Staffing plan 10 Role Requirements 10 Project Schedule 11 Budget plan 11 Quality management plan 12 Risk management plan 12 Communication management plans 13 Appendix 17 Project Title Development of customer services department of Shipkart.com Responsibilities of the Project Manager The project manager will be primarily responsible for the completion of the project. The individual working as the project manager will have the responsibility of supervising the project from its initiation phase through to its execution phase and then to its completion phase. The project manager, in close connection with the project sponsor will have to develop the business case. The project manager will be required to develop a feasible project plan that caters to identify the resources that is required for the fulfilment of a particular project. In addition to that the project manager will also manage the completion of the project in accordance with the project team. The individual is also responsible for reporting the status of the project to the higher authorities such as the project sponsor, the project advisory board and the top level management of the company. The individual will also direct his/her attention towards risk management of the project and escalation of issues which are detrimental to the life of the project and cannot be resolved by the project team thereby making sure that the project stays in schedule and is very well within the budget (Project Smart, 2013). Project plan overview and critical assumptions Project Initiation Document (PID) The project initiation document will give a comprehensive overview of the project plan based upon which the project will be authorized and thereafter permitted to progress. The documents will also serve as a foundation on the basis of which the project will be evaluated in terms of the delivery timescales associated with the project as well as the content and quality of the deliverables. In addition to that, the purpose of the project initiation document is to set forth the detail required to successfully carry out and control the project thereby facilitating communication between the stakeholders of the project. The project plan is a dynamic and expandable and is henceforth expected to change over time with the availability of more information regarding the project. Objective The project caters to design a rigorous and robust training and development program for the customer service executives of Shipkart.com, an online retailer based in the United Kingdom. The training and development program will be designed in such a way that its concentration will lie in equipping the customer service executives with adequate skills that are required in the field of communication and information technology through which the customers can be provided with a world class buying experience. The quality issues that have been identified within the customer service division of the company will be addressed with immediate effect through the initiation of this project and will be resolved through proper quality management within the departments. The quality management program is actually the underlying project that will constitute of activities and processes that will facilitate enhanced customer services that will provided to the customers based in the United Kingdom. The phases of the quality management program will involve the formulation of the mission and strategies directed towards setting a standard/benchmark in the field of e-business process particularly in the area of customer services, administration and support thereby raising the bar of such services that is provided to the customers based in the country. What is the importance of this project? The management of Shipkart.com has identified certain quality issues within the customer service division that has escalated in recent times. The quality issues include a delayed response time, customized approach to resolve customer queries, conflicting conversation, problems related to accent delivery and understand ability while communicating with clients and so on and so forth. The quality management project which includes the training and development program will cater to address these issues. Thus, the importance of this project lies in the management of the quality issue effectively that has been witnessed in the customer service division of Shipkart.com. In this age of information and communication technology where the whole world is connected via internet, the shopping system is becoming increasingly innovative. Now, shops are going online by the name of e-retailers whereby people are being able to buy whatever need over the internet thereby avoiding any inconveniences that arise while a customer visits a shop in person. Taking a shop online involves a huge degree of complexity and in many cases it has been noticed that the customers are on the receiving end of the resultants of such complexities. That is why, in order to address the issues faced by customers, customer service departments are established by majority of online retailers and Shipkart.com is no exception to this strategy. In the global age where communication and information technology plays a pivotal role in the field of e-businesses such as online retailing, training programs should be designed and implemented in order to impart the necessary knowledge and skills to the personnel who are responsible for ensuring a smooth shopping process. This is particularly because ICT along with its modifications continues to shape each and every aspect of a human being’s life (Abuhmaid, 2011). One such aspect is the use of ICT in the field of online retailing where customer service executives are assigned with the role of addressing customer queries. However, in the due process of addressing the customer issues by the customer care executives it has been witnessed that they end up complicating the overall proves thereby being unsuccessful in resolving the customer queries as a result of improper or inadequate training. This leads to customer dissatisfaction and thus affects the performance of a company significantly. This is the case of Shipkart.com and that is why the initiation and implementation of training and development program for the customer service executives in order to develop the quality of services thereby addressing the issues mentioned above and consequently providing the customers with world class buying experience. Individuals responsible for managing and delivering the project The individuals responsible for the successful completion of the project are: Project Sponsor: The individuals holding the key position of a project sponsor acts as a visible and vocal champion for the project. The project sponsor primary responsibility is to establish and validate the goals and objectives of a particular project. Thereafter the individual will provide valuable oversight, direction and support to the project leader. The project sponsor provides valuable assistance regarding the development of the project business case thereby enabling the project team to define the benefits that the company can accrue after the fulfilment of this project. In addition to that, the assistance provided the project sponsor also helps the management to identify the risk and criticality associated with the project. The individual also assists the project supervisor as far as developing the projects metrics is concerned and he/she also attends the advisory board meetings and also chars the steering committee in order to ensure the smooth flow of all the activities related o the project. Steering committee: The primary responsibility of the steering committee is to make sure that assistance is being provided in terms of resolving issues that escalate beyond the jurisdiction of the project manager. The members of the steering committee also cater to monitor the progress of the project thereby providing the necessary tools and requirements when the project milestones fall beyond schedule. Team members: The team members of a project are responsible for providing support to the project through completion of tasks within the deadline as well as within the budget. They are expected to understand the goals and objectives of the project as well as the tasks that are assigned to them. They are required to attend every project oriented meetings and are also required to participate actively in any discussions regarding concerns and or recommendations that should be implied to the project leader. Stakeholders Internal Stakeholders Senior management of Shipkart.com Project manager and team leader of Shipkart.com, who would be primarily responsible for the fulfilment of the training and development program. Team members and other employees working for Shipkart.com would be benefiting from the fulfilment of the project. The customer service executives who would be at the receiving end of this quality management program. External stakeholders The customers of Shipkart.com who would benefit hugely from such an improvement in the customer service departments. Digital and print media companies who would serve as an intermediary primarily responsible for the promotion of the project. Stakeholder register Name of stakeholder Designation Department Role Type of stakeholder Mode of communication Influence on project John Doe 1 Director External Sponsor External Weekly video conference Influencer John Doe 2 Project manager Internal Managing the project Internal Daily meeting Supportive John Doe 3 and others Team members Internal project assignments Internal Daily meeting Supportive Work breakdown structure   The work breakdown structure depicts the different phases of this project which includes the initiation phase followed by the planning phase. After the planning phase is over, the execution phase sets in followed by the closing phase. The initiation phase involves the drafting of the project charter which includes the definition of the scopes and requirements of the project followed by the layout of the roles to be performed by various members of this particular project. The final part of the initiation phase includes the finalization of the charter based upon which the next phase will be conducted that is the planning of the project. The second phase includes the formulation of the project plan. The project plan involves the development of the work breakdown structure that depicts each and every stage of the project and the tasks to be performed in the particular stages. The work breakdown structure helps the project manager, supervisors and team leaders to validate the flow of the activities assigned within the each stage. Following the development of the work breakdown structure, comes the staffing plan which involves the specification of the responsibilities of each and every member associated with the project. Thereafter the project schedule is prepared which is a time management strategy explaining the allocation of time for each and every assignment within the project and finally the project budget plan is drafted. In the planning phase the project control plan is developed which includes the formulation of the quality management, risk management and communication plan which ensures that project is conducted in an efficient and effective way. The execution and control project phase involves the primary activities associated with the project. In this case the activities are associated with the training and development of the customer care executives of Shipkart.com with an underlying idea of improving the customer care services. The final phase involves the closing of the project which includes a follow up session that caters to collect the feedback of the trainees who participated in the training and development program that will help the organization to understand the extent to which the execution of the project was successful and will also help them to analyze the further improvement that can be brought about in the further programs as and when needed. It will also help the organization to evaluate the efficacy of the training and development institute that was contracted in order to conduct the training (Norman, Brotherton and Fried, 2011; Haugan, 2002). Staffing plan The underlying idea behind formulating a staff plan is to make certain that the sufficient staff with appropriate skills and experience is allocated to the project in order to ensure the successful completion of the project. Role Requirements The following table depicts a detailed breakdown of the role assigned to each and every individual associated with the project. The staffing plan includes the project role, the project responsibility that is to be taken for that role, skills required in order to fulfil the responsibility and the number of staff allocated to a particular role. Table 1: Staffing Plan Role Project Responsibility Skills Required Number of Staff Required Project Team Project Manager Lead team, report status Project Management 1 Team lead Activity assessment Project Management 1 Core Team Review deliverables, Project Management 7 Quality management team Assure quality Project Management 4 Training and development team Conduct training Specific to the role description 4 Supervision team Monitor performance Project Management experience 3 Review Team Evaluate deliverables, gather feedback Project Management experience 20 Project Schedule In order to address the quality issue that has been identified within the organization, a training and development programme will be designed for the customer support executives of Shipkart.com. The training and development programme will be directed towards improving the customer service experience and the buying experience of customers as a whole. To ensure a smooth flow of all the activities associated with the project, an internal project management team will be formed whose primary responsibility will be supervising every aspects of the project. The time required for forming the team has been estimated to be 4 days. The internal project management will be briefed regarding every stages of the project and the assignments associated with it. Their duty will be to monitor the fact that the project is being conducted properly and it is in compliance with the stipulated rules and regulations. The briefing will take about 2 days. The training and development institute will then be appointed who would be primarily responsible for conducting the training. Their training will involve imparting necessary skills in terms of providing superior quality customer service. The training will specifically focus on improving the response time of the executives and will also address any communication gaps that have been identified during a particular conversation. The total process of appointing an institute and the training program will take about 27 days. The performance of both the trainers and the trainees will be monitored on a regular basis in order to ensure that the activities that are being conducted are completely aligned with the underlying objective. Thereafter a follow up session will be arranged which will involve the collection of feedback regarding what improvements can be made in the forthcoming training programs if required. Finally the project will be brought to its completion. The total duration of this project has been estimated to be 101 days that includes the drafting of the project charter, development of work plan and project control plan. Budget plan Table 2: Budget plan Activities FY1 FY2   Labour Material Other FY Total Labour Material Other FY Total Develop Project Charter $8,600 $0 $0 $8,600 $0 $0 $0 $0 Develop Project Control Plan $15,000 $0 $0 $15,000 2,000 $0 $0 $2,000 Hire training and development institute $0 $0 $45,500 $45,500 $0 $0 $0 $0 Conduct training $0 $55,000 $5,000 $60,000 $15,000 $0 $15,000 Monitor performance $0 $0 $0 $0 20,000 $0 $0 $20,000 Follow up session $0 $0 $0 $0 $8,500 $0 $0 $8,500 Total $23,600 $55,000 $50,500 $129,100 $30,500 $15,000 $0 $45,500 Total Project Budget $174,600 Quality management plan The activities that have been included within the project plan will be followed and implemented in an appropriate manner in order to ensure that the project is being brought to its conclusion in a successful manner. The project will be conducted following a robust quality control framework and in order to ensure that the task assigned within the project are in complete compliance with the framework a quality management team will be appointed Kleijnen et al. (2011). The officials of the quality management team will be responsible for supervising the fact that the assignment outcomes are meeting the appropriate standard (Evans and Lindsay, 2011). The project life cycle approach that has been adopted to accomplish the objectives of this particular project is completely based upon the idea of quality control management theory explained by Brennan and Shah (2000). The quality of the project will be set in such standard that it will empower the organization and its employees who would participate in the training program be taking into account their perspectives and interests. The quality management approach that would be adopted for this project will ensure an in-depth assessment of the issues that is being faced by the company thereby evaluating the performance of the officials who would be conducting the training and development program alongside monitoring the performance of each and every customer service executives on an individual basis (Evans, 2011). The quality management tools that will be implemented in this particular project are cost benefit analysis and benchmarking. The quality planning will take into account the cost benefit tradeoffs. This will be done to ensure that there is less rework, higher productivity, lower costs and henceforth increased stakeholder satisfaction. The cost benefit analysis will be done keeping in mind the cost associated with the project which has been explained in the budget plan. The benchmarking tool will also serve as an effective tool of assistance that will help the organization to compare the actual project practices to those projects which have already been completed in order generate ideas for improvement and identify the key indicators of performance measurements. Risk management plan The risk management plan has been designed in order to tackle any potential barriers that might occur during the life cycle of the project. For a project of this scale which is very rigorous and involves a complex design will be always be associated with contingent risks that may be encountered over the life cycle of the project. The risk management plan recognizes any possible risks that the project might be exposed to and outlines contingency plans that can be implemented in order to shield the project from being exposed to external barriers. The risks that are associated with the training and development of the customer care executives can be explained in the following ways: The quality of the training being provided by the institute may not be at par with the required standard. As a consequence the underlying objective of bringing about significant improvements in the customer services department of Shipkart.com will remain unachieved. In order to make sure such barriers does not escalate, an ISO certified institute will be appointed with quality credentials. This is particularly because entities that are ISO certified are associated with superior quality and minimum error (ISO, 2013). To make sure that the appointed organization is performing efficiently, a quality control team and a supervisory team will also be formulated in order to monitor the performance of the institute and the executives participating in the program. Another risk that the project might be exposed to is IT failure. It failure is associated with the failure of hardware and software essentials that required for the training and development program. In order to ensure that such does not happen, the organization managing the project will have to have adequate IT resources at their disposal which can be used as an alternative in the event of an IT failure. The major risk management tool that will be implemented for this project is planned meeting and analysis. The project teams will conduct meetings in order to develop and assess the efficiency of the risk management plans. The key people who would be required to attend these meetings are project managers, team members, stakeholders and other risk management executives. The different types of risk associated with the project will be defined and risk cost elements will be appended in the budget accordingly and thereafter the risk responsibilities will be appropriately assigned. Communication management plans The communication management is formulated in order to ensure that the communication strategies that have been formed beforehand are being followed appropriately during the project. The communication plan involves the establishment of an effective communication framework which ensures the fact that relevant information is being relayed between the management, board and the employees. By doing so, the organization makes sure that the objectives of the board, the management and the subordinates are in complete alignment with each other. A properly outlined communication management plan will ensure that the project in being brought to its completion stage within the stipulated time and that it is it is being kept within the range of the budget that has been allotted for it. In the case of the project the communication plan includes a thorough briefing that will be provide to the internal project management regarding the timeline as well as the budget because they are one responsible for relaying the status of the project to the board. By doing so, the organization will make sure that the project is being conducted in compliance with the set regulations and standards. The primarily tool that will be implemented for communication management plan is the communications requirement analysis. The information that is normally required to identify the project communication requirements are organization chart and communication matrix. Organization chart             Internal project management team   Training and development institute   Monitoring and follow up team               (Source: Author’s creation) Communication matrix Factors Detail Reporting authority Recipient Mode of communication Project Status Project stage and completed assignments Project manager Project executive, supervisory board Face to face, email Work progress Tasks and activities being conducted and barriers to them if any Team lead Project manager Face to face, email Reference List Abuhmaid, A., 2011. ICT training courses for teacher professional development in Jordan. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 10(4), pp. 195-210. Brennan, J. and Shah, T., 2000. Quality assessment and institutional change: experiences from 14 countries. Higher Education, 40(3), pp. 331-349. Evans, J. R. and Lindsay, W. M. 2011. The Management and Control of Quality. 8th edition. Cincinnati: South Western Cengage Learning. Evans, J. R., 2011. Quality management, organization and strategy. 6th edition. Cincinnati: South Western Cengage Learning. Haugan, G. T., 2002. Effective work breakdown structures. Vienna: Management Concepts. ISO, 2013. Benefits of International Standards. [online] Available at: [Accessed 30 December 2013]. Kleijnen, J., Dolmans, D., Willems, J. and Van Hout, H., 2011. Does internal quality management contribute to more control or to improvement of higher education? A survey on faculty’s perceptions. Quality Assurance in Education, 19(2), pp. 141-155. Norman, E. S., Brotherton, S. A. and Fried, R. T., 2011. Work Breakdown Structures: The Foundation for Project Management Excellence. New Jersey: Wiley. Project Smart, 2013. Role of the Project Manager. [online] Available at: [Accessed 30 December 2013]. Appendix Figure 1: Gantt chart (Source: Author’s creation) Critical Path Figure 2: Critical Path (Source: Author’s creation) Table Layout format EST DUR EFT ACT Where, EST – Earliest Start time DUR – Duration EFT – Earliest finish time ACT – Activity Estimated finish time = Estimated start time + Duration The critical path depicted in figure 2 denotes the longest route to complete the project. In the case of this project, the critical path is: 1 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 10 – 11. Total duration of the project (in days) = 101 days Slack As is evident from the critical path diagram, the slack also known as the float time which is the delay ion activity can be observed in case of activity 2 and activity 9 thereby eliminating them from the critical path. In case of activity 2, the float time is however 0 days, thus the process cannot be delayed by any margin. Activity 9 has a slack or float time of 21 days or 3 weeks. This suggests that the activity can be delayed for a certain period of time without affecting the overall schedule of the project. However, it is always advisable to finish the activities within the stipulated amount of time in order to have adequate amount of time in case of any barriers. Read More