The Navy Marine Corps Intranet Project Management - Essay Example

? Project management plays a pivotal role in the implementation of any project. The study d that there are many factors that affect the full implementation of a project and some of these include scheduling, budgeting, communication as well as estimating. In order for a project to be successful, there is need to take a holistic approach that will take into consideration the obstacles that are likely to be encountered during the execution period of the project. It has been recommended that measures should be put in place to counter the negative aspects that can be encountered during the course of the project. The case study analysis of the NMCI project shows that if the above measures are not put in place, there are likely chances of the project failing to meet its set goals and objectives. Introduction The term project is used to describe a set of linked activities or it can be precisely defined as a onetime activity with a well defined set of desired results (Hellriegel 2001). Some of the major features of a project include a definite start and finish, a time frame for completion, uniqueness as well as involvement of people on a temporary basis. Thus, for any project to be a success, project management plays a pivotal role in the implementation of the whole project. Against this background, this case study based essay seeks to critically analyse the project management practices and outcomes in the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) project being executed by Electronic Data Systems (EDS). The essay is divided into three phases and it will be structured as follows: Phase one deals with a preliminary scope statement, phase two deals with presentation of an analysis, critique and recommendations regarding the project management areas of estimating, quality and communication as they apply to NMCI’s performance and the third phase will deal with presentation of an analysis, critique and recommendations regarding the project management areas of risk management, scheduling and budgeting and project execution as they apply to the case of NMCI. An assessment of whether the project was a success from the stakeholders’ perspective will be given at the end of the essay. Phase 1 The Preliminary Project Scope Statement is a framework or guideline that spells the main ideas and decisions to be made in the project and can be constantly reviewed to ensure compliance with the project goals set (Yeates & Cadle 1996). It documents all the requirements of the project as well as the boundaries within which the project will be implemented whereby there is a common understanding between the project management team and the stakeholders involved. Thus, “the preliminary Project Scope Statement defines the project and establishes what must be accomplished at a high level,” (Elyse, PMP & CPHIMS 2006). The project objective in this case of NMCI is to build a single and seamless network. Against this background, EDS has managed to get a contract worth up to $9 billion to supply the US Navy and Marine Corps with a single, seamless network. Indeed, this is seen as the biggest government contract in the US. The other objective is that The Navy contract is being regarded as a pilot project for the way the military as a whole will run its IT in the future. In other words, this project seeks to create a situation whereby the Navy will be given the autonomy to manage its affairs with regards to its information and technology (IT) needs in the future. The project requirements include IT infrastructure in the form of computers, hardware as well as software that is required in executing this project. The project boundary is limited to EDS, the contractors, NMCI and the government of the US which is also a sponsor of the project. The project also assumes that EDS systems are intended to be fully operational by June 2003 which entails that the Navy will be ruled by the PC business in the years to come. Within the scope of this project, the major constraint likely to be encountered is related to cultural factors in the Department of the Navy in their endeavour to implement the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet. The cultural change required is a big challenge to EDS and it has to be taken into consideration throughout the implementation process of the project. The initial work break down of the project is comprised of many factors. First and foremost, it involves identification of the hard ware as well as the software that ought to be used in this project. This is followed by identifying the particular people who will perform the actual tasks in the project. Procurement of the required material is also part of this process which is followed by the implementation stage. Phase2 We need to admit from the onset that the reputation of estimating for the information system projects is not that glorious (Yeates & Cadle 1996). According to Verton (2002) there are likely to be technical delays in fully implementing what the U.S. Navy called a successful test-and-evaluation phase of its $6.9 billion Navy/Marine Corps Intranet (N/MCI) program. From the onset, it was estimated that this $ 6.9 billion project earmarked to replace dozens of disparate Navy and Marine Corps computer networks with a centrally managed setup operated by a single contractor EDS, was expected to have 160, 000 seats but the EDS's program director for Navy Operating Forces said the program was likely to have 60,000 seats in place by the end of the year. The delay has also been added by the CIO at Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) who ordered to stop the deployment until all the problems are fixed. From the look of things, it seems that they have missed on their target period to roll out the project as anticipated in the preliminary estimations. As a last resort to the survival of NMCI’s project, the EDS are contemplating to fast track the project without the security checks being advocated by the NAVAIR. The denial by Rick Rosenberg, EDS's program executive for N/MCI that the project was never in jeopardy is also testimony that something has certainly gone wrong with regards to the estimation of the project. If everything has been going according to schedule, there is no need for media hype to defend the position of the project. Of late, the Congress has been expressing concern on the NMCI’s potential to carry out the project due to the high costs and the likely impacts on federal jobs as a result of the single vendor initiative. Another area that was overlooked in the estimation of the implementation of the project is the fact that computers that did not run on Windows 2000 will be installed in kiosks that are not connected to the N/MCI network. This is another shortcoming that was not anticipated in the original estimation as it entails that users will be forced to use two separate computers to do their job which would defy the logic of streamlining all the IT services for the navy into one single entity. Thus, it can be noted that NMCI did not understand the legacy applications from the onset. Against this background, it is therefore recommended that before embarking on such a big project like these, NMCI should conduct feasibility studies to establish the extent to which external factors mentioned above can have an impact on the full implementation of the project then attempt to put in place a realistic project plan. In as far as the aspect of quality is concerned, it can be noted that DOD mainly relies on complex array of computer-dependent and mutually organisational components including the military services, Commanders in Chief, and Defence agencies in order to protect the security of the US. As noted from the case, the Commercial Activities Panel strongly supports the continued emphasis on competition and this should be in compliance with the requirements of the government. In the given case of NMCI, it can be noted that EDS overlooked one most important element of the legacy applications in its implementation of the project. Anything that is contrary to the dictates of the government policy does not meet the quality expectations. In any case, the operational model helps the organisation to measure its expectations against the operations of the client so as to ensure that the standard expectations are met. A closer analysis of the case of MNCI shows that somehow, their project does not fully meet the requirements of the DOD the reason why the CEO of NAVAIR ordered the stop of any deployment until all the problems were fixed. In as far as quality is concerned, it is recommended that there is need to implement effective program performance management, expand measurement of the objectives set, manage customer satisfaction as well as increasing the levels of understanding between the contractor and the client to see if there is any need of programme changes within the project. No project can function properly without a good system of communication. All people need to communicate in one way or the other and in business, communication is used to solve problems, give instructions as well as resolving conflicts that may exist. Communication can also be used to persuade clients, motivate the employees or interviewing prospective employees (Kritzinger, Bowler and Goliath 2003). Basically, communication is loosely defined as a two way process involving the exchange of information from sender to receiver and there must be a well defined channel of passing that message. It is against this background that an organisation can only attain its goals through the use of effective communication in order to remove the barriers that may exist which would ultimately hinder progress in an organisation. In this particular case, it can be noted that communication is skewed in favour of NMCI though there is nothing tangible on the ground to justify their claim. For instance, according to the Navy officials, NMCI has not achieved much as they purported since they could not provide any performance data to show that they have achieved the strategic goals that were defined in the 2000 performance measurement plan. According to the Navy’s mapping of the nine performance categories and strategic goals, NMCI has only met three out of twenty performance targets which amount to 15 % which shows that NMCI has not attained what it claims. It can be noted from these results that there is no element of truth which can jeopardise the authenticity of data provided by NMCI. It can also be noted that NMCI has been defending its position with regards to the state of affairs when it insisted that it will roll out 160, 000 seats by the projected time the project was supposed to have been accomplished but the facts on the ground showed that it could only manage 60, 000. It can be seen that there is an element of hiding the truth which is not recommended in as far as project implementation is concerned. It is recommended that NMCI should communicate true information always to the stakeholders involved in the project as a way of creating trust. Distorting information for the benefit of the organisation is dangerous in that it can lead to the creation of negative perception about the whole project which will jeopardise its authenticity. Phase3 From the case articles provided, it can be noted that NMCI did not cover much ground with regards to risk identification and management. Risk is something that is unavoidable in any project and in most cases is undesirable in as much as project management is concerned (Yeates & Cadle 1996). The project that was established in 2000 was supposed to take five years but it ended up taking more period than anticipated and it was also costly as well. Many difficulties were encountered and these were not anticipated in the initial project plan by NMCI. It can be noted that NMCI had little measures in place to keep the risks under review and to make sure that they were being addressed. In most cases, this is costly to the organisation as unexpected events can derail the whole project. There is need to have measures in place to identify the potential risks to the project as well as an assessment of the potential impact of each risk. It is therefore recommended that NMCI should formulate measures to avoid each risk occurring as well put measures to effectively deal with any risk that may be witnessed during the implementation period of the project. Scheduling primarily focuses on the time frame the project is expected to be executed. However, these schedules must be within reasonable time limits and realistic so as to avoid an overlap in the anticipated project period. However, in the case of NMCI, it can be noted that the project that was envisioned to take five years ended up taking longer than anticipated. They did not take into consideration all the factors that can affect the full implementation of the project. Usually, when a project fails to meet the expected schedule, the likely result is that more costs will be incurred since more money will be required to cover up for the unexpected duration of the project that will have been prolonged. It is recommended that for a project to be within the limits of the time set, there should be a provision to put some extra time to the anticipated period of the project so as to cushion the organisation from the effects of unexpected delays that can be encountered during the period of implementing the project. Projects usually fail if the project managers overlook important things such as scheduling which determine the duration upon which the project will be anticipated to be finished. The budgeting framework adopted by NMCI did not take into consideration the likely impediments that were going to be encountered. The $9 billion budget however was constrained as the project took a longer period than what was initially anticipated. The aspect of budgeting plays a pivotal role in the execution of a project given that the financial resources in most cases determine the success or failure of a given project. When it comes to budgeting, there is need to stretch the budget such that it does not only cover the core aspects of the project but should also include the unexpected impediments that can derail the project before its ultimate completion. Getting stuck in the mid of the road is not a healthy situation in executing a project hence strategic measures ought to be put in place so as to avoid such kind of scenario. The manner of project execution by NMCI somehow lacks a comprehensive approach given that they expected everything to go according to schedule the reason why they have been in denial that their project is facing challenges. Executing a project is not usually a one day event but it is a process that requires concerted efforts by all the stakeholders involved. There ought to be common understanding on the goals and objectives of the project such that all the stakeholders involved will pull their efforts towards the attainment of the set objectives and goals. It is recommended that NMCI should take into consideration all the factors that can negatively impact on the implementation of the project then put a contingency plan to deal with such problems in the event that they emerge during the course of executing the project. EDS went astray in the areas discussed above in that they took a lighter approach as if everything was simply going to happen as scheduled. However, it reported big losses in this project and this can be owed to the reason that they decided to subcontract some of the tasks to the other partners. This gobbled the bulk of their money and in the end, they suffered losses. The prices of the subcontractors were somehow high and the project was taking longer than was actually expected. In order for them to have mitigated this problem, they could have focused on in-house implementation of the project as this would have resulted in low costs being experienced. The element of high costs incurred during the execution of a project is always problematic since it will affect the viability of the whole project in many ways as was the case with EDS. It can be said that the project has not fully met its objectives though it has not been a total failure. NMCI has not met its two strategic goals—to provide information superiority and to foster innovation via interoperability and shared services. The project that was established in 2000 did not meet the objectives since it was mainly concerned with deploying seats and measuring the contractor performance than justifying if the strategic mission. From the media coverage, it can be noted that the Navy has not met NMCI programmes in different ways. Whilst the contractor has met many objectives, it can be seen that it did not meet all and the level of customer satisfaction is low. In this case, customer satisfaction improvements efforts are not guided by effective planning. Therefore, the project partially achieved its objectives but not at a full scale. However, according to EDS, NMCI project has been positive despite the losses and cash flow problems. Clarke the spokesperson for EDS said that they have also gained a lot of money out of the project and EDS has been leveraging on its track record to gain more work integrating government computer systems and this has been the reason why the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms cited the NMCI contract as one reason it chose EDS to handle its work. EDS is also bidding for similar work for the British military, as well as other allies of America such as France, Australia and Germany. Conclusion Over and above, it can be noted that for any project to be a success, project management plays a pivotal role in the implementation of the whole project. There are various factors as explained in detail above that affect the viability of a project and some of these include matters related to quality, estimation as well as communication. In as far as NMCI’s project is concerned, it can be noted that this project did not fully meet its expected goals and objectives though it has been on track. The implementation of the project has been dogged by inevitable technical delays which had not been anticipated in the beginning. Bibliography Computer weekly (March 3, 2004). SEC probes EDS US Navy deal. Retrieved from: http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/ 2004/03/03/200709/sec-probes-eds-us-navy-deal.htm Dan Verton (May 15, 2002) Delays, technical problems plague Navy's intranet program. Retrieved from: http://computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/ outsourcing/story/0,10801,71193,00.html?nlid=PM Dawn S. Onley (May 16, 2002) EDS: Despite report, NMCI project's on track. 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