Project at Aux Bons Soins - Essay Example

May be this was in response to the sentiments coming through from the finance department. But this as well drew the wrath of the end users of the new system. They were up in arms mainly due to what they termed as preoccupation with delivery time lines and technical implementation. They opined the project manager had no regard to personal considerations of the rest of the team especially the end users of the system being implemented. Several managers involved with the project felt that there was more emphasis on the speed of implementation as opposed to the nature of business processes.

Some of the team members lamented that he/she was being paralyzed by the constant reporting on deliverables that the project manager was insisting on. The line managers started having second thoughts about the project thereby questioning the credibility of the IT team. This came through even as the IT team maintained that the system being implemented would revolutionize business processes and increase efficiency. These squables paralyzed the project manager and rendered him ineffective due to his inability to mobilize the team members to own the project.

There had to be a change of strategy if not personalities. This was made necessary by the fact that the very people who were expected to own and drive the project had turned out to be its biggest critics. This complicated matters because they were the same people who were relied upon to deliver the new system. Their grievances may not have been very genuine but they were paralyzing the project none the less a solution therefore had to be found. From the three stories, nothing is said of the professional qualifications and experience of the first project manager.

I have reason to believe that if at all he was well trained and experienced project manager, he would have been able to factor in the grievances being aired by both the users and the finance department. He may not be the one to bare the entire blame for the difficulties faced in the project but it’s expected that having implemented other projects before; he must have come across such opposition before. He would have employed his previous experience to solve the current mess. A change in leadership of the project was necessary.

Solutions A new project manager who had a vast experience in project management was brought on board. Andre Gagne has been trained as an accountant and also had a master’s degree in information technology. Those are two areas of expertise that were very vital for the project which may be the former project manager didn’t have or chose not to employ. Having managed several other systems that involved integration of business processes and information technologies not to mention the solid background in insurance industry, he was well placed for the job.

Within a short time, the new project leader was able to win the confidence of team leaders and restored the credibility of the project. Some of the changes he made that eventually saw the success of the project was sharing out the work. He reorganized the team into multidisciplinary teams in charge of developing solutions for the various problems that the project was to solve. Each multidisciplinary team consisted of experts from the relevant departments, management and the IT technical team.

He went on to put together an orientation meeting