Importance Of The Task Management In Activity Of Company - Case Study Example

Importance Of The Task Management In Activity Of Company Background Information Current Position E-60 is a medium size company specializing in music memorabilia. The company was established in the late 1960’s. In 2000 a new Managing Director was appointed who quickly established a senior management team of three Directors. The new organizational structure includes the three management team appointed by the new managing director; it includes the Director of finance, Director of Operation and the Director of Marketing. Each of the directors has its roles and responsibilities. The Director of Finance will deal with all the orders including finance. This department deals with all billing of customers, wages and salaries of employees and other accounting matters. The marketing department is responsible for producing company and product leaflets and advertising in the trade press. The marketing strategy is based around producing and distributing leaflets to existing and potential new customers. This department has recommended an introduction of new products to the current E-60 range. The industry forecasts suggest that potential markets in the future may include more innovative technologies. The Director of Operation is responsible for processing of orders and was dispatched with invoice to the customer. The E-60s was set up to conduct business via the post, therefore there was no need for expensive high street offices. This is the reason why a modern business unit outside the city was selected. The unit is large, housing twelve spacious offices, with only eight in frequent use. A total of 25 full time and 5 part time staff are employed at e-60s. The company has local-networked PCs available for all the full time staff. The finance department uses a standard accounting software package to produce reports. All the other staff have access to word-processing and spreadsheet package software. In 1980’s and 1990’s the company saw its sales and profits rise significantly. However, in the last three years the company has seen new competitors entering the market and offering on-line services – a move resisted by E-60s. In order to compete with these new competitors, E-60s conducted a customer service survey. The following are the key points identified in this survey: Orders delivered late Products do not match specifications in sales literature No on-line order facility available No on-line product list available Inaccurate invoices Sales literature contained inaccurate information Unable to get information outside office hours Immediate Action The company has proposed developing a new IS system to resolve many of the operational problems. In order to gauge the staff reaction to these changes a number of focus group meetings were held. The following key points were identified from these meeting: Lack of IT skills to use the new system Staff fearful of changes in job roles/responsibilities IT system will lead to increase market share Currently lack of integration between departments – competitive environment IT system may help to reduce workload Afraid management may use IT system to make staff redundant The company will develop a project plan for the development of the information systems. A system life cycle for this plan is adopted. Assessments of possible problems and solutions associated with the plan will also be discussed. Organizational Structure The existing organizational structure includes the following: The Company has 5 management team, 25 full time staff, and 5 part time staff. At present there is no IT staff. The administrator will take the orders thru phone and post. Upon receiving the order the admin will forward the order to finance staff . The finance staff will make necessary invoices. Packaging of products and cash flow reporting will be provided. Upon completion of these step the product is dispatch to customer by post. IT Service Outsource Resources A total of 30 staff is working in E-60s, it includes the 5 management staff, 20 full time staff, and 5 part time staff. The company has its own building located outside the city. The unit is quite large, housing twelve spacious offices, with only eight in frequent use. The company has local-networked PC’s available for all the full time staff. The finance use a standard accounting software package to produce reports. All other staff have access to word processing and spreadsheet package software. In the 1980’s and 1990’s the company saw its sales and profits rise significantly. However in the last years the company has seen new competitors entering the market. Threats and Opportunities External Threat The company has new competitor with online services a move resisted by E – 60s. In order to compete with these new competitors, E-60s conducted a customer service survey. The following key points were identified from this survey: Orders delivered late Products do not match specifications in sales literature No on-line order facility available No on-line product list available Inaccurate invoices Sales literature contained inaccurate information Unable to get information outside office hours Internal Threat The company has proposed developing a new IS system to resolve many of the operational problems. In order to gauge the staff reaction to these changes a number of focus group meetings were held. The following key points were identified from these meetings: Lack of IT skills to use the new system Staff fearful of changes in job roles/responsibilities IT system will lead to increase market share Currently lack of integration between departments – competitive environment IT system may help to reduce workload Afraid management may use IT system to make staff redundant Opportunities The company’s marketing strategy is based around producing and distributing leaflets to existing and potential new customers. A number of enquiries from Europe have been received and as a result of this E-60s is considering widening the markets into Europe. The marketing department has recommended an introduction of new products to the current E-60 range. The industry forecasts suggest that potential markets in the future may include more innovative technologies. For example, music tones for mobile phones, custom designed mouse mats, screen savers, DVD’s and computer games. However, the company are unable to pursue all of these markets and need to be more selective on their commitments. E-60s will introduce new E-products such as phone tones, screen savers, E-business process including product information, marketing promotions, online ordering. Since E-60s will penetrate the world they will have a multi-language and multi-lingual support such as English, French, Germany it will also include IVRS or interactive voice response system. Project Objective New IS to Resolve Operational Problem In order to resolve the operational problem the following improvement should be done. E-60 needs to improve the order-processing efficiency. To make it easier for the customer to place their orders. It also need to improve the credit control. New products and services will be introduce such as E-products like phone tones,screen savers and others. E-business process including product information, marketing promotions, online ordering. Since E-60 wants to conquer the world a multi-language and multi lingual support will be introduced. The company will be focusing in countries like USA, France and Germany. An Interactive Voice Response System or IVRS will also be introduced. Assumption Detail Project Objective Content The project depends on the priorities of requirements, budget allocation and timescale spanned. The company's project objective is to have a software that will defined the priorities of the company from basic to sophisticated. Soft requirements such as project vision and business goals are important. Basic includes e-business, the reasonable includes the basic + e-Products, the better includes Reasonable + improved order processing and the sophisticated includes the better + improved credit control + multi-language and multi-lingual support. The preliminary requirements includes the key users, project size and effort estimates and updated risk list. The project requirements include the interface prototype complete and reviewed by users, user interface style guide created, project size and effort estimates updated. Timescale The length of the project depends on the scope of work and budget allocated. In this project it varies from 6 months to 15 months. The following are the scheduled tasks for the coming months: 2 to 3 months for requirement analysis, for coding 2 months to 6 months, testing and implementation will take 1 month – 3 moths and maintenace and support will be estimated to be complete around 1 month – 3 months. Budget The budget depends on the scope of work and the timescale spanned. The company estimated it from GBP 37000 to GBP 91000. It includes the hardware and tools with 15000 to 26000 it includes firewall, application server, e-mail server, and proxy server.In house S/W development around GBP 20000 to 58000 it includes the Project leader, developer and then the user involvement: GBP 20000 to 70000- Testing phase. Quality The quality of the project depends on the user requirements and other resources available. The IS project should be defined and measurable such as in Availability, Usability, Reliability and Maintainability. Availability has become one of the most important aspects of service delivery in the highly visible e-business global economy. Consequently, the demand for 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week operation is greater than ever. Availability, or the lack of it, has a dramatic influence on customer satisfaction and can very quickly impact the overall reputation and success of the enterprise. Usability means making products and systems easier to use, and matching them mire closely to user needs and requirements. Usability is about effectiveness – can users complete the tasks, achieve goals with the product. Efficiency – how much effort do users require to do this? Satisfication – what do users think about the products ease of use? Reliability is the ability of an item to perform a required function under a stated set of conditions for a specific time period. Such as data integrity and others. Maintainability is defined as a characteristic of design and installation. This characteristic is expressed as the probability that an item will be retained in, or restored to, a specified condition within a given period if prescribed procedures and resources are used. Resource Requirement The resource requirement includes the hardware and infrastructure. The new system must have a new application server, e-mail server, proxy servers, firewall, broadband internet connectivity, etc. A new application will be adopted, which consist of a standard package or customized software, etc. The resource requirement also includes the manpower, a new IT team or subcontracted services and a committed user involvement staff. IS Requirement The technical requirements for IS are the following : Hardware it includes various server where the data and an intelligent manager application reside in the computer. Infrastructure includes network and the security system. Software application that includes functionality and quality. The non-technical IS requirement includes the workflow, this composed of the ordering processing and payment collection. The control wherein the credits of the customer are being evaluated here. E-60 will conquer the other countries and therefore it includes the Speaking administrators for European language and an European language interface on e-Business portal Every project has to balance the desire for features and quality with constraints on budgets and timescale. In E-60 the features to be developed are the multi-lingual and multi- language interface, the business operating hours. The success of such project depends on the skills and experience of staff members. In this company there are certain numbers of staff who resist the application of new technology. Introduction The next part of this paper includes the resources management, leadership style, human communications, mentoring and coaching and the conclusions. The second part presents the main activities of project management organized around the 5 standard functions of project management which are: Planning - deciding in advance what to do. Organizing - defining roles and responsibilities for the project team. Staffing - filling and keeping filled roles defined by the organizational structure. Directing - leading and motivating individuals to achieve their potential. Tracking and Controlling - periodically assessing project status and taking corrective action when actual progress deviates significantly from plans. The third and final section in this chapter describes the process of risk management. Risk management is a widely used technique for identifying risks and taking actions to prevent risks from becoming problems and being prepared to minimize consequence of risks that do become problems. These are in general soft skills mostly related to people issues including leadership, team building, team dynamics, problem resolution and negotiating. Also, on the staffing side: hiring, training, evaluating and motivating people. Resource Management Importance of Resource Allocation Each task in the work breakdown structure requires certain personnel and material resources. During this step the required personnel and other resources are assigned to each task. Allocate people to tasks. Resource requirement, Resource planning, Resource control and monitoring. . Starting and Iterating Planning Steps Iteration is sometimes necessary because a decision in one step may cause a problem with or invalidate a decision in an earlier step. For example, if you assign resources (staff) to tasks before scheduling, the resulting schedule may create uneven workloads among staff which would make it necessary to repeat the assign resources step. The image above shows two entrances to the planning cycle. When you start by assigning resources to tasks the second step, estimate effort, can be performed by the people who will actually perform the task. This leads to better estimates and more buy-in from the people that will perform the tasks. The disadvantage of assigning resources first is that people may end up over- or under-committed after the scheduling phase. The benefit of starting with effort estimates is that there is more flexibility during scheduling. Assigning people early puts additional constraints on the schedule. For maximum schedule flexibility, assign people last. (Glaser 1984, October, IEEE Computer). Importance of timescale in planning Time is the amount of calendar time available to complete a project. Time is a fixed constraint that can't be traded off to accommodate other priorities. Note, that time is the duration of a project and not a measure of work. The total number of hours everyone spends working on the project is effort which is different from the duration of the project. Allocating more time than needed for the nominal schedule may save some costs because work can be scheduled more efficiently. However, extending the duration of a project too much can actually increase costs some because of the addition time needed to come up-to-speed before each task. The longer the duration is between tasks, the greater the startup cost of succeeding tasks. Timescale of the project is the duration of the project that facilitates scheduling, but sometime it’s necessary to track a certain number of days on days on the calendar, not just business days. Better estimates and increased accountability, let the individuals doing the work make commitments as to when it will be completed. Team is more willing to support the schedule because they helped create it. The work to be completed depends on the given time. No matter how short the time given it must not affect the quality of the product. Project Plan The project plan is a formal document that guides the project team as they execute the project. The level of detail should be appropriate for size and complexity of the project and level of experience of participants. The more detail the more options and opportunity for control but the more overhead and work for planning and monitoring. A project plan is an important output of the planning process. The project plan, at a minimum, should include previsions for managing a project's triple constraint. Most project plans include a schedule to manage the time constraint, a budget to manage the cost constraint, and a work breakdown structure to manage the performance constraint (quality plan for quality constraint and wbs or req doc for features): Basic Elements of a Project Plan These are the basic elements of a project plan but a plan may contain many other elements. Leadership Style Project Leader (also known as team leader or project manager) - The project leader is mainly responsible for performing the project management process including the functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing, controlling and risk management. The main deliverable of the project leader is a project plan which includes a schedule, budget, and risk management plan. There are four types of leadership style directive or authorization, consultative or persuasion, problem-solving or participation, and the delegation or delegative style. 1. The Directive Style. The directive leadership style is the style most people equate with 'strong' leadership. When people say they want more leadership, they usually mean they want more direction. In military terms, this is leading from the front or by example. Although the directive, -- or command-and-tell -- style, is out of favour today, it is still the style you must use in new, unfamiliar, or critical situations when the team face a threat. 2. The Consultative Style. If the directive style puts task before team, the consultative style puts team before task. This is the style you'll use when you need to talk to the team, hear what they have to say, understand them, and take them with you. If the directive style calls for a typically masculine approach, the consultative style calls for a typically feminine approach: hard versus soft. 3. The Problem-Solving Style. The problem-solving style of leadership goes under various names. Ken Blanchard calls it the 'selling' style (in contrast to 'telling'). Other writers call it the participative style or negotiating style or the win-win style. If the directive style is top-down (ie from you downwards) and the consultative style is bottom-up (ie from them upwards), then the problem-solving style is sideways: us together as equals working things out. The problem-solving style is the right style to use when there is conflict in the team. 4. The Delegated Style. For those who are not used to the delegated style of leadership, it first looks like an abdication of leadership. It's the style where you take a back seat and appear to do nothing. In reality it is one of the hardest of styles to use. It means letting go of control so that the team can make their own decisions. You trust them and first time round that can be hard. Organization Structure of the Project Problems in Project Some key users are not dedicated and thus giving a low commitment to the company. The progress of the project may not have a positive result because of some factors that are affecting the project. A wrong assumptions or not following the scheduled task would lead to the failure of the project. There are cases wherein the problems would begin with poor leadership. Project leader not capable of leading the team would mean a bad project. Staff would not be ready for the new system. They may feel that having this new system would mean that they will lose their job. Some staff is not educated in foreign language and might fear of having errors and set back on this improvement. An effective can motivate its key users in using the position and or negative motives. Project monitoring It is better to identify the risk before it may become a serious problem. The risk can be identifying by looking at the root causes. It is best to motivate the IT developers to prevent slippage. Motivating key users in contributing in UAT, OAT, etc. Risk and problems may appear in management, requirement, personnel, performance, technical and general. Effective leadership A good leader can produce a good relationship between various departments. A leader must identify and prompt common goals and objectives. Can react on departmental competitions. The leader can utilize IT project team to build inter-department relationship. A leader must communicate with the staff to alleviate worries and fears of the staff. He can access needs and hygiene factor. Introduce to them the Theory X and Theory Y model. Apply different approaches to staff of different learning styles. Human Communications The possible problems in the project are the following: low quality initial user requirements, sudden change in requirements, lack of mutual trust, Inaccurate sales literature, difficulties to communicate in second language and others that must be identify. Effective communications The success of the team depends on the effective communication. Every staff should be an effective listener. They must have an effective interviewing skill. Communicate well to be able to reduce the risk of rework. Mutual trust should be evident in the team. It is impossible to produce a better project without trusting each others work. Remove communication barriers to prevent problems in the process of the project. Consider expert power and referent power. Observe non-verbal communications. In the sales literature improve the written communications and review language filters and culture filters. Communicate in second language, support verbal communications using visual aid and remove negative influencing factors. Changing requirements There are cases wherein there is a need to differentiate audience types and because of this a sudden change in requirements will be done. The team should be able to analyze communication filters. Mentoring and Coaching Mentoring Mentoring is an individualized human resources support intervention sculpted to help individuals committed to stepping up to their greater potential. Customer focused workplace assessments. It includes the peer level support, working together, creating mutual benefits, exploring mentorees latent abilitites and developing mentoring. Coaching Team coaching is a human resources intervention process which helps teams and individual team members to: clarify their task so every team member gets on the same page, identify team parameters of time, financial and personnel limits, define management team operating guide lines, assign individual and team accountabilities, provide and evaluate multiple alternative solutions, encourage creative problem solving, strengthen individual and team commitment to results. The Difference between Mentoring and Coaching A mentor usually occupies a senior level assignment of authority and influence within the organization . Knows the organization/its structure, policies, and processes (both spoken and unspoken). Has a broad view and multiple working experiences. Knows the “politics” of the organization. Shares knowledge and experiences .Helps identify developmental opportunities within the organization and “open doors” .Knows when to interpret and when to pass on wisdom. Generally TELLS - advises, instructs, suggests, gives opinions. AND... an effective mentor also knows when and how to coach A coach helps shift the world view of the client (the person being coached) in a way that opens up new possibilities for action. Often draws on assessment data from the client and others to increase the client’s awareness of areas for development and set goals and a plan for reaching them. Assists the client in staying focused on an area of improvement or learning objective to achieve the desired outcome(s) or change. Explores possibilities and potential resulting outcomes. Helps the client identify values and passions and align them with professional or personal goals. Works with a client to discover the answers from within. Listens, make inquiries, and observes/reflects. Generally ASKS powerful, thought-provoking questions that tap the inherent wisdom and creativity of the client. Non-technical Problems There are some non technical problems that also need attention for the success of the project. Shortfall of skills, some staff might have a little knowledge on what they are doing. Orientation and familiarization should be done. They must have a proper training to be able to cope up with the new system. The staff must have the ability to learn. They must be aware of the theory X and others. They must have an open arm for changes even it is negative or resistance. For a project to success it is important that the staff or member working on it must have dedication, education as well as training in order to do the project well. Effective Mentoring and Coaching An effective career mentoring should discover ones strengths, he must coach to perform superb work and gain success form practice. If there is a need to change in mentoring, change the curve by regaining the strength, focusing on shaping the future, and gaining confidence by achieving success. Conclusions In E-60 accepting change in the system means an increase in profit. The above evaluation of project shows several factors that will affect the success and failure of a certain project. As stated above the project depends on the time and quality. It is good to finish the project on time but with good quality. It is hardly made to have a good product with a limited time. Once the project plans are being presented it is now ready for the execution of the project. It is better to first evaluate the time before the work begins. Project depends on the cooperation each staff. E-60 is after the implementation of the IS system and implementing this needs proper training of staff as well as orienting them of the said system. Some maybe opposing it because it means less opportunity for the staff but proper leadership would open their eyes in the advantages and positive of the result of the project. Summary It is important to analyze the requirement first before stepping the gas in proceeding to the project. How will you start if you don’t know where to start. For the ease of the project it is better to collect first the needed requirement. It is described above the requirement needed in the IS project , the staff and members needed and the qualities of a leader needed in this kind of project. An effective planning and monitoring is described to be able to evaluate the needed skills in the project. Problems and issues are tackled in leadership and motivations, human communications and mentoring and coaching. Evaluations Proper mentoring and coaching can develop the people involve in this project. You just don’t assign the project to a staff. You must influence them and show them the importance of their part in this project. Communication is the key to success in any relationship and project. It improves the understanding of every individual involve in this project. Leadership and motivations provides direction for the success of the project. Resource planning fuels the project. Conclusion of the theme Task management is managing a system by giving an individual task. It may be a work of A software but the success of it depends on the leadership, the teamwork, the knowledge and the dedication to the work. It requires better analysis of the situation. Assumption also plays a key role specially in determining the possible risk and in the budget and time needed for the project. It requires proper software to use and especially skilled individual. For every project it is important to have a plan to follow, a time given and a complete requirements. Reference: 1. KM sciences, 2005, IS Project, < www.kmsciences.com > 2. Effective coaching, Vadim Kotelnivko, 2006 www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/crosscuttings/coaching_main.html 3. Project Management 101, F. John Reh 4. Glaser 1984, October, IEEE Computer. 5. Task Management 2006 < www.dkeener.com/keenstuff/tasks.html> 6. Project Management , Barry Boehm [1981, p 486] 7. Business Leadership Wisdom, “Coaching and Mentoring” Andersons Group, 2002 < www.anderssongroup.com/Coaching_Mentoring.asp> Read More