Implementation of a Document Management System - Essay Example

Table of Contents Summary 4 Project “Documentum” 4 Total Financial Cost: AED 1million 4 Sponsor: CEO of Biz Group 4 Team Leader: Project Manager 4 Expected payback period: 5 years 4 Start Date: 15th November 2014 4 Target Completion Date: 15th December 2014 4 Departments Impacted: Quality Department, all other departments using the documentation system 4 The initial requirements of the project are the following: 4 To create automated documented, traceable, and auditable process for managing manuals, training materials and other documentation; 4 To ensure flexibility and scalability of the system necessary for supporting and managing the growth of the volumes of documents in the company; 4 To ensure compliance of the documentation processes with the Regulatory and ISO requirements of automating the documents. 5 Project Management for Business Implementation of a Document Management System “Documentum” Introduction Biz Group is a large retail organization operating its business in the Middle East. The company has developed and grown its business operations significantly during the last two years and faced with a problem of inefficient infrastructure. The existing system of managing and distributing documents is performed manually and therefore is not as efficient and cost-effective as required. Also, there are certain requirement of the regulatory bodies and ISO auditors in terms of document management system in Biz Group. The company’s management needs to introduce documented, traceable, and auditable process for managing manuals, training materials, and other documentation (Case Scenario). The aim of this report is to develop a project management plan for Biz Group based on the project problem statement identified above. The Principles of Project Management Project is defined as “a unique, finite set of multiple activities intended to accomplish a specific goal” (Tayntor, 2010:3). Practically every project is comprised of key milestones which represent a simple life cycle. Project life cycle is characterized by the Project Management Institute’s PMBOK as a process containing the following key levels: Project StartInitiating Processes  Planning Processes  Executing Processes  Closing Processes  Project End (Kendrick 2010:58). Project management plan is based on three key pillars (scope, time, and money), forming thus a triangle of three objectives. However, in order to start any project it is necessary to receive authorization of the project. Project Authorization is a general process of verifying a proposed project for initiation and further development, which aims to confirm feasibility and cost-effectiveness of the project (Taskmanagementguide.com, 2014). Project Charter The Charter of the Project is recognized to be the single most important document in a project, as it establishes the project and summarizes the key information related to the project (Tayntor, 2010). The project “Documentum” was initiated by the Biz Group management with the purpose to implement a standardized process for monitoring, updating and publishing unstructured and paper based content used in various department manuals by providing an automated system. Below is provided a brief summary of the Project “Documentum” Summary Project Name: “Documentum” Total Financial Cost: AED 1million Sponsor: CEO of Biz Group Team Leader: Project Manager Expected payback period: 5 years Start Date: 15th November 2014 Target Completion Date: 15th December 2014 Project Objective: to automate the Manuals and Training material, approval process with the help of workflows and finally publish it to all relevant applications, documents and people thorough electronic means Departments Impacted: Quality Department, all other departments using the documentation system The initial requirements of the project are the following: To create automated documented, traceable, and auditable process for managing manuals, training materials and other documentation; To ensure flexibility and scalability of the system necessary for supporting and managing the growth of the volumes of documents in the company; To ensure compliance of the documentation processes with the Regulatory and ISO requirements of automating the documents. Stakeholders of the Project There are many different stakeholders impacted by the project. Below are listed the key stakeholders, their interests, involvement, and impact on project success. CEO of Biz Group: The CEO of Biz Group recognizes an urgent necessity of introducing automated documented, traceable, and auditable process for managing documentation flow. This will enable the company to reduce costs and time associated with manual process, which is currently applied in the organization. Quality Management Department: All employees in the Quality management department will be strongly impacted by the project, as a significant amount of work will be changed and reduced. Also, they will need to be heavily involved in the project as it is their competence. ISO Auditors: As the Biz Group is expecting an audit by ISO and it requires automated documentation process, ISO auditors are referred to an important category of the project’s stakeholders. It is important to comply with the ISO requirements/standards in order to increase the company’s chances to become a nominee to the prestigious quality award. Employees: All employees in addition to those working in Quality Management department but who will use the new automated process of documentation processing are also considered as stakeholders of the project. Regulatory bodies As it has been mentioned in the case study current manual system used in the BizGroup is a concern of regulatory bodies. Therefore, this group of stakeholders also should be taken into account while developing a project as it should comply with the regulatory requirements. Scope of the Project Detailed description of the project The objective of the project is to automate the Manuals and Training material, approval process with the help of workflows and publish it to all relevant applications, documents and people thorough electronic means. The growth of the company should be facilitated with the new system. Automated documentation process will enable the company to reduce time and costs associated with this procedure. Also, the new Document Management System will enable Biz Group to minimize the risks associated with human error as automation of the process will ensure a well-defined and auditable process for managing manuals, training materials, and other relevant documentation. Work Breakdown Structure Defining and Sequencing Activities Activity sequencing is a process, which is usually performed during project plan development process (Kendrick, 2010). The actions and activities that should be performed to produce the project deliverables are limited to the information given in the case study and based on the assumption that the major work will be performed by a contractor. Below are listed the key actions and activities: Determination of Specifications: development of functional/non-functional/quality requirements of the Document Management System Setting up a tender process for selecting contractor, who will develop the system based on the specific technical and functional requirements specified by the sponsor of the project Selection of a contractor, signing up of an agreement Designing a system Development of Test Plan Documenting System Buying Hardware Writing software Identifying test users Building a system Installing User systems (Kendrick, 2010) Implementation and trial testing of the new Document Management System Detection and fixing of User defects (Kendrick, 2010) Approval of the Document Management System Release of a System (Kendrick, 2010) Training of employees and responsible stakeholders to use the newly launched Document Management System Critical path analysis The Critical Path Analysis or Critical Path Method is a mathematically based algorithm which is applied in project management in order to schedule a set of project activities (Santiago & Magallon, 2009). The project ‘Documnetum’ has a set of activities which are interdependent with each other. These interdependencies and critical paths are reflected in the Gantt Chart (see Appendix). Estimating Resources Unfortunately, no specific staffing data is provided in the case study. Therefore, the estimated resources are based on very rough assumptions and also on the assumption that there will be involved a contractor for developing a system. Below are provided estimate numbers and roles of people required to perform each activity. Activity Role Number of people Determination of Specifications Quality Management, technical director, CEO, other team members 3-5 Setting up a tender process for selecting contractor Procurement 1 Selection of a contractor CEO, Project manager, Procurement manager 3 Development of a system, test plan and documenting a system, writing software Contracting company n/a Buying Hardware Procurement 1 Implementation and trial testing of the new Document Management System Contracting company and Project Manager 2 Detection and fixing of User defects Contracting company and Project Manager At least 2 Approval of the Document System CEO, Project Manager 2 Training of employees and responsible stakeholders To be defined n/a In order to ensure successful implementation of the plan it is necessary to ensure that there is effective project leader who is capable to identify tasks clearly and communicate these tasks to his team members. As one of the main problems with which team members face during a project relates to project-functional interface, where individuals suddenly have to report to two bosses (Kendrick, 2010:173), it is important to ensure that there is no conflict between the functional manager and project manager. Human Resource Plan Despite the organizational or corporate structure, successful project management is possible only when project leaders and individual team members are well managing the key functions and perform main roles (Tayntor, 2010). As there are not much details provided on the project and human resources available there were made general assumptions on the project roles and responsibilities. The project team should include the following team members: a project manager, an assistant project manager, a project office (contracting agency in this case), and project team (Tayntor, 2010). While project office will perform full-time functions, project team members will work out of the functional units (quality department, HR department, IT department, etc). Gantt chart All the information related to project activities and dependencies, resources, timing are summarized in the Gantt chart (see Appendix 1). Closure of the Project This stage implies a review requirements collection, scope definition and the project deliverable requirements against the actual project results (Kendrick, 2010). At this stage, it is necessary to carry out all final testing and check whether performed results in terms of time, scope and budget fits the agreed-upon specifications (Kendrick, 2010). Formal sign-off of the CEO of Biz Group (project sponsor) and other stakeholders is required. Also, it is important to conduct a post-project analysis by gathering a project team soon after the project is completed and list both positive and negative issues which the team faced during a project implementation. This practice enables project management team to capture what has been learned during the project (Kendrick, 2010). Identification of the project processes that need change should be analyzed and followed with the recommendations for future. This information and project results will be extremely helpful evidence for the next projects. Conclusion This report has presented a project management plan for the project “Documentum”, initiated by the Biz Group. The objective of the project was to automate the Manuals and Training material, approval process with the help of workflows and finally publish it to all relevant applications, documents and people through electronic means. The duration of the project should not exceed 1 year and the budget for the project is estimated to be AED 1million. In order to plan the project there were presented the following elements of the project management: a Project Charter, key stakeholders, Project Scope and work breakdown structure, activities and estimated resources required for the project. As there was given limited information on the project there were made some suggestions and assumptions which need more detailed analysis and planning. Appendix 1 References: Kendrick, T. (2010). Project Management Tool Kit - 100 Tips and Techniques for Getting the Job Done Right (2nd Edition). AMACOM – Book Division of American Management Association. Santiago J & Magallon D, (2009). Critical Path Method. Available at: http://www.google.com.ua/url?url=http://web.stanford.edu/class/cee320/CEE320B/CPM.pdf&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&sa=U&ei=KOVZVMT5PMje7AaWg4GIDA&ved=0CD0QFjAK&sig2=VBdRXsASw4WBR7zAhOSyJg&usg=AFQjCNFyqJ4GTblXaEORDNqo77IXweD2QQ Tayntor, C. (2010). Project management tools and techniques for success. Boca Raton: CRC Press. Taskmanagementguide.com, (2014). What is Project Authorization? [online] Available at: http://www.taskmanagementguide.com/glossary/what-is-project-authorization-.php Read More