Improving Information Technology Project Management - Essay Example

AVALADE XXI CASE STUDY By + Employee Training A number of problems have been discussed and these problems can be broadly classified as organizational problems and technical problems. Casa XX1 had faced a number of organizational problems which included locating the kiosks far from the bars, delayed construction process, and using and employees who were not skilled to handle the innovative information technology system. This paper shall look at employee training as one of the organizational problems. Employee training is an essential and critical component of any project management implementation plan. When developing a project management plan, it is useful to reflect on some of the risks associated with the implementation, the expected benefits, and the technological solutions offered (Wang, 2012). More specifically, a critical look at the personnel needed in terms of their skills and capacity to fulfill the objectives of the project, how will good performance by the employees be gauged, and what measures have been established to handle any problems that may arise with employee performance. Meag was an IT supplier who had limited experience in implementing large systems. According to Xu and Quaddus (2013) one of the factors that determines the successful implementation of large systems is the presence of skilled employees at different points of the implementation plan. That is, a team of skilled employees who will manage the implementation process, to the employees who will be executing the activities of the implementation plan. Meag and Casa XX1 ought to have a management team in place that would specifically monitor the implementation of the plan, they would interact with the managers of the stadium, customers, and amongst each other. This would enable CASA XX1 to detect any problems that may arise from the system at the earliest point and take remedial action. The project management implementation team must be highly skilled and have the knowledge of the whole system and its functionality. Meag and Casa XX1 should have hired a team of competent project managers who would have stemmed the problem in time. The team would specifically lias with system developers to inform them of the emerging problem and coordinated with the developers in developing a rapid response. Besides hiring a team of highly skilled and capable project managers, Meag and Casa XX1 ought to have developed a clear organizational structure that would have established a clear framework that outlines the duties of each employee and the accompanying responsibilities and the communication channels to use to address emerging issues (Wang, 2013). With the organization structure in place, it would be clear who is responsible for what. The moment they employees noted problems with systems a plan would be in place with clear indications on who takes what role. Communication between employees and the management and developers would have been better if the employees had clear communication channels and had been trained to handle any emerging issues. A good project implementation plan has key reference documents that employees can refer to help them seek clarification of any issues when a crisis or a problem emerges. Training employees on how to access and use these reference documents would have been of great use to Meag and Casa XX1. Meag and Casa XX1 ought to have trained their employees on actions to take in case of emergencies under the guidance of established guidelines in the reference documents. The employees would have been able to take the best course of action when they noticed problems with the system. Taking swift action by the employees would have played a pivotal role in preventing the issue from spiraling out of hand. Meag and Casa XX1 ought to have developed a back up plan in case the system they had established failed. However, back up plans work well when employees have been trained to work with the backup plan (Tan, 2002). An investigation into what had happened revealed that Meag’s system did not have a back up. However, there were some POS stations where cash was used in place of the cards. Cash would have been a good back up plan. However, training employees how to transition from the card system to the cash system would have minimized losses realized by Casa XX1. With good training employees would have transitioned to using cash at the right time. They would have communicated using the appropriate communication channels to the management their decision to switch to cash as guided by the reference documents. Recommendations To sum up of all analysis and problems mentioned above, we can conclude that, the fundamental mistake is choosing a wrong partner for outsourcing at initial stage. Meag and Casa XX1 would benefit from four key technological aspects of project management. They include SDLC, BPR, Agile project management, and outsourcing. The recommendations have been discussed herein under the four aspects. i. SDLC SDLC offers a robust framework that can guide project managers in implementing large scale projects. SDLC stands for systems development life cycle. The specific steps under SDLC include training, requirements and design, construction, testing, release, and response. In developing the Cartao 21, Meag ought to have critically looked at the goals and requirements that need to be accomplished by Cartao 21. Meag would then define the requirements and develop software that is capable of handling the system requirements. Further still, they ought to have tested it using both static and dynamic analysis and manual penetrating testing. This would only help protect the system from hackers but would have ensured that it is able to fulfill the objectives that it was designed to address. They would then release the system and monitor its performance. Meag and Casa XX1 would benefit immensely from using the SDLC framework especially from testing it. Testing the software would have enabled Meag and Casa XX1 to detect any problems that may arise with using the software and institute changes that would have prevented the system from failing. For examples the failure at the wireless terminals could have been detected. SDLC presents a powerful software development mechanism that can be used to evaluate and test the functionality of software before its large scale implementation. ii. BPR Business process reengineering provides a powerful mechanism for businesses to reorganize their work processes and business activities, that helps an organization improve its performance, productivity, and profitability. BPR prioritizes customers needs and seek ways that would optimize the use of information technology. BPR focuses on organizational processes whereby they are evaluated, changed, and or removed to allow for increased productivity and performance. Four fundamental steps form part of BPR, they include planning, analysis, reconfiguration, and the changes made (Khadiri & Fazzikki, 2012). Casa XX1 and Meag ought to have collected all the information regarding all the work processes that they new system would involve. After collecting the information on work processes, a critical analysis would follow. Analysis of the work processes would reveal that there were problems with employee training, and location of some kiosks where customers were to obtain the cards. In order to maximize the customer’s satisfaction, BPR work processes analysis would have revealed that the kiosks ought to be located closer to the stadium. Further still, the communication channels at Meag and Casa XX1 ought to have modified such that there would be effective and timely communication of vital information to the management and more specifically to the team of developers who have the skills needed to address the systems failure. Casa XX1 and Meag would benefit from adopting the BPR system. iii. Agile Although agile is based on a system of values that may differ with BPR, it can still be incorporated by Casa XX1 and Meag. Agile emphasizes that it is more important to focus on individuals and interactions that processes and tools. BPR focuses on work processes and seeks to optimize them. However, the values of agile can still be achieved by Meag and Casa XX1. Through employee and customer interaction, Casa XX1 can obtain vital information from the client regarding the functionality of the payment platform and use it to improve customer satisfaction. With agile, Meag and Casa XX1 would have detected the problem early and taken corrective measures to address the problem. Agile also values responding to change rather than following a clearly laid out plan. Meag and Casa XX1 could have employed highly skilled and experienced personnel who would have known the nest course of action to take in case of a system failure. The experienced personnel would have developed a transition plan during the developmental stage of the project implementation plan so that it would be possible for employees to respond to the failure. iv. Outsourcing Cassa XXI did not follow the correct procedure to outsource the service. They also did not consider the past performance of Meag in dealing with large systems. They ended up contracting an incompetent supplier. The best procedure in outsourcing is through tendering. Tendering involves inviting all interested suppliers of a specific service or product through announcing to the public. The interested suppliers will apply to contract. After receiving the applications, you can invite the applicants for an interview. In case of any future outsourcing contract, Cassa XXI should interview all applicants to find the best. Through interviewing, Cassa XXI will be informed on competency, level of technology and the level of innovation of all applicants and choose the best. Considering a company’s experience is also important by analyzing the systems and projects that it has implemented successfully. According to the outsourcing manual, it is also important to consider the need of outsourcing. Before outsourcing, consider the financial and technical implications. If you have the technical staff to make the product or provide the service internally then there is no need to outsource. Some companies outsource to facilitate amalgamations and acquisitions. Others outsource to concentrate on the core business of the organization. It is also good to enhance credibility through outsourcing. References: KHADIRI, M., FAZZIKKI, A. 2012. How workflow systems facilitate business process reengineering and improvement. International Journal of Computer Science Issues, 9(2), pp.447-461. TAN, F. B. (2002). Global perspective of information technology management. Hershey, Pa, IRM Press. http://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=4101 WANG, J. (2012). Project management techniques and innovations in information technology. Hershey, PA, Information Science Reference. WANG, J. (2013). Perspectives and techniques for improving information technology project management. Hershey, PA, Information Science Reference. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10635012. XU, J., & QUADDUS, M. A. (2013). Managing information systems ten essential topics. Amsterdam, Atlantis Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.2991/978-94-91216-89-3. . Read More