Project Ocean The Troubled Water Billing System - Assignment Example

Project Ocean – The Troubled Water Billing System Do you believe that the trouble with Philadelphia’s water billing system is a technical problem or a people problem? In my opinion, the root cause for the troubled water billing system is the lack of expertise of the people involved in putting together the project and the trouble with Project Ocean is mainly a ‘people problem’. When Philadelphia state signed the contract with Oracle Corporation to replace its 30- year old water billing system, they essentially hired people who had never before handled a municipal billing system and mainly had experience with customer service systems, of which the billing process was a very small part. Kale & Singh (2009) say that partner compatibility or fit has a lot to do with positive results coming of an alliance, and the fact that the Oracle Corporation was in fact not the right organization to work on this particular project was the reason it was facing so many difficulties. By choosing an organization that did not specialize in the field, the officials made a wrong choice and the situation was further worsened due to the lack of standard operating procedures that were set for the project managers. 2. What factors contributed to the problems associated with Project Ocean? Apart from the problems caused by the inexperience of the firm hired for the re-structuring of the water billing system, there were other mismanaged decisions that lead the Project Ocean to its current dire straits. The project was under charge of the city Finance Department which did not consult the Water Department before making any decisions even though the Water Department was the main user of the water billing system. There was an overall lack of communication within the departments that lead to a failure in coordination of the project. According to Gulati & Singh (1998) severe coordination problems can result from the lack of sufficient knowledge about how one’s actions are interdependent with other’s to achieve success, what decision rules a partner is likely to use, how resources should be allocated or how information should be managed. This is exactly what happened to Project Ocean. The Oracle Corporation had no help from the people who were actually going to be running the system once it was completed and there were no set parameters that could determine whether the strategies being employed by the project managers had any capacity to produce effective results. 3. Can this project be saved? If so, what should the new agreement include? If not, can Philadelphia & Oracle come to an agreement that satisfies both parties, or would this end up being a win/lose situation? In my opinion the project can be saved but there would have to be some drastic steps to be taken. Among the most important things that should be done, one is to ensure that there is minimal turnover at the management level in the future, so that there can be continuity in the work. Oracle Corporation should hire project managers that have relevant experience and are aware of the complexities that can arise during restructuring a system as large as this one. Both parties need to form a better system of communication so that there is little need for guess work in the future as to how things should be done. Philadelphia should form a panel of experts, incorporating people from the Finance Department and the Water Department, who can over see the work done by the Oracle project managers , so that the quality of the work done as well as the finances used can be monitored regularly. The project is at a stage where there is very little room for any more mistakes, and it is imperative that people who can actually mange a project of this scale are brought into the picture as soon as possible. The Project Manager Career Path 1. Which project management model appeals the most to you? Why? The project management model that appeals the most to me is the independent project manager model. One of the biggest reasons for that is the creative freedom that comes with this opportunity. An independent project manager has the choice of taking on projects that are more rewarding and leave those that seem doomed from the beginning. Even though an independent project managers work entails a lot more than a corporate manager’s or a consultant project manager’s, it still can be highly rewarding if a person forms a specialization in providing a certain unique service or a offers unique product development strategy that no one else employs. An independent manger has a lot more diversity in his work scope and is not restricted to just a specific job description. Since an independent project manager is not working with a prescribed project management methodology, he/she has the chances of introducing unique project-specific strategies that have a much better chance of success. 2. Why is it important that you manage your own career while your knowledge and experience as a project manager grows? For any person or organization to grow, it is important that a certain level of the unexpected is introduced into the day to day activities of that individual or organization. Similarly, for a project manger, managing their own career brings about a change that ensures growth in learning and an increase in the skill-set. Most managers who work for corporations have a set of people working under them who perform the menial tasks and when project managers work independently, they have to perform all of these tasks themselves. These managers also become typecast if they work with corporations for too long and there comes a time when there remains very little diversity at their job. In order to experience freedom in making you own project management methodology and to learn how to improvise in different situations, it is important for project managers to learn how to manage their own career after a certain stage in their professional life. 3. What does a person need to consider if he or she was a corporate or consultant project manager and desires to become an independent project manger/contractor? What skills would be transferable? What skills would have to be acquired? Cross-project learning and learning transfers is a point that has been long debated between scholars of the subject. According to Zollo & Winter (2002), relying solely on experience accumulation, is not the most effective way to build up a diverse dynamic capability to perform well under different situations. For people who are working in a corporate setting and who want to take their careers to the next level by becoming independent/contractual project managers, the path is not easy. Having said that, that there will still be a certain set of skills which will be transferable to the latter work description. There will be tighter deadlines and a higher workload, but having worked under strict policies and controls within corporations, these managers will learn how to effectively complete their work within time limits. A project manager working for a corporation usually has advanced management software that help them allocate skills and resources to various project aspects and working in the absence of such soft wares may take the managers some time to get accustomed to. Even though the task may seem difficult, it will eventually bring about a much positive growth in the learning graph of managers if they choose to work independently or on contractual terms. Just Say No? 1. What determines whether a project manager will react with intelligent disobedience or begrudging compliance? Patricia A. McLagan (2003) says, "If you want to shut down an organization, the best way is for people to stop working. The second best way is for everyone to just follow the rules" (p. 55). This is a statement that highlights the importance of managers to stand up to the top level management in order to stop letting half-brained ideas becoming full-fledged projects. However, it is easier said than done. At times, the people on the top are just too persistent in an ideal and there is no way to make them see the potential failure of their suggestion. Intelligent disobedience requires taking risks, employing creativity, flexibility and perseverance (McGannon, 2005). At times, the stake holders or high level executives of an organization just will not take a No for an answer, but in most cases, it is important for project managers to employ intelligent disobedience so that the company does not engage in projects that have potential reasons to fail. Having said all that, it can be safely concluded that applying intelligent disobedience in certain situation will vary from work environment to work environment and will also depend on the relationship that exists between the project manager and the high level executives or stakeholders. 2. How can half-baked ideas that turn into projects and excessive scope creep be minimized? Scope creep can be defined as the tendency of a project to go beyond the initial boundaries that were set for it. These boundaries may be financial or related to the time by which time the project is required to be completed, but for both cases, one of the biggest reasons for excessive scope creep are ‘bad ideas’ turned into projects. According to Kerzner (1997) excessive scope creep is caused due to a number of reasons among which a lack of defined and disciplined work description and variations in task size are the leading reasons, and these reasons are mainly due to the lack of strength behind the proposed project idea. To minimize this happening, it is imperative that project managers employ intelligent disobedience and use communication and influence skills to protect the organization from itself (McGannon, 2005). 3. The vice-president of marketing read an article on a plane that interactive marketing….. (Cont)? If I was the project manger asked to handle this project, and if I thought that there was very little chance of its success, I will provide a sufficient basis of support to my argument before I presented it to the vice-president. I would do some researching into the world of interactive marketing on the World Wide Web, and try to find solid examples to provide to her an insight into why her idea is not right for our particular organization. There are no ‘standard’ procedures to employ when using the technique of intelligent disobedience, and I will act accordingly to my situation. If the Vice-president is a person who does not bend easily, then I might try using “non-traditional” techniques to create impressions on her that her perception of the idea might not be as correct as she thinks. Without having to improvise to lying, I will point out the shortcomings of her idea to her directly and give her my take and perspective on her idea openly without resorting to criticism of any sort. Extreme Programming at Sabre 1. Can traditional project management tools such as a work breakdown structure (WBS) be used in XP? Extreme Programming (XP) does not explicitly utilize Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) however Story based programming in XP is identical in functionality. In XP the features required by the customer are stated in the form of different stories or scenarios which are put onto story cards. These story cards are identical to work packages developed form WBS in traditional project management: they describe something that is of deliverable value to the customer, involve on average two weeks of coding, are independent of each other and can be tested for bugs and performance (Beck 2001). Other aspects of XP are functionally similar to traditional project management and therefore traditional tools can be adapted for use in XP. 2. What methods of estimation would be most appropriate when following an XP approach? Estimation for Extreme Programming (XP) requires that factors that are not usually taken into account in traditional project management be considered. These include the increased productivity of the programmers and the improvement in quality of the end product (David 2006). The costs incurred by paired programming should take in to account the fact that these costs are being offset by the reduction in time spent on testing and fixing. The XP approach also requires fewer programmers to maintain the code. 3. If the company’s developers have always followed a more traditional approach to IT projects, what impacts might introducing XP have on them? If the company’s software developers have always followed a more traditional method of approach towards IT projects, then they may face a set of problems. Among the biggest problems would be to accommodate the XP style of creating automated unit tests as the actual codes are written. Since the programmers will not be experienced in writing lines of codes this way, it will take them a little time to get used to this method. Another possible problem may come from everyone on the team working on every part of the project. The traditional approach towards programming has always delegated specific codes to be written by programmers who specialize in their particular category, with great emphasis on a design-led process that involves a lot of planned architecture of the system before it is implemented. The Extreme programming process is very simple and can seem too simple at times, but it is one that is among the most effective tools of managing software programming. Work Cited Beck k. 2001 Planning Extreme Programming. Addison-Wesley: Upper Saddle River. Print David 2006. Dynamics of Effort Estimation. http://softwaresurvival.blogspot.com/2006/11/dynamics-of-effort-estimation-in-most.html (accessed March 09, 2010).Web Gulati, R & Harbir Singh, (1998). The architecture of cooperation: Managing coordination costs and appropriation concerns in strategic alliances. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol 43, pp 781-814. Print. Kale, Parshant & Harbir Singh (2009). Managing Strategic Alliances: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go From Here?. The Academy of Management. Vol 23, pp 45-62. Print. Kerzner, Harold. (1997) Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, New York, John Wiley. Print. McGannon, Robert. (2005), Intelligent Disobedience: The Difference between Good and Great Project Managers. ESI international. Web. McLagen, Patricia A. (2003), Distributed Intelligence. T+D Magazine, pp.55. Web. Macias, Francisco, Mike Holcombe & Marian Gheorghe, (2003). A Formal Experiment Comparing Extreme Programming with Traditional Software Construction, University of Sheffield. Web. Zollo, M. & Winter, S. (2002), Deliberate learning and the evolution of dynamic capabilities. Organization science, Volume 13, pp 339-51. Print. Read More