Jones's and His Team Workable Plan - Assignment Example

PROJECT MANAGEMENT Question There is lack of effective project planning. Project planning plays an integral role on creating a workable plan to attain the business needs of the project. John Jones has no effective workable plan. In particular, Jones has not created a scope statement that will guide the project. Besides, he has not demonstrated how the care staff will be organized into the multidisciplinary teams once the IT project is completed. He has also not identified the various tasks that must be carried out in order to generate various deliverables. In addition, Jones and his team have not established the proportion and category of resources to be utilized in executing various tasks of the project. No specific goals and objectives of the IT project have been set. The case has only indicated that Jones want to improve the provision of more effective care to his client base but there is no laid down specific goals and objectives. Jones management leadership style has been put into question. He is accused of upsetting other project managers with his harsh approach. Jones has not demonstrated how he will manage costs of the project. Project cost control is an important project management process because the cost overruns can lead to serious cost dilemmas hence jeopardizing the whole project. Some of the fundamentals for managing the costs of the project encompass capital budgeting, depreciation budgeting as well as resource planning. Jones has also not estimated the cost of the project and direct labour costing. For a project to be successful, project leaders must estimate the costs of the project, including the cost of materials and that of employing workers. Jones can employ the following tools in estimating the cost of the whole project (1) expert judgment, (2) analogous estimating, and (3) parametric estimating. Procure procedure is another management issue associated with the proposed IT project. Instead of using the normal procurement procedure, Jones has obtained an approval from the Ministry of Health to bypass it and creating a fixed contract. Following the normal procurement procedure is critical because it will allow the project leaders to choose the most reliable supplier and the one that offers quality product at a reasonable price. There were not adequate consultations that were done before choosing XYZ MediTech Ltd to develop the complex software project. In particular, the regional IT officer doubted the financial capacity of the company to develop such an intricate software package. Although Trust’s Directors support Jones’ vision of the future, they differ with respect to short-time targets. The directors have different short-time targets from that of Jones and this is negatively affecting the successful completion of the project. There is also no workable plan to evaluate every phase of the project. Evaluation and monitoring is regarding as important in project management. The project must stay on the track all the way and this can only be done through evaluation and monitoring. There is a plethora of issues presented by the paper on the project board. First, Jones and his team should present a workable plan of how to successfully implement the IT project. In particular, the task breakdown structure should be presented to the board along with scope definition, identifying the task that need to be undertaken in order to generate various deliverables. The team should also demonstrate which category of resources should be utilized in executing the various tasks of the project (Schwalbe 2006 & Rowe 2007). The project board will encompass representatives from the department of finance, IT department, adult care, mental health care, childcare, and business development. To organize the management team, it is good to utilize the pure project management organization. As pointed out by Bobera (2008), this structure is characterized by the separation of the project from its home organization. This approach ensures that the project is independent, and it is run with a special board of members, administration, but all connected with the parent organization. In this way, it will be imperative to periodically report on the progress of the project to Dr. Southgate who will in turn report to Mr. John. By utilizing this approach, the project will reap from the benefits that come with it. Though the project manager is required to report to the deputy chief executive, this approach will ensure that the project manager is fully responsible of the initiation of the project. Having such a control over the project, the project manager will definitely be able to exercise his/her duties accordingly, ensuring the project is a success. The approach also ensures that the complete labour involved in the project is answerable to me. By having such favours, it will be advantageous to the progression of the project because time would be saved. If the chief executive were to be the person in charge of management, there would be a lot of time wasted in the name of following the protocol. Question 2 Just like other IT projects, the South Carigcastle Health & Social Care Trust (SCHCT) project can also be expected to face similar challenges.So, for this project to be successful, the knowledge of project risk management ought to be embraced at the earliest opportunity. Risk management entails the steps taken in a systematic manner that will enable the identification of risks, assessment of risks and control of those risks. An effective project risk management is undertaken throughout the life of a project because there are high chances of new risks to emerge. Besides the likelihood of new risks emerging, chances are also that the status of the existing risk might change as the life of a project continues to grow. Therefore, to effectively undertake project risk management, it is imperative to understand the context of the project, actively involve stakeholders, suppliers, users, and team members. Additionally, it will be important to establish an approach for the project and effectively document it. Finally, there is need to provide regular reports on risk, and define the roles and responsibilities of each member in the team. Specifically, the IT project being undertaken by the South Carigcastle Health & Social Care Trust (SCHCT) might face the following risks: The first risk and the most ignored one is lack of involving the users in the project. Fox, Van der Waldt, & Fox (2008) argue that if the users are not closely involved in the planning of the project, they might add requirements or perhaps later in the project change specifications. This will cause cost increase and delays to the completion of the project. In this case, the patients and the healthcare workers alike ought to be involved right from the beginning without discrimination. This is where a project manager needs to ensure that it has effectively been achieved. Schedule flaws are perhaps the likeliest risk for this project. As noted by Haney (2009) there is a possibility for this kind of risk to occur because of lack of thorough understanding or the work involved and project deliverables, unrealistic estimates, low estimates based on meeting unrealistic end date. The main explanation to the possibility of flawed schedules is that the project has been planned without considering the possibility of any eventuality that might delay its end time. For instance, there has not been any consideration of whether anyone of us is going to get ill or not. To mitigate this challenge, several techniques can be applied. Specifically, in order for this project to have a realistic and achievable schedule, the manager ought to commission some level of risk analysis. Here, risks would be analysed and then adjust the schedule accordingly. To determine more meaningful estimates, as a team we will have to use a three-point estimating. Next, a person ought to be identified and commissioned with the task of doing the estimate work. If possible, comparison of estimates to actual figures from similar past projects ought to be done to find out how much might be overrun and then see where adjustments can be done. Just like in other project management, the issue of management can also apply in this case. The project manager may think to be always on top of things, but the reality of the truth is that a manager is prone to so many challenges. A project manager might be tempted not to involve other major stakeholders in designing the schedule and plan. However, for this not to happen there is need to stay on top of the project progress, resolve issues quite in time and the desist from the temptation of spending too much time focusing on a particular facet of the project. Further, the project manager should have regular special- time to communicate with the deputy executive director, Dr. Southgate, in regards to the development of the project. Here, the manager requires ought to be diplomatic but frank in communicating my message. Technology and uncertainty is another likely risk this project will possibly face. Both Hullet (2009) and Kerzner (2009) observe that every IT project encompasses some degree of risk due to the nature of all IT projects. To mitigate this risk from occurring, the manager ought to ask some specific questions to help uncover the kind of risks that are typically linked with technology and uncertainty. Such questions should include, have we done projects like this before? Are we experienced enough with the software being initiated? To avoid this scenario, there is need to adjust schedule, cost, and estimates values accordingly. Expectations are the kind of things that keep growing and changing if not properly managed. If the stakeholders are not kept shoulder to shoulder of the project progress, resolutions and issues, they might expect something very different from what is being initiated. Clearly, manager’s expectations in a manner suggesting that they might impose a risk to the progress of the project will effectively improve the rate of the project success (Bannerman 2008, Phillips, Brantley & Phillips 2011, & Pinheiro 2010). Specifically, other stakeholders ought to be involved and to jointly agree to budgets, requirements, design, schedule, and test plan. This way, everyone involved will be sharing the same expectation like the management, thus avoiding the likelihood of unrealistic expectations. By no doubt, there could be a possibility of staff turnover within this healthy centre and thus cause some havoc to the project. In fact, with the kind of economic inflation facing the world, people are bound to switching careers in search of greener pastures. Much the same way, one or two members of the management team might switch companies or careers. Kwak and Ibbs (2002) posit that movement within an organization is a bad precedent for the progression of a project. This risk is likely to require fresh teaching and redefinition of roles within the project management (Swamidass 2000, & Stackpole 2010). As a measure to this likelihood, contingency plans ought to be planned to encompass prior cross training of roles with the view of losing one or two staff members. These plans will then be added to the risk management plan and indicated that staff changes will influence both the schedule and the budget. Question 3 Project Management Plan Executive Summary The administration of social organization and community Health has been merged into one central team. However, various healthcare professionals from various departments can share healthcare information through a patient-cantered IT system. The IT system proposed by Jones will ensure that healthcare professionals share critical client’s information hence improving the quality of healthcare and patient’s satisfaction. In particular, the proposed IT system will provide a one-stop location for a wide spectrum of users to find and share clients’ information. Statement of Work This effort encompasses the following: Defining the needed function of the IT system Forming a multi-agency implementation team Creating and approving a project charter Implementing the IT system, placing much emphasis on high priority functions Testing functionality and evaluating the deficiencies and strengths of the software package Project Objectives The business objectives for the project include: Defining the needed function of the IT system Adopting the IT system Reporting to Jones Scope Overview Stage 1-Requirements Defining initial list of functions Evaluating user needs and adjust priorities and functions if necessary Evaluating web service requirements Stage 2-Implementation Establishing a host server Establishing the training needs of the implementation team Researching configuration and functionality options Creating a configuration plan Installing hardware and software connections Creating a test plan Project Team Project Owners The will be project owners (Jones and others) who will ensure that adequate resources are available for the project as well as track the status of the project. Project leader Dr. Southgate will be responsible for driving the whole project Project Manager I will be the project manager who will be responsible in leading planning and execution of the project as well as chairing project team Project workgroup The project workgroup will be responsible in planning and designing the software package. Implementation Team This team will be tasked with the responsibility of implementing the IT system Survey Team The survey team will evaluate the project and make recommendations. They will also warrant that the project is on the right track. Project Schedule Team The team will be responsible in ensuring that the project is completed within the agreed timeframe. The project schedule will be restructured as responsibilities are accomplished. Communication Plan There will be a regular meeting attended by members of the project workgroup. Project owners, project leader, project managers are also in the list for meeting notes and meeting agendas. In case a certain meeting is not required, it will be cancelled. Both the project manager and chair of the project workgroup will report to the project leader and project owners. References Bannerman, PL 2008, ‘Risk and Risk Management in Software Projects: A reassessment’, The Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 81, pp. 2118–2133. Bobera, D2008, Project Management Organization, viewed 15th June 2015, http://www.ef.uns.ac.rs/mis/archive-pdf/2008%20-%20No1/MIS2008_1_1.pdf Fox, W, Van der Waldt, G, & Fox, W2008, A guide to Project Management, Juta and Company Ltd, Landsdown. Haney, V, 2009, Top IT Project Risks and What to Do about them, viewed 15th June 20015, . Heldman, K2009, PMP Project Management Professional Exam Study Guide, includes Audio CD, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken. Hullet, DT2009, Practical Schedule Risk Analysis, Gower Publishing, Ltd, Farnham. Kerzner, H2009, Project Management: A systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ. Kwak, YH & Ibbs, CW2002, ‘Project Management Process Maturity (PM) 2 Model’, Journal of Management in Engineering, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 150-155. Pinheiro, AB2010, ‘How Do Managers Control Technology-Intensive Work,’ Journal of Technology Management & Innovation, vol. 5, no.2, pp. 1-12. Phillips, JJ Brantley, W & Phillips, PP2011, Project Management ROI: A step-by-Guide For Measuring the Impact and ROI for Projects, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ. Rowe, SF2007, Project Management for Small Projects, Management Concepts, Vermont. Schwalbe, K2006, Introduction to Project Management, Cengage Learning, Boston, MA. Stackpole, CS2010, A User’s Manual to the PMBOK Guide, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ. Swamidass, PM2000, Encyclopedia of Production and Manufacturing Management, Springer, New York. Read More