IT Upgrade Project Management - Literature review Example

IT Upgrade Project Management Plan Introduction The upgrading of the IT systems and software has recently been approved to increase profits and reduce costs through a more efficient working of the systems. This project will result to the networking of 79 new work stations to be networked around the whole organization; they will be installed in two large open plan offices. It will also see the updating the workstations of six managers and their Pas. In addition there will be updating of 14 softwares (standard off-the shelf software. Although the company has computers, software and computers, the computers have been outdated and with the growth in the company, they are not able to match with the volume of transactions. This system will facilitate better track of customer orders, reduce customer complaints and issue timely invoices which will result to an improvement in the cash flow. Project Management Approach Greg Aresnal, the operations manager is responsible for the computer information system and accounting operations. He has the overall responsibility and authority for the management and execution of this project. The project will involve personnel from the production, accounts and administrative departments and it has the support of the Union which has seen the need for the update and has decided to support it. Furthermore, the furniture required for the project has already been purchased and is ergonomically friendly. Lau and Kong (2006) say that constraints in a project can interfere with the goals of the project since it can cause undesirable consequences. They classify constraints into five categories; social, technical, environmental, legal and economic. Jacob and McClelland (2001) say that constraints involve uncertainty and they have are majorly concerned with three different and contrasting commitments the content, date and budget. The IT upgrade project is challenging since it involves several departments involved; administrative, accounts and the production departments. 34 per cent of the staff will be affected by this project. This requires that the project should be completed within the eight weeks set. The project will combine all the resources to perform the project planning. The rest of the supplementary management plans will be reviewed by the project leader subject to approval by the president of the company (the project sponsor). The plan is to work within the budget provided which is at £72, 000. The project will take phases to ensure that not all the departments are interfered with at the same time. This implies that should the project be working on the administrative offices in a particular week, then the following week will see the activities go to another department. Since the project involving a network of 79 work stations in the whole organization and it will affect different departments, the project team will be made up of a matrix and the member will be required to report to the project leader. The project manager is responsible for communicating with the rest of the managers on the progress of the projects. WBS As Ibrahim et al. (2008) observe effective definition and how the project has been structured has a bearing on the accuracy of the plan. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) as Ibrahim et al. (2008) explain is “a hierarchical representation of the work content, whereby the project is progressively subdivided into smaller units” (p. 389) Studies (Colenso, 2000 ; Rad, 1999) agree that WBS is the basis used to define work packages and it is paramount for the both planning and controlling projects. The WBs for the company software upgrade will comprise of work packages within 4-40 hours. This was agreed by the team members from all departments and the department heads as well as the president of the company. The WBS dictionary contains the definition of all work packages for this project. The definitions include the resources, tasks and deliverables. The manager of the project and his team define the impact on any changes that may be done on the schedule, scope, risks, cost and resource. The boundary condition for this project is CPI < 0.7or > 1.5; SPI < 0.7 or < 1.5. Any change that goes beyond the set deadline will require a forwarding of the change to the company’s president for review and approval. Should the approval be accepted, changes will be effected in the schedule and communication will be made to all the stakeholders as the change control process has been envisioned. Milestones The project will be two-phased. To make it a smooth process, every important requirement will be obtained before the installation and upgrading begins. Any delay should be noted and passed to the project leader so that the necessary adjustments are made to mitigate their effects in the process. The first phase will deal with the installation of the work the 79 work station for the networking around the organization. The second phase will involve the updating of the 14 standard off-the shelf software and the updating of the workstations for the six managers and their PAs. Milestone Description Date Complete Requirements All the softwares and the technician should be ready for the connection of the 79 work stations. The requirements should be purchased and assembled. Design and layout The two large open plan offices design should be already in place and he design for updating the 14 software as well as the mangers and PA workstations should be designed and its theoretical design and functionality laid out. Upgrading (Phase 1) The networking of the works stations and installation in plan offices should be finished Upgrading (phase 2) The updating of the workstations of six managers and their PAs and the updating of the 14 standard off-the shelf software. Testing The systems are tested of their functionality and the errors identified should be corrected. Transition Communication on how different departments use the upgraded software and how the whole network of workstations will work together. Completion Documentation of the report and how the project was run and closure. Project Budget: The budget for the software is at £72, 000 Risk Management Plan Hillson (2003) says that all projects are susceptible to many uncertainties that arise from different environments and complexity of a project. The internal risks receive a heavy emphasis since the projects will involve a lot of people and the processes may be complex since they are dealing with a stalling of the computer operations in three major departments. The risk management for the project will involve a process where the project team will identify, and rank the various risks involved. To avoid a stalling of the process after it has started, the team will do this early in time. High ranking risks will be added to the schedule to enable the risk managers to deal with the risks in time throughout the project life. The risk managers have to note all the steps they have taken and update the team in team meetings. The documentation will enable the team to foresee a similar risk that could occur in the future of the project and set the necessary strategy for mitigating the effects of the risk. This will also help similar future projects to envision the risks involved and the most appropriate ways of dealing with them. Critical Success Factors Ogueleka (2011) calls success factors the inputs to management systems that result either directly or indirectly to the success of the project. This project has several success factors. Key among them are project planning and control, people management and project personnel. Availability of the required tools, the support of management, and clear communication also play a big role as success factors. The knowledge of the team and their understanding of not only their roles in the project but also the upgrading process facilitate a smooth running of the process. Success is unanimously agreed on and errors are identified in time. Project planning and control requires not only a cohesive team but also an able project manager. The project manager’s ability to lead the team in the accomplishment of the project within the time limit with the available resources will reflect on the success of the project. As earlier noted the project involves 34 per cent of all company staff and involves three core departments. Therefore, people management is a factor that the project will take advantage of to deliver on the project. Furthermore ensuring that there is availability of all the tools required will facilitate the completion of the process in time. While the other factors are important ensuring the success of the project, cost management will go a long way in ensuring the process goes as planned. The ability of the project team to work within budget will reflect on the project outcome. Quality Management Plan Cocsis (2006) defines quality management as “creating and following policies and procedures in order to ensure the project meets the defined needs it was intended to meet” (p. 2). It ensures successful completion of the project with minimum or no deviations from the requirements of the project. This will involve the quality control, roles and responsibilities, quality monitoring and quality assurance. All the project team members are committed to play their respective roles in quality management. This requires that every member of the team understands and plays their roles as required. The president of the company is responsible for approving the quality standards in the different phases of the project. The project manager will be in charge of quality management in every stage of the project. A quality management plan has been set up by the quality managers in collaboration with the project manager. Furthermore, a formal process has been set in place to measure and accept the quality standards set. This will ensure that the project meets the expectations and requirements of the deliverables. In quality assurance, the project will ensure a strict adherence to the quality standards in every process of the project. The project manager will ensure that every process is followed to measure the quality according to the set and accepted standard. Every project has assumes that changes can be made in the course of the project, therefore, should a change be necessary, the project manager and the president of the company will approve the changes and the project manager will communicate the changes so that they will be updated in the overall plan. Communication and Information Distribution Plan Communication and information distribution plan involve the important components if project communications which include; communication planning, information distribution, performance reporting and administrative closure. Planning will involve the determination of communications and the information that needs to be given to all stakeholders. Planning answers the questions of what, when, how and to who the information will be given. Distribution will involve giving the information to the stakeholders on time while performance reporting will involve the different project team members giving the project performance information. According to Software Research (1996), this will involve “status reporting, progress measurement and forecasting” (Online). Administrative closure will involve the generation and dissemination of information for on the completion of the project. As the leader of the team, the project manager will lead the team in ensuring that there is effective communication throughout the project. Other members of the team will give weekly status reports to the team members, sponsor and other stakeholders through emails. The team will meet weekly and deliberate on pertinent issues and review on the project. There will be monthly project reviews which will involve the team members, project sponsor and shareholders. Technical design reviews will be conducted by the team when needed. An updated contact directory for all stakeholders will be kept to ensure efficient distribution of information. These processes will be headed by the project manager. Performance Report Plan Throughout the project, different members of the team will be reporting to the project manager on the performance of their various departments. After reviews, the project manager will give the final performance report which will synchronize the reports from all the team leaders. Closure Plan This will highlight the major transition for different project phases took and the activities that took place. Reviews will be carried out to ensure that all the processes were carried out as per the schedule, cost and within the set budget. This will be carried out by the project manager and his team after which the project manager will get the approval and decommissioning of the project from the sponsor. References Colenso, K. (2000), Creating the work breakdown structure, Artemis Management Systems. Hillson, D. (2003), Using the risk breakdown structure in project management, Journal of facilities management, Vol. 2, No, 1, pp. 85- 97. Ibrahim, Y. M., Kaka, A. Aouad, G. and Kagioglou, M. (2008), Framework for a generic work breakdown structure for building projects, Construction Innovation, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp 388-405. Jacob, D. B. and McClelland W. T. (2001), Theory of constraints project management, The Goldratt Institute. Available online: http://www.public.navy.mil/airfor/nae/AIRSpeed%20Documents/TOC%20and%20Project%20Management.pdf Kocsis, F. J. (2006), Project quality Management, Idaho Clean Up Project. Available on: http://www.eastidahopmi.org/11-15-06mtg.pdf Lau, E. and Kong, J. (2006), Identification of constraints in construction projects to improve performance, Proceedings of the Joint Conference on Construction, Culture, Innovation and Management, pp. 655-63. Murphy, M. and Heaney, G. (2011), A methodology for evaluating construction innovation constraints through project stakeholder competencies and FMEA, Construction Innovation, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 416-440. Ogwueleka, A. The critical success factors influencing project performance in Nigeria, International Journal of Management Science and Engineering Science, Vol. 6, No. 5, pp. 343-349. Rad, P.F. (1999), Advocating a deliverable-oriented work breakdown structure, Cost Engineering, Vol. 41 No. 12, pp. 35-9. Software Research (1996) Project communication Management, Project Management Institute, USA. Available online: http://www.softwareresearch.net/fileadmin/src/docs/teaching/SS05/PM/PMBOK10.PDF Read More