Project Management: System Implementation - Assignment Example

Project Management: System Implementation The objectives behind system implementation can be summed up as follows: Deployment - availing the new system to a set of users who are already prepared. Transitioning - that is, positioning continuous support and carrying out systems maintenance within the performing organization, Al Boom Tourist Village in this context. At a refined level of detail, deploying the system entails executing all the necessary steps to enlighten consumers on application of the new system, introducing the new system into operations, confirming that all the required data necessary at the beginning of operations is on hand and accurate, and verifying if all the business functions that interact with system are in proper functions. Changing over the system support responsibilities entails transition to a system support and maintenance from a system development mode of operation, with ownership transfer of the new system to the performing organization from the project team. What are the phases, activities and tasks needed to complete the project? (Work breakdown structure) The phases constituting the system implementation process entail preparation for implementing the system, deploying the new system and the change over phase to the performing organization. All the three phases include several key activities in the system’s implementation process. These are described below. The preparation for implementing the system phase includes all the steps required in advance to actually deploy the application. These steps can be narrowed to testing, structured walk through and hardware and software acquisition. Once the system has been designed and developed, it is subject to testing. The process of testing is aimed at ascertaining if the developed system bears any form of errors so that they are rectified. A structured walk through is more or less synonymous with the testing process. A structured walk through is a planned systems review by people who were not involved in the systems development. The objective of carrying out a structured walk through is to identify any specific areas in the system that requires improvement. It is part of a quality assurance process. Carrying out a structured walkthrough involves users and offers them an opportunity to give feedback on the newly developed system. Incidentally, it reduces the common cases of user resistance. Another activity within the preparation phase is on software and hardware acquisition. The newly developed system might require new software and hardware not currently installed in the organization. This implies that they have to be purchased and installed to facilitate a successful roll out. The process of purchasing software and hardware involves several factors; these are technical performance, costs, supplier reputation and customer reputation. The second phase of the systems implementation is the deployment phase. The purpose of this phase is to execute all the necessary activities required to install the new system successfully and avail it to the consumers. The deployment phase is the stage where all previous efforts are integrated in an effort to deliver the final system. It is also at this stage in the project where most coordination is required due to the variety and breadth of activities that have to be performed. A representative sample of key activities might include, an awareness campaign through staff and consumer training, installing the new hardware, the new system’s software configuration, activation of new responsibilities and job titles, and an entirely new operational enhancement structure aimed at providing assistance to the consumer among others. Whereas specific deployment tasks and activities should all be included in the project’s transition and implementation plan, consumer training ought to be done before practically by executing the new system operations in the actual environment. This will help the consumers to start getting acquainted to the new system, which in turn will enable them to ascertain the new system’s capabilities against their respective expectations. As the new system is activated, and the project team verifies that the system is running as per expectations, they may discover that there are some errors in the system’s functions. One of the key challenges usually experienced by project teams is to establish the root cause related to potential problems. Inconsistencies that are present within the data could be as a result of flaws in the system’s business logic or as a result of data that was fed in the system improperly. Similarly, the consumers’ inability to access certain features of the system could be as a result of hardware that was not configured properly. The third phase is the transition phase. The purpose behind this phase is to prepare the performing organization to successfully assume the task of supporting and maintaining the new system. In several organizations, the project team responsible for the long term support and maintenance of the system is distinct from the team that designed and developed the system. Usually, the two teams possess a similar set of methodological skills. However, the tasks linked to supporting an operational system are distinct from those linked with the new development. In order to enable this shift of tasks, the project team must offer those responsible for system support an integration of technical documentation, hands on assistance, and training to help them offer operational support to the consumers. The transition phase is just but a single element of the entire project transition and implementation plan, developed as part of the project management cycle. The project manager ought to carry out an assessment of the transition plan to reaffirm if all the aspects defined in the project have been completed successfully. The transition phase involves file conversion which entails converting the existing forms of files into a suitable format in tandem with new system when it becomes operational. File conversion activities include manually recording the existing data and files; transferring the recorded data to a special form required by the new system; inserting new data if any and updating the existing ones; transcribing the completed file into a storage media relevant to the new system; and verifying and validating the transcribed file. What are the key milestones of the project? Key milestones with regards to this project should entail formulation; that is, ascertaining the Al-Boom Tourism Village’s key challenges and how to address the same hence project identification. Subsequently, this stage includes identification and highlighting all the project activities. The process should then spill over to a resource analysis on all the project activities in terms of finance, personnel, machinery, and equipment. Determining a logical flow of all the activities is also to be achieved within this stage. Another major milestone to be achieved is scheduling. This stage involves drawing the project’s network indicating the different activities, events and their respective duration. It also entails stablishing each event’s earliest and latest event time and establishing activity floats for each project activity. The final key milestone related to this project is on implementation and control. This stage involves assessing the impact of delays in activity on the project. Incidentally, under this stage, evaluation is carried on the impact of time reductions on costs. This stage also entails evaluating the progress of the implemented system with a strategy revising the schedule to accommodate any changes that might surface. How long would each one of the identified tasks take to complete? (Estimate realistic task duration and work out task dependencies) TASK DESCRIPTION PRECEDING ELEMENT DURATION (Weeks) A Testing the system 3 B Structured Walk Through 3 C Hardware and Software Installation A, B 2 D Staff and Consumer Training C 3 E File Conversion D 2 F Change Over E 2 In total, the activities will take fifteen weeks to complete. Key resources required in completing this project The key resources include finance, personnel and material and equipment. These in relation to the project can be defined as follows: Finance: Availability of finance is necessary at the beginning all through the phased life of the project if any level of success is to be achieved. The flow of the project’s resources has to be planned in such a manner that the project’s activities should not suffer any draw backs or lag behind schedule. Personnel: A project’s successful implementation to a significant extent relies on how effective and efficient the personnel engaged in various activities of the project undertake their responsibilities. Material and equipment: To achieve a smooth implementation phase of a project, it is necessary to have a machinery, plant, and equipment. It is possible to establish the precise requirements and time schedule of a specific activity from the project’s chart and pair up with the machinery and equipment available so as to complete the project successfully. Assigning resources to tasks and complete the overall project plan to determine the final project duration TASK DESCRIPTION PRECEDING ELEMENT DURATION (Weeks) PERSONNEL (Project Team Members, Organization, Al Boom staff members, Al Boom Clients) MACHINERY AND EQUIPMENT A Testing the system 4 3 Electrical Equipment (Computer system) B Structured Walk Through 3 3 Electrical Equipment (Computer system) C Hardware and Software Installation A,B 2 1 Electrical Equipment (Computer system) D Staff and Consumer Training C 5 3 New System E File Conversion D 6 2 New System, Old System F Change Over E 4 2 New System, Old System What are the details of the project cost? (Cost of hiring people, hardware, software, telecommunications, development, services, stationary … etc) TASK DESCRIPTION COST ($) A Testing the system 6200 B Structured Walk Through 5700 C Hardware and Software Installation 1000 D Staff and Consumer Training 9300 E File Conversion 8000 F Change Over 7800 Personnel/Item Cost per unit/hour $ Total cost $ Project Team Members (15) 35 x 8 hours x 15 weeks 88,200 Machinery and equipment (Computer systems) 200 x 25 Units 5000 Stationery 500 Sundry Expenses 2000 What are the main risk factors that may hinder the success of the project? (Financial, technical, operational, cultural, political, or any other type of risk you may identify) Some of the main risk factors that may hamper successful implementation of the project include lack of commitment by top management; setting unrealistic deadlines; poor planning; conflict during the transition and implementation process; lack of critical resources; and change in prices of critical resources. Lack of full commitment by the top management could be key factor in hampering the project’s successful completion. This may take the form of denying assistance in areas of finance by the management, lack of co-operation during the project’s various phases, denying authority to carry out various activities attributed to the project, and so on. As such, it would be imperative that the project team ensures that the top management is made aware on the myriad benefits that come along with the new system and the importance of their commitment for the successful completion of this project. This could be done by means of seminars and workshops revolving around the benefits of the project, practical demonstrations, manuals, lectures, practically involving them during systems development, and so on. Setting unrealistic deadlines could also be a key area that may hinder the project’s successful completion. Setting unrealistic deadlines on the various tasks linked to the project could be a risk factor on successful completion of the project in that the project team might attempt to beat an unattainable deadline and end up making costly mistakes in the process. This in effect could easily derail the project’s cause and subsequently hamper the entire process. Poor planning is also a risk factor on the project’s successful implementation. Poor planning could have been done on initial schedule estimates, sequencing activities, financing the project, and so on. Poor planning can be caused by failure to ask adequate questions which consequently lead to failure in establishing inevitable challenges concerning the project. To avoid the chances of this risk factor propping up, it is necessary that a proper fact-finding analysis be carried out prior to designing and implementing the system. Conflict during the transition and implementation process is likely to arise based on the fact that during the process of system implementation, emotions among team members are bound to arise due to differences in opinion. This could hamper the process of a successful project completion as the conflicting team members could be disoriented towards then team’s key objective of a successful implementation. As such, it is necessary to address this risk factor by putting in place conflict management measures beforehand to ensure that incidences of conflict among project team members are appropriately contained. Lack of critical resources might hamper successful implementation of the project. For a project to be completed on time within resource constraints all the resources necessary to its implementation have to be available. Lack of any of these could slow down the process of the project’s completion or halt the process altogether. It is important that this issue be addressed before beginning the project to avoid any delays or stoppages on the same. Rise in price of critical resources could also hamper the process of a successful implementation as this could also culminate to lack of these resources. It is necessary to have financial provisions to contain any incidence of a rise in price of critical resources. What are the business’s tangible and intangible benefits? With the introduction of the new system several tangible benefits accrue to the business. The old system of making reservation was somehow cumbersome as clients either had to visit the facility physically which is costly and time consuming more so if a client originates from another country. The other method of making reservations not efficient as a reservation system ought to be - a client would fill a lengthy online document then be subjected to the waiting process with no guarantee if they would get a spot on the facility or not. This changes with the advent of the new system as the process is not only faster but also effective as well as efficient. The incorporation of a digitized calendar offers an opportunity to the client to properly plan for his or her holiday in advance. The previous system did not offer the online clients an opportunity to select their preferences on themes, styles and so on. This option is made possible with implementation of the new system. With the aforementioned changes, the business is guaranteed to amplify the number of clients it already has. This is brought about by the fact that the process of making reservations has been simplified - which makes it for easier for clients to make reservations irrespective of whether they are located locally or not. Another fact that could influence an increase in the number of Al Boom clients is the option that enables them to select their theme of choice. This is a unique option that gives AL BOOM an edge over its peers in terms of competition. An increase in the number of clients leads to an increase in business turnover. Incidentally, the increase in business turnover could be brought about by prepayments as a result of the online reservations. This ensures that as far as the clients are concerned, there no incidences of bad debts. Consequently, the business is able to cover all the business-related expenses which in effect ensures efficiency in business operations and service delivery. Another tangible benefit attributed to the new system is with regards to cost reduction. The old system was costly in the sense that those clients who visited the facility for purposes of reservations had to be shown around for them to make reservations of choice. In addition all their questions would have to be answered immediately. This implies that an extra number of personnel have to be on standby to cater for the clients who would like to be shown around the facility and to get clarification from the staff on issues pertaining to the facility. With the advent of the new system, a potential client is able to assess the options available regarding the facility and make any inquiries regarding Al Boom online. In effect, this would imply that the time that would have been spent showing them around the facility is redirected towards other activities of equal importance. Additionally, there would be no need for extra personnel to attend to these clients which in effect would lead to a reduction in operating costs. An intangible benefit accruing to the introduction of the new system is in terms of business goodwill. The changes introduced by the new system are to a significant degree inclined towards the client. This in effect markets the business on the platform of efficiency of services offered right from carrying out inquiries, making reservations, and receiving the services being offered by the tourism facility. Read More