Project Resource Management - Research Paper Example

Titus Rock Manickam Order No. 238625 24 August 2008 Project Resource Management Introduction The Managed Care Department has a well organized project in place. The budget is clear and the entire manpower required for the project along with time duration of each designated personnel, that is, the IT workers, are also provided in no uncertain terms. The cost of the Care Management System Software called Care+ is $450,000. Besides this, there are additional costs for servers, back up software for the servers, and IT workers. Details regarding the total costs are provided below:
IN $
QTY
UNIT COST
TOTAL COST
COST OF SOFTWARE CARE+
1
450,000
450,000
COST OF SERVERS
3
1,250
3,750
BACKUP SOFTWARE
3
1,500
4,500
1 PROGRAMMER
40 HOURS
91
3,640
1 DATABASE MANAGER
65 HOURS
91
5,915
1 PROJECT ANALYST
150 HRS.
91
13,650
1 OPERATIONS ANALYST
20 HOURS
91
1,820
1 INTERFACE MANAGER
20 HOURS
91
1,820
1 NETWORKING ANALYST
10 HOURS
91
910
GRAND TOTAL
486,005
A work breakdown structure of direct, general administrative overheads
The administrative overheads for the project are given below:
in $
1 PROGRAMMER
40 HOURS
91
3,640
1 DATABASE MANAGER
65 HOURS
91
5,915
1 PROJECT ANALYST
150 HRS.
91
13,650
1 OPERATIONS ANALYST
20 HOURS
91
1,820
1 INTERFACE MANAGER
20 HOURS
91
1,820
1 NETWORKING ANALYST
10 HOURS
91
910
TOTAL
27,755
A time-phased budget (based on my work breakdown structure)
According to my estimate, the entire exercise of installations of the software Care+, the servers and their backup software, and training of the hospital employees will take 45 days. The work will be carried out in two phases. In the first phase, the software installation will be carried out which will take 15 days. I have come to the conclusion of 15 days on the basis of the highest hours of work put in by one of the IT workers viz. the project analyst (150 hours). Assuming the IT workers put in 10 hours of work each day and work within under the supervision of the project analyst, the entire installation process must not take more than 15 days without weekend breaks. The budget for this phase is $486,005.
In the second phase, 12 hospital employees will receive training. The training time for each employee is 2 days, totaling 24 days (12 x 2) in all. Assuming the employees work on a 5-days week schedule, the entire training will take 24 plus 6 days, totaling 30 days. The extra 6 days consist of 2 days leave for each week, that is, Saturday and Sunday, which occur three times during the 24 days training schedule. There is no additional cost for this phase as training is provided to two in-house employees by the vendor. These two employees have been entrusted with the responsibility of training the other 12 employees. (Asta Teamplan)
Identify the major constraints and explain how the team prioritized them according to risk in determining the dollar amounts assigned in the budget.
The constraints and risks associated with computerization of the system normally arise due to systems breakdown which may be the result of a virus attack and confusion in the minds of the employees operating the system in the initial stages due to lack of confidence. Even after training, the employees may take some time to get accustomed to the system.
In order to avoid such problem, it is necessary to get the vendor provide two engineers who will stay on in the hospital premises for a couple of months after the software installation. They should be readily available to solve any problem the hospital employees may face. Obviously, the software will be under warranty for at least one year to ensure it is in good working order. After the warranty period, the software must be kept under annual maintenance contract. As the hospital will be using the software to store confident and important information, it is necessary to keep it in good working order at all times.
The computer must also have an antivirus program in place to keep it safe from virus and hackers' attacks.
A well maintained computer network, like any other gadget, can provide good, useful service for many years to come. (Project Management Tools and Resources)
Sources:
Asta Teamplan, Project & Resource Management Software, http://www.teamplan.co.uk/index.asp
Project Management Tools and Resources, Business Performance, http://www.businessperform.com/html/project_management.html
Project Resource Management, http://www.oracle.com/applications/projects/prm.html Read More