Project Review & Project Plan - Scottish Qualification Authority - Case Study Example

Project Review and Project Plan Name: Tutor: Course: Date: PART I Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) Case Study 1. Application of Project management theories in SQA The success of Scottish Educational Sector (SES) depends on the complexity of project management tools and planning techniques used. These techniques are essential for organizing and finishing project work so as to attain a fairer system for pupils. It demands comprehensive skills, and effective knowledge to execute. The objective is to have a unified system that assesses, certifies and balances external and internal coursework and examinations. The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) project managers ideally study diverse theories prior to choosing a strategy to execute the Higher Still system. The project manager will employ these theories in people management, and technological processes administration. An organization experiencing financial hardships, dismal performance and adverse conflicts demands management concerns. Theory of constraints was invented by Eliyahu Goldratt the in the early 1980s to assist organizations make decisions on what to change, point out desirable new situations and help trigger change. The theory of Goldratt focused on fixing the principal problems and improving overall performance Quality planning and SQA tools and techniques A traditional phased approach and PRINCE2 will show a sequence of procedures to be completed. The approach identifies five traditional developmental elements of APS project. Ideal development stages of SQA-IT Project the Awards Processing System (APS) software will entail the following steps. 1. APS Project start up 2. Initiating the project 3. Directing the project 4. Controlling a stage 5. Managing stage boundaries 6. Closing the APS project Quality at every phase of the project will ensure overall project quality. In ensuring that the APS deliverables meets the minimum requirements, then the project manager shall employ the principles of Quality Management Process. All the deliverables such as merge of data sets existing in SEB and SCOTVEC, development and design of information system to process new qualifications, training schools to meet new qualifications, and the delivery of 1998 and 1999 examinations using legacy systems. This includes implementing Quality Control and Quality Assurance techniques that plans, improves and controls the levels of quality within the APS project. The manager can set quality targets, undertake reviews on quality and execute measures to raise the overall level of quality of the project deliverables. Total Quality Management Effectiveness in improving quality means that Total Quality Management (TQM) ought to be supported at all phases of the APS project. This starts from the highest organizational position to the lowest-level hourly project staff. TQM goes beyond the definition of quality to all organizational functional areas such as marketing, production, finance, and information systems. The process starts by feeling clients’ wants and needs and then supplying goods and services that satisfy these desires (Milosevic 2003). It extends the definition of the client (SQA) to constitute any individual inside or outside the organization to whom a project staff passes the anticipated work. In the APS project, for instance, the systems customers are the designers and system administrators. This notion motivates each member of the project to remain focused on quality and stay aware of his or her input to it and roles for it. The milestones to be achieved are authorization of centres and course provision. Others should be entries and registration of candidates. Entries and results of units will be posted. The philosophy of total quality management focuses on teamwork, improving customer satisfaction, and reducing costs. Organizations execute TQM by motivating managers and employees to pool resources across project departments and organizational functions, as well as with customers and vendors, to show areas requiring improvement, even if it is small. Project teams are empowered and trained to give decisions that assist the organization attain high quality standards. Organizations transfer responsibility for control of quality from expert departments to all staff (Martin 2002). Therefore, total quality management (TQM) refers to a shift to a decentralized approach from bureaucratic control. The benefits of an effective TQM program are numerous. Financial benefits comprise reduced costs, huge returns on sales and investments, and the capacity to charge higher prices. Additional benefits improved access to world markets, higher customer levels of retention, less time needed to develop new creativity and innovations, and emerge as a quality firm. Few projects apply TQM because executing an effective program entails much money, time, effort, and patience. Nevertheless, projects with the essential resources may get significant competitive advantages in their industries by executing TQM. Ishikawa diagrams When applying a team approach to solving problems that forced the designers to crash their testing time to zero. There are several opinions as to the causes of problems such as lack of time scales that delayed the system go-live. One of the ways to include these diverse ideas and inspire brainstorming by the team on root causes is the diagram on cause and effect, normally termed as a fishbone. Typical categories include things like methods, people, materials, machines, measurements and environment. After the diagram is initiated, the team will analyze the results and confidently establish the real cause of the happening. Five Whys. The five ‘whys’ is a technique that questions “why” frequently so as to identify the cause of a problem. This technique can be used together with the fishbone diagram technique. This is a highly effective and easy facilitation tool. Many project teams modify their use of this tool by asking how instead of why or alternating the two terms. Often the cause of the problem is predictable before asking the five questions. Caution should be taken when using the Five Whys technique. The senior user ended up throwing a powdered sugar doughnut at the organizer, making a large white spot right on the front of the black suit jacket of the organizer.  2. Project planning methodologies Critical Path Analysis Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Analysis (CPA) are powerful tools that help APS project manager to manage and schedule the project. The techniques were developed in the 1950s so as to help control massive defence projects, hence gaining routine practice from those times. Similar to Gantt Charts, Critical Path Method (CPM) or Critical Path Analysis (CPA) assists project planners to oversee all tasks that ought to be completed as part of a project. They form the foundation for preparation schedule and resource planning. During the systems project management, the techniques allow easy monitoring and attainment of project goals. They help in identifying remedial action needed to get the project back on track. An additional advantage of Critical Path Analysis is that it assists the project manager to identify the minimum time length required to complete a project. Where the manager requires running an accelerated project, it assists in identifying the project steps to be accelerated to complete the project in the desired time. For the case of APS activity sequencing, the earliest start date is shown, length of time estimated to take, and if sequential or parallel. Sequential tasks alongside their dependencies indicated Task List: Planning the SQA-IT Awards Processing System (APS) project Task Earliest start (week) Duration (days) Dependencies Ownership A. Project initiation 0 7 - Drew B. Listing and Selection of hardware platform requirements 1 7 A Jane C. Installation and commissioning of hardware 1 and 2 14 B Mitch D. Hiring of project staff 1 14 A Drew E. Detailed analysis of core and supporting modules 3 14 D Bill F. Programming of APS prototype 3 14 D Lillian G. Programming of supporting modules 5 21 E Mitch H. Core modules quality assurance 5 7 F Anthony I. Supporting modules quality assurance of 8 7 G Du bois J. Training Core module and system design 6 1 C,H Dub bois K. Systems development and QA of registration reporting 5 7 E Drew L. Systems development and QA of management reporting 7 7 E Joyce M. Development of APS System 6 7 L Bill N. Detailed training of schools 9 7 I, J, K, M Lillian O. Commissioning of the APS system 10 2 N Gregory (SQA) In most cases, the Critical Path Analyses are presentations employing circles and arrow diagrams. These circles show project events like the start and finish status of tasks. The number appearing on the left hand half of the circle helps the project manager to identify each event easily. Circles are considered as nodes. Arrows operating between two event circles points to an activity required to complete the tasks. Task descriptions are written below the arrow. The task length appears above it (Heerkens 2001). By standard, all arrows go from left to right (Morgen 2003). Arrows are at times referred to as arcs. If one activity fails to start until another gets finished, then the arrow for the dependent activity starts at the completion event circle of the prior activity. In the APS case, the activities of “List Hardware requirements” and 'Hiring of Project staff' cannot begin until 'Commissioning of Hardware' has been completed. This diagram also introduces a number of other crucial points. Crash Action is necessary where the project manager needs to complete the APS project before the estimated Critical Path Analysis completion time. In this case, the project manager will need to re-plan the project (Heerkens 2001). There are a number of alternatives that need to assess project impacts of each aspect like project time, cost, quality and needed to complete. For instance, the project manager increases resource availability for every project activity to reduce the time spent on each although the impact of some may be inconsequential and an efficient way of carrying out this is to consider those activities on the critical path. In some circumstances, shortening the initial project critical path leads to a divergent series of activities engendering the critical path (Milosevic 2003). For instance, if activity 4 to 5 were lowered to 7 days, activities 4 to 8 and also 8 to 6 comes to the critical path. PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) PERT is a method used in analyzing the tasks that are involved in order to complete a given task or project, especially time required to accomplish every task, and to identify the least amount of time required to complete the total project. PERT was designed primarily to ease the planning and scheduling of complex and large projects. It was designed specifically for the U.S. Navy Special Projects Office in 1957 to give support to the U.S. Navy's Polaris nuclear project. It was able to incorporate uncertainty increasing the possibility a project while not knowing exactly the durations and details of all the activities. It is a technique more of an event-oriented rather than start- and completion-oriented, and mostly used in projects where time is a factor rather than cost. It is applicable in large-scale, complex, one-time, non-routine infrastructure and Research and Development projects. PERT is essentially the variation on Critical Path Analysis that considers a slightly a cynical dimension of estimates of time created for every project stage. To apply it, shortest possible time of each activity is estimated, and the most likely length of time. Also considered is the longest time taken if the activity takes longer than anticipated. The formula below is used to compute the time to use for the APS project stage APS shortest expected time + 4 * most likely time + longest expected time ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 The formula above helps to bias estimates of time away from the idealistically short time-scales ordinarily assumed. 3. Managing supplier and procurement relationship in SQA project A significant component in the capacity to optimize the success of the company’s sourcing process is yearly savings attained by strategies for lowering procured cost or averting costs (Heerkens 2001). In this project, yearly spending budgets are set. It demands that SQA procures services and materials at a reduced cost than the prior years or demanding that the project or organization manages the demand for a particular service or material (Milosevic 2003). For instance, a goal of attaining a 5% reduction in spend by procured cost reduction includes avoidance of cost strategies like global sourcing, consolidation by volume, rationalization of part, and improving compliance controls. In the Procurement Management process, three steps are involved like Issuing of Purchase Orders by identifying procurement items (Anand, Ward and Tatikonda 2010). The project manager will need to review the Procurement Plan so as to identify items to be obtained from external suppliers. The Purchase Orders created of which the document containing the Purchase Orders for supply of the project items are listed. Their internal approval before to distribution is also obtained. Finally, the Purchase Order is issued. In the case where each Purchase Order is delivered to the appropriate Supplier, definition of an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) is done upon receipt of services or materials. These provide the probable timeframe for requested items delivery to the project. It is expected that suppliers fulfils the Purchase Order of the received Items. Upon receiving the issuance of an ETA and Purchase Order, suppliers fill out the order by delivering the items for the project. The items are taken to the chosen location and established by the project as having received (Project Management Institute 2010). The items are also reviewed by the procurement Manager to assess and determine whether the item satisfies the Purchase Order description. The assessment involves a series of reviews or physical inspection in ensuring that purchased deliverables are on time, cost and to the required level of quality. Similarly, issues are resolved if the review makes a conclusion that one or a number of the stated requirements appearing in the Purchase Order have not been fulfilled. The Procurement Manager raises and rates an issue in terms of impact and severity. The Project Manager leads the issue resolution with the Supplier. Again, accepting the items only happens after resolution of any delivery issues. He or she accepts the materials or goods on behalf of the project team. Payment approval is when supplier gives an invoice to the project asking for payment. The invoice approval and payment are made in terms of the complete contract for procured items. Managing supplier contract happens through identification of milestones. The initial step in management of supplier’s performance is the initiation of a formal review which assesses the suppliers’ performance. This should happen every time a milestone is attained in the contract. Performance is assessed through review of suppliers’ performance. This determines the possibility of items delivered meeting the contract terms (Project Management Institute 2010). Performance issues are identified if any deviations from the contract are identified, then a formal issue is raised with the supplier. Performance issues are resolved by project teams and the supplier by negotiating a satisfactory panacea to the issues raised, and approval of milestone in the contract. By taking these phases, the project manager is able resolve most of the supplier relationships issues through closely managing performance. This increases the likelihood of attaining project success. 4. Managing stakeholders in the APS project The SQA stakeholders are; Secretary of state for Scotland, Scottish office education department, Education authorities, Scottish further education unit, Scottish consultative council on curriculum, Her Majesty’s inspectors, and schools and colleges. Teacher on the project is determining those with a vested interest in the project. Individuals may want to succeed as anybody with not interest to prosper. Some stakeholders are external to the organisation such as government and third party providers. The exercise to identify is not done in a vacuum not carried out as an individual. It requires team work. Nominating teams and groups is through identification and picking someone key person (Project Management Institute 2010). Careful choices avoid key people from nominating themselves thus making project roles easier. It is preferable to work with people who seriously admire to participate than those who are dragged into the project. These are people who will employs to backward communication channel to their group or teams. Feelings start from analysis of attitudes of individuals identified as the key stakeholders. The named persons representing each stakeholder team contacts and explains to them project. Bringing them onboard and attending project meetings are essential as they help in understanding the feelings about the work currently in progress. The stakeholders should support the project and deter conflict of interest or ambivalence. This team or group is the most difficult in effective management (Cua, McKone, and Schroeder 2001). The original stakeholder analysis will be accomplished. Observation happens by establishing the positions of these stakeholders in relation to the project so that their attitudes can be influenced. The intention is to monitor people over time, and assist them achieve a positive approach of thinking that aids them in achieving their goals. It is good to keep a close eye on people opinions and beliefs as they swing between negative and positive over the project life. Never enough is a one-off analysis exercise. There has to be continuous monitoring of how people manage and react. Review is crucial since job roles and people change. Projects also change. The individuals putting themselves forward to represent the design team eight months ago cannot be the appropriate person today (Phillips 2003). Noticing that peoples influence are less inclined to come to meetings or slipping away, or failing to respond to e-mails communications then their attention of involvement should be demanded. Briefing a new stakeholder representative on their responsibilities, roles, and decisions in the pipeline influences decisions expected of them in the future (Cua, McKone, and Schroeder 2001). The final step is to manage and monitor the stakeholders and their project progresses expectations. They should not be mere outset and needed to handle something in the project. Memorizing provides the key stakeholder representatives quick communication and keeping them up-to-date. A good relationship should be established to last over many projects. Future personal helpline after the project completion ensures sustenance of knowledge for those with operational responsibility. 5. Project management tools and technique review Project management techniques and tools are essential when taking a project over control to carry out project’s plan, impel project plan performance, and verify the principal job milestone parameters. Operating with enough resources enables effective implementation of the project. The most common nowadays are computer-based PMT methodologies and tools permitting managers to remain in the centre of activities while easing supervision for everything taking place within the assigned area. Indeed software and tools are a winning integration allowing a drive of renowned project management tools techniques. The new PMT platform provides promising opportunities for project managers. Considering areas with a special project management attention, cost and time trade-offs allows managers to decide on some project trade-offs (Project Management Institute 2010). Appropriate changes are applied to the practical actions, project resources, scope so as to make the project faster and cheaper. Special PMT techniques help managers to operate with practical tasks and resources with regard to trade-offs. 6. Risk Management in the APS project The project will require internal and external risk identification, determination of their impact, frequency of occurrence and their mitigation measures. The summary is as shown in the table below. Risks Description Impact Occurrence L,M,H Degree of Impact L,M,H Action trigger Responsibility Response plan Difficulty in integrating data sources of SEB and SCOTVEC Delay in invitation of bids from specialist companies M H Brainstorm the delays Mitch A single solution to be achieved after implementation of Higher Still Limited know-how from employees Impacts on quality and delivery of the project L H Integrate SEB and SCOTVEC departments Drew Hire qualified employees Interference by ministers on the exam process Compromise on quality of examination M H Hold liaison meetings between ministers, SQA board chairman and chief executive Gregory SQA must stay distanced from the government Late delivery of test data and altered specifications by SQA Delayed recruitment of markers and exam printing H H Data entry to be prioritized Anthony Software suppliers to provide requirements on time Reference List Ahire, SL 2007, Management Science- Total Quality Management interfaces: An integrative framework, Interfaces 27 (6) 91-105. 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