Group Assignment

Project Management

Materials Management and Planning System

Names:

AMIT AGRAWAL (TP014919)MOHAMED MAIZ (TP015392)

DORCAS JORI TITUS (TP016390)

Assignment Title:MMPM Project Course AssignmentModule Code: CE00348-3-PMGTLecturer:

S. MOHANARAJAHIntake Code:

TP3F0812CSETable of Contents

Table Of Contents .....2

Introduction ...3

Management Summary And Assumptions ....4

Selection Of Methodology .6

Group Work - Amit Agrawal ...7

Integration Management ..8

Scope And Quality Management .11

References ....16

Group Work - Mohamed Maiz ....17

Cost Management .18

Human Resource Management ........20

References ....23

Group Work - Dorcas Jori Titus ..24

Risk Management .25

Procurement Management ...31

References ....34

Conclusion .35

Individual Journal Reflection - Amit Agrawal ........37

Individual Journal Reflection - Mohamed Maiz .....40

Individual Journal Reflection - Dorcas Jori Titus ......43

Appendix A - Project Charter ....46

Appendix B - Summary Of Budget .......53

Appendix C - Organizational Chart .....54

Appendix D - Department Information And List Of Equipment ...55

Appendix E - The Impact Category ...56

Work Load Matrix ......57

INTRODUCTION

Project management skills and selecting the right methodology is important to manage a project. This project requires saving a current project that is running out of time. The project team will choose an appropriate methodology and use that methodology to apply in the knowledge areas of project management to solve the current situation.

There are many problems occurred in current situation by the previous project team and we will need to categorise the problems into few types of management in order to solve it. Research will need to be done about various types of management.

This assignment as it base on real world problem, we learn to improve the way we think about the solutions and experience what kind of problems we might have to face in a project. It gives us knowledge and understanding about how the outside working life style would be.

Management Summary and Assumptions

Satyam is a leading global business and information technology services company, delivering consulting, systems integration, and outsourcing solutions to clients in 20* industries and more than 65* countries.

Satyam leverages deep industry and functional expertise, leading technology practices, and an advanced, global delivery model to help clients transform their highest-value business processes and improve their business performance. The companys 52,865* Associates excel in engineering and product development, supply chain management, client relationship management, business process quality, business intelligence, enterprise integration, and infrastructure management, among other key capabilities.

Satyam development and delivery centers in the US, Canada, Brazil, the UK, Hungary, Egypt, UAE, India, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia serve 690* clients, including 185* Fortune 500.[1] Recently the regional head office of Satyam in Malaysia has embarked on a new project which will assist the manner in which materials and services are contracted and procured within the various departments in the office. Previously this was manually done and delays were experienced in the service and contract selection, approval and award processes. It is aptly called Materials Management and Planning System.As the project progressed, it was meeting its high-level milestones for the first 9 months, and with 3 months left, it was now deemed as failing to meet its target dates, not doing what it was supposed to do and was unreliable. This documentation contains a revised charter and a recovery strategy to address those issues.

The cause of 6 problems was lack of proper project management methodology with appropriate processes. As project was failed and needs to re-done, steering commit has request us to get handle on this project by using formal project management methodology with appropriate processes so that it can solve the 15 problems which are mention in case study.Below are the assumptions weve made:

1. Project team is a loose matrix or Functional.2. The project procurement plan was used improperly, its being mix up with the Material department in the organization. According to our discussion Material department should lead the business case of the organization and should formulate it. But, as the procurement plan was in charge of it, it messed up the major case.3. The project payment system for procurement & the organization payment system are the same as the project is not a very large project and hence can be handled by the organization payment system.

4. Previous team estimated the time poorly and didnt do a critical path analysis.

5. Involvement of staff and other department were dynamically changing the requirements.

6. Previous team got fired due to their poor project management.

7. Our group are the manager above of the project manager of our company. We are a new team including the development team to solve the problem.

Selection of Methodology

Everyone in our group had a discussion of choosing between two methodologies which is PMBOK and PRINCE2. We have done some research about the two methodologies and after the research and our discussion session we decided to choose PMBOK as our development methodology.

The entire group members at last agreed on using PMBOK is because the management and knowledge area in PMBOK is more familiar to us. Since the project has only 3 months left, if we are choosing a methodology that we are not familiar with, it might affect the time we need to spend to understand the flow of the methodology. When we try to categorise the 15 problems into the knowledge areas of PMBOK and PRINCE2 methodology, we found out that PMBOK 9 knowledge areas are easier to be categorised and implemented than the 8 from PRINCE2.

PRINCE2 and PMBOK methodology, both starts with planning and after that planning goes to different processes. There are some similarities in both in terms of processes and knowledge area such as risk management, quality control, etc. The knowledge area in PMBOK is more suitable for us to categorise the 15 problems comparing to the 8 problems in PRINCE2. From our past experience in developing project, PMBOK methodology will be easier for us to implement as we got some experience in some of the type of managements. There are some dilemma occur when we are trying to categorise the problems using PRINCE2 so the entire group strongly suggested PMBOK as the methodology.

We as a team of three members each one of us as a Project manager has chosen PMBOK.

For categorizing the given problem we have used Project Managements knowledge area where all the problems possibly fit into the scenario.

Integration Management

According to the problem scenario faced, the project approval was not formally documented. Furthermore there was no clear designated sponsor for the project. The PC and server hardware technical specifications were constantly being changed to suit new or added requirements. And above all there is no evidence that a proper project management process was followed.

Assumptions:

The role, task and responsibility were not assigned properly to staff members.

Another important loophole was that the organization spent a huge amount of money without looking into the legal matters which was really important to meet changes.Project Integration Management includes the process required to ensure that the various elements of the project are properly coordinated. It gives the overview of the following major processes:

(Willian R. Duncun, 1996)Project Plan Development taking the result of other planning processes and putting them into a consistent, coherent document. Here, for having a good planning of project the well organized management process should follow, as there is no evidence that a proper project management process was followed. It leads to unorganized planning of the project. Moreover, the development plan was not coherently documented. There was no properly formal documentation which was approved for project initiation.

1. Project Plan Execution carrying out the project plan by performing the activities included therein. The main activity here was to sponsor the project. Though, project plan development was followed improperly which later on resulted in to wrong execution of project plan. The project was flowed wrongly from the scratch itself. The execution of planning couldnt take place because of undesignated sponsor. There was no clear structure of sponsors. So the activity which involved executing and processing the project plan leads to unsuccessful criteria.2. Overall Change Control coordinating changes across the entire project. Well the starting two phases of the integration management were not followed accordingly thus change couldnt control appropriately. The PC and server hardware technical specification were constantly being changed to suit new or added requirement. The major lesson learnt from this failure is that when a project is undertaken then the task and the responsibilities must be assigned clearly to the staff members and if the people are hired from outside the organization, then there should be clear definition of the roles and the responsibilities.There should have been a contingency plan for the case when the system didnt work out properly as its being constantly changed to suit new requirements. There should have been a monitoring of the performance of the system after the implementation and the necessary steps should have been taken when the things didnt work out well.

The steps should have been followed to accomplish the task:

Overview of Integration Management- taken from A guide to the project management body of knowledge, P 41

Now one thing we need to do as the project team is to make sure that the project is integrated into the workings of the company not only when it is being developed (allocation of resources and manpower to the project without negatively affecting the operations of the company or other projects) but also at completion by ensuring the project outcome actually does end up integrated into the company. A project charter has to be developed. A project charter is a document issued by senior management that formally authorizes the existence of a project and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. Share this with everyone you think may be affected (all stakeholders) so that everyone acknowledges the existence and importance of the project.

By creating the Project Charter, an analysis has to be carried out and understand the scope of the current status of the system and why was it a failure. This includes the project requirements, criteria, assumptions, constraints, and others which are related to the project and how each will be managed. Each specific are of the product requirements has to be documented. Through this the work breakdown structure can be prepared. Appropriate actions can be taken to have the project performed in accordance with the project management plan, the panned set of integrated processes and the planned scope. One of the most vital phases is to measure and monitor project status, and the processes.

Scope and Quality Management

Upon observing the critical factors required to ensure the success of the system, following factors were responsible to the scope and quality of project:

there was a weak business case the current network infrastructure needed a major upgrade to support the PCs and servers for the new system (see section VII)

Assumption:The project scope which covers the business case was not clear enough to ensure the deliverable of the project. And it results in incompletion of the project.

The network infrastructure which is the main factor to show the project size and its complexity under scope management was not upgraded to ensure its quality.

Problems and the action being taken:PMBOK as guide provides five major project scope management processes - Initiation, Scope Planning, Scope Definition, Scope Verification and Scope change control. (William, 1996)According to this, we need to elaborate the business case in order to meet the process.

A business case is a formal document which serves the following main purposes [2]:

a. The Business Case is used to obtain management commitment and approval for scope in business change, through rationale for the quality.

b. The Business Case provides a framework for planning and management of the business change.

The ongoing viability of the project will be monitored against the Business CaseThe purposes as stated above clearly addresses the problem stated in the case study. If the organization would have had a well defined business case then the problems mentioned would have not occurred.

Why business case?

Business case is an important document and ignoring it or taking it lightly can result in big disasters and blunders. One of the most recent examples of the project failure due to a weak business case is the failure of the project ADVISE [Richard L Skinner, June 2007] which was under U.S Department of Homeland security. The managers for the project did not write a formal business case and apparently they didnt define scope properly and spent $42 million on a gut feeling without a business plan.

Thus it is evident that the business case carries a lot of stake with it and thus a well defined business case can really help the project managers to refrain themselves from committing big blunders and errors. Here comes the project charter. If project charter is formally documented by fulfilling its era such as project sponsors, project description, project requirements, project justifications, milestones etc it can lead to strong business case. Project charter mainly covers following area thoroughly shown in the diagram:

Further down on the list of problems indicate that, at a later stage the project team found out that the current network infrastructure needed a major upgrade to support the PCs and servers for the new system (section VII). Based on the scope of the project, it is clearly evident that there was a major miscalculation on part by the development team. Addition of 360 PCs and 2 new servers, coupled with added software that would need network resources obviously requires a major upgrade to the network especially if the current network consists of slow components such as Network Hubs. In any case an addition of new PCs would require additional hardware to connect them to the network with added bandwidth issues that may be needed to solve. Hence the whole scenario suggests that resources are not adequately calculated. The project team should have included upgrading the network as part of the project scope. Possible reasons it was omitted could have been that a WBS was not formulated and the project team was not familiar with such projects.

Another major problem faced in management of Scope is the scope creep evident from the fact that requirements were constantly changed. Two major problems identified were that proper scope control procedures were not adopted and the organization structure being not a projectized (as indicated by that the project manager does not have enough power) also contributed to make it very difficult to control the scope as the project manager was constantly overridden by managers of individual departments.

Remedial Actions

Formulate a project charter and redefine the scope of the project which includes the weak business case and the upgrading of the network as well.

Implement Scope verification and controlling techniques which the project lacks at this point as per PMBOK guide on section 5.4 and 5.5.

Overview of Scope Management- taken from A guide to the project management body of knowledge, P 48

Scope verification

Scope verification includes formalizing the acceptance of the project scope by the stake holders (Willian R. Duncun, 1996). It requires reviewing the work product to ensure that all were complete and satisfactory. This needs to be duly signed by the company manager to formally approve the project and to clearly identify the project sponsor as the Materials Department.

Key procedures to be implemented for scope verification:

1. Inspect the work already done, and formally document what is being done and what needs to be done.

Scope control

A proper scope control procedure needs to be adopted. This will ensure to identify when scope changes are required and possible impact on the project and the final finished product too.

Key procedures to be implemented as per PMBOK guide.

1. Scope change control system which includes a framework of paperwork, tracking systems, and approval levels needed for a scope change to occur. This would work in conjunction with the reorganization of the project team.

2. Performance measuring techniques such as trend analysis, variance analysis or EVA (earned value analysis) to assess the impact of scope changes.

Reference

[1]. Unknown, ud, Company profile retrieved on February 20, 2009 from

http://www.satyam.com/about/about_us.asp[2].unknown, ud, Business Case retrieved on March 22, 2009 from

http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documentation_and_templates_business_case.asp.

Richard L Skinner, June 2007,ADVISE could support intelligence analysis more effectively, retrieved on March 23, 2009 from

http://www.dhs.gov/xoig/assets/mgmtrpts/OIG_07-56_Jun07.pdfWillian R. Duncun, 1996, A guide to the project management body of knowledge, Project Management Institute

Cost Management

Cost management of the pervious project was not efficiently executed. As we know from the introduction of this project that the necessary funds were allocated for a 12 month period. But as 9 months passed the project was already running out of funds, while so many costs were pending. Such as the hardware and software which were still being negotiated, and network upgrade for the new systems.

If proper cost calculations were done for tasks and resources calculated earlier in the project and by chance if there were funding issues, it should have arisen at the end of 12 months, not after the end of 9 months.

The fact that two of the main costs have not been covered indicated that the funds were not adequately calculated and proper cost controlling procedures and techniques were not enforced throughout the project.

Considering all facts, the project needs to allocate resources for the new systems and additional hardware which is needed to upgrade the network infrastructure. Hence a new estimate for the next 3 months is needed and it requires imposing of an adequate cost controlling procedures. This costing must comply with the resources needed and the new organization structure attached in the appendix.

Remedy Solutions

A Work Breakdown Structure should be produced from which cost and recourses can be adjusted. The adjusted estimates have to include outsourcing the development effort as per the new project team is put together. This should also include formerly unaddressed costs such as network upgrading. Based on the estimates a financial plan is formulated (attached in appendix B) that needs to be obtained for the next 3 months to successfully finish the project on time.

Enforce cost controlling procedures using tools and techniques as defined by PMBOK guide section 7.4.

Overview of Project cost management - taken from A guide to the project management body of knowledge, P73

Key actions include.

Adopting a cost change control system which includes a framework of paperwork, tracking systems, and approval levels needed for a cost change to occur.

Performance measuring techniques such as trend analysis, variance analysis or EVA (earned value analysis) to assess the impact of cost changes.

Human Resource ManagementManaging human resources is often overlooked in projects. It needs to identify the people to do the job, defining their roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships, acquiring those people, and managing them as the project is executed. PMBOK methodology mentions that these skills are necessary, but does not attempt to document them. These are the important skills that a project manager should have, to be able to lead the team well.

In the previous project the project manager changes frequently hence no person was assigned to take the responsibility of the project manager. This indicates that there was no clear organizational structure to manage the project. This is the one of the major problem which might lead to project failure. This is occurred due to lack of leadership and planning.

Project team members were assigned without following any standard procedure. The tasks of the team members were assigned without identifying their capabilities. There was no communication between the team members. The team members were given the choice to do whatever they wanted to do. This gave the wrong impression that the department heads felt that their department was the most important user of the system and focused on their needs only.

A project manager should be able to make decisions. The project leader should be able to give proper guidance to team members. The project team should understand clearly the objectives and goals of the project. Roles and responsibilities of each member of the group should be clearly documented. But no evidence of this was found. This indicates that the project managers authority was constantly overridden by the department head /Mangers. It is clear that management has failed in hiring right person to the right position.

There are people lacking with required capabilities such as technical skills especially lacking in the network and security areas. Lack of communication between the senior management, team members and the stakeholders is one of the reasons of failing the previous project. To overcome the above mentioned problems, special focus needs to be given to Human Resource Management.

Remedy Solutions

Handling people in a team is not easy as they may have their own personal skills and some of them might not be able to work well as a team. One of the processes in project human resource management is to make most effective use of the people involved with a project. There are three major processes we need to take note in human resource to prevent the current problem occur again which are organizational planning, staff acquisition and team development. If these three aspects are handled well, the project can progress smoothly without major human resource issues.

According to PMBOK, an organizational structure will influence the project. As a project manager, he/she must be given a certain level of authority to ensure that he/she can control the team. The table below is an organizational structure about project manager.

(Organizational Structure influences on Projects- Taken from A guide to Project management Body of knowledge, P18)

To encounter the current human resource problems, we will start with the organizational planning. First thing we will do is to create the organizational chart. Remedy solutions will be applied to this organizational chart and it will help in managing the project in the next 3 months. This chart will state our project managers and the people or departments working under them. This will prevent the authority of the project manager being overridden by the departments head. The project team is projectized and he/she will have the most authority to manage his/her department. All the department managers will be working under the project manager so this will ensure that the project managers authority will not be overridden by any department managers. When there is only one person who has the full authority to be in charge of the department, all decisions will be made by the project manager so there will be no conflict of authority occurring. The project manager will be chosen by us and he/she will choose the team of people who will be working under him/her as a department. We will try our best to get the best combination from our previous working experience as a team, to develop a good team to complete the project in the remaining time.

With the organizational planning, we can prevent authority overridden and the department heads will not feel that their department is the most important department because we are assigning the tasks in the work definition and assignment process. Each department are equally important and have their own type of tasks, none of them are special from each other.

Staff training comes under human resource management. Hence as for the lacking of technical skills in network and security area, we will provide them a 3 month course to train them up in these particular areas. We will get lecturers to train the staffs simultaneously with the progression of the project; they will be able to learn up most of the things in 3 months time.

REFERENCES

Books

Willian R. Duncun, 1996, A guide to the project management body of knowledge, Project Management Institute

Kathy Schwalbe, 2000, Information Technology Project Management, Course Technology.

Websites

Dr. Paul Dorsey, 2000, Top 10 Reasons Why Systems Projects Fail [online], Dulcian, Inc., Available from http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:sMsARAV8yrQJ:www.dulcian.com/Articles/Dorsey_Top10ReasonsSystemsProjectsFail.pdf+%E2%80%98Top+10+Reasons+Why+Systems+Projects+Fail%E2%80%99&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=my [Accessed: 25th May 2009]

Risk Management

The risks associated with the project, although documented, had no detailed action plans and were not categorized in terms of impact or severity.

Proposed Solution

According to Clifford, Erik (2008), Risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has positive or negative effect on project objectives. Any decision that we take generally carries some amount of risk, and as such may result in a gain or loss for us. Risk taking entails making a choice; it actually involves some level of change of some sort, like a change in place, a change in profession and change in opinion. The same is applicable to project, as it also entails strategy.

Reactive

Proactive

Reactive strategy waits till the problem occurs before it is been applied to tackle the problem. That is to say, when the problems crop up, the team members goes into action and takes the initiatives to solving the problems.

Some of the threats inherent here basically is the lack of technical skills observed in the network and security areas. The material management and planning (MMPM) system is a project of 12 month, but in the course of that 12 month there were a lot of incompetent team members reflecting from the inconsistency being exhibited. The firm never accounted for the fact that any may leave, it simply took the continuance of the team members. However some of the team members left the company and invariably the project without any giving prior notice. In such a situation, the entire burden falls upon the very few remaining crew. Due to the shortage of time, the company might not be able to hire new staff immediately, and the project then suffers massive set back, abandonment or unnecessary delays.

Reactive strategy will mean hiring and training new staff after the earlier staff has quit. Had the problem been foreseen, the team members who plan to quit could be made to train the new staff before they leave.

Proactive means taking the initiatives before the problem becomes a menace. This strategy with respect to MMPM will mean acting in advanced, that is predicting that a problem may arise, and taking precautionary measures for it. Identification of risk may occur, therefore prioritizing them, and planning solution strategies to deal with these risks are part of proactive strategies.

RiskCategoryProbabilityImpactRMMM

Technology will not meet ExpectationsTE30%1

End users resist SystemBU40%3

Size estimate may be significantly lowPS60%2

Larger number of users than plannedPS30%3

Source:Aptech(2005),Software Project Management Fig 1 Risk Table

1. Risk Identification

Generic Risk

Product-Specific risks

2. Risk Assessment

Determine the average probability of occurrence for every risk component

Complete the risk table and analyze the results

Determined the impact for each component using the table in AppendixA

3. Risk Response

Contingency Plan ActivityProject ManagerSystem DeveloperTestersRisk Mgmt Team Members

Identify RisksMSJJ

Analyze RisksMSJJ

Plan Risk ResponseMJSJ

Take ActionMJJJ

Constant Risk ControlMJSJ

Legend:

P=Primary/Major responsibilityJ=Joint/Shared responsibility

S=Support/Involved

Work Breakdown Structure

With the Risk Management Plan (RMP), risk management will be systematic and easier to perform. The next step would be to identify the risks. As stated in the plan, it is very difficult to identify all the risks for the whole project at once. This is why the project should be broken down into manageable bits, and then the risks for each component can be identified.

The team members were able to identify some of the threatening risks with the help of work break down structure. Listed below:

1. Software Development

A. Investigation

No methodology

Data enter wrongly

Methodology was applied wrongly

B. Users requirement were not met

Poor requirement documentation

Lack of communication between the user and the developer

2. System Design, Requirements Gathering & Implementing

Design not Friendly and poorly documented

3. System Building and Coding

Codes were not developed well

4. System Testing & Test Plan

Test Plan incomplete and was not properly followed

5. Hardware Implementation

Hardware failure(wrong Configuration)

6. System Installation

Installation and verification

These are basically the identified threats, which were just identified and no action were taken by the previous team members. The next step is to analyse the seriousness of each risk in order to prioritize them. Risk prioritization is based upon the concept of risk exposure,risk exposure is determined using the relationship:

RE =P*C

Where:

RE= risk exposure

P=Probability of occurrence of risk

C-cost to the project should the risk occur

Risk identification only 70 percent of software component for scheduled for reuse will be integrated into the application, remaining functionality will be custom developed.

Risk probability 80% likely

Risk impact 60 reusable software component were planned. If only 70 percent can be used, 18 component would have to be developed from scratch (in addition to other custom software that has been scheduled for development) since the average component is 100 LOC, and the local data indicate that the software engineering cost for each LOC is $14.00, the overall cost impact to develop the component will be: 18*100*14 = $20,200

Risk Exposure = 0.80*25,200~$20,200

Risk exposure can be computed for each risk in the table in fig1, once an estimate of the cost of risk is made. the final estimate MMMP can be adjusted once the total risk exposure for all risk (above the cutoff in the risk table) is calculated

A risk referent level must be defined for risks based on performance, cost, and schedule.and support. A risk reference level has breaking point or reference points, which indicate whether the project may be continued or terminated.

After a careful identification of all high threats to the project, an effective risk Response can be considered:

Transfer: This option would involve insurance thereby making the insurance company responsible for the consequences of any such identified huge threats.

Contingency plan: This would be the primary option the project manager and team would employ as it has specific actions that would be taken for potential problems identified with this failing project. This step comes into picture when risk avoidance has failed and risk has become a reality.

The teams contingency plan would address system planning for every critical system and also include specific trigger dates i.e. implementation dates while including alternative solutions to critical services provided by outside parties. Consideration would also be made for system compatibility and alternate systems provided. Project staff issues would also be addressed as well and alternate solutions derived.

After carrying out the risk analysis and management exercise, the team would carry out regular reviews as these would involve formal reviews of the risk analysis, testing systems and plans appropriately

The project manager and team would manage inherent variability by acknowledging and accommodating the possibility of risks through recognizing, evaluating, estimating, and communicating its existence to management and other stakeholders as appropriate.

Project Procurement Management The hardware and software delivery was still being negotiated while there were only 3 months to complete the project

It was generally felt that the in-house developed system was not very different from vendor developed software, e.g. SAP PROJECT PROCUREMENT MANAGEMENT SolutionProject Procurement Management is the process that acquires goods and services from external suppliers. Base on the case study, the previous team members were still negotiating the hardware and software and they had just three months to complete the project. Complication occurred because the PC and server hardware technical specifications always changed to suit the new and added requirements.

Secondly, it was generally felt that the in-house developed system was not very different from vendor developed software, e.g. SAP

Due to time constraint developer has decided to apply some sort of critical analytical concept, the developer has decided to request for the PC and Server specification to suit the new or added requirements for future. Project Procurement Management is the process that acquires goods and services from external suppliers. Base on the case study, we notice that the current project are need large amount of hardware for different departments and the entire hardware and software delivery date keep postpone although it was negotiated for last few months. The problem occurs because the PC and server hardware technical specifications always changed to suit the new and added requirements.

With the higher specification quote from the supplier, when their is a need for upgrade ,the developer will just use the specification instead of buying and fresh installation of PCs and Server which will consume time and money.

Secondly, it was generally felt that the in-house developed system was not very different from vendor developed software, e.g. SAP.Introducing new software is not totally a bad idea, but looking at the time and sending the crew (Group member) for training is not a wise thing at this injury time, The project is already running out of cash. With procurement management, it will be able to effectively overcome the current problem.Procurement management will redefine the project scope statement and product description that know what exactly the projects needs, for instance the hardware and software requirement and a suitable server for the system

Secondly, solicitation planning that using the previous procurement plan and statement of work to produce procurement documents and evaluation criteria. Developer has to define a specification requirement and establish a deadline for supplier to ask for offers because the amount of hardware and software is already listed in the case study. The hardware specification is not only requirement for now but must support future use. The minimum requirement must be support up to 5 years to run the daily task. Within the 5 years must have a good after sales services such as warranty and services for the hardware and software. In current market, there are a lot of suppliers provide a good after sales services example like Dell, IBM, HP and etc. ((Rory Burke, 2000)

Next step is solicitation that uses the prepared procurement documents and chooses the qualified suppler lists. Now they have to request the quotation or proposal from the qualified supplier. Developer should request from different supplier to receive different proposal and compare the price and services that supplier will provide. They are not list the entire hardware specification for supplier but let the suppliers specialist team to purpose the best hardware requirement for different departments and developer going to consider it.

for purchasing the hardware and software. The contract is a mutually binding agreement which the supplier to provide the specified product and obligates such as after sales services, warranty, deliver deadline and etc. And they have to make sure the hardware have included 5 years after sale services. It is important if we found some problem to the hardware and the supplier will give a good after sale services.

With the contract, they can confirm the prospective supplier to deliver the hardware and software within the deadline given and check is the hardware requirements from us is same with the proposal. The supplier must include the invoice so that we can check on the price too. If developer unsatisfactory with the deliverable, they can request change of the product. If the project management team cannot agree on compensation to the product, they can claims, disputes or appeals to the supplier. If everything works fine and agree

Office of Information Technology Services(2006)More so, The Team members have decided to use the in-house developed system, due to time and cost constraint. Since the resources needed are not what can be produced in-house , the Project Manager is required to Make a buy decision which will require a list of the Suppliers and vendor list(all potential suppliers and vendors need to be identified and pre- qualified according to the product quality plan.). After which invitation of tender will be made (compilation of bid package for suppliers having all the information needed for the quotation). (Rory Burke, 2000)Finally, it to closing the contract which similar to administrative closures in that it involves both product verification and administrative close-out. The project team should determine the entire project was correctly and satisfactorily. Before close-out must make an audits to the procurement that was make is previous step and then prepare a complete final projects records. And the project manager has to responsibility to provide a formal written notice that the contract and requirement are all acceptable and the project has been completed.

ReferencesClifford .F, Erik W.(2008),Project Management the management process 4e, 4th ed,McGraw-Hill,Newyork.

Aptech(2005),Software Project Management,Aptech Limited, Mumbai.

Project Procurement Management, [online], Available from http://www.itworld2.com/pmpprocure.aspx [Accessed 25 May 2008

Burke R., 2000, Project Management Planning and Control Techniques, 3ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 3rd avenue, New York, NY.

PMBOK Guide, 2004, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge 3rd ed,Project Management Institute, Four Campus Boulevard, Newtown Square USA

Office of Information Technology Services(2006),Guidelines to Establishing a

Project Procurement Plan, State of North Carolina.

ConclusionProject management is a wonderful domain and the importance that it holds in terms of the success and failure of the project is immense. The six issues that were part of the case study made us touch various facets of project management and it was a great experience leaning to solve these issues using the project management tools and techniques.

The selection of the project management methodology was the first challenge and based our research we learnt how PMBOK methodology scored over other methodologies such as PRINCE2. We learnt how PMBOK has dedicated components for all the tasks and how they helped us to solve the problems by decomposing them based on these components.

The problems were discussed in the group and all the group members gave their comments. We had brain storming session for all the problems and it was really heartening to have that spirit in the group. We were really amazed to find out how even the small things can make a huge difference in project management. We are referring to the solution of problem of Scope Management. We never thought that a well defined business case could be so important in project management. A good formal business case is really important for the success of the project.

The infrastructure had also affected the scope of the project. The project team was mainly responsible for it. But by following steps of Project Scope Management processes, we were able to conclude the appropriate solution.

Another important aspect that we got to know through this case study is that only planning is not enough for a project. It is necessary to monitor and control that plan and also to re assess and re plan things after a time period. A consistent monitor and control strategy allows for finding the errors and flaws early and thereby allows for more time and flexibility to mitigate them.

Human resource management is an integral part of any organization. Great stress is laid on implementing an effective human resource system in an organization. There are lots of department in an organization that makes use of human resource to setup strategic planning and means to process officials assignments. The companies that do not have a proper human resource department suffer from official disorders and lack of management in office activities.The power of Cost Management is in its simplicity. Prioritization through effective communications leads to more effective use of resources. The result is higher productivity and ultimately, the optimization of IT processes. A standardized, scalable Cost Management methodology provides long-term, sustainable benefit to organizations across industries because it ensures that the tools, processes and desire are in place for high IT productivity.Procurement and the management of the entire supply chain have emerged from being sets of functional skills to being recognised as a driving corporate business philosophy - a profit creation centre, rather than simply a cost saving function.In this project there were high risks but no appropriate actions were taken. So we gave appropriate solutions to overcome this.

All and all it was a great learning experience for all the group members, we learnt many project management techniques and then we were able to apply them to appropriate tasks and issues. When we did the research for the solution we came across many astonishing facts such as reasons for failure of IT projects and also the amount of money that has been wasted so for in failed IT projects. These facts us made us feel special that we were learning project management and also it reflected how important project management was and how it could be used to save and rather successfully utilize millions of dollars that are invested in IT projects.

By following basic project management processes and by using a little bit of common sense many potential failures could be turned down and we are all set to do that now.

Individual Journal Reflection

Member name: Amit Agrawal

It was a good learning curve for me to work with my group members Mr. Mohemad maiz and Ms. Docras. We have never worked together before and thats why it was a challenge for all of us to come up with the goods.

The first major challenge for me was to set up a communication plan for the team to report to each other. We decided to report to each other after every fortnight and the members were given free license to consult with each other at any moment if there was some problem which needed immediate attention. It was also decided that in case of any queries that needed the attention of the faculty, it would be me who would meet the faculty to clarify doubts if there were any.

In our first meeting we just discussed the case study and looked at the requirements of the assignment was all about and soon we divided the problem areas among ourselves. Mr. Mohemad maiz and Ms. Docras wanted me to do the division part and that has been reflected in the workload matrix. This was really encouraging as the team members believed in my leadership and were ready accept my decision without any pressure. It was nice to get trusted by them.

We then sat together in the syndicate room of the institute and discussed the methodology that we were going to follow for the assignment. We all had researched beforehand about the methodologies and there were two suggestions from three of us and those were PMBOK and PRINCE2. We had a decent amount of discussion and while I and Mr. Maiz were in support of PMBOK, Ms. Docras was in favour of PRINCE2 but we pointed out a certain differences and familiarity about PMBOK and then we all agreed to it.

Then we all met to discuss the lessons learnt section and this was a real brain storming session. We discussed one point at a time and the my first issue was that of the scope and Mr. Maiz and Ms. Docras advocated that it was a clear case of integration but according to me it was not so. It was related much more to the commitment of the management and the scope area of the project and thats why I presented the concept of business case. Next problem under me was that to categorised those specifically defined 15 problems into 6 major categories. But Mr. Maiz gave one very important point and that was to categorized 15 problems using project management knowledge area. It was a good piece of observation.

In this project, I was responsible to solve the Scope, Quality and Integration management. Before I start provided the remedy solution to the problems, I started with doing the research from many of reference book in library and internet to understood what is scope, quality and Integration management and what information must prepare for that. I also tried to look up on some diagrams and business case example to support my documentation part.The best part which we have decided was that we had to research before any meeting as the agenda was set before and this helped in coming with some really reasonable suggestions. Every time we had something to show, something to support our work, our discussion. As a group we discussed every problem and suggested each other with number of solutions. To conclude I would like to thank Mr. Maiz and Ms. Docras for being so corporative, supportive and open minded throughout the project. Working with them during this project was an enjoyable experience and we have learnt many things from each other especially as the project is designed such a way that the same problem could be resolved in different ways based on the assumptions we made.

I also would like to sincerely thank Mr. S. Mohanarajah for his invaluable lessons and guidance given to us during the lecture sessions and especially in making the tutorials sessions enjoyable and interesting.

Individual Journal Reflection

Member name: Mohamed Maiz

This project is challenging in terms of finding a suitable methodology and the categorising the 15 problems into 6 categories and finding the solution for it. We need to find a suitable methodology that enable us to complete the project as good as possible in the remaining 3 months time and provide remedy solution for the problems occurred. This assignment is very important for me to complete, since in the future I can apply the project management skills in other projects and different areas in my life.

During the development of this project, I knew that the importance of project management and how it will affects the output of the project. There are a lot of aspects we need to look at in order to complete a project. First thing we need to choose an appropriate methodology. We are comparing PMBOK and PRINCE2. Dorcas supported PRINCE 2 while me and Amith supported PMBOK. After doing researches about the two methodologies, we had found out that PMBOK is the best suitable methodology to be implemented. Compared with PRINCE2, PMBOK is easier to be implemented and we are all more familiar with the managements inside PMBOK. This is where Dorcas agreed with us. Selecting an appropriate methodology is very important to any project. This is the start where we can based on the methodology plan and develop the project. Many projects have failed because they didnt choose and follow the right methodology.

After deciding to use PMBOK, I had read some books about PMBOK and some research on the internet to understand more about the methodology. After going through all the research about PMBOK, I learned that managing a project is not an easy task. I also learned that planning of the project is very important before executing the project. Planning is the most important aspect that will affect the whole project flows.

One of the key areas where we faced difficulties was agreeing upon where a particular problem would fit in the 6 knowledge areas of PMBOK. The problem definition gave enough room to think in different ways as it was not exactly clear how the initial 9 months work was carried out nor there were any documentation kept of the work as defined by the problem context. Therefore assumptions were taken on those unknown parameters to decide where a particular problem fits. And it goes around that if we had taken a different assumption the same problem could have been argued in a different perspective.

The problems that I solved are human resource management which is problems no 4, 5, 6 and 13 and the cost management which is problem no 11. In problems 4, 5 and 6 I found out that the organization planning is very important. The task assignment and organizational chart is really important to be developed so there will be no conflict of task and authority. The problem will occur when there are conflicts between the project team. Every individual will have different knowledge areas and expertise, it is not an easy task to identify and assign the right person for the right task and making all of them to work as a team.

While doing the cost management I figured out that prices keep changing all the time. They are never fixed. It can increase and at the same time decrease. We cannot predict what will happen in the market within 12 months. Hence we have to make some assumptions and we have to fix every deal we need to make as soon as we fix the budget. For example we shouldnt wait till the middle of the project duration to start purchasing the systems or software. We have to finish it as soon as possible while the prices keep constant as it is show in the budget.

This assignment is a group assignment and the group is selected by the lecturer. Luckily I knew one of my group members before this, nevertheless there is a challenge to cooperate with both of them to complete this assignment. We have good communication and we can work as a team to solve the problem. I would like to thank both of them and we enjoyed working as a team to finish this assignment. We used msn and yahoo messenger so that we can discuss online and share our opinion and the tasks wed done. Were not only working as a team in this assignment, but we also have built up our friendship during the development of the project. We had fun times and enjoyed working together so we never felt stressful in doing the assignment. Well at least not till the last minute.

As Amith said to conclude I would like to thank Mr. S. MOHANARAJAH for helping us, teaching us, and guiding us thorugh this project. And I would also like to thank my colleague CHEA VICHHEKA for he have made it so interesting arguments in our classes. Finally I am very confident by doing this project I have made it so easy for myself to do my upcoming project management exam. Thank you.

Individual Journal Reflection

Member name: Dorcas Jori Titus

The project was really an eye opener to a lot of things that will be considered to the developer as irrelevant in most project. The developer had a lot of experiences, and one of the experiences is working in a group. This group assignment gave The developer lots of new experience especially at the discussion part. At this part we did lots of discussion about the project and come out with a project plan with a possible solution which help us to finish the assignment on the time, even at the course of the discussion their were a lot of argument on the 15 problem areas, on how to digest and summarize it to six (6) Problems. The developer also came to realize how Team member could make project a waterloo by sheer negligence and irresponsibility. The major benefit of group work is the idea generation in the course of brainstorming as a group. As a group the MMPM project was achieved basically by breaking down the task to individual responsibility in other to make MMPM a success.

It took me awhile to comprehend the case study, while I embark on research trying to figure out what the project is expected of me and what project management is as a whole. A lot was learnt through thorough research and the concept of project management eventually made meaning as it was actually my very first experience and research into that field of study so the thrill and enthusiasm to probe deeper surged in and I managed to gather a lot of information within the scope of the case study before commencing work.

After carefully building my arguments through the assumptions stage to the choice of project methodology, I noticed some very clear similarities which raised doubts in my mind. The realization was that for the case study in question and most projects, the PMBOK guides nine project management knowledge areas complimented each other. This made finding optimum solutions to the stated problems quite a challenge as an issue which may be classified under a specific knowledge area by my group could possibly be included in another and the only difference would be the justification for including it under that knowledge area.One of the factors that the group members achieved by making this project a success is the constant communication amongst them selves, due to the time constraint and many other factors that could make it not a reality.My own personal experience as a developer, was basically trying to comprehend the methodology PMBOK and it majors Knowledge areas, and how to apply it to MMPM projects.

As a group of three the 15problems was merged to six problems, and was shared to each and every member of the group. Each of the group members had two of the problems to discuss.

The two problems given to me as a developer to use to come up with a solution as a developer, which will be a great favor to the crumbling projects, are basically:

Risk Management

Procurement

Using PMBOk as a guide methodology to use in handling such a problem and to give solution where applicable, PMBOk is use as a guide with a lot of scenarios on similar projects. The most challenging aspect of my problem area is the risk Management, which is one of the alarming factors of projects, most projects are not insured that is why when threats shows up, most projects will be put on hold and when they decide to continue the project, the projects becomes an old. And at the end of the day the money we were scared of losing, we will not only loss, but their will time wastage

I have gained a lot of experience about critical success factors for most projects, what causes project failures and how to revive ailing projects. Even though I acknowledge that there might be more scenarios out there that might require a totally different approach to them, the knowledge gained from this project would serve as a terrifying foundation for much more learning and experience in the project management world.

The attitudes of accidental project managers and their team members should be aligned to the success of the project by satisfying and delivering the needs and wants of the intended users of the system. Such a positive attitude would in turn influence the entire project and give it that boost it would need to propel the project team through the project lifecycle.

Project management as a career will be suggested to every individual who was to successful either in team work or in every aspect of our live, decision APPENDIX A -PROJECT CHARTER

Project Name: Materials Management and Planning (MMPM) Project

Document Version no: 2.0

Current Phase: 2 (Project Recovery)

Project Number: 04/2008

Project Sponsor: Materials (Contracts) Department, Satyam Corp.

Project Manager: Mr. Amit/ Mr. Maiz / Ms. DocrasDate: 03 January 2009Project Description

Satyam is a leading global business and information technology services company, delivering consulting, systems integration, and outsourcing solutions to clients in 20* industries and more than 65* countries.

Satyam leverages deep industry and functional expertise, leading technology practices, and an advanced, global delivery model to help clients transform their highest-value business processes and improve their business performance. The companys 52,865* Associates excel in engineering and product development, supply chain management, client relationship management, business process quality, business intelligence, enterprise integration, and infrastructure management, among other key capabilities.

Satyam development and delivery centers in the US, Canada, Brazil, the UK, Hungary, Egypt, UAE, India, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia serve 690* clients, including 185* Fortune 500.[1] Recently the regional head office of Satyam in Malaysia has embarked on a new project which will assist the manner in which materials and services are contracted and procured within the various departments in the office. Previously this was manually done and delays were experienced in the service and contract selection, approval and award processes. It is aptly called Materials Management and Planning System.

As the project progressed, it was meeting its high-level milestones for the first 9 months, and with 3 months left, it was now deemed as failing to meet its target dates, not doing what it was supposed to do and was unreliable. This documentation contains a revised charter and a recovery strategy to address those issues.Project Requirements

The project involves a system that will be used by 9 departments distributed over 18 floors of the building. The following requirements are identified for the project.

1. Development of Materials Management and Planning (MMPM) System was using in-house with existing staff from the company for the first 9 months. But based on the analysis of the problems, a new project team is brought in for the next 3 months.2. A central storage is required in order to store and access information to approve the various department services and contracts.

3. All employees must have access to this new system (access privileges will vary)

4. 360 new PCs are to be installed as per Appendix B.

5. 6 new servers are to be installed as per Appendix B.

6. Current Network infrastructure is to be upgraded to accommodate the new PCs and servers and the software being developed.

7. The cutover - (old manual system to new automated system) must be in parallel.

8. A software needs backup and recovery capability to ensure stability and integrity

Project justification

The new system will revolutionize the way in which materials and services are contracted and procured within various departments. With the development of the MMPM the Contacts department will be able to fully automate procurement processes such as contract selection, approval and award processes and at the same time monitor the procurement requirements of all the departments in the office while individual departments will have completely new tool with which they can communicate with the Materials Department in all matters related with procurement. MMPM will enable individual departments to track the status of their procurement processes, how far it has gone without much hassle.With the development of the new system delays experiences in the current manual process will be totally eliminated and the communication gap between the Materials Department and other departments will be minimized.

Project Manager Authority Level

The project manager has the support of the project sponsor for the following.

A Budget of RM 1,030,920.00 which includes the actual construction of the software, salary of the team members including overtime and equipment cost.

A total duration of 1 year, from the date of commencement of the project. The total remaining duration to complete the project is 3 months.

Execution of project after the project plan has been approved.

Direct and coordinate the work of the team members and schedule overtime hours if required.

Request services from all departments and coordinate activities to meet the deadlines and requirements.

Monitor schedule, cost and performance of MMPM Project.

Enforce adequate controlling procedures as described in the problem solutions.

Summary Milestones

Milestones have been divided into two phases. Phase 1 includes a high level milestones that are achieved in the past 9 months and phase 2 starts from where phase 1 ends and includes milestones that need to achieved in the next 3 months

Phase 1

Project kickoff0 days1/Apr/2008

Project team acquired2 days3/Apr/2008

Requirement analysis complete3 weeks24/Apr/2008

MMPM 60% complete69 weeks30/Dec/2008

Phase 2

Problem Scope identification and formulating recovery plan 6 days3-Jan-09

Takeover new Project Team2 days5-Jan-09

Procure 360 PCs, 6 servers, 2 backup devices, and networking devices required for upgrade including operating systems and software [procurement process start]1 month9-Jan-09

MMPM 90% complete56 days26-Feb-09

Upgrade the network infrastructure to accommodate the new software and hardware complete4 weeks2-Mar-09

Install PCs, servers, and the backup devices complete4 weeks12-Mar-09

MMPM software 100% complete (Beta testing stage)15 days12-Mar-09

Preparation of User manual complete2 weeks17-Mar-09

User training start2 weeks18-Mar-09

MMPM Data migration from manual system complete3 days21-Mar-09

MMPM parallel running with manual system and stabilizing start9 days24-Mar-09

MMPM official launch (Handover)0 days3-Apr-09

Manual system cutoff30 days1 month parallel running

Stakeholder Influences

Stake HolderInfluences

WTF consulting (PM 19) Plan and monitor the recovery of the project for the next 3 months.

Project ManagerExecute, and Monitor schedule, cost and performance of MMPM Project. Coordinate and direct work among the team member. (Refer to section on Project Managers Responsibility)

Unknown Vendor (yet to be determined)Supply the PCs, Servers, networking equipment and backup devices

Materials (Contracts) Department, Satyam Corp. (Project Sponsor)

Controllers (Accounting and Finance) of Satyam Corp.Finance the project according the finance and cost plan. Additionally release payments to project procurement processes through appropriate channels.

Project Development TeamExecute, and monitor schedule, cost and performance of MMPM project according the schedule and instructions from Project Manager.

All departments in Satyam Corp.Assist and corporate with the MMPM project team in the work related to the development of MMPM providing information where required.

Assist the project team during the testing phase of the MMPM system.

Functional Organizations

The new project team will includes a project manager and 9 team members grouped in four departments. The four departments are the procurement, development, training and installation department. All of 10 members will be working in Satyam Corp. for the next 3 months to complete the project. All the department staffs will be reporting to the department head and all the department heads will be reporting to the project manager.

Business case

Materials (Contracts) Department, Satyam Corp needed a system to manage the way in which material and services are procured. The system being developed is tailored to the exact requirements of the company allowing the software to fully integrate, helping to meet key business objectives. The software being bespoke is scalable which is a positive factor compared to off the shelf systems such as SAP as it is able to accommodate the changing requirements of business growth and could evolve with the company to provide an ongoing perfect fit for the company.

Once software is developed, the organizations IT staff could handle the maintenance of the software without added fees which maybe imposed by off-the-shelf software.

Appendix B - Summary of Budget

The budget has been prepared to address the current problems at hand which contain upgrading the network infrastructure which has not been identified at the initial stages of the project. It also accounts for the additional man-hours required to finish the project within the next 3 months.

The project team was part of the Satyam for the first 9 months.

The next three months will be done by external project team working inside the Satyam. 900 Man-days is based on 10 people working for the next 3 months.

Hence the total budget consists of

APPENDIX C- ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

APPENDIX D - Department Information and List of EquipmentThe table below details the various departmental requirements for PCs and Servers that needs to be installed for the functioning of MMPM System.

DepartmentDesktop PCsServers

Information System (IS)95Production

Web Server = 2

D/B Server =1

File Server =1

Backup

D/B Server =1

File Server = 1

Controllers (Accounting and Finance) 72

Engineering109

Materials (Contracts)38

Law7

Public Affairs12

Payroll11

Human Resources10

Planning6

Total3606

The departments are distributed across 18 floors in a building which has a data centre and all the Desktop PCs are connected using structured cabling best practices (vertical and horizontal cabling) which is scalable where growth and expansion is possible.APPENDIX ERisk Projection, is also called risk estimation rates can be carried out in two ways; the probability or likelihood that the risk is real, and the consequence of the problems associated with the risk, should it occurs.

CategoryComponentsPerformanceSupportCostSchedule

Negligible1Failure to meet the requirement

Would create inconvenience or non-operational impactError results minor costs and/ or schedule impact with expected values of less than a certain limit

2No reduction in Technical PerformanceEasily supportive softwarePossible budget under runEarly achievable delivery date

Marginal1Failure to meet the requirement would result in degradation of secondary missionCosts, impact and or/ recoverable schedule slips with expected value between certain limits

2Minimal to small reduction in technical performanceResponsive software supportSufficient financial resourcesRealistic achievable schedule

Critical1Failure to meet the requirement would degrade system performance to a point where mission success is questionableFailure results in operational delays and/or increased costs with expected value between certain limits

2Some reduction in technical performanceMinor delays in software modificationsSome shortage of financial resources, possible overruns Possible slippage to delivery dates

Catastrophic1Failure to meet the requirement would result in mission failureFailure results in increased costs and scheduled delays with expected values in excess of $500k

2Significant degradation to non-achievement of technical performance Non-responsive or unsupportable software Significant financial shortages, budget overrun likelyUnachievable delivery date

The Impact CategoryWork Load Matrix

Project Cost Overrun

Project schedule Overrun

Fig 3 Graphical description of referent levels reference from Aptech (2005)

Referent point (Cost value, time value

Request for Proposal

I.Purpose of RFP

II.Organizations Background

III.Basic Requirements

IV.Hardware and Software Environment

V.Description of RFP Process

VI.Statement of Work and Schedule Information

VII.Possible Appendices

A.Current System Overview

B.System Requirements

C.Volume and Size Data

D.Required Contents of Vendors Response to RFP

E. Sample Contract

Example of Request for Proposal Template ()(Office of Information Technology Services)

Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology

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