Applying The Work Breakdown Structure To The Project Management Lifecycle

Project Purpose

Discuss about the Applying the Work Breakdown Structure to the Project Management Lifecycle?

According to Hans (2015) often the organizations face difficulties for introducing new products as it requires significant alterations in existing processes. However, Indelicato (2013) opines that bringing variation in existing services is effective to grab new business opportunities as such extensions do not require huge investments. All Seasons, a consultancy organization, provides casual staffs to its various clients in hospitality sector.  The organization is currently planning to supply permanent staffs also. A new system is going to be implementing in All Seasons for business expansion purpose. The current report deals with analysis of the new system implementation project in All Seasons.

All Seasons generally supplies contractual staffs to its clients. Currently the organization is focusing on supplying permanent staffs to various organizations in hospitality sector. As the demand for staffs in hospitality sector fluctuates highly, AllSeasons management requires assessing the suitability of candidates before sending them to clients for interview. However, management also requires developing interview schedules after discussing with candidates and client organizations. It is evident that the management needs modifying their existing system of service delivery to increase efficiency of the new service. Outcomes of this project will enable All Season management to implement a new system for expanding their business.

Analysis on the new service of All Seasons indicate that the organization require to execute some new tasks.

Tasks Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	Performed by
Short listing applicants  from available candidates	Placement officer
Assessing short listed candidates	Placement officer
Providing feedback on candidates to clients	Placement officer
Describing the terms  of  recruitment to candidates	Arrangement officer
Sending list of selected candidates to  contract managers	Arrangement officer
Checking validly of contract with clients	Contract manager
Finalizing interview  schedule	Contract manager
Negotiating  and Accepting fees	Arrangement department

Table 1: Tasks in the new system

Table 1 indicates the list of tasks which are going to be completed as a part of new support system. However, first three tasks are new to All Season staffs. Rest tasks of the new system are similar to those in existing process.

 According to Kloppenborg (2012) stakeholders of a project are those people who are either working for it or arranging for resources required for successful completion of project. However, Huemann (2013) also opines that the people who can be impacted by the outcomes of project are considered as stakeholders. On other hand Kerzner (2013) states that even after identifying all people directly or indirectly related with a project, it cannot be assured that all stakeholders are identified. However, according to Muller and Soderlund, (2015) the stakeholders of a project can be categorized on basis of their relation with project. In case of current project All Seasons staffs, client organizations and the applicants are considered as stakeholder. The identified stakeholders are categorized according to their involvement with the new system implementation project.

Type of involvement	Internal stakeholder	External stakeholder
Involved with the project process	·         Contract manager ·         Arrangement officer ·         Placement officer	Future Applicants
Involved  with the  project outcomes	Existing  pool of  candidates	Client organizations

Internal and external stakeholders of this project are identified in table 2. The table also reflects   how these stakeholders are involved with this project. Implementation of the new system can require development of new contracts with client organizations. It will engage contract manager with the project. The new system also deals with different tasks such as short listing applicants, scheduling interviews and placing them in client companies. It indicates that the duties of placement officer and arrangement officer may be modified. However, as AllSeasons   is going to supply permanent staffs it will be more selective while short listing the applicants. Thus the applicants may be affected by the new process as the criteria for applying may change. As the selection process will be changed, existing candidates of All Seasons require modifying their   skills for being selected. The client organizations also require revising their selection process to hire candidates supplied by AllSeasons.The discussion indicates that project outcomes will impact on the existing candidate pool and clients. 

Tasks Performed by

Figure 1: Equivalent diagram for All Seasons Project

Identification of key deliverables of a project enables to get information regarding flow of processes (Brotherton et al., 2015). However, identification of subtasks is also important to determine order of events within a project (Eric Kirkland, 2014).Roberts (2011) suggests that proper milestones require to be decided before executing the tasks of project. In this report important tasks of new system implementation project in All Seasons are identified. The figure 1 reflects ordering of these tasks. However, Key deliverable of this project is suitable candidates for client organization. Tasks will be repeated in project until the suitable candidates are supplied.

Name of Events	Type of Event	Sources  of Event	Conditions	Activities	Responses	Destination of responses
Acceptance of requests from clients	External	Receiving request for staffs  from client organization	A  contract  is present between All Seasons and  client	Checking validity of contracts	Identification  of valid contract	Placement department
Primary selection of candidates	Internal	Requirement of sending candidates to client	Candidates with desired skills are  available	Judging the candidates according to their skills and experiences and determining whether these are matching with the desired profile.	Recording  the feedbacks on selected candidates  and creating  list of   selected candidate	List of selected candidates will be forwarded  to Arrangement officer
Describing the terms  of recruitment to  candidates	Internal	Primary selection of candidates	All terms and conditions  for further recruitment process  are clearly demonstrated	Demonstration of terms and conditions and identifying  whether  candidates agree with it	List of Agreed candidates	Arrangement Department
Interview Scheduling	External	Primary selection of agreed candidates	NA	Discussion with candidates and clients on schedule	Finalizing schedule	Client and candidate
Final  Selection of candidates	External	Successful schedule of interview	Interviews are scheduled with client organization	Sending candidates  to  client company	Getting feedback on candidates from clients and obtaining list of selected candidates	Arrangement department
Accepting Fees  from  client	External	Final selection of applicants	Successful negotiation with client	Negotiating with client and sending  invoice of fees	Client agrees  on fees	Arrangement department

 

Table 3 reflects the vents which are going to be performed as a part of new system in All Seasons. Morris (2013) opines that the identification of subtasks is important for successful completion of projects. Success of a project depends on the development of realistic milestones (Roberts, 2011). The process of segmenting a project into different subtasks depends on its key deliverables (Eric Kirkland, 2014). Identification of subtasks is also important for determining the flow of information and resource requirement of a project (Huemann, 2013). Brotherton et al. (2015) opined that identification of subtasks provides information regarding lifecycle of project.

In this project the events of new business process are identified. However, analysis on the identified events indicates that the management of All Seasons does not require developing a completely new process. Existing staffing process followed by the organization can be modified to meet requirements of clients. According to the policies of All Seasons management, a client can request for services only a valid contract is present with All Seasons and the client organization. At the initial phase of this process, contact manager will check validity of the contract. If the contract is found valid selection process of candidates will start. For permanent candidates the primary selection will be done by placement department. After that the candidates will be demonstrated about recruitment terms and will also be sent for interview. After receiving the final list of selected candidates from client, Arrangement department of All Seasons will send invoice for fees to the Client.

 In this project it is assumed that the candidates with desired skills and experiences will be available in the existing candidate pool. It is also assumed that the candidates are able to be selected after interview taken by client. However, it may happen that suitable candidates are not found from existing pool. Candidates who are primarily selected may not be selected after final round. Apart from these the selected candidates may not agree with the terms and conditions of recruitment.  In these cases the selection process will be repeated until All Seasons become able to meet clients’ requirement. It is also assumed that no complexity will arise regarding acceptance of fees. However All Seasons management can take legal steps in case of any breach of contract.

Conclusion:

Analysis on the All Seasons project indicates that successful implementation of new business process depends on   execution of each event associated with the process. However, success of the new business process also depends on the contribution of external and internal stakeholders.

References:

Brotherton, S., Fried, R. and Norman, E. (2015). Applying the Work Breakdown Structure to the Project Management Lifecycle. [online] Available at: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.169.1963&rep=rep1&type=pdf [Accessed 9 Mar. 2015].

Eric Kirkland, C. (2014). Project Management: A Problem-Based Approach. Project Management Journal, 45(1), pp.e3-e3.

Hans, R. (2015). WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE: A TOOL FOR SOFTWARE PROJECT SCOPE VERIFICATION. [online] Available at: https://airccse.org/journal/ijsea/papers/4413ijsea02.pdf [Accessed 9 Mar. 2015].

Huemann, M. (2013). Excellent research to move project management forward. International Journal of Project Management, 31(1), pp.161-163.

Indelicato, G. (2013). Total Quality Management for Project Management. Project Management Journal, 44(4), pp.e1-e1.

Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Kloppenborg, T. (2012). Contemporary project management. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Morris, P. (2013). Reconstructing project management. Chichester, England: Wiley-Blackwell.

Muller, R. and Soderlund, J. (2015). Innovative approaches in project management research. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.251-253.

Roberts, P. (2011). Effective Project Management. London: Kogan Page.