A project is a temporary endeavor with a definite beginning and end organized into various activities with an aim of delivering a specified product or achieving a change never experienced before in an organization. Project management is a discipline that applies knowledge, skills, tools and other techniques in the instigation, planning, implementation, controlling and closing of a project, according to Eric Verzuh (2008). The project manager is the individual in charge of the overall project and therefore must possess several skills such as business management, project management and technical competency in their line of work. This is in order to effectively carry out his responsibilities such as creating a suitable project and a capable project team, developing and managing the project’s schedule and budget, identifying and mitigating risks, managing changes and closing the project. My project of choice for this report is coming up with an effective technology to aid in tracking packages for a parcel post company and its clients. Currently, the organization’s barcodes notify the project manager when the parcel is picked up by the courier van, dropped in a depot and when it is picked up at the depot by the courier van and released at its destination. The organization therefore does not have the ability to track the parcels while in transportation or identify which parcels are loaded into which truck. As per the current system, the packages are automatically sorted out at the depot and packed into containers which are then loaded into the courier trucks. The company requires a software developed that can specify the parcels in the containers and the vessels in the various trucks (Clausen et al, 2017).
Stakeholder Classification Model- Influence/Impact Matrix
Project stakeholders are persons who have interest on the specified project or who are positively or negatively affected by its execution (Davis, 2014). This stakeholder classification model is a tool that enables the project manager to identify the crucial stakeholders who have a great effect on the success of the project. In order to successfully analyze stakeholders by use of this method, the project manager should document the interests and motivations of the various stakeholders concerning this project, identify conflicting contributions, find out their consistency in the project and come up with an operative means of communicating with each stakeholder. In this project the most crucial stakeholders are the suppliers and the project manager. The Influence/Impact matrix is divided into 4 quadrants as shown below:
The firm pre-mentioned do not have the resources to develop software for tracking the parcels and therefore has to outsource these services. This makes the outsourcer and supplier one of the most crucial stakeholders in the project. In order to effectually keep track of the transportation process, the containers loaded with the parcels are to be attached with Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags that aid in the identification and tracking of each container. The organization has identified a suitable supplier for the RFID tags at an affordable price. Also, there is a need to develop sensors and fit them to the trucks to identify which containers are loaded onto which courier van. The IT vendor is responsible for development of appropriate software that will combine these tasks into one, that is, it will help in the specification of the parcels in each container and the vessels in each truck. For successful completion of this project, therefore, the presence of a skilled IT vendor is critically important (Atkinson et al, 2015). The company should ensure that the outsourcer is trustworthy and that he or she has a good reputation of quality production. These are the most crucial factors that the company is considering for the success of this project as it has been planning on carrying it out for a while now and therefore has put away sufficient resources for the project’s implementation. In addition, the project committee is coming with ways of creating more resources in case of changes during the project execution.
Project Manager:
The organization’s project manager is the master mind behind the initiation of this project. The responsibility of bearing the results of the project mostly rests on his or her shoulder. The project manager also has the roles of communicating the current progress and future possibilities of the project to all stakeholders, managing the schedule and budget of the project and bringing together a skilled project team. In this case this includes a capable software developer (outsourcer) and a suitable RFID tags supplier. The project manager also has to keep close contacts with these two participants who are critical to the project, even if they are external stakeholders (Whitaker, 2016).
Role Variation
In a different kind of a project, the outsourcer and the supplier would not be among the crucial stakeholders since their skills would be replaced where there is a concrete and highly trained IT team in the organization. The project manager on the other hand is usually an important participant of most projects since he or she is in charge of all the activities carried out.
Project Scope
Project scope is the part of project planning that entails defining and documenting the project’s specific goals and objectives, tasks, expenses, deliverables and the deadline. The main objective of this project is to increase the discernibility of the parcels while in transit for both the client and the parcel post company (Ahn, and Park, 2017). This will decrease the chances of losing customer packages as well as increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the services provided.
Current Situation
Currently, the software available for the company’s use include barcodes which indicates to the asset manager when the trucks have been loaded at the station or at the depot and when the offloading takes place at the packages’ destinations. There is also an online portal used by the clients to track their parcels, as well as GPS tracking devices for the courier vans.
Product Requirements
Active RFID tags should be used since they can operate hundreds of meters away from the RFID reader and uses a local power supply such as a battery, unlike passive tags which collect information from the reader’s radio waves thus has to be nearby. Before outsourcing the software development services, it is important to find out about the credibility of the outsourcer and ensure that the contract is in written form and signed. The company should involve its lawyer in all these activities to make the agreement binding and the action lawful (Mosca and Bordelon, 2017). The integrity of the RFID supplier should also be thoroughly assessed for quality stock. In addition, the truck drivers should be informed about the RFID tags and strictly warned against tampering with them during transportation.
Process Requirements
These new developments will bring about the need for customer training on how to use the software which will be incorporated in the current online tracking portal, to find out the location of their packages.
Planning: This involves the process of gathering information to set the boundaries, objectives and goals of a project. It largely depends on the different stakeholders’ views and the ease of their communication. According to this project, this phase has already been depleted.
Inputs and Techniques: the project manager should include his or her experience from like projects in this task to avoid repetition of past mistakes and increase the chances of success. Before the execution phase, the manager should ensure that all the items required for the initiation of the implementation are available to avoid chaos and confusion.
Tools: Statement of Scope (SOS) and the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) are the two most important needs for completion of scope management. The SOS is likened to an executive summary of the entire project since it describes the catalysts of the project and provides a summary of the expected outcome. WBS on the other hand, is the project deliverable that classifies the team’s work into different manageable segments. It defines exactly what is to be done and by whom throughout the projects process that is initiation, planning, implementation, controlling and the closing phase.
It is a system of practices, procedures, rules and techniques that dictate the project’s processes for maximum output. Project methodologies are basically ways to deliver projects.
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)
Being a technological development scheme, which requires outsourcing, this project would best be delivered by the use of PMBOK, a set of standards presented as a guide by the Project Management Institute (PMI) to offer solutions to project management. This is because this methodology sets out the best practices, standards, conventions, processes, terminologies and procedures which would effectively guide the relationship between the outsourcer and the project team and among the team members. Division on labor among the team members is eased which is an advantageous step for maintenance of the software after the project’s completion that is after the latter has been installed into the company’s system.
Ease of Understanding:
All members of the project management team can easily comprehend the steps provided for by the guide as it documents processes and methods each step of the way. It also overlaps with the general roles of management such as planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling thus gives the project manager a wider look on how to work with his or her team.
Universal to the organization:
The guide different departments of the organization thus changes can be made collectively. The steps involved can also be applied to other company’s size they are standardized and provide room for customization.
Standardization:
PMBOK offers a guide to successful completion of all projects being undertaken by the organization. Since it provides the same procedure to different organizational units, the final result will be more uniform and effective than if the organization allowed use of another project management approach that does not have these advantages.
PMBOK clearly defines what methods will bring success and which ones will lead to failure. This can equip the participants involved with knowledge on handling risk management.
Recognition:
PMBOK is the standard by which Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate, which is based upon a survey of many companies’ best practices is obtained.
Other Methodologies
Projects in a Controlled Environment version 2 (PRINCE2): this methodology is extensively used in the UK and was developed to offer guidance to the projects in the UK government. It would be an excellent alternative to PMBOK in this project’s execution because it is built from generic best practices and it is therefore non-proprietary. It offers the solutions required by the project managers at the moment. It therefore offers a great benefit in avoidance of repetition of past mistakes and like PMBOK, it aids in relationship guidance.
Extreme Programming Methodology (XP): this project is geared towards software advancement and quality is the main focus. XP is a software development project administration methodology that specifies principles, practices and procedures to improve software quality and ensure responsiveness to changing customer requirements and preferences. Due to this fact, it is an excellent methodology for use by the outsourcer in the development as well as by the project team in the implementation of the new software. It is of use even after the outsourcing process since it provides rules on continuous integration of the software.
Poor Communication
Effective communication during a project is one of the essential aspects for successful completion (Henderson et al, 2016). If the project manager, the team members, the outsourcer and the supplier are not able to communicate well the project is most likely to fail since none of the participants carries out their functions and roles competently. Lack of good communication among all the parties involved in the project leads to confusion, mix-up and inefficiency. The project manager has the responsibility to communicate to all the stakeholders about the progress of the report and what is expected of them. If he or she has poor communication skills, then this directly translates into poor management and consequently failure of the specified project. in fact, communication is the primary contributor to project failure a third of the time according to a study recently conducted by the Project Management Institute (PMI).
Communication in a project does not just take place. Effective communication has to be well thought out by the project manager as a strategy and tools designed to store and regulate information flow and communications concerning the project throughout the organization. Formal communication plans are therefore a necessity for the success of the project.
Poor communication also leads to failed relationships between the organization and the suppliers, outsourcer, and customers. This project is being carried mostly for the benefit of the company’s customers who need training on the use of the developed software. The trainer is supposed to be sufficiently skilled in terms of the operations of the software and have very good communication skills. If this is not the case, the organization faces the dangers of client base reduction and failed associations especially if the customers are misguided or given the wrong information. They assume, without any further analysis, that the organization is untrustworthy and does not serve their best interests.
Specification:
the project manager should be timely, thorough, precise and straight to the point whether he or she is communication a change or reprimanding a delay. The manager should clearly state the original plan, the variations to be made and their effect on the company’s resources. He or she should then go ahead and thank his audience for their continued support thus far.
Time:
the recipients of the information being passed on should be given enough time to think over the facts delivered before they can respond. In addition, many employees often ignore information that is communicated too frequently or when there is too much content. For example, if the project manager decides to use e-mails to communicate with his or her team, he or she must be cognizant of how many e-mails are sent and how frequently this is done, the complexity of their contents and the relationship he or she shares with the team members. The project manager can also use virtual teams to enhance memory (Verburg et al, 2013).
The audience:
The type of information given depends on the listeners it is being passed to. Executives, for instance do not need to know about the specific tasks of the assignment but are only interested with the objectives of the project and its impact on the organization. Additionally, the project manager should ensure that he or she is involving the right people for right activities for effective communication.
Conclusion
Projects are important undertakings for organization since they bring change which often directly converts to developments. Project management is, however, a process and requires critical thinking especially in the instigation stage. This phase entails coming up with a suitable scheme that will bring the most required changes in the organization. After establishing an appropriate undertaking, plans are made on its cost and budget and the project manager comes up with a project charter. The end of this phase gives room for the onset of the execution phase, where the new idea is implemented into the business operations (Turner, 2016). The project is then closed with the acceptance of the customers to use the new product or incorporate the change effected. In this project the main objective is to increase the visibility of packages during transportation for both the customers and the company. It entails developing a new software to this effect, which will need outsourcing to the third party. The software is responsible for discerning the parcels in each container and the containers loaded to each truck. It is obvious that improved technology in the parcel post company would increase the rate at which work is done thus the customer base. Ensuring the credibility of the outsourcer and the RFID supplier is critical for success in this project development. In order to complete the project successfully, the project manager must incorporate effective communication in his or her management techniques (Stanciu et al, 2016). The manager has the responsibility of communicating the project’s goals and objectives to all the stakeholders and ensuring their acceptance on this issue. This aids in labor division whereby each team member identifies exactly what is expected of them and their contributions to successful completion of the project.
References
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