Information Systems Project Management – Recommendations And Strategies

Recommendations

Discuss about the Information Systems Project Management.

This report is intended to provide the summary of the expected outcome and result provided to the client with the help of new information system software. To propose a change and developing and implementing strategies for it needs effective work of whole team. The solution selected is following the structure of agile model. 

The project required to develop a software system for a major theme park company. This project will help the part management to satisfy customers and enhance their satisfaction through excellent and quick services. It also helps to develop communication within employees of the park and handle all backend work. This project manages information and important record of the company. Client, customers and employees records will store in database and the system will available through mobile app, websites and staff desktop. The software system designed to overcome limitations of previous system.

This section discusses several recommendations for the project which will help to deliver an error free, updated and modernizes information system.

The analysis and quality assurance is mandatory to maintain clarity in project system which has to be implemented for theme park. The business can experience loss in case of ineffective quality of project and lack of interaction between staff and customers (Fisher and Lovell, 2008). The loyal customers should get special benefits and incentives in rents to increase customer satisfaction. The project should be checked on external quality assurance measures to which confirm its efficiency level. The solution need to be proposed to improve the current business situation. The goal is to provide an information system which fulfills the front line staff and customers needs and meet expectations of management and develop a replacement for current Customer Relationship Management system and associated “park pass”.

For successful implementation of project a detailed communication management plan is must. It is recommended that everyone involved in the project like management, stakeholders, sponsors should know about the progress and outcome of the project. Hence, the communication management plan prepared which incorporate information about all the activities, update and status report of the project and it is discussed in weekly and monthly meetings. Active and interpersonal communication within team creates team bonding which helps in effective project development process (Fletcher, 2013). To maintain the interest of the stakeholders should be priority of this project. Here, the stakeholders are owner, management of theme park, its employees, customers, government agency and client. Hence, stakeholders should know about updates of the project and its outcome and it would become possible through communication plan.

Who/ individuals incorporated	Information required	When required	Format
Stakeholders: Owner, staff, and management	Deliver objective and scope of project	Before beginning project	Conduct initiation meeting
Stakeholders	Provide information about roles and responsibilities of stakeholders in project development.	At the time of starting the project Start date	Meeting
Entire team of a project	Provide information about tasks and completion time	It is also scheduled regularly on particular day Entire team would recommended to communicate once in a week	Conduct a scheduled meeting of team members
Stakeholders	Update project progress till date	Scheduled meeting as per project team, either weekly or monthly.	Distribute project status report through emails, or hardcopy
Only sponsor and project manager	Communicate with sponsors about progress of project and problems, if any? Approve the required changes	Conduct meeting once in a month But, in case of any problem can be called any time to confirm changes	Sponsor meeting

1. Development Approach (Agile Model)

External Quality Assurance

It is recommended to use agile development model for effective implementation of the project. The stages followed in this model are similar to waterfall model and that are information gathering, design, analysis, coding, development and testing (Anderson, 2004). It improves the HR and project team management process. The agile model implementation promotes creativity in development team and help in providing fast solution (Buresh, 2008).

 It is a flexible model and any team can adopt it quickly. This ensures faster solution because at the end of every stage the team member can revise their progress and project output which is not possible in waterfall model. The team can propose a prototype to customer through which they can finalize the requirement. The agile approach leads development of open ended projects (Cao, 2006). A product can be developed by small teams. The principle of this model is continuous design. The testing and improvements in project are based on quick feedbacks. Self organizing teams can interchange roles as per requirement basis.

The project manager has responsibility to organize his team, gather requirements from client and design the prototype of the project. This prototype is further presented in front of client and taken their feedback and suggestions. The team of this project can incorporate ten to fifteen developers. Important key players in team formation are project client, project sponsors, project managers, project team members and steering committee. The deliverables needs to be achieved according to the standards and hence, roles and responsibilities among the team members need to be divided equally or according to individual potential (Christensen, 1997). 

The project manager assign tasks to developers, takes continuous updates about given tasks and suggest changes, if needed. The manager of project manager has responsibility to finish the project in given timeline. Each team member or developer has the responsibility to accomplish the given task effectively within the proper deadline. They should work as per the structure of the project and complete tasks assigned to them.

Project sponsor is also known as director of a project and they have important role in project development and its delivery to Theme Park Company. The sponsor has the responsibility to make available the resources required to accomplish the project. Project design, its operations and activities are strongly impacted due to decision of project sponsor. The steering committee has special responsibility and hence, it takes constant watch on project development process and project manager also need to inform constant updates of the project. This committee has to role of analyzing the environment, and provides advice and recommendations according to it.

Communications Management

The important and most used technique to schedule any project is Gantt chart. The Gantt chart can use to align the days, weeks, or months required accomplishing particular activity (Cameron, Seher and Crawley, 2010). The milestone dates can be confirmed to deliver update about the software system. The project must accomplish within given timeframe which decides the success of the project. It is significant to decide timeline or schedule for a project and further ensure completion of each task according to given timeframe (Tavani, 2007). The use of scheduling technique like Gantt chart enhances simplicity and flexibility of work as well as reduces the possibility of confusion during project development. 

Activities	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Initiation and project scope plan
Stakeholder analysis and develop communication plan
Divide roles and responsibilities
Information gathering
Design
Analysis
Coding
Testing

Figure: Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart provides immediate visual representation to track progress of your project.. It will help in monitoring the progress of the project and shows the responsibilities assigned. 

Conclusion

The project developed and implemented for a theme park company which searching for effective alternative for its current CRM system. The recommendation provided can be used in the development and implementation of the project. The recommended strategies help development team to derive the requirement and accomplish it in given timeframe. With the help of this project the theme park would increase its customer base and also create simple working environment for its frontline staff. 

In the project implementation for the development of a software system for a major theme park company which will help in contributing towards the management of the system which will benefit the customers and enhance their satisfaction level through quicker services and less wastage of time. The implementation of the project is divided in to two part pre- implementation plan and post implementation plan. These are discussed in the below sections: –

• Pre – implementation plan: – In the pre – implementation plan, there will be consideration of the resources, allocation of the budget and the benefits which stakeholders will get after the implementation of the software system.

Resources: – The resources which are required for the implementation of the software system are the architecture of computers in the offices according to the compatibility of the operating system of the software systems, the CPU requirements of the system should meet the standards of the software system and storage system for the data which will help in storing the data for future use (Ferrell, Fraedrich and Cengage, 2014). These resources will be available after the approval of the management system. The expanded details are provided in the details below: –

• Architecture: – In the architecture requirement of the software system, there are certain factors which are needed to be counted which include the policy for bespoke development and for customization of the system. The arrangements for the governance of central ICT according to the guidance of the Australian government.
• Continuity in the business: – during the process of implementation of the new software system there is a requirement that there should be continuity in the business of the theme park by implementing a management system for it.
• E- Security: – During the process of implementation, there should be requirement of e – security system that no one outside the premises of the management of the theme park will be able to hack the system. There should be requirement for the security of the infrastructure framework and there should be a review process at the gateway. Guidance by the national e – authentication and IMAGE Framework should be used with the mandatory implementation of the guidance for the protective email marking standards. From the side of government there should be assured framework of third party services.
• Capability of ICT: – From the workforce plan perspectives, reduction in the number of contractor by ICT should be done and benchmarking of the financial department would contribute in it. There should be adoption of A 2 pass review system policy. The performance indicator catalogue at the entry level program with the assessment of capability of the organization, and investment.
• Budget Allocation: – The allocation of the estimated budget for the implementation of the software system will be done on the basis of the resources required for it. Resources which are required for the system is discussed above. This will ensure that there is proper planning for every section of the work which is to be done. Allocation of budget to every activity will help in contributing in proper management of the budget.
• Stakeholders: – The stakeholders which will contribute in the process will be the management of the theme park, the employees working in the parks, people managing the property of the theme park and the customers which will contribute in making the experience better by telling their experiences with the implemented system (Wandel and Beavers, 2011).

Now after the pre requisites of the implementation plan, there is a requirement of post implantation plan.

Post implementation plan: – In the post implementation plan, there are certain features which will be included in this part of the work. The features are discussed below: –

• Monitoring and Controlling: – The monitoring and controlling of the implementation plan will include the responsibilities of the managers who are working in the theme park. There will be certain assigned jobs which will be given to the stakeholders and there will a steering committee which will approve the work which is done by the software implementers. For this there should be certain check list for the completion of the work. Baseline for the activities of the project will be done so that there should be pressure on the vendors that they should deliver the work within the time frame.
• Plan for the Risk Management: – There are certain potential risks which can be contribute in the implementation plan. These risks can be related to the management of the process or can be the resources or can be from the stakeholder’s side or from the outside of the organization (Wong, 2010).

Team Formation

Key resources: – The key resources which can be the part of the risk management process: –

E- security: – there should be implementation of the e- security of the system in the company so no competitor or other vendor could able to copy the software of the system. This would ensure that the work is going on in the safer way.

Backup and restore: – In the back up and restore of the existing data of theme park requires a third party which can be a potential risk. So that management of the risk requires the type of company which has a clean system and there should be protocols and counter checking system so that the data which has been backed up and restored. 

Schedule of the project: – The schedule of the project will include the work breakdown structure and the life cycle which is given in the figure below: –
   

References

Anderson, D. J. (2004). Agile management for software engineering: Applying the theory of constraints for business results. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Buresh, D. (2008). Customer satisfaction and agile methods: Assessing customer satisfaction and agile project management methods. Germany: VDM Publishing House Ltd.

Cao, D. B. (2006). An empirical investigation of critical success factors in agile software development projects. ProQuest Information and Learning Company

Christensen, C. M. (1997). The innovator’s dilemma: The revolutionary book that will change the way you do business. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

Cameron, B.G., T. Seher, E.F. Crawley (2010). “Goals for space exploration based on stakeholder network value considerations.” in: Acta Astronautica

Fletcher, A. (2013). “Mapping stakeholder perceptions for a third sector organization.”in: Journal of Intellectual Capital 4(4): 505 – 527. 

Fisher, C., and Lovell, A. (2008) Business Ethics and Values: Individual, Corporate and International Perspectives (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2008)

Ferrell, O., Fraedrich, J., Cengage (2014) Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making & Cases,Gustafson, A. (2000). Making Sense of Postmodern Business Ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly,  10(3), p.645.

Gotterbarn, and Rogerson, Simon, (1997). “Real Estate Code of Ethics”, Communications of the ACM, pp. 110-116. 

Tavani, H.T. (2007) “Philosophical Theories of Privacy: Implications for an Adequate Online Privacy Policy,” Metaphilosophy, 38(1): 1–22.

Verbeek, P., (2005) What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency and Design, University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Wandel, T. and Beavers, A. (2011) “Playing Around with Identity,” in Facebook and Philosophy, D.E. Wittkower (ed.), Chicago: Open Court, pp. 89–96.

Wong, P.H. (2010) “The Good Life in Intercultural Information Ethics: A New Agenda,

International Review of Information Ethics 13: 26–32.