Issues And Risks In Project Management: NAA Website Redevelopment Project

NAA Website Redevelopment Project

An issue is an important topic or problem that can be further discussed or managed. An issue in project management can arise as a result of risks and problems in project management. Furthermore, problems associated with staffs, suppliers and material shortages can have a negative impact on the project giving rise to issues. However, there are a significant differences between and issues and a risk in project management. An issue is raised when problems have already occurred in the project while the risk in a project can be described as a potential issue that may happen or may not happen in the project. Thus, the issues in a project is needed to be resolved immediately while for addressing the risks in a project can follow a planned approach, starting with identification of the risks. Issues in a project are mainly resolved by following a issue management process. Resolving an issue is important in order to eliminate the chances of having an undesirable impact.

1. A deliverable in project management can be described as a product or service that is delivered to the client. A deliverable is delivered to a client in a scheduled time that satisfies the set milestone associated with the project. A deliverable of the project can include a software product, design document, project plan, training program and other activities associated with the project. A deliverable in a project can be described as either tangible or intangible assets of the project. The most important deliverable of a project is considered to be a key deliverable. A single deliverable of a project can contain multiple smaller tasks. Completion of each of the deliverables of a project will ensure successful completion of the project.  In large projects, a deliverable of a project might depend on completion of another deliverable which is needed to be completed first. This type of project involves multiple milestones.
2. (b). Confirm that all the stakeholders have had input to the scope of work
3. Scope Creep in project management can refer to certain uncontrolled changes in project scope after the beginning of the project. Scope creep in a project can occur when the scope of the project is not properly defined, documented or controlled. When a scope creep occurs in a project, certain issues are faced in management of time, costs and resources. Thus management of scope creep in a project is important.  Thus a scope creep can happen only when the project is not properly defined in the initiation phase. Improper scope identification is another reason behind the occurrence of scope creep in the project. Another reason behind the occurrence of scope creep is lack of project supervision and continuous change in scope of the project.  In order to manage the scope creep, it is essential to correctly understand the client’s vision and needs. However, a scope creep might also occur if the client changes the requirements of the project after the initiation of the project. 

A project has been undertaken for technical upgrade of the website of NAA (National Archives of Australia).  In this project, the existing website will be transferred from a proprietary CMS to a commonly available CMS. As a part of the project, the website will enable NAA to collect the data contributed by users to ensure optimal functionality of the website. The software that is needed for the project should either be an open source software or a common use proprietary management system. The major deliverables of the project specifies that the new website should continue to work with the pre existing API. The API should furthermore be able to draw all the user added contents in their new website. The privacy and the security needs of the website will be updated by proposing security features like encryption.  It has been proposed that the new developed website will provide an easy way to the administrators to view and record the user generated activity which was not present in the old website. A scope management plan for this project is developed and discussed in the following paragraphs.

Project authorization is a formal process of giving the permission to start working on a particular project. Project Authorization is important for the stakeholders associated with a project since during this process, the roles and responsibilities of a project is being negotiated. Project Authorization impacts a project in a number of ways including project quality control, providing boundaries and the development of a detailed project plan.

Project Authorization and Governance

The governance arrangement in regards to the project delegation includes appropriate quality management and regular review of project implementation. This will ensure that the project is being executed or implemented according to the project plan. Since this project aims in technical update of National Archives of Australia, it is needed to ensure that entire website redevelopment process involves effective data transfer and testing. Any bugs detected in the testing phase will be fixed before the project release.

It is important to identify the critical review points associated with this redevelopment project. The redevelopment project considers certain specific project needs that constitute the critical review points associated with the project. One of the specific project need is that the website must continue to work on the pre-existing API that will link the content with an exhibition interactive. Another important specification of the project is that the website must be successfully able to GET, POST, PUT and DELETE the data within an agreed timeframe. Another critical review point associated with this project will ensure that these project specifications are met. There are certain strict specifications associated with the design of the upgraded website. The project specification says that the aesthetic design has to be maintained in the upgraded website. Thus it is another critical review points associated with the management and governance of this website redevelopment project.

The Appropriate Authorising authority of this project is National Archives of Australia, who is the owner of the project.

In the review points, it is expected that the progress of the project will be checked and the quality of the project will be evaluated. It is expected that the project will be following a planned approach and the deliverables of the project will be completed within the given timeframe. The critical review points are further expected to unveil the major bugs in the project.

It is important to define the project scope, as it identifies the requirements and specifications of a project. A project scope can be documented by making use of scope statements. A scope statement can take a number of forms depending on the type of project that is being implemented. Definition of project scope is a part of project planning process that involves determination and documentation of the specific project goals, objectives and deliverables.

The project will be working redevelopment of NAA website in order to improve its operations. Redevelopment of the website is needed in order improve the operations of the website and improve its security.

Critical Review Points

The NAA website Redevelopment project was initiated in order to ensure best value for money and for improving the optimal functionality of the website. This project is needed since National Archives of Australia is in charge of preserving and storing the Commonwealth records. The NAA is responsible for preserving the Commonwealth records under the Archives Act 1983. The software to be used in project should be common-use proprietary content management system. NAA encourages the users to upload their own photographs to share their migrant experience to the archives collection. These types of photographs are used in magazines and newspapers, posters, brochures and others, in order to promote Australia as a prosperous and welcoming nation for the potential migrants and to reassure the Australian that the new migrants would be able to easily settle into Australian way of life. There are more than 22,000 black and white and colour photographs taken by government photographers between the year 1946 and 1999. Thus preservation of these photographs is important. The new website to be developed will look after the security of the contents of the website. The project will be implemented in a number of phases, the most important being the testing phases. There are certain optional requirements that the project might need to consider such as, external hosting and ongoing support with a service level agreement along with the collection of post implementation feedback from the users.

The scope of the plan covers the following aspects-

In Scope

• Development and redesigning of the NAA website
• The website will work with the existing API that links the content with an exhibition interactive
• The website will be able to GET, POST, PUT and DELETE data using the API
• The website will be hosted externally to Archives IT infrastructure
• The website will showcase an aesthetic design

The scope of the pan does not cover the following aspects-

Out of Scope

• Ongoing support with a service level agreement for 3 years
• Post implementation changes according to the user feedback

Objectives and Success Criteria

The objectives of the project are as follows-

S (Specific) – To redevelop the existing NAA website

M (Measurable) – To ensure that the security of the website is optimised

A (Attainable) – T o ensure that the website will be able to work with the pre-existing API linking the content to the exhibition interface.

R (Realistic) – To ensure that the website will be supporting the formats that will enable crowd sourced data and easier display of such data including images

T (Time Bound) – To ensure that the project will be completed within the set project schedule

The success criteria of this project are as follows-

1. The project needs to be completed within the scheduled time.
2. The project should be able to recognise the user contributed data.
3. The Administration module must be secure.
4. The website should include the facility of user registration for public user login.
5. The website should be incorporated with a search function for improving its operations.

Deliverables

The major deliverables of the project are as follows-

1. Planning and Development of Project Plan for NAA website
2. Implementation and redevelopment of the existing NAA website
3. Testing the Redeveloped Website
4. Documentation of the entire Project
5. Project Evaluation and Maintenance

Acceptance Criteria

It is important to set accurate acceptance criteria for project in order to check that project of accurate quality is delivered. The acceptance criteria set for this project are as follows-

1. The project will be accepted only if it is implemented on CMS (common use proprietary content management system)
2. The project will be accepted only if appropriate testing phase is implemented before the project release.

Project Scope

Constrains

The main constraints in the project are as follows-

1. Time constrain- the project is needed to be completed within a scheduled time
2. Resource Constraint

Assumptions

There are certain assumptions associated with the implementation of this project, which are discussed below-

1. It is assumed that there is continuous resource availability in this project.
2. It is assumed that the project will not incorporate any new requirement after its initiation.

Dependencies

Each task is dependent of completion of some other task. The dependences in the project is shown in form of predecessors in the following table-

ID	Task Name	Duration	Predecessors
1	Project Starts	0 days
2	Requirements Gathering and Planning	33 days
3	Understanding the requirements and specifications of the Project	15 days	1
4	Development of Project Plan	15 days	3
5	Sharing the Project Plan	3 days	4
6	Approval of Project Plan	0 days	5
7	Project Implementation	135 days
8	Coding the new website	60 days	6
9	Linking with Database	45 days	8
10	Data Transfer	30 days	9
11	Completion of Website Redevelopment	0 days	10
12	Website Testing	132 days
13	System Testing	25 days	10
14	Integration Testing	30 days	10,13
15	User Acceptance testing	40 days	14
16	Bug Fixing (if any)	37 days	15
17	Completion of Project Review and Testing	0 days	16
18	Website Go-Live	62 days
19	Website Launch	7 days	17
20	Training	25 days	19
21	Bug Fixing and Maintenance	30 days	20
22	Project Closure	65 days
23	Project Evaluation	30 days	21
24	Payment Completion	20 days	23
25	Client Sign Off	5 days	24
26	Resource Release	10 days	25
27	Project Ends	0 days	26

From the above table, it can be observed that each task associated with a project is dependent on the completion of one or more tasks. Apart from that, the project is dependent on continuous resource availability and following a planned approach of project implementation.

The proposed project methodology consists of the following phases-

WBS	Task Name
0	National Archives of Australia
1	Project Starts
2	Requirements Gathering and Planning
3	Project Implementation
4	Website Testing
5	Website Go-Live
6	Project Closure
7	M4: Project Ends

It is essential to develop an appropriate scope management plan so that the chances of scope creep can be eliminated. In the following section, details about the roles and responsibilities of people working on project scope management plan for NAA website project is represented in the following sections.

The authority and responsibility of scope management goes to NAA and the project manager of this project.

The list of stakeholders associated with this project is as follows-

Stakeholder	Role	Interest	Influence
Sam	Project Manager	High	Medium
Mark	CEO	High	high
NAA	Owner	High	High
Bob and Team	Developer	Medium	Medium
Andrew and team	Tester	Medium	Low

The Major milestone of the project is represented in the following table-

Task Name	Duration
National Archives of Australia	427 days
Project Starts	0 days
Requirements Gathering and Planning	33 days
Understanding the requirements and specifications of the Project	15 days
Development of Project Plan	15 days
Sharing the Project Plan	3 days
M1: Approval of Project Plan	0 days
Project Implementation	135 days
Coding the new website	60 days
Linking with Database	45 days
Data Transfer	30 days
M2: Completion of Website Redevelopment	0 days
Website Testing	132 days
System Testing	25 days
Integration Testing	30 days
User Acceptance testing	40 days
Bug Fixing (if any)	37 days
M3: Completion of Project Review and Testing	0 days
Website Go-Live	62 days
Website Launch	7 days
Training	25 days
Bug Fixing and Maintenance	30 days
Project Closure	65 days
Project Evaluation	30 days
Payment Completion	20 days
Client Sign Off	5 days
Resource Release	10 days
M4: Project Ends	0 days

The major milestone associated with the project is highlighted in the above table.

Project scope can be described as a part of project planning. It is a major stage that determines and documents a list of specific goals, deliverables and cost of a project. There are a number of processes involved with the definition and documentation of a scope management plan. At first, the product requirements are needed to be defined followed by defining the process requirements. In scope identification process, the correct stakeholders of the project are needed to be involved. One of the critical aspects of scope definition and management is identification of the project limitations. Each of these stages of scope definition is needed to be documented as a part of project scope management plan. This document helps development of project plan.

Scope change management process is needed for management, control and documentation of the inevitable changes associated with a project. The scope change and control process follows a number of steps.

1. Development of scope change management matrix:  Scope change management matrix is developed with an intention to capture all the required changes in scope of a project. The PMO of the project is responsible for development of a scope management matrix.
2. Scope change impact analysis: The impact of the proposed changes in the project is needed to be analysed in order to understand the impact on the project’s cost and schedule.
3. The Decision: The proposed scope change is needed to be approved by the project head before implementing those changes in the project. PMO will hold a formal meeting with the project team to discuss the impact of the changes in the project. On approval of the project owner, the changes will be implemented in the project.

Before implementation, the project manager will update all the project documents and communicate the changes to all the stakeholders associated with the project.

Scope validation is a process of formal acceptance of the completed deliverables of a project. The key benefit of this process is that the project is validated by each deliverable. The scope validation is generally done at the end of each project phase to check whether the project is following a planned approach. The project manager along with the client or customer of the project is responsible for scope validation.

Objectives and Success Criteria

Project sponsor or the owner (which in this case is NAA) will be responsible for acceptance of the final project deliverable based on the feedback provided by the project manager and the stakeholders of the project. The project manager and the project sponsor is responsible for acceptance of the project scope.

Project Stakeholders along with the project manager is responsible for managing and measuring the scope performance. The scope performance measurement is done at the end of each project phase to ensure that the project is following a planned approach.

1. The changes in the requirements of the project
2. Improper Project Planning
3. Unforeseen risks
4. Changes or issues in project funding
5. Changes in resource requirement or resource availability
6. Changes in the schedule of the project

Change Control Form
Project Name	Redevelopment of National Archives of Australia Website
Requested By:	NAA	Requested Date:	12.12.2015
Change Request Number:	1
Description of the change:	The Maintenance of the Website should be considered an important project need.
Reason for the change:	This change is triggered as previously, the website maintenance was considered to be an optional deliverable.
Alternative solutions:	Maintenance is needed for ensuring smooth operation of the new website and therefore it has no alternative solution.
Impact Assessment	The change might have an impact on project schedule
Cost	Increase in cost by approximately $20000 per year
Time	The project might take longer time for completion. An extra time of approximately 1 month is required.
Resources	More human resources is required to implement this change.

Quality	If with the implementation of changes, the project is needed to be executed in a limited timeframe, the quality of the project might hamper.
Impact if scope change request is not approved	If the scope change is not approved, there will be unforeseen delays in the project, which in turn might hamper the quality of the project.
Other	The change request is subjected to approval of NAA
	Risk description	Impact	Likelihood	Strategy
	<1, 2, ,3, 4 – see risk register>	<1, 2, ,3, 4 – see risk register>
Technical Risk	4	4	Risk transfer to the project management team
Schedule Risk	3	3	Risk Avoidance by appropriate scheduling.
Immediate Action Required if approved: Approval of Change Request
Authorisation Decision: Pending decision of approval of change control
Approved?	Yes ?  or No ?
Decision by:	NAA	Date Decision Made:	1.08.2015
Authorised by:	Project Stakeholders	Date Authorised:	20.08.2015

The change control procedure followed a number of stages, which are as follows-

1. Evaluating the need for change
2. Evaluating the impact of the proposed change on the project
3. Proposing the changes
4. Approval of the change request to the project owner.

With the approval of change request, the baselines are needed to be updated. The new project baseline will be communicated by holding a formal meeting with the project stakeholders and by correctly documenting the change.

I have experienced scope creep in the project in form of additional requirements. This was identified in the implementation phase while coding the website. As an impact of the scope creep, the project as a bit delayed. I was quick to acknowledge the scope creep and manage the change in a planned manner thus reducing the negative impact of scope creep on the project.  

Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management across borders. Routledge.

Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.

Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.

Carnall, C., 2018. Managing change. Routledge.

Crawford, J.K., 2014. Project management maturity model. Auerbach Publications.

Davis, K., 2014. Different stakeholder groups and their perceptions of project success. International journal of project management, 32(2), pp.189-201.

Eskerod, P. and Jepsen, A.L., 2016. Project stakeholder management. Routledge.

Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.

Fuller, M.A., Valacich, J.S., George, J.F. and Schneider, C., 2017. Information Systems Project Management: A Process and Team Approach, Edition 1.1. Prospect Press.

Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Hammer, M., 2015. What is business process management?. In Handbook on business process management 1 (pp. 3-16). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017. Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.

Hayes, J., 2018. The theory and practice of change management.

Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.

Hopkinson, M., 2017. The project risk maturity model: Measuring and improving risk management capability. Routledge.

Jeston, J., 2014. Business process management. Routledge.

Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Kloppenborg, T.J., Tesch, D. and Manolis, C., 2014. Project success and executive sponsor behaviors: Empirical life cycle stage investigations. Project Management Journal, 45(1), pp.9-20.

Larson, E.W., Gray, C.F., Danlin, U., Honig, B. and Bacarini, D., 2014. Project management: The managerial process (Vol. 6). Grandview Heights, OH: McGraw-Hill Education.

Leach, L.P., 2014. Critical chain project management. Artech House.

Muller, R., 2017. Project governance. Routledge.

Nicholas, J.M. and Steyn, H., 2017. Project management for engineering, business and technology. Routledge.

Pheng, L.S., 2018. Project Scope Management. In Project Management for the Built Environment (pp. 63-77). Springer, Singapore.

Phillips, J., 2013. PMP, Project Management Professional (Certification Study Guides). McGraw-Hill Osborne Media.

Pritchard, C.L. and PMP, P.R., 2014. Risk management: concepts and guidance. Auerbach Publications.

Samáková, J., Sujanová, J. and Koltnerová, K., 2013, September. Project communication management in industrial enterprises. In The European Conference on Information Systems Management (p. 155). Academic Conferences International Limited.

Too, E.G. and Weaver, P., 2014. The management of project management: A conceptual framework for project governance. International Journal of Project Management, 32(8), pp.1382-1394.

Turkulainen, V., Aaltonen, K. and Lohikoski, P., 2015. Managing project stakeholder communication: The Qstock festival case. Project Management Journal, 46(6), pp.74-91.