Project Activities and Sequencing Scenario

Project Activities and Sequencing Scenario

Introduction

Organizations achieve constant growth by completing different projects that help them meet their needs. Project management is a wide field that includes a wide range of activities, including planning, controlling, and managing. The entire project management phase requires the collaboration of the project team and stakeholders to successfully complete the project within the required time frame. Organizations also need to consider the availability of resources required to complete the project on time. The most important resources are human resources and financial resources because human resources complete the activities in the project, and financial resources are used to acquire the materials required to complete the project. This paper will review various aspects of project management by focusing on project activities and sequencing scenarios of a logistics company that requires a manual software update on fifteen computers. The paper explores this scenario to familiarize the readers with important project management activities such as creating a work breakdown structure, project risk management, developing a project control plan, project management tools and techniques, setting milestones, and sequencing of activities.

Executive Summary

This paper provides an overview of the project management activities at Phoenix Warehouse and Logistics, which is a small well know warehouse and shipping company. The project entails manually updating the company’s tracking, shipping, receiving, and inventory software from version 1.0 to 2.0. The project’s stakeholders are internal stakeholders such as the company owners, direct and indirect software users, and accounting personnel, who will have various needs depending on their position. The company has limited resources to complete the project and is relying on two employees to complete the project. Project management begins with creating a project management plan, including a work breakdown structure, defining activities, developing a sequenced activity chart or diagram, developing a human resource plan, and establishing a communication management plan. The paper then provides a detailed overview of the risk management plan, including potential risks for the project and for the portfolio to which the project belongs, the likelihood and impact analysis of the identified risks, and a plan for managing responses to portfolio and project risks. The other section is the project control, a plan that briefly discusses the project’s control mechanisms.

Project Management Plan

Work Breakdown Structure

Tools and techniques

Available tools

Updated software package.

Jira

Confluence

Zoom

We will be using an agile approach to this project which will be structured yet adaptive to detect and fix any unexpected issues. Considering the constraints of resources, we will be adding a buffer between tasks, including the last task of the project and the deadline.

Activities, attributes, and milestones

Software update

Project charter created

Project initiation

Project plan approval

Work breakdown structure created

Purchase software package

Software evaluation

Install in a test environment

Test

Document

Training

Create training documentation

Create training plan

Communication

Create communication plan

Software update complete

Create online secure cloud storage

Create backup schedule

Run backup software

Remove the computer from the current location

Stage PC for an update at the central loading station

Create online secure cloud storage

Create backup schedule

Run backup software

Re-install the PC at the original location

Document

Verify Software Updates

Project Close

In conclusion, though the software update is straightforward. A strategic plan will be required with input from management, and department leads throughout the company to maintain efficient production.

Sequence of Activities

Human Resource Plan

Phoenix Warehouse and Logistics, a warehouse and shipping company, is looking to update its tracking, shipping, receiving, and inventory software from version 1.0 to 2.0. The software is being updated at a central loading station far from the current computer location. To facilitate buy-in, providing progressive information is required. In addition, hands-on training is needed to equip personnel with the skills needed to operate the software. Project documentation will be needed to reference and train future personnel. Lastly, the personnel to roll out the project will be borrowed from other management areas within the company.

Performance Measurement

The three performance measurement practices available for evaluation include the balanced scorecard, performance prism, and the performance pyramid. All three have some common aspects; first, they all describe, implement, and manage strategy at every level in the organization; second, they all consider the needs and wants of stakeholders; third, they include non-financial performance measures; fourth, they consider the objectives of the organization in selecting operational performance indicators.

These similarities of the performance measuring strategies align with the main characteristics of a performance measurement system, which are providing a clear overview of the performance of an organization and being integrated across the functions of the organization and through the organizational hierarchy (Tonchia, S., & Quagini,2010).

All three performance measurement practices also have their differences. On its part, the balanced scorecard has the following unique characteristics: it complements financial performance measures with other non-financial performance measures, is mainly designed to offer senior managers a general view of performance, and lastly, is designed as a controlling and monitoring tool instead of an improvement tool (Munir & Baird,020). The Performance Prism has the following unique characteristics: it does not consider existing performance measuring strategies and offers limited information on how the performance measures will be realized. Lastly, the Smart Performance Pyramid has the following unique characteristics: it does not offer any strategy to identify the main performance indicators and does not integrate the concept of continuous improvement (Sorooshian et al.,2015).

Based on the unique characteristics the balanced scorecard has the most unique characteristics because it focuses on four strategic perspectives, which are the customer, the financial, the learning, and the internal processes (Julnes & Holzer, 2014).

Financial Compensation and Rewards

The appropriate financial compensation and rewards will include Variable pay, Bonuses, Profit sharing, and Stock options. First, variable pay involves considering part of an employee’s salary as “at risk” and tying it to the company’s performance, a person’s accomplishment, results of a business unit, or combining them. Second, bonuses will include rewards based on accomplishment. Third, profit sharing includes creating a pool of funds to be distributed to employees by taking a specific percentage from profits. Lastly, stock options allow employees to buy a certain number of shares at a fixed price for a specific period of time.

Rationale for Selecting the Financial Compensation and Rewards

All four compensation and rewards plans should be used together throughout the project to ensure that employees get maximum motivation. First, variable pay will motivate the employees to effectively update the software within the required time to avoid too much system downtime because this would lower the company’s overall performance. Second, Bonuses will encourage employees to dedicate more of their time to updating the software, thus preventing too much system downtime. Third, Profit sharing will encourage employees to ensure that the software is updated in the right way to increase profit. Lastly, Stock options will give employees a sense of belonging hence motivating them to do what is required to improve the performance of the company.

Overview of Human Resource Plan

The human resource plan for the project will be illustrated above.

The plan components and aspects will be as follows: matching skills and project needs will include evaluating the skills needed in the project and determining what additional skills and resources are needed. Employees will then be trained to equip them with the skills required for the project. Accounting personnel will be in charge of ensuring that the expenses incurred in the project are well documented and accounted for. System downtime will be regulated by ensuring that it only occurs for a short time to avoid interfering with vital processes in the organization.

Risk Management Plan

Potential Risks for The Project and for The Portfolio to Which the Project Belongs

One of the potential risks for the project is tight schedules. Phoenix Warehouse and Logistics has fifteen computers that require manual software updates within the shortest time possible to prevent affecting operations due to long hours of system downtime. This is a serious threat because it belongs to the operational portfolio. The employees in charge of developing the software may, therefore, face pressure from management and stakeholders to deliver the project earlier than expected, especially because the organization does not have a lot of resources to sustain the project for long. Hassanien & Skow (2012) argue that tight schedules could also result in project failure due to a lack of commitment among project team members when they face too much pressure from their seniors.

The second risk is budget changes. This type of risk belongs to the operational portfolio and mainly occurs due to scope creep. Madhuri & Suma (2017) defines scope creep as when a project is started with a set of well-defined, clear requirements, but as the project team approaches the last part of the project, many requirements are deleted or added, creating a huge mess. In the Phoenix Warehouse and Logistics, scope creep may occur due to the limited availability of the resources required to complete the project because this could lead to budget changes exceeding the budget set aside for the project. An increase in the project’s budget may lead to putting the project on hold until there are enough funds to complete it.

The third risk is inaccurate estimations. This risk belongs to the operational portfolio and is common in software update projects because it is hard to avoid estimations due to pressure from stakeholders to increase operational efficiency and productivity (Galorath & Evans, 2006). Inaccurate estimations arise from underestimating the length of a project or iteration and setting unrealistic milestones. In the Phoenix Warehouse and Logistics project, inaccurate estimations may occur because the company is borrowing employees from other management areas within the company to complete the project. The productivity of these employees may be reduced by the fact that they are not working in their area and are also required to complete the tasks assigned to them in their area.

The fourth risk is technical debt. This risk belongs to the operational portfolio. Technical debt usually arises from poor-quality code, which mainly occurs when projects are underestimated, and developers rush to complete the project within the timeframe provided by project stakeholders. Technical debt is defined as any code that decreases software project agility in the long term (Wiese et al., 2021). In the Phoenix Warehouse and Logistics project, technical debt could arise from taking shortcuts when writing the software update codes to complete the project within the shortest time and avoid using a lot of resources.

The Likelihood and Impact Analysis of the Identified Risks

The likelihood of the occurrence of inaccurate estimations, budget changes, technical debt, and tight schedules risks is high. This is mainly because of the limited resources set aside for the Phoenix Warehouse and Logistics project and the limited number of trained employees to complete the project. Inaccurate estimations may occur because the employees may take more time to complete the project than expected because the updates are being done manually, and there are only two employees to do it. The employees performing the update may also take more time because they have other duties and responsibilities to meet in their management areas. The main impact of inaccurate estimations is putting the project on hold until the company gets the resources required to complete the project or postponing the project. Inaccurate estimations will create budget changes because employees need to be compensated for the time spent completing the project. This may have the same impact as that of inaccurate estimations because the company already has limited resources. The main impact of tight schedules is a technical debt that may arise because the employees are working to meet a tight deadline, and the pressure from management to meet the expectations of stakeholders may force them to take shortcuts so that they take the least time possible.

Plan for Managing Responses to Portfolio and Project Risks

One of the things that will be done to manage responses to portfolio and project risks is conducting a requirement analysis. The analysis will focus on ensuring that all the resources needed for the project are available and there is a backup in case additional resources are required. The second thing is deriving the scope of the project by actively involving all stakeholders. This will allow the employees in charge of the software update to express their concerns relating to the project scope and timeline to ensure that they are comfortable with the timeline and scope provided. The third thing is collaborating with employees to identify risk events and come up with solutions. The main risk events that will be considered are lack of resources, incorrect specifications or requirements, poor communication between stakeholders and the employees in charge of updating the required software, and an incompatible update environment.

Project Control Plan

One of the control mechanisms for the Phoenix Warehouse and Logistics is setting a committee for general management of cost and schedule collection, analysis, and reporting of project data on scheduling, planning, change management, cost control, information management, and management of the project’s progress. The committee will consist of one employee, one owner, one direct software user, one indirect software user, and an accounting personnel. The committee will be in charge of coordinating risks and reporting on how the project team members are dealing with the risks. The committee will also be accountable for reporting the performance of the project on a weekly basis, ensuring that all project deliverables are met, and updating and maintaining project control. The second control mechanism will be regular cost control during all the phases of the project by setting up cost estimates and monitoring and reporting the actual expenditure of the project and commitments against the budget approved by the project owners. This will help in early registration and identification of deviations and trends, enabling the project team to control the project (Taylor, 2008). The third control mechanism will be regularly reporting value for the completed work and assessing the cost of the remaining work to detect any potential under or over-expenditure to ensure that the right action is taken on time. The fourth mechanism is consistently applying the work breakdown structure in the scheduling and planning of the project, controlling progress and cost, and updating project documents. The fifth mechanism will be applying the cybernetic control approach, which concentrates on outputs (Lent, 2013). In the Phoenix Warehouse and Logistics project, the outputs are improved efficiency after updating the tracking, shipping, receiving, and inventory software. The company, therefore, expects a positive change in these activities after the use of the software. Reduced efficiency of the software in completing these activities will therefore imply that the software update was not successful, thus creating a need for another update. The employees in charge of the update can be held accountable for the error and be required to repeat the project to achieve the desired output.

References

Galorath, D. D., & Evans, M. W. (2006). Software sizing, estimation, and risk management: When performance is measured, performance improves. CRC Press.

Hassanien, S. S., & Skow, J. B. (2012). Quantitative risk assessment for project schedules. Volume 1: Upstream Pipelines; Project Management; Design and Construction; Environment; Facilities Integrity Management; Operations and Maintenance; Pipeline Automation and Measurement. https://doi.org/10.1115/ipc2012-90548

Julnes, P. D., & Holzer, M. (2014). Performance measurement: Building theory, improving practice: Building theory, improving practice. Routledge.

Lent, B. (2013). A cybernetic approach to project management. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32504-5

Madhuri, K. L., & Suma, V. (2017). Introduction of scope creep life cycle for effective scope creep management in software industries. International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 27(4), 557. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijise.2017.10008234

Munir, R., & Baird, K. (2020). Performance measurement systems in banks. Routledge International Studies in Money and Banking.

Sorooshian, S., Aziz, N. F., Ahmad, A., Jubidin, S. N., & Mustapha, N. M. (2015). Review on performance measurement systems. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n1p123

Taylor, J. (2008). Project scheduling and cost control: Planning, monitoring, and controlling the baseline. J. Ross Publishing.

Tonchia, S., & Quagini, L. (2010). Performance measurement systems. Performance Measurement, 35-59. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13235-3_4

Wiese, M., Riebisch, M., & Schwarze, J. (2021). Preventing technical debt by technical debt aware project management. 2021 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Technical Debt (TechDebt). https://doi.org/10.1109/

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Assignment Content

A Project Management Plan has many components. Some aspects of the plan are introduced in future courses in the Project Management Certificate program. For the purpose of this assignment, include only the elements of the Project Management Plan discussed in this course and the preceding course in the Project Management Certificate program.

Create a Project Management Plan in which you include the following:

The WBS created (from Wk 2)
The activities defined (from Wk 2)
The sequenced activity chart or diagram (from Wk 2)
A human resource plan (from Wk 3)
A Communication Management Plan (from Wk 4)

Develop a 700- to 1,050-word Risk Management Plan in which you include the following:

Potential risks for the project and for the portfolio to which the project belongs
The likelihood and impact analysis of the identified risks
A plan for managing responses to portfolio and project risks

Write a 350- to 525-word Project Control Plan in which you briefly discuss control mechanisms for this project.

Create a 175- to 350-word introduction and executive summary for the plan, and place them at the beginning of your completed Project Management Plan.

Format your project plan consistent with APA guidelines.

Instructor Notes: This assignment is a complete project plan. Some sections come from the previous week’s work. You will need to add an introduction and executive summary and also create your Risk Management Plan and Project Control Plan. Most of you will need to add to or adjust the work from weeks 2, 3, and 4.