Proposed methodology for the project
The project mainly reflects on the development of a website for a manufacturing company. The main aim of the website is to present information about the company, its products as well as structure. The paper analyzes the characteristics of the project and further conducts appropriate analysis. The project proposes an agile project management methodology and further contrast it with the waterfall methodology. Additionally, the paper also proposes an implementation plan which helps in determining the lifecycle of the project. Furthermore, the paper also proposes an action plan for applying and customizing lean project management principles.
The website that is prepared for the manufacturing company focuses on presenting information about the company, its products as well as its structure. The main objective of the project is to expand the business of the organization in different areas of the world. After analyzing the characteristics of the project, the project manager proposes an agile project methodology. According to Srivastava, Bhardwaj and Saraswat (2017), agile project management is mainly based on an approach that helps in delivering different types of requirements iteratively as well as incrementally throughout the entire life cycle of the project (Abdelghany et al. 2019). Agile project management is identified to be suitable for the website project as proper changes are required in the website project on a continuous process, and agile methodology helps in embracing change by accepting the idea that requirements will generally evolve throughout the project. Furthermore, agile methods are mainly concerned with iterative delivery; thus, the project is delivered throughout the lifecycle of the project for creating a proper return on investment. As a website project requires proper testing in order to ensure that the developed website is running properly; therefore, agile is identified to be suitable as in agile project management, testing is mainly integrated within the project execution, which helps in maintaining the overall quality of the project. It is stated by Beerbaum (2021) that agile is an iterative process that helps in organizing a team that keeps on learning and growing in order to handle the uncertainties that mainly occur during the progress of the project.
It is opined by Ribeiro and Domingues (2018) that in agile, the customers always remain involved within the entire decision-making procedure, that further leads to high customer retention. It is identified that due to the involvement of the stakeholders, the project can generally be guided according to their feedback so that after delivery, they remain satisfied with the output. It is identified that keeping the customers within the loop during the website development project and making changes according to the feedback generally helps in delivering proper value to the customers, which further helps in ensuring that the final product will be delivered as per the requirement (Hayat et al. 2019). Agile also helps in allowing the managers to have proper control over the entire project because of transparency, feedback integration as well as proper quality control-based features. Proper quality can be ensured within the website development project due to the use of agile.
Waterfall methodology
The project can also utilize the waterfall methodology for the successful development of the website for the manufacturing company. As waterfall methodology helps in managing simple projects, therefore, the manufacturing company can utilize agile for the successful execution of the website project. With the help of the waterfall methodology, it becomes quite easy for the project team to gather as well as make all the requirements of the project upfront for successful development of the project in order to prevent uncertainties during the progress of the project (Andrei et al. 2019). The main benefit of using the waterfall methodology is that it is very simple to use, and therefore, even inexperienced project managers can be able to handle the work of the project quite successfully. The waterfall methodology utilizes a simple structure and generally helps in determining the end goal of the project early and further helps in transferring information which is quite necessary for the success of the project.
According to Rasnacis and Berzisa (2017), agile methodology embraces changes and thus accepts the idea such that the requirements of the project can generally evolve throughout the project. During the development of the website, changes can occur throughout the project, and successfully management of changes is necessary; therefore, agile is identified to be the best methodology for the project. On the other hand, it is stated by Akhmetshin et al. (2019) that the waterfall methodology generally leaves no room for unexpected changes or revisions. Therefore, it becomes quite difficult for the website development team to make changes, and as a result, they are unable to satisfy the project clients.
It is opined by Ibraimova et al. (2019) that in agile methodology, testing is mainly integrated within the execution phase of the project in order to maintain the overall quality of the project. During the development of the website, testing is identified to be quite important for maintaining the overall quality of the project and for determining the technical glitches and errors during the development of the system. The client also remains involved during the progress of the project, and as a result, they provide proper feedback on a time-to-time basis so that the proper quality of the project can be maintained. According to Ajam (2018), the waterfall methodology does not focus on quality; rather, it focuses on a simple structure where it becomes quite easy for the project team to execute the project. As testing will not be done properly, therefore, the quality of the website can get compromised. Furthermore, the absence of customers or clients during waterfall methodology can also create issues like dissatisfied clients as they are not involved in the project and are not given the opportunity to provide feedback during the progress of the project.
According to Bergmann and Karwowski (2018), the agile methodology helps in allowing managers to have proper control over the project because of its transparency, feedback integration as well as quality-based features. Additionally, if the proper quality is ensured within the implementation phase of the project, then all the stakeholders generally get involved in the process with daily progress reports through advanced reporting tools as well as techniques. Having proper control over the project generally helps in the successful management of the website development project and further helps in achieving the goals and objectives of the project. It is stated by Van Casteren (2017) that waterfall methodology helps in mapping the entire project into distinct as well as sequential phases; however, they do not successfully control the work of the project successfully, which further can create problems like schedule slippage and budget shortfall, which can impact the progress of the project quite negatively.
Contrasting two methodologies
According to Noguera et al. (2018), agile helps in increasing visibility as well as the chances of predicting risks which further comes with a proper mitigation plan and therefore, it becomes quite easy to manage risks that occur during the progress of the project. Improved predictability during the development of a website project generally helps in managing risks quite well that generally occur during the progress of the project. On the other hand, it is stated by Akhmetshin et al. (2019) that waterfall does front up planning in order to manage the risks that can occur during the progress of the project. However, it is not identified to be the appropriate model for managing the risks of a project like website development, and thus it impacts the progress of the project quite negatively.
It is identified that in order to implement the methodology to the project, it is necessary to propose an implementation plan that helps in determining the entire lifecycle of the project. The steps that are needed successfully implement agile in the website development project for a manufacturing company are mainly elaborated below:
- Concept: In the concept phase, the scope of the project is determined, which is further followed by a proper discussion of client requirements. Additionally, in the concept phase, proper documentation is prepared for outlining the features and for supporting the end result of the project. Moreover, it is advisable to keep all the requirements at a minimum such that they can be added in later stages of the project (Buganova, K. and Simickova 2019).
- Inception: After the outlining of the concept phase, it is time to properly build the software development for the project team. An owner generally checks availability and further helps in picking the best people while providing them with the right necessary tools as well as resources that are mainly required for the website development project. This is further followed by the design process of the project, where the team members will create a mock-up design for the interface of the project for building the right project architecture.
- Iteration: The iteration phase is considered the longest phase of the project, where the bulk work of the project will mainly be carried out. The developers generally work with the various UX designers to combine the product needs as well as customer feedback (Shastri, Hoda and Amor 2017).In this phase, proper work of coding, code validation as well as database development is mainly done in order to present all the functionalities in the website, which are mainly required by the clients.
- Release: After the iteration phase, the website is ready to release. However, the quality assurance team generally undertakes some of the tests in order to ensure that the website is working properly and there are no technical glitches or errors within the system. If bugs or defects are generally detected, then the developers will add them and additionally proper training facility is given in this phase to the stakeholders of the manufacturing organization. When all the above-mentioned work is done, then the final iteration is released (Jovanovic and Beric 2018).
- Maintenance: The website will be deployed in this particular phase and generally made available for the customers. During this particular phase, the development team helps in providing proper support for running the website properly and for identifying new bugs. Additionally, they also help in providing proper training to the users for ensuring the way in which the entire product can be used. Over time, the new iterations help in refreshing the website and further help in upgradation with proper features (Andrei et al.2019).
- Retirement: In this phase, the software development team notifies the users, which is further followed by carrying out the remaining end of life activities for closing the project undertaken.
The steps that are provided above are mainly used during the lifecycle of the project for successfully implementing the work of the project. By using agile methodology, the entire project plan for the website development project is mainly provided in Appendix 1. As per the provided project plan, the project requires a total time of around three months in order to successfully accomplish the goals and objectives of the project.
It is identified that in order to make the website development project lean, it is necessary to propose an action plan that mainly customizes lean principles.
- Define value: It is necessary to understand the value of the project, and it can mainly be done by conducting interviews, surveys as well as web analytics. With both techniques, it is necessary to uncover the needs of the customers (Singh et al. 2021).
- Map the value stream: Secondly, it is necessary to map the value stream as the main goal is to use the customer’s value as one of the reference points for determining all the activities that help in contributing to those values. In this step, the proper initiative is taken for reducing or eliminating the unnecessary processes or steps of the project, which further helps in reducing the total time (Galli 2018).
- Create flow: After successfully removing waste, the proper action is taken for ensuring the flow of the steps that are remaining for reducing interruptions or delays. In order to value add smooth flow, the project team takes different types of initiatives, including breaking down steps, levelling cross-functional departments as well as providing training to the employees.
- Establish pull: In this step, inventory and work in process items are limited while making sure that requisite materials, as well as information, are available for an effective and smooth workflow (Antony, Rodgers and Coull 2018).
- Pursue perfection: It is identified that wastes are prevented from the achievement of the first four steps. In the last step, lean thinking, as well as continuous process improvement, are used as a part of the organizational culture. Each of the employees generally focuses on perfection while delivering the project for meeting the needs of the customers.
Tactical waste can occur during the progress of the website development project, and it mainly occurs due to the reasons including improper communication, lack of clarity, improper documentation, insufficient training as well due to improper automation (Antony et al. 2021). The Tactical waste that occurs during the website development project includes wastage of equipment, wastage of resources as well as wastage of hardware. The wastage can be minimized if the project team generally takes the right initiative in managing resources managing materials as well as other hardware and software.
The five assumptions that are made and which are identified to be valid for managing the strategic waste are mainly listed below:
- It is assumed that if resources are used efficiently during the project, then the chances of occurring strategic waste gets reduced.
- It is assumed that if the project team do the right work as per requirement, then the chances of rework reduce, which also minimizes the chances of occurring strategic waste.
- It is assumed that it is important to use all the hardware and software that are accessed for avoiding strategic waste during the project.
- It is assumed overproduction or the addition of more features than the initial requirement must be avoided.
- All movement of resources must be done in the easiest way for reducing strategic waste.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that during the development of the website for the manufacturing company, agile is identified to be the best methodology. It is identified that agile embraces change during the progress of the project, and thus, it is identified to be best suited to the characteristics of the project. Additionally, the agile methodology is compared with the waterfall methodology and their importance in the website development project. The differentiation is done by reviewing a number of journal articles as well as research papers in order to make the right selection for the project. Additionally, the project team reflects the implementation plan of the project by using agile methodology and elaborates the significance of each of the phases during the project lifecycle. By using the information, a proper project plan is prepared, as per which the website development project generally requires three months’ time. Moreover, a proper action plan is prepared that helps in customizing lean project management-based principles. It also determines information regarding the tactical wastes that generally occur during the project and elaborates proper conditions where strategic waste can generally occur during the website development project.
Developing an implementation plan
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