ISY2004 Information Systems Project Management – Time Sheets Implementation Project

Project milestones

The Steering committee of Time Inc.- an software International firm, with a footprint in 15 countries – has taken a decision to implement Time Sheets in all of its software centres. The goal is to enable the committee gain insight into how time is utilized across projects in various software centers. Primarily, the Committee intends to capture data relating to Cost of Quality and Resource Optimisation; enabling the committee to assimilate Project Management Excellence throughout the firm. The company has the intention of implementing a Time Sheet System that integrates with an Enterprise Project Management System; giving the management visibility into the projects across all the centers.

This project aims to research and recommend the best Time Sheet System to meet all the needs of the software centers. This project document presents a Gantt chart, a Network Diagram with a critical path, project Milestones, resources, a project budget, RACI table, potential risks and a probability / impact matrix of the risks.

Theoretically, a Gantt chart is a bar chart illustrating a project’s schedule. The project’s task on a Gantt chart are listed on the vertical axis while the horizontal axis contains the time intervals for the tasks (Slack, 2015). A Gantt chart therefore is founded on a project’s work breakdown structure, and aids in the planning, coordinating and tracking specific tasks in a project (Slack, 2015).

With activities, durations and interdependency between activities having been defined in the above Work Breakdown Structure, the Gantt Chart for this project is as follows. The activities highlighted in yellow represent the various milestones.

A network diagram visualizes a project’s schedule. The diagram plays a critical role in a project as it aids in tracking a project, identify the project’s critical path and visualize the project’s scope (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). The network diagram for this project is as presented below;

A milestone within a project is zero duration task that shows a key achievement in a project (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). The milestones corresponds to a clear sequence of events that incrementally build up until a project is complete. For this project, the milestones are as presented in the WBS and the Gantt Chart above and include;

• Have a working project team
• Complete a list of key processes and metrics
• Gain Stakeholders  agreement  on the preferred Time Sheet system
• Have the necessary licenses for the system
• Complete System Implementation
• Go Live

The milestones are all SMART; Simple, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time bound. Each milestone is defined after a series of activities which lead to the Milestone.

Project resources are personnel, facilities, equipment , finances that are used in carrying out the project activities (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016). Traditionally, projects are time and resource limited. Time and resources are on the opposite side of the ladder and are considered as the main trade offs. A project time schedule is influenced by how much resources are available for the project; Increasing resources to a project may in most times result in reduction of the time required for the project and vice versa (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016). For this project, the resources table is as follows;

Resources table

The project budget from MS Project is a bottom up budget estimation, where costs are calculated from resources allocated for per work package. The project budget for this project is as follows;

In a project, a RACIT table helps in organizing communication so that all stakeholders knows what’s happening (Larson and Gray, 2015). The RACI table outlines who is Responsible, Who is accountable, Who is to be Consulted and Who is to be informed on an activity (Larson and Gray, 2015).  The RACI table for this project is as outline below.

Risks in a project are unplanned eventualities that may negatively or positively affect a project (Chapman and Ward, 2003). As such, Risk management in a project is critical as it reduces the chances of the project failing the organization suffering financial and reputational losses. The purpose of a risk management plan is to guarantee that the risk and uncertainty levels for a project are identified, and proper management steps put in place; to ensure that potential threats are managed appropriately – thus ensuring the project survives any occurrence (AgroSciences, 2003).

• Identify and list threats that are likely to face the project
• Indentify and list project vulnerabilities that may turn into risks
• Identify possible effects of the identified risks
• Perform a Risk Likelihood and impact analysis
• Prioritize the risks
• Report on the risks
• Recommend measures to reduce risks and manage the risks

For this project, a number of risks have the potential to derail the project while others may have some positive effects on the project. Key among these risks include;

Scope Creep: If the scope is not well defined,  the project may go into scope creep, affecting the project’s schedule and budget in a negative way.

Lack of a solutions that fits the requirement: available Time Sheet Systems may not meet all the requirements of the envisioned system.

Insufficient requirement gathering: requirements gathered may fail to identify all the requirements of end users.

Budget Overran: the process of selecting and testing software suits may take longer and cost more resulting in a budget overran.

The project may run under budget: With an experienced consultant, the selection process may be shorter than planned, and cheaper resulting in cost saving.

Inadequate estimation of required resources; under estimation of resources required in the project resulting in schedule overrun.

Risk Register

A risk register details risks identified in a project , the classification of the risks based on their likelihood and impact , and the mitigation strategies for the risks (AgroSciences, 2003). The risk register for this project is as follows;

Under this section, the identified risks will be analysed for their Likelihood of occurrence and the impact they would have on the project if they were to occur. The analysis performed in this report used Jacobson’s window in ranking the risks (Chapman and Ward, 2003).

Conclusion

This project document has outlined a plan for the selection and implementation of a Time Sheet System at Time Inc. The project aims to select and implement a system that is will enable the Steering committee at Time Inc. to capture data relating to Cost of Quality and Resource Optimizations; to facilitate the assimilation of Project Management Excellence throughout the firm. The project will run for a period of 2 months, and will see all the 15 branches of the firm start using the envisioned Time Sheet system. The project document has presented a Gantt chart, a Network Diagram with a critical path, project Milestones, resources, a project budget, RACI table, potential risks and a probability / impact matrix of the risks.

References

AgroSciences, D., 2003, November. Risk assessment and risk management plan. In Dir (Vol. 40, p. 2003).

Chapman, C. and Ward, S., 2003. Project risk management: processes, techniques, and insights. Wiley.

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

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

Larson, E.W. and Gray, C.F., 2015. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK (®) Guide. Project Management Institute.

Slack, N., 2015. Gantt Chart. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, pp.1-1.

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