Background and Environment
Every project follows a particular process, techniques and tools for the management of the project. The success or failure of any project is dependent on the project management plan and process establishes and followed during the project. The application of the project management plan and techniques are based on the characteristics and nature of the undertaken project. Apart from that, the scope, time and resources available for the project has significant impact over the process and plan developed for the project.
In this report, an existing project has been considered for critically analyzing and evaluating the various concepts of project management methodologies has been used. The review and analysis reveals the details of the process and its impact within the project. Based on the information gained from the analysis, an alternative solution has been provided for managing the scope, time, budget and quality of the particular project.
Project Background: The project selected for the analysis of the project management plan followed and analyzing the plan deals with the enhancement of the web site application used for account opening by USA-based investment bank, ACIC. The project aimed at enhancing and modifying the existing system with the addition of various process like trade activity, order status, valuation, account station and reopening of closed account.
Project Environment: The project for the enhanced website based banking system would assist the users with access to internet for opening brokerage account with the bank. In addition to that, the system will also allow the bank employees to open accounts of the customers who have applied through traditional method. The initial project for the development of the web site application was developed by Infosys. The current project for improvement would assist ACIC in evolving and enhancing the customer services and application for account servicing.
Definition: Lientz, and Rea, (2016) have illustrated the scope management approach as the techniques and plan used for effective identification and mapping of the project objective. The vital aim of the scope management plan is to ensure that all the scope are achieved and obtained within the project (Serra and Kunc 2015). With the application of the “scope management plan”, the scope are defined, developed and verified for the undertaken project. The scope management approach has three significant facet as plan, control and close. In the plan phase, the project manager identifies the scope and requirement, while developing the plan for ensuring the achievement of all the scope.
Scope Management Actual Approach
Approach applied in selected project: In the selected case study for the enhancement of banking web application, structure systematic approach was followed for completing the project. The particulars of the scope identification includes developing efficient process for managing the account activities, providing access to the bank representative for accessing information, enhance updating process and provide better interface to the bank website application. But the scope identification process in the “bank website application” project fails to evaluate and declare the out of scope within the project. Work Breakdown structure was utilized in the project for the identification of the various activities and ensuring all the factors of project scope were included in the project plan.
Advantage and Disadvantage: The selected project is categorized as technological improvement project and systematic structure approach was used for scope management. The relevant advantages and disadvantages of the selected scope management plan includes:
Advantage: The process allowed in planning of the sequential activities while defining the responsibilities of all the project team for achieving the scope (Bryde, Broquetas, and Volm, 2013). In this process, the project phases does not overlap and ensures easy management of the tasks.
Disadvantage: The most significant disadvantage of this model is it does not allow the addition of new scope within the project. Furthermore a small modification or change occurred in the project results in significant change in the project.
Alternative Approach: Serra and Kunc (2015) showed that the project scope management can be improved for enhancing the standard and quality of the undertaken project. According to Kakola and Forselius (2015), the project scope and requirements are identified in the initial stage of the project. The application of the agile methodology during the project development provides simplicity and flexibility to the process. Bryde, Broquetas and Volm (2013) showed that Agile Methods follows continuous and small iteration of the activities and process, with easy integration of new scope within affecting the progress of project. The project time, budget and scope are the three significant constrains that needs to be maintained during the completion of project. Hodgson, Tuuli and Brooks (2013) illustrated that changes made in project scope results in the significant changes in the project timeline and initial budget developed for the project. The project manager and project client needs balance between the three constrains for implementing a particular scope change request within the project. The use of the flexible agile methodology during the enhancement of the banking website, would allow the project manager to incorporate additional scope for enhancing the quality of the project. Furthermore, Agile process incorporates the customer feedback and review after completion of each iteration, that helps in improving the quality, standard and increased customer satisfaction.
Scope Management Alternative Approach
Tools Used: The application of the sprint backlog tools the undertaken project using agile methodology helps in managing and controlling the scope (Shirazi, Kazemipoor, and Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, 2017). The use of sprint backlog helps in identifying the tasks that needed to be completed for achieving the project scope. Sprint backlog allows the estimation of the duration and process required for completing each task (Dalsasso, and de Barros, 2016). The sprint backlog is used for collaborating between the project manager and project team for developing the required website application for the bank.
Advantage: The main advantage of using agile methods for managing the scope is the flexible nature of the process (Fleming, and Koppelman, 2016). The Agile process provides easy adaptation to the scope change within the project.
Disadvantage: The application of the agile process in the scope management allows small and continuous development of the project. Therefore, the prediction and determination of the total effort and resources for the project is difficult.
Definition: Time allocated for the completion of the project is considered as one of the significant factor. The delay in the project or inappropriate management of time for the project completion often results in increased budget or reduced quality. Every project needs to develop a proper “time management plan” for efficiently completing the undertaken project within allocated deadline. Fleming and Koppelman (2016) have illustrated “time management” as the particle process for efficiently use and organize the time for effective planning and productivity from the project activities. The process for developing an appropriate project management plan needs to follow various steps including the identification of the activities required, defining the sequence of activities, estimating the resources required and duration of the identified activities, Based on the information, the project schedule is developed and a plan for controlling the schedule.
Approach applied in selected project: In the project for the development and modification of the website for the banking system, Gantt Chart has been applied for managing the time. Since the project plan has been developed based on the systematic and sequential approach, the application of the Gantt Chart has allowed the project manager for proper monitoring and control of the sequential activities. Corvello, Javernick-Will and Ratta (2017) have illustrated that the Gantt Chart provides a detailed visualization of the activities along with the monitoring of the deadline and progress. For the banking system development project, Microsoft Project Software has been used for developing the gnat Chart with the proper allocation of the duration and resources required for completing any particular activity. Apart from that, Bryde, Broquetas and Volm (2013) showed that the Gantt Chart provides the visual representation of the critical path defining the critical activities that needs to be completed for ensuring the timely completion of the banking system.
Advantage and Disadvantage of Alternative Approach
Advantage: The Gantt Chart allows organization and demonstration of the activities using time frames. In addition to that, the modification of the schedule is reflected in real time within the Gantt Chart.
Disadvantage: The bars used for representing the activities does not represent the amount of work hour or effort required for completion.
Alternative Approach: The development of the bank website enhancement project can be developed using the procedure and process of Agile Methodology. Verzuh (2015) showed that the most critical and complex part of Agile Project is the small, and continues repetition of the task flow for completing the project. Both tactical and strategic process of time management are supported by Agile. On the other hand, developing the time management process in Agile allows prioritizing the work speed and velocity in the project. The use of user stories in each iteration of the task allows the project manager in determining the appropriate velocity and resource required for development of the bank website project. The average velocity of each iteration can be determined with the monitoring of the time duration and number of user stories used in initial fey iteration of the project. According to Beringer, Jonas and Kock (2013), the application of Agile Methods provide systematic synthesis of time required for achieving both long and short times goals.
Tools Used: For the proper management and utilization of the time required for project completion, the project manager needs to use Burn Down Chart. Fewings, (2013) illustrated that burn Down chart shows the amount of user stories that has been completed within time and behind time. Since Agile Methodologies uses continuous iteration of activities for the development bank website, the application of burn down chart shows the total work and total effort required for completing the entire project. Léger et al., (2013) showed that the remaining project goals and time are used for indicating the flow and progress of the undertaken project.
Advantage: The iterative, the agile time management approach allows the project manager to smoothly incorporate any feedback and reviews within the project during the next iteration process. Furthermore, burn down chart easily visualize the risks associates with the user stores and provides a communication medium for the project team.
Disadvantage: Agile methodology uses continuous iteration and feedback from the client for various modules. The application of burnt down chart for the time management often results in the scope creep within the project. The process needs to be conducted with trained and experienced team members for managing time and user stories within small amount of time.
Time Management Actual Approach
Definition: Nath and Momin, (2014) have defined the project cost management plan as the various documentation, procedures and polices for controlling, expending, managing and planning for the cost required for project completion. The development of an appropriate plan for managing the cos ensures the completion of the development of the bank website within the allocated budget by the client. The initial budget are estimated and divided among the activities in the project during the planning phase (Kakola and Forselius 2015). The monitoring, tracking and controlling of the project budget are considered under the “cost management plan”. The project budget plan are extensively used for tracking and monitoring the cash flow and its impact over the quality of the website development project. The time required and resources available for completion of a particular activity have significant impact over the project cost.
Approach applied in selected project: The development and modification of the bank website has been developed with systematic approach. For the management of time, standard method of industry, EVA (Earned Value Analysis) has been utilized. Hodgson, Tuuli, and Brooks, (2013) cited that the EVA provides the forecasting of the total cost, and date while comparing the effort and work required for completing the website modification.
Advantage: The process of Earned Value Analysis (EVA) is advantageous for the agile management. The use of EVA provides periodic analysis of the cost for ensuring the cost parameter of the project as developed in the initial plan. In addition to that, EVA provides the analysis and monitoring of the development of the bank website development in term of cost, time and amount of work.
Disadvantage: The quality for the development of the bank website is not considered during the evaluation of the EVA for cost management. During the evaluation of EVA, thee cost are monitored in respect to the baseline developed with the initial prediction of cost estimation. The possibilities of uncertainties within the project cannot be included in the EVA cost management process.
Alternative Approach: In the alternative approach for developing the modification of the banking website, the project manager will utilize Agile Methodology for the incremental development of the website. The application of the product backlog allows the project manager in the cost estimation and allocation with the various smaller modules. Dalsasso and de Barros (2016) showed that the application of the resource allocation model for the estimation and distribution of the budget helps in controlling and monitoring the project budget. During the initial prediction of the project cost, the project manager needs to include the project team, possible user stories and external and non-human resources required for the completion of the bank website modification.
Tools Used: During the development of the bank website using Agile Methodology, the cost are encountered in all the iteration. Following the iteration process often results in delay of the project and over budget of the project. The use of the Product Backlog approach helps in prioritizing the identified user stories. According to Moustafaev (2014), the Product Backlog process provides management of the cost incurred due to delay of the project plan. The values allocated to the priority and estimation of the user stories allows the project manager to allocate the budget and determine the completion of the activity. Heldman, (2015) showed that being flexible in nature, the product backlog process provides the project manager to efficiently monitor and breakdown the cost of the total website modification project into smaller units.
Advantage: The process of product backlog allows the incorporation of change and modification within the development of bank website project. Therefore, the continuous change and modification within the agile iteration process are easily incorporated for the management of the cost. Product Backlog provides easy and detailed visualization of the risks within the project. Project manager takes the advantage of the product backlog for eliminating the issues and reducing the possibilities of cost overrun and project delay.
Disadvantage: The primary disadvantage of the product backlog is that it required trained and experienced project manager and project team for controlling the cost and completing the website development project within allocated time in case of delay. Apart from the initial development of budget for the first iteration is completely based on the prediction of the cost required.
Definition: According to Burke (2013), the development and following of appropriate “Quality Management Plan” allows the project manager to ensure the required standard and quality of the bank website as required by the client. Within the process of quality management, various threshold and baseline of schedule, budget, scope and standard are identified that needs to be obtained in order to provide efficient website quality. Fleming and Koppelman (2016) showed that the development of the “Quality Management Approach” are developed based on three basic principle, namely the identification of the quality standards, developing the plan for ensuring the quality and process for controlling and monitoring the required standard for the bank website development. Based on the plan, the project manager uses various tools and procedure for controlling the identified quality.
Approach applied in selected project: The initial project for the website modification was developed based on systematic and structured approach. Therefore, for controlling the quality of website and project progress, the project manager has used project audit reports and quality checklists. Schwalbe (2015) cited that the project report provides the complete financial status of the project while ensuring the resources and assists used for the website modification. The development of continues audit report for the project provides the financial statues and budget flow within the various activity module for the project. In addition to that, the project manager has used quality checklist for ensuring the completion of all the process and procedure for the project completion. With the application of the quality checklist, the project manager can list out all the activities and reports to be developed for ensuring the required quality within the website development.
Advantage: The advantage of using the regular audit and checklist report provided the project manager and associated team members about the accomplished task for ensuring quality. In addition to that, the checklist indicated the activities have has been already developed and the remaining activities that needs to be achieved for obtaining high quality during the development of the online banking website.
Disadvantage: The use of the quality checklist often limits the activity of the auditor to support and monitor the quality mechanism for the project. Further, the application of the checklist only monitors the quality facets that has already identified. Therefore, there are no mechanism or process of ensuring all the quality measured are included within the checklist.
Alternative Approach: For the development of the website modification project with Agile Methodology, the Quality User stories are developed. According to Shirazi, Kazemipoor, and Tavakkoli-Moghaddam (2017), the quality user stories considers both the inclusion of the business goals and user needs for ensuring the quality of the ultimate project. In addition to that, the use of the user stories helps in mitigating the issues and problems associated with the communication and understanding the user requirements. The application of the user stories breaks down the communication gap between the clients and project team for the development of the online website.
Tools Used: Turner (2014) showed that the application of “Quality User stories” are one of the significant tools and notation used for managing the quality in flexible agile projects. Phillips (2013) have defined the user stories as the features and requirements of various activities in the project in the perspective of the client and the targeted users. The application of the quality user stories allows the project manager to obtain high level of customer satisfaction through the project. The development of the quality user stories are made based on various significant characteristics namely traceable, modifiable, verifiable, stability, consistent, complete, unambiguous and correctness. In the development of the online website application with Agile Methodology, the project manager needs to ensure the application of three level criteria having completeness, consistency and uniformity within the project. Kerzner (2013) illustrated that the quality user stories in Agile Methods provides the project manager to focus on the resources and requirements for the project activities.
Advantage: The significant advantages using quality user stories within the project is that, it allows to include the user perspective of quality. According to Schwalbe (2015) the quality user stories allows the project manager to understand the expectation of the customers from the bank website. Therefore, through the development of the use case from the information gained from the user stories reveals the expected process of accessing the website.
Disadvantage: Burke (2013) showed that development of the user stories are the most vital and tricky part. The complexity in the quality user stories provides dissatisfaction of the customer and hinders the project from achieving the required quality.
Findings: From the analysis and review of the process and procedure followed in the systematic and structured project management and flexible agile methods, various information and data are obtained. Further the analysis and critically review of the used techniques of structural and sequential methods have revealed various limitations and issues that were faced during the development of the bank web application. For instance, the scope management process in the initial development of the website has not allowed the project manager to add and modify scope during the development. In addition to that, the time management approach and use of Gant Chart in the actual process of website development has not reflected the work and effort required for completion of the activities. Further the analysis of the EVA during the budget estimation and controlling has limited the project manager from including cost prediction in the future. Apart from that, the structure approach used in the project has no methods of reviewing the applicable selection of the quality factors.
Recommendations: Therefore, based on the limitations and existing issues, it has been recommended to apply the flexible agile method for the development of the bank website modification. The review and analysis showed that the application of the sprint backlog process in the scope management provides the project manager in effectively identify the required scope within the project and allows in incorporation of additional scope during the development phase. On the other hand, the application of burn down chart allows in effective monitoring and controlling the schedule and time in the iteration phase. Similarly, the use of “quality scope user stories” in the project allows the project manager in incorporate the customer feedback and perspective of the client for obtaining the required quality of the website development. The implementation and development of the online bank website modification using the Agile methodology required repetition and incremental development of the website. The development of the project within scheduled time and proposed budget can be obtained from the combined and collaborative approach of the team members. Therefore, the project manager needs to select trained and experienced team members for the development of the online website application. The development and modification of banking website required the implementation of the detailed testing phase for evaluating the functional and non-functional requirement of the website. Since the project will be developed in incremental process, the integration of the testing along the integration stage for identifying the issues and mitigating the problems in the next module of iteration phase of the project development. In the Agile Methodology for website development it has been recommended to include the customer feedback and review of the customer after the completion of vital module within the website. Therefore, this allows the project manager to include the process for eliminating the problem and issues while including thee customer feedback in the next iteration phase.
Reference
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