MSG Team's other articles

11792 Warehouse and Materials Management – Need and Scope

Introduction Purchase of raw materials is an integral part of any business, i.e. manufacturing organization or service organization. Purpose of raw material is to be converted into finished goods for selling, but after purchase and before selling, they need to keep in safety and good care. The timeframe of storage can be short period or […]

10783 Components of Project Management and Stakeholder Management

There are several components of project management that encompass the spectrum of project management. Right from the initial setting up of the project to the closure, each phase brings a new set of challenges and components to the art of project management. Specifically, the project manager has to manage the team and take bottom-line responsibility […]

10272 Managing Technology in Operations Management

Introduction In last decade or so technology has changed the way organization conduct their business. Advent of technology in operation management has increased productivity of the organization. Technology and Operations Management The scope of Technology and operation management has evolved over a period of time and has moved from development of products into design, management […]

9702 How to Effectively Use Five Whys?

Although the 5 Why’s is an elementary tool when it comes to six sigma methodology, it is nonetheless important. Since there is a high degree of subjectivity involved with the usage of the tool, it is suggested that it be used only by a team of cross functional experts to obtain best results. Here is […]

8945 Digital Cash: Advantages and Disadvantages

There is a proliferation of electronic payment systems in the 21st century. Debit and credit cards have become the norm, and cash has become obsolete. However, many people still prefer to use cash because of some benefits that it offers. Up until now, people have been facing a choice between using the electronic medium and […]

Search with tags

  • No tags available.

Introduction

This article deals with the Automation project for a maintenance project in a software company. The project involves automating the processes that are discrete and disparate into a centralized monitoring mechanism via a tool developed for this purpose.

This article lists the scope and the different aspects like resource and schedule planning along with the network diagram and the work breakdown structure.

Project Scope

The scope of the project is to develop an automation tool for centralizing the processes of the work stream. This includes:

  • Developing the dashboard as well as the database required for such a purpose.

  • Listing out the functional requirements that include monitoring the processes for SLA compliance and throughput definition.

  • Maintaining access rights with varying levels of control for the different layers of management.

The timekeeping and other administrative functions are not part of the tool and hence out of scope. The scope is directly related to the output of the deliverables that include the front end and back end components as discussed above.

Resource and Schedule Planning

The project involves having a team of six resources dedicated to the project with a team leader included to oversee the development team.

The resources would be divided into two teams:

  1. One team is responsible for design and development and the other team doing the requirements and testing aspects.

  2. The second team would have the functional expertise in mapping out the requirements as well as translating the same into usable specifications for the first team.

Further the expertise of this team is to be utilized for testing as well as they understand the scope and the functional aspects of the same.

The schedule of the project would be for a period of two months. The first couple of weeks would be for the requirements from the various stakeholders and the next month would be spent in actual design and coding. The last couple of weeks would be spent in testing and implementing the tool.

Network Diagram

Network Diagram

Critical path is as listed above. Since this project involves straight through development, the critical path would be the same as that of the SDLC phases.

Effect of crashing the schedule

In case the schedule is crashed, the requirements phase can be merged with the design phase with parallel activities. This would involve moving beyond the normal “waterfall” model of SDLC and instead having an agile methodology.

Effect of Level loading the resources

The two teams of the resources can be used interchangeably with the requirements that the skills sets of the resources to be the same.

Risk assessment

The risk management plan for the project would be having the following items listed as potential risks and their mitigation plans:

  • Resource risk: divided into two components in terms of knowledge acquisition and attrition risk. The first component is mitigated by training and knowledge sharing and the second component is mitigated by documenting the processes and knowledge management

  • Scope creep: Any changes to scope must be approved by all the stakeholders with costs to be shared.

  • Variance: Any variance in the budget due to time, cost or quality constraints (the “triple constraint”) should be dealt by all the stakeholders. This is to be done by regular status reporting and identification of potential issues to be resolved by the various stakeholders

  • Technology: Any change in technology would pose an immediate risk to the project and it should be ensured that proper technology is selected for the same.

Conclusion

This article has attempted to portray some aspects of the project management processes taking an example of an automation tool for a maintenance project in a software company. While this is by no means comprehensive, it does address some of the questions listed in the assignment.

Article Written by

MSG Team

An insightful writer passionate about sharing expertise, trends, and tips, dedicated to inspiring and informing readers through engaging and thoughtful content.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

Costs in Project Management – Costs associated with the Projects

MSG Team

Communications Management during Project Planning

MSG Team

Bidding as an Essential Skill for Project Managers

MSG Team