Project management

Project Initiation and Planning Report

Task

As the project manager you are required to present an initial project report to the project sponsor that shows how you propose to implement this project. As the project manager you may make any assumptions you think are necessary.

Case study – Grand Wines

You are an employee of Grand Wines Ltd and project leader of a proposed project to equip each of the company’s 20 sales representatives with a wireless data entry device by which they could instantly communicate customer orders to the company’s central sales database in Sydney. The sales representatives operate over all areas of NSW and service around 400 independent wine and liquor stores in the state.

Currently, the sales representatives complete customer orders manually and after leaving a copy with the customer, they forward the customer orders by mail or fax to the sales department in Sydney, where the orders are entered into the sales database and processed through the inventory system for shipment to the customer.

The problems with the current process are:

• At least one-day is lost in supplying customers with products because of the delays in getting orders into the system.
• Sales representatives do not know the latest inventory position of their products when they accept orders from the customer. Delays in delivery can result when orders are placed on “back-order” because of a lack of stock.
• Orders are often “lost” or entered into the sales database incorrectly through human error.
• The sales representatives and many customers are dissatisfied with the current situation.

Competitive wine companies have improved their order systems and are outperforming Grand Wines Ltd in terms of delivery speed, order accuracy, availability of ordered stock and overall customer satisfaction.

Your CEO has stressed the importance of the project to the company and asked you to use your skills as a project manager to make sure the project is successful by following the relevant project management processes.

You have been assigned a project leader of this project. Your manager has given you guidance that the project needs to be completed within 6 months and that costs should be minimised wherever possible.

Rationale

This assignment provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate that you are able to:

• describe the key elements of the IT project management framework, including project stakeholders, the project management knowledge areas, common tools and techniques, and project success factors;
• describe the role of IT project management as part of a profession, from the viewpoint of the practitioner as a member/leader of the project team;
• explain the relation of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guidelines to successful project management;
• appreciate how IT project management begins with development of a good business case in the project charter, in order to produce effective, efficient and quality IT project outcomes on time and within budget;
• demonstrate how a practicing IT project manager actually applies disciplined IT project management techniques, project management skills, methods, techniques and software tools in the IT industry.

Marking criteria

Project Integration:

Task 1

- SWOT analysis for proposed system

• SWOT Analysis is Correct
• Quality of presentation of answers

Task 2

- Project charter – PM, objectives, success measures, roles, approach

• Project charter format is correct
• Project approach makes sense
• Provided stakeholder information with their signatures
• Project Objective is correct

Task 3

- Stakeholder register and stakeholder analysis

• Stakeholder register and stakeholder analysis are correct
• Quality of presentation of answers

Project Scope Management:

Task 4

- WBS (level 2/3) – Word doc or MS Project

Project Time Management

Task 5

- Gantt chart

• Gantt chart is Correct
• Time allocated for each tasks and dependencies given makes sense
• Allocated resources for each tasks makes sense
• No overload of any resources

Project Cost Management

Task 6

- RACI matrix

• RACI table makes sense
• Quality of presentation of answers

Project Risk Management

Task 7

- Identify 6 potential risks for this project and write the risk register for all of them. Ensure one

of your risks is a positive risk.

• Risk registers given are realistic
• Risk register format is correct
• Quality of presentation of answers

Presentation

As you prepare your report, please don't forget to format it so that it is easy to read and conforms to the standard report format. All referencing in the project material must be in accordance with the APA style guide. A guide to the APA style of referencing (the style now used by the Faculty of Business) is available at:

Requirements

You must incorporate, as a minimum, the following specific project outputs:

Project Integration:

- SWOT analysis for proposed system

- Project charter – PM, objectives, success measures, roles, approach

- Stakeholder register and stakeholder analysis

Project Scope Management:

- WBS (level 2/3) – Word doc or MS Project

Project Time Management

- Gantt chart

Project Cost Management

- RACI matrix

Project Risk Management

- Identify 6 potential risks for this project and write the risk register for all of them. Ensure one of your risks is a positive risk.

Note: Include a list of assumptions at the beginning of your submission