Major project
This assessment is to be completed in teams.You should begin by submitting the signed group participation form at the end of this document. This form needs to be completed and signed by all group members. Once submitted, the teams will remain fixed and no member additions or deletions will be allowed unless by approval of your unit coordinator. Objective(s) The objective of this assessment is to apply the knowledge and experience acquired with IT Project Management concepts, tools and methods gained through the lectures and activities to a Case Study Problem.
Case study
You are required to identify key project parameters during the phases of project life cycle which can accurately estimate the project flow and resources, project milestones and detailed cost estimation. You will also need to employ project execution and monitoring techniques which lead to a successful project closing, risk assessment and control and recommendations.
The following ULOs are assessed in this assessment:
LO1 Demonstrate ability to skilfully manage projects by putting to effective use various IT project management tools and techniques.
LO2 Critically analyse project parameters and identify the key processes from the available project management book of knowledge in practical case scenarios.
LO3 Independently analyse project flow, resources, timelines and budget requirements using PM Tools.
LO4 Apply emerging PM principles and state of the art tools to manage project scope, project time and resourcing.
LO5 Carry out research studies to provide expert judgement on the project progress and strategize contingency and fall-back plans to ensure project deliverables are met as planned.
Instructions
The purpose of this major project is to develop a well-analysed and well-researched project planning document based on the overall parameters of a project and establish the appropriate project management and quality environment required to complete the project. Since a business case has given, you must take this description as the basis to analyse and identify project issues, apply different project management tools and techniques to manage the project, conduct post-project review (i.e., lessons learned) and make recommendations for improvements for future reference. If you find that the description below is not detailed enough, you can make your own assumptions. But any assumptions must be reasonable and documented.
Atlas
Atlas is a health insurance provider in the southeast region. The company has employed the “waterfall” methodology for their software development projects. The waterfall methodology assumes that projects can be managed better when segmented into a hierarchy of phases, stages, activities, tasks, or steps. The waterfall methodology therefore directs a software development project to progress in an orderly sequence of development steps. This also means concurrent development steps of a project are prohibited. Atlas has experienced a rapid growth over the years. In just a short five-year span, the numbers of subscribers has increased from two hundred thousand to more than one million subscribers.
Management predicts even more growth. This number is only the subscribers, and their dependents are not included in this number. Therefore, the rapid growth of subscribers means extensive data to manage for Atlas. The company has been using Microsoft Access as their data management system. Atlas realizes the limitations of MS Access in managing large amounts of data, now that they have to deal with their aggressive demands. Therefore, an upgrade to more sophisticated data management systems is a must. After some research, top business managers decided to convert the database management system to Oracle, which should have been be able to provide flexibility, ability to manage huge amounts of data, expandability, and referential integrity.
The Project
To respond to this need, Atlas initiated a project whose purpose was to implement: Oracle database with proper connectivity to the existing system, and Safe data transfer from MS Access to Oracle Project Budget: $ 250, 000 Project Duration: 12 weeks The pharmacy department (PD) was responsible for the project and its cost. The PD selected Will Smith as the project manager and Rebeka Adam as the business analyst, both of whom were very experienced individuals. Will was the main person in charge of any problem/issue/concern regarding the project. He was responsible for all aspects of the project, including project schedule, development matrix, budgeting, and issue escalations. Rebeka was the major point of contact for the user. She was responsible for collecting all the requirements from the users and documenting them in the business requirement document.
