Analyzing Factors Affecting The Failure Of The IBM Stretch Project Essay.

Cost

Discuss about the Concept of Project Management.

The process of project management can be considered as field, which can be applied to any concept. In these aspect different types of tools, techniques are skills are implemented to reach the outcome of the project. There are different phases, which are included in the concept of project management for example planning, execution and control as well as the time, which is one of the most dominating player in this aspect. The main aspect, which is very much crucial for the process of project management, is the initial phases of the process. This is mainly the phase where almost all the crucial parts, which are related to the project, are taken into consideration. The project, which is taken into consideration, is the IBM Stretch Project (Joslin and Müller 2015). This project is taken into consideration due to the factor that it has a range of factors, which are involved in it, which resulted in the failure of the project.

The main aim of the report is to put emphasis on the concept of project management taking into consideration the IBM Stretch project. The factors, which are involved in the concept, which resulted in the project failure, are taken into consideration. There are many factors such as cost factor and the concept of project overtime, which played a vital role in the failure issue.

Cost: The factor of price can be considered as one of the most important factors, which could affect the overall working of the project and the final delivery of the project. The aspects, which are related to the concept of cost, is the estimation of the cost, which would be involved into the framework of the project for its proper execution. In this context, it can be stated that the concept of estimation, budgeting and cost control are defined as the three unaffiliated processes. These factors are majorly interrelating on each other for their working and the process of the implementation (Schwalbe 2015). If the time of the project exceeds the desired estimation, it would be directly effecting the factor of cost. The cost issue can sometimes play a negative role for example if the cost of a project is decreased it would be effecting the quality of the project. The compromise sector of the quality can do a major harm to the organization who is involved into the scenario. In order to keep a track with the cost of a project it should be taken into consideration that the all the parameters which are related to the cost or the factors which can affect the cost are taken into consideration at the starting of the project. There are three sectors, which should be focused during the process of cost estimation, which are cost of the labor, the overhead cost that can be involved into the project and the administrative cost. In the project of IBM Stretch, the cost of the project was on the lower end due to the factor that the organisation wanted to make a software, which would be more advanced within the budget of the project. This mainly resulted in the project not reaching the expectation that is should have reached. It should be always taken into consideration that the in order to reach higher standard of quality the cost should be put on the higher end due to the factor that higher the cost of the project the higher would be the quality of the final product (Mir, F.A. and Pinnington 2014).

Schedule

Schedule: The process of schedule can be considered as a mechanism, which mainly describe the communication, which has to be created in the framework of the project relating to what has to be done in order to match all the criteria of the project. In this context the organisations resources, which have to be used, are also taken into consideration. The schedule can be stated as a document, which mainly consist of all the information relating to different aspects related to the project. People have different time schedule, different time of working and different leave aspects all these factors play a vital role in this planning and the scheduling of the project (Calderón and Ruiz 2015). There are different types of tool, which can be used in this context in order to get all the aspects together. The use of the tools can be very much beneficial form the point of the view of the planning purpose and the process of scheduling due to the reason that a project can have many moving parts involved into its working. These moving parts are can have frequently changing schedule; the software can be directly utilized in order to plan according to the schedule change. In many cases, the software can also create alarm, which can be used to get a clear idea that some type of issue is faced in the project either internally or externally. In this scenario, the quality of the product can also be judged by this concept. The main problem, which is faced by the IBM Stretch project, was the quality. The organisation tried to match certain standard of increasing the speed of the processing, which was not, reached which resulted in a complete project failure (Menzies 2014).

Quality: The term quality can be used to describe the standard of the quality, which is being provided to the customers. When it comes to the concept of project management, the quality aspect can be considered as one of the most important aspects, which should be, not be compromised. If the factor of the quality is compromised in most of the cases, the project can be a failure. The term quality does not always mean perfection or the quality of the service, which is generated but also implies the concept of consistency relating to all the phases throughout the project. In order to maintain the quality the team member, team manager and the stakeholders work together in a form of a team to reach the pre fixed goal of the organisation. In every team, there is a quality management team who basically take into consideration the aspect of quality planning, quality assurance and the concept of quality control. Some of the aspects, which are related to the concept of quality, are the performance, consistency, functionality, reliability and more. After taking into consideration the purpose, the means of achieving the goal can be defined.

Quality

Quality control: The quality control phase take into consideration the operation that are involved in the process to ensure the standard of the quality are reached. During the process of development if any problem arise, relating to the quality of the product or the service corrective action should be implemented immediately so that the impact, which the factor would be holding on the quality, can be rectified.

Quality planning: This phase can be considered as a step, which mainly defines the aspect of creating the quality plan. In every sector of project development, there should always be an objective or a goal and all the members work towards reaching the goal. The focus point, which is related to the concept of achieving the standard of quality, should be conveyed to the stakeholders. After the basic implementation phase is conducted, it should be taken into consideration the means of how to achieve the goal.

Quality assurance: The quality assurance tactics is mainly conducted throughout the process of implementation of the project. The process is mainly taken into consideration mainly to take into consideration whether the project is moving towards the goal and reaching the standard, which it is expected to reach.

Scope: The scope identifies the aspects which are involved in the process of planning the project. The project is considered as a viewpoint of external as well as internal working. This process is very much specific, tangible and measurable. In order to complete the project successfully the project manager and the user should be involved in it. The project manager in this context is directly responsible for getting the overall viewpoint of the project from the customer. Regarding a quality-oriented project as seen in the IBM Stretch project, it should have been taken into consideration how the project should be behaving before actual process of the implementation is started. The scope of a project mainly defines the following points (Kerzner 2017).

Deliverables: The project deliverables may include the objective of the project or what the project is intended to deliver to the client or the customers. The main aspect, which can be included in this context, is that how the final product would be looking like and what the system is expected to perform when the overall process of implementation is completed.

Milestones: This can be considered as an event, which can be considered a unique point in a project scenario. This is reached in some point of time during the development phase of the project. The segments of significant important task are included into the concept of milestone. It consist of a rough estimation of the resources, which would be used by the project, the time and the overall cost of the project. The milestones is constructed using the deliverables of the project.

Scope

Project objectives: the customer according to their requirement on how the project should be operating creates the project objectives. It is the role of the software developers to take into consideration all the aspects, which are related to the project objectives and deliver them to the customer. At the end of the project in order to see whether the project has been successful or not the project objectives are checked in order to see whether they have been meet or not.

Limit and exclusion: In the concept of framing up of the project, limit and exclusion should be very well defined during the start of the project. Failure of a project can lead to expansion of the resources and expectation as well as the concept of time. The review of the customer, internal and external check consist of the checklist of the scope (Jørgensen, Mohagheghi and Grimstad 2017).

Customer review: When a software or a product is delivered to the client, the review of the customer is very much important. The customer have the right to give the exact feedback after using the project. The review can be very much beneficial sometimes due to the reason that it can lead to the betterment of the product. Sometimes the feedback can also be harsh from the point of view of the customers due the quality or the service of the product (Fleming and Koppelman 2016).

There are many factors, which may be involved in the concept of cost overrun. The factors, which play a dominating role in this aspect, are stated below:

Unfeasible cost estimation: Taking into consideration the factor of cost should be considered as one of the vital aspects of any process of project. In most of the cases it is seen project face failure due to the factor that the cost related to the project are overturned. The main reason behind a project being budget overrun is that someone who is not experienced does the estimation of the project. At the starting phase of the project, it can be seen to be very much realistic but later on, it shows that it was very much unrealistic.

Underfinancing: The concept of underfinancing is that enough of the fund is not allocated to the project. This may result in the project not meeting the expected quality of the customer. It can sometimes lead to complete failure of the project due to underfinancing.

Prolonged project schedule: In most of the cases, it is seen that a project is running within the schedule time framework, it does not mean that the project is running within the constructed budget. It has to be always checked that both the factors of time as well as budget are within the limit. If one of the factors increase, it would be affecting the other factor.

Lack of backup plan: In many cases, it is seen that a project faces some problem relating to cost, resources or time framework. In such a situation back up has to be established which can be implemented at that time so that situation is made under control. If there, no backup plan the project would be at a high risk of getting to failure.

Underestimating project complexity: Large and complex project should have high amount of complexity added to them. This mean the factor of budgeting is very much crucial. If one of the aspects relating to it is ignored or not meet then the project would be ending up in a failure (Fernández-Alemán et al. 2016).

There are many factors, which are involved into the framework of project, which may result in time over run. Few of the important factors, which result in time over run, are stated below:

Not meeting the expectation of the client: In some cases it is seen that the project does the not meet the expectation of the client or the project is rejected by the client. Insuch situations the projects have to created all over again which can be a factor of time over run due to the factor that the project have to started again from scratch.

An element of labor: sometimes it is seen that the delay is from the end of the software who are the labor involved in the process taking into consideration any software development process. Taking into consideration when a project is facing some sort of complex scenario, the time, which would be needed by the deliver, would be on the higher end, which may cause time over run.

Client end delay: the client can also play a dominating role in the process of project time over run. This situation can be taken into consideration when a client wants any changes to the part, which have been already created according to the requirement of the project. Most of time the alteration have to done so that the client is satisfied with the service.

The IBM Stretch project failed due to the lack of proper implementation of the project, which resulted in the project not meeting the expected result. In any case, of development the pattern, which is followed by organisations, may vary which depends on the pattern of the project. It can be stated here that what project management process suits one project may not suite another project. however in some of the situation the basic framework remains the same. The major process, which should have been followed by the IBM Stretch project, is that the project should have been tested before the actual implementation was made and the problem should have been detected. The problem could have been converted into an architecture then the final design had to be made according to the solution and after this, the deployment process could have been implemented (Verzuh 2015). There are different roles which are involved in the project management concept which is very much vital for the overall working of the project and to reach the outcome of the project. The project execution team mainly incorporates this process. The responsibility of the project execution team and the members of the team are stated below:

Development Lead (DL): the development team always has a role to play in the process of development of the project. The group mainly provides a detail explanation or the concept of the architecture of the project. The development lead can be considered as the first line of control taking into consideration the overall working of the project. They mainly guide the developers through the implementation process with the focus of the theory issue. The theory issue is mainly generated from the customer, which provides a guideline onto how the project would be behaving when implemented.

Functionality Analysts (FA): the main role of the functionality analysts is to get a clear idea of the project from the project expert so that the planning of the project can be accordingly. This mainly consist of the transformation of the project and the overall working of the project is dependent upon the functionality analyst.

Quality Assurance (QA): It can be considered as a thankless position. The main role of this position is to find up bugs and report them. Not only bugs any sort of abnormality, which is seen, is detected by the Quality Assurance team. There are many techniques, which are used by them in order to conduct the job such as auto scripting technique and idea of data.

Subject Matter Expert (SME): The subject matter expert has the overall idea about the project and its overall working. They exactly know what has to be done into the framework of the project in order to reach to the desired success of the project. The role of the subject matter expert is very much fluctuating as the need of the clients can continuously change and modification has to make into it accordingly. The main point, which can be stated in this context it is also the role of the subject matter expert to meet the need of the client and know what the client exactly wants.

Developer (Dev): the role of the developer is guided by the developer lead. The developer works according to the requirement, which is provided by the developer lead. The developers provide the first implementation of the project taking into consideration the aspect of majorly developing the project.

Project Manager (PM): the project manager plays one of the vital role in the sphere of any project development process. He has the role of managing the team as well as checking into that the team is working according to the requirement of the project. The factors of time and cost can also be the role of the project manager. If a project does not meet the expectation of the client, the project manager is one of the person who is responsible for this.

Training: The concept of training is important due to the factor that most of the time technological advancement takes place and in order to gain advantage from the process training is the front-runner. The team who is involved in the working should be given appropriate training so that they can be more advanced towards the concept of technology.

Development Manager (DM): In case there are, multiple priorities and conflict are tackled by the development manager. The main aim of the development manager is to provide escalation for the team when anything related the project goes wrong (Jørgensen, Mohagheghi and Grimstad 2017).

The stakeholder’s role in ant process of project management can be considered very much essential. The main purpose if the stakeholders and their relationship can be plotted down into few points, which are stated below:

Functional manager: the functional managers are also known as the resource manager or the line manager. The role of the stakeholders are somewhat like the functional manager. They provide the organization with the policies for the people who are involved into the concept of development.

Sponsor: the stakeholders are the sponsors of the project. They plot down the budget, which should be needed for the proper execution of the project.

Project customers: They are a group of people who look after the requirement of the customer and directly convey it to the developers who would be actually implementing the customer’s requirement.

Project team member: They are the actual people who work in a team in order to get everything in place. It is the role of the team member to actually implementation project. They are responsible for looking into the project deadline and the budget of the project.

Successful delivery of the project taking into consideration all the requirement of the client can be stated as the most significant aspect of a project. The team members, the vendors and the stakeholders should actively work together in a team in order to meet the success of a project. There are few points, which should be taken into consideration that can be considered as the project management action, which would be helping to deliver the project on time they are:

Project definition

Obtaining the authorization of the project: the process of project management should be taken into consideration and implemented according to the need of the customer or the client. In this aspect in order to meet all the expectation, the project manager is assigned who has the job of looking after the proper working of the project. In order to achieve this a project carter is created which consist of all the elements of recognizing the projects formality, stating the scope of the project and the communication, which is very much important for a project to be successful.

Demonstrating the project feasibility and needs: this is mainly the documentation production. This ensures that the essential requirement of the deliverables and the project description. The deliverables over here means what exactly the project is going to deliver. This plan can also state the benefits, which would be achieved after the actual implementation of the project.

Apprising all the aspect of the project: This states how the project would meet the project objectives. In order to achieve so the aspects which are majorly taken into consideration re the risk which are associated with the technical safety, commercial and the aspects of the environment.

Planning of the project

Project scope description: This mainly consist of the project breakdown structure and how the project would be initiated and started.

Develop a project schedule: in this process, the breakdown of the work, which has to done, is formed. This is done using network diagram, text tables, Gantt chart or milestone chart.

Sequence project activity: The update, which should be received from the work breakdown structure, is achieved here. In this phase, the project network diagram can also be made.

Estimation of cost: in this phase the exact estimation of the cost is done taking into account all the aspects of the cost that can be taken into consideration.

Execution of the project

Project activity control: The aspect of scope and plan is updated in this phase. The evaluation of the task which are completed and the sectors where improve in the quality is needed is also checked here.

Execute activities of the project: The result of the work is created in the phase and the overall progress of the project is taken into consideration in this phase.

Closing out project activity

Closeout activities of a project: This phase can be considered as the most vital part, which finally documents the acceptance of the project towards the client. This is mainly plotted down on paper that the client has accepted the project.

The stakeholders also play a dominating role in the management action plan. They create an insight of the project. In most of the cases, it is seen that the project manager does not have a clear idea of the project; in such cases, the stakeholders play an active role in managing the overall project. The stakeholders almost every time have a clear idea of what the project is expected to do and can help the project manager in understand the basic concept of the project. They also take into consideration the risk, which can be associated with the project and implement back up plans in order to resolve the issue (Jørgensen, Mohagheghi and Grimstad 2017).

Conclusion

The report can be concluded on a fact that the project management is a very vital field and each and every sector such as cost, time and resources should be implemented properly. In order to achieve to a standard, which is expected form the point of view of the client the project manager, team and the stakeholders, should work together. In the case study, which is selected, it can be seen that due to lack of testing of the equipment in the initial stages the project was a failure. This is due to the factor that the project did not meet the expectation of the client. Because of which the cost of the product was lowered but this was of no use to the organization because it was already out of the market. The main aim relating to any development is that it should be according to the need of the customer so that they readily accept it.

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