ICT Project Management: Realistic Scenario

Problem

The main problem in this situation is poor relationships between project stakeholders (Jim and Nick). Jim is the middle manager who informs the management about the project progress while Nick is the project manager in his department. Poor relationships between Jim and Nick lead to communication problems and affect the progress of the problem.

Realistic Scenario

This case reflects a real situation that happen in many project teams. Often, members in a project team may conflict due to difference opinions or views. While conflict within the team is healthy, failure to manage can adversely affect the project. Unmanaged conflicts between team members lead to dysfunctional conflict which hampers communication in the team (Buss, 2011). As a result, relationships between team members worsen creating an uncooperative setting where each member sticks to his or her opinion hence the project fails.

Good Project Manager

Based on the facts presented in the scenario, Nick is a poor project manager. An effective project manager is a good communicator, problem-solver, and focuses on ensuring optimal productivity to meet project objectives. Nick Carson is a poor project manager who cannot effectively communicate with project stakeholders and forge relationships to ensure objectives are met. Instead of resolving relationship issues with Jim, Nick fails to communicate with him creating an unconducive environment for the project.

Senior Management Action Plan

The senior management in the company should have focused on forging positive relationships between Jim and Nick. The management should have called the two to a project stakeholders’ meeting to resolve their differences. Both Jim and Nick could have expressed their divergent issues to indicate their position on the project. Based on this, the management would have forged a positive relationship the two and align their goals to focus on meeting the objectives of the project.

Effective Project Manager

For Nick to be a good project manager, he could have focused on forging relationships with every project stakeholder including Jim. This would have helped in establishing clear communication channels vital in the project. Additionally, he could have communicated with Jim to resolve their differences and align their efforts to make the project a success.

Project charter for the ICT project.

Project Title: School Information system Project

Date of Authorization: January 1

Project Start Date: January 1

Project Finish Date: March 21

Key Schedule Milestones

Complete development of the system prototype by Feb 21

Finish system testing by March 1

Budget Information:

The firm has allocated a budget of $100,000 to cover the costs incurred in the project. Majority of the project costs will be the human resources required in developing and testing the system. Other costs will be incurred by resources required in the project such as testing tools and server environment.

Project Manager: James Watson

Project objectives: The project outcome will be a distributed system that can simultaneously run in different machines and support school operations such as processing student data and giving reports. The system will support easy input and retrieval of data and integrate security features to only allow authorized users to access the student information. Overall, the system developed will that offer the school information management functionality to store, process, and retrieve student information.

Main Project Success Criteria: The end result of the project is a system that meets the expectations and needs of the school. The system will be approved by the project owner after it is tested and validated by end-users.

Approach:

Recruit team members with knowledge and expertise in programming and information security standards

Within 3 days, develop a work breakdown structure, project scope, and Gantt chart detailing project tasks and the roles of the team members

Acquire PCs and IDE tools vital in system development

Hold daily meetings with the team to review the progress

Hold weekly meetings with the project sponsor to inform and review the project progress

Conduct software testing after development and test functionality after deployment

Roles and Responsibilities

Work Breakdown Structure

Gantt Chart

1. Please list down all tasks that fall under the critical path for this project

There are various project tasks that will affect the project schedule if delayed. These project tasks include:

• Requirement gatherings
• Design Database
• Software design
• Interface Design
• Develop System Modules
• Integrate System Modules
• Perform Integration testing
• Install Software
• Training

1. Please show proves that you have participated thru online discussion between your partners. Please CC your email to me, the ‘stakeholder’

Re: Student Information System Project Update

Hello Sir,

I wanted to give you an overview of the project progress:

Currently, 75% of the project milestones have been achieved.

All the project objectives in the project planning and design phase have been achieved

50% of the milestones in the development phase have been realized.

The project team has started testing phase which will be completed once system modules are integrated.

We are currently tracking 5 unresolved bugs via our bug log. 2 of the bug logs have been marked as high priority and our team is focusing on resolving them. Also, the bug log has 2 feature additions which are will be approved. We have just completed developing system modules for each functionality of the system and we’ll be uploading the latest work to the test server for your review within 6 days.

The next milestone we are aiming to achieve is integrating system modules into one system and testing the system functionality. We are aiming at achieving this objective by the end of next week (Feb 9).

The project team is waiting to receive test student data from the examinations department. Without the data, the system will be deployed but some components may not process the data.

Kindly contact me if you have any questions or issues. I will be happy to take you through the progress of the project and answer you as best I can.

James Watson (Project Manager)

References

Buss, H. (2011). Controlling conflict costs: the business case of conflict management. Journal of the International Ombudsman Association, 4(1), 54-62.