Assessment 2: Project Management Information System Essay For Xero.

Examine the current state of organization and the context in which the IS/IT project is executed.

Consider the issues related to the quality of the project and evaluate the tools used to address those issues.

Investigate the leadership style used by the project manager to motivate the team members. Analyse the methods used for conflict management.

Examine the approaches used for stakeholder identification and evaluate the methods used for effective communication amongst the stakeholders.

Analyse the tools and methods used for planning and conducting procurement.

Examine the risks which would have a negative impact on the project and evaluate the tools used to analyse those risks.

Include how being a part of this subject has impacted your personal and professional journey into the global project management field.

Please consider some general instructions for preparing your assessments as given below.

Current State of the Organization

Xero is an Australian company that provides their customers with the online accounting software packages. In order to manage all of the customers and ensure the success of the projects that are undertaken, it is essential to provide the management with the information and knowledge to make accurate decisions. The project proposed for this purpose is a project management information system.

The current revenue earned by the company is 40.7 crores AUD per annum. With the change in technology and expansion of customer base, there are too many changes that have come up for the company to maintain the pace with the emerging innovations. The project is experiencing certain issues in terms of schedule overrun, budget overrun, loss of control, and deterioration of the quality of the project. The company includes the customers and employees from different cultural backgrounds and cross-cultural environment is promoted and supported in the organization.  

Knowledge and information are the two prime necessities of Xero to allow the Project Managers and senior leader to take accurate decisions for the project and the organization. There are five dimensions specified in association with the Project Management Information System (PMIS) viz. power distance, avoidance of uncertainty, individualism, collectivism, and long-term orientation. In order to meet the project requirements, agile is the development and implementation methodology that will be apt owing to its adaptive and flexible approach (Zwikael, 2009).

There are a few issues in project quality that have been witnessed. The first and the foremost is the loss of control that leads to the undertaking of lesser reviews and inspections. As a result, there are certain flaws and deviations from the original set of requirements that have been witnessed. The quality of the project has therefore deteriorated as a result. The gaps and areas of improvement are not signified. The changes are identified in advanced stages that lead to a negative implication on the schedule and budget of the project. The quality of the items and processes thereafter are negatively impacted as an outcome.

There are certain tools and techniques that may be used to maintain the project quality.

• Cause & Effect Diagram: It is the tool that may be used for controlling and managing the quality of the project being carried out for Xero, Australia. The set of problems are identified in this tool and all the possible effects of the same are represented using a graphical representation. The problems mapped with their effects will provide an overview of all the possible mis-happenings in the project and the control measures may be designed accordingly (Chen, 2011).
• Check sheet: The project management and leadership must prepare a check sheet for each of the project sprints to make sure that all the requirements as per the quality standards are achieved in a sprint.
• Control Charts: These are the graphs that shall be plotted during the entire project timeline and the changes that occur in the processes or methods will be represented using the same. The changes over a period of time will be possible to witness using these charts and the unwanted changes that may be impacting the project quality may be controlled as a result.
• Histogram: There are different functional and non-functional requirements associated with the project that are required to be fulfilled. The frequency distributed of the data sets and values will be represented using the tool and the quality control may be done as per the graph obtained.
• Pareto Charts: The quality of the project is directly associated with the costs and project schedule. This tool will provide a bar graph which will assist in controlling and managing the costs and time of the project. The project quality will be automatically improved and maintained as a result.
• Scatter Diagrams: The tool provides the representation in the form of X-Y graphs to determine the relationship between the values. The schedule-quality, scope-quality, and cost-quality graphs may be plotted to improve upon the quality of the project.

The leadership style that is followed by the Project Manager in this project is cross-cultural leadership. It is a style that allows the leader to remain fair towards the entities from different cultural backgrounds by implementing the policies for the benefit of one and all. The Project Manager is aware of the cultural styles and practices and the impact that it may have on the project. It offers the following set of advantages for the project.

• The team members from different cultural backgrounds are provided with the ability to work together and understand each other leading to enhanced team cohesion and team performance.
• There are effective ideas and opinions that are shared from the resources from different cultural backgrounds that assist in the project success.
• The planning and decision making skills of the Project Manager and the entire team are enhanced with a healthy work environment and knowledge necessary to make decisions.
• The team members are kept motivated by treating them with a fair and uniform approach common for all the members in the team.

Project Context

There are different resources and stakeholders that are involved with the project. These entities have varied skills, cultural background, style of working, and professional experience. Due to the existence of such varied parameters, there are situations wherein conflicts emerge among the members of the project team or with the stakeholders.

The method that is primarily used for resolution and management of conflicts is collaboration. According to this method, integration of the ideas of the conflicting parties is made by the Project Manager and the senior leaders. For instance, there were several opinions on the methodology that had to be used for project management and project development. The use of agile as a methodology was finalized integrating it with Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) as the project management methodology. The interests of all the parties involved were preserved as an outcome (Maylor, 2010).

In case of the ability to integrate the opinions and viewpoints, the responsibility of managing a conflict comes down on the Project Manager. There are meetings that are organized with the conflicting parties in presence of the Project Manager. The issues and points of conflict are politely brought up by the parties and the final decision is announced by the Project Manager.

The approach for identification of the project stakeholders included the implementation of different information collection techniques that were first carried out.

The techniques that were carried out to identify the project stakeholders included the brainstorming sessions that were organized. These were the events and sessions that were carried out to have detailed information regarding the project along with the parties associated with the same as the project stakeholders. The nature of these stakeholders was then determined through the second technique as interviews. The type of stakeholder as internal or external, level of interest, level of contribution, level of influence, and description was obtained as a result (Fageha & Aibinu, 2013). There was a stakeholder map that was then prepared to identify and analyse the stakeholders.

In order to make sure that the external stakeholders are provided with the project information and are updated regularly, there will be a weekly team meeting. The facilitation of this meeting will be done by the Project Manager and it would be essential to attend the meeting to maintain effective project communication. The mode of the meeting will be tele-conferencing mediums. There will also be emails exchanged between the stakeholders and internal team members to maintain the flow of communication.

Issues with Project Quality

Reporting is one of the essential measures for maintaining effective communication in a project. The reports shared with external project stakeholders are as listed below.

In order to make sure that the internal stakeholders are provided with the project information and are updated regularly, there will be a daily team meeting of internal team members and weekly meeting with the sponsor. The facilitation of these meetings will be done by the Project Manager and it would be essential to attend the meeting to maintain effective project communication. The mode of the meeting will be in-house meeting rooms and tele-conferencing mediums (Pak, Carden & Kovach, 2016). There will also be emails exchanged between the stakeholders and internal team members to maintain the flow of communication.

Reporting is one of the essential measures for maintaining effective communication in a project. The reports shared with internal project stakeholders are as listed below.

There will be tools and software necessary for the project and these will be procured from the third-party vendors. The techniques that shall be carried out to plan the procurement shall include the market research and analysis. These are the studies that shall be carried out to have detailed information regarding the trending tools in the market, cost patterns of the tools, and best vendor for the tool. The applicability and requirement of these tools shall be understood by conducting the interviews. The sessions shall be conducted with the experts to gain their viewpoint and the technique of expert judgement shall be used.

There shall be make or buy analysis that shall be done to decide upon the use of in-house tools or procurement of the same.

Meetings will be the final technique that will be used before making the procurement. There will be discussions carried out in the meetings regarding the procurement steps and processes.

There are various risks that are associated with the project that may have a negative implication on the project progress. Some of these risks with their description, probability, and impact levels have been included in the table below.

The levels of probability and impact are based on a scale ranging from 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest level and 1 being the lowest. The mitigation strategy has been mapped as per the score obtained and the nature and degree of impact and probability.

The analysis of the risks shall be done using the tools as listed below:

• SWOT Analysis: The Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats associated with each risk shall be done. There may be mechanisms that may be used to turn the impact of the risk from negative to positive. This may also lead to the emergence of certain opportunities that may be utilized in the project. All of such details shall be covered in this technique (Shaw, 2015).
• Cause & Effect Diagrams:  It is the tool that shall be used for controlling and managing the risks of the project being carried out for Xero, Australia. The set of risks that are identified in this tool and all the possible effects of the same are represented using a graphical representation. The risks mapped with their effects will provide an overview of all the possible mis-happenings in the project and the control measures may be designed accordingly.
• Information Collection Techniques for Analysis: The techniques that shall be carried out to analyse the project risks shall include the brainstorming sessions. These are the events and sessions that shall be carried out to have detailed information regarding the risk and its impact, probability, and response.  Interviews and observations shall also be carried out for data gathering around the risk (Wearne, 2014).

The project had a positive impact on the personal as well as professional journey.

On a personal level, the project assisted in acquiring of the soft skills, such as communication skills, team collaboration skills, and decision-making skills. There were details and information acquired around global project management along with the ability to have an understanding of the entities from a varied set of backgrounds.

From professional perspective, the in-depth details of the tools and techniques around quality control and management, procurement management, risk management, and stakeholder management could be obtained. These could now be used and applied for enhanced project management. The knowledge of the tools and techniques assisted in professional growth and learning. These learnings can now be applied in the future projects and processes to enhance the overall quality of the work undertaken.

References

Chen, S. (2011). Improvement strategies for the tools and techniques of quality improvement: Utilization of a performance evaluation matrix in the taiwanese high-tech industry. Human Factors And Ergonomics In Manufacturing & Service Industries, 22(4), 340-350. doi: 10.1002/hfm.20288

Fageha, M., & Aibinu, A. (2013). Managing Project Scope Definition to Improve Stakeholders’ Participation and Enhance Project Outcome. Procedia - Social And Behavioral Sciences, 74, 154-164. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.03.038

Maylor, H. (2010). Project Management (4th ed., pp. 242-353). Pearson Education Limited.

Pak, A., Carden, L., & Kovach, J. (2016). Integration of project management, human resource development, and business teams: a partnership, planning model for organizational training and development initiatives. Human Resource Development International, 19(3), 245-260. doi: 10.1080/13678868.2016.1141606

Shaw, D. (2015). Managing dualities in organizational change projects. Journal Of Change Management, 16(3), 201-222. doi: 10.1080/14697017.2015.1118142

Wearne, S. (2014). Evidence-Based Scope for Reducing “Fire-Fightingâ€Â in Project Management. Project Management Journal, 45(1), 67-75. doi: 10.1002/pmj.21395

Zwikael, O. (2009). The Relative Importance of the PMBOK® Guide's Nine Knowledge Areas during Project Planning. Project Management Journal, 40(4), 94-103. doi: 10.1002/pmj.20116