Problem:
The Managed Care Department of the hospital has decided to implement a Case Management System called Care+. The cost of the software is $450,000. This includes the cost of the software, software configuration, conversion of existing data into the software database, training for 2 people, and on-site resources for 2 days during the initial installation and go-live. A total number of 12 users will need training to operate this software. Training time is 2 days per person. This will be accomplished by the 2 people in-house that are trained by the vendor. This software system will require the purchase of 3 servers ($1,250 each) that will be configured in a cluster to support the department's request for redundancy and failover. In addition, backup software for each server is $1,500. The average salary of an IT worker is $91/hour. You will need 1 programmer (40 hours), 1 database manager (65 hours), 1 project analyst (150 hours), 1 operations analyst (20 hours), 1 interface manager (20 hours), and 1 networking analyst (10 hours). The manager of each department has provided you with estimates of the time required to complete this project. Interim approval for this project has been granted. You have been named project manager. Senior leadership would like you to prepare a time-phased budget for final approval of this project. You will also need to provide a diagram of how you estimated direct costs, labor costs, and indirect costs. Final approval will be contingent upon the proposed budget.
Your team has been hired to consult with the project manager in this scenario on the allocation of resources. To assist the project manager, you will construct two diagrams:
1. A work breakdown structure of direct, general administrative overheads
2. A time-phased budget (based on your work breakdown structure)
Write a brief to the project manager in the scenario justifying your work breakdown structure and time-phased budget. In this brief, do the following:
- Identify the primary data sets used by the team to determine the budget.
- Identify some factors that could influence the accuracy of the team's estimates.
- Explain whether the team took a macro or a micro approach and justify the approach.
- Identify the major constraints and explain how the team prioritized them according to risk in determining the dollar amounts assigned in the budget.