Assignment:
Your organization has just completed the initiation process for implementing an e-mail system upgrade. It was identified in a recent meeting with management leaders from the sales, consulting, and information technology (IT) departments that the current e-mail system is causing significant amount of business interruptions and must be updated immediately. You have been assigned the role of project manager to evelop the project schedule and budget. As project manager, you are responsible for implementing and enforcing the project schedule and its estimates, expected costs, and the techniques and methods that will be chosen to execute and control the project. The project is being initiated with the following initial project scope in mind:
1. There are 5 e-mail systems currently being used across 12 departments and offices. These will be replaced and consolidated into one e-mail system.
2. New e-mail standards and protocols will be established and training provided to all departments.
3. All 2,000 current e-mail users will be converted to the new system, and 500 new users that did not have e-mail before will be added.
4. Users will have both local area network (LAN) and remote access to e-mail.
5. Help desk and support infrastructure will be set up to accommodate the new system.
6. Equipment will be salvaged.
User PCs will be upgraded to accommodate the new e-mail system.
A friend has turned you on to a project management e-group for technical discussions and information sharing. You check into a discussion thread that is in progress about control schedule and control cost processes. Those with challenges are looking to the group for advice and practical knowledge.
Reflecting upon your own organization, discuss the challenges that you have encountered when implementing schedule and cost control processes.
Now that you have successfully led this project, you feel that it is the right time to introduce the concept of quality management and its application to the project management processes, especially that in your last meeting with the CIO he informed you of how much it had cost the company to rework some work elements in a previous project. Prepare a short report to the CIO outlining the key concepts of quality management strategies and how they impact your project. Explain how you plan to monitor and control quality for your project deliverables.
Assignment Guidelines:
In 750 to 1,000 words, address the following:
1. How do you plan to manage quality on your project?
2. What are ways in which to improve quality?
3. Examine 2-3 quality management/project management strategies.
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy?
- When should each strategy be used?
4. How can you leverage work done by other researchers with regard to quality management strategies?
5. How can you build a standard to be used in future phases of the quality initiative so that other project managers follow your approach to quality management?
- How will this standard affect future projects in terms of efficiency and staff involvement? Explain.
What barriers might have to be overcome when establishing this standard? Why?