BN205 Project Management-Mechanism for Communication

The overall budget that would be assigned to the project team for the completion of the project activities will be AUD 50,000.

There are many costs that will be involved with the project such as the ones associated with design, resources, tools, equipment, testing, closure, implementation and likewise.

Project Objectives

The main objectives of the project will be to set up a web site for having an online presence for the social media research centre.

High Level Project Scope

• The web site for social media research centre shall include the design details and developmental aspects as per the project specifications.
• There shall be adequate utilization of information sources for data collection.
• Access control, identity management and authentication features shall be implemented in the application.
• The web site shall have the system qualities as performance, availability, reliability and adaptability.

Deliverables to be Submitted by the Project Team

• Project Charter: Document describing the information and activities covered by the project team in the initiation phase including high level view of budget, scope, duties, deliverables and stakeholders.
• Communication Plan: Deliverable would provide information on purpose of communication and the approach of the same
• Project Plan: Planning details associated with the resources, scope, budget, time and risks will be included in this deliverable.
• Application Design: Design in terms of wireframes and UI/UX aspects
• Application Code: Web site’s Source code
• Defect Report: Defects found in the testing phase covering all the parameters and attributes of the defects
• Completion Report: Final closure report of the project

Benefits

The web site will offer an integrated and collaborated platform for accessing and viewing the details on the research projects and topics which would provide advantages to the organization in terms of goodwill, competitive gain and customer base (Dutot, 2016).

Set of Limitations

Project of the web site development and implementation will not cover the negotiation and advertising activities.

Measurable Organizational Value (MOV) of the Project

Impacted Areas 

• Organization – The highest impact will be on the organization as new values will be created and customer base will expand.
• Customer – There will be impact on the customers as the functionalities and features on the web site will benefit the activities associated with selection and research work.  
• Social – The parties linked with the organization will benefit as there will be new values created.
• Financial – Technical costs, operational costs and cost of resources will reduce.
• Strategy – Automation will be introduced in the organization processes leading to positive impact.  

Values 

MOV Metric

Acceptance Criteria

• The dates of the deliverables that have been specified above are as listed below.
• Project Charter: 5^thMay 2017
• Communication Plan: 6^thJune 2017
• Project Plan: 6^thJune 2017
• Application Design: 17^thJuly 2017
• Application Code: 18^thSeptember 2017
• Defect Report: 20^thOctober 2017
• Completion Report:5^stDecember 2017
• The project would be considered as a success only if the entire duration would fall under a period of eight months and budget under AUD 50000.

Assumptions & Constraints

• Duration of the project shall be eight months
• Budget of the project shall be under AUD 50,000.
• Availability of the team members shall be 48 hours per week.

Stakeholder List

• Sponsor
• Third parties: vendors and suppliers
• End Users
• Project Manager
• Development Expert
• Design Expert
• Security Tester
• Implementation Analyst
• Technical Associate
• Application Tester

Lessons Learned

Projects that are similar to the web site development of social media research centre have been observed to fail because of the reasons associated with poor management and inadequate leadership leading to the major risks associated with time and budget along with resources (Nelson, 2005).

The allocation of the project resources and management will be done as per the skill sets and experience in this case to avoid any of such risks. Also, an amalgamation of reviews and inspections will also be included to verify and validate the project.

The communication plan will be designed and distributed in the project planning phase with the purpose to enhance the communication activities and incorporate the qualities such as clarity and ease of understanding in the project.

Stakeholders

Sponsor

The communication with sponsor will be maintained during the entire lifecycle of the project through the modes of communication such as teleconferencing and emails along with exchange of weekly reports on the project progress (Williams, & Lewis, 2008).

Project Team

The communication with the project team will be the accountability of the manager and there will be exchange of reports, setting up of meeting, one on one discussions and group discussions organized for the same.

Third Parties

Third parties will be contacted once a week to provide them information on the project progress through the medium of progress and status reports.

End Users

Developed application will be released and provided to the end users (Papulova, 2016).

Information to be Shared

A variety of information will be shared during the lifecycle of the project covering details such as specifications of the project, progress details, defects in the developed application, guidelines, ethical standards, quality standards, change requests and deliverable details.

Frequency of Exchanged Information

• Progress reports: Daily and weekly to the Project Manager and weekly to the sponsor and third parties
• Team meetings and group discussions: Daily between internal members and weekly between Project Manager and external parties
• One on One Discussions: Weekly basis

Location of Exchanged Information

The documents, reports, meeting notes and other media will be placed on the common SharePoint location.

The rest of the information will be exchanged and placed on emails and local communicators.

Communication Purpose

The communication plan will be designed and distributed in the project planning phase with the purpose to enhance the communication activities and incorporate the qualities such as clarity and ease of understanding in the project (Wilson, 2004).

Mechanism for Communication

Communication with external parties will be organized and executed with the use of teleconferencing mediums and emails.

Internal communications will be executed using tele-media and meetings rooms.

Change Management

It is being assumed that the requirements of the project will remain static during the entire lifecycle of the project. However, there are numerous uncertainties and risks that are associated in terms of the project changes (Brady, 2008).

These changes may come up in the form of project specifications, budget, time along with the expectations of the customers. The management of these changes will therefore take place in an organized manner by following the cycle as definition, approval, management implementation and review.  

Meeting Agenda

Meetings will play a major role in the project and will have the agenda to communicate the project information to the internal and external parties.

The meetings that will be executed and organized with the external parties of the project such as third parties and sponsor will have the agenda to understand the expectations of the parties during the project progress and to communicate the status to the meeting attendees. Also, capturing of any of the major changes will also be targeted during the meetings.

Satisfaction of the resource is a prime necessity for the enhanced levels of productivity and efficiency of the resources. The same will be targeted in the project meetings as the conflicts and disputes will be discussed during the meetings along with the communication and sharing of the latest changes and comments by the project sponsor and other third parties.

These meetings will also lead to the establishment of a stronger bond between the project resources leading to the improvement of the performance of the project team as a single unit along with the enhancement of individual contribution that will be made.

References

Brady, M. (2008). Analysis of a public sector organizational unit using strategic and operational analysis tools. Knowledge And Process Management, 15(2), 140-149. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229619973_Analysis_of_a_public_sector_organizational_unit_using_strategic_and_operational_analysis_tools

Dutot, V. (2016). Social media and business intelligence: defining and understanding social media intelligence. Journal Of Decision Systems, 25(3), 191-192. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304185506_Social_media_and_business_intelligence_defining_and_understanding_social_media_intelligence

Nelson, J. (2005). Corporate governance practices, CEO characteristics and firm performance. Journal Of Corporate Finance, 11(1-2), 197-228. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223843204_Corporate_Governance_Practices_CEO_Characteristics_and_Firm_Performance

Papulova, Z. (2016). Role of Strategic Analysis in Strategic Decision-Making. Procedia Economics And Finance, 39, 571-579. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305396345_Role_of_Strategic_Analysis_in_Strategic_Decision-Making

Williams, W., & Lewis, D. (2008). Strategic management tools and public sector management. Public Management Review, 10(5), 653-671. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262862837_Strategic_management_tools_and_public_sector_management

Wilson, A. (2004). How process defines performance management. International Journal Of Productivity And Performance Management, 53(3), 261-267. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Karen_Fryer2/publication/235294551_Performance_management_in_the_public_sector/links/0f31753ba9da3c9a8c000000