Modern Systems and Designs Analysis Ninth Edition Case Question 5.59

What do you consider to be the risks of the project as you currently understand it? Is this a low-, medium-, or high-risk project? Justify your answer. Assuming you were part of Jims team, would you have any particular risks?

Evaluate project risk.

Identify risk factors such as:

Project size:

Project structure: seems straight-forward

Team experience- User group experience: many inexperienced participants.

The customer relationship area is not new in the industry though it might be for Petrie. Rewards systems such as that proposed here are widely used and CRM systems are available as COTS and SaaS. The risks are essentially not with the software but more with the implementation phase.

Chapter 5: Initiating and Planning Systems Development Projects Now that the "No Customer Escapes" project team has been formed and a plan has been developed for distributing project information, Jim can begin working on the project's scope statement, workbook, and Baseline Project Plan. He first drafted the project's scope statement and posted it on the project's intranet (see PE Figure 5-1 ). Once posted on the intranet, he sent a short e-mail message to all team members requesting feedback. Minutes after posting the project charter, Jim's office phone rang. "Jim, it's Sally. I just looked over the scope statement and have a few comments." "Great," replied Jim, "It's just a draft. What do you think?" "Well, I think that we need to explain more about how the system will work and why we think this new system will more than pay for itself." "Those are good suggestions; I am sure many others will also want to know that information. However, the scope statement is a pretty highlevel document and doesn't get into too much detail. Basically, its purpose is to just formally announce the project, providing a very highlevel description as well as briefly listing the objectives, key assumptions, and stakeholders. The other documents that I am working on, the workbook and the Baseline Project Plan, are intended to provide more details on specific deliverables, costs, benefits, and so on. So, anyway, that type of more detailed information will be coming next." "Oh, OK, that makes sense. I have never been on a project like this, so this is all new to me," said Sally. "Don't worry," replied Jim, "Getting that kind of feedback from you and the rest of the team will be key for us doing a thorough feasibility analysis. I am going to need a lot of your help in identifying possible costs and benefits of the system. When we develop the Baseline Project Plan, we do a very thorough feasibility analysis-we examine financial, technical, operational, schedule, legal and contractual feasibility, as well as potential political issues arising through the development of the system." "Wow, we have to do all that? Why can't we just build the system? I think we all know what we want," replied Sally. "That is another great question," replied Jim. "I used to think exactly the same way, but what I learned in my last job was that there are great benefits to following a fairly formal project management process with a new system. By moving forward with care, we are much more likely to have the right system, on time and on budget." "So," asked Sally, "what is the next step?" A Scope Statement for Petrie's Customer Relationship Management System Project Overview: This project will design and implement a customer relationship management system in order to provide superior customer service by rewarding our most loyal customers. Specifically, the system will track customer purchases, assign points for cumulative purchases, and allow points to be redeemed for "rewards" at local stores. This goal of this system is to provide an incentive to customers to choose Petrie Electronics as their first and only choice for making electronic purchases. The system will provide Petrie management with improved information on the purchase behavior of our most loyal customers. Objectives: - Track customer purchases - Accumulate redeemable points - Reward customer loyalty and provide incentives to remain loyal customers - Provide improved management information Key Assumptions: - System development will be outsourced - Interface will be a Web browser - System will access existing customer sales databases Stakeholders and Responsibilities