The New Software Installation Project You have been tasked to be the project manager for a new software package that will automate many features of your import export business. It will be your job to choose the right software package, create a project network design, apply project crashing, and build a risk register. Section B D Description Project Selection Network Design - Project logic, critical path Project Crashing Risk Planning Quality of writing, consistency, clarity Total Marks % of Final Grade Points 10 20 20 20 10 80 20 Requirements Your answers to each section must be clearly marked. It is permissible to submit the numerical results of sections A-D in an Excel file as a reference. In your Microsoft Word document, write any text associated with the sections and reference the Excel file As with every project, you are required to submit the team minutes template along with your submission Therefore, your final submission will consist of the following items: Sections A-D fully completed. Introduce Sections A-D in a Word document and reference any items you have in an Excel file that also needs to be submitted. You may also include screenshots of your Excel work directly in the Word document as long as they are legible. o The team meeting minutes document. Your documents must be submitted to your team's submission folder on FanshaweOnline by the due date listed in the assignment folder. In order to simplify the assumptions, you do not need to consider weekends or holidays in the planning Section A - Project Selection There are three options for the software package solution. Although all three packages are considered to be adequate for the intended purpose, there are licensing and pre-installation customization fees that differ between the potential solutions. Accordingly, there are also differences in how much incremental revenue the software will create through increased revenue opportunities as well as cost savings. It is anticipated that the risk level of the project will be associated with the level of customization required - the more customization, the higher the risk that something will go wrong. For the three options, use an appropriate financial measurement to identify the correct software solution. Your company's finance department has instructed you to use the following rates based on differing levels of risk: High risk: 20% Medium risk: 12% Low risk: 5% Software License fee Customization Estimated Number of annual benefit years in service Option A 1,400,000 350,000 185,000 10 Option B 700,000 475,000 310,000 12 Option C 950,000 90,000 250,000 8 Calculate the payback period for each option. Calculate the NPV (net present value) for each option. Choose the preferred option and justify your choice, including any critical comments you may have about the analysis. This section is worth 10 marks. Section B - Network Design Having chosen the software project, you are now provided with a work breakdown structure (WBS) for the project, provided by your IT department. These estimates are based on four similar software installations completed during the past two years. Predecessor ID A B D E F G H 1 u K Activity SW Decision Stakeholder Input ID Data Sources DB Setup Draft UI Design Data Cleaning Spec Workstation UI Testing Data Validation DB Test Order workstations UI Sign off Load data Install workstations Integrate UI, Database Final User test B E E F DF G H 1, K LM NO Duration 2 10 3 2 6 20 1 15 12 5 20 1 4 8 5 8 L M N O P 1) ii) Construct a network design logic diagram using this WBS. Use the ID and activity description to clearly identify each note. Complete a forward pass and backward pass and identify the slack times. Identify and clearly indicate the critical path. Discuss critical path sensitivity, and how sensitive this network is to changing the critical path iv) This section is worth 20 marks. Section C-Crashing the Project Upper level management has now seen your project plan. They need the project fully installed prior to the new fiscal year, because they want to make a positive announcement to shareholders. This means that the project must be completed in 40 days. They have indicated that all resources needed will be available. Using the following costing data, and using your project design from Section B, provide a log that demonstrates the most cost-effective way to reduce the project duration down to no more than 40 days. There are two ways that you can quickly speed up the project. The first is to use outsourced services. The activities are coded according to the type of labour - General, Skilled, and Unskilled. Activities that use General labour must be internal, and these durations cannot be crashed. Skilled and unskilled labour can both be outsourced. The second way that costs can be reduced is to lessen the waiting time to receive the new workstations. Currently the cost is $1,000 to configure the workstations and deliver in 20 days. However, there is an option to reduce the delivery time to 10 days if the configuration fee is increased to $5,000 Indirect costs for the project are estimated to be $500/d. See the following page for the data required and a template of the activity log. i) Create a completed data table and activity log that demonstrates crashing the project to 40 days using the most cost-effective means. Use the standard methodology used in class. What are the new direct, indirect and total costs for the project? Even if we did not need to reduce the project duration, would it have made sense to do so, and to what point? What new risks have been introduced by crashing the project in this way? iv) This section is worth 20 points. ID Predecessor Crash Cost 600 A 3,600 A c D E F G H 1 Activity SW Decision Stakeholder input ID Data Sources DB Setup Draft UI Design Data Cleaning Spec Workstation Ul Testing Data Validation DB Test Order workstations UI Sign off Load data Install workstations Integrate UI, Database Final User test E E F DF G H Cost type General Unskilled Skilled Unskilled Skilled Unskilled General Skilled Skilled Unskilled Unskilled General Unskilled Unskilled Skilled General Duration 2 10 3 2 6 10 1 15 12 5 20 1 4 8 5 8 Normal Cost Crash Duration 600) 2 2,000 900 21 400 1 1,800 4 2,000 6 200 1 4,500 10 3,600 8 1,000 4 1,000 10 300 800 3 1,600 6 1.500 3 2,400 B 1,400 450 2,800 2,700 200 7.000 5,600 1.800 5,000 300 1,350 2,700 2.100 2,400 Xazoa K LM NO Section D: Risk Planning The project has been approved and everything is in place to begin. You now need to create a contingency plan in order to understand potential risks to the project. In order to collect the right level of feedback, you go out for lunch with the IT Manager, who is the key functional lead on the project. You will need to work closely with her in order to make sure the project is successful, so her feedback and experience are of vital importance. You make notes during the lunch and now you reflect on what she had to say in order to identify any potential risks and opportunities. She has worked with the company for the last 8 years, and this is her third major project that combines software and hardware integration She indicates that she is close friends with the QA testing manager, and she remarked that he often over-estimates the time it takes to do things. He often quotes Scotty from Star Trek -- "Better to under-promise and over-deliver!". Six months ago the company changed vendor for the hardware. When they conducted reference checks, one of the other companies indicated that their orders have been delayed by up to a week. They believe this is because a bigger customer was demanding their equipment be delivered more quickly. She recently received a complaint from the Logistics Manager about the quality of reports they are getting out of the current system. Apparently there are fewer controls over the quality of data that is being input into the system by front-line staff. The Logistics Manager feels that this has gotten much worse over the past year, since the IT person in charge of data quality has also been working on programming projects. For example, there was a large number of records where the 'Country of Origin' was accidently put in where the "Shipping Location should be, and vice versa. As an off-hand remark, she indicated how happy she is to finally take vacation next month. It seems that a high proportion of Managers take vacation time the month prior to the end of the fiscal year, because the last month of the year is so busy preparing for the annual reporting. She complained that even though there are three other critical projects coming up that all require IT developers, some of the developers are excited to work on your project because they have never done UI design before. The new software is based on a modular system, so it should be a straightforward way for them to learn these new skills. Finally, you asked her what she learned from other projects. She warns that management always tries to reduce project times, and that it is tough to balance hitting the timelines. Normally the amount of customization required (which needs programming support) is underestimated as stakeholders try and add new features. She mentioned that the company selling this particular software package has a reputation for 'selling' the software and worrying about the potential functional deficiencies only after the contract has been signed. You are understandably concerned about the new knowledge you have gained from the IT Manager. You think that it would be best to keep track of some of these risks, and come up with potential contingency plans in case they occur. i) ii) Build an initial list of 5-7 risks using the above points or any other part of the project and indicate their priority levels for impact and likelihood (using High/Medium/Low). Make any assumptions that are reasonable, just back up your claims with justification Develop a risk assessment for the three most important risks. Come up with a brief, but sensible, risk response and contingency plan for each of the three most important risks. Identify a possible trigger and who might be responsible for each plan. You are concerned that there may be ongoing changes to the software requirements. How might you manage this process to minimize project delays? iv) This section is worth 20 marks