Reference no: EM132409964
BCO6656 - IT Project Management - Victoria University
ITPM project plan
Assessment one: Problem Case
The client: Yes Chemist Pty Ltd (H/O South Melbourne, Victoria)
Yes Chemist is a group of independent Pharmacies with the shared values and common philosophy. The business started as a family venture in late 1990s and gradually expanded stores in all major cities of Australia including, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne. The operating head office (HO) of the company remains in South Melbourne, Victoria.
Yes Chemist stores are designed to provide health and beauty needs of their customers in addition to Pharmaceutical operations. They starve to ensure that their customers have an enjoyable and caring experience while shopping, therefore, they maintain large stock of products at a competitive prices. They take pride in their customer service excellence and determined to invest in technology by transforming and optimising their business operations to suit their customer needs. This was achieved by diligent innovation, being competitive and responsive to their customer expectations.
In January 2017, a business operational review was conducted, orchestrated by the General Manager to assess the operational weaknesses and decide on potential technical solutions to improve their business improvement. Based on the review recommendations, it was decided to replace existing accounting, HR and inventory management system with SAP S/4HANA for SAP Business All-in-One. It was further recommended to have Finance, HR, Procurement and analytics (reporting) modules implemented as part of this project. Furthermore, to strengthen the sales, service and marketing activities, it was also recommended to have core on premise SAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution implemented. To mitigate the project delivery risks associated to SAP implementation, it was suggested to stage the implementation into two phases. In the first phase, SAP S/4HANA for SAP Business All-in-One to be implemented and later, based on the success of the first implementation, second phase (containing SAP CRM system) to be completed.
Considering the weaker sales and revenue growth in this financial year, the finance department has declined to fund the second phase, however they have made funds available for the first phase of the project.
Given the fact that the SAP CRM is an on premise solution, the management decided to expand their Head office server room to accommodate the new hardware hosting growth.
The company has a total of 200 FTE staff at 80 stores in the five major cities around Australia. Some of the key staff are listed below for reference:
• Craig Hanwood (CEO) and Executive Sponsor
• Russell Bray (General Manager) and Business Sponsor
• Jason (Chief Accountant - Finance) - Subject matter expert (SME) o 8 Finance team members are based at Head Office
• Michelle (Manager HR) - Subject matter expert (SME) o 10 HR department staff are based at Head Office
• Andrew Duffy (Manager Procurement) - Subject matter expert (SME) o 2 procurement staff are based at Head Office
• George Bell (Manager data and reporting) - Subject matter expert (SME) o Stacy is the data reporting expert based at Head Office.
• Nicolas (Chief Pharmacist - Head Office) - Subject matter expert (SME) o 15 Pharmacist in Melbourne
o 10 Pharmacist in Sydney
o 18 Pharmacist in Brisbane
o 8 Pharmacist in Perth
o 9 Pharmacist in Adelaide
• Anna (Admin manager at the Head office)
• There are 160 store staff at different store locations around Australia.
Your employer: Victoria University Information Systems Consulting
Your company (Victoria University Information Systems Consulting (VUISC)) secured a contract to implement SAP S/4HANA for SAP Business All-in-One for Yes Chemist Pty Ltd. You are appointed as the Project Manager to manage this implementation. The scope of implementation includes: delivery and installation of a suitable hardware, installation and configuration of SAP system, testing, and provisioning of end user training to the head office staff (in their relevant areas) as well as inter-state store pharmacists on Finance, HR and Analytic modules as they lead the operations at each store location. It is also important to identify key super users - per module (after training) to setup a user acceptance testing team that would help facilitate the sign-off process for go live. This project has major data migration component from different systems (finance, HE and inventory management) into SAP All-in-one modules, requirements gathering (verification & validation) from relevant SMEs in the area and compliance requirements for reporting purposes. Your job as the new Project Manager is to:
• Develop a Charter for the project
• Develop a comprehensive Project Plan that should meet implementation and training requirements
• Both Charter and Project plan must be ratified (signed) by the Business Sponsor. Please note, no work could commence without formal ratification of the Charter and Project plan documents.
• Once the project is in progress, you are required to provide project status updates to your VUISC Manager (tutor), project team members and the business sponsor.
SAP S/4HANA for SAP Business All-in-One
The client (Yes Chemist) has requested an implementation of SAP S/4HANA for SAP Business All-in-One solution to replace their legacy accounting, HR and inventory management system systems. The total cost SAP licensing fee for 300 users is quoted
$150,000. The SDLC (System Development Life Cycle) including Development, Testing and User Acceptance Testing instances will setup on cloud considering the fact that the server room refurbishment may take three months to complete. The total cost of six months SDLC environment hosting on cloud would be $6000 for six virtual servers. For production instance hosting, server hardware will be purchased costing $5000 for hardware and $3,000 to install, test and three years warranty.
Infrastructure and equipment
For server room refurbishment component at the operational head office, a local contractor (Jacob and sons Pty Ltd) is contracted to perform server room modifications. The contractor has quoted 15 days' effort (8 hours to demolish) to complete the required modifications in a fixed price of $15,000. The subcontracting staff are available to start work from 3rd of August and could work between 8AM - 5PM with half an hour breaks. As Project Manager, you must visit the client site while subcontractor performs modifications.
It is also estimated that 75 metres CAT 6a patch cable will be required to connect new servers with the existing network. The cable costs $3 per metre (plus installation) and this task is outsourced to Peter cables Pty Ltd who will charge $60 per hour (plus materials). Peter cables has estimated that it will take 10 hours to install the patch cable and the work could be performed day and night (24/7) if required (please note, you could schedule work at the time during normal operating hours as well as schedule a task at the night if that helps expedites the outcome). The cabling work can commence once demolition is completed by Jacob & sons and before reconstruction work starts.
The HP server hardware will be purchased from Frontline hardware reseller, who requires a Purchase Order (PO) and undertakes the delivery within 4 days of receiving the PO. The Frontline engineer will visit the client site install the server. The equipment must be tested by VUISC technical staff before handed over for SAP application installation. The physical server will Production instances of system. VUISC technical officer will take one day to complete the building of virtual servers before any technical software installation work could begin and this work should be completed before Go live.
Requirements phase (as is, to be)
VUISC business analysts and functional team members will engage with the client SMEs (as specified above) to obtain functional requirements for new system design. As Project Manager, you must facilitate functional requirements sessions and manage the user expectations. It is important that the critical compliance requirements are clearly understood and recorded by VUISC, so that the application instance is appropriately designed and implemented.
Data conversion
It is important to setup an automated process for the legacy data extraction, conversion, validated and transitioning to new SAP instance. It is understood that the data extraction and cleansing effort may take up to four weeks per module to complete. This consists of;
• 3 days effort to understand legacy data structures
• 2 days to setup an automated data extractor script development
• 3 days of data validation and cleansing effort
• 2 days to develop automated script to load data into B1 instance (this will require B1 configuration to be completed)
• 3 days to test in real time instance.
• 2 days for defect rectification.
• 1 week - post data migration analysis and manual data rectification by client team
Integration and Testing
The new SAP system needs to be integrated with the e-gate feature for corporate banking. Furthermore, it is important to complete a comprehensive end to end testing within All-in- One finance module that should also include testing with a live e-gate instance, returning/ postings in journal ledger. The information should be reflected on the test BAS (Business Activity Statement) report and on the compliance reports. SIT (System Integration Testing) will only be considered pass once end to end testing is completed successfully.
Documentation and training
The Business sponsor has requested application functionality manuals to be developed in line with the implemented functionality interface. A VUISC Technical Writer will work to review standard SAP Business All-in-One end user manuals and customise them based on client delivery requirements.
The VUISC trainer is required to customise training programs based client staff requirements to ensure that the staff is able to align their existing business processes with the newly delivered functionality. The training will need to be performed within normal business hours and pre-booked with the selected client staff members. Plan training sessions based on client staff business and functional requirements.
Acceptance testing and sign-off
The formal sign-off for the application go live cannot occur until:
• Hardware and software installation is complete
• Data conversion is successfully completed
• All required training is completed
• The user acceptance testing is completed.
Client has requested that the Project Manager along with a technical officer must be onsite for three days after system goes live. This is to ensure that any post implementation/go live issues are actively investigated and resources from VUISC resource pool. At the end of this period, the final acceptance document will be signed off and the final VUISC invoice will be paid.
The VUISC has also committed to provide three weeks post go live support to ensure that any issues identify are addressed appropriately.
VUISC administrative costs and working times
VUISC has a number of staff (Project Manager, Business Analyst, Programmer (2), Database Programmer, Technical Officer (2), Administration Officer, Technical Writer, Systems Integrator, Trainer and a Data Entry Officer), but for this project not all team members will be used. VUISC covers its administrative costs, and makes its profit, by charging staff out at elevated rates as follows:
All VUISC staff members are available to assist with the project. Staff costs have been detailed above and should be added to the Resource Sheet. Normal working hours for VUISC employees are 09.00 - 17.00, Monday to Friday with a 30 minute lunch break. If overtime is required of VUISC staff, this is charged at time and a half (1.5 times the cost). You may outsource tasks where VUISC does not have the capability in house.
The Client Business Sponsor and the client staff
Mr Russell will be available for meetings, to attend training, or to assist in any other relevant way during normal business hours (Monday to Friday: 09.00-17.00). Other client staff will be made available by their management as required. Costs associated with their time will all be met by the client and should not be included in project costs.
Critical dates and milestones
The initiation (start-up) for the project is expected to commence from 25th July 2017. Your Manager at VUISC (your tutor) will check the project charter, plan and status report before it is finally sent on to Client Business Sponsor for review and/or sign off.
You should create milestones at key points in the project and for significant events such as but not limited to: completion of server installation, completion of system installation, completion of training and sign-off. As a rough guide it is expected that your project schedule should have a minimum of 50 unique tasks (including milestones) excluding recurring tasks and phases/summary tasks to achieve a satisfactory/pass grade. More detailed schedules will attract higher marks providing the tasks, resourcing and sequencing is considered to be accurate.Assessment two: Project Plan
Introduction
This assessment task (worth 35 percent of the total mark for the unit) requires you to take on the role of an IT Project Manager to produce a Project Plan for your employer, Victoria University Information Systems Consulting (VUISC). In this instance the Plan provides a detailed overview of a proposed project. It is developed to provide the client with a detailed insight into how the project will be managed so they can determine if they will approve the project to proceed as elaborated. This is an individual assessment task and must not be completed in a group or work shared.
Scenario
Your employer
You work as IT project manager for a consulting firm based in Melbourne, VUISC Pty Ltd. You have worked at there for four years, while the company has been in operation for several years. The company has a range of employees including consultants, administrative staff, project managers, programmers, testers, business analysts, help-desk and technical support staff who specialise in system implementation, technical writers and end user trainers for professional development. The company provides information systems consultancy and project management services as well.
For the purposes of this assessment task consider your lecturer/tutor to be your operational managers. They can clarify any queries you may have.
Your client
A detailed client scenario is available on VU Collaborate. It describes a client Yes Chemist Pty Ltd. have asked VUISC to manage the implementation of their SAP System.
Requirements
Review the scenario above carefully before you begin to begin to prepare your Plan. Ask your lecturer or tutor (your VUISC manager) if you have any questions or require any clarification about the scenario. Review the VUIS Consulting Project Plan Template.docx file provided on VU Collaborate. Complete every section of the template removing all prompts (and square brackets) and replacing them with your responses to the scenario. You must develop a schedule for the project comprising at least 50 tasks using Microsoft Project tool.