Reference no: EM131485495

Assignment  - Project Charter

Overview

The aim of this assignment is to gain experience in practices associated with the starting of a project. You are asked to create a Project Charter for the case study project detailed below. Your Project Charter must address the use of the Agile Scrum Project Management Methodology.

Learning Outcomes Assessed

The following course learning outcomes are assessed by completing this assessment:

• K1. identify traditional and agile approaches and lifecycles for managing information technology projects;

• K3. acquire a theoretical knowledge of the project management process groups model;

• S2. observe real world information technology problems and apply project management principles and techniques to solve these problems;

• S3. employ a systems thinking approach to identify critical roles and stakeholders in information technology projects;

• S4. demonstrate decision-making processes to solve a range of information technology project issues;

• S5. utilise a range of organizational and self-management skills, emulating real world practice of information technology project managers.

Assessment Details

Background - Project Charter

During the starting of a project, a Project Charter can be an important artefact. After top management determines which project/s to pursue, it is important to then notify the organisation of the project/s about to commence. The Project Charter can be used to formally recognize/authorise the project, provide a summary of the details of the project and nominate/identify the project manager.

This artefact can clearly indicate to the project team and all stakeholders, the project objectives, scope and vision and help to demonstrate the broad requirements and expectations of the project.

Project Charters can be created for any type of project and under any type of Project Management Methodology. In a project managed using traditional (predictive/planned) project management methodologies, the Charter would be a document of just a few pages (around 3), formally outlining the key objectives, schedule and stakeholders.

In a project managed using more adaptive or agile methodologies, the document would be of a similar size, but perhaps less prescriptive but with greater breadth and would reflect the different approach used. It would also be displayed in the project team room. Hybrid forms that borrow from the traditional and agile can also exist.

You can obtain more information about a Project Charter from chapters 3 and 4 of the course text - Schwalbe, K. (2013). Information Technology Project Management (7th ed.). Boston, MA : Cengage Learning.

Keep all of the above in mind as you read the following case study.

Case Study: Bespoke Building System (BeBS)

You work for Strategic Software Solutions Ltd. (SSS), a company providing software analysis, design, implementation, testing and review services to clients. SSS offers software solutions in a number of areas but concentrates on the hospitality, health and construction industries. For each of these industries they have an off the shelf product that is available for PCs, iPad/iPhone and Android devices.

The company prides itself on customer service and providing customizable solutions to their client, either by modifying the off the shelf products or building from new. SSS has also had success with providing review and support services to clients and has received a great deal of positive feedback about the flexibility and quality of its work. The company was started in 2002 and now employs over 20 permanent and contract staff operating out of the head office in Abbotsford, Victoria.

The managing director Stewart Sausan, chief accountant Finbar Fury and chief information officer/design guru Imogen Thaat are the main shareholders in the company. SSS has had a steady rise in income and profit since the company started, with the most recent annual turnover of $5,000,000 from services, licensing and support coupled with a 20% profit margin allowing the company to continue paying generous bonuses to employees.

You are employed as a project manager at SSS. However, at SSS employees are expected to be flexible in the amount and type of work they do, so whilst you have worked solely as a project manager on some jobs, you have also been involved in analysis, design, coding and testing on others. You have recently been given the task of satisfying the requirements of a new client, MT Construction Pty. Ltd. (MTC)

MTC Is a small, recently formed building and construction company, owned and operated by Michael (Mick) BSaw and Timothy (Tim) Hammerston. Mick and Tim have been in the construction industry for the last 10 years, and prior to the company's formation, they were individually involved in the physical construction of new houses for individual clients.

These houses were built according to drawings/specifications completed by others. Often margins and job satisfaction on these jobs are lower because the builders are being hired for a specific service and there is very little opportunity to add value. They now see an opportunity to market themselves as "bespoke end to end builders" and provide clients with the opportunity to design their own house and have it built to those requirements by MTC.

They have sensed in the past that clients were often frustrated by the processes and lack of flexibility/engagement involved in home building and now feel that they could run a successful and lucrative business by providing clients with more involvement and ownership. They have identified functionality such as the ability to choose the design concepts for the house, commission drawings, choose materials including fixtures and fittings and obtain costings and completion schedules as opportunities for clients to become more involved.

They want to implement a pricing structure based on the progress of the design process and allow for secure payment options via bank transfers, PayPal or credit cards. They would also like to be able to apply discounts based on the aesthetics of the design. These discounts would be manually applied by Mick or Tim. They want to develop a system that they think will allow them to:

• grow their business (by obtaining double the build value by year 3 of the previous combined individual build value from the previous three years i.e. when they were not operating as a company);

• increase their margins (to 20% on each job. Individually they were operating on 10% profit margins);

• achieve more satisfaction for themselves (measured by personal evaluation); and

• achieve more satisfaction for their clients (measured through personal responses/application feedback).

They want a web and device application interface for clients (both iOS and Android) and a PC based administration application for themselves. They are inexperienced about what their priorities are but feel that most clients will prefer using the web based or iPad equivalent as a mobile device may not have the screen space to do justice to the application.

They understand that there will be some setup costs in terms of a database to store client information/jobs but believe they have saved some time and money by signing a contract with a major building wholesaler to provide real-time costing through the wholesaler's electronic Building Warehouse (eBW) system. You have explained that there will still be work involved in interfacing to this system and that it may be more efficient to periodically update the system's database rather than have real-time access.

You also wonder how dealing with only the one supplier will affect MTC's standing in the industry and advise Mick and Tim to come up with some contingencies regarding this. They have mentioned that they have consulted with the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Building Designers Association of Australia (BDA) and both organisations said they were somewhat reluctant to endorse the system and would look carefully at the design to ensure that no regulations or practices had been overlooked.

You advised that there were existing products that perform some of the components requested e.g. RubySketch PlusSpec but Mick and Tim believe their product will be superior and offer a better end to end experience for the client. To support this, they would like SSS to arrange for a marketing plan and look after the initial advertising. You have had a number of meetings with them and at your most recent meeting presented the business case.

The business case for the Bespoke Building System (BeBS) identified the budget at $550,000 with potential payback within 3 years of completion. The budget includes project manager costs (part time - 2 days/week), developer costs - six developers are expected to be used (three existing employees and three new contractors) - charges for an architectural consultant, marketing consultant and DBA consultant, advertising, licensing and equipment (hardware and networking for MTC and development and testing hardware for SSS). The estimated time frame for completion of the project is five months.

You have advised MTC that there are major risks associated with this project including lack of customer interest and they hope that you as project manager will be able to identify the appropriate stakeholders and address the risks involved. If the project can meet its objectives and more importantly do this with a payback within three years of completion it will be deemed to have been a success.

A project steering committee has been formed consisting of Mick and Tim, who are the main promoters and supporters, chief information officer/design guru Imogen Thaat and yourself. Imogen has pointed out that the design is quite complex and wonders if it may be better to use existing functionality already available in the market and wrap the system around that. Mick and Tim have increasing concerns about the ability of the system to meet AIA and BDA requirements.

A number of existing employees have expressed to you how they have had communications with other building industry players about the disruptiveness of the system and wondering if SSS is damaging its own goodwill. You are also concerned about the financial capacity of MTC and have expressed this to chief accountant Finbar Fury who has explored the necessary increases in insurance premiums to cover a default by the client.

Finbar has in turn expressed concern about the size of the project relative to the annual turnover of the company. Finally, you wonder how you will be able to reconcile the views of the two promoters who in your experience are not completely clear or in agreement on the requirements. Where appropriate, these issues have been included in the Business Case. You ponder all this and have commenced identifying the stakeholders and preparing a stakeholder management strategy and you will use this information and the detail above to press ahead and finalise the Project Charter...

Assessable Tasks/Requirements

You are required to create a Project Charter for the case study provided: Bespoke Building System (BeBS). The project will be managed using the Agile SCRUM PM methodology. This is a methodology that, amongst other things, concentrates on sprints of work. The case study should provide you with sufficient information akin to a Business Case to allow you to create a Project Charter for the project. One of the principles to keep in mind is that under an Agile SCRUM approach you should have an idea of the different way you schedule work and what is expected at the end of each sprint cycle - a deliverable or potentially deliverable product.

You need to consider what product/s you are developing here and how you might go about providing deliverable components of these product/s at the end of each sprint. You might also consider that Agile SCRUM is not as document rich as predictive/planned methodologies, so it might be useful to state a few more things in your project charter since it may be the only place you put a visible and succinct boundary around and encapsulate what is being done in the project. You should remember though that the Project Charter is a small document (around 3 pages).

While preparing the Project Charter, you need to express clearly the vision (why do this project), the mission (what is to be done), and the success criteria for this project.

You may also need to:

• identify other stakeholders, in consultation with the sponsor/s;

• predict high level costs involved in the project;

• hire a team/some team members for the duration of the project; and

• devise a high level plan for the number of Sprints involved in the project and the objective for each Sprint Cycle.

You may need to make other necessary assumptions in preparing the Charter but make sure these are clearly stated. (You may be creative with your assumptions to ensure that your submission is unique.)

The Project Charter will be displayed on the wall in the project team room for the duration of the project and may include information such as:

• Project title, project authorization date, start date and finish date

• Project manager's name and contact details

• Brief description of vision, mission/objectives for the project

• Summary budget

• Success criteria for the project

• Project scope, assumptions, constraints and risks

• Summary schedule

o Start and end dates for each sprint

o Objectives and deliverables for each sprint

• Summary of the project management methodology

• Governance

• Roles and responsibilities

• Sign-off section for all stakeholders

Make sure you understand the marking criteria and address each component when completing the assignment. As previously mentioned it may be helpful as a starting point to look at the description and examples of Project Charters in chapters 3 and 4 of Schwalbe. You have been given a copy of a template from Schwalbe that was used in those chapters. This template would be one used when following a predictive/planned project management methodology.

You have also been given a template from The Project Manager's Guide to Mastering Agile: principles and practices for an adaptive approach by Charles Cobb (2015) and published by Wiley (Hoboken, NJ) which is a template to be used in a "...hybrid, managed agile development approach". You can use both of these as guides, but remember the Charter will be marked according to the marking criteria/rubric so I would suggest that layout would be a good one to follow.

You might like to also look at Chapter 2 of Wysocki, R. K. (2012). Effective Project Management : Traditional, Agile, Extreme. Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley. to help you distinguish between traditional project management and agile project management and Chapter 3 of Schwalbe where you can find examples of a predictive project management approach and an agile project management approach to the same project - an intranet site development.