The Course Project Scenario
Instructions
The Course Project Scenario
In this course, you are introduced to a complex project scenario as follows:
You have been assigned to be the project manager for the facility, equipment, and business system upgrade of a call center. This requires
-moving all existing call center stations to a newer, larger facility;
-installing and testing a high-speed, high-capacity Wi-Fi network in the new facility;
-upgrading workstations so that they include wireless capability;
-installing a new call center management software; and
-Converting a legacy proprietary business system with a customer relationship management (CRM) application to a new business system.
In this project scenario, time is of the essence. The project sponsor requires that the project take no longer than 6 months to complete. Further, the budget is constrained so that the number of people assigned to the project is very limited and includes the following:
Outside consultants: 2
Project manager: 1
Business system project lead: 1
Business system implementation team: 3
Wireless system project lead: 1
Wireless system implementation team: 3
Relocation project lead: 1
Relocation team: 2
Workstation project lead: 1
Workstation upgrade team: 2
Outside contractors: Up to five multidisciplinary contractors are allowed in the budget.
Note: The wireless system project lead and the workstation project lead are the same person. Two of the three-member wireless system implementation team overlap with the workstation team. This means that only four resources are available for the wireless system implementation and workstation upgrade (not counting the possible use of contractors). The total resources available to the project include 14 people plus 5 contractors.
In this assignment, you will use this scenario to identify the project requirements, define the project scope using a work breakdown structure (WBS), and define the activities required to produce project deliverables.
Background
MobileGo is a small company that sells prepaid mobile phones in selected markets. Its primary sales and service channel is carried out over the internet and by phone. Sales and service has been supported with a team of 36 customer service representatives in a small building. Customers, accounts, and all business functions have traditionally been managed by a proprietary software application using in-house servers that was contracted out early in the founding of the company. All workstations currently connect to the internet and the internal servers supporting the legacy business system and office applications. This is a problem because the company had to move workstations to different parts of the building as the company has grown (thereby making network wiring out of control). The company has grown 150% over the last 5 years and as a result, the systems, the building, and the overall infrastructure have become outgrown. The company has therefore recognized the need to move to a new location and upgrade workstations and systems. The immediate need is to expand from 36 stations to 50 with the plan to triple that number within the next 3 years. The immediate challenges are little funding and few people to spare for this set of initiatives. With multiple activities occurring at once and severe constraints on schedule and resources, it is acknowledged that this is a highly complex project.
The Assignment
You have been assigned as the overall project manager for this important initiative. Your supporting team consists of 14 members (not counting contractors), including two outside consultants supporting the business system and wireless upgrade. Now that you have been given this important assignment, here are your next steps.
Identify what you deem to be the client requirements.
Using the requirements list, create a work breakdown structure (WBS) that identifies all project deliverables.
Identify the activities (tasks) required to produce each project deliverable.
When identifying project activities, highlight each that may be expected to require the same resources to be carried out in parallel. These highlights will be your first clue that the management of the project can be expected to require some complex maneuvering.
Guidance notes: The client requirements should be three pages in length to summarize. You must use at least one outside source. Draw upon the high-level project scenario and, in addition, feel free to draw upon your own experience or research when developing the requirements. Also, remember that the WBS includes deliverables only rather than activities. While the WBS may be written in either a graphical or indented outline form, the indented outline may be a better approach. This is because the activities, once identified, may be easily layered over the project deliverables when using the outline form.
Submit the requirements summary in a Word document. The WBS and Activity Identification exercise may be completed using either Word or Excel.
Project Scenario
Student’s Full Name
Institutional Affiliation
Professor Full Name
Course Full Name
Due Date
Project Scenario
Client Requirements
Client requirements are the anticipation of stakeholders involved in project deliverables. According to PMI's definition, collecting requirements is the process of establishing, articulating, and monitoring stakeholder expectations to meet the project's strategic goals. Determining the needs of stakeholders is the first step in the collection requirement process. The second is to make a list of their requirements. Then, to ensure that project goals are met, keep track of them throughout the project. This method is used to define a project's scope. This technique has a bearing on whether or not a project succeeds.
A client is a person or an organization who orders and purchases items or services from a company. The client is the one that defines the project's requirements and frequently sets the parameters, such as money and deadlines, in project management. As a result, the client has a significant impact on the project's restrictions and participates actively in the project's development. Clients' responsibilities include evaluating a project plan, requesting project adjustments, and approving or denying the product or service at the project's conclusion.
The nature of client needs and the relationships between multi-disciplinary teams involved in a project necessitates client requirements. A client represents a variety of viewpoints. These viewpoints include those of the paying client's organization and the numerous user groups represented (Gary & Larson, 2006). If the paying client is a consortium of multiple organizations, the opinions of each of these companies must also be considered. Effective requirements processing can thus lead to a complete understanding of client requirements. Requirements guarantee that all of the client's primary points of view are identified.
Project Description
MobileGo is a small business that distributes prepaid cellphones in a few locations. The company's principal sales and service channels are the internets and the phone. A staff of 36 customer service employees has been supporting sales and service in a tiny space. The company requires the installation of a wireless network that will operate inside the buildings. Laptop computers will be connected via a wireless network. The wireless network will have internet content filtering as well as security against internal and external intruders. Users will have many accounts, each with varying access levels for all of their customers.
Analysis ensures that different points of view be rationalized, grouped, and prioritized according to the importance of each requirement. Another reason for processing customer needs is the interactions between different members of a project team. This is because each discipline's focus, perspective, and direction are usually distinct. As a result, the requirements are specified and presented in design language, within the context of other relevant projects, to enable these disciplines to collaborate in the project development process.
Project Scope
The goal of the project is to set up and install a wireless network as well as workstations. A wide range of devices, such as laptops and other wireless devices, should connect to the wireless network. The network must cover the entire geographical area where all workstations are located. In order to protect against internal and external threats, security will be established on the wireless network. Customers' safety is essential and pointless. Thus we must develop a screening mechanism to prevent their access to and exposure to offensive information. Supervisors and teachers would also be restricted from accessing forbidden websites. In order to secure data and information, firewalls and various wireless network security measures will be required. The wireless system setup wi...