Project Management Plan

Project Management Plan Free Online Research Papers Project Management Plan Paper There will be several things that will be identified within this paper. The companies that are involved in this paper are American Bank of Indiana (ABI) and the First American Financial Services group (FAFS). The two banks are going to a merger and some of the risks that have came up during this time is how they can merge in a timely manner and how to avoid any risks that are going to be involved at that time. Something that will be explained in this paper is how the changes will be managed by the management team and how these risks can be avoided from happening. Management is looking at coming into this merger while there is a project already being worked on at this time. I will explain how the management team is going to work through this situation. Within this paper it will be explained how management will measure the project risks and also explaining how the project closure should take place when completed. ABI currently is headquartered in Indiana and employees over 1,800 employees. They currently have over 500,000 customers, with 28 branches and over 80 ATM’s located throughout Indiana. ABI has become one of the most successful banks and has been currently working on a project called â€Å"Project Integra.† This project consists of putting all of there current services on a financial software. The project is currently being outsourced to FAFS. The project team also consists of outside contractors that will be involved with the project. The merge between the two companies will take over six months to take place and may be hard for this project team to retrieve the necessary resources to complete the project. Management Responses Identification FAFS needs to have involvement during this project, along with making sure that there is enough on the job training for their current team members. FAFS is also working on other projects so it is necessary that management should not expect them to be available when it comes to this project. Something that needs to be discussed with the management team right away is that FAFS should let the management team from ABI know that they are not always available right away, because of this fact of working on other projects. Something that needs to be done is that there has to be communication between the two management teams. Anything that needs to be discussed should be brought up when it comes to the commitment of ABI’s project. Something that has been an issue is the network equipment that belongs to ABI. The company is already above the cost and with the issues with the network costs this is adding more costs to the budget that was not figured in for the project. In order for ABI to avoid this management team should have created a â€Å"Change Control Board.† This would have evaluated any cost increases and there would have been a reserve within the budget for such issues. The database personnel have had a weak commitment to this project and the project manager needs to deal with this first. Management had requested for help from the database specialists and now they need to deal with how to help fix the problems that have risen from these specialists not having the commitment to the project. In order for the project to move forward on this project they need to be able and plan and they can not do this without the commitment that is needed from everyone involved. If the project manager arranges meetings this can help reorganize the processes and then they can decide on how they will complete the project. With having these meetings this can also help with commitment in the project and coming to a completion of the project. Project Schedule Define Scope Define Requirements Hold a meeting with all necessary parties and discuss project and schedule Get approvals for the project from the correct parties Develop a staffing plan Develop the schedule Develop the project budget Develop a communication plan Review the content of the project for quality Conduct a post-project review These are the main points that should be done when it comes to the project schedule. The management team should look at these things and decide what else they may need to add to the schedule as they are working through the project. There should be timeframes for everything when it comes to the project schedule and when each category will be completed. Weighting Perceived Risk There are going to be several risks involved with planning a project management plan. A major source of risk in project management is inaccurate forecasts of project costs, demand, and other impacts (Flyvbjerg, 2006). Several risks that were established during this simulation are: resource constraints, skills and competency, dependency on FAFS for design inputs, availability systems and standards, legacy systems and standards, infrastructure problems, natural or manmade disasters, technology obsolescence, change in management priorities, lack of team synergy and commitment. The risk management plan that I have included is something that management should look at in order to avoid risks during the implementation and completion of the project. Since the company is looking at the future of both ABI and FAFS, these companies have been looking to outsource this project due to not have commitment of the database specialists. There have been risks so far and there is a chance of more risks if the companies outsource the project to another company. If they would happen to outsource there is the chance of overtime that was not anticipated, delays in the schedule, or even the chance of the costs going over budget. This is something that the project manager needs to look at and then assign the correct staff to the project. He could assign the IT staff to make sure that they are monitoring the project and also help the outsource company where needed. They can also assist in retrieving any reports that the outsourcing company may need. An example would be that management may be able to split up these things to be able to satisfy the constraints. In any case, management must be aware of the constraints before any of these alternatives can be considered, and cost effective decisions made (Just Murphy, 1994). Project Integra could hold several risks for these companies. Management needs to look at these risks to avoid them. The types of risks that they could possibly be looking at are things such as not addressing these skills and competency gaps with their internal and external customers when changing to the new systems. They should make sure that their customers have been informed of this change and provide the necessary resources for training and any knowledge base issues they may have with the new system. Future Risks There is the chance that with the new system that more risks may arise over time. Having everyone up to date on the system and providing necessary training is important when to businesses such as ABI and FAFS are merging into one. Customers will be concerned with these changes and should be informed how this new system may affect them when it is completed. Management needs to make sure that everyone understands the processes and how it is going to fixed when an issue does happen. The management team needs to be prepared for any unforeseen issues. There is the risk of losing customers if they are not informed in advance of what is going on and this could possibly have an impact on the company’s reputations. Measuring Project Risk The project manager needs to make sure that he is directing them In order to complete the efforts of Project Integra the project manager needs to make sure that his employees are being directed in the correct direction. The performance of this project is important and that it is recognized along with all of the elements of the project. Changes as such can be implemented, but there has to be knowledge of the project and the information needs to be provided. Some that is not a major concern is that performance management and the collection of any data that is needed or associated with the project, which is predefined within the performance goal. There are two things that should be looked at when it comes to this project and that is the delivery and the quality of the project in the end. The standard measures should have some impact on the project goals. These measures should be defined in the beginning before the project has been started. The person that is leading this project should be able to obtain what the actual results should be from this measure. With this process these things will be done through increased efficiency and effectiveness of the processes and the product enhancement. The projects outcome is going to come from the performance management of the project. The companies goal is to be able to manage the outcome along with making sure there is reduced or no variance in the work product or process. The project manager is the person who will be in charge. He/she will be making sure that there is output from the staff managers and that the project is progressing as it should. The project manager will also help the employees get involved in the project and help them understand the goals and why it is important for them to achieve these goals. The project manager will be the one to explain why these changes need to be done, how the company will complete the project and what will be the impact in the end from the project. Process performance may be an early warning signal of downstream problems in a project’s quality, time, or productivity (Syamil, Doll, Apigian, 2004). The performance elements and standards should be considered SMART which stands for: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. These are critical elements in which employees should be held accountable for their work. Performance plans should be done for all employees that are involved on the projects and should be flexible so that there can be adjustment or changes made if needed. Feedback should be available from all employees. This feedback will help these employees are achieving their goals and how to work in groups. A project manager should be able to look at the project performance indicators and then make a decision on how he will make things better when it comes to the customer’s satisfaction, developmental costs and the manufacturing profits of the company. Each link in this product concept to economic value chain is pivotal to the economic value of the project (Syamil, Doll, Apigian, 2004). Without monitoring these things and doing this continually, the manager will then be able to identify if there is unacceptable performance during the project and will then be able to provide assistance where needed. The project manager will also be able to increase training if needed and also introduce new skills for the higher level of responsibilities. There are several things that the project manager can do when it comes to the qualifications of the employees and by providing them with skills that will strengthen their ability to work on the project. In order to have effective management the behavior of employees should be controlled, if it is not then there should be consequences in the end. These can be formal, informal or even positive or negative with the employees. Project Closure Approach There are many things that project managers need to do especially when it comes to project closure. They may have all of the things when it comes to starting a project and also when it comes to working through the project. How often do they look at things when it comes to closing the project? The following things should be looked at when it comes to closing the project. These few points are important because the two companies need to understand the way that they do proper synchronization of their companies while merging. A project manager needs to look closely at the completion of the project, the post project analysis, the releasing resources, but something that is very important is that they need to make sure that they close out the work orders. This needs to be done for financial reasons to help the company be stable in their financial status. â€Å"Project success or failure often depends on management’s ability to handle personnel issues properly during this final phase. If job assignments beyond the current project look undesirable or uncertain to project team members, a great deal of anxiety and conflict may develop that diverts needed energy to job hunting, foot dragging, or even sabotage. Project personnel may engage in job searches on their own and may leave the project prematurely. This creates a glaring void that is often difficult to patch (Kerzner, 2003).† The management team needs to encourage their employees to learn this new software once it is implemented within the companies. Often leadership does not do these things and this will help everyone to accept the changes especially if management is there when they use hands on training for their employees. This will help the employees along with their people in customer service because they will understand what is expected of their job. With the development of this software there will be a schedule of events and changes. These changes and events will help employees appreciate what is coming of the new software. Conclusion With this project and making sure that it has been implemented successfully, this is something that ABI has made sure that has happened. ABI is making sure that both themselves and FAFS are prepared when it comes to the changes and how they will be successful they will be in the end. Management has stepped up to the plate to make sure that all of their employees are up to speed on the software and how it will impact their jobs and what will also be expected of them in the end. With this project if the correct steps are followed the merger of these two companies will be successful along with the implementation of the software being a success for both companies. This will help these companies grow as one in their future. With this project the project manager is looking at a lot of things that need to be done. If these things are not done this project could become to be a failure for the company especially as these companies are merging into one. Being prepared for implementation of this project is very important to the manager and this is going to help the company in the future be successful. This will not only be when the merger happens, but in years to come. The company needs to do what is going to be best for their reputation and how they are going to be the number one company in the nation. References Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). From Nobel Prize to Project Management Getting Risks Right. Project Management Journal, 37(3), 5-15. Retrieved February 12, 2010, from ProQuest database. Just, M.R., Murphy, J.P. (1994). The effect of resource constraints on project schedules. Transactions of AACE International: Transactions, 1994, DCL2.1. Retrieved February 12, 2010, from ProQuest database. Kerzner, H. (2003). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, 8e Chapter 11: Planning: John Wiley Sons, Inc. Syamil, A., Doll, W.J., Apigian, C.H. (2004). Process performance in product development: measure and impacts. European Journal of Innovation Management, 7(3), 205-217. Retrieved February 12, 2010, from ProQuest database. 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