Contents Part 1: Build a Methodology 4 Abstract 4 Introduction 4 Project Scope Statement 5 Methodology 5 Deliverables 7 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) 8 Project Management Office Review Strategy 9 Life Cycle Cost (LCC) 10 Prioritization Technique 11 Risks and mitigation strategies

Subject:BusinessPrice: Bought3

Share With

Contents Part 1: Build a Methodology 4 Abstract 4 Introduction 4 Project Scope Statement 5 Methodology 5 Deliverables 7 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) 8 Project Management Office Review Strategy 9 Life Cycle Cost (LCC) 10 Prioritization Technique 11 Risks and mitigation strategies. 13 Delay in Project 13 Budget Shortages 13 Low-quality product 14 Incomplete project design and delivery definition 14 Lack of resources 14 Organizational Structure 15 Part 2: Project Description 16 Agile Methodology 16 Algorithm for SCC 16 Part 2A: Project Requirements 19 Agile Scope Control 19 Agile Task Control 19 References 22

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part 1: Build a Methodology

 

Abstract

Susan Consulting Company (SCC) has been spending more than the industry standards on project management costs while projects are overrunning the budget and timeline. The objectives of this paper to provide a solution for SCC to improve their project management process with the ability to track issues, risks, and changes. Also, to provide a solution where SCC be able to view project activities and life cycle project costs. From the research it has been found that Agile methodology would make the project management process cost effective. Using this method, this research developed an algorithm to operate six applications. This research found that SCC needs to make sure six core activities in project deliverable lists which would define the project outcomes. Also, a new project structure model has been proposed which would provide more stringent solution for budget monitoring. MOSCOW prioritization technique has been suggested for process optimization.

Introduction

Susans Consulting Company (SCC) has been in business for more than five years and lately has been experiencing turnovers in its project management. SCC decided to hire us, a team of experts, to help them revitalize their project management system, deliver their projects on time, and use their budget correctly. An investigation made by the SCC's senior leadership determined that the amount of project management documentation necessary for a project. The leadership also found that the company was spending 30-40% of its budget on projects, which is over the industry standards.

SCC Company has faced issues with late projects and over budget. To help solve the company's problem, SCC has contracted us to revitalize their full project management. Our team will help the company with its project timeline and deliverables.

Project Scope Statement

This project Management paper will describe the process that SCC must implement in order to reorganize their projects. The present paper will show each stage necessary within the projects and build a process that will help cut the costs and have projects delivered on time.

Life Cycle

As we aim to create a system where SCC can organize their projects, our team will use the standard life cycle composed of five stages, which are (1) Project Initiation (2) Project Planning (3) Project Execution (4) Project Monitoring & Control (5) Project Closure.

 

Figure 1 – Project life cycle

Methodology

An essential step in reviving SCC's project management is choosing the right kind of methodology. According to Hill (2013), the project methodology manages projects that use methods, principles, and rules. One of the main reasons for using a methodology is to establish standards for management processes. The SCC company had been facing problems with the methodology used. Some of the complaints about the old project management system at SCC were the number of documents required and delays in delivering projects.

With that in mind, our team thought about using the Agile methodology, which is a more flexible and dynamic methodology. According to Reddy (2019), the Agile methodology prioritizes the continuous improvement and development of a product or service. The Agile system uses shorter development cycles and requires collaboration between cross-functional teams that organize themselves according to the project's needs. The Agile methodology is well known for its flexibility and the ability given to the group to create and respond to change as needed.

Our group will implement this methodology to help SCC think through the project, understand what is going on, and adapt to the environment. This means that the company will be flexible with its planning strategy and can develop the work as it goes, so the amount of documentation required will also decrease.

This methodology will also help SCC with time management and budget adjustment. The new system will emphasize articulating goals, enabling interactions, improving team dynamics, supporting collaboration, and encouraging experimentation and innovation (Gannod, et al., 2015). Any other project management, the agile process will be composed of five phases, such as project Initiation (1); project planning (2) - design, development, and test; Project execution (3) – Deploy; Project monitoring and control (4) Review; and Project closure (5) – Launch and termination (See figure 2).

Figure 2 – Project life cycle

Deliverables

Once the project management methodology is defined, it is crucial to think about the deliverables for the projects. According to Bloomenthal & Estevez (2021), deliverables are the quantifiable goods or services that must be accomplished in a project. In order to help SC Company, solve their issues within their projects, our team has established six core activities that must be provided to have a project completion. The list counts with (1) project task list, (2) budgeting, (3) risk management plan, (4) project schedule, (5) assign task, (6) communication plan (see figure 2).

Figure 3 – Six core activities

 

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

After defining the deliverables, our group developed the Work Breakdown Framework (WBS), a hierarchical division of the project where each deliverable is specified. Generally, the WBS can be done in two ways, which are either phase-based or deliverable-based. For SCC projects, our team develops a WBS according to the project results. Each structure has been graded on a level for each element to be identified. The projected WBS can also be used to schedule and estimate costs. A chart with the stipulated deliverables.

In the projected structure, we have an example of how the necessary deliverables in the development of each project would work. At level 1, we decided to receive reports related to the internal work of scheduling, risk analysis, project scope, and project plan. As the project makes progress, we see each step broken down according to its respective deliverables. Each step will be assigned to specific teams, who will be responsible for providing the reports.

Figure 4 – Overall project structure

Project Management Office Review Strategy

To help SCC improve their projects, it will be important that the organization see the strategy as an agenda for their long-term decision. The goal is to help the company to create a continuous process with their projects. In order to help with the progress, we created a responsible mechanism of review. As Ballowe (2019) suggested, three types of review can be used, and that is, these are the ones we decided to implement. First, will take place weekly tactical meetings, these should take no longer than one hour, and they are used to cover operational elements and weekly priorities. The weekly meetings are a way to tight the short-term goals to the long-term vision. The team will decide and review what needs to be done for the next 5-7 days.

Figure 5 – Project review strategy

The other review will take place monthly. This review will be taken to see how the company is doing and work on the subsequent assignments for the following 30 days. This meeting will give a clear view of how the team is doing and areas that need improvement. The last review that will take place is the Quarterly Strategy Reviews. This review happens to articulate the focus for the next 90 days. They will function basically like the monthly review, except that it is a long time. This type of review was chosen to give the team a clear picture of what is working and what is not (Ballowe, 2019).

Life Cycle Cost (LCC)

As part of our planning, we will suggest the life cycle cost of the project. As any project manager knows, the budget has a significant influence on the company's operations. Shtub & Rosenwein (2019) state that the total costs during the elaboration of a product, project, or system throughout its useful life are defined as the life cost cycle. The goal is to know and control the costs throughout the project so that there are no extra expenses and the project achieves the defined goals. Therefore, the projects managed by SCC will have a lifecycle cost with five phases.

a) Conceptual design phase: in this first phase, the objective is to highlight all the initial costs of the project life cycle. This phase should include feasibility costs, project investigation, logistics research, and initial design.

b) Advanced Development Phase: The second phase must include the cost of preparing the project. If we take software creation as an example, this phase should include the cost of the analytical structure and the budget for resource management plans.

c) Production phase: The third stage includes the costs related to the execution of the projects. All costs of equipment, resources, labor, documentation, marketing, product launch must be calculated (GoCardless, 2020).

d) Product operation and maintenance phase: This phase must include all the costs necessary for the project to continue functioning, usually maintenance, updating, and labor costs.

e) Product closure/disposal phase: This last phase is linked to the costs of finishing or disposal of the product. When the product reaches the end of its useful life, the cost for the termination of the activity or disposal of the product must be calculated. According to Shtub & Rosenwein (2019), this can be a positive value or have no value depending on the product.

Figure 6 – LCC analysis

 

Prioritization Technique

As we work on revitalizing the project management at SCC, we have decided to use the MOSCOW prioritization technique to optimize the processes. The Moscow Technique is a straightforward method and will have the company categorize the list of requirements and the project's needs. The acronym MOSCOW stands for:

· MUST be executed: These are non-negotiable. During the project elaboration, these tasks will be the mandatory ones that must be satisfied.

· SHOULD be executed: After defining the non-negotiables, the team will look for high-priority tasks. These features have a second place in the priority list.

· COULD be executed: At this third level, the tasks in question could be executed, but they are not necessarily crucial for the project to happen.

· WOULD be executed: These are the ones that the team knows are there but can be postponed and held for future execution.

Using this technique will help SCC to rank and classify their list of priorities. Time management was an issue with the previous project management team. MOSCOW offers a quick list of priorities and will help the company to visualize its needs. In addition, it will also be used the Pay Back Period (PBP), the Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and the Net Present Value (NPV).

 

Risks and mitigation strategies.

When working in project management, it is necessary to define the risks and possible mitigations strategies. Many of the SCC issues with budgeting and time could have been caused by not doing excellent risk management strategies. Therefore, for this project, our team has identified five possible risks and their mitigations strategies such as:

Delay in Project

Delay in projects was a problem at the SCC, and therefore it should still be considered a risk - it falls into the schedule risk category. Both the impact and probability of occurrence of this risk are low. What can happen is a delay in the project that will trigger a delay in subsequent activities. The strategy to minimize this risk is controlling risk. It will be vital to control the project's schedule and have a person responsible for checking the schedule. In this case, team leaders will be appointed to observe the progress of the project and the development of activities.

Budget Shortages

Budget overhead is another problem SCC has already been facing. Therefore, it should also be on our risk list. This is a budget risk. This risk will have a low impact and probability of occurrence. However, some projects may run out of labor or resource costs, affecting the total budget. The budget goes into the controlling risk measure. The project manager will be responsible for making a budget plan for each phase of the project. For security reasons, the team will work with a margin of 80% of the total budget. Your team will be responsible for monitoring and managing resources according to future risk events.

Low-quality product

This is a risk that is also very common in some projects. This risk is linked to the quality and security of the information. In the SCC project, it may happen that some of the elaborated algorithms do not work well and cannot filter the transcribed information, but we will consider this as low risk. There is also a risk of hackers altering the data and causing the algorithm to fail. To mitigate this risk, we will adopt the controlling risk strategy. When this risk occurs, part of the team will be responsible for meeting and controlling the impact of the risk. They are joined, seeing which occurrences can still be avoided and which should only be accepted.

Incomplete project design and delivery definition

This risk enters the planning area. This risk can occur if project monitoring is not conducted diligently and information has not been communicated in detail to the project team and leader. To mitigate this risk, the measure of avoiding the risk will be adopted. The team will be responsible for monitoring and implementing measures that avoid this risk as much as possible. The work will be divided into projects according to the skills of each member so that this also helps in delivering projects.

Lack of resources

During projects, it will be essential that SCC consider the lack of resources as well. This is considered an operational risk. The impact of this risk will be medium to low. This risk can be caused by unskilled labor, equipment or software failure, and misallocation of resources. To mitigate this risk, the controlling risk measure will be adopted. Part of the team will monitor resources throughout the project lifecycle and managing resources according to project demand.

Organizational Structure

Another task developed by our team was to build SCC an organizational structure to help their project teams. That is how the consulting company should be organized in order to accomplish its goals. Our team decided on a Matrix Organizational Structure. At the top level, SCC will have its General Manager responsible for overseeing all the other levels. Below the top manager, we see the Project managers working with the other VPs to organize the projects. Under the projects, managers and team leaders will be the group of each department working on the projects, as shown in the following picture.

Figure 7 –  Proposed organizational chart

 

Part 2: Project Description

Agile Methodology

Project management entails overseeing the project and assigning various duties to team members in order to ensure that the project runs well. Project Management methodology depends upon objectives of the company, size of the team, time available and budget. The methodology we have chosen to complete this project is the Agile Methodology. The project's deliverables are the project's final product. The company's aims are considerably different from the deliverables. Some of the deliverables are the report of cost estimated, Work-in-progress report.

Agile development is an iterative, team-based process. This method emphasizes the speedy delivery of complete functional components of an application. All time is "time-boxed" into phases termed "sprints," rather than creating tasks and schedules. (Lotz, 2018) 

Algorithm for SCC

The ask is to develop an algorithm to operate the six Applications, within the project, based on costs. Based on Agile methodologies, we would dive deeper into how an iterative approach could help achieve best results. Algorithm to be used is based on the costs assigned to each application. We have calculated the Payback period, Internal rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value (NPV) for all the applications. Below is an example of the calculation done for Application A.

Table 2 - Calculations for Application A

Year	0	1	2	3	4	5	Final Values
Nominal Amount	($175,000)	$50,000	$55,000	$60,500	$66,550	$73,205
Acceptable Rate of Return							10%
Present Value	($175,000)	$45,454	$45,454	$45,454	$45,454	$45,454	$227,273
Pay Back Period							3.85
Net Present Value		($117,768)	($76,446)	($35,124)	$6,198	$47,520	$47,520
Internal Rate of Return							20%

The above table takes acceptable rate of return as 10%. Invested amount is the projected cost of Year 0 and Net Present value is calculated for a rate of 10%, with Year 0 value as investment value and nominal values for years 1 through 5 as cashflows in respective years. The Present Value, that accounts only for cash flows without the initial investment is about $227K, and including it is $47.5K.

The present value of the yearly cashflows is calculated and the amount is used to estimate a payback period. The payback period gives us the information of how long it could take for the project to return profits, after covering the costs of investment and operations. The 3.85 payback period for Application A, shows that the amount invested would start to yield profits towards the end of Year 4. This also aligns with the NPV calculation of year 4, which shows a total cash flow of about $6000, towards the end of Year 4. It is also important to note that through years 1 and 5, the value of NPV has been consistent and increasing. The negative cashflows realized in the first three years turns positive in the fourth year and at the end of fifth year, there is a profit of $47,500, which is also equal to the NPV at the end of five year period.

About 15% out of the total investment is assigned for Project Management costs. Given the history of SCC that uses about 30-40% of overhead costs for project management, we need to make sure at each step that the project management costs do not exceed the intended amount. Using the same process, we have assessed the values for all six applications and below is a summary of the same. It is also important to focus on timely delivery of the project and could be achieved by pairing the applications that realize profits sooner with the ones that take more time.

To achieve this, we started by calculating key metrics for all the applications and a summary of the same is provided below. Detailed calculations for all these applications can be found in the appendix at the end of the document.

 

Table 3 - Assessment of Applications A,B,C,X,Y and Z

Application	Investment	IRR	Payback Period (Years)	Net Present Value	Overhead Costs for Project Management
A	$ (175,000.00)	20%	3.85	$ 7,520.66	$ 26,250.00
B	$ (120,000.00)	49%	2.20	$ 38,842.98	$ 18,000.00
C	$ (200,000.00)	26%	3.38	$ 86,776.86	$ 30,000.00
X	$ (150,000.00)	32%	2.75	$ 90,032.25	$ 22,500.00
Y	$ (220,000.00)	10%	6.05	$ (1,799.66)	$ 33,000.00
Z	$ (220,000.00)	10%	6.05	$ (1,799.66)	$ 33,000.00

 

Considering the iterative approach where we can work on multiple tasks in a project concurrently, the best way to approach this project would be to work upon low risk and high-risk applications concurrently. It is clear from the summary table that Project B has the highest IRR, with least investment and hence the least overhead costs. We can pair this with the highest investment, which can be Application Y or Z. The plan is to monitor the applications after we paired them according to the IRR and Investment cost. I would start with Applications B and Y, followed by Applications C and A, to cover the losses from Y, before we could move on to Applications X and Z. For an even more complicated and fast returned approach, we can also base the Algorithm starting with Applications B and C, and then look at the combination of Applications A, X, Y and Z.

Part 2A: Project Requirements

Agile Scope Control

Agile scope control is not like scope control in a traditional challenge. Historically, a big part of mission management is scope management. Product scope is all the talents and necessities that a product consists. Project scope is all the artwork involved in developing a product. Traditional undertaking control treats converting conditions as a signal of failure in upfront planning. Agile duties, however, have variable scope indeed, so undertaking businesses can right away and incrementally contain mastering and comments and ultimately create better merchandise. The signers of the Agile Manifesto diagnosed that scope alternate is herbal and valuable. Agile strategies, in particular, consist of exchange and use it to make higher-knowledgeable decisions and additional helpful merchandise (Clark, W. 2019).

 

Agile Task Control

Agile task control is a technique that is typically used to deliver complicated obligations due to its adaptive-ness. It emphasizes collaboration, flexibility, non-save your improvement, and immoderate terrific consequences. Its goals are to be clean and measurable via the use of the six most essential deliverables to song development and create the product (Clark, W. 2019). Deliverables – Product vision statement: A summary that articulates the desires for the product. Product roadmap: The high-degree view of the necessities needed to collect the product is imaginative and prescient. Product backlog: Ordered with priority usage, that is the comprehensive listing of what is needed for your project. Release Plan: A timetable for the release of a working product. Sprint backlog: The person memories, goals, and duties are linked to the contemporary dash. Increment: The operating product functionality provided to stakeholders at the top of the sprint will likely have given to the customer

In Agile methodology, the scope of a mission isn't indeed cited from the start. It evolves at a few degrees inside the lifecycle. This text explains that all the task requirements, capabilities, epics, and testimonies are part of the (Product) Backlog. Though WBS is often related to predictive lifecycles, in Agile methodology, WBS may be used. The scope of an Agile assignment is supported by using the manner of the backlog. Also, because the artwork bundle deal represents the lowest stage in a WBS, recollections will constitute the lowest degree of a WBS in an Agile task (Highsmith, J. 2019). There are many approaches; however, we can discover a Project to Release to Iteration to Stories scenario for this piece. The mission is divided into a couple of releases. Each release may additionally have many iterations, and, in each new launch, we can supply a set of talents an entire bankruptcy, a part of a financial disaster, or design. The abilities can be expected in story factors. I have decided on this decomposition approach to be steady with my preceding article on Agile Release Planning. As we already recognize, Agile is every iterative and incremental. Hence, we have to deliver total value in each generation (Highsmith, J. 2019).

Conclusion

The research community and the software industry are not lacking in interest in agile processes. This can be proved by the large number of surveys conducted on agile practices and the growing awareness of agile methods in the industry. This has motivated us to explore another important topic in the agile field: agile project management, which requires a deeper understanding. Our research hopes to explore three specific issues, namely the process and problems of transition to an agile framework, the role of agile project manager and outsourcing agile project management, and draw theories to comment on the practice's success in all in these areas.

 

LCC Analysis

 

Conceptual Design Advanced development and detailed design phase Production phase: System operations and maintenance phase: System divestment/disposal phase: 0.1 0.3 0.45 0.1 0.05