The information technology (IT) department is implementing a new customer relationship management (CRM) solution for its corporate offices. The hardware currently in use is out of date and will not support the CRM application. An assessment of scope, time, cost, quality, and risks are five variables to consider when planning replacing a business’s hardware system. The issues that affect project risk also need to be considered. It is the job of IT hardware replacement management project leaders to see to it that this company has the best hardware replacement solutions with minimal costs at minimal risks.
Project management will see to it that all involved are happy with the end results. Project management refers to the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to achieve success with the hardware replacement project within specified budgets and time constraints. Project management activities to accomplish hardware replacement include planning the work, assessing risk, estimating resources required to accomplish the replacement, organize work strategies, acquire human and material resources, assign tasks, direct activities, control project execution, report progress, and analyze the results.
The hardware replacement project will be affected by the five variable of project management. The five variables are scope, time, cost, quality, and risk that all help to form a working strategy of the hardware replacement objective (Laudon and Laudon, 2009). The hardware replacement project scope is to include computer hardware, the integration of the hardware with the IT’s new CRM application, the testing, and training for the new system.
The scope of the hardware replacement will define all the work required to complete the project successfully and will ensure that the scope of the project will not expand beyond what is originally intended for the project. Scope must include unforeseen events such as illnesses, scheduled days off, and even bad weather. Going beyond the scope of the hardware replacement project goals risk the project from being finished on time. Time will be determined by how long the hardware replacement project will take before it is successfully completed.
Project management will figure out the amount of time that is needed to complete the major components of the hardware replacement project, and then break the major components down into activities and tasks (Laudon and Laudon, 2009). For example, a major component of this hardware replacement project will be to install the new hardware. Hardware in itself seems like a simple word, but hardware actually comprises of many areas of specialty where different skills and tasks are to be performed before the new hardware is used.
The risk with mismanaging the assessment of time is going beyond the scope of the project that will require more time and increase cost. Cost for the hardware replacement project will be based on the time to complete the project multiplied by the daily cost of human resources needed to complete the project. It is the project management’s responsibility to develop a budget and monitor project expenses. Hardware replacement management also needs a financial budget in case unforeseeable events call for extra spending.
The risk involved in miscalculating costs could short change employees and material needs that will expand the scope below expectations, will take more time to complete the project, and perhaps have the whole project team, along with management, lose their job. At minimum, miscalculating costs will no doubtfully cause desperation within project management to short change the customer, -no doubtfully presenting the hardware replacement project at its lowest quality (Laudon and Laudon, 2009). Quality will be the end result of how the hardware replacement project satisfies the objectives specified by management.
The projected goals of accuracy and timeliness of information produced by the new system in accords with the overall happiness of the new systems users is assured quality. When scope, time, and costs are successfully met, quality will follow. The mistake often made by project managers is that they are so satisfied with what they are currently doing that they begin to see the world with rose-colored glasses. The problem with wearing rose-colored glasses is the ability to sense when there is a red-alert of mistakes being made before, during, and after the risks have the project in ruins.
It is usually after the smiles and handshakes where grins and lawsuits may have the project management wishing they took off those rose-colored glasses to weigh the risks (Laudon and Laudon, 2009). Risk is the potential problems that would threaten the success of the hardware replacement project. These potential problems might prevent a project from achieving its objectives by increasing time and costs, lowering quality or preventing the project from being completed all together (Laudon and Laudon, 2009). There must be strategies recommended for minimizing the hardware replacement project risks.
The risk factors for the hardware replacement project are miscalculating scope, time, costs, quality, and the risks. Other risk factors to consider in correlation with the five variables to project management is not having a solution where the costs become far more than the benefits, and is still risky if the benefits outweigh the costs. Another risk factor is compatibility in collaborating and training the end users. As the opening chapter to my first IT class in college stated, an organization is only as good as its people.
The hardware replacement project management must work with the end user to have a smooth transition from the old system to the new system it is important for both, the tech specialists and the end users to work together before, during, and after the project is implemented. The technique of joint application design (JAD) and the system-building approach of prototyping are highly recommended as a strategy to make the conversion of the hardware replacement projects a smooth process rather than a rugged project. JAD will be used to accelerate the generation of information requirements and to develop the initial systems design.
JAD brings end users and the hardware replacement specialists together in an interactive session to discuss the system design. The system-building approach consists of building experimental systems fast and inexpensively for end users to evaluate. Users interact with the prototype multiple times until ultimate satisfaction is quality guarantied. JAD and prototyping will together encourage intense end-user involvement throughout the hardware replacement process that will more likely produce systems that fulfill the goals of this project.
An important aspect to JAD and prototyping is the training the end-users will receive in the process. The end-users will perhaps learn the dos and don’ts of what worked with the system and what did not. This could save the business with having to outsource its IS’s needs in order to correct mistakes. A well trained IT department can be a priceless tool (Laudon and Laudon, 2009). The tools that the hardware replacement project management will use to minimize risk are to ensure the project’s success.
First we may choose to capital budget to determine the profitability from client investment. Scoring modules and analysis portfolios will be used to evaluate information systems. The Ghantt charts will be used to plan how long the project will take and the PERT charts will be used to schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks. Together, these tools will help reduce risk by having project management enabled to stay in control and have reliable support during the hardware replacement project (Laudon and Laudon, 2009).
In summary, the best preparation’s, product management, and managing control over the project are essential in using an impact analysis that is tailor made to the customer. Control and proper support in a well-organized project plan is the best way to implement the hardware replacement project. It is important to keep up with the devices and tools that deter project risk. The effects of the projects risk level depends on the correct analysis of size and structure of the project, taking control of the project along with the five variables to project management, level of training of all those involved, and the right methodology.
Keeping up with the formal planning by the use of Ghantt and PERT charts, as a preacher would his or her bible on Sunday morning, abiding and implementing control reduce risk factors. Involving employees/end-users is smart strategy that will keep risk at a ow, and perhaps be the added intangible asset that will help save the business money in the long run while being confident that they have the correct tools with the right knowledge to help increase customer and profit.
In conclusion, the clarification of the hardware replacement project relates to the willingness of management on both ends to correlate a meaningful relationship to ensure two professional organizations of both their futures. Having explained the processes of the project along with recommendations, methods, and strategies, it would be my honor to serve as your hardware replacement project management firm.