Project Management
50% of final grade.
Assignment due: by 12am Friday 17 November 2015
The Public Works Department (PWD) found that its computer systems for managing public clients is obsolete and needed replacing. A business case was prepared for funding the replacement and a total budget of $2.3 million was requested. However, only $1.5 million was approved by the government and was accepted by PWD.
The details of the project are as follows
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Project scope |
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implementing hardware and software at 100 PWD offices in Malaysia |
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Projected completion date |
: |
30th June 2010 |
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Project governance |
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A project steering committee was established. The sponsor was the Director General of PWD with representation from influential managers with differing outcome needs to suit their particular work environment. |
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Risk identification |
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Loosely identified |
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Commencement date |
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July 2009 |
As the project did not have sufficient funds, PWD Finance Manager had to act as the Project Manager at the same doing his normal duties.
PWD contracted Best Solutions Sdn Bhd (BSSB) to supply the software and assist in the implementation. BSSB offered, free of charge, many more features that were not in the original scope, with the condition that PWD allow BSB to advertise their products in the provided solution. Initially, the steering committee met regularly, but as new versions of the resulting software were being implemented regularly, meetings became less frequent and only BSSB did more and more of the day to day management of the new version implementations. These new versions were developed after consultation with the various individual managers to accommodate requested new features with little consultation amongst all of the managers. All PWD and its steering committee had to do was to identify problems with the software and to make the system testers available for new versions. However, the effect was an unanticipated overhead for PWD.
Sometime after the original project was scoped and commenced, both the original Director General of PWD and finance manager had been moved out of the department and new officers have been appointed. At this time, the new Director General (DG) of PWD has been advised that about $185,000 more is needed for the project, which is not in his current budget. The original project has not been signed off, indeed, it is evident that it has not been completed. The new DG of PWD is not sure of the original scope of the project, what aspects have been implemented, nor what has been spent for which parts. There do not seem to be any reliable reports available as to original scope, scope changes, schedule or budget. The DG of PWD is concerned that the project has become more of a career than a project, with version 16.5 of the client management system now being tested with yet more features. In addition, there are some past software problems that are still outstanding. BSSB have promised that problems will be fixed in the next version.
The DG of PWD has asked you, a senior consultant with PM Consultancy, a project management consulting company to provide the following:
- Report your assessment of the current project status (using project management practices) (15 Marks)
- Recommend steps to bring the project to a close. (15 Marks)
- Recommend improvements to the PWD future project management practices including the selection of a good project manager. (15 Marks)
- What other advice would you give to the DG of PWD? (5 Marks)
