Your final project will be a complete project management plan.

ECO-Trans Case Study: Project Planning and Execution

Darlene Ames

SNHU QSO 640

ECO-Trans Case Study: Project Planning and Execution

Project Planning

Introduction

ECO-Trans is a European company that provides “driver assist” technology for trains, buses, and other mass transit vehicles. Installation of the company’s product that is known as ECO-Stream offers a company various advantages that includes routing, scheduling as well as advice on operations and techniques (Mindedge, 2014). Sunshine Rail Transit (SRT) has contracted ECO-Trans to install ECO-Stream on its fleet of 53 locomotives. Astrid Varga is the project manager in charge of implementation of the project at ECO-Trans, and therefore will oversee the implementation of ECO-Stream for SRT. The success of the project is dependent on major business requirements that have to be provided by all the stakeholders involved.

Part A: Business Requirements

One of the most important business requirements for the success of the project is funding. Funding for the project will be provided by state transportation authorities as well as SRT. ECO-Trans should conduct a feasibility study and then determine the total costs that would be involved in the implementation of the project. ECO-Trans should make clear the advantages that would be accrued with the installation of its products on the clients’ fleet. The benefits should reflect a cost-benefit value for the client. SRT project manager would be able to convince the management of the company to approve the funding and seeking further funding from state transportation authorities.

ECO-Trans should conduct demos of the projects so that its client as well as members of staff can get an idea of how the project will work and the benefits that would be attained from installation of the product. Demos can be conducted at two levels. The first demo should be conducted at the sales point where the ECO-Trans convinces SRT to consider installing the product on their fleet. The second demo should be conducted after approval of the project to help make the staff of SRT understand how the products will work and how they will be involved in the project. The second demo is important because it helps to bring the company staff on board so that they can embrace every stage of the project. They will therefore be supportive of the project hence conflicts like conflicts with SRT locomotive engineers, mechanical engineers, and transport operators will be minimized.

Part B: Subject Matter Experts

Subject matter experts (SME) provide all “technical and management details” during the project charter creation process (Project Management Institute, 2013, p. 71). SMEs will be able to aid the project manager with launching the project and develop the project’s business strategy.

Another business requirement is the timely delivery of quality modules and equipment by the suppliers. The main task of the project team is to install the modules and equipment on the trains. It is therefore essential that the products are procured in good time. It is the task of ECO-Trans to ensure that quality equipment is delivered in time for the completion of the project. The delivered components should be inspected for quality at the time of delivery to ensure they match the client’s quality needs and recommendations (Burke, 2013). Any defective components should be noted and returned to the supplier.

Part C: Standard Requirements

The last business requirement would be resource allocation that is done by both the project implementation team and the client. Resource allocation involves scheduling of all the aspects involved in the implementation of the project that include workforce, materials for implementation, and time. ECO-Trans faces various bottlenecks as a result of poor resource allocation. Resource allocation would also help in proper management of time and reduced conflicts.

Part D: Requirements Traceability

The purpose of requirements traceability in this project is to “ensure that each requirement identified for the project can be traced back to a business objective or need that must be met (MindEdge, Inc., 2014). While testing is occurring on the new ECO-Stream system, a Requirements Traceability Matrix is recommended to trace the testing results.

Categorization and Organization of Business Requirements

Requirements for Project Planning

Standard Requirement Template

The format for capturing the business requirements is important because it helps in easy identification of the important aspects of the project and the priority that needs to be given to them. The format helps to break down the requirements of the project so that they can be understood at a glance. The project would require an estimated five months to complete. The time is based on the requirements for equipping the first phase and then the entire fleet, which would take approximately three months. Two months would be dedicated to end user training.

The project schedule can be crashed or fast-tracked by running parallel implementation operations to improve execution results. For example, the locomotive engineers can undergo training during the actual installation of components as opposed to waiting for the completion of the project before they are trained. Instead of relying on one supplier, the implementing can source the required components from various suppliers to maintain sustainability and uphold quality standards.

Project Execution

Part A: Implementation Approach

The best implementation approach for the project, based on the organizational structure of the company, would be agile model. Agile model supports the incremental and iterative approach where hanging requirements can be incorporated in the project through the use of cross-functional teams (Chin, 2014). As seen in SRT, the organizational structure is not clearly defined hence changes to the project will be constantly expected. Besides, the project is likely to fall beyond schedule as a result of conflicts within the structure of the client company. Agile model allows for the absorption of the backlog without change in scheduled completion time of the project. The backlog is handled in a priority-based order. Besides, software is subject to constant change hence the model will allow for incorporation of changes in requirements. Besides, there will be continuous improvement of the project’s live systems.

Part C: Keep Leadership Apprised

In terms of communication model, the project implementation team should utilize both verbal and written communication in updating the project stakeholder on the progress of the project. Verbal demonstrations should be conducted weekly with one of the leader of the implementation team providing verbal demonstrations of the progress of the project. This will allow the leadership to seek information on area that they do not understand (Burke, 2013). Short written reports should also be provided weekly and comprehensive reports after the completion of every milestone of the project. Short weekly reports allow the leadership to keep abreast with the periodic executions of the project while comprehensive reports help the leadership review and understand each milestone. The SRT management has complained of weekly comprehensive reports because the stakeholder hardly read them. Face-to-face explanations and demonstrations are more appealing, as the stakeholders have to be engaged hence will understand the progress of the project.

Part B: Project Schedule

The decision to use crashing in a project involves assigning additional resources for the purposes of completing a project faster. Unfortunately, for the most part, crashing may increase funding for a project. Since this project cannot incur additional costs, there will be cuts elsewhere and cause delays in the project schedule. If costs are to be contained, then another option to consider is fast tracking. Fast tracking in a project allows other project tasks to be completed simultaneously to keep the project on track.

References

Burke, R. (2013). Project management: Planning and control techniques. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Chin, G. (2014). Agile Project Management: How to Succeed in the Face of Changing Project Requirements [Electronic resource]. CC Pace Systems.

Mindedge. (2014). QSO 640: Project Management. Retrieved from https//snhu.mindedgeonline.com

Project Management Institute. (2013). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (5th ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Appendix

Part E: Project Schedule

References

Burke, R. (2013). Project management: Planning and control techniques. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Chin, G. (2014). Agile Project Management: How to Succeed in the Face of Changing Project Requirements [Electronic resource]. CC Pace Systems.

Mindedge. (2014). QSO 640: Project Management. Retrieved from https//snhu.mindedgeonline.com

Project Management Institute. (2013). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (5th ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.