Pm600 1103 a-02-schwappach-loren-p3-t2

HLR Inc.

Standard Customer Relationship Management Processes (SCRMP) Project

Presented by: Brett Calsen (Team Lead/Project Manager), Martin Moxley, and Loren Schwappach

Colorado Technical University

PM600-1103A-02-P3-T2

Project Management Processes in Organizations

Professor David Bowers

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Summary of Project Charter and Project Org. Structure

Project Charter (Loren Schwappach)

Background, Problem, Project Justification

Project Goals and Objectives

Project Cost and Timeline

Project Approach

Project Assumptions

Project Team Members

Project Success Measurement Criteria

Stakeholder Analysis

Sponsor, Stakeholders, and Key Customers (Brett Calsen)

Role, Interest, and Influence Levels (Martin Moxley)

Barriers / Actions to Success (SCRMP Team)

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The project charter explains the scope, objectives, and overall approach for the work to be completed on the SCRMP project. It is a critical element for initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and assessing the project. It should be the single point of reference on the project for project goals and objectives, scope, organization, estimates, work plan, and budget. In addition, it serves as a contract between the Project Team and the Project Sponsors, stating what will be delivered according to the budget, time constraints, risks, resources, and standards agreed upon for the project. (A Guide to,2008)

HLR Inc. is a large business headquartered in Chicago responsible for purchasing, establishing, and maintaining leasing and rental arrangements for small businesses all over the world. The CIO of HLR Inc. is acting as the project sponsor and acceptance authority of this project charter.

The Standard Customer Relationship Management Processes (SCRMP) project was is a major incentive by HLR Inc. as solution to create an accurate, shared, standardized customer information system and customer management process database and business process reengineering for consolidating management and market research data into a globally sharable and secure system shared by HLR Inc. divisions. SCRMP is the largest project ever undertaken by HLR Inc. and is imperative for the continual growth in sales development that is expected at HLR Inc. next year.

The SCRMP project needs to be completed in 18 months with out exceed the budget of five hundred thousand US dollars ($500,000.00 USD).

The SCRMP Project will involve global cooperation between IT, sales, product fulfillment, customer service, billing, and marketing departments and an outside software vender.

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Having a layout for the project’s organizational structure provides many benefits to the project. Largely, it helps to identify areas of responsibility within each task of the project. It can help to contain the scope of the task and the project. It also helps with lines of communication.

There is definitely a hierarchy with such a chart aligning chains of command within the project. Since communication is key for any project to succeed, having a diagram of the positions and the personnel that occupy those positions can facilitate and expedite necessary/mandatory communications. These charts are developed for two main groups, the ones for the user/customer community to aid them in understanding the company and the ones intended for internal use diagramming the relationships between individuals and division (Kerzner, 2009, pp. 175-178).

Project organizational charts also come in multiple formats that can be tailored to the needs of the organization. Basically, they are hierarchical as shown here, the matrix version and the flat model. They also display relationships by functionality within the organization when there are special groups in existence.

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Project Charter

A project charter is a major deliverable in any project. It is the document that initiates the project, defining the reason for the project. Deliverables and objectives are defined and the limitations as well. Constraints and risks are also recognized. Plans are developed to deal with each of these critical areas and presented in a well organized manner. As the complexity of the project grows, so does the charter usually.

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The SCRMP project will be lead by HLR Inc’s Internet Technology (IT) Department and will focus on updating the software and information systems of several departments to include IT, sales, product fulfillment, customer service, billing, and marketing. The project will also involve cooperative work between IT, current business unit managers, sales, product fulfillment, customer service, billing, marketing, and a software vender contracted for developing and installing the new information system required for the project.

The software vender will play a large role in the SCRMP project and has been contracted to provide ninety percent of the essential personnel with the skill and experience needed to develop and install the SCRMP software at all HLR Inc’s locations to include foreign locations and will be assigned to work with business unit managers and low level staff towards the project’s completion.

The purpose of the SCRMP project is to secure and unify all incompatible customer relationship management process systems at HLR Inc. into a reliable, accurate and secure standard information system database that can be utilized for obtaining reliable customer information and marketing data and making timely and critical business decisions.

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Senior management of HLR Inc. has identified this project as the critical cornerstone for the continued growth and financial success of HLR Inc. Significant business and development opportunities are continually being lost due to the incompatibility between divisional information systems responsible for documenting customer relationship management process.

HLR has experienced a twenty five percent (25%) growth in sales development over the past year with a growth in sales next year estimated at thirty five percent (35%). This growth can only be achieved by targeting new markets through the use of the company’s market research data which is useless to marketing due to the current system incompatibilities between divisions.

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The project goals for the SCRMP project include: consolidate all customer relationship processes (CRPs) used by each division, identify top CRPs, incorporate top CRPs into processes utilized in each division, perform CRP test runs in each division, consolidate CRP informational databases at each division into unified database, developing a secure worldwide CRP database to act as new SCRMP database, integrating all combined CRP data into SCRMP database, perform developmental testing of SCRMP database, receive customer approval of SCRMP database, install SCRMP database at specified locations, perform HLR employee system testing, conduct software and system implementation troubleshooting, perform system patching, complete SCRMP project within time and budget constraints.

The objectives of the SCRMP project include: assign a CRMP process collection team made composed of at least one CRMP knowledge expert from each division and business unit managers for each unit to include IT, sales, product fulfillment, customer service, billing, and marketing, identify best/top CRMP practices used by each unit, incorporate top CRMPs into processes utilized in each division, and combine CRMPs business practices into new SCRMP practices.

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Additional SCRMP project objectives include: perform test run of new SCRMP business practices, provide corporate training of new SCRMP practices, provide corporate guidelines and policies for using new SCRMP, set mandatory date for enforcement of new SCRMP practices to 6 months from project start date., assign a SCRMP database specification, development, and testing team that includes members from the CRMP business process reengineering team, collect CRMP informational databases from each division, consolidate CRMP informational databases at each division into unified database, create a requirements specification document outlining the requirements of the new SCRMP database, and ensure SCRMP database corresponds with guidelines and information requirements from new SCRMP business practices.

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The final SCRMP project objectives include: engineer a secure, worldwide, SCRMP database unifying all divisional CRMP databases, integrate combined CRMP data into SCRMP database, receive approval for each division of new SCRMP database, install SCRMP database at specified locations, perform HLR Inc. employee system testing, conduct software and system implementation troubleshooting, perform system patching, receive project approval for the project within 10 days of proposed project start date and obtain resources necessary to begin project work, complete the project within 18 months (18 mo.) of receiving project approval, and complete the project without exceeding project budget of 5 hundred thousand US dollars ($500,000.00 USD).

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The budget given for the completion of the SCRMP project is five hundred thousand United States dollars and zero cents ($500,000.00 US dollars).

The software vender has been contracted to provide the development, engineering, testing, implementation, troubleshooting, and installation of the new SCRMP software as well as for providing for 90% of the technical staff needed to ensure the project is completed within the first twelve months after the approved project start date and will be paid the total of one hundred and fifty thousand United States dollars and zero cents ($150,000.00) at project completion with penalties as outlined in the detailed SOW.

The entire project is expected to be completed within as outlined in the SOW within fifteen months (15mo.), with the project business improvement process team required to complete all related tasks within 6 months (6 mo.), and the SCRMP database development, installation, and testing team and software vender tasks required to be completed with twelve months (10 mo.).

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Although the project will be lead by the IT Department it will require involvement from each business unit of HLR Inc.

The project manager has been assigned a knowledge level expert and business unit manager from each major division.

The project team will have weekly progress and status meetings in which the division head of each unit and the project stakeholders will review project status results, current project requirements, develop human resource plans, review upcoming activities and resource forecasts, and to ensure the project is receiving full corporate support.

The project manager will have full authority over all project decisions and will work closely with the division lower level staff members and the software vender to ensure the project stays on course and meets project milestone requirements.

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It is assumed that: the project manager will have full authority and support of project stakeholders and HLR Inc. management and leader for assuring the project’s success, the project manager will have full power to create SCRM and SCRMP project teams from the most knowledgeable personnel represented by at least one business unit manager from each department, the director of each business unit and managers will offer their full support and resources towards ensuring the successful implementation of the new SCRMP business restructuring plans and the new SCRMP software, that the software vender will provide enough expert personnel as specified in the SOW to ensure projects success, that adequate training and procedures will be created to allow all current and new personnel to incorporate the new SCRMP practices, and that delays the project management teams will account for unexpected delays and costs to ensure the project remains safe from exceeding time and budget constraints.

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The SCRMP project team includes: the Project Manager Brett Carlsen, the software vender SCRMP project Lead Developer Mr. Bill Ted, the IT current information systems specialist Mr. Loren Schwappach, the sales unit manager, the process expert Ms. Alice Wonderland, the Product fulfillment unit manager, the process expert Mr. Ace Ventura, the customer service unit manager, the process expert Mr. Bobby Boogerton, the Billing unit manager, the process expert Mr. Kooky Kink the marketing unit manager, the process expert Mr. Martin Moxley, and the HLR Inc. Division Lead Mr. Rumpelstiltskin.

This motivated team was selected by the project manager with the assistance of the senior management for identification of the most successful team for completing the SCRMP project.

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In order for the project to be measured successful it needs to achieve the following criteria. (Kerzner, 2009)

The SCRMP project should be completed within the allocated time period authorized by the organization (18 months)

The project needs to be completed within budget constraints of five hundred thousand US dollars ($500,000 USD)., and the project needs to achieve the objective specified by the Project Charter and completely integrate and consolidate all customer relationship management process information into one secure database shared by all applicable business units.

After the incorporation all personnel should be qualified and proficient (100% training) on the new information systems and business practices and the new consolidated SCRMP information system needs to be completely accepted by all applicable departments (IT, sales, product fulfillment, customer service, billing, marketing, and project stakeholders).

Once all of these are achieved the project can be considered a success!

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Stakeholder Analysis

The next section will outline the project sponsors, stakeholders, and key customers. It will also cover the role, interest, and influence levels of these key personnel.

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Knowing the individuals involved in any project allows the project to be planned accordingly, taking into account all the different points that will have an impact on the project. These impact points include both the positive and the negative along with what will affect the success or failure of a project (Businessdictionary.com, n.d.). Though stakeholders are usually people, they can also be agencies such as financial creditors, another business entity, the customers of the organization and other employees, government agencies, labor unions, suppliers of the various necessary products and even the local business community.

Without stakeholders companies would not exist. Even a sole proprietorship has an owner and usually some creditors to conduct normal business; each is a stakeholder.

HLR Inc. has numerous stakeholders, both in the business itself in addition to those involved with the project that is upcoming. These stakeholders will be included in the following slides.

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The sponsor of a project is a particular stakeholder, usually, that is responsible for the progression of the project. Two roles come to mind when thinking of the position of the project sponsor. These two roles include the sponsor themselves plus the role of project initiator (Brown, n.d.). There are key differences in the primary areas of responsibility with relationship to the project. Although there is the possibility that they are one and the same individual, in large projects they are usually not.

The project sponsor usually has a financial vestment in the project itself (Project Management Institute, 2009, p. 25). This entity, either a person or an agency/organization, has control of the purse strings of the project. They are responsible for ensuring the resources are available for the project to continue. These financial resources range from the salaries of the project team members to the physical hardware and software that will be needed for the deliverable.

The project initiator has a much simpler job. Though they have the responsibility for beginning the project and the authority over the aspects of initiation and closure as well as some of the authority over the direction the project till take.

Other persons of interest for this type of project include the individuals that will benefit from the initiative, both internally and externally. The stakeholders all have interest in outcome, of course. This basically means that all persons that have any involvement with HLR are stakeholders. The employees of HLR should have a more efficient method of data processing including order processing. The stock holders should benefit from increased profits from increased productivity.

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Sponsors and stakeholders are categorized into two major groups: internal and external. Internal stakeholders are vast and various. The entire organization will have a stake in this initiative at different levels. Management, stockholders and the general users will all comprise the internal group. External stakeholders include institutions and agencies such as banks, suppliers and regulatory units on top of the primary user of HLR products, the customers or consumers.

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The project sponsor is accountable for the delivery of planned benefits associated with the project from start to finish. They will ensure that all issues arisen with the project manager and project board are settled and resolution occurs.

The sponsor is the individual that is responsible for communication off the project to the company, project board. They are the final determination for commercial decision in regards to the projects due to the influence of the company and the impact of the project (van der werff, 1999). The resource needs are met by the project sponsor for the project and the sponsor determines the budget and balances of the budget. The project sponsor is the final determination for authority of the project.

In my contracting company, the project sponsor is the “Operations Manager” while the project manager is just that, a project manager. The Operations department of our company involves two people, the Operations Manager and the Operations Coordinator (me). We are ultimately responsible for how the projects look to the company. We have multiple project managers at any one time currently there is 7 that we are keeping “focused”.

We control the Auditing of records that include quality, safety and security. We are responsible to see that the PMs have the resources needed to get the project complete. This includes everything from ink for their printers all the way to security clearances for the employees. The Project sponsor is not a sit around job. Even though we are a contract organized company.

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The role of the stakeholders in general is to see the success of the project for their benefit. The benefit can be economic, financial social, educational. The benefits can be immediate (financial) or long term (experience). The stakeholders are everyone that is influenced and actively aware of our product or service. This includes the individuals from the company president level all the way down to the customers of the end use product.

The product suppliers, retailers, managers, employees of those retailers, and the customer are included. The influence ranges from direct influence to indirect influence. The customers can have indirect influence when purchasing the items. The employees of the retailers for the products of the project are indirect influences. The project manager, planners, builders, organizers and the retailers are considered a direct influence for the project. It is their decisions that will directly influence the outcome of the success or failure of the project.

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Key customers serve different roles in regards to the project itself. The sub-contractors, the customers and the community can be determined key customers. The agencies that are building a new home in a subdivision, may call the homeowners association a key customer and maintain guidance from a representative from the association. If the home builder would like future business within this community or suburb it would be best to incorporate the community within the planning and incorporate them as key customers.

Key customers may have a responsibility to accurately represent their business units’ (homeowner assn.) needs to the Project Team, and to validate the deliverables that describe the product or service that the project will produce (a home consistent with assn. guidelines) (allbusiness 2011).

These Customer have responsibility to bring information about the project back to the Customer community (the other homeowners). Towards the end of the project, Key Customers will test the product or service the project is developing, using and evaluating it while providing feedback to the Project Team.

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Having identified the stakeholders in this project, we also have to understand how each of them apply to the project. This will have an influence on how the plan is drawn, using each to their best talents.

The project leader will direct the project. His reputation is reliant upon the successes or failures that had resulted from his leadership. The sponsor needs to ensure money is used wisely and not wasted on efforts that yield no positive results. Each of the directors has an interest in the portions that affect their divisions. Owners want efficiency and productivity so the totality of the project is of particular interest to them. External stakeholders primarily wish to protect their interests, which usually are financial.

Influence levels vary with the individual and their involvement with the project. Controlling the purse strings is a double-edged sword. They could cut off the finances, but they are more responsible for making sure the project has the resources the project needs. The project manager has the most influence over the project that keeps the project in alignment with the objectives of the organization as a whole. As the org chart descends the influence tends to be more granular. Their influence tends to be over individual tasks and likely have little to do with the project as a whole.

No contributor to a project is unimportant and must be given due consideration. It is the contribution of the entire team that is responsible for the completion of a project with success.

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Barriers / Actions for Success

The next section will cover the barriers and actions for success this project and other projects are likely to encounter during the project life cycle. The project charter mentions these barriers as risks and identifies many other potential barriers in the risk identification area of the project charter.

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There are many barriers to communication within project management in regard to how efficiently and effectively process phases get accomplished. The most important fact in communication is the planning phase and the phase review. These phases are important to effectively communicate the scope of the project and deliverables to the project team. This planning prepares a chain of command for the project and enables communication and information to be distributed effectively down to the lowest level. The communicator must be prepared to communicate at the level of communication the communicate is looking for. The project manager does not need the technical aspect of the computer and how much the computer does, he wants to know the cost and need.

The impacts of communication that goes awry are vast. When the goals or outcomes of the project are not transmitted across the project employees, the project will not be a success, or the manager will need to be micro managing all activities with the scope of the project.

If there are confused employees who are not aware of a chain of command or does not know where to go to get what they need to accomplish their goal, they end up calling the operations manager who has to find the information and it is not an effective use of time or equipment. A project manager should remove the communication barrier that may exist within the project. A project manager should be well aware of the conversation or communication blockers that essentially dis engage the employees from communication and in turn the project.

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Project Managers must have confidence in their decision making for a successful project to take place.

There are many barriers to making sound decisions in projects including the obstacle of making a decision about something where all the facts about it are not known, this is called uncertainty. When there are more than two factors that a decision will affect the complexity of that decision can slow the project manager down in his decision making process.

Many project cost a lot of money, this money brings a high level of consequence with the outcomes of a project managers decisions. No project manager wants to be known for losing a million dollar contract. This impact of the decision will cause the PM to step back and think. A big barrier to decision making as far as project management is concerned is how people feel and react to the decision. I have seen many a people and project get upset when these are not taken into account when the planning of the project takes place.

When the project manager or managers in general hesitate to make a decision, they risk employee motivation. When they consistently make the wrong decision and the project gets off course or out of budget, this will lead to a negative influence on the project and the employees engagement and motivation will decrease.

To overcome these barriers of decision making project managers will need to create a constructive environment and to plan projects with adequate risk analysis. This risk analysis will create good alternate solutions as well as plan for each of the contingencies. The risk analysis will create the “What if” answers to the project. The final step is to communicate the decision thoroughly to the individuals to create an understanding of the appropriate changes.

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When the project leader suffers from poor credibility from other managers or from within the team, team building efforts become hampered creating a potential problem (barrier) to the projects success. Credibility problems can be overcome (actions to success) by practicing good managerial skills, sound technical judgments, and with increased experience in related projects. (Kerzner, 2009)

The waiving of senior management support for a project can be another barrier to a projects success. This usually results in an uneasiness from the project team and low levels of commitment. Project managers can overcome this barrier through constant and good communication with the project stake holders and by providing timely feedback on the teams performance during the project’s life cycle. (Kerzner, 2009)

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The team personnel selection barrier is created when team members begin to feel left out or treated unfairly during a projects initial staffing phase. Sometimes project personnel are assigned by functional managers leaving the project manager with little or no input in the selection process. The project manager can avoid this barrier by ensuring team members feel included and working closely with the functional manager in selecting the project team. (Kerzner, 2009)

Another major barrier to a projects success is when team members have differing values and interests (such as professional interests). This barrier is avoided by selecting a project team that allies its values with the values for ensuring the projects success and requires a good deal of coaching, motivating, and inspiring on the part of the project manager. (Kerzner, 2009)

Yet another barrier to a projects success is when there is a lack of general team member commitment to the project. Just like the previously mentioned barrier the key here is to select a team that is committed to the projects success and use good communication and leadership skills to coach, motivate, and inspire. (Kerzner, 2009)

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There are numerous barriers to business. This is no less true for business projects themselves as an element of doing business. There can be financial barriers, personnel barriers, needs barriers and barriers to communication. These are but a few.

A barrier is any obstacle preventing the desired activity. They can be physical such as a road block on a mountain pass. They can be logical as well, such as a firewall on a computerized network. The restrictions can be purposeful or sometimes they are accidental. They are often put in place for protection, such as when there is a safety hazard on a roadway. A firewall often provides that same protection preventing unauthorized access from penetrating the corporate data infrastructure.

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Culture is usually associated with the human element of society. They are uncounted in number and are found in nearly every corner of the world. They vary widely in their beliefs and livelihoods. The varied cultures when mingled together provide even more barriers to business as tolerance and education are both required in order to integrate the numerous cultural norms. With each culture there is understanding and tolerance that is necessary for this integration as it is very common for misunderstanding to cause conflict. It is impossible for every culture to know all the nuances of every other culture. Therefore the risk for conflict is nearly certain in the melting pot of nationalities that make up the American culture.

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Cultural barriers exist everywhere. However those in business take on a completely different air in their implication and effect. Whereas a societal cultural conflict can usually be dealt with using education and communication, business culture has different methods for dealing with those issues.

Business culture, more commonly known as organizational culture, are the values of the of the company, including behavior, that contribute to the social and psychological makeup of the company (Businessdictonary.com, n.d.). The manner in which the company will conduct business will be impacted by the influence of the management above but also by the societal environment which is created and made unique by the addition of any new employees. After all, the culture truly is consistent of every employee within the organization. Business decisions will be impacted. It will also contribute to the productivity of the company based on the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals, and how they participate with the objectives of the company.

Communication within the masses is also very important. It allows for the freedom of expression allowing the employees to express themselves giving them the feeling of ownership. Most people support decisions and objectives when their position has been heard.

Customs can play a role as well; often negatively when not expressed within the correct context. The employee is every bit as responsible for understanding the culture of the company as the company is for understanding the cultures of the people that work for it.

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Today We Covered: Project Charter (Loren Schwappach)

Background, Problem, Project Justification

Project Goals and Objectives

Project Cost and Timeline

Project Approach

Project Assumptions

Project Team Members

Project Success Measurement Criteria

Stakeholder Analysis

Sponsor, Stakeholders, and Key Customers (Brett

Calsen)

Role, Interest, and Influence Levels (Martin Moxley)

Barriers / Actions to Success (SCRMP Team)

Does Anyone Have Any Questions

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References

Brown, S. (n.d.). What Should a Project Sponsor Do? Retrieved from http://www.globalknowledge.com/training/generic.asp?pageid=2062&country=Canada

BusinessDictionary.com. (n.d.). Stakeholder. Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/stakeholder.html

Kerzner, H. (2009). Project Management - A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Project Management Institute. (2008). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (4th ed.). Newtown Square, PA.

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