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Project Plan

Project Overview Statement, Part II

Conversion of Legacy Database to New ERP Software

Member 1

Member 2

Member 3

Member 4

PROJ-584

Managing Software Development Projects

Professor Name

School Name

October 7, 2018

Project Plan

Project Overview Statement

Executive Summary

Team #3 is proposing a software development/upgrade project to move from the legacy software/database MANFACT, to SyteLine® ERP inventory and financial database, to meet the needs of the growing business.  This project is in line with the strategic objective of increasing sales and improving customer satisfaction by improving on time delivery at the Los Angeles, CA facility. This ERP software is in use at other facilities in the parent organization for many years now and has been successful in improving performance and delivery as well as reduced inventory levels and improved sales and bookings.  This project has a preliminary budget of $500,000 with a duration of 12 -18 months.

Statement of Scope

This project will be company-wide and implemented in all departments and areas of the company.  The new software Syteline® ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZLEMmqTdoE ), will reduce the amount of manual tracking of jobs (phone calls, emails, manual excel schedules, attending department meetings, etc.) by providing real-time communication of timelines and part movement and flow throughout the shop and along with status of open programs or large jobs.  It will also improve On Time Delivery (OTD) performance through enhanced planning and scheduling of orders. Reduction of lead times (customer delivery) through the elimination of wasted processes and excessive move and queue times built in because of manual processes.

We intend to complete this transformation by:

· Converting existing data into the new ERP database.

· Upgrade server and network equipment to meet increased traffic demands.

· Run pilot programs in parallel to test and verify new process capabilities.

· Create standard work for each department

· Train all employees that would use this system from managers to leads, from sales to production, and engineering to purchasing.

Project Organization (MARC)

This software upgrade will be in alignment with the organization's strategic goals and objectives to assure the success of this project.  All of the team members will follow the company's policies and procedures when making changes as well as the rules of engagement. The roles and responsibilities will be defined and be respectful to team members current duties as well as the demands of this project.

The company will use a functional organization management layout to allow department managers control over their resources as well as the daily functions while completing the project work.

The project organization leadership will have a lot of influence on how this software project will be managed and conducted.  The organizational factors that will help to motivate and keep workers engaged are:

●    A workplace free of disruptions

●    Challenging technical problems

●    Autonomy to solve problems

●    Ability to control one’s work schedule

●    Competent technology leaders

●    Opportunities to experiment with new ideas, processes or systems.(PMBOK, 2013)

The Organizational assets will be grouped into a) processes and procedures, b) corporate knowledge base.  The rationale for this upgrade is:

a)      Improve customer service by improving on-time delivery (From 85% to 96+%) to the commitment to the customer.

b)      Improve scheduling by reducing waste of expediting because of poor planning.  Actively share information and common practices between departments across the enterprise.

The departments affected by this upgrade will be:

·         Inventory and Production Control

·         Quality

·         Shipping and receiving (logistics)

·         Sales, customer service (CRM)

·         Finance and accounting

·         Engineering

·         Manufacturing

·         IT

(Singh, 2013)

Project Objectives (SUJA)

Our primary objective is to develop a new system to increase the efficiency in internal processes with the real-time information flow for simplifying data collection, analysis, and reporting. Another goal is to complete this project within the estimated budget of USD 500,000 and within an 18-month timeline. This system will help to easily track the supply chain activities from inventory purchases to processing and final shipment to customers.

We will provide an integrated view of the company data to improve the collaboration and information sharing between different departments. Another objective is to decrease lead time by eliminating waste processes and excessive move and queue times due to manual processes. Other goals of this project are:

●       Better resource planning and management as per the real-time requirements of the company.

●       Decrease production cost by 20% over two years by streamlining the design processes.

●       Detect and correct defects in finished products and problems in the process, to increase quality and customer satisfaction.

●       Increase productivity of the integrated demand planning, inventory tracking, and financial reporting, which helps to predict the changes in the market.

●       Decentralize decision-making with real-time access and visibility to all the corners of the company (Basu, n.d.).

Risk Assessment (Tundra)

A risk management plan will be developed to identify and assess potential risks before they emerge.  This method will be utilized to mitigate uncertainties to ensure the success of the overall project (Hillson & Simon, 2012). This plan will be carried out through the entire life of the project to monitor risks continually.  The goal is to reduce the probability of a risk impacting the objectives and keep the triple constraints (scope, cost, and schedule) balanced. The immediate assessment conducted has identified the following risks that could negatively impact the project.

●       IT Security

Proper security must be in place to ensure all information, software, hardware, and documents are protected.

●       Downtime

During the switch over to the new system, employees may experience loss of service and cannot complete their normal functions.

●       Data loss

Software upgrades can result in the loss of essential data that becomes corrupted, deleted, or unreadable through processing, transmission or lack of storage.

●       Loss of critical resource

A skilled project team member abruptly leaves within a short/no notice of departure.

●       Requirements Increase

Scope changes due to more features requested that were not identified initially which threaten the budget and schedule.

●       Performance Issues

Slow system response times and transactions due to memory setting, improperly indexed database, and instability.

Project Assumptions (Tundra)

As a part of the project planning, we have identified assumptions that we expect will occur during the project.  These assumptions are events outside of the Project Manager and the team’s control. Unfortunately, there may be external factors that we can neither control nor anticipate.  We will document and manage the events by revisiting as the project progresses (Tran, 2016). The project assumptions are based on the following:

·         The software is adequate for our needs and will meet the needs of the project scope and the needs of the organization

·         Equipment will arrive on time per the schedule

·         Server, software, and network setup will be installed properly with no issues

·         Employees are trained to operate and ready for new software

·         No substantial change in the price of software and equipment

·         Resources will be available

·         No significant events will occur that would prolong the deadline date

Project Constraints (Sabrina)

Constraints limit the team’s ability to reach the project objectives. It is the goal of the Project Manager and team to manage and control any internal and external restrictions that can affect the project performance. It is vital to identify early in the project any factors that could result in a substantial impact on the deliverables. The factors that would cause limitations to this project are the following:

●       Imbalance of the triple constraints (scope, cost, and schedule)

●       Customer approvals not received during agreed upon time

●       Equipment shipping delayed

●       Company Restructuring

●       Resources not available

●       Poor communication

Project Exclusions (Tundra)

The scope of the project has been outlined based on the stakeholder's expectations. There are boundaries outside of the scope which are not included in the project. The boundaries of the project will not include the following:

●       Disaster Recovery Plan

●       Maintenance and Support after 30 days

●       Securing Antivirus Software

●       Obtaining of Licensees

Project Estimates (Marc)

The size and complexity of this project will be the main factors for driving costs, as a project of this size will require a lot of effort to update old data, garbage data, and redefine old processes in our current operations process flow.  The cost management plan will be created to determine the resources, equipment upgrades, and software licensing. Although the software determination process has been mandated by corporate to use SyteLine® as the software vendor, currently in use by other sites, our B.U. will have fees that need to be paid based on the number of users.  This has relieved us of performing the initial cost estimating process, sending out RFQ’s and other tools of the cost estimation process. High-level estimation units, work units, story points, or ideal time are other tools used in the cost estimation process.

The main areas of the cost management plan are:

1.      Resources (internal) - we will review current processes and work with the continuous improvement (CI) team to create value stream mapping of current and future state.  This analysis will then be relayed to the core team to integrate into best practices of the new software. They will also be responsible for creating the documentation and perform the training with their respective departments.

2.      Consultants (external) - to aid in updating data, mapping from the old system to new and advise best practices from other facilities.

3.      Equipment - The software will have requirements on what type of hardware is best to run, SyteLine®.  Although SyteLine® is .net based and able to run on PC and Mac, some equipment upgrades would be required but will be minimal.

4.      Timeline.  Getting this project completed by March 2020 is a must hit target date.  If the project begins to fall behind schedule, then additional resources or expedites will need to be used.

Technical Requirements (Sabrina)

In creating the new database, several requirements will be outlined.  The new database will, therefore, require permissions on the database group to execute it effectively. These permissions include the creation of the snapshots for benchmarking as well as the external backups.

In any software development, there is a need for the software platform also referred to as the computing or digital platform. The most useful and desirable platform to utilize in this software development is the Microsoft Windows computing platform. The Microsoft Windows computing platform ensures that any given piece of this software effectively executes. This software platform is most applicable since it accommodates any web browser as well as associated application programming interfaces or even the underlying software. This is only suitable if the program code is executed with it. This software platform considers the system qualities and accommodates them effectively (Daniel, 2009).

There will be a need for the snapshots deletion as well as managing their retention time. In addition, the new database will require the need to clone the database as well as recover the database form the backup or the snapshot (Daniel, 2009).  The system qualities include the availability of the system’s resources, the latent capacity, performance, scalability, serviceability as well as the security of the respective software development. This software platform, also, may help validate as well as refine the technical requirements of the software development including the legacy system.

●       The quality level required is 0.10% or less downtime in 30 days.

●       The new database will require the calculation of the database storage allocation. This mainly includes the optimistic estimate of the additional storage to accommodate the point-in-time recovery write-ahead logs (WALs) if the team plans to enable the point-in-time recovery.

●       The language to be utilized in this software development include the Common Business Oriented Language (COMBOL). COMBOL is a high-level programming language for the business applications. It is a typical operating system agnostic, which can be found in numerous financial as well as business applications in the modern world (Daniel, 2009). This explains why this language is the most effective in this software development since it is based on the modern business applications. It implies that it will be well suited for the conversion of the legacy database system into the new technology.

●       Snapshot or recovery points will need to be taken in the beginning to aid in benchmarking.

●       The new software will validate, as well as define the technical requirements of the legacy network

Reference:

Basu, C. (n.d.). Goals for an ERP project for a manufacturing company. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/goals-erp-project-manufacturing-company-37347.html

Daniel (2009), New Legacy System, Using Technology to Drive Performance, pp. 105.

Hillson, D., & Simon, P. (2012). Practical project risk management: The ATOM methodology. Tysons Corner, VA: Management Concepts Press.

Project Management Institute. (2013). Software Extension, 5th Ed. (pp. 19-22). Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Project Management Institute. (2004). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK guide), 5th Ed. Newtown Square, Pa: Project Management Institute.

Singh, S. (2013, Jan 12) ERP success of dabur.  Linkedin Slideshare. p. 3.  Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/surajeetsinghji/erp-success-of-dabur

Stefan (2000), The Unified Software Development Process, pp. 45-46.

Tran, L. (2016, September 28). A Guide to Dependencies, Constraints and Assumptions (Part 3): Making Project Assumptions. Retrieved from https://www.inloox.com/company/blog/articles/a-guide-to-dependencies-constraints-and-assumptions-part-3-project-assumptions/

Ucol-Ganiron Jr., Dr. T., Taylor, H. (2013, Jan 16) Project Organization and Structure.  Linkedin Slideshare. p. 2.   Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/haroldtaylor1113/project-organization-and-structure

PROJ584 Final Project Plan Outline

* Complete these sections as though you are about to assign them to a team member. See the bottom of the outline for details.

Cover Page

Table of Contents

I.        Introduction

A.        Executive Summary

B.        Project Scope and Objectives Me

1.        Statement of Scope

a.        In Scope Me

b.        Out of Scope  Me

2.        Major Functions  Me

3.        Performance Issues*  Me

4.        Management and Technical Constraints* Me

II.        Software Development Process and Methodology (SDPM)   Mike

A.        Overall Approach to Delivering the Product and Reason for Choice Mike

B.        Phases of Your SDPM Process  Mike

C.        Degree of Stakeholder Involvement in your SDPM Process  Mike

III.        Project Estimates   Mark

A.        Sources of Historical Data Used for Estimates  Mark

B.        Estimation Techniques*  Mark

C.        Estimates of Effort, Cost, Duration*  Mark

IV.        Risk Management Strategy Sarah

A.        Risk Table (lists risks identified for your project (identify at least 20) with a risk score for each)  Sarah

B.        Discussion of Risks to be Managed (plan to manage at least five—the top five risk scores from above)  Sarah

C.        Risk Mitigation, Monitoring, and Management Plan for each Risk to be Managed (one page for each covering the following three elements)  Sarah

1.        Risk Mitigation  Sarah

2.        Risk Monitoring  Sarah

3.        Risk Management (contingency plans)

V.        Schedule   Mark

A.        Project Work Breakdown Structure  Mark

B.        Task Network*  Mark

C.        Timeline Chart (Gantt Chart)*  Mark

D.        Resource Table*  Mark

E.        Responsibility Matrix*  Mark

F.        Major Milestones and Target Dates  Mark

* Complete these sections as though you are about to assign them to a team member. For each of these sections, provide the following information.

· Describe the section in sufficient detail to provide a relatively new team member an idea of how this section would need to be completed. (About 75–150 words)

· Why is the section important for this project and what should be emphasized to increase its utility in achieving the goals of the project—based on your understanding of it at this point? (50–100 words)

· NOTE: If you do not think the section is relevant to this project, provide your rationale for excluding it. (Do this with caution!) If you exclude an item, the remaining portions would not be applicable. (50–100 words)

· Do's: "In completing this section, be sure to..." Describe what you would consider best practices for completing this section as it applies to the project. (Word counts vary)

· Don'ts: "In completing this section, try to avoid..." Based on your experience or readings of cautionary tales in the literature, indicate pitfalls one would sidestep in completing this section. (Word counts vary)

· Gotchas: "In this project, what could go awry with this section?" These are things that you may not be able to avoid but should be aware of and prepared to deal with—in other words, risks related to completing this section! (Word counts vary)

Course Project Part II: Introductory Project Plan

This introductory Project Plan is a written plan that will describe the real-world project you have selected from one of the options above.

It assumes that you have already acquired proficiency in the skills of a project's work, decomposition, estimation, scheduling, resource planning, and tracking. This comes as a result of having fulfilled PROJ584 course prerequisites, such as PROJ586 or MIS525. It is not the intention of this Course Project to focus your efforts on the details of these kinds of tasks. Instead, you will be expected to function and think as if you were managing a team responsible for the planning, estimating, scheduling, implementation, delivery, and overall project management of a software project.