Week 6 Quality Improvement

Influencing and Controlling the Project

The Wal-Mart Stores Inc. remodeling project proposal is taking shape. This paper will describe the strategies that facilitate influencing power and control for the proposal. Informal strategies discussed will include organizational change, stakeholder communications, informal communications, and the rewards systems we may use. A control strategy for the project proposal will address the following components: project evaluation, project schedule, budget controls, input quality, output quality, change management strategies and scope management strategies.

Stakeholder Communication

Based on Stakeholder analysis, all project managers and their project teams can determine all communication strategies needed. A Communications Plan will be used as a tool among the weekly meetings taking place where the project managers and teams come together to meet the stakeholders and discuss the true value of all critical information to be communicated. Between the Project Manager and stakeholders, documents that demonstrate the order of appropriate communication required will be acknowledged and used throughout the entire project. The Communications Plan includes (Sivasankari, 2010):

· Stakeholder Communications requirements in order to communicate the necessary information demanded by the stakeholders.

· Specific confirmation of information formats required for use. Consisting of email communication, walkie-talkie communication for in-store direct communication at all times.

· Details of data flows throughout the project to the required individuals. The communication structure of how documents are originated, to whom information will be sent also.

· Schedules for various communication types and when and how they should all occur. Status meetings will be held weekly on a regular schedule, following project team meetings that start off with a Wal-Mart cheer.

Informal Communication

Informal communication for the project will include e-mail, and verbal conversations. The topics that will use this type of communication shall include but not limited to performance discussions, notes, scheduling for meetings, conversations leading to discover root cause issues. All team will use walkie-talkie communication for in store daily use. The walkies will allow instant communication and eliminate the need for travel to each corner of the store when simple issues arise or a meeting is needed. When participating in informal communication para language is important part of understanding what is being conveyed. All parties must be aware of how their body language, tone, and demeanor will play an important role in the message they are giving (Dictionary.com, 2017).

The remodeling has to be one of the biggest projects ever taken by Wal-Mart since not only does it entail a complete financial expense but also possibly a completely new entrance to new markets. Thus, the remodeling and development team needs to come up with various ways and factors that will assist in this new beneficial project of expanding all regular general Wal-Mart Stores owned by Wal-Mart into Supercenter Stores. In these various strategies, the team dealing with the project might take a look at the following informal strategies that will see the venture a success (Courtemanche & Carden, 2011).

Informal Strategies to Influence Success of the Project

Informality means dealing with the project by not involving official guidelines or ways of dealing with project usually meant to meet the employees and customer’s needs. (Steiner, 2010) Some of the forms and strategies that can be used are as follows;

· Reward Systems: by this, the company will be able to attract more vibrancy to its business and in turn translating to more activities to the business as well reaching new markets. Introduction of rewards for both faithful customers and employees will create a bigger customer base as the employees will be happy and vibrant, therefore they will offer better services. This will lead to more satisfied customers who will boost the sales.

· Organizational Change: Most of the employees at Wal-Mart started as junior staff. Irrespective of the role one has currently, it is important to remember where one started. As the organization undergoes re-modeling, it is crucial to have a united staff. This will ease transition process. This will ensure the changes as far as procedures, organizational processes and culture flows smoothly.

Control Strategies for the Proposal

For the implementation and control of this project, I would propose project evaluation to be a key strategy to consider. Project evaluation entails evaluation of a project before, during and after its completion in order to check its performance (Lorange&Vancil, 1977). Wal-Mart Remodeling is a big project and it needs to be checked at various points of the process. Among the methods of project evaluation that can be applied include;

· Premise control will assist in managing the progress of the workers and on how they fit into their new working areas in the expansion of Wal – Mart.

· Strategic surveillance will assist Wal – Mart in ensuring they equally have control over what their employees are doing in the new departments opened in the Supercenter Stores.

These can be compared with previous outcomes before the remodeling to check if there is progress after the remodel or deterioration.

Project Schedule

Using critical path method, the schedules will be monitored and adjusted as needed throughout the project. This method will help to complete multiple areas of work requiring a dependency while some will be parallel to others. Communicating with the person responsible for completion of each key task will be necessary throughout the project but at a minimum check in at the half way mark are mandatory to assess the need for potential crashing if the tasks are not on schedule. By monitoring the key areas and tasks for completion the resources can be reallocated if needed to maintain the original timeline or schedule set for the project. The schedule will be posted and available for everyone to see and work towards in an effort to motivate all departments to comply and communicate. Each milestone will be assessed and marked complete to move on in full force with resources and not waste time rehashing a completed area. (Lewis, n.d.)

Budget Control

Budget control will start with proper estimates. Preparing estimates using significant research will provide the most accurate budget to begin the project with. The next step will be to understand the needs and wants of Wal-Mart for their project. By knowing what is important to the company the project manager can focus resources and budget on the proper areas of importance. The budget must be reviewed on an ongoing basis. There will be a weekly budget assessment to evaluate the needs of the team and where the budget is in regards to the needs. This will include using earned value to estimate the effectiveness of the current budget and if needed the time to adjust and make changes to the work. Controlling the budget as an ongoing portion of the project will allow the project manager to correct issues before they are too far out of hand. (Lewis, n.d.)

Input and Output Quality

Inputs:

Project Communication Plan

Quality Metrics

Work Performance Data

Approved Change Requests

Deliverables

Project Documents

Outputs:

Quality Control Measurements

Validated Changes

Verified Deliverables

Work Performance Information

Change Requests

Updates for Project Communication Plans, Project Documents, and Organizational Process Assets

Change Management Strategies

Change management for Wal-Mart will need to focus on three areas to be successful. Change characteristics, organizational attributes, and the impacted groups should help with the changes to come (Prosci, 2017). Wal-Mart will look at the size of the project, numbers of workers affected, and their skillsets, identify the processes and job descriptions to be changed, and the timeline for the change to occur. The attributers will be to make sure workers and managers understand why the change is needed. Wal-Mart can look at other stores that did similar changes for lessons learned and how that fits into the new vision they are going after. The groups impacted will need new skillsets. The POS machine will react differently from the front of the store all the way to the back end of the stores shipping and receiving area and that will need attention.

Wal-Mart is looking to create a grocery section for the store, a Deli section, a Bakery, undergo POS expansion, and inventory management system upgrade to all of the smaller stores using legacy systems. The majority of the data seen has a focus on more of the processes that incorporate the structure behind the work projects involved in the remodeling project. Such as interactions with various Vendors, Stakeholders, Supply Chain Managers, IT staff and more. With the expansion providing Wal-Mart a larger space for incorporating more products and services, this also means incorporating an entire supply chain management system in place as well. This means that the three focus areas of change characteristics, organizational attributes, and the groups impacted will need to be addressed as the changes are identified and then progress on to becoming a reality.

Scope Management Strategies

Change happens and that affects scope management. With the Wal-Mart remodeling project this will mean that time and budget still need to be met. The change control procedures that the company has will ensure that changes are for needs and not wants. The overall affect will be to create a way of communicating desired changes. An example would be the IT world is constantly changing and the vendors for the new POS system will suggest the latest and greatest tool every 5 minutes. If Wal-Mart goes with them on every change then the project will never move forward. Instead having a modular system that allow easy remove and replace of key components, and having an open system approach to software so it is not proprietary to one type companies’ software, we create future opportunities to sustain the system for less costs over the life of the product. Change happens, but having a plan up front that looks at the whole companies integrated processes and programs helps to make sure Wal-Mart gets the most bang for their bucks.

Conclusion

The Wal-Mart remodeling project proposal is off to a great start. This paper described the strategies that facilitate influencing power and control for the proposal. Informal strategies were discussed and included organizational change, stakeholder communications, informal communications, and the rewards systems we may use. A control strategy for the project proposal was addressed for the following components: project evaluation, project schedule, budget controls, input quality, output quality, change management strategies and scope management strategies. The company is almost ready to start building.

References

Supercenterson body mass index and obesity. Journal of Urban Economics, 69(2), 165-

181.

Lorange, P., &Vancil, R. F. (1977). Strategic planning systems. Prentice Hall.

Prosci: The why and how of a change management strategy. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.prosci.com/changemanagement/thought-leadership-library/change-management-strategy

 Safari Books Online. (2017). 8.3 Control Quality. Retrieved from https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/a-guide-to/9781935589679/sub8.3.xhtml

Sivasankari, R. (2010). An Effective Communications Plan in Place is the Key. Retrieved from https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/effective-communication-better-project-management-6480

Steiner, G. A. (2010). Strategic planning. Simon and Schuster.