Susans Consulting Company (SCC) – Problem Overview

Company Overview:

Susans
Consulting Company (SCC) has been in business for ten years and has
experienced a significant turnover in the project management group,
which has prompted senior leadership to investigate.

A preliminary review by senior leadership has determined that Project Managers are frustrated with the amount of required project management documentation, which has impacted their ability to manage projects successfully.

A recent review of the project management process has determined that SCC has spent between 30-40% of its total project budget on projects’ overhead costs
to include project management costs. A review of industry standards is
between 5-15% higher than most companies. In addition, senior leaders
found that projects are being delivered between 25% and 50% over budget and late 95% of the time.

Note:
Project Management overhead includes the PM’s time managing the
project, attending meetings, and developing the required documentation.

Request: SCC
has reached out to your team because you are experts in defining
project management processes and delivering projects on time. The SCC
request includes the following:

• The development of a new project management process which at a minimum should include the following:
  • The ability to track issues, risks, and changes
  • The
    ability to view project activities to include the ability to view what
    has been completed and what activities the team is currently working on
    and what will be done over the next reporting period
  • The
    ability to view the project costs to include what has been spent to
    date, baseline budget, any changes to the budget, remaining budget, and
    cost of the project at completion
• In
  addition, to building a new project management process, SCC would like
  you and your team to manage a project using the new process.

Assignment:

Step 1:
Identify a project manager – this individual is responsible for the
team assignment ensuring that team members are completing their assigned
work and will be responsible for turning in the assignment.

General
Note: Your instructor will act as the sponsor both for the project and
for the methodology build-out. Any questions should be directed to me.

Step 2: Build a Methodology

• Identify
  and describe the methodology to be used by the company. This should
  include both a narrative and pictorial representation of the
  methodology.
• Identify and describe the required deliverables for your process.
• Identify and describe the proposed review and update process for your methodology.
• Identify
  one or more prioritization techniques that will be used to prioritize
  work – examples can be PV, IRR, NPV, Pay Back Period, and/or dot voting
• Identify at least 3-5 risks a company should think about when identifying a new methodology.
• Identify and describe the optimum organizational structure for the methodology

Step 3: The Project

Using your new methodology, SCC would like you and you to complete the following project:

Scope: The scope of the project consists of 9 applications

Given
the critical nature of the project, the company has developed a
high-level budget and potential income for each application.

• Year
  0 is the projected cost the company has estimated for the build of the
  component. This includes a 15% overhead cost for project management
  work
• Year 1-Year 5 is the amount of revenue the company has estimated for the product
• The Acceptable Rate of Return for all projects with the company is 10%

Step 4: Manage a project

• Describe the process that your team will use to elicit and decompose the requirements for the project
• Develop a Project Overview Statement document for the project
• Create
  a WBS for the project. Remember your WBS is a deliverable base, so
  there should be a section of your WBS which outlines our project
  management deliverables
• Using the following information develop a Gantt chart
  

  	Optimistic Estimate	Pessimistic Estimate	Most Likely Estimate
  Application 1	4 months	9 months	6 months
  Application 2	1 month	5 months	3 months
  Application 3	5 months	10 months	7 months
  Application 4	1 month	7 months	4 months
  Application 5	5 months	10 months	8 months
  Application 6	2 months	9 months	5 months
  Application 7	5 months	12 months	7 months
  Application 8	3 months	13 months	9 months
  Application 9	4 months	11 months	8 months

• Describe strategies you can use to bring the project timeline to 12 months.
• Develop a team agreement
• Using your defined prioritization process, prioritize each application.
• Using
  the defined organizational structure, create a pictorial and narrative
  description of the organizational structure for the project.
• Identify at least ten potential stakeholders for your project.
• Identify
  at least five risks to include both threats and opportunities
  associated with the project. For each risk, please include the
  following information:
  • Category
  • Impact
  • Probability
  • Description of the risk
  • Mitigation Strategy
• Describe the process your team can use to determine if the projects are making the appropriate revenue.

Step 5: Develop your paper using the following requirements:

• The paper should be between 15-20 pages and should include:
  • Title Page
  • Reference Page
  • Table of Content
• Your paper should include APA format (Times New Roman, font size 12, double-spaced, proper grammar, and reference list)
• Your paper should utilize at least one outside scholarly or professional source related to project management
• Your paper should include an Abstract, Introduction, and Conclusion