Hardware_Replacement

Hardware Replacement Project Betty Gladney IT 205 June 20 2010 DeCendre Pinckney A project is a planned series of related activities for achieving a specific business objective. Project management refers to the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to achieve specific targets within specific budget and time constraints. Project management activities include planning the work, assessing risk estimating resources required to accomplish the work, organizing the work, acquiring human and materials resources, assigning tasks, directing activities, controlling project execution, reporting progress, and analyzing the results. As in other areas of business, project management for information systems must deal with five major variables: scope, time, cost, quality, and risk. Scope defines what work is or is not included in a project. For example, the scope of a project for new order processing system might include new modules for imputing orders and transmitting them to production and accounting but not any changes to related accounts receivables, manufacturing, distribution, or inventory control systems. Project management defines all the work required to complete a project successfully, and should ensure that the scope of a project not expand beyond what was originally intended. Time is the amount of time required to complete the project. Projected management typically established the amount of time required to complete major components of a project. Each of these components is further broken down into activities and tasks. Project management tries to determine the time required to complete each task and establish a schedule for completing work. Cost is based on the time to complete a project multiplied by the daily cost of human resources required to complete the project. Information systems project costs also include the cost of hardware, software, and work space. Project management develops a budget for the project and monitors ongoing project expense. Quality is an indicator of how well end result of a project satisfies the objectives specified by management. The quality of information systems projects usually boils down to improved organizational performance and decision making. Quality also considers the accuracy and timeliness of information produced by new system and ease of use. Hardware Replacement Project 2 Risk refers to potential problems that would threaten the success of a project. These potential problems might prevent a project from achieving its objectives by increasing time and cost, lowering the quality of project outputs, or preventing the project from being completed altogether. Companies typically are presented with many different projects for solving problems and improving performance. There are far more ideas for systems projects that promise the greatest benefit to the business. The system analysis includes an assessment of the economic feasibility of each alternative solution-whether each solution represents a good investment for the company. In order to identify their cost and benefits and how they related to firm’s information system plan. Tangible benefits can be quantified and assigned a monetary value. Intangible benefits, such as more efficient customer service or enhanced decision making, cannot be immediately quantified. Yet systems that produce mainly intangible benefits may still be good investment if they produce quantifiable gains in the long run. To determine the benefits of a particular solution, you’ll need to calculate all of its costs and all of its benefits. Obviously, a solution where costs exceed benefits should be rejected. But even if the benefits outweigh the cost, some additional financial analysis is required to determine whether the investment represents a good return on the firm’s invested capital. Capital budgeting methods, such as net present value, internal rate of return (IRR), or accounting rate of return on investment (ROI), would typically be evaluated the proposed information system solution as an investment. Some of the tangible benefits could increase the productivity and lower operational costs resulting from automating the ordering process and from reducing errors. Intangible benefits include enhanced volunteer job satisfaction and improved operations. The plan should describe organizational changes, including management and employee training requirement; changes in business processes; and changes in authority, structure, or management practice. When making the business case for a new information system project, you show the proposed system fits into the plan. Portfolio analysis will help you evaluate alternative system projects. Portfolio analysis inventories all of the firm’s information systems projects and assets, including infrastructure, outsourcing, contracts, and licenses. This portfolio of information systems investments can be described as having a certain profile of risk and benefit to the firm, similar to financial portfolio. Some system development projects are more likely to run into problems or to suffer delays because they carry much higher level of risk than others. The level of project risks is influenced by projects size, project structure, and the level of technical expertise of the information systems staff and project team. The larger the project-as indicated by the spent, project team size, and how many parts of the organization will be affected by the new system-the greater the risk. Risks are high for system where Hardware Replacement Project 3 Information requirements are not clear and straightforward or the project team must master new technology. Dealing with project risks requires an understanding of the implementation process and change management. Implementation refers to all the organizational activities working toward the adoption and management of an innovation, such as a new information system. Successful implementation requires a high level of user involvement in a project and management support. The relationship between end user and information systems specialists has traditionally been a problem area for information system implementation efforts because of different backgrounds, interests, and priorities. These differences create a user-designer communications gap. Information systems specialist often have a highly technical orientation to problem solving, focusing on technical solutions in which hardware and software efficiency is optimized at the expense of ease of use or organizational effectiveness. End users prefer systems that are oriented toward solving business problems or facilitating organizational tasks. Often the orientations of both groups are so odds that they appear to speak in different tongues. Communication problems between end user and designers are a major reason why user requirements are not properly incorporated into information systems and why users are driven out of the implementation process. If an information systems project has the backing and commitment of management at various levels, it is more likely to receive higher priority from both users and the technical information systems staff. Management backing also ensures that a systems project receives sufficient funding and resources to be successful. Information systems projects and the entire implementation process should be managed as planned organization change using an organizational impact analysis. Management support and control of the implementation process are essential, as are mechanisms for dealing with the level of risk in each new system project. Projects risks are influenced by project size, project structure, and the level of technical expertise of the information systems staff and project team. User can be encouraged to take active roles in systems development and become involved installation and training. Global information systems projects should involve local units in the creation of the design without giving up control of the project to parochial interests.