ITECH7401 Leadership In It Project Management

Subject Code :
ITECH7401
Country :
AU
University :
Federation University

Question:

Overview

The purpose of this task is to provide students with practical experience in working in teams to develop a project business case in order to solve an IT business problem.

Learning Outcomes:

The following course learning outcomes are assessed by completing this assessment:

1. Analyse and evaluate various project management methodologies utilised on IT projects.

2. Understand the importance of strategic alignment of IT projects to organisational objectives.

3. Investigate and evaluate a variety of strategies for coordinating IT project change.

Assessment Details

Background

A business case is the first deliverable in the IT project life cycle. It provides an analysis of the organisational value, feasibility, costs, benefits, and risks of several proposed alternatives or options.

A business case helps to determine whether or not a project justifies an organisations investment into a project. The business case defines the problem and its impact and performs a cost benefit analysis for the proposed solution. It also looks at possible alternative solutions. The business case should also provide a check to see that the project aligns with the organisation’s strategic plan.

For on preparing a business case, see: http://www.cio.com.au/article/433382/how_make_winning_business_case/

Requirements

In this assignment, you will be required to form teams of approximately four (4) people. One team member is to be elected the project leader for the duration of the project. Teams will prepare a project business case based on an IT project case study and should use their own initiative regarding assumptions and the scheduling all deliverables.

Ideally the business case should contain details of the following:

introduction and description of project background

description of project objectives (including link to organisational mission statement)

description of the current situation (including a SWOT analysis)

outline of problem/opportunity statement

details of critical assumptions and constraints

an analysis of options and recommendations

financial analysis (npv, roi and payback figures)

preliminary project requirements (project preliminary scope)

budget estimate (cost model and baseline)

schedule estimate (including work breakdown structure level 3)

list of potential risks

Case Study: Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park

The Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park is located in the coastal hamlet of Port Fairy, increasingly known as the jewel in the crown of the South West. Port Fairy boasts a love of festivals such as the winter weekend events. The Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park offers vacationers a range of accommodation options. Powered and non-powered sites are available for campers, and newly renovated holiday cabins for those wanting some luxury. The cabins are self-contained with each accommodating up to 6 people and including a kitchenette, lounge, toilet and shower room. New and returning vacationers travel from all around and outlying areas to stay at the park and rave about the facilities and activities available.

Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park Pty Ltd is managed by director Jerry Maguire. Currently Maguire’s e-promotion for the Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park include posts on a community website, community noticeboards, online newsletters, a mobile app (available $5 from Apple App store), as well as advertising on popular social media sites and google with the hope of promoting and growing the park patrons. The cost of the various online advertising streams is enormous, Maguire wants to commission a review of the park’s e-marketing, in order to determine the most economical and impactful approach.

You have been working for South West Advertising Inc. casually for the last three months in their e-marketing department. South West Advertising has applied for a tender to undertake the review of Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park Pty Ltd’s e-marketing strategy. Due to the importance of this project the CEO of South West Advertising Inc, Bob Sugar and the firm’s Director e-advertising Rod Tidwell have both made this project a priority.

The initial investment in the project is estimated to be $90,000 in year 0 of the project, $20,000 in year 1, $20,000 in year 2, and $15,000 in year 3 a total of $145,000. South West Advertising Inc. requires a discount rate of 9%. It is anticipated project future cash inflow as follows (Years 0 to 3): $0, $90,000, $130,000, and $150,000, a total of $370,000. The project will be expected to make at least a 25% ROI, to conform to the South West Advertising Inc, business model.

The goal of the project is to analyse and evaluate the Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park Pty Ltd e-marketing strategy. The evaluation should provide an investigation and review of all current e-marketing channels including community website posts, community noticeboards, online newsletters, a mobile app, advertising on social media sites and google. For each e-marketing channel the evaluation should include a report detailing changes in bookings, comparison with competitors, ROI, and a set of recommendations. The evaluation will need data to support discussion and findings, this will be achieved through surveys of vacationers, review and evaluation of bookings and financial records. Management believes it will take about three months (12 weeks) with a budget of $145,000 for this important project. Sugar aims for a budget contingency reserve of approximately 10%.

Bob Sugar and Rod Tidwell have formed a search committee to find the best candidate for managing the Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park e-Marketing Evaluation Project. After reviewing many strong candidates, they decided to appoint you, to put together the business case for this critical project. Your previous job was with a consultancy firm where you successfully handled a number of e-marketing and development projects for medium sized enterprises, using virtual teams. Since this is a high priority project that should be completed in three months, they felt it was appropriate to get the best candidate to put together a quality business case and project management plan. They are offering a base rate for your contract at $105 p/hr for 1 d/wk, but a lot is at stake, the Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park and similar businesses are likely to request further marketing and service evaluation projects. Sugar and Tidwell propose to be joint project sponsors, and have handpicked Dorothy Boyd, to be the main internal IT liaison and Avery Bishop to be the Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park

liaison. They will let you as the new project manager form the rest of the project team if the tender bid is successful.

In order to get the e-Marketing strategy evaluated in the time frame you propose to use a five-stage approach developed by Forbes (2012), this includes a). evaluate digital marketing, b). examine customer profiles, c). review digital presence, d). evaluate messaging strategies, and e). review marketing ROIs. It is anticipated the evaluation of digital marketing phase will take four weeks, while the examine customer profiles, review of digital presence, evaluation of messaging strategies and review marking ROI phases will take 2 weeks each. Your team consists of two e-marketing/social media specialists and a customer survey specialist. The three team members will spend the equivalent of half a day a week on project management related activities (e.g. completing status reports and attending meetings etc.) and the remaining 4.5 days on evaluation tasks. They will be paid at a rate of $80 p/hr. You will also need to access to a caravan and camping specialist consultant (Frank Crush). The consultant pay rates are negotiable (minimum rate $82 p/hr) and will only be required for a maximum of one-week.

You anticipate several challenges if this tender bid is successful. South West Advertising Inc originally focused on development and evaluation of e-marketing strategies for sporting organisations, but the CEO, Bob Sugar, has emphasised the need to increase profits by tapping into other markets. The type of people who work on sporting projects are often different from people working on the new camping and caravanning marketing projects. They often have different educational backgrounds, skill sets, and ideals. Most of the people hired in the past year have been hired to support these new markets. Even though you and the Port Fairy Caravan and Camping Park project team tried to do a good job managing key stakeholders, there are some difficulties with several employees who disagree with the company’s new strategies.

The plan is to roll out review existing information, conduct research and gather new material. Deliverables include a report evaluating existing e-marketing strategy and customer profiles (includes survey of customer feedback). A report reviewing the digital presence and messaging approaches. A report presenting an ROI and recommendations of new e-marketing strategy including a final presentation to key stakeholders. The project will be considered a success, if it comes in on time, on budget, within scope and key stakeholders have been pleased with the communication and reporting processes.