Assignment

You are working again with your project management e-group, and members are eager to learn how things are faring with your project. Others of the group are at an evaluative stage of their respective projects too, so you will read their work as well.

Respond to the following in the discussion:

• Explain how the Decision Analysis Model may be used in your organization?

• What Evaluation Methods are used in your organization?

• Explain their effectiveness at managing the project management process

Is your organization using these models effectively, if not why and what would you suggest?

Sernerio

Your organization has just completed the initiation process for implementing an e-mail system upgrade. It was identified in a recent meeting with management leaders from the sales, consulting, and information technology (IT) departments that the current e-mail system is causing significant amount of business interruptions and must be updated immediately. You have been assigned the role of project manager to develop the project schedule and budget. As project manager, you are responsible for implementing and enforcing the project schedule and its estimates, expected costs, and the techniques and methods that will be chosen to execute and control the project. The project is being initiated with the following initial project scope in mind:

- There are 5 e-mail systems currently being used across 12 departments and offices. These will be replaced and consolidated into one e-mail system.

- New e-mail standards and protocols will be established and training provided to all departments.

- All 2,000 current e-mail users will be converted to the new system, and 500 new users that did not have e-mail before will be added.

- Users will have both local area network (LAN) and remote access to e-mail.

- Help desk and support infrastructure will be set up to accommodate the new system.

- Equipment will be salvaged.

User PCs will be upgraded to accommodate the new e-mail system.

A friend has turned you on to a project management e-group for technical discussions and information sharing. You check into a discussion thread that is in progress about control schedule and control cost processes. Those with challenges are looking to the group for advice and practical knowledge.

Reflecting upon your own organization, discuss the challenges that you have encountered when implementing schedule and cost control processes.