Systems Analysis and Design:

Project Management of an Information Technology Project In this lab you need to complete several tasks to provide project scope, time, cost and human resource management of an Information Technology project. SOFTWARE TRAINING PROGRAM 1 ABC Company has 50,000 employees and wants to increase employee productivity by setting up an internal software applications training program. The training program will teach employees how to use Microsoft software application programs such as Word 2013, Excel 2013, PowerPoint 2013, Access 2013, and Project 2013. Courses will be offered in the evenings and on Saturdays and taught by qualified volunteer employees. Instructors will be paid $40 per hour. In the past, employees were sent to courses offered by local vendors during company time. In contrast, this internal training program should save the company money on training as well as make people more productive. The Human Resources department will manage the program, and any employee can take the courses. Employees will receive a certificate for completing courses, and a copy will be put in their personnel files. The company is not sure which vendor s off-the-shelf training materials to use. The company needs to set up a training classroom, survey employees on desired courses, find qualified volunteer instructors, and start offering courses. The company wants to offer the first courses within six months. One person from Human Resources is assigned full time to manage this project, and top management has pledged its support.

TASKS 1. Project Scope Management

a. Create a WBS for this project and enter the tasks in Project 2013. Create milestones and summary tasks. Assume that some of the project management tasks you need to do are similar to tasks from the Project A+ example.

b. Some of the tasks specific to this project will be to:

 a. Review off-the-shelf training materials from three major vendors and decide which materials to use.

b. Negotiate a contract with the selected vendor for its materials.

c. Develop communications information about this new training program. Disseminate the information via department meetings, e-mail, the company s intranet, and flyers to all employees.

d. Create a survey to determine the number and type of courses needed and employees preferred times for taking courses.

e. Administer the survey.

f. Solicit qualified volunteers to teach the courses. 1 Kathy Schwalbe, “Information Technology Project Management,” Revised 6e, Appendix A

g. Review resumes, interview candidates for teaching the courses, and develop a list of preferred instructors.

h. Coordinate with the Facilities department to build two classrooms with 20 personal computers each, a teacher station, and an overhead projection system (assume that Facilities will manage this part of the project).

i. Schedule courses.

j. Develop a fair system for signing up for classes.

k. Develop a course evaluation form to assess the usefulness of each course and the instructor s teaching ability.

 l. Offer classes.

2. Project Time Management a. Enter durations for each task, and then link the tasks as appropriate. Be sure that all tasks are linked (in some fashion) to the start and end of the project.

a. Assume that you have six months to complete the entire project. Hint: Use the Project files from previous labs as an example.

b. Save the Gantt chart view and Network diagram view for the project.

c. Save the Schedule table to see key dates and slack times for each task.

3. Project Cost Management

 a. Assume that you have three people working on the project and each of them would charge $20 per hour. Enter this information in the Resource Sheet.

b. Estimate that each person will spend an average of about five hours per week for the four-month period. Assign resources to the tasks, and try to make the final cost in line with this estimate.

c. Save the budget report for your project.

4. Project Human Resource Management

a. Assume that you have four people from various departments available part time to support the full-time Human Resources person, Terry, on the project. Assume that Terry s hourly rate is $40. Two people from the Information Technology department will each spend up to 25% of their time supporting the project. Their hourly rate is $50. One person from the Marketing department is available 25% of the time at $40 per hour, and one person from Corporate is available 30% of the time at $35 per hour. Enter this information about time and hourly wages into the Resource Sheet. Assume that the cost to build the two classrooms will be $100,000, and enter it as a fixed cost.

b. Using your best judgment, assign resources to the tasks.

c. View the Resource Graphs for each person. If anyone is over allocated, make adjustments. Turn in All labs will be graded in Blackboard. Once you have completed the tasks related to this lab, submit solution files on the Lab 3 link (Assignments/Labs/Lab3):

1. Submit all .mpp files created for this lab

2. Gantt Chart and Network Diagram

3. Time schedule

4. Budget

5. Resource usage view.   

Has to be done in project 13