Project Management Tools

Project planning and management tools for MIS system development For Jack & Jill Plc

Project Management Tools: Project Management is the procedure of characterizing, planning, sorting out, leading and controlling the progress of a Project. The objective of Project Management is to convey an Information System that is satisfactory to Users and is produced on time and inside plan.

There are various tools available for project management; some of them are discussed below: Gantt chart: It is a graphical illustration of a Project that demonstrates each individual task as a bar in horizontal direction. The length of the bar is corresponding to ideal time for culmination. A Gantt chart is an even bar graph that outlines a Project plan. In the Gantt chart Time is shown on the horizontal direction while the activities are orchestrated vertically (start to finish), in place of their dates of initiation. A definite Gantt chart for a vast project may be truly intricate and difficult to understand (Project Management Institute, 2004). To improve the outline, project administrator can join related exercises into one Task. Gantt chart doesn’t demonstrate how assignments must be requested (priority) however basically indicate when an assignment ought to start and ought to end. Gantt chart is more valuable to for delineating moderately straightforward ventures or sub activities of an expansive project, the exercises of a solitary worker, or for observing the advancement of exercises contrasted with planned fulfilment dates.

Pert/CPM: Pert and CPM falls under the category of network diagrams. Network diagrams are graphical portrayal of Project activities and their between connections. The recognizing peculiarity of a Network Diagram is that the requesting of Tasks is indicated by associating with its ancestor and successor activities. Network Diagramming in the technical terms is considered as a technique for scheduling the use of assets. This results in better use of resources. PERT stands for program evaluation review technique. It is among the most troublesome and most error inclined exercises when developing a Project Schedule. This involves the estimation of the time for each activity. Each activity is defined following a Work Breakdown Structure.  Pert is a strategy used to compute the probable time for completion of an activity. Pert is a strategy that is based on Optimistic Pessimistic and Realistic Time assessments to compute the probable time completion for an activity (Marciniak, 1994).  Optimistic time is the least conceivable time required for the completion of an activity while Pessimistic time is the maximum conceivable time required for the completion of an activity. The third term Realistic time denotes the likely time in which the activity will finish.

Critical Path Scheduling (CPS): A planning strategy where the request and term of a succession of task activities straightforwardly influence the completion of the project.

Following are the advantages of Network Diagram in project management:

• These show a well-defined starting and end point
• Is independent of rest of the project activities
• Shows the tasks in an ordered manner

3.2 Suitability of tools used to manage the development of MIS system for Jack & Jill Plc

As discussed above, Jack & Jill Plc. can utilize either PERT/CPM or Gantt Charts to manage the development of their MIS system. This section throws light on the strengths and weaknesses of the respective management tools to ascertain their suitability

Pert/cpm: Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Critical Path Method (CPM) assist the supervisors to plot the scheduling of projects comprising consecutive actions. PERT/CPM charts recognize the time essential to complete the actions in a project, and the sequence of the steps. Each action is allotted an earliest and latest start time and end time. Actions with no slack time are said to lie beside the critical path–the path that must stay on time for the project to be on schedule.

Predicted Accomplishment Time: A strong point of PERT/CPM charts is their capability to analyse accurately how much time the project will be taking. PERT/CPM offers administrators with a variety of time in which the project should be finished,  on the basis of the  total of all minimum and maximum time limits for all actions. This provides the firms numerous of benefits, like the capacity to communicate clients precisely when their orders will be complete, or to know accurately when to demand new deliveries (Abdel-Hamid and Tarek, 1991). The projected accomplishment time of the project is grounded on ideal conditions and does not take into account the chance of unexpected proceedings. The probable finishing  time of all following activities and the project all together can become slanted when things go wrong, which can cause complications if the company has made plans that depend on  the on time accomplishment of the project. Additional loop hole of PERT/CPM is that the method depends on previous data and experience to frame accomplishment time estimates. New companies may not have any previous experience to rely on, positioning them at a disadvantage.

Critical Path: The critical path recognized in a PERT/CPM chart displays the most time consuming actions of the supervisors. This permits them to emphasis on procedure enhancements on the jobs that are most dynamic for the timely accomplishment of the assigned task. More slack time can be produced by dropping the dealing out time at critical points in the project, or the project agenda can be squeezed up for a faster improvement (Bach, 1995). Nevertheless the supervisors may lay more stress on activities alongside the critical path. A loophole of CPM is that it stresses principally on the time feature of activities and ignores other concerns like quality or excellence and budget control. Concentrating a lot on the critical path can result in the supervisor’s less attention towards the probable production progresses in further activities.

Gantt Charts: For setting up of Gantt chart, one needs to concentrate on each and every task involved in the project. Being a part of this procedure, one will need to do some sort of homework regarding which task should be performed by whom, also time limit will be to be decided for each activity, the supervisor will be also required to make a thorough study of the expected issues which may occur during the whole process. An in-depth thoughtfulness can help the team as well as the supervisor to ensure that the plan is feasible, each task has been handed over to the appropriate person and also that they have made a thorough study regarding the prospective problems before beginning the task or project (Project Management Institute, 2004). As a final point, the charts can be if great use for updating the team as well as the promoters or sponsors regarding the progress in the project. The supervisor will also specific need keep a timely update in the chart regarding any changes in the schedule, its implications and the completion as well.

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Conclusion

Jack & Jill Plc. had been facing a number of issues because of their disintegrated and non-standardised computer systems being used by the different business practices in the company. Haphazard decision making and lacklustre reporting led the management to rethink their IT strategy and shifted their focus towards Quality Assurance practices, effective risk management and Standardisation of their processes. This report tried to showcase the importance of Quality control mechanisms while developing an MIS system for Jack & Jill Plc. and looked into aspects of Risk management and associated standards defined by ISO in this regards. Additionally the report also talked about the Quality Assurance practices at each stage of the system development and provided document templates for quality control at each stage. Based on the points put forward in this report Jack & Jill Plc. would be recommended for going for ISO 31000:2009 standards for risk management and ISO9001:2008 for quality control best practices. For managing the project at various stages, the company may opt for project management tools such as Gantt Charts or PERT/CPM. These tools generally come along with project management software such as Microsoft Project Server.

References

Abdel-Hamid, Tarek K (1991), Software Project Dynamics: an Integrated Approach, Prentice-Hall, 1991
Association for Project Management (2004) Project Risk Analysis & Management (PRAM) Guide. 2nd edn. High Wycombe: APM.
Bach, J (1995), Enough about Process: What We Need are Heroes, IEEE Software, March 1995.
British Standards Institute (2000a) BS6079-3:2000: Project Management. Part 3: Guide to the nm -related Project Risk. London: BSI.
British Standards Institute (2002) ISO/IEC Guide 73:2002: Risk Management. Vocabulary Guidelines for Use in Standards, London: BSI.
Canadian Standards Association (2010) CAN/CSA-Q850-97: Risk Management: Guideline for Decision makers. Mississauga, Ont: Canadian Standards Association.
Chapman, C.B. and Ward, S.C. (2002) Managing Project Risk and Uncertainty. Chichester: Wiley.
International Organization for Standardization, ISO/IEC 9126:1991(E) Quality Characteristics and Guidelines for Their Use, ISO/IEC, 1991
International Standards Organisation (ISO) (2009) ISO/IEC New Work Item Proposal: General Guidelines for Principles and Implementation of Risk Management, London: BSI.
Japanese Standards Association (2001) JIS Q2001:2001(E): Guidelines for Development and Implementation of Risk Management System. Tokyo: JSA.
Marciniak, J (1994) Encyclopaedia of Software Engineering, v. 1, pp 958-969, John Wiley & Sons,