TEMASEK POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL OF INFORMATICS & IT DIPLOMA IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIPLOMA IN CYBER AND DIGITAL SECURITY DIPLOMA IN INTERACTIVE

MEDIA INFORMATICS AY 2011 / 2012 LEVEL 2 OCT SEMESTER IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY PROBLEM PACKAGE

INTRODUCTION This exercise allows you to put into practice all the techniques and knowledge which you are acquiring in this subject. You are given a case study and you are required to complete a series of tasks, documents and presentations based on it LEARNING OBJECTIVES At the end of the case study, you will have achieved the following: Applied IT Project Management concepts, skills and techniques Written and compiled a report of all project documentation required in the list of tasks below Conducted weekly progress meetings and stakeholders communications session Experienced typical problems and situations of a project Learnt to filter and sift out relevant information when presented with a large quantity of data and information Practised teamwork and interpersonal skills DELIVERABLES 1. You will work in a team of 4-5 students. 2. Your team is expected to submit, as a group, item 1 to item 6 in a report.
Task/Deliverable 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) Project Charter Project Scope Statement Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Project Schedule (Gantt Chart) Weekly Progress Report Personal Reflection Journal Class Participation Presentation Presentation To be assessed as Group Group Group Individual Individual Individual Individual Individual Group

3. The report submission includes a personal reflection journal together with final report on Week 7. This reflection should contain personal insights, problems encountered and workarounds, team work, lessons learned, details of the learning process that you experienced and your recommendations to handle resistance to change faced. You are strongly encouraged to take note of any learning insights throughout the term. This will enable you to gather and organise your thoughts and reflections very quickly at the end of the term. Details on how you can organise this component are available in Appendix B. 4. A management communication session will take place in Week 4. This will be an important session as important changes to the project might be announced. These changes will most likely affect your overall planning

5. All submissions must be typed using 12-point Times New Roman or Arial font with 1 line spacing on A4 size paper. Ensure your paragraphs are justified. Be sharp and concise in your writing. ASSESSMENT This case study contributes 60% of the final grade for this subject. The breakdown of this grade is as follows: Item Report Submission Presentation Class Participation Content weight 40% 15% 5% Who assesses? Facilitator Facilitator Facilitator Who receives? Group 15% Individual 25% Group 5% Individual 10% Individual 5%

The total weight allocated to group and individual are 20% and 40% respectively. FORMAT Your report is more than a documentation of technical information. It should be professionally written using formal language and correct grammar. Marks will be deducted for incorrect grammar, spelling mistakes and unprofessional report layout (where necessary). The contents of the report should be the original work of your group. You are to put your name in the header for the individual components of your report.

RECOMMENDED SCHEDULE Here is a proposed work schedule to help your team pace yourselves. This will help to avoid you having too much work towards the end of the term. You are advised to follow this schedule closely for full appreciation of the subject. Week 1 Activity to be completed Form project team. Endorse learning contract. Read through the problem package. Walkthrough the case & submission requirements. Work on and complete the following: Project Charter Define Project Scope Work on Breakdown Structure (WBS) Start Project Schedule (Gantt Chart) Revision for Class Test 1 Submission of 1st Project Charter, scope, WBS and all weekly progress reports (Excluding Gantt Chart) Management Communication Session Class Test 1 5 Continue on Project Schedule (Gantt Chart) Progress Report Personal Reflection Journal Collation of project report for submission Revision for Class Test 2 7 Presentation Submission of Project Report (9 Dec 1700hrs, Full submission of project) 8 Class Test 2 Term Test Week

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GROUP LEARNING CONTRACT We, the undersigned, agree to participate in all aspects of the group-learning contract. 1. 2. To attend all group meetings and weekly lab sessions, and to arrive on time. To explain my absence from group meetings by contacting other members of the group, and to follow up on discussions during a missed meeting at a later date and before the next meeting. To actively participate in and contribute towards group discussions and brainstorming sessions. To be non-judgemental and to respect the ideas and opinions put forth by my group members. To endeavour to complete the assignment to the best of my ability, and to come up with a well thought out solution. To practise good time management and planning to ensure completion of the assignment in a timely manner. To exercise self discipline, avoid procrastination and avoid doing last minute work To keep the group focussed on the task at hand To be accountable for the learning of my group members and to offer support to those who need more assistance. To be conscious of the needs and requirements of my group members. To maintain a harmonious working relationship with my group members i.e. be polite, courteous, co-operative and be a good team player.

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CASE STUDY Background Singa Land Limited (SLL) is a real estate company that has international presence across the globe with businesses in real estate, hospitality, shopping malls and complex real estate financial services. SLL has more than 10,000 full-time employees across Asia Pacific and Europe. Although SLL was only formed 15 years ago, its exponential growth mainly took place over the last 5 years. Recently SLL updated its strategic plan, and key goals include reduce internal costs, improve both internal and external communication channels, and exploiting new Web-based technologies to help employees, customers, and suppliers work closer. Due to its fast growth across different markets in Asia Pacific and Europe, all the stakeholders are feeling the pressure of time zone, information segregation and language challenges across markets like China, India and Japan. It was noticed that the basic intranet and email system are no longer efficient as these problems surfaced. Management has been hearing of solutions such as cloud computing, virtualisation, grid, remote access, virtual office/meetings etc. All these terms are totally new to management. Recreating and reinventing the corporate information architecture is now a critical project that the information technology department is proposing to support these strategic goals. The IT department has decided to codename this project: Project X Project X: It is envisaged that the new information architecture will bring about the following benefits and usage to the organisation: More information can be shared between both internal staff and external suppliers in a secured manner Management will not need to travel as much for meetings and discussions Staff will be able to work on their own devices anytime and anywhere Systems should be able to cater to multi-languages Intranet for internal staff will allow them to perform all HR related processes Discussions, sharing and social media functionalities are incorporated

You are selected as the project manager for Project X. Team members include two system analysts, a network analyst and a business analyst. The project sponsor is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) from IT Department. Other stakeholders include staff from Operations, Human Resources, Sales and Corporate Functions Departments. Your team is expected to research and recommend a suitable information system and architecture for the fast growing company. The recommended system will need to obtain the approval of all stakeholders. Project Initiation Prepare a project charter for Project X. Assume the project will take four months to complete and cost about S$500,000. Use the project charter template provided in OLIVE. 7

Project Planning Develop a project scope statement for the project, using the template provided in OLIVE. Be as specific as possible in describing product characteristics and requirements, as well as product deliverables. Develop a work breakdown structure (WBS) for the project based on the project charter and scope statement. If required, break down the WBS to Level 2 or Level 3. Use the template in OLIVE. Use the WBS you developed to create a Gantt chart in MS Project. Estimate task durations and enter dependencies, as appropriate. Remember that your schedule goal for the project is four months and each resource is 8 man-hours a day. Project Execution Design a few webpage screens as Intranet interfaces for Project X. These should include a home page and at least two other screens to show management the functionalities of the new system. Project Monitoring & Control It has been two months since the project started. The company recently employed a new CIO when the previous CIO resigned. You and your project team have to give a short presentation at a communications session in Week 7 to the new CIO. Since the new CIO does not know much about this project and its progress, prepare the presentation slides to update the status of the project and the challenges you team are facing in executing the project so far. Include an agenda for the meeting. The CIO has also asked your project team to submit all weekly progress reports directly to him. Use the template in Appendix A. Project Closing Your team rolled out the Project X last week, and so far the user response has been largely positive with the exception of some users complaints. These are mainly related to resistance to change and new process flows. In your reflection, share how you can better manage these complaints in your next project. Prepare a personal reflective journal on the overall progress and area of improvements for the next project. Use the guidelines provided in Appendix B.

APPENDIX A

Weekly Progress Report

Project Title: Prepared by: Date:

I. Accomplishments for the week of [enter dates of week here]: Describe most important accomplishments. Relate them to projects Gantt chart. Describe other important accomplishments, one bullet for each. If any issues were resolved from the previous month, list them as accomplishments.

II. Plans for the next week: Describe most project critical items to accomplish in the next month. Relate them to projects Gantt chart. Describe other important item to accomplish, one bullet for each item.

III. Issues: Briefly list important issues that surfaced and are still important. What are the resolutions and who will be fixing the issues and by when. IV. Project Changes (Date and Description): List any approved or requested changes to the project. Include the date of the change and a brief description. Show proof of approval to the changes.

APPENDIX B GUIDELINES FOR REFLECTION JOURNAL 1. The key objective of the reflection journal is to provide a record of your personal learning process. 2. Share your thoughts on the improvements that you can make in your next project in terms of managing resistance to change and new processes in new systems.

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Each student is expected to write an individual journal. It should be an original piece of work. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. The reflection journal should be at least 1 page long and not more than 3 pages. It should cover the following: Brief description of key problems encountered Comments, personal insights, key lessons learned An insight is a deeper understanding of a problem and how it can be solved something that you realize by going through the process of problem solving, but didnt know before. What would you do differently the next time round you are given such a project.

You are strongly advised to focus more effort on the section Comments, personal insights, key lessons learned and recommendations on how to handle resistances to change. 5. You are strongly encouraged to take note of any learning insights throughout the term. This will enable you to collate the reflection journal very quickly at the end of the term. The reflection journal must demonstrate evidences of the following: 1. Creative thinking to generate many ideas 1.1 Fluent thinking to look at issues from different perspectives 1.2 Flexible thinking to add more details to ideas 1.3 Elaborative thinking 2. Critical Thinking 2.1 Information gathering to gather and arrange information so that it is clear, coherent, and can be used effectively and Organizing skills 2.2 Assessing the to predict outcomes, and to draw conclusions reasonableness of ideas 2.3 Evaluative skills
To assess what are successes and challenges of the project to analysis the rationale of resistance to change in organisations and what are the recommendations to resolving these resistances to define the correct problem(s), and identify ways of solving the problem is incorporated in all the above activities

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3. Problem-Solving skills 4. Decision-making skills

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