Casestudy Project Technology Widget Company

Case Study Amid the large companies and conglomerates, the family owned Widget Company is headquartered in St.Louis, Missouri and has a loyal customer base throughout the Midwest. The company has its own distribution centers and maintains a fleet of delivery vehicles. The information systems are all centrally maintained by an Information Systems (IS) staff located in St. Louis. When additional resources are required (e.g. times of peak demand, development of systems requiring new technology skills, etc.), the IS department often hires consultants with the needed expertise. The Widget Company attributes its marketplace success to innovative procedures and customer responsiveness. Widget is an early adopter of technology innovations that have been thoroughly proven in the industry. In the past two years, the CEO and VP of marketing have been increasingly enthusiastic about the use of the world wide web to expand their customer base and reduce the cost of doing business. They’ve eagerly watched the trends of online ordering and changes from traditional EDI. Each employee at Widget has internet access through the corporate hub. The most common use of the internet is for e-mail with sales staff and other business partners. The company maintains a website that provides information on the company and it’s products. During the last executive meeting, customer requests for additional services were discussed including: on-line ordering, wireless devices for inventory management, use of industry business to business exchanges and portal technology applications. The CEO has requested that the IS department develop proposals for several technology projects. The IS department manager has decided to solicit proposals from proven consulting firms. They have extended an Invitation to Bid to your firm and have requested a proposal from you. All responses are expected to be in the form of a project plan that will be executed upon award of contract.

The Project Plan/Proposal Each project manager (team of 2 students) should develop brief proposals for 2-3 projects that will be reviewed by CEO / VP (therefore, your proposals should reflect the technical aspects in your explanations). The proposal apart from the Feasibility dimensions should include the following: 1. Project Proposal and Plan: This should be a comprehensive list of all products (23) that will be created by the project team and/or provided to the Widget company. This list should include all technical documentation, hardware, software, training materials, etc.. Subsequently develop a project plan for each product. The project plan should cover the activity listing along with estimates of duration and resources required for each activity. Secondly for the key activities identify the project status reports, metrics reports, status briefings etc. along with a listing of potential risk and any assumptions. 2. A resource loaded schedule in MS Project that includes a Gantt chart indicating the work breakdown structure, activity time estimates, resource (people) allocation and activity dependencies and sequence. Assuming the start date of July 1, 2012 and consider all public holidays. Also, consider at least one resource going on vacation for a period 10 days (say during Rakhi or Ganesh chaturthi etc.,) during your project. Indicate all relevant milestones, especially the completion point for all delivered products. 3. Full description of the project following the outline provided in #1. Level 1 and Level 2 WBS elements MUST be discussed. Level 3 WBS elements may be discussed to improve communications or clarity of the project description. There should be a strong correlation between the narrative in the description and the Gantt chart provided. It is acceptable to have a less detailed description for the tasks that occur later in the project. (2-3 pages) 4. A discussion of the risks associated with the project and mitigation strategies. These can be technical, political, project management, etc. (1-2 pages) 5. A resource report describing resource loading and project resource cost estimates. This can be a report from MS Project with any narrative description that you feel may be required. (1+ pages) 6. A PERT chart indicating the project’s critical path for completion. Also include a written discussion of ways to successfully manage that critical path. (1 page) 7. Executive Summary summarizing the detail of your project and outlining the major findings of your planning (i.e. estimates for time, resources, risks, etc.) and potential benefits. (~1-2 pages) 8. Table of Contents for all these items. 9. A letter to management to introduce your project proposal.