QSO 640 Final Project

Post ID: 3511330

Overview

Organizations continue to struggle with successful project implementations that support business goals. Strides in project management have been achieved through a consistent approach to project management as defined by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Specifically, the five phases of project management—initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing—provide a framework for achieving business goals through successful project implementations. At the completion of the course, you will understand the key deliverables and activities within each phase of this framework to achieve business goals.

Your final project will be a complete project management plan. The plan will be composed of standard templates used by organizations across all industries. You will use a case study from MindEdge as the foundation for your plan. In each module, you will move through the phases of the project management life cycle and develop components of the project management plan to address the organizational need within the case study. You will consider stakeholder perspectives and communication needs, as well as typical project risks and issues. At the end of the course, you will have a complete project management plan that supports a typical project for an organization.

The project is divided into two milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. Note that the case study you will use for the final project will be presented in three parts, all of which can be found in your MindEdge resource.

Milestone One uses Part One of the case study and will be submitted in Module Three.
Milestone Two uses Part Two of the case study and will be submitted in Module Six.
The final project uses Part Three of the case study and will be submitted in Module Nine.

In your final project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

Develop project charters that illustrate the high-level scope of the project as it aligns to organizational strategic needs
Analyze internal and external stakeholder needs for efficiently navigating organizational structures
Determine proper approaches to defining business requirements for aligning with business strategies
Utilize project management software for effectively developing project management plans
Develop key project management control documents for ensuring effective management plan scope descriptions
Evaluate agile and waterfall methods for successful project execution
Determine approaches for project closure that inform ongoing best practices in project management planning

Prompt

Throughout the course, you have been working through the phases of the project management life cycle to develop components for a project management plan that addresses the needs of the organization highlighted in the first two parts of the case study. Your instructor has provided feedback for you to consider along the way. Now, you have the background knowledge and the information necessary to complete your project management plan using the last part of the case study, available in MindEdge.

Specifically, address the following critical elements:

Project Initiation
1. Feasibility: Identify the economic, technical, and organizational feasibility of the project. For instance, how is the project a viable fit within the organization?
2. Strategic Goals: Explain how the project aligns to the organization’s strategic goals using the traceability matrix in MindEdge.
3. Project Charter: Develop a project charter that includes a high-level scope of what is to be accomplished.
4. High-Level Timeline: Create a high-level timeline and cost estimate to complete the project.
5. Key Project Stakeholders: Identify the concerns of the internal and external key project stakeholders.
6. Support: Compare the level of support from all key project stakeholders to inform the course of action resulting in success of the project.
7. Stakeholder Analysis Template: Complete the stakeholder analysis template.
Project Planning
1. Business Requirements: Determine the business requirements for the successful development of the project. Justify your choices.
2. Subject Matter Experts: Establish who will provide the business requirements. What approach will be used to solicit the requirements from the subject matter experts?
3. Standard Requirements Template: Categorize and organize the business requirements in a standard requirements template.
4. Format: Explain why the format for capturing requirements is important to the overall success of the project. Why would you consider requirements’ traceability?
5. Project Schedule: Leveraging the business requirements, translate these requirements into a project schedule using project management software through the provided template.
6. Estimate: Estimate the duration of project tasks using common business knowledge and assign resources to complete each task.
7. Refine Estimate: Refine your estimate of the project cost based on the duration of tasks and resources needed.
Project Execution
1. Implementation Approach: Determine the best implementation approach—agile or waterfall project—for the organization based on its organizational structure. Provide examples to support your rationale.
2. Project Schedule: Explain how the project schedule can be resource leveled, fast-tracked, or crashed if needed based upon execution results.
3. Keep Leadership Apprised: Propose communication approaches and the frequency that should be used to keep leadership apprised of the project execution. Include examples to support your claims.
Project Control
1. Change Management: Describe how you will handle changes in scope to your project management plan. What change management process will be used? What key information will be required for change requests?
2. Risk Management: Describe the risk management process that is the best fit for effective project control over your plan.
3. Issues: Explain how you will document issues and what process will be used to manage the issue to completion. Include examples to support your claims.
Project Closeout
1. Close: Identify what needs to be done to close your project management plan. Include examples supporting how you will minimize the chances of overlooking a step in the project process.
2. Warranty Period: Justify the need for a warranty period and how the project will transition to business.
3. Lessons Learned: Write a few paragraphs or create a table that explains the lessons learned in the case study project. Provide details about issues that occurred during the project, how they affected the project, and what you will do differently for the next project.

Milestones

Milestone One: Project Initiation In Module Three, you will submit the Project Initiation portion of your final project. Milestone One uses Part One of the case study. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone One Rubric.

Milestone Two: Project Planning and Project Execution In Module Six, you will submit the Project Planning and Project Execution portions of your final project. Milestone Two uses Part Two of the case study. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.

Final Submission: Project Management Plan In Module Nine, you will submit your final project, which uses Part Three of the case study. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. This submission will be graded with the Final Project Rubric.

What to Submit

Your project management plan should be between 10–12 pages, double spaced, have one-inch margins, and use 12-point Times New Roman font and the most recent version of APA format.

Template: Stakeholder Analysis Template Use the template to complete Project Initiation Part G of this assignment.

Supporting Materials The resources below support your work on the project.

Template: Standard Requirements Template If you do not have access to project management software, use or modify this template to complete Project Planning Part C of this assignment.

Template: Project Schedule If you do not have access to project management software, use or modify this template to complete Project Planning Part E of this assignment.