QSO 345 Milestone One Guidelines
Overview: The final project for this course is a project management plan report. You will create several components of a project management plan, synthesizing the skills learned in the course and required for the CAPM® into a well-organized deliverable. You will demonstrate your knowledge of CAPM®, specifically the ten knowledge areas and five process groups critical for an understanding of PMI®. A grasp of project management language, structures, and processes will help you succeed as either a member or leader of a project. This course is designed around the skills and abilities required for CAPM® certification and applicable to careers in project management. Gaining the CAPM® certification can make you more marketable to potential employers.
Prompt: Take time to read and understand the Harvard case study, Waterloo Regional Police Services: Reassessing the CIMS Project, which will be the basis of your final project. Once you are familiar with the case study, you will choose one of the following two scenarios. Note that you will work with your chosen scenario throughout the course; you cannot change your scenario choice at a later date.
Project Scenario 1 Summary: Technical Redesign You are the project manager responsible for one of the projects in the overarching CIMS project program portfolio, and you will be managing the technical redesign due to the new federal requirements. Chief Gravill, your project sponsor, needs the technical software designs to be reviewed and the new federal requirements incorporated. Then the development, testing, validation, pilot, and deployment plans need a complete reworking. In addition to updates for the internal platform, updates are needed for all websites to comply with inclusion and disability standards. This project must be completed first before the vendor selection team can create the new requests for proposal (RFPs) and start vetting the new software vendors. Your development team has been given high-level sizing of six months and $300,000. The rest of the project team and operational costs are estimated to be $150,000. Chief Gravill says the project cannot take more than six months and has approved $200,000 more in the budget if the project can be done within four months. For complete project details, review the Project Scenario
One: Technical Redesign document.
Project Scenario 2 Summary: Procure a New Software Vendor The technical redesign has been completed, and you are the new project manager taking over one of the critical projects in the overarching CIMS project program portfolio; you need to select, contract, and onboard the new software vendor. Chief Gravill, your project sponsor, wants to get the project back on track and would like you to lead the new software vendor project. Since the past project was unable to identify a vendor and there are new federal requirements, this new project will be part of the critical path needed for CIMS program to get back on track. The project will involves creating new requests for proposal (RFPs) with the new requirements, vetting the best vendors, negotiating the new contract within budget, and onboarding the new vendor for the project. In addition to meeting the federal platform requirements, all of the regional offices need their websites updated to meet the new inclusion and disability requirements identified by the project team. Chief Gravill wants this project completed within the next two months, but it should not take more than five months. The operating budget for the project is $100,000, and the new vendor contract must be no more than $8.6 million for the internal software and $1 million for the website updates. For complete project details, review the Project Scenario Two: Procure a New Software Vendor document.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed in this milestone:
Specify which scenario you intend to work with.
Using the scenario you have chosen and the case study information, explore the reasons why the past project failed. Consider factors such as sponsor commitment, senior management support, scope changes, funding, risks, project management methodology, priorities, resources, scheduling, and so on.
In the context of the project scenario you have chosen, which process group is easier for management to influence? Which will consume the most resources? Explain why and support your reasoning with PMI® principles.
