Relationship between project manager, IT System Programmer, the Resource Developer and Business Manager in the project is on refunding federal student aid to students electronically
A project is an activity put on the plan with aim of achieving a specific goal. Project management which is successful is an art which exist where idea can be brought and can provide a well understanding of a certain project. In every project to succeed it must incorporate a project manager. Most of the projects are faced with huge challenges of failure to achieve the targeted goal. In order for project managers to cope with these challenges he or she needs to incorporate other team players like Business managers and others,
In this case our project is to refund the student aid electronically as opposed to check. In order to achieve the underlined goal project manager will work closely with I T system programmer, Business manager and resource developer who will provide different expertise towards the project.
Question 1
Initially the project managers were the one with all the responsibility to coordinate, finance and to deal with technological issues in a given project but it was later discovered that with collaboration with other where the duties are shared according to specialization project are being achieved more easily. The article from BA times written by Richard Fox explains the relationship between the project manager and other business stakeholders.
According to the author (Richard Fox) there is evidence that the most Information and Technological projects have succeeded. The duties of a project manager lie within the project depending on time and the budget. There are like four elements of a successful project management which are resources, scope, time and money. I will support the source because it supports the basic elements of successful project management. For example business managers will make sure that the project is properly funded so that it can be completed in best time possible. The resource developer will be needed to manage the resources available so that they can be properly utilized to meet the target. The scope of the project will identify the best size of the project, the goals and the requirement to achieve those goals. The resources are very important hey incorporate people, material and equipment (Richard Fox, 2007). The time will be managed to according to task, schedule and critical path. The motive of every project is to give estimate cost and make profit at the completion. In order for the project to succeed project manager must cooperate with others where duties of every individual is analyzed down and understood clearly.
Question 2
Critical path
Critical path are the task which are used to determine the schedule of project. These are methods used to identify things which affect the project at the completion. In our project of refunding federal state student electronically which involves a lot of technology will face a lot of critical paths as technology keep changing. For example, i have done survey of fifteen people on whether they are aware and whether can support this service of electronic money transfer. Where five people are aware and support the new project, seven are aware but they don’t support whereas four three were not aware of what is it (Chanas, 2001).
Table 1
|
Project awareness |
Aware and agree |
Aware but disagree |
Not ware |
|
|
No of people |
5 |
7 |
3 |
|
|
Percentage |
33% |
47% |
20% |
|
About 47 percent of the population is aware of the electronic money transfer but they are not willing to accommodate the project. So we are going to use the critical path and try to convince the about the advantage of refunding student electronically.
Another critical path is to train student on how to use this technology how they will be accessing their account for the refunds, training will help to create awareness and be able to make student see the advantage of this service as compared with old mode of payment used. A continuous training must be done to the staffs that are in the line with Information Technology department in order to meet the targeted time.
Lack of enough funds to finance the project because the project need a lot funds to purchase equipment Our project is dealing with diverting from giving student refund by use of check and we start making these payments electronically which need a lot facilities to enhance technological changes. The computers will be updated by buying software and hardware. Project manager will make a data to distinguish what is basic and essential to the project. The proper planning is needed to start budgeting with primary element of the project. A critical path will be made to identify things which will limit the completion of the project due to financial constraints.
Question 3
Critical tasks be deemed critical and why will they potentially have dependencies? Explain
The critical task will be very helpful in project completion by displaying them in a schedule. The project manager will be able to view, evaluate and come up with a solution very easily by use of these paths. He will determine the largest task which will limit the completion of a project within the stipulated time or not be able be completed at all. In some cases it may not be very easy to see these critical paths when setting the schedule.
The dependencies are being made from several activities within the critical paths. A manager can come up with modification from various critical paths. When making critical paths one must identify the dependencies first from a given activity to another one so as to make critical paths more easily. After the critical path has been displayed it will be able to allow the project managers to manage and track a specific activity very easy by looking to a schedule which give us highest indication that project may fail to be achieved at the projected date (Chanas, 2001). The project managers will be able to reduce the risks which are associated with project failing to be completed. I also bring very close assessment of what is being required in a given project. The business manager will be able to plan the business and provide them with enough funds as per the budget.
On the other hand we also say that the critical path is also facing criticism because it is based on estimated figures that are taking a sample and assume it represent the whole population whereas in some cases population is not homogeneous. The critical path does not give 100 percent guarantee of project success. In cases where critical path has too many project it becomes difficult to understand the diagram as it become so complex.
References
Chanas, S. &. (2001). Critical path analysis in the network with fuzzy activity times. Fuzzy sets and systems, 195-204.
Richard Fox, P. (2007). The Project Manager And Business Analyst Relationship.
