Week 12: Project Management

Explain the Triple Constraint and its Importance in Project Management

As seen in the image above, the Triple Constraint is the framework for evaluating the competing demands of time, cost and scope. In any project these three constraints are interdependent with a shift in one affecting at least one other. For example, if a team decides to move a project’s finish date forward, the need to hire more staff to do so will increase the costs of the project. Alternatively, the project’s initial scope may also be decreased because of the elimination of several features and functions to ensure it is ready by the new deadline.

In this way, the triple constraint is very important because it sums up the essence of what project management actually is. In simple terms, the discipline of project management is the science of making intelligent tradeoffs between time, cost and scope, and all of these factors combine to make the final product’s quality.

Describe the Two Primary Diagrams Most Frequently Used in Project Planning

The two primary diagrams used most frequently in project planning are the;

• PERT Chart
• Gantt Chart

A PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) Chart is a graphical network model that outlines a project’s tasks and the relationship between them, In this way, the chart defines the dependency of project tasks before the project is completed, with arrows between boxes showing what needs to be done before the next stage can begin. Most importantly, the PERT chart also shows the project’s critical path. This path, often displayed in red, is the path from start to finish that passes through all the tasks that are critical to completing the project in the shortest time possible.



A Gantt Chart is a simple bar chart that depicts the project tasks against a calender, with tasks listed vertically along the y-axis and the project’s time frame horizontally on the x-axis. This type of chart not only represents the project schedule, but also allows managers to compare actual progress against the planned duration.






Identify the Three Primary Areas a Project Manager Must Focus on Managing to Ensure Success

In order to ensure success project managers must focus on the three primary areas of;

• People
• Communication
• Change

The task of managing people is perhaps the most crucial to any project manager’s success, with them being responsible for not only resolving conflicts within the team, but also balancing the needs of the project with the personal and professional needs of the workers, In saying this, the management of communication is also vital. By planning what and how they will communicate as a formal part of the project plan, the project manager can distribute timely, accurate and meaningful information to their team and better facilitate feedback between members. Additionally, successful organisations and people must also be able to anticipate and react to change. In the dynamic world of business, change is a fact of life and so, successful project managers ensure that there is a sufficient change management system in place to document and adapt to changes that may occur during the project.



Outline 2 Reasons Why Projects Fail and Two Reasons Why Projects Succeed

Perhaps one of the most difficult decisions that an organization can make is in regards to which projects they should invest time, energy and resources into. When it comes to project management there are many factors that can determine whether a project to either fails or succeeds.

Two of the main reasons a project will fail revolves around a lack of executive sponsorship and failure to align the project with organisational objectives. Unless a project addresses the business’s strategic objectives it is likely to fail because it won’t have the support of the whole organisation. Similarly, although the Project Management Institute (PMI) defines an executive sponsor as the person or group who provides the project’s financial resources, they must do more than just review invoices and inquire into the status of the project. Unless the executive sponsor demonstrates a clear commitment and accountability to the project themselves, they cannot expect the rest of the team to show the same and the project will fail.

In the opposite way, an executive sponsor can also be one of the reasons a project succeeds. When they champion the project to others, sharing the vision and benefits of the completed job and use their influence to gain and direct essential resources, executive sponsors can help projects succeed. Similarly, good communication is also another reason why projects succeed. When there is clear communication both horizontally and vertically amongst the project manager and group, team members share objectives and are able to work towards common goals.

Week 10: Customer Relations Management & Business Intelligence

What is Your Understanding of CRM?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the management of all aspects of a customer’s relationship with an organisation to increase customer loyalty and retention as well as an organisation’s overall profitability. In other words, CRM allows a business to gain insights into their customers’ shopping and buying behaviours and treat each consumer as a valued individual.

Typically, a CRM system consists of customers contacting the organisation through various means such as call centres, web access, email, faxes and direct sales. The CRM system then tracks every one of these communications and provides access to the information generated across different systems from accounting to marketing. In doing this, CRM provides many benefits to users enabling them to;

• Provide Better Customer Service
• Improve Call Centre Efficiency
• Cross-sell Products More Effectively
• Help Sales Staff Close Deals Faster
• Simplify Marketing and Sales Processes
• Discover New Customers
• Increase Customer Revenues

Compare Operational and Analytical Customer Relationship Management.

Both Operational and Analytical Customer Relationship Management are the 2 main components of any CRM strategy. Despite this, they also have significant differences. While Operational CRM supports traditional types of transactional processing for day-to-day front office operations or systems that deal directly with customers, Analytical CRM does the opposite. Instead, its focus revolves around supporting back-office operations and strategic management, and includes all systems that don’t deal directly with the organisation’s customers. In this way, the primary difference between Operational and Analytical CRM can be summarised in the level of customer interaction it involves.

Describe and Differentiate the CRM Technologies used by Marketing Departments and Sales Departments

Although both use Operational CRM, the technologies used by Marketing and Sales departments are significantly different.  As modern business continues to develop, the primary goal of marketing has shifted so that it is now focused on trying to sell one customer as many products as possible. To support this objective, the CRM technologies used within this department allow them to gather and analyse customer information to deploy successful marketing campaigns.

In comparison, the CRM technologies used in the Sales Department are more focused on management. In this way, the two main aims for CRM in a sales department is to;

• Manage and organise customer account information that needs to be tracked
• Get customer information out of the heads of sales representatives and onto paper

With these goals in mind, CRM technologies suited to the Sales Department such as ‘Sales Force Automation’, automatically track the steps of the sales process, allowing management to focus on other things such as increasing customer satisfaction, building customer relationships and improving product sales.

How could a Sales Department use Operational CRM Technologies?

There are 3 main Operational CRM technologies that a sales department could use;

Sales Management systems such as “Sales Force Automation” automate each phase of the sales process. In this way, by using this type of system and its features such as calendars, alarm reminders and document generation, sales representatives can coordinate and manage their accounts. Additionally, this operational CRM technology can also be used by a sales department to analyse the organisation’s sales cycle and calculate how each individual sales representative is performing during the sales process.

Contact Management CRM systems are those technologies which help departments maintain customer contact information and identify prospective customers for future sales. With features such as organisational charts, detailed customer notes, and supplemental sale information, departments can use these technologies to help foster better customer relationships and maximise efficiency within the sales process. An example of a company who has done this is 3M, whose implementation of a contact management CRM system has allowed them to;

• Cut the time taken to familiarise sales professionals with new territories by 33%
• Increase management’s visibility of the sales process
• Decrease the time taken to qualify leads and assign sales opportunities by 40%

In comparison, Opportunity Management CRM systems focus on gaining new customers rather than retaining old ones. In this way, a sales department can use these CRM technologies to target sales opportunities by finding new customers of companies for future sales and gaining their loyalty by;

• Getting their attention
• Valuing their time
• Over-Delivering
• Frequently Contacting
• Generating a trustworthy mailing list
• Following Up

Describe Business Intelligence and its Value to Businesses

Business Intelligence (BI) is the applications and technologies that are used to gather, provide access to and analyse data and information to support decision-making efforts. In this way, BI is very valuable to businesses because similar to countries in war, an organisation in a competitive industry can only succeed if they have full knowledge of their own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of their opponents. Similarly, a certain school of thought draws parallels between the challenges faced within business and those of war as describes in Sun Tzu’s famous work, ‘The Art of War’. These central components of competitive business strategy that BI helps a business achieve are;

• The collection of information
• Discerning the patterns and meaning within this information
• Responding to the resultant information

Explain the Problem Associated with Business Intelligence. Describe the Solution to this Business Problem

The main problem associated with BI revolves around the decision-making capabilities of the managers and employees of an organisation. In every business, employees must make hundreds of decisions each day, and while these decisions can sometimes be based on fact, they are most often based on experience, accumulated knowledge and rule of thumb. This can often pose problems in that these skills can take years to develop, and even if an employee does acquire them they can still make errors in judgement.

For this reason, the solution to this problem lies in equipping organisational staff with BI systems and tools so that they can make effective decisions and shorten latency times. When used effectively, these systems can not only improve the quality of business decisions, but also help employees and management create an agile and intelligent enterprise where data is;

• Reliable
• Consistent
• Understandable
• Easily Manipulated

What are Two Possible Outcomes a Company Could Get from Using Data Mining?

Data Mining is the process of analysing data to extract information not offered by the raw data alone. In order to perform this process, data mining tools are used which utilise a variety of algorithmic techniques to find patterns and relationships in large volumes of information and infer rules from them that can predict future behaviour and assist decision-making. In this way, data mining has several possible capabilities and outcomes. Two of these outcomes are Cluster Analysis and Statistical Analysis.

Cluster Analysis divides information sets into mutually exclusive groups that are as close together as possible to one another and the different groups are as far apart as possible. In this way, Cluster Analysis is extremely effective to segment customer information for CRM systems and help organisations identify customers with similar demographics, lifestyle behaviours and buying patterns.

Statistical Analysis performs such functions as information correlations, distributions, calculations and variance analysis. In this way, this outcome of data mining supplies knowledge workers with a large range of powerful statistics and capabilities, allowing them to build statistical models, examine the model’s assumptions and validity, and compare and contrast the various models to determine the best one for the particular business issue.

Week 9: Operations Management and Supply Chain Management

Define the Term Operations Management

Operations Management (OM) is simply the management of systems or processes that convert or transform resources into goods and services. Essentially, it is responsible for managing the core processes used to manufacture goods and produce services, and as explained by the MIT Sloan School of Management, ranges across a business's strategic, tactical and operational levels.

Explain operations management’s role in business

OM has many roles in business including that of;

• Forecasting
• Capacity Planning
• Scheduling
• Managing Inventories
• Assuring Quality
• Motivating and Training Employees
• Locating Facilities

Describe the Correlation Between Operations Management and Information Technology

A strong relationship exists between both operations management and information technology, with IT exerting a significant influence over OM decisions. One of the greatest benefits IT gives to OM is its ability to assist in the operational decision-making process. With the many possible alternatives that often exist and the varying impact each of these can have on company revenue and expenses, it is often critical that managers are able to make informed decisions.

It is in this way that IT in the form of Decision Support Systems and Executive Information Systems can provide an organisation with sound forecasting tools in the way of What-If Analysis, Sensitivity Analysis, Drill-down and Consolidation. By doing this, IT assists OM by providing managers with strong information that helps them make good decisions by answering the questions of;

Explain Supply Chain Management and Its Role in a Business

Supply Chain Management is the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximise its effectiveness and profitability. In this way, the role of Supply Chain Management is essentially that of an enabler. When it is utilised in an effective and efficient manner it allows an organisation to;

• Decrease the Power of Buyers
• Increase its own Supplier Power
• Increase Switching Costs to Reduce the Threat of Substitute Products or Services
• Create Entry Barriers that Reduce the Threat of Substitute Products or Services
• Increase Efficiencies while Seeking a Competitive Advantage through Cost Leadership

List and Describe the Five Components of a Typical Supply Chain

As seen in the diagram above, the 5 main components of a typical supply chain are;

• Plan
• Source
• Make
• Deliver
• Return



Define the Relationship between Information Technology and the Supply Chain

  

 

As companies and the corporate environment as a whole continue to evolve, the idea of virtually seamless information links within and between organisations has become an essential element of integrated supply chains. It is in this way that the role of information technology has become increasingly valuable to the supply chain.

Essentially, the primary role of IT within the supply chain is to create integration and information linkages between both functions within a firm and between firms. This allows smooth and synchronised flow of information across the chain and also integrates planning, decision-making processes, business operating processes and information sharing for business performance management.

It is in this way, that Information Technology has made it possible to bring the idea of true supply chain integration to life. This can be seen in Adaptec Inc’s use of supply chain integration software over the internet to synchronise their planning.