It205 – Hardware Replacement Project

Hardw be Replacement roamion IT/205 Management of entropy administrations June 24, 2012 Cristina Oliver Hardw atomic number 18 Replacement offer The IT department is implementing a untestedborn CRM solution in its corporate offices. The ironw atomic number 18 currently in ex international amperele is out of date and lead not support the CRM lotion. The ironware must be regenerated precedent to deployment. Resource Ch. 11 of Essentials of Management Information Systems Write a 1,050- to 1,750-word paper that addresses the following How do the five major(ip) variables of declare oneself managementscope, magazine, apostrophize, quality, and riskinessrelate to this scenario?What considerations must be employ when selecting nominates that deliver the surmount business value? What factors that solve chuck risk? What strategies would you recommend for minimizing this projects risks? * The Information Technology department is implementing a new CRM (Customer Relations hip Management) solution in its corporate offices but what we tack is that the current hardware is out-of-data and ordain not support the new CRM practise, so to implement the new CRM solution we must upgrade all the hardware prior to deployment of the CRM application.The assessment of scope, time, cost, quality and risk are the five variables infallible to consider when planning out this project of the hardware replacement for the CRM application. Project management refers to the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to achieve specific heads at bottom specific budgets (Laudon & antiophthalmic factor Laudon, 2011, P. 397). The project managers position is to align the project to meet the necessary target in which they must estimate resources essential for the work (materials and mess), plan the work, asseverate and direct the work, report get on, analyze the results, acquire materials, and assesses the risk.In implementing the CRM project we see that th e project scope is to have all hardware replaced. Hardware that would be replaced are desktops, servers and maybe handheld devices. Prior to installation of hardware to the corporate offices in that respect will be installation of the parcel which includes operating systems, standard gild applications and the new CRM application, testing of the applications and hardware in the test environment prior to testing on the production network and just before replace of the hardware to the offices there will be education knowledge and because a small department rollout to verify and finalize any risks.We requisite to figure a realistic time to achieve our target on the CRM project as time. What will be needed is to break atomic reactor each component into separate tasks and activities so each police squad has time to chance on their tasks. Remember that each task give awayn is dependent for the succeeding(a) task to succeed. This give a schedule of when the project may be comple ted. Costs are based on the time to complete a project multiplied by the daily cost of human resources required to complete the project (Laudon & Laudon, 2011, P. 399). Costs also include the hardware, software and real estate of where both(prenominal)one sits when doing the work.The project manager is responsible for growing the budget as substantially as monitoring the expenses of the ongoing project attempting not to go over their projected budget. Quality is the indication of how well the project is going and also how well the end result satisfies the objects call for by management. Quality defines the workmanship, accuracy and the timelines of the information produced by the new system being implemented. Quality grants a more positive outcome within the project team as well as management. Risk are some(a)thing that happens with all projects as they are potential problems that threaten the success of a project.The problems that could arise can prevent a project from meeti ng its timelines by increasing time and costs, lowering the quality of the output or possibly preventing the project altogether. When given the project timeline it is normally given some of the risks come to with each tasks and within the project there is the attempt to give buffer time should those risks appear. Considerations that must be applied when selecting projects that deliver the stovepipe business value are benefits and costs. In the long or possibly short are the benefits that can regain costs and possibly or will increase financial gains for the business.The company needs to realize the CRM application if it will indeed benefit from this application and that the application covers all aspects of what the required objectives. Obviously if the company purchases the CRM application and doesnt meet the requirements then the project will not reap the benefits or costs. Other considerations are instruction and maintenance of the hardware, software and application. Without t raining of the application how would one know how to use it to its full potential? Training is planned and designed for the various substance abusers and departments.With the CRM application each department will have their specific requirements as to what they will use it for and what they can and cannot access. The IT group will be trained on how to support the application and how to maintain and upgrade when needed. This leads into maintenance which is never cost effective but normally mandatory for reasons of fixing application bugs or hardware upgrades and even operating system updates. Factors or takes that may influence project risk are size of the project, structure of the project and the level of technical expertness (SME Subject Matter Experts) of the IT staff and project team.Other considerations are consultants if the IT staff is does not have the technical expertise although proper training or shadowing will need to be involved of the consultant to an IT staff. Other factors such as not clear or straightforward requirements or even new technology that the project team does not know the technology can influence the project risk. Even user acceptance of the application is a major factor as some dont like change or fear new products. There are many factors that can influence the risk of the project.Strategies that I would use to minimize the project risk would be to recruit people whom are SME with products that we are looking to implement, recruit project managers that are expertise in information technology and use the correct tools to manage the project and the deliverables. Implement the proper changes management in advance to have the changes document in case need to revert back and nettle authorized everything is tested in a test environment prior to placing into a production environment. Train the staff and end-users to make sure everyone is comfortable with the new system.People fear change and to have an in-depth training program will suffer the end-users more comfort with the product and in themselves. The number strategy I would use to minimize project risk is communication. Making sure that everyone is on the same page with the deadlines and deliverables. Understanding the timeframe and what need to be done to accomplish the project. The project team needs to see the possible risks that are involved and how they could avoid these risks and make sure they are all documented.I believe that the best practices for managing this project are hiring project managers that have managed successful project in the IT field and have them communicate with the leads of the IT teams to set realistic timeframes to measure the progress of the tasks to overall meet the deliverables and the end date of the project. Communication to the company executives to make sure they understand the timeframe of the project and the implantation of each task and what dates they will be accomplished as well as verifying what are the requiremen ts of management for the project.With regards to all this the project manager will put a project plan with timeframes and risks to hand out to all the project team and management so everyone understands what is involved and what deadlines each team needs to make. shop such dates will show quality to management and the company allowing a much smoother transition to the new CRM application and hardware. Reference Laudon, K. P. , & Laudon, J. P. (2011). Essentials of MIS (9th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ Prentice Hall.