pg. 375 Projet Management 1st edition

Case Study: Information Systems SAP Project at NIBCO, Inc.

NIBCO had planned to go live with the ERP project on December 1, 1997, the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday.7 The baseline project schedule is shown in Figure 8-12. The four phases (preparation, analysis, design, and implementation) were scheduled as shown with a post-live date of March 31, 1998, the actual end date of the SAP project. After the go-live date of December 1, 1997, the project team had to spend time on the project in post-production activities and quality assurance. The post-live activities also included:

- Check system performance on a daily basis;

- Validation of business processes and their configuration;

- Follow-up training for users;

- Signoffs;

- Add new application components; and

- Automating and improving business processes.

NIBCO wanted to schedule the project closure dates with anticipated possible problems. The project leadership team spent a lot of time planning the end date. It developed extended versions of the schedule in order to mitigate the risk of possible extension; the following are the various scenarios of schedule proposed by the project team:

1. A first plan where the organization has to perform at a very superior level to attain the maximum performance possible that coincided with the baseline schedule;

2. A second plan where the organization has to perform at a standard level to attain the standard performance; and

3. A third plan where the organization can perform at a lower level to attain the minimum performance.

All three plans are shown in Figures CI-8-3 through CI-8-5. The difference in schedule between the first plan and the second plan was four months. The difference in schedule between the second plan and the third plan was another three months. On the whole, the project plan was presented to the stakeholders with a project schedule that varied from 18 months to 24 months.

Case Questions

1. If you have a project team of 40 members consisting of 10 SAP experts, 10 SAP power users who are also experts in various NIBCO processes, 10 end-users who are familiar with some process knowledge, and 10 information systems staff, how would you allocate resources in Figures CI-8-1 through CI-8-5?

2. What are the criteria and drivers that would ensure project completion for each one of the plans proposed in Figures CI-8-1 through CI-8-5?