Sam Power, CEO of Meridian BankCorp has asked his Information Technology V.P., Susan Hill, to make an important addition to their on-line banking services, an electronic bill pay service as soon as possible. Hill, an ASU graduate, has decided to work with an Applied Project team of ASU MBA students to develop the new service as a part their applied project course. During the bidding process for Applied Projects, your team decided that despite the recent downturn in e-business development, you still believe that e-business is important to your future. As a result, you stated that the Meridian BillPay project was your first preference, and your team was assigned to assist Meridian in developing a project plan for assisting in the planning and rollout of the new service. Since the project requires both Marketing and Information Management expertise, your team consists of six members: three from the MSIM track, and three from Services Marketing and Management. All team members are expected to be able to perform all project activities; therefore resource planning activities should be performed under the assumption that this is a team of six equally skilled individuals.
The goal for the project is for your team, working together with Meridian personal, to develop, market test, and rollout an online bill pay service at Meridian. The project will begin on January 11, 2006 and must complete for a final presentation by May 15, 2006.
Part A: Initial Schedule
Hill has delegated the task to a project manager from Meridian, Sally Power and your team, as well as additional personnel from Meridian. Working together, your team has developed an initial project Work Breakdown Structure, along with commensurate task durations and sequence relationships among activities. The WBS, including activities, durations and sequence are listed in Table 5.1 below. Items without durations are higher-level WBS processes. The task durations are based on project team work weeks; that is, a 1 wk duration represents 1.5 work days. Thus, the work week calendar for the team was established as Weds. afternoon and Friday of each week, representing 12 hours per team member per week, based on the team’s available hours. They are also available on Saturday’s, as needed. As of today, the team has completed the WBS development, and must arrive at a project schedule.
1. Beginning with the start and completion dates listed above, input the data to Microsoft Project, and determine whether the project can be completed by May 15, 2006, given that the project must start no earlier than January 11 (10 pts).
2. List the dates for each milestone, and the completion date for the project, if other than May 15. Include a print-out of the MS Project Gantt Chart and input table with your answer(10 pts).
Part B: Resource Planning
1. The resource requirements for your team members for each project activity are listed in Table 5.2. Using Microsoft Project, determine whether you can meet the May 15 due date by using the resource leveling feature. Each team member is available to work on the project 12 hours per week, thus work week will need to be modified within your project model. There are six team members. The resource requirements represent the number of team members required for 12 hours per week. Again, provide the Gantt chart and input table with your answer (10 pts).
2. If the schedule provided in (1) does not meet the project due date, suggest changes in resource calendars and assignments that will allow you to meet the project due date. One team member has suggested that the team schedule an additional two hours on Saturday morning to work on the project. Will this be sufficient, or would you suggest additional changes? Provide a feasible schedule shown in a Gantt chart to justify your answer (10 pts).
Table 5.1. Work Breakdown Structure, Activities, Durations, Sequence
Activity Number 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
Activity
Predecessor 1wk -
1wk 1 2wk 3 2 hrs 4
2wk 1 1wk 1 2 hrs 7,8
.5 wk 1 2 wk 11 1.5 wk 12 2 wk 13
.5 wk 9,14 2 wk 16 1 wk 17 2 hrs 18
.5 wk 5,8 2 wk 21
Phoenix rollout, Bill Pay
Final Project Plan
Regulatory application & approval
Prepare application to state
File with State Regulators
Milestone: Obtain regulatory approval
Web Page Design
Prototype web page design Prototype security check Milestone: Prototype Approval
Local Market Survey
Survey Design
Survey execution Analyze survey results Develop Marketing plan
Final Page and System Design
Final design
Code pages
Systems test, final design Milestone: Final design approval
Web Site Security system
Final security analysis
System security system dev. Approve final system Implement production system
Final integration and site test
Web site integration
Test design
Execute test
Milestone: Rollout readiness review
Finalize Marketing Plan and Develop advertising campaign
Complete marketing plan
Develop media plan
Write content
Design and release advertising to media
Site Rollout
Begin media campaign
Final preparation for website rollout Milestone: Approve Rollout
19,22 .5 wk 23
2 wk 23 .5 wk 26 1 wk 27 2 hrs 28
1wk 34
Duration
2 hrs
2 wk
.5 wk
2wk
1wk 33
2wk 2 hrs
29,24 36,37
14,19 14,19 31,32
Table 5.2. Resource Requirements
Activity Number
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
Activity
Team members required
Phoenix rollout, Bill Pay
Final Project Plan 6
Regulatory application & approval
Prepare application to state 4 File with State Regulators 4 Obtain regulatory approval 6
Web Page Design
Prototype web page design 3 Prototype security check 3 Prototype Approval 6
Local Market Survey
Survey Design 4 Survey execution 2 Analyze survey results 3 Develop Marketing plan 2
Final Page and System Design
Final design 2 Code pages 6 Systems test, final design 3 Final design approval 6
Web Site Security system
Final security analysis 2 System security system dev. 2 Approve final system 6 Implement production system 3
Final integration and site test
Web site integration 3 Test design 2 Execute test 4 Rollout readiness review 6
Finalize Mkting Plan and Develop advertising campaign
Complete marketing plan 3 Develop media plan 4 Write content 2 Design and release advertising to media 2
Site Rollout
Begin Media campaign 2 Rollout website 2 Begin Bill Pay site operations 6