You are the project manager responsible for one of the projects in the overarching CIMS project program portfolio, and you will be managing the technical redesign due to the new federal requirements. Chief Gravill, your project sponsor, needs the technical software designs to be reviewed and the new federal requirements incorporated. Then the development, testing, validation, pilot, and deployment plans need a complete reworking. In addition to updates for the internal platform, updates are needed for all websites to comply with inclusion and disability standards. This project must be completed first before the vendor selection team can create the new requests for proposal (RFPs) and start vetting the new software vendors. Your development team has been given high-level sizing of six months and $300,000. The rest of the project team and operational costs are estimated to be $150,000. Chief Gravill says the project cannot take more than six months and has approved $200,000 more in the budget if the project can be done within four months.
Module Two: Project Charter and Stakeholder Management
Chief Gravill brings you into an introductory meeting to introduce you to the various people you will work with, and to talk through what the technical redesign must cover. As you sit at the table, the chief introduces you to all the parties he has pulled into the meeting.
Jared White is the assistant chief and comes from the Durham Regional Police Services; Sergeant Samatha Zemora is from the York Regional Office; Mary Jones is the Director Operations for the Niagara Regional Office, and Gary Duluth is the office manager for the Hamilton Office.
Kay Tuttle stands up and explains that she is the new assistant director and has taken over from the Federal Regulators Office to oversee the implementation of the new requirements. Manoj Saraff is the technology manager for the development team you will work with, and he introduces you to Scott Wall and Ashok Patel, who are his lead developers and future members of your project team. You are told that Tami Langford will be one of your key contacts because she is the product manager for the new platform.
After introductions, Tami talks through the critical milestones that need to be accomplished over the next months. For the project to get back on track, the project team needs to assess all the new software requirements quickly within the next month. Once all requirements have been defined, the team has two weeks to fully assess the impacts, risks, and likely costs that will impact all the affected stakeholders. By month four, the project team should have a new technical specifications and requirements document to be included in the vendor RFPs. Tami and the chief discuss how this project has only been approved for $450,000, and Samatha says, “I hope it is much less than that; there are other projects that need to get funded.” Finally, Tami explains that by the last month, the project team should be ready to meet with the RFP project team so they can meet with the possible vendors that will be used to implement the new requirements.
Kay said she is okay with Tammy’s timeline, but she warned that she would have to escalate to her superiors if the PRIDE offices were not able to show compliance with the new requirements by the first part of next year. Everyone in the room nodded in agreement, knowing that, if the project was not tracking on time, Kay could shut the whole project down and cause the project team to be let go with one phone call. The chief said, “We know, Kay. Thanks for the reminder. We will get this done long before the deadline, right?” He looks to you for confirmation.
After the meeting, the chief and Kent Masters, who worked on the first project, debrief you on all the stakeholders and provide the final details you need to get going. Kent says that, even though he will not be working on this project with you, he wants you to know about several constraints and dependencies on the project, including:
● The requirements must be reviewed and approved by the technical team and Kay before they can be used in the technical specs.
● All regional offices must sign off on the preliminary specs.
● Costs for implementation in the regional offices cannot be more than $50,000 or take longer than one month.
● The RFP team will need to be debriefed on all the requirements specs needed for the RFP.
As Kent is walking out, he leans over and says, “I have a few notes I kept on the last project about all the people you met that may give you a little more background. I’ll send them to you.” His email is reproduced below, including his original typos and mistakes:
Email
From: Masters, Kent
Subject: Notes on project participants
Congrats on your new role!
Here are some of the notes I took early on about everyone, let me know if this helps.
Chief – The boss and the one who signed us up for this project and pretty much calls the shots on the PRIDE group and is the one behind the idea for the project.
Comes to every meeting and early and is very interested in the success of the project. He likes to get weekly updates in a status meeting and emails if there are any major roadblocks.
Wants this whole project to get done asap and wants to make sure the project does not go over budget.
Kay – Regulator and can shut us down if the project doesn’t go well
She requires a monthly status update meeting just for her but doesn’t really want nor does she respond to any other communication.
All she cares about is that the new software meets all the federal requirements by August of next year.
Jared – Durham Office
He is always late to meetings and does not come to the most meetings.
He hates the new federal requirements and is only involved because he has been told to.
He doesn’t respond to email because he not a technical guy but will return your phone calls if you have questions.
Rarely ever offers any feedback and just wants the project to be over.
Samatha (Sam) - York office
Loves to help out on the project and jumps in whenever asked. She will do whatever it takes for this project to be successful but fights to make sure to keep the cost down since she is using her work to progress her career and show she keeps public spending low.
Attends every meeting and she likes to be cc’d on all project communication and has been a significant help in removing project roadblocks.
Sam is favorite among the government leadership and the Chief. She knows many of the leadership personally and can be a huge asset if she is on board with what you are trying to do. Watch out because if she doesn’t like you, you will never get anything approved.
Gary – Hamilton office
The Chief and Gary go way back and have been friends since childhood.
Gary has questions from time to time and loves to just IM you rather than email or phone. He does not attend meetings but says he reads the notes.
The Chief goes to Gary for advice so even though he doesn’t attend meetings you have to make sure he isn’t misinformed with what is going on.
Wants this project to be over quickly because he feels like he has more important things to work on.
Mary – Niagara Office
Use to be a consultant for a big firm, she is really smart and has a lot to say when she attends meetings.
Most of the project team is intimidated by Mary and don’t listen to what she has to say because she thinks she is smarter than everyone.
Mary comes to about half the meetings and always asks for the most up to date project documentation before she will answer questions.
Mary used to work for Niche Technology and doesn’t really care how long the project takes she just wants us to use Niche.
Tami – like the second boss to the chief
Tami has been the Product Manager for this new platform from the beginning. She is an excellent resource.
Comes to every meeting meets with the stakeholders regularly to understand their needs and make sure that the new platform meets all their needs.
She is fastest on email will but will also take IMs or phone calls.
She doesn’t have the final say on projects but she does influence their direction and if the project is considered successful or not.
Manoj – Technology Manager
Manoj is excellent to work with and works directly with this dev team to make sure that all technical work is done on time.
He has a lot of opinions about how the software should be developed and is very concerned that the vendors will not be able to deliver on time, to specs, and within budget.
Manoj will be the technical validation for all the technical documents, and he has to sign off on the designs before they can be considered “done.”
He comes to the meetings he can and said he would get more engaged once the project progresses to the technical work.
Sample Solution