Navigating Change and Risk in a New Firm Project Assignment Sample

Project Management Assignment

Introduction: Project Management Assignment

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The initiation of a new project or venture for a firm is any time an exciting and challenging phase. It is a kind of dichotomy for the people of the firm. the employees and workers who are hostile to changes will opt for a unilateral and monotonous system. However, any sort of development requires change and for which new initiation is very important. this report will focus on a new project that has been taken up by Tesco. This project is the inclusion of advanced AI (artificial Intelligence) more specifically microservices architecture in its supply chain management system.

Project Initiation

Tesco is one of the leading names in the retail sector of UK. However, the supply chain management system of the firm has been under strict speculation especially post the pandemic when the firm was accused of inefficient waste management in its supply chain. Furthermore, due to the entire alteration of the system during the pandemic, orders and supplies were not moving in the swift chain that it was supposed to. There were further complaints of system failure as well. This triggered the requirement of the inclusion of an efficient artificial intelligence form that would in turn help the firm to get back on its track and control mis happenings. The team that has been chosen for this project is:

• The technical head and technical team: this are the person who along with the computer engineer or software developer would understand the core issue and design a creative system that would be customised according to the requirements of the firm(San Cristóbal et al., 2018).
• A data science expert/data analyst: the study of the existing data of mis happenings, current data of improvement and analysis future potential data of further progress is the task of this person.
• A computer engineer: the computer engineer along with the technical head and software developer needs to customise the microservice that is required for the firm.
• Supervisor: the supervisor is the second in command post the project manager, it primary job is to communicate the changes, improvement, and requirements of the project in between the various teams. The supervisor also takes regular follow ups of the project and marks deadlines for specific tasks.
• Project manager: the project manager is the head of the project who is responsible for the supervision of the entire project and making sure of its organic development(Hair, J.F. and Sarstedt, M., 2021).

Stakeholders

• Investors
• Technical Team
• Employees

Risk Management

Planning

The activities that are about to take place in this operation include:

• Identification: this process will include the identification of the core issues of the system, the factors that are leading to these issues and furthermore, the existing aspects that are amplifying the negative impacts of the issues.
• Research: this needs to be done by the technical head, data analyst and computer engineer. The aim of this step is the analysis of the issue and estimation of the correct mitigation plan that will allow an efficient solution to the identified problem(s)
• Design: the aspect of design is multifaceted; designing does not only mean designing the technical remedies required in the operation. The designing of the project, allocation of activities, estimation of deadlines and so on also fall under the category of designing(Tereso et al., 2019).
• Implementation: Post the designing activity, comes the implementation of the actual plan. The implementation plan requires a particular strategy through which the shift in operations will take place smoothly without much jerks.
• Follow-ups: Any new process requires follow ups, this means that the new operation that has taken place requires supervision of the report of potential risks and opportunities that might have arisen from the change.

Monitoring

• Process/Procedure: the process or procedure of conducting this project will follow the waterfall project management technique. As shown by the GNATT chart in the previous section. The completion of one section will only lead to the inception of the following one. The project will take a total of 6 months for its completion and throughout this time, the project will follow the waterfall mode of project management.
• Checkpoints: the different stages of the operation of the identified project will be considered as checkpoints and according to which, there are 5 checkpoints in the project; identification, research, design, implementation, and follow-ups. Each leading to the advent of the following one(Copola Azenha et al., 2021).
• Method of reporting: in the case of the given scenario, the method of weekly update will be the most prudent. Since, it is a short project of 6 months (24 weeks) the individual report of each week will allow the team as well as the project manager a sharper edge towards defining the progress report.
• Cost Models: this project will be using a culmination of project management information system along with data analysis technique for the estimation of the costs of the project. This means, that the project will calculate the average prices of goods and supplies in the market to make a cost estimation along with do a through market research and comparative analysis of the same.

Project Management Methods

Figure 1. Project Management Methods

The waterfall technique

There are have various techniques that have been identified in project management as efficient ways of completion of a project. Research emphasises on the fact hat there is no one perfect technique of project management. Each project is different and hence the techniques taken to complete the project needs to be customised according to the issue that has been identified by the project. The reason of choosing the waterfall method of project management in this case is that artificial intelligence is still a relatively unexplored area of the industry 4.0 itself. The retail industry is hence all the newer to the new technology and hence it is only practical to move in a unilateral way rather than a multilateral one. A swift one directional and unilateral way of movement will allow the project the time and resources of reflecting on the issues of the previous project and mitigating them so that it does not affect the coming operations. Furthermore, it is only intelligent to take one step at a time towards a process that a firm or an industry is hardly aware of and is seemingly so complicated in its nature, this will only lessen the chances of making mistakes and even if they are made, it will provide chances of the rectification of the same(Svejvig 2021).

Analysis

The project that has been undertaken has attempted to follow all the conventional rules of project management. It has identified the cause of the requirement of a new project followed by the list and responsibilities of the people who are involved in the project and their roles. The project further went on to estimate the processes, procedures, cost estimation techniques, and the different checkpoint of the operations that are to be undertaken in the research. Risk management and analysis is a major portion of project management and the project has made sure to provide an elaborate risk register for the project that will help the project understand, analyse, and mitigate the existing and potential risks of the same. The project has further used tools like, GNATT chart, risk register, project management models and templates to prove its case(Chen et al., 2019).

Conclusion

The project report could have been a bit more wholesome had it been allotted more time; the project could have shown and discussed a range of other models and theories regarding AI and project management and could have justified it choosing of microservices as the primary mode of AI. To conclude, the report has emphasised on a range of aspects such as, risk management, identification of the project management procedure and formation of a GNATT chart for an estimation of the completion of the project that are necessary for an efficient project management operation.

Reference

Chen, T., Fu, M., Liu, R., Xu, X., Zhou, S. and Liu, B., 2019. How do project management competencies change within the project management career model in large Chinese construction companies?. International Journal of Project Management, 37(3), pp.485-500.

Copola Azenha, F., Aparecida Reis, D. and Leme Fleury, A., 2021. The role and characteristics of hybrid approaches to project management in the development of technology-based products and services. Project Management Journal, 52(1), pp.90-110.

Hair, J.F. and Sarstedt, M., 2021. Explanation plus prediction—The logical focus of project management research. Project Management Journal, 52(4), pp.319-322.

Picciotto, R., 2020. Towards a ‘New Project Management’movement? An international development perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 38(8), pp.474-485.

San Cristóbal, J.R., Carral, L., Diaz, E., Fraguela, J.A. and Iglesias, G., 2018. Complexity and project management: A general overview. Complexity, 2018.

Svejvig, P., 2021. A Meta-theoretical framework for theory building in project management. International Journal of Project Management, 39(8), pp.849-872.

Tereso, A., Ribeiro, P., Fernandes, G., Loureiro, I. and Ferreira, M., 2019. Project management practices in private organizations. Project Management Journal, 50(1), pp.6-22.