Ideally, technology should improve the competitiveness of a company. Therefore, from time to time companies implement IT projects to improve the competitiveness and efficiency of their operations. However, implementation of IT projects is a daunting task.
Every year companies lose millions of dollars in failed IT projects. Failure of IT projects may bring a company’s operations to a standstill and lead to bad publicity (Aldammas & Al-Mudimigh, 2011). The Green project is facing several problems that are common in implementation of IT projects.
Therefore, it is vital for MM to overcome the problems due to the huge repercussions that failure of the project may have on the company’s activities.
One of the major strengths of implementation of the Green project is support of the top leadership of the organization. In IT project implementation, it is vital for the project to have the support of top leaders of the organization (Remus & Wiener, 2010).
Support from the top leaders of the organization helps the project management team to acquire resources that are necessary for the success of the project (Wan & Wang, 2010). Since the project has the support of the top leadership of the organization, the management is ready to meet all the staffing needs of the project.
IT projects lead to drastic changes in an organization. They lead to changes in how organizations conduct their activities and how employees do their jobs. These changes may elicit resistance from employees during the implementation of the project.
In addition, resistance to change may make employees refuse to use the IT product after its implementation. Therefore, it is vital for a company to have efficient change management to reduce resistance to the IT project (Aldammas & Al-Mudimigh, 2011).
It is evident that implementation of the Green project faces resistance from employees of the organization. The success of the Green project is dependent on the successful implementation of Information Management Renewal (IMR), another IT project that MM is implementing.
However, Fred Topkins, the head of the manufacturing division of the company, resists the implementation of IMR.
Communication is one of the major factors that determines the success of a project. Setting up proper communication channels is one of the first steps that a project manager should take for successful implementation of the project.
In addition, the members of the project implementation team should meet regularly to discuss progress of the project and formulate strategies that would help overcome problems facing implementation of the project (Dellmour, 2011).
In fact, proper planning of the communication process helps in avoiding some of the problems that are likely to occur during the implementation process (Gido & Clements, 2008).
In the Green project, Werner McCann, the project manager, meets regularly with the senior management of the company to discuss the progress of the project. However, there is no proper communication between the project team members.
The fact that the project team members do not consult the Linda Perkins in making changes to the look and feel of the product is a clear sign of lack of good commication. This is despite the fact that Perkins is one of the best designers in the business.
In addition, there is lack of proper means of communication between the management and the project manager. Lack of proper means of communication between the management and the project manager makes the management deny Parker some benefits that McCann promised her when he hired her.
In implementing an IT project, an organization should ensure that it chooses the right supplier. There are various suppliers of IT products in the market. Ideally, an organization should ensure that it limits the number of suppliers of IT products.
Choosing different suppliers would increase the complexity and costs of managing the new system. The project management team should be in constant communication with the supplier of the new product.
Constant communication would improve the professional relationship between the supplier and the project management team (Sparrow, 2003). The project management team does not have a good relationship with its suppliers.
The supplier knowingly sold an obsolete product to the company. In addition, geographical barrier limits effective communication between the project management team and the supplier.
Clark should ensure that there is a proper communication channel between the members of the project implementation team. This would help in overcoming some of the problems that threaten to cripple the project (Holland, Gastron & Gomes, 2000).
Clark should devise for a proper communication channel between the project implementation team and Perkins, who works from home. In addition, Clark should choose another supplier for the project. Choosing another product would make the company lose huge sums of money.
However, failure to choose another product would be more expensive. This is because Web-4-U, the product that the product management chose, is obsolete. In addition, Clark should choose another supplier since it is evident that the current supplier is dishonest. The current supplier knowingly sold an obsolete product.
Successful implementation of the Green project would have huge benefits to MM. Therefore, the project implementation team should ensure that it undertakes steps that would ensure its ultimate success. Support from the management is one of the major strengths of the project. H
owever, there is no proper communication channel between the members of the project implementation team. Therefore, the project manager should establish a proper communication channel to avoid the failure of the project.
References
Aldammas, A. & Al-Mudimigh, A.S. (2011). Critical success and failure factors of ERP implementations: Two cases from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology, 28(2), 73-82.
Dellmour, B. (2011). Critical success factors IT-start-up companies. Munich: GRIN Verlag.
Gido, J. & Clements, J.P. (2008). Successful project management. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.
Holland, S., Gastron, K. & Gomes, J. (2000). Critical success factors for cross-functional teamwork in new product development. International Journal of Management Reviews, 2(3), 231-259.
Remus, U. & Wiener, M. (2010). A multi-method, holistic strategy for researching critical success factors in IT projects. Information Systems Journal, 20(1), 25-52.
Sparrow, E. (2003). Successful IT outsourcing: From choosing a provider to managing the project. London: Springer.
Wan, J. & Wang, R. (2010). Empirical research on critical success factors of agile software process improvement. Journal of Software Engineering & Applications, 3(1), 1131-1140.