Introduction
The major aim of all organisations is to provide vital goods or services to its clients. Organisations ensure that their activities benefit their stakeholders. Therefore, profit-making organisations must ensure that they generate profits without exploiting their customers. The complex nature of the activities of various organisations necessitates them to strive to improve their efficiency.
This enables an organisation to gain a competitive edge over its rivals. From time to time, organisations implement various initiatives that strive to improve their activities. Automation of various activities is one of the major strategies that companies use to improve their efficiency. However, a company has to take extreme care to ensure the successful implementation of various IT projects.
Efficient project management enables a company to implement the projects successfully. Some of the causes of failure of IT projects include lack of proper planning, poor leadership, and failure to anticipate various problems that may occur during the implementation of the project. The costs of implementing IT projects ranges from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars.
Therefore, failure of IT projects may have devastating effects on a company. It may even lead to the collapse of a company. The Trader project faces some of the above problems. These problems led to the inflation of the budget of the project. In addition, they led to a significant delay in the completion of the project.
The Trader Project
The Trader project strived to automate the activities of Barwest Bank. The aim of the project was to automate documentary letters of credit (LC) and Documentary Collections (DC). In addition, the project would lead to the automation of other financial transactions of the bank. Automation would reduce the operational costs of the company.
It would enable the company to reduce staffing in the Foreign Service Office (FSO) and Financial Services Branches (FSB) by 25%. The break-even of the automated system was only three years. This was due to its ability to increase the efficiency and reduce operational costs. The budget of the project was £1,000,000. However, the project exceeded its budget estimates.
In addition, the project did not follow its schedule. Implementation of the project lagged behind its schedule by several months. These problems increased the break-even period to six years. In fact, the system may not break-even after six years due to various factors that are beyond the control of the company.
Problems
The Trader project faced various problems that hindered its implementation. The problems led to a significant increase in the budget of the project. However, most of the problems were avoidable. The problems that the project faced included:
- Poor management and leadership styles
- Poor project planning and control
- Lack of efficient communication channels
Management and Leadership Styles
The management and leadership style of a project determines the success of the project. Leaders should ensure that they motivate project members to achieve their objectives. The type of leadership or management style that leaders employ is usually dependent on the type of project. No leadership or management style is suitable in all types of projects (Jones, Steffy & Bray, 1991, p. 575).
Scope, time constraints, goals, and the personalities and experiences of the team members determine the leadership and management styles that project managers should employ in a certain project (Binder, 2007, p. 24).
In the Trader project, the project manager, Gordon Grant, used the wrong leadership and management style. Grant made several decisions that affected the project without consulting team members. Grant introduced a new project member from ABC without consulting other team members. He did not provide information on how the existing team members would accommodate the new team members.
In addition, Grant did not address various problems that the project teams faced. Grant did not address the problem that Derek Pringle, one of the project members, faced while running capacity tests. He told him that it was not his duty. This is despite the fact that failure to find a solution would affect the efficiency of the project. Grant wanted various groups to achieve results at all costs.
He even told the project group members from Barwest Bank to work during the long Easter weekend to enable them finish the project in time. In so doing, he disregarded the views of other members of the project implementation team.
Project Planning and Control
Project planning and control determines the time that the project management team would take to implement a certain project. Changing the staffing or organisational structure is one of the major methods that companies use to improve their project planning and control. The business process helps in defining project planning and control. Companies usually give project managers the freedom to choose any project planning and control tools. Project managers should determine what activities various project group members should undertake and when they should undertake the activities (Simpson, 2010, p. 28).
Grant changed the structure of the project implementation team to improve its efficiency. He included a new member from ABC to help existing team members. However, the project manager did not use efficient planning and control methods.
The project manager equipped FSB and FSO branches with only one printer and PC. However, the branches needed three PCs and printers. It was impractical for the branches to share only one printer and PC. In addition, the printers used a printer board that was obsolete.
The project manager was unable to coordinate the activities of different team members. This was evident in the situation where the project manager requested team members from Barwest Bank to work during the long Easter weekend.
He assumed that team members from ABC would also be working during the weekend. However, members from ABC went on a vacation in Paris during the Easter holiday. In addition, the new software application went ‘live’ before the project manager could solve some of the problems that the application faced. This is a clear illustration of the lack of proper planning and control of the project manager.
Communication
In an organisational setting, communication determines the efficiency of various activities. Therefore, it is vital for a company to formulate efficient communication channels. Setting up efficient communication channels is one of the first activities of a project management team.
Most project teams meet regularly to discuss the progress or issues facing the project (Koster, 2009, p. 48). Communication between the team members may be virtual or face-to-face. However, efficient communication is useless if the project team members do not strive to solve the problems that the project faces.
In the Trader project, group members communicated with each other via e-mails and letters. This enabled them to raise several issues that they faced while implementing the project. However, the project manager did not address certain issues that the group members raised. The project manager did not address the problem that one of the group members, Charles Baker, faced while trying to implement the project.
According to Baker, it was impossible to use printer boards since they were obsolete. This problem would affect the efficiency of the project since the printer is one of the major components of the new system. However, the project manager did not take concrete steps that would help in solving this problem.
In the Trader project, all group members could communicate directly with the project manager. This increased the issues that the managers faced. Most projects require people to communicate with their group leaders instead of communicating with the project manager directly. Leaders of various groups are the only people who should communicate with the project manager directly.
Charles Baker communicated with the project manager directly instead of raising his issues with Iqbal Jaffar, his group leader. Communicating with group leaders instead of the project manager helps in solving various issues that group members may face faster (Turner, 2007, p. 785).
Solutions
Establishing efficient communication channels is one of the first steps that project managers should take. Project managers should hold regular meetings with various members. The meetings help in communicating the schedule status and task priorities (Gido & Clements, 2012, p. 332).
Therefore, holding regular meetings would have helped in solving some of the problems that the Trader project faced. From the case study, it is evident that there was no efficient communication between members of the project implementation team. The members strived to address the problems the problems only when they got out of hand.
Leadership and management style is one of the major problems of the Trader project. The project manager should have incorporated relevant people in the project implementation team. Since FSO and FSB branches would be the ultimate users of the automated systems, it was vital for the project manager to include representatives of the branches in the project implementation team (Schwalbe, 2010, p. 295).
In addition, the company should not have implemented the project in a hurry. The company should have taken sizeable amount of time to determine how the project would help in improving the activities of the company.
In any project, it is vital for the team members to feel that their input is valuable. This improves the motivation of the team members. Therefore, it is vital for project managers to use democratic style of leadership whenever possible. Democratic leadership enables project managers to consider the views of people who will implement the project (Taylor, 2006, p. 65). In the Trader project, the project manager used autocratic leadership.
He did not consider the views of other members of the project implementation team. This made the members feel isolated and helpless. One of the major reasons that made the project manager use this leadership style is time constraints. In addition, he hatched the project without the input of other group members.
Therefore, he felt that he had intricate knowledge on the project. Use of democratic leadership would have helped in avoiding some of the problems that the project faced. It would have enabled the project manager to avoid storage and printer problems (Kerzner, 2013, p. 58).
Project planning and control determines activities that various members of the project implementation should undertake. In addition, it determines the right time that project members should undertake the activities. This helps in coordinating the activities of various project members. Ideally, individual group members should focus on one task at a time.
They should perform various tasks according to their priority and ensure that they have few interruptions. Performing high priority work first helps in improving the speed of the project. In the Trader project, the project manager went on leave during a critical part of the project. This created delays in the project since he could not address several issues that occurred during this period.
During the implementation of a project, it is vital for various members to provide frequent updates to relevant stakeholders. Regular updates help in recalculating and analysing the schedule of a project. In addition, updates help in adjusting the project plan. In the Trader project, the project manager provided regular updates on the schedule of the project.
However, the project manager did not use the updates to adjust the project plan. Initially, the company intended to implement the project within three months. However, the project manager implemented the project after 12 months.
This led a significant increase in the budget of the project. Therefore, the project manager should have used the updates to adjust the project plan. This would have curbed the significant increase in the costs of the project.
Recommendations
The Trader project did not achieve its initial objectives due to the above problems. The project had an over-optimistic cost position. The project plan overlooked several factors that haunted the project later.
Therefore, the company should ensure that it conducts extensive feasibility studies prior to the commencement of future projects. Feasibility studies would help in determining some of the problems that the project may face in future. In addition, the feasibility studies would help in the formulation of accurate financial plans (Westland, 2007, p. 25).
The company should ensure that it formulates various activities that improve the interpersonal relationships of the project group members. Prior to the commencement of a project, the company should hold meetings with the group members. The meetings should discuss how the project implementation team would undertake its activities. This would enable the individual group members to feel that they are a valuable part of the project.
Before implementing new systems, the company should ensure that it trains the users of the new systems. In addition, the company should incorporate relevant stakeholders in the project team. These measures would help in reducing resistance towards the new system. Failure to include employees from the FSB and FSO branches is one of the major factors that increased resistance towards the project.
In future, the company should ensure that it formulates suitable contracts with the suppliers of IT equipment. The company should use hardware capabilities instead of hardware configuration to enter into contracts with suppliers of IT equipment. This would have eliminated the need to buy new servers. The suppliers of the IT equipment would have borne the costs purchasing the new equipment.
Conclusion
Poor leadership, planning, and control are some of the major problems that the Trader project faced. They led to a significant increase in the cost of implementing the project. These problems increased the break-even period of the project from three years to six years. Therefore, the company should ensure that future project managers have skills that would help them overcome the problems that the project may face.
References
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Gido, J & Clements, JP 2012, Successful project management, Cengage Learning, Belmont, CA.
Jones, JJ, Steffy, BD & Bray, DW 1991, Applying psychology in business, Lexington Books, Lanham, MD.
Kerzner, HR 2013, Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
Koster, K 2009, International project management, SAGE Publishers, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Schwalbe, K 2010, Information technology project management: With Microsoft Project 2007, Cengage Learning, Belmont, CA.
Simpson, WP 2010, ‘Project planning and control when time matters: Focus on process to synchronize and drive results’, Production and Inventory Management Journal, vol. 46 no. 2, pp. 26-43.
Taylor, J 2006, A survival guide for project managers, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn., New York.
Turner, JR 2007, Gower handbook of project management, Gower Publishing Ltd, Surrey.
Westland, J 2007, The project management life cycle: A complete step-by-step methodology for initiating, planning, executing and closing a project successfully, Kogan Page Publishers, London.