Change Control For Link Project Case Study
Executive Summary
The key aim of the report was to assess the LINK project case of Victorian police to suggest any changes through which project success prospects can be enhanced. Based on the case analysis, the identified change is to adopt Commercial Off the shelf System (COTS) along with making changes in internal business processes to avoid opportunity cost. The implementation of change will make scope of project more clear and measurable and it will also reduce cost and time of project. The adoption of COTS will not only benefit in short-run but it will also remain open to configure with any future changes in business practices of police. It will be easy to upgrade to adjust with future technological changes and thus data management of the police department will be made effective.
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1. Introduction
In order to assure success of any IT based large scale project, it is highly important to monitor and manage change in proactive manner, such that project’s stated outcomes can be accomplished within specified time, scope, cost and quality of the project. The underlying report is aimed to suggest changes in Link project of Victorian Police that has failed to deliver its expected outcomes based on numerous issues. The key witnessed issues were; the vaguely presented business case, too much emphasis on customization to avoid process change, underestimation of project cost, ineffective project management and inability to manage project related risks. In the light of key issues with the project, the underlying change plan is devised to make suggestions regarding needed changes, along with stating their likely impact on project scope, time, cost and quality.
2. Identification of Proposed Change
Although, the management of LINK project must be revisited in many aspects, yet some key issues hold greater significance. In order to make sure that project meets its expected outcomes, it is crucial to the adopt COTS (Commercial off-the-shelf) System in its existing form, without seeking any compliance with current LEAP system of police. This is the core change which is needed to assure success of the project. The change in adaptation approach for new ICT solution can be a savior for assuring success of new technology implementation project of Victorian Police. The project team should be focusing on process reengineering instead of like to like strategy, which will allow them to modify their internal business process with an aim of complying well with contemporary requirements of technology (Ursula, 2010). When COTS system will be adopted in its original form and internal processes will be aligned with new system requirements, then long run effects can be seen in information exchange and communication efficiency of the police departments (Raza & Waheed, 2018). The updates to newer versions will become easy and technology upgrade with respect to changing needs of police departments will be doable (Raza & Waheed, 2018). It will incorporate any possible future changes in roles and practices of police, making it more feasible in long run.
In terms of project’s scope, the states benefits of commercial solution can be anticipated well and any unrealistic expectations will not be made about project’s outcomes. For instance, the previous success rate of COTS is well known and thus its effect on reduction of crime rate can be well tracked. Moreover, the new COTS can be compared with existing LEAP system and then more realistic objectives can be set with respect to improvement in new system.
The commercial off the shelf solution will be adopted and thus cost estimates will be more realistic, which will make it easy to ascertain funding adequacy for the project (Martinsuo & Hoverfält, 2018). The current issue related to under estimation of the project cost will be handled well and thus any delay to lack of project funding can be minimized. Moreover, opportunity cost can also be eliminated while adopting contemporary and sophisticated COTS solution.
With respect to time, adoption and implementation of COTS takes less time as compared to implementation of customized like to like technological solution. COTS is based on modern technologies and architecture which is pre-developed and tested well to meet the requirements of police departments. Therefore, any additional time spent on customization is completely eliminated. The improved scope, lowered cost and reduced delivery time adds substantially in enhancing quality of the project, along with assuring that modernized and most feasible technology system is chosen for Victorian police.
3. Change Management Processes
In order to manage and implement suggested change, the ‘perform integrated change control ‘process will be chosen. The reason for selecting this process lies in the notion that it will assess the impact of change over the whole project, including its scope, cost, time, quality and other deliverables (Hammoud, 2008). This process is based on the notion that all project processes and activities are integrated with each other and change in any one step is likely to affect each activity and project process (Kerzner, 2017).
In order to adopt COTS system for Victorian Police department and to focus on process reengineering, the organization wide involvement is needed. The project management team is responsible to convince management of Victorian Police to bring necessary internal process changes, with an aim of seeking compliance with the COTS system. The scale of change is very wide due to involvement of multiple stakeholders and thus integrated approach is crucial to bring all stakeholders on same page (Whyte, Stasis & Lindkvist, 2016). The active and open communication will make up the core of integrated change control process. The following activities are needed to follow while performing integrated change control process;
- To convince project team, management and all stakeholders for adopting COTS, while providing realistic business case for explaining benefits and impact of COTS
- Analyzing effect of COTS implementation on scope, cost, time, quality, outcomes and risk factors of projects
- Reviewing and analyzing feedback of all concerning stakeholders on change requests
- Ensuring integrity of project baselines
- Ensuring that change is coordinates across whole project
The detailed change process to perform integrated change control is seen in figure 1, where CCB refers to change control board which is responsible for managing project change.
Figure 1. Perform integrated change control
4. Propose Actions to implement the change
The two chosen option for measuring the impact of change and guiding the ‘perform integrated change control’ process are 1) to aligned change with the project management plan and 2) to use complete project Scope for measuring effect of change (Hammoud, 2008).
The reliance on project management plan for assessing the impact of change and for guiding its implementation is suitable as change is witnessed in the light of all project processes. For instance, the analysis of change is carried in the context of scope baseline, cost baseline and schedule baseline (Kerzner, 2017). In addition to it, the change management plan of the project (mentioned in project management plan) is utilized for guiding the change control process and for assigning roles and responsibilities to manage change (Whyte, Stasis & Lindkvist, 2016). Finally, the reliance on project management plan also allows identifying that which items of the project are configurable and which items require formal change control procedure. On the other hand, the reliance on complete project scope allows to measure effect of change with respect to project deliverables.
In case of this project, reliance on scope is highly risky as business case is vaguely defined and thus project management plan can be considered a suitable option for implementing integrated change control process. However, the scope and cost baselines defined in project management plan are also not clearly defined, as identified from the case information that the scope is unrealistic and cost is under-estimated. Therefore, careful consideration is needed while using project management plan for guiding implementation of integrated change control process.
Conclusion
It is concluded that in order to avoid failure of LINK project, the adoption of off the shelf system is most suitable option for Victorian police. This change can be implemented through integrated change control process, whereby project management plan can be used for guiding the implementation of change. The adoption of COTS can help in lowering cost and time for project delivery, along with making the scope more clear and measurable.
References
Hammoud, M. S. (2008). Assessing project success: Comparing integrated change management and change management (Vol. 69, No. 03).
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Martinsuo, M., & Hoverfält, P. (2018). Change program management: Toward a capability for managing value-oriented, integrated multi-project change in its context. International Journal of Project Management, 36(1), 134-146.
Raza, S., & Waheed, U. (2018, November). Managing Change in Agile Software Development a Comparative Study. In 2018 IEEE 21st International Multi-Topic Conference (INMIC) (pp. 1-8). IEEE.
Ursula Kuehn PMP, E. V. P. (2010). Integrated cost and schedule control in project management. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Whyte, J., Stasis, A., & Lindkvist, C. (2016). Managing change in the delivery of complex projects: Configuration management, asset information and ‘big data’. International Journal of Project Management, 34(2), 339-351.
