Equal Pay and the Glass Ceiling - Key Issues for Women Essay Example for Free

Equal Pay and the Glass Ceiling Key Issues for Women Essay Glass ceiling can be described as an economic term that refers to a scenario where the promotion of a qualified individual to a higher rank within an organization is overlooked so he or she is stuck at lower ranks mainly because of factors driven by discrimination, especially gender and racism (Arnwine, 2010). However, other factors considered as barriers to advancement at work place may include disabilities and aging. A good example are barriers women face when aspiring or attempting to attain higher position which is senior as well as to have higher salary levels in workplaces such as government offices, education, nonprofit organizations and business organizations. Indeed, glass ceiling is a term that was first used to refer to factors that barred women from promotion in the work place in the US yet they possessed the necessary qualifications (Hakim, 2004). Women are vital for contribution of work force around the globe and thus they should be regarded as equally potential like men. Despite their potential, women have been marginalized in various fields and especially in their work place since they are not much considered for advancement in their job groups even if they have the same qualification for promotion as their men counterpart employees. This is critical issue that should be addressed by the human resource management to ensure that job opportunities and promotions are granted on merit but not by any discrimination of whichever form. There is need for human resource management to combat glass ceiling, expand leadership roles of women and also advancement of women in their work places in both domestic and global fronts (International labor Office, 2004). Human resource managers and professionals can have a great impact in an organization because their role in recruitment and promotion of employees (Crampton, Hodge, Mishra, 1997). In other words, they ensure the well-being of all employees, especially with effect to job satisfaction to so that employees carry out their roles effectively. In that effect they should be concerned and have knowledge on how the phenomenon of glass ceiling may be impacting the organization reputation either indirectly or directly. They should also have to understand how this phenomenon is impacting the customer loyalty, growth potential, skill set diversity, and even the organization’s bottom line. Often, the chief executive officer or the organization’s president should invite the professionals of human resource in a meeting and discuss on the possible organization’s changes that could be made in order to reduce glass ceiling which has been in existence. This would maximize the organization’s reputation and performance. The human resource managers should also have knowledge of the organization’s employment laws, practices and programs. This is because the law can protect certain groups such as the women viewed as minority in labor markets. These professionals should also have the knowledge on the potential impacts that barriers caused by glass ceiling may have on the performance of the concerned employee. In some countries such as the United States, work place discrimination, especially sexual discrimination is illegal as stipulated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, even though it exists in various forms. For instance, women may be discriminated in forms such as low salary increments and generally lower pay as compared to their male counterparts (International labor Office, 2004). This discrimination may also be manifested in the practices of hiring, promotional opportunities, development and training activities are disproportionate in favor of the men. Human resource professionals have the potential of impacting barriers of glass-ceiling either negatively or positively due to the changes in workplace which they implement or facilitate such as employee recruitment, development and trainings, transfers, succession planning, promotions and terminations. In many organizations, affirmative action plans (AAF) should be conducted to utilize analysis that compares number of minorities and women who are available in labor markets with the ones employed in their organization (Hakim, 2004). Another requirement of compliance is the review of corporate management, which is sometimes known as glass-ceiling audits and is usually conducted when the organization is conducting the audit of affirmative action plan and focus primarily on the process of decision making of CEO and senior executives. For non-compliance of affirmative action plans for a company, it can be fined severely and also companies who do not comply with employment laws may also have unfavorable publicity. The glass ceiling evidence can be described as invisible, overt or covert (Arnwine, 2010). Glass ceiling has spread its roots to the gender based barriers which run gamut from the stereotypes of gender to leadership styles that are preferred up to the ranks of high management. The glass ceiling effect sign is the gender-biased compensation where by anecdotal reports and studies have shown big discrepancies on salary favoring men even for similar job levels in the same organizations. Discrepancies favoring men exists in many organizations which are of different sizes. In these organizations women who do not have opportunities of gaining other competences are not likely to get any chance of adding their skills unlike their counterpart men working at the same organization (Crampton, Hodge, Mishra, 1997). Women mostly do not get chances of training in various management fields in most organization and this is a vice that need to be sort out since the world is changing and women are breaking the glass ceiling and are now in senior position in many large organizations including high ranking government offices. Another indicator which shows glass ceiling in an organization is when advancement of women is hampered by corporate cultures that are well-ingrained. Corporate practices and policies for example may maintain status quo in a manner that men are kept in the corporate power positions (International labor Office, 2004). Mostly the board directors in many organizations comprise men as the majority and they may also perpetuate the men status quo by choosing chief executive officers who are like them so as to plant the vice of glass ceiling in the organization. Other barriers that can be said to be gender based are communication and behavioral styles that vastly differ from norms of company and the lack of women opportunity of gaining line experience and also the general management. Human resource professionals should iron out the norms and policies, which can be a barrier to advancement of any group of individuals in the organization and ensure that employees are all motivated without discrimination. Human resource professionals should understand that challenges of work and personal life balance can have impact on women advancement and failure of dealing with them can result to the phenomenon of glass ceiling. They should have the assumption that women are care givers of the family and especially for the elderly and children and thus they may not meet all their work responsibilities due to family responsibilities. Furthermore, there are organizations which cannot give some programs that will involve outside commitment to women especially for the positions which are at senior levels. Therefore a lot of women are disadvantaged to take aspiration steps of advancing in the organization. In addition, promotion opportunities are often given in favor of men mainly due to their developmental prospects which include networks and mentoring (Hakim, 2004). Women are limited to access of the informal networks that men use in developing relationship networks in the organization or company. These networks tend to eliminate women because of nature of their work or sometimes the promotion or advancement may be perceived as male activities and thus this contribute to work place gender barriers. The human resource professionals should ensure that all organization activities are conducted in the organization but should not be discussed outside especially on the matter of promotion or job advancement in the organization. They should also see the need of balancing the personnel who are in the management and leadership line to include women so long as they are competent for such posts. Human resource personnel should avoid glass ceiling by avoiding perception of seeing women as being incompetent in various fields like management and stop stereotyping them. They should do away with the barriers that prevent women from advancing in the organization such as societal barriers and governmental barriers. In recruiting new employees in the organization they should not consider the potential candidates with any discrimination under whatever grounds. The recruitment personnel should not stereotype people and consider other people such as men being more suitable thus leaving women out and may be they could be more competent than the men selected. The government officials who are responsible for recruiting new employees should not be biased on a certain group of people since this is one thing that contributes to glass ceiling placing women on the losing end. Another point of view is that the human resource personnel should wipe out business and structural barriers such as recruitment and out reach practices which can make the minorities and women not to be considered in recruitments. They should also be conscious about the corporate climate which isolate and alienate women from receiving promotions and job advancement in the organization they are working in so as to break the glass ceiling. Another area of adjustment is the training where many organization personnel responsible for training employees have pipeline barriers making women in the organization to receive poor training, which make them unable to have carrier growth in their organization (Crampton, Hodge, Mishra, 1997). They should also eliminate inadequate mentoring in the organization to make women able to be considered for such promotional posts in the organization rather than mentoring men only. Rating and testing systems should not be biased in the organization but should be fair and job advancement should be granted on the merit of performance and competence so as to avoid imbalance of the people in leadership positions in the organization. Internal communication networks in the organization should not be limited to some people but the networks should be among all the employees working together because this is one barrier which makes women to lag behind at the times of job advancements and promotions. To reduce or eliminate glass ceiling in the organization, women employees should not be limited when it comes to job rotation and assignments because limitation of such nature may lead to executive suite. The institutions should not be too much rigid to deny women employees the balance between work and family. With no access of training, developmental assignment, mentoring and other activities of job enhancement, too many women who are qualified are cut short before they reach their aspirations. Corporate leaders should realize that there is need of input and talent of minorities and women at the senior levels in their organization to meet the need of the changing environment in the market (International labor Office, 2004). The demographic and competition internationally is changing and requires all types of gender so as to improve the today’s global world economy. Breaking glass ceiling should be addressed as economic imperative and is the bottom line critical issue in every business internationally and also a pocketbook issue to the working women together with their families. The chief executive officers should focus on job diversity so as to influence the organization culture and create atmosphere which utilizes fully capabilities and talents of the diverse workforce. Setting timetables and goals for diversity of the work force is a business extension practice that can enable it to weigh their growth and progress. Line manager should be held responsible to break the glass ceiling and thus they should have systems of rewarding and compensating in accordance to the diversity objectives accomplishment. Organizations should have affirmative actions to ensure that all employees have access to opportunities equally and they should be based on merit and ability. Opportunities of advancement should be promoted to people who can effectively contribute to the performance of the organization. This means that the rich talent should be used so as to improve the economic stability and also to break the glass ceiling. Another way of breaking glass ceiling is for the organizations to make expansion of their traditional recruitment networks to use a method that seek candidates with experience and backgrounds of non-customary. All in all, the human resource professionals should be concerned on how they can break glass ceiling in their organizations because the world has changed and also glass ceiling is one of the issue that is much of concern in the today life. There is need of selecting and promoting employees in an organization on the grounds of merit so as to improve performance of the organization and have competent employees who know how to tackle changes as they come. References Arnwine, B. (2010). Breaking the Glass Ceiling. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from http://www. newdeal20. org/2010/03/29/breaking-the-glass-ceiling-9240/ Crampton, S. , Hodge, J. , Mishra, J. (1997). The Equal Pay Act: The first 30 Years. Public Personnel Management, 26, 12-21. Hakim, C. (2004). Key Issues in Women’s Work: Female Diversity and the Polarization of Women’s. Oregon: Routledge Cavendish. International labor Office. (2004). Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling: Women in Management. Retrieved July 19, 2010, from http://www. ilo. org/dyn/gender/docs/RES/292/f267981337

Place Matters :: essays research papers

Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-first Century â€Å"Could suburbs prosper independently of central cities? Probably. But would they prosper even more if they were a part of a better-integrated metropolis? The answer is almost certainly yes.† (p. 66) Deepening economic inequality is fundamentally associated with the spatial polarization between central cities and sprawling suburbs, and between wealthy regions and poorer ones. Government policies have promoted economic and racial segregation, encouraged businesses and the wealthy to move to outer suburbs, and effectively limited the poor and minorities to central cities or troubled inner-ring suburbs. It was interesting to find that 39 percent of all earnings in New Orleans come from residents who worked in the central city. I did not think that the central city of New Orleans had such a dense market for higher paying jobs! This fact is very positive for the city, and hopefully the corporate services industry continues to grow here in New Orleans because the density allows for overall productivity. And the suburban property values outside New Orleans depend on the availability of jobs and an active economy in the Central Business District. So places like Metairie and River Ridge or â€Å"edge cities† really rely on the strength of the central city of New Orleans. Therefore it should be the vested interest of both city and suburban residents to scrutinize federal policy that affects the economic health of all cities. After reading Place Matters, I realized that all city mayors have struggled and will continue to struggle with addressing and implementing a plan for the concentration of poverty in their cities. They all take different approaches- some believe that instead of concentrating on anti-poverty programs, they want attract new investments, such as international companies to promote smart growth. This is to trickle down the services from taxes and create jobs for the motivated poor. In order to attract these international companies, the city infrastructure must also be attractive. Policies that do not take care of city infrastructure and development get little interest from outside corporate capital for investment. Secondly, they also promise things like better jobs, better low-income housing, and better schools but all to often this is a ploy to rally support for votes. Inner city poverty ends up being far too great of an overwhelming problem; so voting is usually swayed to more programs t hat aid the poor rather than fix the problems. The wealthy want and need different things than the poor and much less involved than their counterparts.

Leg Ulcers

Chapter One *A Brief Overview of a Venous Leg Ulcer *and the Assessment Process The nurse must have the skills and knowledge to identify a venous leg ulcer. Dowsett (2005) believes that it is important that nurses and other health care professionals look for the underlying cause of an ulcer. Whereas, the Royal College of Nursing (1998) has different views, and argues that, professionals who are fully trained in leg ulcer management should only be able to identify an underlying cause as it is easily mistaken that diagnosis of an arterial leg ulcer is made rather than venous which could cause serious treatment complications for the wound as well as the patient. There are major problems associated with a venous leg ulcer such as, pain, loss of mobility, financial implications and much more which will be discussed in chapter 3. Leg ulcers appear as shallow holes or craters in which the tissue underneath is exposed. They can vary in size, discolouration and depth (National Health Service Direct 2008) (NHS). The clinical factors of a venous leg ulcer are, lipodermatosclerosis (champagne bottle shaped leg) ,which is cellulites affecting the dermis and subcutaneous tissue (Finlay & Chowdhery, 2007), hyperpigmentation, derived red blood cells extravagated from dilated, leaky capillaries which produces areas of brown discolouration (Brown & Burns, 2007). Atrophic Blanche, where interspersed by visible engorged capillaries seen as tiny red dots just below the surface of the skin (Moffat et al, 2007). However before looking at the patients wound it is the nurses role to look at the patient holistically and find out past medical and family history as well as personal factor that could contribute to the condition (Moffat et al, 2007). There are essential details that the patient can tell the nurse about their ulcer and the factors that may contribute to this. Such factors are their full medical history these details should include varicose veins, diabetes, Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), previous leg surgery and any family history of leg ulceration (Dougherty and Lister 2004). The importance of this is that if a leg ulcer is diagnosed incorrectly, such as a venous ulcer being mistakenly diagnosed as an arterial one can have serious complications for the patient and causing further delays in the healing of the wound. Also the nurse must undertake baseline observations this includes, the patient’s weight, height, blood pressure (BP), oxygen saturations levels, temperature nd respiratory rate, and also the patient’s nutritional intake, urine samples and routine blood tests such as glucose and haemoglobin levels must be gained, as diabetes is present in approximately 5% of patients with leg ulcer (SIGN 1998). Murray (2004) also agrees with Dougherty & Lister (2004) & Bolton et al (2004) stating that that hyperglycaemia can have an e ffect in the wound healing process, as this can be linked with infection and decreased oxygen levels in the haemoglobin will slow down the healing process and go onto starve tissue. These factors are important to know as it plays a big part in the wound healing process. In clinical practice thesebasic observations are a vital part of information gained to ensure safer patient care and early recognition of deterioration. The key factor in order to gain a thorough assessment it is essential that the nurse must have is communication and listening skills not only for this purpose but also for a nurse patient relationship. Dealey, (1994) believes that fear is one of the most common experiences a human can feel and a patients illness release many fears, in which health care professionals are unable to identify when not allowing the patient to express their needs freely. If the patient has a full understanding of their condition they are more likely to comply with treatment regimes and have a more productive relationship with healthcare professional’s (Anderson 2006). The RCN (2008) states, that the nurse-patient relationship is founded on trust. The nurse patient relationship allows the conversation to flow easy in order to gain a holistic approach to the patients care. The Code (2008) also agrees that as nurses ‘we must listen to people in our care and respond to their concerns and preferences’. Much research has taken place regarding nurse patient relationships, McCabe (2002) carried out a study which aimed to explore and produce statements relating to the patients experiences of how nurses communicate. A qualitative phenomenological approach was used. This focuses on individual’s interpretations of experiences and ways in which they express them (Parahoo 1997), followed by unstructured questionnaires which were tape recorded and lasted for approximately thirty minutes. The results found that four themes emerged, these were, lack of communication, ‘attending’, empathy and friendly nurses. Therefore the conclusions were that in contrast to the literature, nurses are not good at communicating with patients, however nurses can communicate well if the task undertaken was a patient centred approach. Although research has taken place the limitations were that only eight patients participated, therefore this could reduce the validity and reliability of the study. Also with such a small sample the study could be used as a pilot study which could be replicated in the UK as this study was undertook in Ireland.

Bluesky implementation for basket case - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 18 Words: 5547 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Statistics Essay Did you like this example? PROJECT INITIATION Business Case Basket case is a medium sized company, established in 1992, with a turn over of AUD 85 million per annum. They are market leaders in manufacturing cane and plastic baskets which is sold to retail shops and some large retail chains. They also have an online shop, catering to the end user directly. A study was conducted to assess their current business operations and their capability to adapt to the future growth in the market. The results recommended certain factors to be in place for improving the companys performance in the market. On seeking professional consultation with BlueSky an ERP solution provider, it was advised to implement an Information System. Also suggestions were made to re-engineer many of the companys business processes by developing a Business and IT strategy plan. The core competitive business strategy plan were, Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Bluesky implementation for basket case" essay for you Create order Increase their market share by targeting major retail outlets, such as major supermarket and hardware chains. Emphasis in this sector is to be on price competitiveness. Maintain its existing customer base among small-medium retail outlets. Emphasis in this sector is to be on quality product combined with superior service. The plan is to make phased changes within the Basket Case Company to achieve the competitive strategy, A new product range with brand line differentiation. This is needed to service the two different markets large chains and small-medium enterprises (SMEs). Within twelve months, Basket Case should embark on a programme of investment in state-of-the-art manufacturing machinery. The aim of the programme is to significantly increase the productivity of the manufacturing process and to reduce costs. Demands for electronic supply chain management from the large chains require that Basket Case abandon its manual internal processes in favor of electronic-based management. Requirements for superior service in the SME sector also require capable electronic management systems. The major points that were discussed in the IT strategy plan were: Basket Case should immediately update its internal processes. A phased out implementation of Blue Sky ERP package department wise. Careful attention should be paid to re-engineering business processes and to staff development. Project Charter Project Objective The main objective of this project is to implement an ERP solution and upgrade their current infrastructure on an effective time and material basis. The ERP package to be implemented is BlueSky which needs to be customized to facilitate the smooth migration from existing systems and timely maintenance of the package. An appropriate ICT infrastructure also needs to be put into operation in order to support the proposed information system. Roles and Responsibilities List the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders and senior project team members. Name Role Responsibility GaneshKumar C S Delivery Manager Responsible for the delivery of solutions for an agreed portfolio of technologies this includes strategy, design, development and support,as well as people leadership. AshwinKumar Shetty Project Leader Draft initial charter and project plan. Coordinate efforts for completing activities in plan. Update plan regularly. Provide regular status reports for all activities related to the project. Work with Project Manager to ensure resource workload is balanced across projects. Serve as the single point of contact for the Team to the project stakeholders. Prabhu Manoharan Onsite Coordinator Requirements gathering and documentation (functional, technical, stated, implied) if applicable Scope change management Customer management (customer expectation management, balancing Customer/Team/Organization perspectives) Effective customer feedback / requirement communication to offshore team Ensuring timely finalization of reasonable acceptance criteria and timely sign-offs on project artifacts Onsite technical issue handling (design reviews with client, build integration onsite, diagnosis and reporting of technical issues) Prabhu Varadan Project Manager Overall responsibility for the project execution as per the Quality Management System Approval of project plans and estimates Approval of technical documents. Providing resources for the project Reporting project status to stakeholders and internal management Review Business continuity plan of the project Provide a high level schedule of the project preferably using a Gantt chart top one or two levels of sub-task only. Provide a budgetary estimate for the project. The budget should be a summary but in enough detail to allow intelligent decision making based on the budgetary figures. Sign-off of all the above stakeholders. PROJECT PLANNING Project Scope Statement BlueSky has to implement the ERP package in Basket Case and build the infrastructure to maintain the physical systems. The training and post implementation 1 year warranty also falls under the scope. Scope Verification A scope and Business Plan document was shared with the stake holders at Basket Case and verified. It was verified and validated by the stakeholders and signed off. The proposed project plan and all the documents related to the same are clearly verified and accepted by the project sponsor (The Basket Case) and the project contractor (BlueSky). Any minor changes in the scope of the project which does not affect the project schedule, cost and time can be undertaken on mutual agreement between project sponsor and the delivery manager. Any other changes will be undertaken after a detailed brainstorming between the project stake holders and BlueSky team and captures in the Change Request form. All the documents (Change Request form) must be signed by the stake holders. Only on consensus from the stake holders the project manager will consider the effect of the scope change and re-evaluate the project with the required changes in the project schedule, resource requirement, costing, human resource requirement, technical changes and project completion time. The final document should be signed by the project sponsor and the project manager before the changes can be implemented. Work Breakdown Structure Task Name Duration Start Finish Project Kick Off 1 week Mon 4/5/2009 Mon 4/12/2009 Review of Business case Team Meeting Financial Planning Distribution of Responsibilities Infrastructure Planning 15 days Mon 4/5/2009 Tue 19/05/2009 Order placement for Hardware 20 days Wed 20/5/2009 Sat 30/5/2009 Order Dell Desktops 3 hrs Order Dell Laptops 1.5 hrs Order all Servers 3 hrs Order Printer 0.5 hrs Order UPS 0.5 hrs Order Modem/Router, Hub 1 hr Order Completion 2 days Delivery of Hardware 7 days Order Placement for Software 5 days Thu 01/6/2009 Sat 20/6/2009 Order Oracle software 1 day Order Linux 1 day Order Windows NT Server 1 day Order Microsoft Office 1 day Order Internet Package(TPG) 1 day Order Completion 2 days Delivery of Software 2 days Server Room Construction 2 days Employ Builder 1 days Completion of Server room 6 days Cabling 6 days Mon 21/6/2009 Thu 28/6/2009 Order cables 2 hrs Employ Smith cables Contractor 5 days Cabling Accomplished 5 days Installation of PCs, Servers 1 day Fri 28/6/2009 Fri 29/6/2009 Setting up of LAN and connecting to internet 1 day Mon 01/7/2009 Mon/7/2009 Testing network Functionality 1 day Tue 02/7/2009 Tue 02/7/2009 Infrastructure Ready 1 day Wed 03/7/2009 Wed 03/7/2009 Installation of Software 7 days Thu 04/7/2009 Thu 11/7/2009 Server Setup/Installation of OS and software to server 3 days Installation of software to desktop/ Laptop 10 days Installation Complete 10 days Customize BlueSky Package 90 days Fri05/7/2009 Mon 05/10/2009 Order BlueSky 5hrs BlueSky delivery 30 days Accounts Payable 2 days Accounts Receivable 2 days Bank Interface 10 days Cash Book 20 days Cost Management 30 days Fixed Assets 30 days General Ledger 25 days Inventory 20 days Order Entry 20 days Purchase Orders 10 days Verification and Validation of BlueSky 2 weeks Team Meeting 10 days Customization Complete 60 days Backing up Existing Data 30 days Tue 06/10/2009 Mon 07/11/2009 Data Entry 20 days Data Validation 20 days Backup Complete 24 days System Acceptance testing 20 days Tue 08/11/2009 Thu 28/11/2009 Testing Complete 30 days Training/Documentation 10 days Project Finalization 10 days Thu 28/11/2009 Mon 31/11/2009 Team Meeting 20 days Board Meeting 60 hrs Budget cross check, profit/loss analysis 1 week Project Signoff 4 days Tue 2/12/2009 Thu 4/12/2009 Schedule Management Plan The delivery manager and the project manager worked together to plan the schedule for the project. The scheduling was done with care taking into mind threshold period for the project. If a change request is issued by the external contractor, the Project Manager will undertake Impact Assessment. The impact assessment will comprehensively set out the details of the proposed change including: the details (and technical specifications of the change); the impact that the change will have on the performance and achievement. The Impact Assessment also includes a plan that details how the changes are implemented and a new timetable and budget estimate. Human Resource Requirement Resource Name Units Project Manager 1 Software Consultant 1 Software Engineer 3 Desktop Computer Support Personal 2 Network Engineer 2 Technical Writer 1 Hardware Consultant 1 Trainer 1 Software Team Leader 1 Hardware Team Lead 1 Data Entry Operator 1 Training Requirements Quality Management Systems skills Technical skills Non-Technical Skills. If there is a gap in the existing vs. required skills, then indicate how the gap will be closed, and when. Training modes can be of the following, J On the job C Class room/Workshop M Training/Orientation through Mail S Structured Self Learning S. No. Role Training required Training Mode 1. Delivery Manager PMM Certified, Internal process certified S 2. Project Manager PMM Certified, Internal process certified J, S 3. Project Lead Internal process certified, Technical Certifications J, S 4. Onsite Coordinator Internal process certified, Technical Certifications J, M, S 5. Quality Analyst Internal process certified, Technical Certifications, SCM certification J, S 6. Developer Internal process certified, Technical Certifications J, C, S 7. Tester Internal process certified, Technical Certifications J, C, S Project Communication Management Plan Communication Matrix Customers The Project Manager will brief the overall progress to the sponsor on a weekly basis. This will be in the form of a Weekly Progress Report, including completed tasks, upcoming tasks and expenses incurred. Any noticeable change in the project will be informed to the sponsor by the Project Manager. The changes will be documented in the Project Status Report. Any change request from the Sponsor is done through the Change Request Form to the Project Manager. Other Stakeholders Any communication between the stake holders resulting in the Project change or regarding the project should be done through e-mails. It also necessary to document the change proposed and file a hard copy. Stake holders should be produced the same for their perusal. Any casual consultation between the stake holders can be done through telephone or e-mail, unless they do not require any documentation. Communication between the stake holders resulting in the change in the project process should have a written authorization from the Project Manager and in such cases Project Manager should always be kept in loop. Project Team The Project team will attend the project Kick-off meeting. Where in a detailed study of the Report would be done. This will be followed by a brain storming session to come up with the Project Scope, Scheduling and Costing. Team will attend the Weekly Progress Meeting chaired by the Project Manager where in a stock of the Project progress will be taken, a weekly status report is produced along with the updated budget report, issues in the project team will be discussed and if required necessary documentation will be done. Any feedbacks or suggestions from the project team will be left to the open discussion and with the proper evaluation, the feedbacks will be considered and the necessary documentation will be done. Any resource requirement especially the Human Resource, will be taken care by the Project Manager in consultation with the Human Resource Department and the same will be documented through e-mail or on a Hard Copy. Escalation Mechanism Every Project related issues will be resolved by the onsite coordinator after discussing with the project manager.If a reasonable reply is not attained from each side, problems will be escalated as per the predefined escalation ladder shown below The Below tables provide the levels of people in stakeholders to whom issues may be escalated.. Escalation Mechanism from BlueSky Reason Whom to Escalate 1. Show Stopper Delivery Manager 2. Software related issues (cost center) Project Leader 3. Quality related Issues Quality Assurance Manager 4. Communication related issues Project Manager Escalation mechanism from Basket Case Reason Whom to Escalate 1. Expected deliverable not on time (When it occurs second time) Project Leader 2. Expected deliverable not on time (When it occurs third time) Project Manager 3. Expected deliverable not on time (When it occurs more than three times) Delivery Manager Project Cost Management Plan Cost Estimates of Resources Resource Name Resource Type Units Standard Rate Cost/Use Project Manager Work 1 $1,500.00/day $0.00 Software Consultant Work 1 $1,200.00/day $0.00 Software Engineer Work 3 $1,000.00/day $0.00 Desktop Computer Support Personal Work 2 $600.00/day $0.00 Network Engineer Work 2 $800.00/day $0.00 Technical Writer Work 1 $800.00/day $0.00 Hardware Consultant Work 1 $1,200.00/day $0.00 Trainer Work 1 $1,000.00/day $0.00 Software Team Leader Work 1 $1,200.00/day $0.00 Hardware Team Lead Work 1 $1,200.00/day $0.00 Data Entry Operator Work 1 $600.00/day $0.00 Cabling Material (Smith Cables) Material 1 $0.00 $4,000.00 Cabling Contractor (Smith Cables) Material 1 $0.00 $4,000.00 Structural Contractor Material 1 $0.00 $4,000.00 Bluesky Software Material 1 $0.00 $200,000.00 Bluesky AMC Material 1 $0.00 $20,000.00 Oracle Software Material 1 $0.00 $25,230.00 Computer Hardware Material 1 $0.00 $174,915.00 UPS Material 1 $0.00 $6,300.00 Network Hardware Material 1 $0.00 $4,700.00 Project Quality Management Plan BlueSky uses GSOP (Global Standard Operating Procedure) for each and every phase of the project for the quality management. Every single document from every team should adhere to the GSOP. The documents can be uploaded in the docbase after the approval from the quality assurance team. If a document fails the GSOP, the appropriate individual will be notified by the QA team for changes or rework. Once the rework/changes are completed it will be again reviewed by the QA team and after final approval it will be uploaded in the docbase. Project Risk Management Plan Risk Management is one of the challenges of the Project and requires a lot of fore sightedness and brain storming among the Stake Holders. The Risks that may arise during the course of the project is identified and tabulated according to the Priority along with the Mitigation Plan. The identified risks are prioritized based on an Excel based tool. Low Probability Risks Risk Type Risk Description Management Strategy 1.Staff The staffs are not familiar with the system or not good at operating the system Train the staff before they start working, and teach them both the basic and advanced operations of system. Medium Probability Risks Risk Type Risk Description Management Strategy 1. Software Version There is an increased vulnerability to incompatibilities in installed software versions. Thus modifications may cause inconsistent operating results. Ensure that systems are properly tested and approved and that modifications are properly implemented. Determine that adequate version control procedures are properly implemented. 2. Software Vulnerability Data lost due to the unexpected reasons. Such as power cut, virus, etc. Determine that the database management system has adequate recovery capabilities. 3. Project members Members complete their tasks on time, but being unable to satisfy the requirement. Members should analyze task requirement carefully and ask project manager for more detail if there is anything unclear. Should the project manager have any inquiries, ask the project sponsor. Do not start any tasks before understand them clearly. High Probability Risks Risk Type Risk Description Management Strategy 1. Resource Limited resources such as experienced programmer, consultant, engineer, money, etc. Arrange the necessary resources before starting the project. Inform the stakeholder in case of inadequate resources. Very High Probability Risks Risk Type Risk Description Management Strategy 1. Finance Due to some reasons, project requires more money, and cost overruns. Monitor cost performance, record the cost and plan the resource. All cost including direct and indirect cost should be estimated. If the cost overruns, inform the change to the stakeholder. Procurement Planning The procurement of the materials required for the IT infrastructure will be decided by the Project Manager and the Stake holders. Initially the Project manager will issue an RFP to some of the selected vendors, mentioning the requirements and the terms and conditions which will include conditions on delivery and support. Once the proposal from all vendors is received the Project Manager will decide on the proposal and the contract will be awarded to the best offer. All the hardware will be delivered to the basket case site and the IT officer will be the custodian of it. The details on the procurement are as below, Products Procurement Method Quantity Required Delivery Date Delivery Location Desktops Fixed Price 4 09-09-2005 Basket Case Office 6 09-09-2005 Warehouse 2 09-09-2005 Factory Printers Fixed Price 2 Work group 1 Personal 09-09-2005 Basket Case Office 1 Workgroup 1 Personal 09-09-2005 Warehouse 1 Small laser printer 09-09-2005 Factory Laptops Fixed Price 6 09-09-2005 Basket Case Office U P S Fixed Price 1 28-08-2005 Basket Case Office Networking equipments Fixed Price 29-08-2005 Basket Case Office File, Email Print server Fixed Price 1 09-09-2005 Basket Case Office Database Server Fixed Price 1 09-09-2005 Basket Case Office Application Server Fixed Price 1 09-09-2005 Basket Case Office The software procurement will be done directly on the Fixed Price and terms basis. This will cover the purchase of the BlueSky package, Oracle database, and Office suite. The procurement will be done by the Project Manager himself. Cabling Total cabling installation work has been outsourced to Smiths Cables. They work on a cost plus fixed fee contract. Procurement of cables will be done from Smiths Cables. Structural Changes Robert Son have been assigned the work regarding the construction of the server room. The builder has inturn sub-contracted the electrician and locksmith. This will include air conditioning work required for the server room as well. PROJECT EXECUTION Change Management Initially a change request is logged into the system and then the impact analysis is done along with the risk assessment. Based on the impact the request is sub divided into minor and major changes where it needs the approval from the principal system specialist where the implementation/schedule date and time is produced. The Approval is based on the rollback script say in case of the updates in an oracle database. Once the rollback log is reviewed and approved the commit script is executed and the appropriate changes will be made. Any changes occurring during the course of the project is tracked through Chameleon change control software. This helps in making sure that each change is tracked from start to the end and each change will have an owner who is responsible for it. This tracking of changes will help the finance team to bill Basket Case. The Below figure explains how the change takes place in our system with the help of Chameleon Change control The BlueSky team will use the change request process for any enhancements or bug fixes, or for changes to deliverables that have been approved by Client. The Below table indicated helps to log and monitor changes during the lifecycle of the project. Change Control number Change definition Project Impact a. Agenda b. Attempt c. Price Change Status Requested Date Approval/Rejected Date Delivery Date Date Finished Comments Signatures Project Manager Stake Holder Name Name Signature Date Signature Date SLA Management BlueSky will be responsible for tracking and measuring all the relevant SLAs during the execution of the project. SLA data will be tracked on monthly basis. The cumulative SLA score will then be calculated every quarter to assess SLA adherence and determine the amount of penalty or bonus to be applied. INet a tool developed by EDS systems will be used for SLA management of issues. Every three months, we will sit with our client together and review the SLA trends over the past quarter and, if necessary, changes in SLA parameters, measures and targets will be incorporated. BlueSky or Basket Case initiates a review exercise even before each quarter if necessary. The below diagram depicts the Basket Case SLA governance framework. There is a weight age and priority for each SLA requests based on which the priority is marked as Low,Medium,High,Urgent,Ctirical. Root cause analysis will be perfomed to identify the cause. Detailed documentation for with the clear action plan will be created and shared with the clients. If root cause analysis reveals a factor outside BlueSkys control as the cause, then the particular SLA Measure would be considered to have been met, after discussing the same with Client management in appropriate forum. In the project we have used, Waterfall Model. The waterfall model is a Project Development Model first proposed in 1970 by W. W. Royce, in which development is seen as flowing steadily through the phases. The Spiral model is also incorporated if in case any change results mid way through the project. Advantages Good progress tracking due to clear development stages. Milestones and deliverables can be clearly identified. Project Management and control is facilitated by the need to complete each stage before moving to the next. Disadvantages Inflexible partitioning of the project into distinct stages makes it difficult to respond to changing customer requirements. Estimating time and costs is difficult for each stage. PROJECT MONITORING AND CONTROL Schedule Control As discussed in the earlier section Project Scope change results in the Schedule change as well. Apart from this there are other factors that may force to change the Project Schedule. Operational Change Operational change could arise due to the technical factors. Any operational change will be dealt by the Project Manager and the Respective Team Lead (Software technical issues will be dealt by the Software team Lead and the Project Manager). Project Manager will be responsible for assessment, approval, implementation and acceptance of operational changes. Contract Changes The Stake holders have the right to change the proposal from the draft schedule, provided the changes does not breach the law or they do not have the technical and operational capability to handle the operational changes or accidents (emergency changes). The same holds good for the External contractors. If a change request is issued by the external contractor, the Project Manager will undertake Impact Assessment. The impact assessment will comprehensively set out the details of the proposed change including: the details (and technical specifications of the change); the impact that the change will have on the performance and achievement. The Impact Assessment also includes a plan that details how the changes are implemented and a new timetable and budget estimate. Cost Control Cost being one of the major components of the Project, any change in the cost of the project will be given highest priority. Any change in the cost (increase) during the course of the project will be discussed between the Stake holders and the Project Manager before it can be put forth of the Project Sponsor. Depending on the % increase in the cost of the project from the estimated cost, a balancing act will be undertaken between time and cost but the Quality will not be compromised. All the changes undertaken as a result of the cost change control plan will be documented and will be signed by the Project Sponsor and the Stake holders. Quality Control Audit is a thorough, systematic and independent examination carried out against defined criteria to determine whether: Defined organization processes are adhered to. Documentation of the project is maintained properly. Change control mechanism is properly followed. Scope Control The Proposed project plan and all the documents related to the same are clearly verified and accepted by the Project Sponsor (Basket Case) and the Project contractor (BlueSky). Any minor change in the scope of the project which does not result in the change of the project schedule, cost and time can be undertaken by the mutual agreement between the Project Sponsor and the Project Manager. Any other changes will be undertaken after a detailed brainstorming between the Sponsor and Project Stake Holders along with the Change Request form. All the documents (Change Request form) must be signed by the Stake holders. Only on consensus from the Stake holders the Project Manager will consider the effect of the scope change and re-evaluate the project with the required changes in the Project Schedule, Resource requirement, Costing, Human Resource requirement, Technical changes and Project completion Time. The final document should be signed by the Project Sponsor and the Project Manager before the changes can be implemented. Risk Monitoring and Control Risk Monitoring and Control is essential in every IT project, it extends to: Continuously monitor for risks in the project and to predict future pitfalls To evaluate if an identified risk has occurred or on the verge of occurrence Check for risk mitigation strategy and put in place processes Conduct periodic assessment of risks and check for risks that can occur The risk team members are responsible for monitoring risk and to predict future risks. They need to update the steering committee on a regular basis of the status. During the meeting, all the identified risks will be reviewed for the likelihood of occurrence. Adequate measures should be planned in case of high risk cases. The frequency will be dependent upon the risk status and risk priority, as described below;- Risk Status Criteria/Frequency/Venue Purpose Received Pending Analysis If the risks in this status are more than three days, will be reviewed on the team meeting with sponsor. Assure Risks are being assigned promptly In Analysis Risks will be reviewed with the project sponsor during the weekly meeting. Ensure appropriate members and priority are assigned to analysis PM Review Risks with status will be discussed in the weekly meeting with the project sponsor. Create agreement with Sponsor on recommended actions Sponsor Review Risks with status will be discussed in the weekly meeting with the project sponsor. Achieve timely approval to implement recommendations Active Priority 1 Risks Reviewed with the Risk Owner and sponsor at an interval determined by the Project Manager and Sponsor from 1 to 30 days Ensure that priority risks are closely monitored Active Priority 2 3 Risks Reviewed with the Risk Owner and Project Manager at an interval specified by the Project Manager from 1 to 90 days Assure that all active risks are monitored for changes. Event Occurred Project Sponsor will be notified with the risk event and updated on a weekly basis until the risk is raised as a change or incident management Ensure prompt communication of risks that have occurred and active management of risk events. Closed Reviewed as part of project closure Identify lessons learned to improve future risk planning The results of each review will be entered on the Risk Review Record to provide history of the review. PROJECT CLOSURE Final Customer Acceptance Before the project was deployed in the live environment, the stakeholders and the business users tested the system and the application was put on dry run. The stakeholders verified for the defined requirements and comments on changes to be made were documented in the change request system. The requested changes are planned to be deployed in the future maintenance release. Final Project Performance The Overall Project Performance was good in terms of the requirements implementation and the actual downtime period per month was much lesser compared to the expected downtime, the performance of the application was good where its been tested with huge user population. Customer Satisfaction Survey There are a few factors to be done in the customer Satisfaction survey, When to conduct Customer Satisfaction survey: The best time to conduct a customer satisfaction survey is when the experience is fresh in their minds. ii. What to ask in a Customer Satisfaction Survey: * How satisfied are you with the purchase you made (of a product or service) * How satisfied are you with the service you received? * How satisfied are you with our company overall? * How likely are you to buy from us again? * How likely are you to recommend our product/service to others? * How likely are you to recommend our company to others? iii. What to do with answers from a Customer Satisfaction Survey: * We need to compile the answers from different customers * We must act on the information we get from the customers through the survey. * We need to fix the things the customers have complained about. We need to investigate their suggestions. * We need to improve our company and product in those areas the mean the most to the most of our customers. * Most importantly we need to give them feedback that their answers were appreciated and are being acted upon. Closure Meeting with the Customer Discuss the contents of the draft report Clear up any anomalies or misunderstanding that may have arisen during the review Discuss and provisionally agree recommendations, actions to be undertaken, officer(s) responsible and implementation dates Post Implementation Review There are three purposes for a Post-Implementation Review: To ascertain the degree of success from the project, in particular, the extent to which it met its objectives, delivered planned levels of benefit, and addressed the specific requirements as originally defined. To examine the efficacy of all elements of the working business solution to see if further improvements can be made to optimize the benefit delivered. To learn lessons from this project, lessons which can be used by the team members and by the organization to improve future project work and solutions. In some cases, the first of these objectives can be a contractual issue. Where that is the case, it may be safer to run separate reviews one focused on contractual compliance and the other seeking to derive further benefit from a no-blame review. The Project implementation is done with the below template and the findings and recommendations was presented to: The solutions business owners The leading participants in the project Other parties who may be concerned with the results Specific actions should be proposed to address any further work that is recommended. This might be handled in several different ways, for example: as routine support and maintenance, as remedial work to be performed by the original project team, for line management to address through user education and procedures etc, as further phases of development involving new projects. 1. Benefits Delivery Exceeded Met Minor Shortfall Major Shortfall The project met ROI and NPV targets? Yes The project met internal customer requirements? Yes The project met external customer requirements? yes 2. Scope Above satisfactory Appropriate Below satisfactory Not Appropriate or missing Were the deliverables clear? Yes Were scope changes managed well? Yes 3. Schedule Planned Completion Date Actual Completion Date Above satisfactory Appropriate Below satisfactory Not Appropriate or missing Were activities clearly defined? Yes Was the schedule realistic? Yes Was the schedule tracked and monitored? Yes 4. Costs Estimated Budget Actual Budget Capital 5m AUD Capital 5m AUD Expense 3m AUD Expense 4m AUD Total Profit 2m AUD Total 1m AUD 5. Quality Above satisfactory Appropriate Below satisfactory Not Appropriate or missing Was an appropriate level of quality specified? Yes Was the required level of quality met? Yes Was the quality plan appropriate? Yes 6. Communication Above satisfactory Appropriate Below satisfactory Not Appropriate or missing Was there an agreed communication plan? Yes Was there open and appropriate communication within the project team? Yes Was there open and appropriate communication with the programme manager? Yes Was there open and appropriate communication with the project sponsors? Yes Was there open and appropriate communication with the customers? Yes 7. Staffing Above satisfactory Appropriate Below satisfactory Not Appropriate or missing Were roles and responsibilities clear? Yes Were there sufficient resources available? Yes 8. Risk Above satisfactory Appropriate Below satisfactory Not Appropriate or missing Was there an appropriate risk management plan? Yes Were risks identified and mitigation strategies defined? Yes Was any qualitative risk analysis undertaken? Yes Was any quantitative risk analysis undertaken? Yes Were resulting issues managed well? Yes Were all outstanding issues at the end of the project moved to BAU or another project? Yes 9. Procurement Management Above satisfactory Appropriate Below satisfactory Not Appropriate or missing Was there a procurement management plan? Yes Was make or buy analysed? Yes Were sellers evaluated appropriately? Yes Were appropriate contracts made? Yes Lessons Learnt, top three successes and failures With the above post implementation review the top 3 successes are Phase based approach instead of big bang approach of ERP Package is a huge success because of its steadiness. Blue Sky ERP Package was best suited for The Basket Case and the customization was minimal which saved a huge time and capital. After the implementation of Bluesky ERP package the efficiency of order placement increased from 5 minute/order to 1 minute/order. Top 3 Failures Training costs increased as the new resources walked into the project because the attrition rate was high as we went with Phase based approach. Retail chain departments participation is very less which took a long time for us to understand their system and integrate. Scope Creep because of poor communication between parties. Archiving Project Documents All Project related documents with every environments such as development, training, validation and production is stored in a docbase under documentum. Only the employees working with The Basket Case Bluesky project is/will be assigned access to the project documents with appropriate access level. Especially when it comes to the production related documents it is accessed only by the members who work with the maintenance and support project and the project management related documents will be accessed only by the Senior management. Production related documents path Ausprd31prdblueskybasketcase Development related documents path Ausdev31devblueskybasketcase Validation related documents path Ausval31valblueskybasketcase Training related documents path Austrntrnblueskybasketcase References Schwalbe, Kathy.ThirdEdition, Information Technology Project Management,Cambridge, M.A.: Course Technology Thomson Learning. Olson, David L. Second Edition, Information Systems Project Management, McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Tatnall, Arthur. First Edition, A Guide to Microsoft Project, Daca Publishing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model Appendix A