The article “An experiential case study in IT project management planning: the petroleum engineering economics evaluation software imperative” by Charles Davis analyzes the major concepts in information technology project management. The case study is based on Hopkins & Associates a consultancy firm that deals with reserves economic evaluation and is in need of software development to maximize their service provision to customers (Davis, 2005). The company seeks to automate their work through a software project dubbed Petroleum Reserves Economic Systems (PREss). The project aims at developing interlinked generalized computer models with a universal support system to store all client information for use in future evaluations of the same property (Davis, 2005). The stakeholders of the project include the project team, the project manager, the senior management, and the customers of the consultancy firm.
The three top concerns about the project are time, quality and the project scope which encompasses the project plan, project management and the budget plan (Davis, 2005). The stakeholders are concerned about the project timeline since a delay in its completion could lead to substantial losses. A delay could rob the firm off of their competitive advantage as the first company to use the technology in the oil industry (Davis, 2005). During the initial presentation of the project proposal, one of the board members raised concerns about the project’s bearing on the company’s image, credibility and client base in case the software was of low quality. Ken, the project supervisor, also raised concerns about the low level of staff qualification for the team at the Hopkins & Associates consultancy firm which called for outsourcing for a project manager. A software project requires competent and experienced developers for it to succeed (Murray, 2016). The staff at the Hopkins Computer Services Inc the subsidiary tasked with the development of the software comprised of first-time software developers and their inexperience raised concerns. The stakeholders and the top management also wanted the project up and running within the shortest time possible (Davis, 2005). The pressure on the timeline coupled with the team’s inexperience raised the concern of the quality of the software since the project supervisor didn’t want to produce a low-quality product or launch faulty software that would lead to lawsuits due to wrong calculations.
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The potential solution for the risk of producing software of poor quality is the employment of the agile project management method (Langer, 2016). It would allow for the testing of the software during the production process, therefore, ensuring that the end product is error free and safe for use by the time it is launched into the market. The quality risk can also be addressed by training the software development team on the basic competencies required to develop a high-quality product (Murray, 2016). The risk presented by the project timeline whereby the rushing could lead to the production of a low-quality product and delay could result in loss of the company’s competitive advantage can be solved by scheduling the project. The project manager can set up teams handling the assembly of different components of the software. The teams can then come together in a daily meeting to assess the progress and eliminate redundancy and repetition of duties in the software development process (Langer, 2016). That way, the development would move along quickly, save time and ensure that the project is completed in time and is of high quality.
The risks to the Hopkins & Associates project that are unique to the software development in the oil industry are technical risks, project complexity and change in system requirements (Murray, 2016). Like in the case study, most employees could have little to no information technology knowledge and the software could prove complicated to use by the employees. The software could also face a technical risk whereby it malfunctions leading to inaccurate data since oil sources differ in characteristic (Murray, 2016). The software could also face the risk of a change in system requirement whereby the technology becomes fast obsolete like in the case study where the management fears that their competitors could come up with more superior software (Langer, 2016). The ongoing intensive research in software development puts the projects at the risk of obsoleteness.
In sum, the three major concerns in the case study are quality, project planning, and the strict timeline. The potential solutions to the project risks include outsourcing, training, and employment of the agile project management method and scheduling of the software development process. The risks specific to the oil industry software development include technical risks, project complexity and change in system requirements.
References
Davis, C. K. (2005). An Experiential Case Study in IT Project Management Planning. Cases on Information Technology . doi:10.4018/9781591406730.ch001
Langer, A. M. (2016). Guide to Software Development Designing and Managing the Life Cycle . London: Springer London.
Murray, A. (2016). The complete software project manager mastering technology from planning to launch and beyond . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
