Analytics Project
Project Management Plan
| Date: 22-10-2023 |
| Author: Name Here |
| Version: 2.0 |
Project Management Plan (PMP)
This project management plan will outline the strategies and plans used to manage ‘analytics project’ for the Style-Hub organization. It will include the tasks such as project governance, management, planning, budget and controlling. It uses the existing CRM and cloud infrastructure for the deployment of the new solution for informed decision-making. This project management plan will be used by the project team to streamline the work and ensure that the project outcomes can be delivered within the constraints. This document can be reviewed in coordination with project sponsor for changes.
Project Details
| Project Name | Project Phase | POL Number | |
| Analytics project | Planning phase | 2.0 | |
| Project Manager | |||
| Name Here | |||
| Approver | Name | Approval Date | |
List of Reviewers
| Reviewer | Role | Endorsement Date |
Version History
| Version | Date | Comments | |
| V0.1 | |||
| V0.2 | |||
4. Project Management Deliverables. 7
4.2. Roles and Responsibilities. 7
4.3. Deliverable Descriptions. 8
5.1. Project Schedule and Delivery. 9
5.4. Definition of Ready and Done. 11
8. Project Management Controls. 14
If you have any abbreviations used in your document, list here.
| Abbreviation | Term | Description |
| CRM | Customer relationship management | CRM is a software package used to manage the relationship with customers such as updates about their order, log of their complaints etc. |
| KPI | Key performance indicators | These are some measures defined by the project manager to manage the project performance and outcomes. For example, one of the major could be cost utilization in a task. |
Project management plan sets a direction and helps to define the resources and capabilities for a project to reduce uncertainties and enhance work organization. This report aims to discuss the project management plan for analytics project in Style Hub, an established retail fashion business in Australia. It will describe the project background and scope to set familiarity with the project. It will discuss the roles and responsibilities of major stakeholders and plan through which the project is expected to be completed. It will emphasize on project governance and control so that intended outcomes can be achieved within project constraints and capabilities.
The successful implementation of ecommerce solution helped the organisation to transform the operations from a brick-and-mortar model and it effectively tapped into international markets, especially grabbing the attentions of customers in New Zeeland. Currently, the organisation has extensive product catalogue and robust customer base but it is facing challenges to adapt changes in customer preferences and inventories across multiple channels. The organization is unable to make use of extensive data available from marketing, sales and other business functions. Through the analytics project, the organisation aims to enable the executives for data-driven decisions and enhanced adaptability and automation in operations.
The project aims to implement an analytics solution that can extract relevant data from the database system and present on screen in the form of visualizations through Power BI tool. For the implementation of analytics solution, the project has following major objectives:
- To provide real-time insights for operations and sales for informed decision-making.
- To automate the process for follow-up emails, shipment notifications and updates and enhance customer experience and streamlined communication.
- To upgrade the customer relationship management system with integration of personalized marketing capabilities and customer segmentation.
- To provide an interactive dashboard with valuable insights on operations and strategies.
- To enable the organisation for forecasting on demand of products and services.
The analytics project will provide an interactive dashboard to the executives in the organisation including essential upgrades and changes to existing software and cloud solutions so that they can automate the routine operations, develop insights on processes and assist the customers in their digital journey through supporting in forecasting. It has scope to assist the resources in informed decisions and enhance overall effectiveness and accuracy in decisions for competitive advantages.
- Items In-Scope
- The solution will be built on Microsoft Azure and leverage the capabilities of Power BI for data visualization.
- The solution will provide a dashboard showing real-time insights on sales and operations and upgrades the existing customer relationship management module.
- It has scope to automate shipment notification, follow-up emails and updates in operations and sales.
- The project will provide the documentation of the software for easier maintenance and upgrade over the years if required.
- There will be a training manual for the users so that they can productively resume work on new system.
- The changes/ configuration of Azure cloud is not included in the scope.
- Database related changes such as data migration and cleansing are not the part of the project. They can be managed in-house or by the internal teams.
- Automation of workflows in marketing and other functions is not covered as part of the project. However, it can be done in second iteration of maintenance if required.
- Research for customer segmentation and personalized marketing capabilities is responsibility of internal team. The project team is only responsible for mapping of requirements with existing CRM.
| Assumption | Description and impact of the assumption |
| Schedule of six month is sufficient for planning to deployment stage. | Generally, analytics project takes 6-12 months so that it is assumed that the project will be delivered within six months. It will impact the project team for improved planning and commitment to the goals and help the organisation to plan for future activities. |
| Project team has required skills and capabilities | Individual in team is assumed to have required skills and expertise. It will help to ensure that individual can complete the assigned task effectively with a smaller number of rollbacks (Heagney, 2016). |
| Availability of stakeholder is high. | Stakeholders are available on demand to overview the project progress and outcomes so that the changes can be considered immediately to avoid severe impacts. |
| Budget is sufficient | The project is assumed to be completed in allocated budget. It helps to reserve the budget for risk handling and encourage working on in-scope requirements. |
| Project scope is not changing | The scope of the project is not changing once the project is initiated. It |
| Constraint | Description and impact of the constraint |
| Cost | The project cost may vary with occurrences of risks and changes in scope |
| Risk | Risks such as absenteeism of the resources, lack of expertise for some concepts and poor coordination can impact the execution. |
| Resources | Resources are not sufficient so that the team may need to assess the cloud and existing database thoroughly. |
| Schedule | Project has constraint of time, especially when there are changes in execution (Kerzner, 2022). |
| Quality | Quality is required paramount to address large customer base and staff accounts. |
- Project Management Deliverables
- Overview
The project has mainly three deliverables:
- Analytics solution on Azure platform
- Project documentation/ specification
- User manual
Although, there are several intermediate deliverables throughout the project. They are:
- Project charter and initiation document during project initialization
- Plans for budget, schedule, work break down, scope, communication and risk management during planning stage.
- Status and tracking reports, KPI document, quality documents and forecast results during execution and control phase (Besteiro et al., 2015).
- Project specification and user manual at the project closing stage.
Following are major roles and responsibilities in the project:
Project manager
- Defines the project scope and specification
- Prioritize the workflow and assign tasks to other resources in team
- Identify and manage risks and monitor the project progress
- Collaborate and coordinate with resources for change approval (Marchewka, 2016)
Technical staff
- Responsible to design the strategy and blueprint for deployment of analytics solution
- Deliver iterative work in coordination with quality tester
Analyst
- Assist the project manager in documentation and research practices
- Support in work scheduling, communication and management practices
Quality tester
- Test the solution against defined criteria for evaluation
- Provide feedback to the technical staff for changes or improvement (Marchewka, 2016)
- Interact with staff member in organization and enable insights into features and functions.
Asides of the project team, there are following resources from the organisation who are controlling approvals, budget and other capabilities:
Founder and CEO
- Define strategic vision for the project
- Suggest features and functions for the solution
- Manage changes and improvements in the project
Chief data officer
- Approve financial allocations
- Devise mitigation plans for the risks if any arise
- Oversee the entire project for the intended outcomes and performance.
Head of merchandising
- Identify customer needs
- Ensure relevancy of the products in physical and online stores
- Provide data regarding product availability and sales potentials
- Deliverable Descriptions
| Deliverable | Description | Responsible |
| Analytics solution | It is the end-system required to the organisation for informed decision-making. | Project manager |
| Project documentation | It includes details how the project is designed and implemented. It is useful when project is being maintained in future. | Analyst |
| User manual | It includes instructions and diagrams to demonstrate how to use the system for configuration and routine operations (Kerzner, 2018) | Technical staff |
- Project Plan
- Project Schedule and Delivery
As the project schedule indicate, the project can be delivered within six months. It is starting on 1 November 2023 and ending on 1 April 2024.
- Stage Descriptions
| Stage | Description | Activities | Deliverables |
| Initiation | This stage aims to initiate the analytics project in communication with stakeholders and identification of the major requirements. It mainly focuses on clarification of requirements and seeks approval from sponsors to start the project. | Initial researchRequirement identificationKick-off meetingFeasibility studyProject initiation documentApproval for PID | |
| Planning | This stage focuses on planning such as documentation of system specification and documentation of plans for schedule, cost, risk and other aspects. | System specificationReview specificationProject planning document | |
| Design and execution | This stage focuses on activities aiming toward the delivery of the required solution. It includes backup of the existing systems and applications and design a new solution that meet the requirements. Once the design for change is prepared, the team starts implementing the system (Kerzner, 2017). | Designing backup planCustomisation to systemsIdentification of vendorsRequest for proposalFinalisation of vendorProcurement of softwareSystem setupChanges in infrastructureEngage usersUpdate CRMAssess network infrastructureDesign final systemDesign security mechanismsIntegrate with main systemReview and update | |
| Monitoring and control | It is a continuous process from the initial stage of the project. It aims to ensure that the project work is within the cost, time, scope and quality. | Test sub-systemsWhole system testIdentify and suggest changesImprovement tasks | |
| Closure | This stage focuses on exchange of the benefits and formal closure of the contract established between Style-Hub and project manager. | Documentationtraining and developmentSigningHand-over of assets |
- Build Cycles
| Ceremony | Purpose | Frequency |
| Sprint planning | It has main purpose to plan the work for the upcoming sprint., | At beginning of each sprint |
| Daily stand-up | To update on what is done by team member and what they are doing and what needs to be done. | Daily in morning |
| Sprint review | it demonstrates the work completed so that stakeholders can review and provide feedbacks | At the end of each sprint |
| Sprint retrospective | It aims to reflect on sprint to learn what went well and what decisions could be made to improve the results (Sachdeva, 2016). | At the end of the sprint but after sprint review |
| Backlog refinement | To review the items in product backlog and ensure that they are defined with accuracy for sprint planning. | As required throughout the sprint |
- Definition of Ready and Done
Definition of ready includes following elements:
- Description of each task of the project.
- Acceptance criteria such as cost-effectiveness, time, quality and resource utilization
- Identification of dependencies on external resources so that the project can be started effectively.
- Estimation and priority of the tasks
- Approvals for the execution
Definition of done includes:
- The code and changes are reviewed and approved by the technical staff.
- All the modules such as CRM, Sales and Operations are tested for their functions
- Tasks are tested for their acceptance criteria
- Documentation of specification and project deliverables
- Approvals of the owner for the project outcomes
The project can be deployed using the batch model so that the stakeholders can test the available features and overall complexity of the system can be minimized. The project will use the predictable schedule for each task to ensure minimal disruptions. This model is also preferred to get sufficient time for the manual testing and validations. It also allows thorough auditing and documentation. The deployment strategy starts with evaluation and changes in existing infrastructure. For instance, the solution will be deployed on Microsoft Azure so that it will be checked for configuration and other requirements. Version control will be used to ensure that code is accessible to team. There is also focus on automation through continuous integration so that new features and functions can be evolved over the core system (Shahin et al., 2017). There will be use of the monitoring tools and techniques such as project management software, team communication tools and workflow controlling tools so that the team can work effectively. Rollback strategies are also considered so that rollback can be done quickly without impact the current progress to a higher degree.
- Project Governance
CEO or Founder is a at head of the project as a sponsor. The sponsor governs the project for progress and outcomes against the defined constraints. The project manager monthly reports to the sponsor for the progress and on-demand reporting is used for immediate changes and risk management. Chief data officer has responsibility to govern the financial allocations. The project manager reports and request financial results with chief data officer at least once a month. The developers and other technical staff work under the project manager and they provide their weekly reports for review and directions in the project. Senior technical staff can monitor and manage the progress and alignment of the team members to ensure that they are working in right directions (Derakhshan et al., 2019). For any change in the project, approval from the project manager is required. If the change includes significant finance, scope and other aspects, then project manager can further process the request through the sponsor.
| Team Name | Team leader | |
| Name Here | Name Here | |
| Project name | Duration | |
| Analytics project | 6 months | |
| Background | The project aims to design an analytics solution that can help the organization in informed decision-making by using sales and operations data. The team has expertise to cover the project and individual will get dedicated role and responsibility to deliver the project in high quality. The major stakeholders of the project are staff and executives of the business. | |
| Mission and objectives | The project team is doing the project for Style-Hub, a leading fashion retailer in Australia and New Zeeland. If the project is completed successfully, the executives such as founder and chief data officers will be able to use the data visualizations to support their decision-making process. The project benefits the organisation in automation and decision-making. The organization is expanding and now the conventional database solutions are not sufficient to develop insights about the data and market trends. | |
| Budget and resources | The project is funded by the founder and a budget of $500000 is finalized for it. The organisation is allocating three resources, including one staff member to gather requirement for the new system. It also provides sample database and access to Azure cloud service and existing CRM. The organisation will provide a training of two days to develop understanding with existing system and requirements. The management support can be received from chief data officer. | |
- Decision Management
The sponsor can make decisions regarding product feature and functions and assist the project manager for finalization of the specification. After that, the sponsor has rights to initiate the in-scope changes and govern the progress. Project manager is at head for the team who manages the decisions for changes in task allocation, role delegation and handling of most of the internal disrupts and issues in team. The financial decisions are taken by the chief data officer. The overall project-related decisions are centric to the project manager but the project manager can work with other resources such as senior developers to estimate the cost and approach (Joslin and Müller, 2016).
- Project Budget
Summary cost of project-
Total budgeted cost: $425,780
Total actual cost: $383,202
Actual variance= $42578
Details of the project-
Name of the company: Style-Hub
Project name or ID: Analytics project (P101)
Project lead: Name here
Start date: 1 November 2023.
- Project Management Controls
- Risk Management
Following are major risks along with their impact, likelihood and possible approach to mitigate them:
Use of new technology: The project takes around 6 months. If there are changes in technology in between can cause financial loss. It can cause rework and rollback. It is rare to occur but it can impact the project moderately. It can be mitigating by setting the project scope and boundaries at beginning.
Cost constraint: the project has risk of budget overrun because of the change management. As there is minimal gap in assigned budget and budgeted amount, the changes can cause cost overrun issue (Chapman, 2019).
Internal conflicts: The conflicts of the team members can cause delays and poor quality. It is rare to occur but it can impact the project severely. It can be mitigating by establishing a formal channel for communication and coordination.
The project manager will govern the quality of the project against some specific criteria such as:
- Cost of the task and actual cost consumed in a task
- Productivity of the resources for the task
- Attainment of the features or functions for the task
- Dependency on other resources (Kerzner, 2017)
| Tool | Purpose |
| Microsoft Project | To manage and monitor the project schedule, cost and resource allocation. It is helpful to identify the critical path and introduce dynamic changes in schedule to meet the constraints. |
| Microsoft Team | It will be used for the formal communication among the team. It helps them to share data and report to the manager instantly. |
| Email service | It can be used for communication with manager and senior executives. It helps to standardize the communication and share critical documents such as code of conduct, project related policies and terms. |
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