Managing a Large Financial Project Essay Example for Free

Managing a Large Financial Project Essay Introduction As the manger of a large financial project for company Bev shoes I am facing some challenges. The project is running behind schedule and we have a new CEO. In the meeting with the CEO I had to make him aware that the project deadline is at risk and his response was to take staff from a project with less importance and put them on the financial project. From the outside this looks like a great solution to the problem because more staff could get the work done faster and put the project back on schedule. I have to disagree with the CEO’s point of view because just assigning more people to this project will not solve the problem. We need to have staffs that are knowledgeable in the business process and the technology architecture related to the financial project. I will give my support to my response of why this is a bad idea by first explaining the importance of getting the business process correctly. Process Definition A business process is a group of activities designed to create a specific output for a specific objective. This is from having people and system interactions. Furthermore, a business process stresses how the work is performed within a business. This process should be clearly defined with a starting point and an end point with input requirements and expected output results. We spend a lot of time studying and understanding business process for this project and involving new staff at this time would further extend the time line for this project. On the financial project, the staff consists of individuals who have a deep understanding of the business process as it relates to what is being implemented. They have analyzed the existing business process and are actively working on implementing of these processes into the new financial  system. In other words these staffs are considered to be a key user. According to Oliver Schmid †¦ [a] â€Å"key-user is an employee that is intimately familiar with all business processes and requirements as it pertain to their job function and/or department†. This happens to be the case with the staff already in placed on the financial project. Technology Architecture Plan The staff on the financial project has already defined the types of hardware, software, and communication networks requirements .In other words they have a technology architecture plan in place for the financial project. In order to come up with this plan, the staff did some analyst work in each component of the technology architecture. Laury Verner describes an overview of the technology architecture: * Conceptual The conceptual area is where we define the ‘what’. In technology terms this means ‘what’ technology capabilities are required to provide the appropriate technology infrastructure for the enterprise. For example, Data Integration Services is a technology capability that * Logical-The logical area is where we define the ‘how’. In technology terms this is the next level of abstraction of ‘how’ the ‘what’ will be achieved. These deals in terms of the classes of technology and the technology products that is available to realize the Technology Capabilities. * Physical The physical captures the implementation and deployments of technology in the enterprise. In the technology layer this means the lowest level of abstraction and captures the instances of the technology products and where they are physically deployed. The staff has a clear understanding of what work for the implementation of this project and it would be disruptive to add staff to this project that they would have to spend time training at this late stage (p.1). Impact from lack of Process and Standard A successful project implementation has to adhere to certain standard and process. The person working on the financial project at this time has exhibit this understanding. Just because we are behind schedule for completing this project does not mean that we can just add more resources as the CEO recommended. The result of this would just further delay the project. Taking staff from a lesser important project to work on this  financial project means that they lack clarity of the business process. This would require some significant amount of time to bring them up to speed. This new staff would come in with a poor understanding of the business process and ultimately impact the project in a negative way. Solution to CEO questions The solution to the problem with the financial project falling behind schedule is to hire consultant with expertise in implementing a financial project of this magnitude. These resources would come with years of experienced and it would be easier for them to understand the business process and the technology architecture. This would put the project back on track to meeting the deadline. Conclusion Simply adding more staff to the financial project is not the solution to getting this project back on track to meeting deadline as the CEO recommend. There are key process that an individual needs to understand first before they can contribute this project such as the business process and the technology architecture. It is more than just adding staff and that is why I recommend consultants with expertise that can have an immediate impact. The objective is to get the project back on track and this is the way to achieve that goal. References Satzinger, J.W., Jackson, R., Burd, S.D. (2009). Systems analysis and design in a changing world (5th.ed.).Cengage Learning/Course Technology. Trash, J. (2006). Enterprise Architecture VS. Technology Architecture. Retrieved August 9, 2012www.flashmapsystems.com/resources/articles/articles29.htm Verner, L. (2004).The Challenge of Process Discovery Retrieved August 9, 2012ww.w.bptrends.com//05-04%20WP%20Process%20Discovery%20-