Chapter 3 Proposed Solutions
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Transcript Chapter 3 Proposed Solutions
Chapter 2
Needs Identification
Learning Objectives
Review the project life cycle
identifying needs
proposing a solution
performing the project
terminating the project
Focus on needs identification
Identify needs and select projects
Develop RFPs
The proposal solicitation process
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Real World Example
Vignette: Successful Messaging Services in Poland
Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC) is Poland’s leading wireless services
provider, and maintains Era, the largest mobile network in Poland.
Powered by Sun Internet Mail Services (SIMS), PTC introduced
Eranet, a messaging system designed to notify mobile subscribers
by cell phone text messages when they have new e-mail.
• Expanded offerings to customers by delivering two-way SMS
services.
• A detailed needs assessment was a key to its success
Sun Services helped to map out requirements for the Eranet project
from the beginning and remained involved at every stage.
• They developed an implementation plan, first determining needs
and then designing effective solutions.
• Project was completed in just 12 months – 50% earlier than
anticipated.
With the implementation of the new Sun e-mail software, PTC was
able to grow its subscriber base by approximately 80 percent in one
year, with the anticipation of further growth.
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Real World Example
Vignette: Red Light, Green Light
Catherine Aczel Boivie joined Pacific Blue Cross in 2003 as VP of
Information Technology.
She and the CEO agreed on two principles:
(1) Technology has no value alone, and
(2) technology management needs to focus on enabling business
as opposed to operations.
Pacific Blue Cross created a Balanced Scorecard that displays and
measures the organization’s performance from six perspectives:
qualitative, quantitative, infrastructure, clients, people, and
community-related goals.
She introduced the project management office (PMO) function.
• Traffic Light Report: allows PMO to report project status
In the 2nd year, she introduced a gating process
Boivie is confident that the project management processes she put
in place will help ensure advancing business goals, on time and
within budget.
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Needs Identification
It is the initial phase of the project lifecycle
Starts with recognition of a need, problem, or
opportunity
Ends with the issuance of a request for proposal
(RFP)
Customer identifies a need, a problem, or
an opportunity for a better way of doing
something
Sees benefit in undertaking a project to result in
improvement
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Needs Identification (Cont.)
Prior to preparing an RFP:
Recognize a need, problem, or
opportunity
Clearly define the problem or need
Quantify the problem
Determine the budget
Select the project(s) with the greatest
benefit for the cost expended
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Project Selection
Involves evaluating various needs or
opportunities, and then deciding which of
these should move forward as a project to
be implemented
Steps in project selection:
Develop a set of criteria against which each opportunity will
be evaluated
List the assumptions
Gather data and information for each opportunity
Evaluate each opportunity against the criteria
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Project Selection (Cont.)
Group consensus lead to better
quality decision and higher
acceptance of the decision
Effective approach – selection
committee to develop a set of
evaluation criteria
In most cases selection based on a
combination of quantitative and
qualitative evaluation
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Preparing a Request for
Proposal
State, comprehensively and in detail,
what is required, from the customer’s
point of view
Enable contractors or a project team to
understand what the customer expects so
that they can prepare a thorough
proposal
The need may be communicated
informally—and sometimes only orally
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Preparing a Request for
Proposal (Cont.)
Guidelines for drafting a formal RFP to
external contractors:
statement of work (SOW)
customer requirements
deliverables
customer-supplied items
approvals required by the customer
type of contract
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Preparing a Request for
Proposal (Cont.)
the payment terms
the required schedule for completion
instructions for the format and content
of the contractor proposals
due date for proposals
evaluation criteria
occasionally will indicate the funds the
customer has available
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Soliciting Proposals
Methods:
Identify a selected group of contractors in
advance and sending each an RFP
Advertise in certain business newspapers
Process considered a competitive
situation
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Soliciting Proposals (Cont.)
Don’t provide information that is not
provided to all contractors
May hold a bidders’ meeting to explain
the RFP and answer questions
Not all use RFP
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