Project Management 2022 Prof.

Cynthia Giagnocavo

ASSIGNMENT 2 - PROJECT LIFE CYCLE SELECTION - STUDENT COPY

Due: 1 March 2022 end of day.

Project Life Cycle Selection for New Payment System

Founded in 2011, the “Wealth Management Made Easy” (WMME) was one of the fastest online wealth
management companies focused on making investments and savings easier for everyone—that is, the
“ordinary” person. After detailed analysis, the executive board of WMME approved the strategic
program to move to the new payment processing system. The payment processing system is the
backbone of the organization, and it is critical for their earnings to process transactions promptly.

You are part of the project leadership team responsible for the planning and execution of this strategic
project. Your first assignment is to propose the life cycle and roadmap to the executive board. Of course,
it will have to fulfil all regulatory requirements, just the same as your previous system, and customers
should not notice any downsides. You have a choice to use any approach (predictive, iterative,
incremental, adaptive or agile, and hybrid). See below S. 1.2.4.1 from the PMBOK Guide:

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* See also at the end of the PMBOK Guide, -- Standards, APPENDIX X3
AGILE, ITERATIVE, ADAPTIVE, AND HYBRID PROJECT ENVIRONMENTS, and pdf handout from the Agile
Guide, for more helpful information.

Key highlights:

• The total budget allocated to the project is 8 Million Euros (you don´t have broken down details on
this, so just use a reasonable approach as you see fit.)

• The project is the highest priority in the organization

• Two development teams (nine members each) are dedicated for this initiative

• Development team estimated six months of development time

• Significant coordination is required with all ten geographically distributed partners across Europe. This
includes briefing partners on the overall execution plan, getting their commitment, providing training to
required staff, managing and providing stabilization support.

• Company financial year ends on March 31 so all transactions after this day must happen on the new
system (Assume that you are 7 months in advance of the 31 March).

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What you need to look at in the PMBOK Book:

This exercise is to review, understand, and put into practice the Project Life Cycle, the Project phase,
Phase Gate, Project Management Processes, Project Management Process Groups and Project
Management Knowledge Areas—see Table 1.3 below for section numbers in the PMBOK Guide online
book. You may have to invent some facts that you do not have. Use your reasonable judgement. You
may also use some of your knowledge gained from Ch. 2 and 3 of the PMBOK, the Standards and the
Agile Guide, as mentioned above, as well as additional readings posted in Contents. Be creative and try
to imagine all the relevant details in your role of project manager.

Assignment 2 Requirements:

1. As a preliminary “warm up” for your team, please see Table 1-1 Examples of Factors that Lead
to the Creation of a Project in your PMBOK book and fill out a similar one for this project.

Specific Factor Detail of Specific Factor Meet Satisfy Create, Implement

(describe) Regulatory, Shareholder Improve or Change
legal or social Requests or or Fix Business or
requirements Needs Products, Technology
Processes, Strategies
or
Services
New
Technology
Competitive
Forces

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 Material
Issues
Political
Changes
Market
Demand
Economic
Changes
Customer
Request
Stakeholder
Demands
Legal
Requirement
Business
Process
Improvements
Strategic
Opportunity
or Busines
Need
Social Need
Environmental
Considerations

2. Your Team should also fill out a table similar to Table 1-4 in the PMBOK Guide, using the same
10 Knowledge Areas and the same 5 Project Management Process Groups. (If you think of
another knowledge area you may add it.) Give a bit of descriptive detail for each item title —
don´t just copy what is in the book. This exercise will help you with Q3.

3. Your team is required to prepare a ten minute (maximum) (ppt suggested) presentation to the
executive board and must ensure to cover the following areas:

• Assess and present the pros and cons of each life cycle approach

• Choose one life cycle approach best suited for the project and clearly highlight the advantage and
reasons for your selection

• What will be the governance structure (What control boards, committees, and other stakeholders are
part of the project? What are the project status reporting requirements?)

• Implementation roadmap with key activities and with key milestones (phase gates)

• Highlight the top three risks and your proposed mitigation strategies