A General Overview Of IT Solutions Information Technology Essayukessays.com/essays/information-technology/a-general-overview-of-it-solutions-information-technology-essay.phpThe Cleveland Callback Project 2010, commenced due to an outbreak of domestic house fires across the North East of England during April 2010. The investigation involved the Fire Investigation Officers (FIOs) and Fire Prevention Officers (FPOs)WORKINGon behalf of the Cleveland Fire and Rescue Service.The domestic fires occurred in former council owned houses which had been upgraded in the 1990s to make them more appealing for residents to purchase. XXX Ltd. based inNEWCASTLEgained the right to do the renovations on behalf of councils throughout the UK.The investigations undertaken by the FIOs and FPOs revealed that the electrical component of the central heating system that had been replaced during the refurbishment had been compromised. The system was designed to include an automatic cut-out switch which would activate if the electrical circuitry became overloaded and began to heat up. In most cases this system failed completely and overheated the circuitry causing a fire. Further analysis revealed that the system failed because of a design flaw which would result in the failure of each unit that was updated.It quickly dawned on the Rescue Service that a potential threat awaited not only the residents of the North East of England but the entire UK. This anxiety brought to life a major project known as the Cleveland Callback Project.The four main objectives of the project were to:Identify all households upgraded by XXX Ltd. within the UK.Contact these households by letter explaining how to identify the control unit.In response to the letter, set up a temporary Call Centre to handle telephone calls of alarmed households.Arrange visits from FPOs and regional maintenance contractors to households to assess fire potential and replace faulty control units.To support these objectives, an IT solution was essential as the Callback Project was launched.A department within the office of the Deputy Prime Minister known as the Fire Prevention Authority (FPA) owned the project. From the FPA team, the Project Director was chosen by the Head of the FPA. He spent about 40% of his time (2 days a week) on the project.The senior figures in the FPA deemed a 3-4 month period was sufficient time to complete the project. Hence, the go-live date was carded as Tuesday 31 August 2010.The Finance Director and other senior figures of the FPA allocated 150, 000 as the project budget which would cover all project costs such as, consultant and temporary call handler fees, new hardware for the call center,APPLICATIONsoftware and call centre accommodation costs besides any costs for Fire and Rescue personnel.Following the decision to manage the project in-house, on the 4th May 2010 the IT Support Manager recruited two IT Consultants (Jeremy and Taz) toWORKon the project who reported directly to him. The two consultants were briefed with a broad overview of the project by the Project Director and the Fire Prevention Specialist after which they immediately began toWORKon a solution, the project was then considered live. From here on verbal progress reports would be given at regular project meetings.An office location was rented for the Call Centre which housed the IT consultants, Call Centre Supervisor (Basil) and the Project Administrator (Sandy). The rest of the team was at the FPA main building five miles away.At a subsequent progress meeting in June, unable to meet the demands of the project, the IT Support Manager increased the IT Consultants hours ofWORKfrom 40 to 60 hours a week. Still facing drawbacks with the project indicated by another progress meeting on Friday 6 August pushed the go-live date to Monday 11 October 2010. At this time, the financial statement indicated that a cost of 142, 450 had already been incurred. Unable to understand the unfortunate predicament of the project, the Director of the FPA commissioned a separate expenditure account for a Project (not IT) Consultant to be hired to perform a project audit and report to the Finance Director.The Project Consultant began work on the 16 August 2010 by meeting with the Project Director who referred him to the IT Consultants who knew more about the project. The IT Consultant, Jeremy then explained the current progress of the project which left the Project Consultant with the necessary information to develop a project audit report.1.1 What is Project Management?The Project Management Institute (PMI) 2008 states, Project Management is theAPPLICATIONof knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. According to PMI (2008), a Project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.Project Management is process based where the processes overlap throughout the various phases of the project. The processes are described as: Inputs, Tools and Techniques, and Outputs.1The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) is the standard for managing most projects across most industries. This standard outlines the project management processes, tools, and techniques used to manage a project toward a successful outcome. This standard is a unique guide in the project management field that is generally accepted as good practice.For the PMI (2008), Project Management is accomplished by appropriately applying and integrating 42 project management processes which can be categorised into 5 basic process groups. The five process groups are: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing. These are explained using nine knowledge areas. They are:Project Integration ManagementProject Scope ManagementProject Time ManagementProject Cost ManagementProject Quality ManagementProject Human Resource ManagementProject Communications ManagementProject Risk ManagementProject Procurement ManagementEach of the nine knowledge areas contains the processes that need to be accomplished within its discipline in order to achieve an effective project management program. The project audit will be conducted using this framework.For the PMI (2008), the role of the project manager is a challenging, high-profile role with significant responsibility and shifting priorities. It requires flexibility, good judgment, strong leadership and negotiating skills, and a solid knowledge of project management practices. A project manager must be able to understand project detail, but manage from the overall project perspective. The project manager or in this instance the Project Director is the person solely responsible for the success of the project. In keeping with the PMBOK Guide (2008), he is in charge of all central aspects of the project including:Developing the project management plan and all other component plans.Keeping the project on track in terms of the schedule and budget.Identifying, monitoring and responding to any risk.Providing accurate and timely reporting to project sponsors (FPA) of project scope.Chiefly responsible for communicating with all stakeholders, particularly the project sponsor, project team, and other key stakeholders.It is evident in the Cleveland Callback Project that the chosen Project Director did not perform any of the essential functions as a project manager and this was one of the first major downfalls of the project.Instead, a more suitable project manager should have been chosen to manage the project. As stated by the PMI (2008), the project manager should possess the following characteristics:Must have specific knowledge about the project management field and of the industry the project is a part of thereby limiting any guessWORK.Must be able to apply the project management knowledge to achieve the specific objectives to meet performance targets on time.Must possess personal behaviour which assists in successful completion of project. For instance, the project manager must have an effective attitude toWORK, personality characteristics that encompass leadership skills and the ability to motivate workers to meet the deadlines while properly communicating all facets of the project to the important stakeholders of the project. After all, the most essential task of the project manager is the ability to guide the project team while achieving project objectives and balancing project constraints.1.3 Project OrganizationProjects don't just happen they are planned.1Project organization as stated by Turner (1999) is the ability to marshal adequate resources (human, material and financial) of an appropriate type to undertake theWORKof the project, so as to deliver its objectives successfully. Gardiner (2005) states, it is about structuring and integrating the internal environment through careful planning and organization design.___________________________________1 http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/work-breakdown-structure.htmlPMI (2008) states that the way an organization is structured, its style and culture can have an impact on the project. This is particularly useful for the Cleveland Callback project. The structure of the FPA shows a weak matrix structure as indicated in figure 1.3 due to the fact that the Project Director nominated by the head of the FPA was initially a member of the FPA team.Also, the IT Support Manager was performing the Project Directors role when in fact he was a functional manager. Hence, the FPA is operating as a traditional functional organization where the role of the project manager is merely to coordinate the activities and not acting as a true project manager. This created an issue of project authorization where decisions were made on behalf of the project manager by other functional members of the team and were not beneficial to the project. In the future, the FPA should have a proper organizational chart done that should be acted upon.Also, the FPA should develop a strong matrix as shown in figure 1.4 where the project manager can spend more time on the project; have full authority and a full time project management staff. As it is, the project director is limiting the project by spending 40% of his time on the project and in charge of a temporary contract staff which includes Sandy, Basil and the call centre staff. In the future, Maylor (2010) asserts that the organization should have a Project Management Office (PMO) set up to accommodate the project manager and the rest of the project team. The team should not be based at a different location from the project manager as was done by the FPA.Figure 1.2 Weak Matrix OrganizationSource: Project Management Institute (PMBOK Guide) 2008Figure 1.3 Strong Matrix OrganizationSource: Project Management Institute (PMBOK Guide) 2008Also, the decision making process for the time taken to complete the project and the project budget were done utilizing a top-down approach with a centralized decision making process. For YaleUNIVERSITY'SVictor Vroom and Philip Yetton (1970s), an organization should move away from a directive or autocratic approach and adopt a participative approach by involving or consulting the project team. The whole project team should develop the plan not just the project manager. This ensures that the teams' experiences are taken into account and that everyone is fully committed and has ownership of the plan. 2 This also ensures that the time to completion is appropriately calculated and the budget is not over or understated. Since this was an IT project, the IT Consultants should have been a part of the major decisions with regard to time and cost because the FPA would not have expertise in the field of Software Development.In developing the project audit report, the PMI (2008) framework which constitutes the five major process groups and the nine knowledge areas of project management was referred to as the framework that supports good project management practice. See Appendix D, Table 1.2 for an overview of the framework.1.4 Project Integration ManagementPMI (2008) states that project integration management includes the processes and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify and coordinate the various processes and project management activities within the project management process groups.Looking at Appendix D, Table 1.3 shows the activities that the FPA should have performed in order to carry out good project management practice and to have a well-integrated project throughout the five main processes.Firstly, in the initiating stage PMI (2008), there was never a project charterDOCUMENTshowing the formal authorization of the project or the initial requirements of the stakeholders (FPA) expectations. However, the objectives were casually mentioned but the project charter serves as a formal initiation of the project. At this stage, the project manager is chosen to allow his views on the project to be expressed while the project charter is being developed. Also, the project manager can make recommendations on which resources should be applied to which activities PMI (2008). Usually the project sponsor is independent of the project team and has the duty of developing the project charter or passing it on to the project manager. In this instance, the directors of the FPA were the project sponsors and made all of the decisions pertaining to resource allocation in the initial stages of the project. Therefore, it was highly unlikely that the project manager could have any input in the project charter which was the first downfall of the Cleveland Callback Project.On the same note, PMI (2008) states that expert judgment is need as a vital input when developing the project charter. This expertise is used for any technical and managerial aspects of the project. The FPA had no specialized knowledge on developing any IT software. Also, the chosen project manager had no prior expertize in this field. So therefore, expert judgment was deficient. When the Finance Director of the FPA realized this and mentioned, outsourcing the project to a professional software house or exploring the procurement of a package solution she was scorned by the FPAs IT Support Manager who assured the directors that the project would be a piece of cake and that developing software systems was very easy compared to real work such as repairing troublesome PCs. Therefore, in its conception the lack of expert judgment seemed to be a key weakness. The IT Consultants; Jeremy and Taz should have been giving recommendations on the project from the onset and other professional and technical associations, industry groups, subject matter experts and the PMO (which was deficient as well) should have been consulted especially since it was deemed a major project.As soon as the project charter has been approved a more detailedDOCUMENTis prepared that explains the project which is known as the The Project Definition Report (PD). The PD not only provides detailed information on the project, but reports whether the project should proceed or not. Some of the key areas it covers are the scope of the project, results of any feasibility studies, and what it is intended to deliver. As well this document will identify the key people involved, resources required, costs and expected duration as well as benefits to the business. 3 The FPA never produced such a document and more importantly never did any feasibility studies. Their views were always very optimistic. In the future, the FPA should do a SWOT analysis which was created by Albert Humphrey (1960s and 1970s). This would evaluate the projects Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. See Appendix D, Table 1. for a SWOT analysis of the project.____________________________________3 http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/introduction-project-management.htmlLooking at the planning stage, the PMI (2008) asserts there must be a project management plan (PMP). In this plan the FPA should haveDOCUMENTEDthe actions needed to define, prepare, integrate and coordinate all subsidiary plans for the project. It states how the project is executed, monitored, controlled and closed which is done by progressive elaboration throughout the project. Once this plan is implemented it can only change when a change request is generated and approved through the Perform Integrated Change Control Process. This plan encompasses all of the five basic process groups as well as the nine knowledge areas. Figure 1.5 shows the outline of a PMP.The FPAs project director did not create a PMP nor did the IT consultant, Jeremy. Jeremy had everything stored in his head. This is one of the major weaknesses of the project from its inception since the project from here onwards depends on the PMP.In the executing stage PMI (2008), the FPA should direct and manage project execution which is the process of performing theWORKoutlined in the PMP to achieve the projects objectives. Since a formal PMP was not done, this directly affects the process of project integration management in the executing stage. The activities that should have been done by the FPA include:Performing the activities to achieve the project objectives.Training and managing staff assigned to the project starting with the project director, IT support manager, project administrator; Sandy and call centre supervisor; Basil.Ensuring there are project deliverables after every project phase. A deliverable could be in the form of a report.Implementing the methods and standards from the PMP (assuming there was one).Obtaining, managing and using resources such as: materials, equipment (Desktop PCs) and facilities (Call Centre). Also, Project Management Information System software could have been used for scheduling, costing etc.Establishing and managing project communications channels from the Call Centre to the FPAs Main Office located five miles away where the rest of the team remained.Acquiring project data such as: cost, schedule, technical and quality progress and status to facilitate forecasting.Managing risk and implementing risk response activities.Issue change requests and adapt approved changes into the projects scope, plans and environment.DOCUMENTINGlessons learned while implementing process improvement activities.In addition, project execution requiresWORKperformance information about the completion status of the deliverables which is routinely collected as the project progresses and fed into the performance reporting process. This requires the scope, schedule and costs information which is an input of the monitoring and controlling process group. However, the FPA has noWORKperformance measurement information which means that monitoring and controlling the project would be compromised.In the monitoring and controlling stage PMI (2008), there must firstly be monitoring and controlling of project work. FPA did not track, review or regulate the progress of the project continuously to assess if they were meeting the performance objectives. When they did at a progress meeting on 6th August, 2010 they realized it was too late by then and not much could have been done at that point. Initially, FPA should have been monitoring the project by collecting, measuring and distributing performance information. Control should have been exercised as a measure to know if corrective or preventative action should take place. Time should have been monitored to ensure each project phase was completed within the stipulated time-frame but since the project is going beyond the initial Go-Live date then there should be further monitoring to ensure the second Go-Live date is met. According to the PMI (2008), at the close of a sequential project phase there must be handoff of the completed work product as the phase deliverable to start the next project phase. At this point, the project should be reassessed to know if it should be changed or terminated completely. Therefore, phase-end review can be conducted to authorize the end of the current phase and the start of the subsequent one.Furthermore, the FPA should have regular status reports at the progress meetings indicating if they are able to complete activities to meet the milestone and forecasting to update the current cost and schedule information.If a PMP was done then updates could be made to know which areas needed the most resources to be completed. The updates would be in the schedule management plan, cost management plan, human resource plan, communications management plan, quality management plan, risk management plan and procurement management plan.The second aspect is Perform Integrated Change Control PMI (2008) which deals with reviewing all change requests from inception to completion of the project. Managing change is done to ensure the PMP, project scope statement and all other deliverables for a project are maintained by incorporating only accepted changes. For instance, at a progress meeting in late June the IT Support Manager authorized an increase inWORKINGhours for Jeremy and Taz without a formal change request being submitted. This increased the budget and showed that the project was running late but due to informal change requests and invalid authorization, the project director had no idea and hence, no change was made to the so-called PMP. Also, with the change initiated, there was no estimation of time and cost impacts to complete the project; this would require new activity sequencing and re-scheduling dates, resource requirements and analyzing risk response alternatives. When approached to increase the working hours, the IT Support Manager should have sent a formal change request for review to the Project Director.Finally in the closing stage PMI (2008) is the close project or phase. This is where the Project Manager would compare the project scope to the PMP to ensure all activities are complete before officially closing the project. Unfortunately, the Cleveland Callback Project is far from completion and cannot be closed.1.4 Project Scope ManagementFor Turner (1999), project scope management includes ensuring that enough, but only enough,WORKis undertaken to deliver the projects purpose successfully.Prior investigation into the domestic fires created the four objectives of the project which gave the collect requirements, (PMI 2008). Therefore, the stakeholders needs were clearly defined.However, the project scope PMI (2008) was not clearly defined. After the FPA decided they needed an IT solution there was no detail on the project or the product. They described the broad nature of the system required to the consultants. The project scope statement is critical to the projects success because it builds upon the major deliverables, assumptions and constraintsDOCUMENTEDduring the project initiation.After which, the FPA should have created a WORKbreakdown structure (WBS), a product breakdown structure (PBS) along with an organization breakdown structure (PMI 2008). The WBS subdivides the project deliverables into smaller, manageable components which is done alongside the phases of the project life cycle.To ensure monitoring and control, the FPA should according to PMI (2008), verify scope and control scope. In verifying scope, the Directors of the FPA should have reviewed the deliverables confirming it was completed satisfactorily and by doing this they would have known when the problems began. By controlling scope, they would have managed the changes to the scope baseline without having to take control measures at the end of the project.1.5 Project Time ManagementPMI (2008) states that project time management is the processes required to manage timely completion of the project.The first part of this process is to define activities in the project which was done by Jeremy through an activity list. Although an activity list was done it did not have a detailed scope ofWORKdescription for each activity so that project team members knew whatWORKwas needed for successful completion. In addition, a milestone list was given.Secondly, Maylor (2010) asserts, having identified the activities through the WBS, the next step is arranging them in a logical sequence and then estimating their time requirements. This was also done by Jeremy however, according to the PMI (2008) for a more accurate activity duration estimate, estimation uncertainty and risk should be considered. Moreover, if the FPA used the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) they would have noticed that Jeremy gave an optimistic activity duration which was misleading to them.Thirdly, estimate activity resources was also performed by Jeremy. Lastly, develop schedule where scheduling is the process that converts the plan into a specific set of dates for individual activities to be started and finished, (Maylor 2010). Since this was not done, they could have employed the use of Gantt Charts or network techniques such as, Critical Path Analysis (CPA) to produce the schedule.FPA should try to control schedule since leaving the schedule unchecked can result in having to lengthen the project time. PMI (2008), the performance review tool could have been used to measure, compare and analyze schedule performance such as actual start and finish dates, percent complete and, remaining duration for work in progress. Using earn value management (EVM), schedule variance (SV) and schedule performance index (SPI) or project management software (Microsoft Project) would have shown the critical tasks such as: Prototyping, Implementation, System Testing, Call Centre Training and Go-Live date were at risk. These were only 22% complete. The total slack time could have been used to get the project back on track. In addition, when Jeremy realized the project was running late and asked to increase the working hours a change request should have been reviewed at this point by the project director. Given the approval, there should have been project management plan updates made to the schedule baseline, schedule management plan and cost baseline.1.5 Project Cost ManagementPMI (2008) states, project cost management includes the processes involved in estimating, budgeting and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the approved budget.1.5.1 Estimate Costs:PMI (2008) suggests when obtaining estimate costs expert judgment is always needed along with historical data about similar projects. This was not done by the FPA. They used a top-down planning and estimation approach.Maylor (2010), top-down costing is done by senior management as seen in the FPA and a certain amount of money is allocated to the entire project which needs to be split between the various activities. Also, ballpark estimating was used which gives a rough approximation of the costs hoping that it falls within range of the actual costs. In addition, they did not include any contingency costs.1.5.2 Determine Budget:The budget was also allocated by senior management using a top-down approach. Only three project phases were thoroughly completed and the budget had almost reached the maximum. The FPA did not use any standard budgeting techniques to obtain the figure. It was done spontaneously and presently the budget is overstated with a significant amount of the project still to be completed.1.5.3 Control Costs:The FPA was not monitoring the status of the project and comparing it to the budget or managing the changes to the cost baseline (PMI 2008). No one paid any attention to the financial statements over the course of the project. Even when Jeremy and Taz started toWORKlonger hours which incurred further costs was not added to the budget. No monitoring was done on the actual project to compare this to the expenditures incurred thus far.See Appendix D, Table 1.5 for recommendations on project cost management.1.6 Project Quality ManagementPMI (2008) states, project quality management include the processes and activities of the performing organization that determine quality policies, objectives and responsibilities so that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken.1.6.1 Plan Quality:In the project there was noDOCUMENTEDplan for quality requirements or standards of the project or the product (PMI 2008). For Maylor (2010), quality is ensuring there is stakeholder satisfaction which the project should facilitate. However, one of the most important stakeholders of the project (the residents affected by the defective control unit) is not provided with any sort of quality since the project is nowhere close to completion. This is especially important since affected residents could lose their houses and lives to the fires. Guaranteeing quality is maintained is mandatory for this project.1.6.2 Perform Quality Assurance:The FPA failed to perform quality assurance practices that reduces waste and eliminates all the processes that do not add value to the project (PMI 2008).For instance, cheap PC hardware was bought for the call centre when this was inappropriate and a higher quality would have to be bought. This wastage could have been eliminated from the start if better research was done. Also, eventually they decided a project audit was needed which should have been done from the start but this action is still necessary nonetheless.1.6.3 Perform Quality Control:PMI (2008) states, quality control are a continuous process that monitors the performance of deliverables, cost and schedule. The FPA did not have a continuous process of quality control. There was no control over the deliverables, the increasing cost only became an issue when the limit was almost reached and there was no monitoring of the schedule to know the project was going to be late.See Appendix D, Table 1.6 for recommendations on project quality management.1.7 Project Human Resource ManagementPMI (2008) states that project human resource management includes the processes that organize, manage and lead the project team.1.7.1 Develop Human Resource Plan:According to PMI (2008), the FPA did not create an effective human resource plan. The project roles and responsibilities were not documented in a formal responsibility chart. Also, there was no establishment of reporting relationships except the IT Consultants reporting to the IT Support Manager. There was no mention of training needs for project staff, team building strategies, plans for recognition and rewards for the fire and rescue personnelWORKINGon the project and how using the members of the FPA to make up the project team would impact on the organization. There was also poor human resource planning where the Project Director and IT Support Manager was not qualified for their positions in the project.1.7.2 Acquire Project Team:The team was acquired in an unbiased selection process however; more consideration should have been given to person who filled the Project Directors position.1.7.3 Develop Project Team:PMI (2008) states that teamwork is critical for the success of the project therefore, the project director should have been able to motivate the team more effectively. Both the Project Director and other senior members of the FPA such as the Director of Information Management according to Lewin, Lippitt, & White (1939), adopted a Laissez faire leadership style where there was no continuous feedback or supervision of project team. This failure to lead resulted in lack of control, increase in the project budget and failure to meet the initial Go-Live date. Also, there was no team integration. Jeremy and Taz were external staff and they were not properly integrated as part of the project team.1.7.4 Manage Project Team:During the entire project, the Director did not perform any performance appraisals to ensure team members wereWORKINGat their best PMI (2008).See Appendix D, Table 1.7 for recommendations on project human resource management.1.8 Project Communications ManagementPMI (2008) states, project communications management include the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval, and ultimate disposition of project information.1.8.1 Identify Stakeholders:Identifying the stakeholders allows the project to the meet their needs (PMI 2008). The FPA only identified the project sponsors and did not mention any of the other stakeholders in the project such as: the owners of the houses with faulty control units, the media, environmental groups and other pressure groups.1.8.2 Plan Communications:The FPA did not integrate a communications plan into their PMP which would ensure communication existed between the team at the FPAs main building which included the Project Director and the team five miles away at the Call Centre. This led to communications problems such as: delayed progress information and lack of sensitive information to the public. There should be allocations in the budget for a communication system and this should be revised regularly to ensureAPPLICABILITY(PMI 2008).1.8.3 Distribute Information:This should be done throughout the project life cycle and is especially important in the execution process (PMI 2008). Distribution of information should have been a key activity in the weekly progress meetings but this was not done because there was not any formal reporting of information, in addition to, half the team (never the same 50%) ever attended (PMI 2008).1.8.4 Manage Stakeholder Expectations:According to PMI (2008), the project manager is responsible for managing stakeholder expectations. This limits the risk that the project will fail to meet its goals and objectives due to any unresolved stakeholder issues and decreases any disruptions during the project. This was not done by the FPAs Project Director.1.8.5 Report Performance:The FPA did not have any formal performance reports. There was no collecting and distributing of performance information including status reports, progress measurements and forecasts (PMI 2008). The use of verbal progress reports employed by the team was as good as nothing. There was no periodic analysis of the baseline data to actual data to understand and communicate the project progress and performance as well as to forecast the results (PMI 2008). Not even a simple status report was done to show the percent complete of the phases and the respective data for scope, schedule, cost and quality.See Appendix D, Table 1.8 for recommendations on project communications management.1.9 Project Risk ManagementPMI (2008) states, project risk management includes the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, and monitoring and control on a project. This is done to increase the probability and impact of positive events and decrease the probability and impact of negative events in a project.1.9.1 Plan Risk Management:Software development is deemed as a high risk project and as such the FPA did not come up with a risk management plan when forming the baseline of the project (PMI 2008). This allowed risk to be kept unchecked.1.9.2 Identify Risks:There was no identification of risks done by the project manager, project team and risk management experts. Therefore, throughout the project life cycle no risk identification was done since this is an iterative process (PMI 2008). There were risks involved with cost, schedule, quality and scope in the project.1.9.3 Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis:For Maylor (2010), the majority of risk management is based on qualitative data. Thus, the FPA did not perform any risk analysis because the teams perception of risk was not gathered by the project director and ranked to identify the highest risks on the project.1.9.4 Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis:According to PMI (2008), quantitative risk analysis follows qualitative risk analysis and is a numerical representation of the risks involved. The FPA made no attempt to conduct a quantitative risk analysis.1.9.5 Plan Risk Responses:After all the top priority risks have been identified, ways of reducing the risks areDOCUMENTED(PMI 2008). Since the FPA made no allocations for risk there would be no planned responses to missing the milestone, exceeding the budget and extending the project schedule. Even though they hired a Project Consultant to audit the project as a contingency response, the implications are too far gone and the project could fail.1.9.6 Monitor and Control Risks:This is done throughout the life cycle of the project to deal with any new risks that may surface. Luckily, the FPA embarked on this process before it was too late. During a status report they realized that a risk audit needed to be done by an external Project Consultant to analyze the costs, scope and schedule of the project (PMI 2008).See Appendix D, Table 1.9 for recommendations on project risk management.2.0 Project Procurement ManagementPMI (2008) states, project procurement management include the processes necessary to purchase or acquire products, services or results needed from outside the project team.2.0.1 Plan Procurements:The procurements for the project were not clearlyDOCUMENTED. However, the FPA had the option of buying the software system or building it in-house. Even though the IT Support Manager was convinced the organization was capable of such a project further analysis and expert judgment would have concluded that they should have bought a package solution or outsourced the project to a professional software house. Also, due to poor procurement planning inferior PC hardware were bought and new ones had to bought after which increased the cost.See Appendix D, Table 2.0 for recommendations on project procurement management.