Word count/Time provided: 2000 Words Weighting: 25% Unit Learning Outcomes: ULO 1, ULO 2 Assessment 3 Detail For this assignment students will perform a critical analysis of selected e-commerce websites.
https://www.tesco.com/
https://www.johnlewis.com/
https://www.victorianfarmersdirect.com.au
https://www.kijiji.ca
https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca
https://www.thebay.com/
https://www.asos.com/
https://www.nykaa.com
https://www.sweetviolets.com.au
https://www.foodlandsa.com.au/ PART A: Scoping Literature Review Perform a scoping literature review of critical factors that make e-commerce sites successful. As part of your research, you should cite at least five reference articles in your review. You may include factors listed in the Australian Post report on e-commerce (link below). For example in your review you may include but not limited to factors such as the web site design, ease of use, information quality, trustworthiness, security, payment options and social network presence. https://auspost.com.au/content/dam/auspost_corp/media/documents/inside-australian-onlineshopping-ecommerce-report.pdf Part B: Evaluation Matrix Create an evaluation matrix based on the factors you uncovered in your literature review. You should group similar attributes in a few key categories. It is important to include a quantitative method for evaluating each attribute such as a score out of 5. Please read the following article on how to setup a scoring matrix: https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/how-to-make-a-decision-matrix Use your evaluation matrix to critically appraise ONLY the e-commerce sites listed in this assignment. After completing the matrix for each of the sites, you need to justify why you gave the scores including examples of best practice, and comparisons between the same attributes on different sites. As part of the discussion, you may refer to additional sources and provide links to appropriate sections of those sites to highlight good or bad design. Part C: E-Commerce Site Improvements For the lowest scoring website in your analysis in Part B, suggest a number of improvements to their e-commerce site. You should address the criteria which have scored the lowest points, for example you could suggest improvements to their home page layout or improve the shopping trolley purchase experience. You must demonstrate in this task a good understanding of the criteria and be able to justify the improvements you have suggested. Academic Skills: The report should be presented professionally, have a cover page, table of contents, introduction include Part A literature review and Part B evaluation of the 10 websites. In the appendix you should place your final evaluation matrix. References should be included using the Harvard method. Academic Integrity: Please be aware that Assignments with a similarity rating above 25% will be investigated and may result into reporting for academic misconduct with a risk of a fail grade for the assignment and/or the subject. Always create your own work and do not use any other work with proper paraphrasing and referencing. Assessments 3 Marking Criteria and Rubric • The assessment will be marked out of 100 marks and will be weighted 25% of the total unit mark. • The marking criteria and rubric are shown on the following page. Assessment 3 Marking Criteria and Rubric Marking Criteria Not Satisfactory (0-49% of the criterion mark) Satisfactory (50-64% of the criterion mark) Good (65-74% of the criterion mark) Very Good (75-84% of the criterion mark) Excellent (85-100% of the criterion mark) Part A: Literature Review (10 marks) Literature review of state of the art in E- Commerce. Limited evidence of reading and/or poor synthesis of information. The attributes identified are poorly linked to E-commerce. A satisfactory attempt is made to synthesise existing research relating to Ecommerce, and to identify attributes for success. Some major gaps in the depth and scope of the literature review. A thorough attempt is made to synthesise existing research relating to Ecommerce, and to identify important attributes for success. Some gaps in the depth and scope of the literature review. The literature review is comprehensive, relevant and demonstrates the ability to synthesise information and to critically reflect on existing research. The identified attributes are well connected to E-commerce and to the synthesis of the literature. The literature review is extremely comprehensive, relevant and demonstrates an outstanding ability to synthesise information and to critically reflect on existing research. The identified attributes are very clearly connected to Ecommerce and to the synthesis of the literature. Part A: Critical Factors (10 marks) Identification and discussion of selected critical factors Critical factors not identified, or they are very poorly related to Ecommerce. A few critical factors identified and connected to E-commerce with some brief discussion. Several critical factors identified with clear connection to E-commerce and includes some reasoning for decisions. Several critical factors identified with clear connection to E-commerce, good reasoning for decisions, and good references to literature. Many critical factors identified with excellent connection to E-commerce, high quality reasoning for decisions and very well referenced to literature. Part B: Evaluation Matrix (30 marks) Construction and completion of evaluation matrix, with categories for selected factors and a scoring system. 10 sites are evaluated. Matrix contains less than 5 general factors that do not give a useful outcome. Scoring system is not present or is ineffective. Matrix is basic with a small number (around 5) of general factors and an adequate scoring system. Matrix contains a good number (5-10) of factors and a mixture of specific and general factors. Scoring system is effective. Matrix contains a good number (around 10) of mostly specific factors and an effective scoring system. Matrix is very well constructed with over 10 logical and specific factors and a very effective scoring system. Part B: Discussion of sites (15 marks) Effective discussion of pros/cons of each site Scores and discussion are poorly aligned or missing. Very little explanation provided for scores. Scores and discussion are somewhat aligned with some discussion of the reasons for scores. Scores and discussion are mostly well aligned with some basic justifications provided for scores. Scores and discussion are very well aligned with good justifications provided for scores. Scores and discussion are perfectly aligned with strong justifications provided for scores. Part C: E-Commerce Site Improvements (25 marks) Suggested improvements/best E-commerce practice Few or no improvements provided. No links made to evaluation or E-commerce practice. Some improvements discussed in relation to the evaluation and basic connections made to Ecommerce practice. Good discussion of the evaluation and improvements; some useful links made between the evaluation and E-commerce practice. Thorough discussion of the evaluation and improvements; clear links made between the evaluation conducted and best practice in E-commerce. Comprehensive discussion of the evaluation and findings; In-depth improvements such as use of storyboards and new design work, where ideas are directly drawn from the evaluation conducted and Ecommerce best practice. Academic skills (10 marks) Quality of writing and referencing Poor ability in report writing, with several gaps in the quality of written expression and presentation. Several major referencing errors or absent referencing. Some major gaps evident in the quality of written expression and presentation. Significant further work needed in report writing technique, improvement needed in the formatting of references and citations. Some gaps evident in the quality of written expression and presentation. Further work needed in report writing technique, including some minor issues formatting of references and citations. Quality of written expression and presentation mostly conforms to academic standards relating to clarity of expression, syntax, grammar, and punctuation. No significant gaps in referencing technique using the Harvard referencing system. Quality of written expression and presentation is excellent and conforms fully to academic standards relating to clarity of expression, syntax, grammar, and punctuation. No gaps in referencing technique using the Harvard referencing system
Module 4 – Case ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND THE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE Assignment Overview
The focus of this Case is on e-business. Here are some background materials on e-business that you should review.
Case Assignment
In your teams, use the Internet to plan a trip to a location outside the United States. Have each individual, working independently, use the services of a different online travel site such as orbitz.com, Travelocity.com, kayak.com, Concierge.com, expedia.com, etc. (search “online travel sites” for additional options). Pull together to share the findings of the group.
Find the lowest airfare.
Examine a few hotels by class.
Get suggestions about what to see.
Find out about local currency, and convert $1,500 to that currency with an online currency converter.
Compile travel tips.
The above analysis was done with traditional Web resources. Now after reading the Blockchain material in the Module Reading propose how this approach to travel planning could be changed or re-invented with Blockchain.
Prepare a report comparing how each site performed in terms of its ease of use, helpfulness, and best overall deal. Also provide a comparison with the Blockchain approach the group proposed. Each member of the team posts the results of the analysis and a discussion of the team processes. (If a team member cannot for location reasons work in a team, then that person can do the project on his/her own.)
Assignment Expectations
Produce a 3- to 4-page paper analyzing and comparing online travel sites. Use of Excel and tables is highly recommended along with a description of your analysis. The final report should include the report findings combined in one Word doc. Your paper must be double-spaced and include a cover page
(Victoria)1. The eight key components of e-Commerce business models are value proportion, revenue model, competitive environment, management team, organizational development, market strategy, competitive advantage, and market opportunity. One example of the revenue model is the subscription revenue model, often used by B2C businesses to increase profit. Many services that offer subscription options offer a free version of their service but with many advertisements to generate profit. This model offers a benefit to consumers with a price. Subscription services typically offer a monthly or yearly price for access to the service (often removal of advertisements). Current business models have high sales and easy to see brand strategic advantages (Chai & Zhu, 2022).
2. One major B2C business model is e-tailer. An e-tailer is an online retail store. These online stores sell their goods or services from the internet to the consumer directly. Profits are made in keeping expenses low and learning the target audience to advertise to. This is further expanding the business process from wired network technology to wireless network business (Chai & Zhu, 2022). Another popular B2C business model is content provider. A content provider provides informative content often in the form of video, photo, music, art, or text. This model makes a profit through advertisements and charging subscriptions to view content. As we continue to grown into an increasingly more technology based society, online content becomes more important. A business providing valuable content can increase sales tremendously.
3. One major B2B busines model is e-distribution. This is similar to an e-tailer except an e-distributer provides goods or services directly to individual businesses. This model makes a profit in selling many products to directly to businesses. A business would prefer to buy many products from one distributer rather than purchasing from various. Another B2B busines model is exchanges. Exchanges are independent online marketplaces where many suppliers can connect with commercial purchasers to conduct transactions. This benefits both the buyers and sellers with increase of opportunity and lower transaction costs. (Laudon & Traver, 2021)
Chai, B., & Zhu, Y. (2022). Cross-border e-commerce business model based on wireless communication network and blockchain. Security and Communication Networks, 2022 doi:https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/9572908
Laudon, K. C., & Traver, C. G. (2021). e-Commerce 2021: Business, technology, and society (16th ed.). Pearson
This is the second of a series of five sequential assignments (the course project) in which you continue to act as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of a hypothetical, e-commerce start-up company of your design.
You have been tasked with delivering an information technology project plan in anticipation of the company relocating to a new facility. In the first course deliverable, you created a project plan inception document and supporting Gantt chart. This deliverable spelled out the company’s background information and business and provided an overview of the company’s information system infrastructure.
In this second course project deliverable, you are responsible for developing the business requirements to be incorporated into the information systems design you are creating.
Procuring quality business requirements is a critical step when designing quality information systems. Completing a quality requirements document captures user needs and expectations to facilitate the proper design of the company’s infrastructure and information systems.
This assignment consists of two parts:
Part 1: Business Requirements
You will develop a 5–7-page business requirements document for your hypothetical e-commerce company as part of the overall information systems project plan you are creating. Using the Business Requirements Template [DOCX], you will speculate on the company’s current and future requirements. Your assumptions need to be carefully considered and realistic.
Part 2: Updated Gantt Chart
You will use Microsoft Project to update the supporting project Gantt chart begun in your previous course project deliverable.
You are not creating a new Gantt chart, only updating the one you created in the previous assignment.
Note:
You are to create or assume all necessary assumptions to successfully complete this assignment.
You must submit both parts as separate files to the assignment area. Label each file name according to the appropriate part.
Instructions
Part 1: Business Requirements
Using the Business Requirements Template, you are to write a 5–7-page business requirements document for your hypothetical e-commerce company in which you:
Describe the functional business requirements (scope) and scope control.
Describe non-functional business requirements, such as governance, risk, and compliance.
Describe technical requirements to integrate various e-commerce infrastructure components.
Identify potential risks, constraints, and assumptions.
Use three sources to support your writing.
Choose sources that are credible, relevant, and appropriate.
Cite each source listed on your source page at least one time within your assignment.
Access the library or review library guides for help with research, writing, and citation.
Part 2: Updated Gantt Chart
Use Microsoft Project to update the previously created Gantt chart with the major and minor tasks identified in the business requirements document
Introduction Setting up service desks in offshore locations is big business. There are various drivers behind such efforts. Some are pure cost savings. Others are to attain quality improvements by leveraging superior language or business skills available in the new location. Some projects can be extremely emotive, and all are certainly challenging projects that need to be handled with care.
Recently I was employed by a corporation to manage their first foray into this arena. Their service desk supported not just internal but also external customers, providing in particular incident and access management plus request fulfilment. Their key driver was that their existing service desk was reaching capacity. Expansion in the current location was not physically possible or cost effective, and so an offshore location was selected. To add urgency, a new IT product was going to be released which meant an imminent increase in volume and pressure on the service desk. Demand and capacity management already had calculated the size of the expansion required (150 extra service desk staff, along with the usual supporting IT infrastructure).
The project to set up the new service desk following ITIL® procedures was formally initiated by the company’s official IT change authority, in our case called the Change Advisory Board (CAB). The CAB rightly recognized early on the scale of the change and so officially invoked the project management group. The vice president for the overall department was confirmed as the project executive to sponsor the project going forward. I was assigned the project to set up the new offshore service desk to run in parallel with the existing service desk. Specifically, I had to ensure the new desk was designed and built to replicate the existing service desk, and bring the two physical services desks together so that they became a single logical virtual service desk.
PRINCE2 supporting ITIL From the moment the CAB provided the project mandate, the project was run using PRINCE2™ methodology. PRINCE2 was extremely valuable in ensuring success. It did this in many ways, but of particular value were the following:
1. The PRINCE2 principle focusing on business justification throughout.
2. PRINCE2’s management by stages to break it down into manageable chunks.
3. The PRINCE2 emphasis on lessons learned from previous efforts.
4. PRINCE2’s risk management provided a methodical and consistent approach throughout.
1. Business Justification Perhaps the greatest benefit PRINCE2 brought was the principle of continued business justification and consistent focus on the business case throughout the project. It ensured that the project
did not deviate away from its central objective. And thank goodness. As there were many tests and traps trying to entice the project away from the original design.
One such lure away from the plan was in the area of function creep. The primary aim of establishing the new service desk was to ensure greater capacity ahead of the release of a new IT product. The new service desk had to be online and ready ahead of the IT product’s launch. It had to be done at minimal expenditure, and so the second site in an offshore location was selected rather than expanding the existing site. The second site did provide other benefits, in particular some extra cover for disaster recovery. If there was a denial of service (such as a fire alarm) or denial of access (such as a network outage) in the existing site, then the new second site could be designed to provide business continuity.
However, to guarantee such extra benefits were realized required extra expense. This additional expense was not overly significant in relation to the overall budget for the project. Moreover, some project savings had already been made elsewhere, so we did have sufficient funds to cover the extra expenditure. However, I did NOT authorise the expenditure. PRINCE2’s principle on focusing on the business case ensured I did not fall into the trap of spending the savings on realising these extra benefits.
Why not? Yes, thanks to the savings already made on the project, our budget would still have remained within our financial tolerances as laid out by the project board. And yes, it is certainly true that it is cheaper to put in place the disaster recovery (DR) infrastructure from the outset (as retrofitting offices with the extra DR requirements afterwards will always be the more expensive option). However, the DR benefits were a perfect example of gold plating. They were still an exception beyond what we had originally justified. Our PRINCE2 business case reminded us that we were not creating this site specifically for disaster recovery purposes. Our primary concern was to expand capacity. So when extra expense was requested to ensure the new site was fully capable of providing such business continuity options, it was clear this was beyond the scope of the original business case. As the project manager, I had been entrusted to spend specific company resources to expand capacity. I therefore could not authorise spending on something else, however inexpensive and beneficial that might be.
That is not to say that I ignored the potential extra benefits either. In such circumstances it is not the role of the project manager to say no and to move on regardless. I worked to ensure the project board were aware of the new opportunity. It was their decision, and the request had to be referred to them. My role and the role of the project team was to provide the board with all the information to help them weigh up the pros and cons of extending the project to include this extra requirement.
Ultimately they deemed the risk to the timeline to be too high and so the project continued as originally planned. The project board confirmed it was better for me and the project team to focus on delivering the extra capacity by the required date
as stated in the business justification and ensure that that meets the requirements. The cost of missing the deadline far outweighed the cost of retrofitting the new site with the full DR capability, and so only minimal DR that did not add any extra time was completed.
2. Management by stages ITIL is huge. It has a wide breadth, covering all IT functions across the organization. It also has a great depth, getting deeply involved in the very root of processes and their design. Making changes and additions to ITIL can therefore be very daunting. The ramifications can spread far and wide. PRINCE2 helped us be successful by ensuring we avoided biting off more than we could chew. It did this through PRINCE2’s management by stages.
We focused on Service Operations, and within that on the Service Desk. We ensured each of the ITIL service operations processes (Incident management, problem management, access management, event management and request fulfilment) were covered and adopted correctly by the new service desk. Of particular benefit was the Service V-model. The Service V-model breaks down relatively high level requirements into smaller more detailed designs. It does this by defining the requirements at the high level and requiring that to be signed off. Once that is approved, the next level of more detailed design is then documented and approved. Each step of the model can be considered a stage for PRINCE2. The V-model gets its name because the requirements and documented design represent the left hand side of the ‘V’. As they get towards the base of the ‘V’ the signed off definitions get progressively more detailed. The right hand side of the ‘V’ then shows the test plans, with each of the tests being built around its equivalent requirement definition on the left hand side. This stepping stone approach down one side and then back up the other helps ensure that you document and sign off first and then test and deliver precisely what is required. We tailored the model to meet the specific project requirements, making sure we kept the fundamental concept of the defined requirements at each level then being used as the acceptance test and sign off criteria going forward. Each definition itself was signed off before we moved onto the next one, thereby ensuring we managed the project in sizeable chunks.
3. Lessons learned The emphasis on learning from previous experiences is another area that PRINCE2 helped ensure the successful implementation of the ITIL based service desk. Lessons learned from past efforts (both successful and disastrous) were used from the outset. For example, the business justification and business case were based upon former historical failures. Previous IT product launches had swamped the service desk. The ramping up of service personnel had been reactive, with major decreases in customer satisfaction reflecting the lack of investment. Those lessons were used in the business case to justify the upfront expenditure ahead of the launch. It was the first time the company had geared up ahead of a major IT product release.
The consistently high customer satisfaction scores during the eventual IT product release were a real vindication of the forward planning.
Lessons learned also helped avoid common pitfalls in setting up the new service desk. A review of other expansion attempts within the company was carried out. There had been one or two attempts by other departments to expand, and so a few nuggets of value were gleaned from this internal review. In parallel a review of external sources for lessons learned was also undertaken. Some of the best lessons came from this. In particular, industry trade bodies were a wealth of information around what works and what doesn’t. I already had set up service desks abroad for previous companies as well, and so I brought with me some key lessons from outside of the organization. The combination of internal and external sources helped ensure all possible lessons were learned.
We reaped the reward for these internal and external lesson learned reviews as we progressed. The single biggest win I felt was in ensuring that all the potential costs were accounted for up front. We therefore avoided underestimating the total expenditure. The hidden costs were everywhere, ranging from individual extra talent acquisition to consultancy for local tax experts to help you move your IT stock from one floor to another within the same building! Not only were we able to identify up front the vast majority of the potential extra costs. (It is perhaps unreasonable to think you will get all of them!). We were also able to accurately estimate them as well. It was only thanks to the review of lessons that ensured we could provide the estimated costs with such accuracy. The fact that we successfully came in under budget is in no small part thanks to the effort made up front in calculating all the potential costs.
The lessons learned did not stop with previous projects. By identifying and capturing lessons within our own project itself, we learned quickly what we were doing right and wrong. By doing this methodically at least at the end of each stage, we were then able to communicate that out to the wider project team, so they could replicate what works and avoid what did not. For example, we learned early on that there was an incredibly long lead time to source IT equipment in the remote location. Items that might only take a few weeks in the UK could take many months to arrive in the new location. We therefore adjusted our project plans to ensure this lengthy delivery time was accounted for. We could not change the project completion date. Rather we moved other work around, and brought purchase requests forward as much as possible. The long delivery times actually moved some of the procurement items onto the critical path, and therefore they gained the correct visibility to get them completed on time.
Lastly, our project provided lessons for future efforts as well. In this regard our own project plugged well into ITIL’s “Continual Service Improvement” theme. While building the new service desk we identified specific process improvements which could
be harnessed by both service desks in the future. These follow- on action recommendations were collated and made available in the end project report, ready to be used by future projects.
4. Risk Management The risk management aspects of the PRINCE2 method helped guarantee a consistent attitude to both opportunities and threats. It provided a methodical and robust approach throughout the project. In particular it supported the change advisory board (CAB) in their efforts. PRINCE2’s emphasis on identifying and assessing risks helped the CAB in its role to provide approval for rolling out the changes. The detailed risk register reinforced to the CAB how seriously the project took risk management. The CAB recognized that the project team was working hard to reduce and avoid threats occurring. In particular the fallback or contingency plan (often a roll back plan) should the threat occur helped the Change manager and the CAB give the required approvals.
ITIL supporting PRINCE2 I found during the project that the relationship between PRINCE2 and ITIL was not all one-sided. Quite the reverse. For each occasion where PRINCE2 supported the ITIL implementation, ITIL reciprocated. In particular, ITIL helped the PRINCE2 implementation in the following:
1. During Starting Up a Project
2. Communication
3. Quality versus cost balancing
4. Plugging a potential PRINCE2 gap
1. ITIL supporting Start Up Over recent years I have noticed that projects initiated by departments that are mature practitioners of ITIL have certain things in common. Take for instance the project mandate; it is never an illegible scrawl on the back of an envelope. Service Strategy and Service Design generate very clear and detailed project mandates. The reasons why the project is being undertaken, why this particular approach is required, the scope, the success criteria and so on all tend to be clearly thought through and then documented. These greatly simplify the time and effort required in starting up the project.
It could be argued that the clear mandate is as much a reflection of the maturity of the organization as it is to do with their adoption of ITIL principles. What is less contentious is how ITIL helps the designing and appointing of the project board when the venture is starting up. ITIL initiated projects tend to have clearly identifiable personnel to fit the roles of the project management team. For instance, in my project, the incident manager was an obvious candidate to sit on the project board as the senior user.
2. Communication Another area where ITIL supported the PRINCE2 project was communication. ITIL provided a standard language around which all could operate. To ITIL practitioners, incidents are clearly different to problems which again are clearly different to requests. Thanks to ITIL, we were able to make these kinds of distinctions and therefore speak very precisely. It ensured there was no confusion.
For instance, PRINCE2 rightly places significant focus on defining the products required and the quality criteria of the products. We used ITIL heavily in the quality definitions of the end products. The service desk technology was all defined using ITIL terminology. Likewise ITIL featured in the job descriptions of the new service desk personnel. When the time then came to managing product delivery the team managers knew exactly what was required of them.
I mentioned the Service V-model earlier. One additional benefit of the Service V-model was in communication. There were stakeholders who were ITIL trained, and stakeholders who were PRINCE2 trained, but few knew both. Using the Service V-model allowed us to speak to both ITIL and PRINCE2 audiences at the same time, each understanding immediately where we were in the project. Even those uninitiated in these Office of Government Commerce best practices could still very quickly understand and follow the project plan thanks to the intuitive nature of the model.
3. Quality versus cost balance As with all things, there is a risk of getting bogged down in the detail. It sometimes becomes difficult to see the wood for the trees. ITIL’s emphasis on seeking an optimal balance between quality and cost proved extremely useful as a reminder to take a step back and weigh up quality improvements against the bigger picture. In our project, as we focused on the details, some of the IT teams began to lose sight of the need to be cost effective. IT teams generally can be extremely customer focused. They often go into IT support because they enjoy helping people, and this is a very positive attribute. This though became a concern during the project as some of the IT teams appeared to put the customer first regardless of costs. We were not a charity. I needed a way to gently remind members of the IT teams of the overarching company goal to increase revenue and decrease cost. ITIL’s constant balancing act of quality versus cost fitted the bill perfectly. When requests came in to spend budget on specific tools, functionality, resources, etc, I encouraged those making the applications to review them using this ITIL principle. The number of change requests decreased as people realized the costs of making the changes. More cost effective alternatives began to be sought. ITIL helped make sure that the project team only had to focus on the most important change requests.
4. Plugging a gap Perhaps the biggest benefit of ITIL was in plugging a potential gap within the project. We had been tasked to implement a new service desk following ITIL principles. As with all good projects, we were working and being measured against what the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) sums up as the “triple” constraints. This covered not just the traditional measures of cost, time and quality, but also the more modern and enlightened approach of measuring as well against risks, scope and customer satisfaction.
Towards the end of the project, we were ready to roll out the new service desk. We were within both time and cost tolerances. We had stayed within the clear scope outlined. The quality of the end product itself as well was met, as the new service desk team had been trained, tested and were ready to go.
From a purely PRINCE2 project perspective we were hitting our key targets as outlined in our own project’s success criteria. However, the rollout of the product (the new service desk) was going to impact the quality of the existing service desk. There was still some nervousness and anxiety within the existing service desk team. While it had not been technically within the boundary and scope of the project, this was obviously a major concern.
The nervousness of the existing teams had to be addressed. We could not let morale of the existing team suffer needlessly. Based on ITIL principles a change to our project was therefore made. The emphasis moved away from rolling out the new service desk by the deadline come what may. We still had to launch the new service desk by the required deadline, but now we had to do it without negatively impacting the existing service desk.
This reflected ITIL’s need for transition of the new service into operations without generating undesired consequences. ITIL’s stability versus responsiveness principle as well ensured that we looked at not just delivering the project’s end product regardless. We had to also be aware of and minimise any ramifications on other groups. So although it increased the costs, a more gradual rollout of the new service desk was agreed upon. This ensured a good balance of stability to the existing operations while allowing the new team to be introduced into their work.
Whilst this oversight in the original project brief might have been captured anyway, ITIL helped ensure that it was resolved satisfactorily, with the best solution in mind. Like programme management best practice (as reflected in Managing Successful Programmes), ITIL helped the project remember that it is simply an enabler. Delivering an end product is the goal of the project, but to only consider that goal is not enough. The project must also keep one eye on the benefit realisation that will come from that end product. The project itself cannot necessarily focus 100% on this, as often the benefits only commence after the project is completed. We successfully avoided the temptation to roll out the new service desk and declare victory too soon. When our post project review took place, it showed the extra
costs spent in rolling out the desk were well spent. The review demonstrated that the benefits had indeed been realized and firmly embedded in.
Weaknesses of combining PRINCE2 and ITIL This is not to say that ITIL and PRINCE2 were a marriage made in heaven. As in any partnership, there are some lows as well as highs. Some of the ITIL functions and processes certainly added an extra level of bureaucracy to the project. For instance, the change management process covered all IT changes. However, it was independent of the financial approval process which went through a completely separate procurement process. We therefore on occasions had the odd situation where we had the project executive’s approval, and the business and financial approval (shown through the approval of the purchase order), yet we still struggled to get approval from the IT change authority. This added if not time then certainly some frustration to the project. With hindsight, one potential solution could have been for the role of the leader of the CAB (the official IT change authority) to have been added to the project board. This would have given the CAB greater insight into the project, which could only be a positive step.
Another area where the two did not mesh so well was that ITIL did seem to introduce an inordinate number of stakeholders. It is understandable that lots of departments and lots of personnel would be interested in the introduction of a new service desk. However, we were somewhat taken aback by just how many groups felt they should have a say in project decisions. ITIL terms were often quoted to justify this. It is difficult to say if this was more to do with the specific ITIL implementation and the personnel involved rather than ITIL itself. Either way, it did seem to be overkill. The project team had did have to spend significant effort on engaging and managing stakeholders with sometimes tenuous links at best to the project.
Conclusion Whatever metrics you choose, the project was a success. From a timing perspective, it was completed ahead of the release of the new IT product, and so it was able to manage the spike of incidents that followed. From a quality and customer satisfaction perspective, our loyalty scores not only avoided a dip, but in fact increased, both during the period when the new service desk came on line, and then later when the new IT product was launched. From a cost perspective we came in just under budget, and that included some extra costs to provide a more gradual rollout.
Moreover, the project illustrated several key benefits in using PRINCE2 and ITIL together. Yes, there were some conflicts. But overall the two OGC best practices did naturally and neatly interlock together. ITIL worked well in defining the best
practice targets; PRINCE2 then assisted as the best practice route to get there. For me it was clear that combining the two provided benefits greater than the sum of the individual parts. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that we do not see more ITIL and PRINCE2 projects together.
Author Noel Scott (PMP)Consultant
Noel Scott (PMP) is a MSP Advanced Practitioner, PRINCE2 Practitioner and ITIL Practitioner specializing in managing programmes and projects within the contact centre industry. With over 10 years experience in a wide range of customer services programmes, Noel regularly delivers articles and speeches on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of contact centres. Noel is a leading member of the “Customer Contact Council” and the “Service and Support Professionals Association”.
Acknowledgements Sourced and published by TSO on www.Best-Management-Practice.com
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Overview: Presentation skills are essential in business. This assignment focuses on creating an effective presentation that includes relevant visual aids to develop your topic, as well as a strong hook and delivery.
Instructions:
• Choose ONE of the following options to complete:
o You are the Director of your local or state Chamber of Commerce. Your goal is to develop a presentation highlighting attractions that would draw visitors to your town or state. Develop a PowerPoint focusing on five attractions. In addition to developing strong slides, use the notes feature in PowerPoint to incorporate additional information to expand on your talking points. Develop an introduction with a hook, relevant content, and a conclusion. Cite your sources and provide APA references on the last slide.
o Many organizations have unique and rich histories, including Post University! Your goal is to research the story of any company that has been in business for at least ten years and prepares a presentation on its history. In addition to developing strong slides, use the notes feature in PowerPoint to incorporate additional information to expand your talking points. Develop an introduction with a hook, relevant content, and a conclusion. Cite your sources and provide APA references on the last slide.
Requirements:
• A PowerPoint with 6-10 slides maximum. • Include a title on each of the slides.
• Use bullet format to highlight speaking points. Try to avoid wordiness.
• Include at least three images. • Cite all sources using APA formatted references on the last slide
Customer satisfaction- Customer satisfaction. We have an outstanding customer care team that is always ready and willing to listen to you, collect your instructions and make sure that your custom writing needs are satisfied
Writing services provided by experts- Looking for expert essay writers, thesis and dissertation writers, personal statement writers, or writers to provide any other kind of custom writing service?
Enjoy Please Note-You have come to the most reliable academic writing site that will sort all assignments that that you could be having. We write essays, research papers, term papers, research proposals. Director of your local or state Chamber of Commerce