PM scenario and Qs
Dear all,
First, I apologize for this long thread and I hope it will be useful what it get answered.
I’m studying Project management, and I have a scenario that happens all the time especially in government organization, unfortunately I could NOT map this scenario with PM concepts, processes, sequences… I searched and I could NOT find answers regarding my concerns..
I’ll explain a scenario example as clear and summarized as possible, your feedback is appreciated.
Scenario:
1- In 2010, OrgABC CIO initiated a project idea to implement ERP system for OrgABC.
2- OrgABC CIO estimated the cost ($12M), and the duration (2 years for implementation)
3- OrgABC CIO submitted a budget request to the OrgABC CEO for the project
4- OrgABC CEO approved the $12M budget for the project to be started in 2011 (the $12M under CIO control)
5- Since OrgABC IT employees have little experience in ERP implementation and their number is less than the required, OrgABC CIO formalized a team to create RFP to procure an experienced team services for the implementation.
6- RFP was created and published.
7- OrgXYZ studies the RFP and submitted an offer ($10M) which was accepted by ORGABC and fixed price contract was signed.
8- OrgXYZ sent their staff to work in OrgABC premises (the team included a project manager plus the development team).
9- For knowledge transfer and helping purpose, OrgABC CIO assigned OrgABC employee equivalent to each member in OrgXYZ (pm for pm, technical for technical, and so on)
10-Project started and ended successfully.
Questions:
(Please, if the answer depends on the methodologies and agreements, please provide the best practice)
Q1 Who is the real project sponsor? From OrgABC or OrgXYZ
Q2 Who is the real project manager? From OrgABC or OrgXYZ
Q3 Who is the performing organization?
Q4 Who mainly use the project selection method and benefits, OrgABC or OrgXYZ?
Q5 OrgABC collected requirements During the RFP creation,
OrgXYZ estimated the cost before submitting their offer,
The questions are:
1- When the project started and during the planning process group, there are (collect the requirements, estimate cost) processes, are these processes performed again?
2- If OrgXYZ done the estimate cost again when the project started, why would they do that since OrgXYZ offered fixed ($10M)?
Q6 Relating to the RFP
1- Can the RFP be a project before the ERP project?
2- Can the RFP be a project phase in the ERP project?
3- Can the whole RFP creation and procurement start during the planning process group in the ERP project?
I hope I clarified the situation and cleared where is my confusion so that the answer focus on that.. Thank you
aliweb
Sat, 09/29/2012 - 17:29
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There are two parties
There are two parties involved, buyer and seller as this is a case of procurement.
OrgABC is buyer and OrgXYZ is seller.
Long story short, OrgABC will initiate, plan and execute the project. Until such time OrgXYZ is not in picture. After that project from OrgXYZ will be initiated, planned and executed. When OrgXYZ goes into initiation phase, OrgABC will go into monitoring and controlling phase and will remain there until OrgXYZ closes the project after which OrgABC will also close the project.
So basically two organizations are doing same project but from buyer and seller perspective.
Now coming to your questions:
1. Either project sponsor will be OrgABC or they both OrgABC and OrgXYX can be sponsors at their end.
2. They both will have their own projects managers, one from buyer side while other from seller side.
3. Both can be performing organizations because performing organizations can be multiple.
4. OrgABC will have mainly used project selection method but again OrgXYZ must have also used project selection methods. When you read about project selection methods in books, you will see they doesn't say whether these are for buyer or seller. So anyone who is doing a project can use these methods.
5.1. Yes both organizations will perform these processes at their respective times as summarized by me above in third paragraph.
5.2. Here comes project selection. OrgXYZ must have done their own feasibility or analysis if it is really possible to do this project in such amount? Now it all depends what kind of contract it was, whether fixed price which requires that requirements are clearly defined or cost plus or time and materials in which requirements are not clear.
6.1. Yes it can be treated as a separate project. You see feasibility can be a separate project, writing requirements can be a separate project, floating RFP can be a separate project e.t.c.
6.2. Yes it can be phase too. There is no restriction from PMI as to what can come in phase and what cannot. Project phases depends on the organization and domain in which they are working.
6.3. From buyer point of view, it starts when they initiate the project. When they come into execution phase, it is there that the buyer floats actual RFP but planning and initiation is done before that. And then after that comes initiation phase from seller point of view.
Just my 2 cents.
admin
Mon, 10/01/2012 - 04:07
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Good question, I am glad you
Good question, I am glad you posted. My answers are
1. Org ABC is the sponsor , since funding is from OrgABC
2. OrgXYZ is the PM, since they are executing the project
3. Orgxyz
4.OrgABC - Always the sponsoring organization will have selection methods, XYZ is executing the project as vendor
5.
1) Requirements will be validated, since the new team has come on board and they need to understand the scope. It could involve ammending the already created documents
2) If this is fixed price bid, then there can be re-estimation to check the effort, but the cost will remain fixed.
6)
1) Yes, RFP creation can be a project in itself, since it requires detailing of requirements and putting finer details so the bidder quotes are close to the real work
2) No, It has to follow RFP
3) I dont think so, RFP is before the project starts.
neemoze
Wed, 10/03/2012 - 15:42
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Thank you admin,aliweb for
Thank you admin,aliweb for your feed back which clarified a lot for me..