IT 625 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric

IT 625 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric Overview Note: In order to successfully complete this project, you will need to carefully review the Final Project Guidelines and Rubric document and the Medical Informatics case study documents, located in the Assignment Guidelines and Rubrics section of the course in Blackboard. IT project managers are often called to manage new projects, or to assume leadership over troubled projects. In this course, you will have the opportunity to resolve conflict within project teams for a fictitious project, determine strategies to improve the outcome of the project, and deliver a comprehensive project plan that will allow you to develop the skills necessary to become a successful IT project manager. For your final project, you will analyze a case that portrays a troubled information technology project, a project team experiencing conflict, and specific financial and timeline requirements. From this analysis you will develop a comprehensive project plan to attend to the team and communication issues and the project status issues. Throughout this course, we will refer to this fictitious project as the Medical Informatics case study. Developing the comprehensive project plan will allow you the opportunity to apply the leadership, communication, and collaboration strategies you have learned during this course to a real-world situation. IT projects, like any other projects, can go off course for a variety of reasons, causing stress and strife in project teams. In addition, this assessment will allow you the opportunity to integrate the various strategies, practices, and concepts you have learned into a new project plan to get the failed project back on track. Your plan should carry the project through completion, and will contain all of the necessary sub-plans (i.e., scope plan, communication plan, schedule plan), tasks, information, and visual elements to ensure project success. The project is supported by five milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Two, Three, Five, Six, and Seven. The final submission will occur in Module Nine. This assessment will address the following course outcomes:  Recommend suitable leadership strategies for resolving conflict, developing cohesive information technology project teams, and delivering highperformance results and improved business value  Utilize appropriate analytical techniques for forecasting information technology project success and realizing the value of prospective technology projects  Assess the extent to which various artifacts and strategies from technology projects impact actual project outcome and feasibility  Create actionable information technology project solutions and deliverables for ensuring and monitoring project success  Determine the extent of corrective actions necessary for the success of information technology projects through the application of project management software tools Prompt To ensure the IT project can continue on and meet success, you will recommend strategies for managing conflict, communication, and strengthening the team; evaluate the current state of the project; determine the extent to which corrective action must be taken; and address project planning and controls. You will create several artifacts during this course, such as Gantt charts, a work breakdown schedule, and a communications plan. These elements will be used to inform your final project. They should be included in the appendix of your project plan. This project will be completed in stages called milestones. Each milestone you complete in this course will be used to build to the submission of your final project. Each milestone has a specific set of guidelines, with a separate document for each. Milestones should be completed in a draft format. Your instructor will provide feedback to you on all of the milestones, and you should use this feedback to create a final, polished project plan for your final submission. Many of the milestones will be done in outline or table form, but you should think of these as rough drafts or sketches that will contribute to your final project. Also, you should submit and retain any supporting documents, often referred to as “artifacts” in this document. These may include, but are not limited to, Gantt charts, work breakdown schedules, and/or a communication plan. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed: I. Conflict Resolution Plan A. Team Dynamics: Analyze the team structure, dynamics, and conflict. Things to consider include: 1. The roles and titles, reporting structure, and history of the team 2. Stage of the five-stage team development model this team is in (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning) 3. Cause of conflict 4. Skills the team is lacking based on their roles B. Conflict Resolution Leadership: Recommend appropriate leadership strategies to resolve the conflict within the team. Consider the following: 1. Leadership style for current stage of the team development (guiding, coaching, structuring, directing) 2. How to determine appropriate skills (soft and hard) for each role 3. A strategy to employ to resolve the conflict (assertiveness, accommodation, avoidance, or compromise) C. Motivation and Confidence: Recommend strategies for motivating and strengthening that will allow you to develop a cohesive information technology team that will deliver high-performance results and add business value. Provide support for your recommendations. II. Project Evaluation A. Status Evaluation: Evaluate the project status to determine the current state of and issues with the project. You may need to evaluate the existing deliverable and tracking for the project, such as Gantt charts, to provide an accurate representation of the project’s state. B. Project Analysis: Examine the existing artifacts and determine current and potential problems that need to be addressed with them immediately. What information should be gathered to determine current variance and maintain control of project? You might consider these ideas in your analysis: 1. The impact of scope creep 2. The significance of the baseline 3. The impacts of baseline changes 4. The estimated vs. actual costs C. Forecasting: Assuming the project issues persist, provide a detailed prediction of future performance in terms of timeliness and costs. The following ideas could be considered: 1. Assumptions that guide the forecasting 2. Projected end date of the project (schedule variance) 3. Cost to complete the project (cost variance) 4. Forecasted overrun at completion (estimates at completion) D. Impact of the Past: To what extent, based on your project evaluation and analyses, did the past deliverables, strategies, and lack of effective project management influence the failure of the project? E. Corrective Actions: To what extent will corrective actions be required to avoid project failure? Include supportive detail from your project evaluation and relevant resources. Things to consider include: 1. Immediate actions necessary to rescue the project 2. Target dates to rescue the project 3. Necessary steps to ensure the long-term success of the project III. Project Charter A. Project Objectives: Determine new project objectives based on an examination of company goals, needs, the project analysis, and corrective action requirements. B. Project Strategy: Establish a general project strategy that will outline the overall path to the new project objectives and lead to successful completion, based on organizational and feasibility considerations. As you are developing your strategy, consider aspects such as: 1. The existing problem (description, impact, who is affected, cost of ignoring the problem) 2. The strengths and weaknesses of the internal environment 3. The opportunities and threats in the external environment 4. The best solution to the problem (feasibility study, alternatives) 5. The project payback period 6. The selection model C. Project Communications Planning: Document who to keep informed about the project and how to keep them informed. Ideas to consider may include: 1. Who needs project information to make decisions and/or contribute to project progress (stakeholder analysis) 2. When the information will be provided 3. The information that is pertinent to stakeholders who contribute to the project’s progress (scope changes, action items, deliverables issues) 4. Where the information resides 5. How the information will be collected IV. Project Planning and Controls A. Project Scope Planning: Establish the project scope plan and controls. What are the business requirements? What are the system requirements (software and hardware)? In establishing your project scope plan, you might consider these aspects: 1. Requirements (requirements traceability matrix) 2. Existing work breakdown structure 3. Person responsible for each requirement (responsibility assignment matrix) B. Project Schedule Planning: Develop a comprehensive project schedule plan outlining completion dates, tasks, and relevant milestones. You should include all relevant artifacts that pertain to scheduling aspects of the project plan. In your project schedule plan, you could consider: 1. Tasks that must be completed before others may begin 2. Tasks that can be done at the same time 3. Durations of each task 4. Planned vs. actual dates C. Project Cost Planning and Control: Establish a cost control plan with strategies to help maintain prospective value of the new project with respect to expected expenditures and added business values. As you are developing your cost control plan, you could consider aspects such as these: 1. The cost–benefit analysis 2. The TCO 3. Budgeted vs. actual costs 4. The earned value of the project D. Project Risk Planning: Craft a plan for identifying and monitoring risk. In your plan, you could consider: 1. The amount of uncertainty in the project and how to deal with it 2. The threats of greatest concern 3. How each threat should be dealt with E. Risk Control: Determine corrective actions and controls to deal with uncertainty and its impact on the project, based on your risk plan. Ideas to consider may include: 1. Appropriate quantification of the risks (probability vs. impact) 2. Contingency funding or time buffers in place to handle threats F. Project Quality Planning: Craft a plan for ensuring quality of the project outcomes that identifies acceptable performance standards and recommended recovery strategy. Ideas to consider may include: 1. Key performance indicators of quality 2. Important factors in defining quality 3. How to measure quality Milestones Milestone One: Draft of Conflict Resolution Plan In Module Two, you will submit your draft of a conflict resolution plan based on the provided Medical Informatics case study. Given the case you have analyzed, construct a conflict resolution plan that addresses the various points of issue within the project team. You will be writing this plan for your management group. For the purposes of this milestone, you will complete a draft only. Your instructor will provide feedback, which you can incorporate into your final project in Module Nine. This milestone is graded with the Milestone One Rubric. Milestone Two: Project Evaluation Draft In Module Three, you will submit a draft of a project evaluation based on the provided Medical Informatics case study. Given the case you have analyzed, draft a project evaluation that includes a status evaluation, project analysis, forecasting for the future, evaluating the impact of the past, and discussing what corrective actions will be required to avoid project failure. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Two Rubric. Milestone Three: Project Charter Draft In Module Five, you will submit a draft of the project charter based on the provided Medical Informatics case study. Given the case you have analyzed, you will draft a charter including the project objectives, project strategy, and a communications plan. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Three Rubric. Milestone Four: Scope, Cost, and Quality Planning Report Draft In Module Six, you will submit a draft of a scope, cost, and quality planning report based on the provided Medical Informatics case study. Given the case you have analyzed, you will draft a report including plans for the scope, cost, and quality controls. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Four Rubric. Milestone Five: Project Schedule Planning, Risk Planning, and Risk Control Report Draft In Module Seven, you will submit a draft of a schedule planning, risk planning, and risk control draft based on the provided Medical Informatics case study. Given the case you have analyzed, you will draft a report including project schedule planning, project risk planning, and risk control strategies. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Five Rubric. Final Submission: Comprehensive Project Plan In Module Nine, you will submit a comprehensive project plan. This plan will include information from all of your milestone assignments, brought together into a cohesive, well-written project plan that incorporates instructor feedback received throughout the course on your various milestones. Your final plan will include a conflict resolution plan, project evaluation, project charter, and project planning and controls. This final project is graded using the Final Project Rubric (below). Deliverables Milestone Deliverable Module Due Grading One Draft of Conflict Resolution Plan Two Graded separately; Milestone One Rubric Two Project Evaluation Draft Three Graded separately; Milestone Two Rubric Three Project Charter Draft Five Graded separately; Milestone Three Rubric Four Scope, Cost, and Quality Planning Report Draft Six Graded separately; Milestone Four Rubric Five Project Schedule, Risk Planning, and Risk Control Report Draft Seven Graded separately; Milestone Five Rubric Comprehensive Project Plan Nine Graded separately; Final Project Rubric Final Project Rubric Guidelines for Submission: The comprehensive project plan should be clearly and professionally written and organized, with appropriate citations in APA format. All artifacts relevant to your plan should be included in the appendix. Instructor Feedback: This activity uses an integrated rubric in Blackboard. Students can view instructor feedback in the Grade Center. For more information, review these instructions. Critical Elements Exemplary (100%) Proficient (90%) Needs Improvement (70%) Not Evident (0%) Value Conflict Resolution Plan: Team Dynamics Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidences insight into the causes and relationships between dynamics and conflict within the team Accurately analyzes the team structure, dynamics, and conflict Analyzes the team structure, dynamics, and conflict, but with gaps in accuracy or detail Does not analyze the team structure, dynamics, and conflict 6.4 Conflict Resolution Plan: Conflict Resolution Leadership Meets “Proficient” criteria and draws insightful conclusions or inferences about the leadership style, the conflict type, and gaps between team roles and skill sets needed Recommends appropriate leaderships strategies to resolve conflict Recommends leadership strategies to resolve conflict, but recommendations are not appropriate for the team Does not recommend leadership strategies to resolve conflict 6.4 Conflict Resolution Plan: Motivation and Confidence Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidences keen insight into the relevance of motivation and expectations on team trust Recommends strategies for motivating and strengthening the team that are appropriate based on supporting information Recommends strategies for motivating and strengthening the team, but accompanying explanations are not supportive of recommendations or lack detail Does not describe recommended motivational strategy to set team expectations 6.4 Project Evaluation: Status Evaluation Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidences keen insight into status evaluation Accurately evaluates the project status to determine the current state of and issues with the project Evaluates the project status to determine the current state of and issues with the project, but with gaps in accuracy or detail Does not evaluate the project status to determine the current state of and issues with the project 6.4 Project Evaluation: Project Analysis Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidences keen insight into recognizing potential issues from existing evidence Comprehensively analyzes existing artifacts to determine current and potential problems that need to be addressed Analyzes the existing artifacts to determine current and potential problems that need to be addressed, but with gaps in detail Does not analyze existing artifacts to determine current and potential problems that need to be addressed 6.4 Project Evaluation: Forecasting Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidences keen insight into the impact of certain assumptions on certain what-if scenarios Logically predicts the future performance of the project based on a set of assumptions to reveal project costs and timeline issues Predicts the future performance of the project based on a set of assumptions to reveal project costs and timeline issues, but with gaps in logic or detail Does not predict the future performance of the project based on a set of assumptions to reveal project costs and timeline issues 6.4 Project Evaluation: Impact of the Past Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidences keen insight into the influence of interplaying forces in project management Logically assesses the extent to which past deliverables, strategies, and lack of management influenced the failure of the project Assesses the extent to which past deliverables, strategies, and lack of management influenced the failure of the project, but with gaps in logic Does not assess the extent to which past deliverables, strategies, and lack of management influenced the failure of the project 6.4 Project Evaluation: Corrective Actions Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidences intuitive insight into project corrective needs Accurately determines the extent to which corrective action will be required to avoid project failure, including support from project evaluation and relevant resources Determines the extent to which corrective action will be required to avoid project failure, but with gaps in accuracy, detail, or support Does not determine the extent to which corrective action will be required to avoid project failure 4.75 Project Charter: Project Objectives Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidences keen insight into determining objectives to drive project success Determines new project objectives comprehensively and logically based on examination of company goals, needs, and the project analysis and corrective action requirements Determines new project objectives, but they are not comprehensively or logically based on examination of company goals, needs, and the project analysis and corrective action requirements Does not determine new project objectives 4.75 Project Charter: Project Strategy Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidences keen insight into strategic methods for integrating the various interests of an IT project Establishes a general project strategy outlining the overall path to achieve project objectives based on organizational and feasibility considerations Establishes a general project strategy outlining the overall path to achieve project objectives, but it is not based on organizational and feasibility considerations Does not establish a general project strategy outlining the overall path to achieve project objectives 6.4 Project Charter: Project Communications Planning Meets “Proficient” criteria and articulation exemplifies the integration of best project management practices for the management of information among various project stakeholders Crafts a communication plan that documents who and how to keep everyone informed about project Crafts a communication plan that documents who and how to keep everyone informed about project, but lacks detail Does not craft a communication plan that that documents who and how to keep everyone informed about project 4.75 Project Planning and Controls: Project Scope Planning Meets “Proficient” criteria and articulation exemplifies the integration of best project management practices for the capture and tracking of scope and requirements Establishes a detailed, applicable, and actionable plan to capture and control project scope Establishes a plan to capture and control project scope, but lacks detail, or plan is not applicable or actionable Does not establish a plan to capture and control project scope 4.75 Project Planning and Controls: Project Schedule Planning Meets “Proficient” criteria and articulation exemplifies the integration of best project management practices for schedule creation and tracking Crafts a comprehensive and logical project schedule plan outlining completion dates, tasks, and relevant milestones Crafts a project schedule plan outlining completion dates, tasks, and relevant milestones, but with gaps in necessary artifacts, detail, or logic Does not craft a project schedule plan outlining completion dates, tasks, and relevant milestones 6.4 Project Planning and Controls: Project Cost Planning and Control Meets “Proficient” criteria and articulation exemplifies the integration of cost practices for ensuring project value Establishes cost control plan with appropriate strategies to help maintain prospective value of the new project as the project develops Establishes cost control plan with strategies to help maintain prospective value of the new project as the project develops, but strategies are not appropriate given project information Does not establish cost control plan with strategies to help maintain prospective value of the new project as the project develops 4.75 Project Planning and Controls: Project Risk Planning Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidences intuitive insight regarding IT project risk Crafts a risk plan that accurately explores probability for relevant risk prevention strategies Crafts a risk plan that explores probability for risk prevention strategies, but with gaps in accuracy or relevancy Does not craft a risk plan that explores probability for risk prevention strategies 4.75 Project Planning and Controls: Risk Control Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidences keen insight into best project management practices to handle unexpected risks Accurately and comprehensively integrates aspects from risk planning into controls for risk Integrates aspects from risk planning into risk controls, but with gaps in detail or accuracy Does not integrate aspects from risk planning into risk controls 4.75 Project Planning and Controls: Project Quality Planning Meets “Proficient” criteria and evidences keen insight regarding quality standards related to IT projects Crafts a quality plan to identify acceptable performance standards and recommended recovery strategy Crafts a quality plan to identify acceptable performance standards and recommended recovery strategy, but with gaps in accuracy or detail Does not craft a quality plan to identify acceptable performance standards and recommended recovery strategy 4.75 Articulation of Response Submission is free of errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, and organization and is presented in a professional and easy-to-read format Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas 4.4 Total 100%

"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Order now and Get 10% Discount! Use Code "Newclient"