Project Management for Customer Relationship Management Database Implementation in NaturalMotion

Project Management

Student number

Name of the module: Project Management

Assessment number: 2

Word count: 3000

Introduction

Project Initiation Document is a collective representation of the management, success criteria, and scope of the project, which the manager and members can refer during the project (Russell et al., 2018). This report will shed light on the PID for the “customer relationship management” project in NaturalMotion. Further, this will include risk and stakeholder management, budget, project success criteria, description, purpose, resource planning, scope, exclusions, and deliverables. Additionally, the role of the project as a strategy for the organisation will be discussed in the report. The factors or success criterion that would affect the ability of the project to attain its objectives will be evaluated.

Main body

Project Initiation Document

Project description

Founded in 2001, NaturalMotion is a British-based gaming company, which is acclaimed for its innovative animation technology for various video games. In the current scenario, the organisation is motivated towards integrating a Customer Relationship Management database within its framework with the sole target of developing and elevating the quality of services. The project will be undertaken with the help of agile methodology, which helps in segmenting the different stages effectively. This project initiation document will shed light on the different associated elements and variables of the project.

Purpose

NaturalMotion is recognised for its technologies and games in the UK market. However, currently, it is focusing on improving the quality of its customer services. With the help of a CRM database, the company intends to communicating with its customers effectively and ensure proper associated data handling. With a focus on customer management, the company also is focusing on attaining greater competitive advantage in the market through effective recognition. Additionally, with the help of this new CRM database, the organisation also aims at increasing its reach to new consumers and boost its own revenue standards.

Project objectives

The objectives of the project are:

• To implement a customer relationship management database in the operational framework of NaturalMotion

• To complete the project with the allocated resources with the lowest possible wastage

• To be able to elevate the brand image and profit structures through the new CRM database

Scope and exclusions

The scope of the project is to plan efficiently for all the stages and attain the set objectives. Additionally, this also involves ensuring that an employee-friendly CRM database is launched because of the project. Further, key functions that will be focused within the launching and development process are workflow automation, contact and lead management, reporting, and analytics. A cloud-based CRM database will be incorporated and for this “on-premise system” will be excluded in the project.

Project deliverables

The deliverables of the project:

• An employee-friendly CRM database with cloud backup

• A finalised and tested CRM system with features such as artificial intelligence, lead management, analytics, workflow automation, geo-location technology, contact centre and marketing automation

• Completion of the project with the given deadline and cost

• Awareness among all employees regarding the new CRM database system

Assumptions

The major assumptions for the CRM database project in NaturalMotion are:

• There would be the appropriate presence of financial resources within the project and that there would be no delay due to the same.

• The project teams will be able to have access to all required and up-to-date technologies for the CR database from the market.

• There would be no or minimal absenteeism in the project teams leading to limited delays.

• All the team members in the project will have appropriate skills and competencies for different associated tasks.

• All the equipment and servers are in good condition for the development of the database.

Risk analysis

Uncertain situations that tend to derail the project from its path can be stated as risks (Arashpour et al., 2017). However, for mitigating these risks, NaturalMotion project will integrate risk management. The below representation will shed light on the different associated risks and their mitigation strategies.

Table 1: Risk management for the NaturalMotion project

Project organisation structure

Organisation structure determines the quality of the operational hierarchy within a project. Further, this will help the teams in NaturalMotion project to coordinate and divide appropriate responsibilities. For this project, the intended structure will be the matrix. The rationale for selecting the same can be understood through three aspects. Firstly, the responsibilities and resources are effectively shared among the project and functional managers, and team members (San Cristóbal et al., 2018). Secondly, the decision-making strategy and approach is comparatively more flexible in this structure. Thirdly, the flow of communication is stronger in this structure ensuring a higher level of transparency and information sharing within the diversely skilled project teams. Further, agile methodology is challenged by lack of collaboration and this is where the matrix structure will support the project in countering the same issue.

Monitoring and evaluation

In order to ensure a higher quality of the project processes and results, the manager has to engage in strong monitoring and evaluation techniques. As for monitoring, the manager will aim at ensuring that there is proper transparency in the project baselines, which involves scope, budget, and schedule. Further, the Requirement Traceability Matrix will be incorporated within the project. This will support the manager to track and identify the different requirements based on the deliverables (Padmavathi and Saravanan, 2017). RTM allows linking of two project baseline elements, which elevates the transparency in the project processes. Additionally, it will be easier for the project manager to assure that there are no inclusions of new requirements during the project. For evaluation of the project processes, fishbone technique will be incorporated. This allows identification of various deviances within a project and therefore, it becomes simpler for the manager to keep all the tasks on the intended track (Burhan et al., 2018). The overall outcome of the project will be evaluated with the help of Return on Investment technique. This will be determined through the ration of profit from the system implementation based on the investments for the same (Walasek, D. and Barszcz, 2017).

Communication plan

Communication is important within a project for strong cooperation and information sharing. In the NaturalMotion project, the communication processes can be understood through the below representation.

Table 2: Communication plan for the project

Quality management

Total quality management will be incorporated within the project to maintain the overall quality. This will support the project manager to ensure that there is a higher level of awareness among the workers for different tasks. Additionally, this will allow in smaller changes helping in boosting the quality of the project at a larger scale (Mukhopadhyay, 2020). The benefit of this technique can also be understood through its influence on the motivation and learning levels of the employees resulting in better contributions. TQM will also assist in eliminating the wastage sources and boost profitability in the overall project based on enhanced cost management. Another technique that will be incorporated for the same is control charts. Through this, it will be easier for the organisation to determine the changes and progress of the different process in the project. This awareness will support the manager to reduce the different possibilities of process deviances outside set limits.

Project configuration

This process allows in determining that all the configurations and specifications of the project outcome are met effectively. In the case of NaturalMotion project, the configuration check will be done through audits. The project manager will perform the audit and the client will certify the same. In the audits, different tests will be conducted and then, appropriate changes will be made in case necessary.

Change management

Change management will be initiated in the project in case any modifications are required in the CRM database after the audit results. For this, the project manager will incorporate a systematic approach of Flowcharts or Process Maps. This will support the manager to identify the current situation of the project along with the influence of the changes on the different direct and indirect stakeholders (Rizoto-Vidala-Pesoa and Kuz?ecova, 2017). Therefore, the decision-making will be better in this scenario and the change process will have a higher integrity.

Project milestones

The milestones of the project will support the manager and members to ensure that the project is on its intended track. Further, it will be easier to make the necessary changes and modifications to the overall project through this. For this project, the milestones are:

• Completion of planning within 8 days of project initiation, which is by 28^th February 2021

• Completion of the first iteration within 28 days of the project initiation, which is by 20^th march 2021

• Issuing final iteration by 9^th April 2021, which is 46 days from the project start

Resource plan

The resources required for the project are:

• Management systems such as knowledge, database, lead, and contact

• Automation systems for sales, workflow, and marketing

• Reporting and attendance systems for the project team members

• Human labour

• Time

• Financial resources

• Technical resources

Budget

Budgeting stands out as one of the main strategies within the project. Additionally, for the NaturalMotion project, a bottom-up approach will be incorporated. This will allow all the members of the project to participate in the decision-making for the total budget. The budgeting will be initiated based on the requirements and assessments of the lower departments. This will ensure higher-level accuracy for the budget determination and further, the possibilities of resource wastage will lower. Additionally, this inclusive approach wills encourage motivation and accountability among the different members of the project. Further, the division of the budget can be understood through the below representations:

Table 3: Budget allocation for the project

Therefore, the total budget for the NaturalMotion CRM database project is £5286.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are the groups or individuals that contribute directly to the different processes and decisions of a project (Derakhshan et al., 2019). In this NaturalMotion project, there are both external and internal stakeholders associated to the different processes. The same can be understood through the below representations.

Table 4: Stakeholder management for the project

The role of projects in delivering organisational strategy

With a constantly changing market environment and trends, organisations are always in need of modifying or integrating new strategies to adapt to the same. It can be stated that projects are similar tools that support an organisation to integrate new strategies or modify the existing old ones (Ul Musawir et al., 2017). The role of the projects can be understood through its major focus on the different vision, objectives, and visions of an organisation. Therefore, a completed project has a higher potential to benefit the associated organisations. The same has been evident in the case of the project in NaturalMotion. Current CRM database project aims at supporting the company to elevate its consumer engagement and management in the market.

The company aims at providing its consumers with better experiences and the CRM project will support in the same way. Additionally, the CRM database implementation will support the organisation’s strategy to reap higher benefits. This is because; it will enable the organisation to reach out and communicate with new consumers and boost the sales ratio. Moreover, the customer services will also improve under this project and all workers will have clear transparency about their own responsibilities. Therefore, as a strategy, the company will be able to boost profit and develop the work culture at the same time.

The factors, which contribute to effective project management

There are various success factors, which would directly influence the effectiveness of project management. Some of these success factors are:

• Scope management of the project is one of the biggest factors that would affect the project results. The project to attain success will have to ensure that there is proper transparency in the different project baselines such as budget, time, and schedule (Al-Rubaiei et al., 2018). The manager should have efficient awareness about the different scope creeps and resolve them on time.

• The degree of communication will also be a critical factor for project success. Without efficient communication, it will become harder for the project to initiate the proper sharing of information (Bond-Barnard et al., 2017). Proper communication will lead to accurate cooperation among all the different levels of the project. Therefore, to avoid failures, the project manager will be required to define and manage the mediums for communication.

• Another success factor that this project relies on is the transparency and allocation of responsibilities for the different tasks among the associated members. In case this absent, then there would be higher complications and the performance quality will reduce. Therefore, the manager will be required to ensure proper task distribution with higher accountability.

Conclusion

With the help of the above discussions, the project elements can be understood for the CRM database implementation in NaturalMotion. Further, it is evident that the organisation’s purpose for the project is to elevate its quality of consumer services. Additionally, the stakeholder, risk, and budget management along with resource planning, deliverables, and milestones for the project have been provided in the report. Moreover, the role of this project as an organisational strategy has been evaluated in the report. Various factors such as responsibility allocation, communication degree, and scope management have been highlighted as the main success criterion for the project.

Reference list

Al-Rubaiei, Q.H.S., Nifa, F.A.A. and Musa, S., 2018, September. Project scope management through multiple perspectives: A critical review of concepts. In AIP Conference Proceedings (Vol. 2016, No. 1, p. 020025). AIP Publishing LLC.

Arashpour, M., Abbasi, B., Arashpour, M., Hosseini, M.R. and Yang, R., 2017. Integrated management of on-site, coordination and off-site uncertainty: theorizing risk analysis within a hybrid project setting. International journal of project management, 35(4), pp.647-655.

Bond-Barnard, T., Smit, M., Steyn, H. and Fabris-Rotelli2, I., 2017. Email communication in project management: A bane or a blessing?. South African Journal of Information Management, 19(1), pp.1-10.

Burhan, A.M., Altaie, M.R. and Al-Kubaisi, O.K., 2018. Determining the Causes of Punching Shear in Reinforced Slabs Using Fishbone Diagram. Civil Engineering Journal, 4(11), pp.2642-2651.

Derakhshan, R., Turner, R. and Mancini, M., 2019. Project governance and stakeholders: a literature review. International Journal of Project Management, 37(1), pp.98-116.

Mukhopadhyay, M., 2020. Total quality management in education. SAGE Publications Pvt. Limited.

Padmavathi, R. and Saravanan, P., 2017. New Frameworks for Automated Test and Retest (ATRT) Test Case Requirement Traceability Matrix. development, 1(2).

Rizoto-Vidala-Pesoa, L.M. and Kuz?ecova, O., 2017. The Role of the Super User in Achieving Business Process Management Maturity. Information Technology and Management Science, 20(1), pp.74-78.

Russell, J., Pferdehirt, W. and Nelson, J., 2018. Project Initiation, Scope, and Structure. Technical Project Management in Living and Geometric Order.

San Cristóbal, J.R., Fernández, V. and Diaz, E., 2018. An analysis of the main project organizational structures: Advantages, disadvantages, and factors affecting their selection. Procedia computer science, 138, pp.791-798.

Ul Musawir, A., Serra, C.E.M., Zwikael, O. and Ali, I., 2017. Project governance, benefit management, and project success: Towards a framework for supporting organizational strategy implementation. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8), pp.1658-1672.

Walasek, D. and Barszcz, A., 2017. Analysis of the adoption rate of building information modeling [BIM] and its return on investment [ROI]. Procedia Engineering, 172, pp.1227-1234.

Appendix

Timeline of project

Gantt chart for project: