Project case study

1. Please diagnose the issues exposed in the case study. There are many. Please be specific.

2. When identifying the issues please put on your ‘Systems Analyst Hat’ and provide a suggested solution.

3. Are there issues in the case study that a Project Manager should take on? Any that could be a joint effort between a PM and SA?
The “Challenged” Project Case Study

You are a Functional Business Analyst in the Human Resources group at a company. Your boss learned that the government, due to increasing population counts, has decided to increase the number of digits in the social security number, from 9 digits to 12 digits, and to allow alphanumeric characters. You were assigned the responsibility of determining the impact of this change on your HR systems and making the appropriate changes. The deadline date for this effort is government regulated – the government will start using the new format in one year.

You have a meeting with the HR Functional Business Analysts to talk about the impact. Since each analyst is very familiar with a specific area of the HR systems, they identify what system changes are needed, determine the work effort, and begin changing the affected programs.

Your boss put you in the role of project manager but he did not communicate this to anyone outside the Human Resources group. You attempt to coordinate the efforts of the functional business analysts, but they feel that “they can handle it” without your help. After all, they know their areas; they have been supporting them for several years. They don’t feel that status meetings are important and want to hold them once a month. (+ 10 points)

Three Months Later

Three months into the effort and during the unit testing of a newly revised program, it became obvious that this SSN change affects more than just your area. Files and data are interfaced throughout the company’s systems. This is beginning to feel like Year 2000 all over again. You try to bring representatives from across the company together so that a common solution can be developed, standards established, and a schedule can be established, but this proves difficult. It appears that each area has other priorities and does not feel that they can address the issue at this time. Since the other areas do not report to the HR area, it is difficult to engage them. Plus, it is hard to convince some people that this is really a big issue – just add another three bytes to the size of the field.

You did your best to submit a budget, but did not receive full cooperation from the areas or get their estimates. You are now halfway through the project and are concerned that an appropriate amount of work has not been addressed. Company representatives continue to say, “Don’t worry, we’ll get it done in time….” but no other group appears to be working on this. (+ 5 points)

Six Months Later

Six months into the effort, it is now apparent that although your area may have its revisions in and tested, no other area will be ready. The company may not meet the government deadline and is in danger of receiving heavy fines for non-compliance, along with not being able to run their business. (+ 5 points)