1. Loren Karl Schwappach
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2. Human resources management is an important part of the IRTC Billing
System Upgrade Project. This human resources management plan describes the roles and
responsibilities that will be fulfilled and a rational for the staff that are going to fulfill each
position. The purpose of this human resources management plan is to achieve project
success by ensuring the appropriate human resources are acquired with the necessary skills,
resources are trained if any gaps in skills are identified, team building strategies are clearly
defines, and team activities are effectively managed. The vender will play an essential role in
supplementing this project and has been contracted to provide an additional skilled
programmer, a technical architect, and a technical writer since IRTC team members lack
proficiency in such skills. All of the vender team members will be utilized on an as needed
consultant basis as determined by the project team and schedule and will only be utilized
under project critical circumstances and to develop IRTC team members skills as necessary to
ensure the quality and integrity of the IRTC system upgrades.
Loren Karl Schwappach
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3. The key human resources that will be utilized on the IRTC Billing System Upgrade Project include: Project Sponsor,
Project Manager, Customer Service Department Manager, Billing Department Manager, Vender, Team Leader, Business Analyst, Technical
Architect, Quality Assurance, Software Engineers, End User/System Tester, and Technical Writer. IRTC’s technical writer will be unavailable for
the length of this project thus IRTC has contracted with the vender for technical writing. As mentioned the vender will also provide an expert
technical architect to aid in the design stage and a seasoned programmer to supplement IRTC’s programmer when necessary.
The chart shown is an organizational chart that displays the primary human resources that will be utilized in this project
as well as the level of authority of each member. Each of these roles will be explained in greater depth in the roles and responsibilities section of
this human resource plan. However, some key items of note is that the Customer Service and Billing Departments will play a role in providing the
end user and project with critical requirements identification. Quality Assurance has authority over the Software Engineers and End User, and the
Team Leader has authority over all other project members as shown.
Loren Karl Schwappach
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4. The chart shown is a project responsible, accountable, consult, and inform (RACI) chart. It is a type of responsibility
assignment matrix (RAM) that is used to show the connections between activities and project team members. In the top row you can see the
critical human resources of this project as well as the individuals who will play these roles (to be discussed later). Overall the primary persons
responsible for activities are identified by the letter “R”. However, there are also many individuals who do not have primary responsibility but are
none the less accountable for each activity these are shown by the letter “A” above. If a member is accountable for a specific task they are tied to
the project team for that activity and should provide aid as necessary to ensure the activities success. Cells that have the letter “C” requires the
responsible member consult with the indicated individual prior and during the activity. Finally, cells that have the letter “I” require that the
participant be informed of the progress and made during each activity to reduce the likelihood of conflicts or absent communication between
project stakeholders.
Loren Karl Schwappach
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5. Role:
Project Sponsor
Authority:
The Project Sponsor has full control over the project and must approve project scope changes and provides go/no-go decisions where there is
particularly high risk.
Responsibility:
The Project Sponsor is the person or group that provides the financial resources for the project, champions the project, and authorizes project
scope changes, and plays a significant role in the development of the initial scope and project charter (Global Standard, 2008).
Role:
Project Manager
Authority:
The project manager has authority over all project team members and all resources allocated to the project.
Responsibility:
The Project Manager is responsible for the overall success of the Project. The PM must authorize and approve all project expenditures. The PM is
also responsible for approving that work activities meet established acceptability criteria and fall within acceptable variances. The PM will be
responsible for reporting project status in accordance with the communications management plan. The PM will evaluate the performance of all
project team members and communicate their performance to functional managers. The PM is also responsible for acquiring human resources
for the project through coordination with functional managers. The PM must possess the following skills: leadership/management, budgeting,
scheduling, and effective communication.
Loren Karl Schwappach
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6. Role:
Team Leader, Terry
Authority:
Has authority over project team.
Responsibility:
The team leader creates an environment of trust, open communication, and creative thinking between project team members (Crow, 1999). The
team lead is responsible for coordinating team logistics, setting team schedules and organizing team member meetings. Finally the team lead is
able to provide status reports of team progress and activities that have project on the schedule and is responsible for keeping the project
manager informed.
Terry is assigned as the projects team leader because of her background involvement in past system upgrades. Terry has vast technical
capabilities and has played the role of software developer and tester on many projects. Terry is enthusiastic and has shown excellent
management and communication skills in prior projects.
Role:
Business Analyst, Robin
Responsibility:
The business analyst understands what the business does, determines how to improve existing practices, determines steps needed, creates
functional specifications, and implements the technical design of a new system (Babcock, 2007). The business analyst is responsible for the
creation of graphs, charts, and must analyze the changes that are being implemented and their impact on IRTC organizational goals. Robin is
assigned as the systems analyst for this project because of her outstanding role as systems analyst in the last two IRTC upgrade projects.
Loren Karl Schwappach
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7. Role:
Software Engineer, Chris
Responsibility:
The SE is responsible for gathering coding requirements for the Project. The SE is responsible for all upgrade design, coding, of the upgraded
software. The SE is responsible for the timely reporting to the Team Leader and PM as required by the communications management plan. The
SE is responsible for programming, designing, testing, checking, and maintaining the IRTC Billing System Upgrade Project. The software engineer
must have good communication skills and be able to work well with the business analyst, end user, and quality assurance team members. Chris is
assigned as the lead software engineer / web programmer for this project. Chris has an undergraduate degree in computer science and has vast
experience in web programming and software systems testing.
Role:
Quality Assurance, Pat
Responsibility:
Quality Assurance responsibilities include maintaining the project library and repository of project metrics, verification of project plans by
affected by the group, review of processes and process requirements, preparing a QA plan, ensuring project requirements are clear, verifiable,
and testable, coordinating audits and informal code reviews, observing end user system testing, and inspecting project reports. Pat is assigned as
the Quality Assurance team member due to his past experience with IRTC projects.
Loren Karl Schwappach
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8. Role:
End User
Responsibility:
The end user/system tester is responsible for ensuring that the desires of the Customer Service Department and Billing Department are
articulated (Dean, 2007). The end user/system tester is also responsible for verifying that the finished project meets all of the expressed
requirements. The end user is responsible for articulating requirements, thoroughly testing requirements, ensuring requirements are satisfied,
and ensuring Customer Service and Billing Department staff is qualified and able to accept the system, and must promote and teach the system to
users. The end user will provide a written contract of requirements and the qualifying criteria to the project stakeholders for delivery approval
and approval of installation procedures. The end user will review existing business practices, and develop procedures/policies as required to
support the new system. Jan is assigned as the end user for this project. Jan has prior experience with similar web based billing system projects
and has extensive knowledge of the features, requirements, and functions the new system requires.
Role:
Technical Architect
Responsibility:
The technical architect is responsible for working with the project team in designing an end product that can be utilized easily, effectively,
productively by the Customer Service and Billing Departments. The Vender will provide this position.
Loren Karl Schwappach
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9. This chart created with Microsoft Excel highlights planned project activities and the
amount of human resources that will be expended. It provides an outlook on
expected costs associated with using FTE’s vs. Vender staffing for the project.
Loren Karl Schwappach
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10. This chart created with Microsoft Excel illustrates the planned human resource usage
of the project.
Loren Karl Schwappach
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11. Performance Reviews:
The project manager will review each team member’s assigned work activities at the onset of the project and communicate all expectations of
work to be performed. The project manager will then evaluate each team member throughout the project to evaluate their performance and
how effectively they are completing their assigned work. Prior to releasing project resources, the project manager will meet with the appropriate
functional manager and provide feedback on employee project performance. The functional managers will then perform a formal performance
review on each team member.
Recognition and Rewards:
Upon successful completion of the project, a party will be held to celebrate the success of each team member with the team members’ families
present.
Upon successful completion of the project, any team member who satisfactorily completed all assigned work packages on time will receive a
certificate of thanks from the CEO.
Team members who successfully complete all of their assigned tasks will have their photo taken for inclusion in the IRTC corporate newsletter.
IRTC will provide free family movie tickets for the top two performers of the project.
Loren Karl Schwappach
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12. Loren Karl Schwappach
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13. Loren Karl Schwappach
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14. Loren Karl Schwappach
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