Project Management - Verizon Wireless Billing System Integration

INTRODUCTION

Currently, Verizon Wireless has two major billing systems: I2K and VISION. In accordance with the strategic goals of the company and taking into consideration the corporate vision and credo, The executive management decided that having one billing system would be congruent with the objectives of the organization as a whole and the IT group in particular.

After several months of deliberation, using techniques such as brainstorming, receiving expert opinions of SME (Subject matter experts) and taking into consideration the Payback period and ROI (return on Investment) it was decided that the I2K customers would be converted into the VISION billing system. There will be 20 million customers that will be converted with the data ranging from customer and MTN information, price plan, usage and other related information necessary for billing the customers.

After the Project acceptance, The Project was handed over to the CAM (Customer account management) team which functions as PMO (Project management Office) for IT projects in Verizon wireless.

The CAM team decided to manage the Project by organizing it into distinct process groups (initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing.)

INITIATION

The Initiation Phase will be the first phase in the project -- the basic processes that should be performed to get the project started.

Tasks in the initiation process include the following.

1.Develop Business Case

Once a business problem or opportunity has been identified, a Business Case is prepared. This includes: A detailed definition of the problem or opportunity An analysis of the potential solution options available. For each option, the potential benefits, costs, risks and issues are documented. A formal feasibility study may be commissioned if the feasibility of any particular solution option is not clear

2.Perform Feasibility Study

At any stage during (or after) the development of a Business Case, a formal Feasibility Study may be commissioned. The purpose is to assess the likelihood of a particular solution option's achieving the benefits outlined in the Business Case. The Feasibility Study will also investigate whether the forecast costs are reasonable, the solution is achievable, the risks are acceptable and/or any likely issues are avoidable.

3. Establish Terms of Reference

After the solution has been agreed and funding allocated, a project is formed. The Terms of Reference defines the vision, charter, scope and deliverables for the project. It also provides the plan tree diagram, which is a summarized plan of the activities, resources and funding required to undertake the project. Finally, any risks, issues, planning assumptions and constraints are listed.

4. Appoint Project Team

At this point the scope of the project has been defined in detail and the project team are ready to be appointed. Although a Project Manager can be appointed at any stage of the project, s/he will need to be appointed prior to the establishment of the project team. The Project Manager is responsible for all aspects of project performance including: planning, budget execution, project execution, and close-out Funding.

5. Perform Phase Review

At the end of the Initiation Phase, a kickoff meeting will be performed, this would be a checkpoint to ensure that the project has achieved its stated objectives as planned, also the probability of satisfying customer requirements is improved by garnering the buy-in and shared ownership of the project by the stakeholders.

PLANNING

The planning process is devising and maintaining a workable scheme to accomplish the mission needs that the project was undertaken to address.

By this stage, the benefits and costs of the project have been clearly documented, the objectives and scope have been defined and the project team has been appointed. It is now time to undertake detailed planning to ensure that the activities performed in the execution phase of the project are properly sequenced, resourced, executed and controlled. This involves the creation of a:

1. Develop Project Plan

The first step is to document the Project Plan. A statement of Work (SOW) and work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is identified, which includes a hierarchical set of phases, activities and tasks that needs to be performed. After the WBS has been agreed, an assessment of the effort required to undertake the activities and tasks is made. The activities and tasks are sequenced, resources are allocated and a detailed project schedule is formed. This project schedule will become the primary tool for the Project Manager to assess the progress of the project.

In estimating timeframes the Critical Path Method (CPM) will be used. The Critical Path is the chain of activities that links the start to the finish of the project, and for which any delay will cause the project to be delayed by the same amount of time.

2. Develop Resource Plan

We will allocate the resources required to undertake each of the activities and tasks within the Project Plan. As it is estimated that an additional 20 head-count will need to be hired for this project and a server farm (5 Servers) need to be purchased for the new platform, a detailed resource assessment is required to identify the resource needed. A schedule for each type of resource will ensure that the resource can be assessed at each stage in the project.

3. Develop Financial Plan

With a proposed budget of $5M, a Financial Plan is prepared to identify the quantity of money required for each stage in the project. The total cost of labor, equipment and materials is quantified and an expense schedule is defined which will provide the forecast spending vs. the actual spending throughout the project.

4. Develop Quality Plan

Meeting the quality expectations of the customer is critical to the success of the project. To ensure that the quality expectations are clearly defined