Commentary: This is a series of posts that will follow highlights of an ongoing project I am currently engaging. The project is the development of a turnkey thematic shopping cart. My charter as the project manager is to develop the prototype site, establish baseline performance metrics or reasonable sales, and turnover the prototype deliverables. I am not at liberty of discussing client specifics but will provide general highlights of the project in a series of sporadic posts.
Project Initiation
The chartering process was kept simple and to-the-point. Brief overarching statements framed the project, stakeholders were identified, and the scope statement was prepared. Upon approval, I was officially identified as the project manager and began the project on a deliverable contingent basis with a residual revenue stream on future success. The client wanted his risk exceptionally low and was willing to generously share success. This requires me to manage my cost and 'sweat' closely so as to prevent overruns due to the fixed cost of the deliverables.
The project in general is designed around the installed base profit model. When most people think of a need, they think in terms of a complete solution not in terms of the individual components. Entire magazines such as Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and GQ are devoted to creating statements that readers embrace by purchasing in whole or, at least, elements of the statements declared. This concept applies to many purchases, especially, those that can be accessorized. Utilizing the installed base profit model as the underlying framework for a thematic shopping cart, revenue streams can be generated based on the accessorizing products and services.
The high level objectives of this project are the business objectives to demonstrate reasonable sales, establish a baseline process, and create a potential turnkey solution.
The Planning Phase
The planning phase is perhaps the most critical to success of this project since this project is fixed cost. Cost overruns are assumed by me. At the time of this post the planning phase is underway. While the typical standard work breakdown structure, organizational measurable value, and objectives are laid out, we also created a series of addendums to the Project Document. These addendums were technical specifications (Tech Specs) that are being developed for the database, page structure, security, and other features of the site. Some preliminary execution phase activities were test run also during the planning phase to evaluate methods and technologies.
For example, after Tech Specing the Entity Relational Diagram we built the MS SQL database and connected it via DSN-Less to a MacroMedia Coldfusion Engine MX 7. The hosting site has not upgraded their service to Adobe's CS5 yet. Then we test ran populating the tables using <CFQUERY>, Select and Insert SQL statements evaluating performance and ease of use. We determined that this is sufficient for the prototype deliverable.
Anyhow, the planning is continuing at this time with hopes of being able to move into the execution phase shortly.
A Project Manager's Tricks of the Trade
The nature of this project is requiring flexibility, adaptability and considerable hands on skills. I rely on a host of pocket guides and references as I move through the project and the hands on aspects. I cannot afford lengthy training cycles and must be able to get-to-the-point quickly. Some of the materials I use are slightly dated but they get me in the ballpark and I know where nearly everything is in them. They include:
Burdette, L (2010). JavaScript: pocketguide. PeachPit Press. CA.
Groff, J.R., WeinBerg, P.N. (2002) SQL: the complete reference. (2 ed.). McGraw Hill Osborne. CA.
PMI (2008). Project Management Body of Knowledge. (4 ed). Project Management Press. PA
Vromans, J. (2002). Perl: pocket reference. (4 ed.) O'reilley. CA.
Of course, I also look up online manuals for Coldfusion and PHP as required as well as other issues that come to mind. I am also benchmarking with people in my network and other successful cart projects using their successes as baselines for this project. That is it for now. I'll try to get another post going soon.
Commentary: The next post is not scheduled so please monitor for it. Most likely, I will be adding portions of the execute phase and completing the planning phase processes in the next post. Please review my other postings. I am completing the Dale Carnegie series this week and continuing with the Comebacks at Work series. Feel free to email me at james.bogden@gmail.com or post a comment. Thanks for reading!
Project Posts:
1. Ongoing Project: Combining Project Management with Hands On Skills
2. Project Management: Unique Skills Beyond Paper Documents
3. OnGoing Project Manages Business Rules
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