Developing a Project Scope for an Enterprise-wide Wireless LAN

Developing a Project Scope for an Enterprise-wide Wireless LAN
An auto parts manufacturing company based in Atlanta, Georgia, has nine distribution
centers located throughout the United States. As the manufacturing company
produces the parts, it ships them to the distribution centers for temporary storage.
When resellers and retail stores order more parts, the company can react quickly by
shipping them to the requester from the nearest distribution center. Profits for this
$800-million-per-year company had been high the previous year; therefore, the company
was looking seriously at investing some of the profits to improve its stance with
customers and take on more market share.
The president of the company, Bob, had met with one of his friends who operates a
manufacturing company that makes and distributes hydraulic pumps. While fishing,
Bob’s friend mentioned that had he just finished the implementation of a wireless
system that supports automation with his distribution centers and wireless mobility in
the executive office areas. His friend had found that the automated system, which
included receiving and inventory functions, was saving him more than a $1 million
per year in labor. The wireless system in the executive offices cost approximately the
same as installing wired Ethernet, but he was seeing definite benefits for his staff to
have wireless mobility with their laptops throughout the offices. After returning from
the visit with his friend, Bob immediately notified his warehouse operations manager,
Denise, and the head of information systems, Chris, to consider a similar system for
their parts distribution centers and professional office areas.
Because they had never implemented wireless systems and had limited resources
within their information systems group, Chris and Denise decided to contract a system
integration company to manage the entire project—from project planning through
implementation. After a couple meetings with the system integrator, Chris decided to
contract Debra, an employee of the system integrator and a certified project manager,
to develop a project plan and feasibility study so that Bob could decide on funding.
The project plan, which consists of a work plan, resource identification, a
preliminary budget, and risk identification, will provide a basis for the costs shown
within the feasibility study. A business process analysis will provide information
regarding the benefits of implementing the system.
As the first step for planning the project, Debra developed a project scope to ensure
that everyone would be focusing on the same basic requirements throughout the
project and to provide a basis for determining the following:
• Project tasks
• Staffing
• Scheduling
• Budgeting
Debra met with Bob to clearly understand his perspective of the project. She asked
questions that probed the business problem and addressed the constraints that will
limit the project. Debra also met with both Denise and Chris to gain a basic understanding
of the issues and needs of the warehouse staff, office workers, and information
systems group concerning the proposed project.
After gathering this information, Debra prepared a project scope. The following are
the main points of the document:
• Project charter—The purpose of this project is to develop a wireless bar code
system to automate functions that result in a significant return on investment
within the distribution-center warehouses. In addition, the project will implement
a wireless LAN in the office areas to support mobility with end users who
have laptops. The warehouse staff currently utilizes paper-based methods to
manage all aspects of the warehouse, resulting in inefficient use of labor and
higher delays than competitors when processing orders for customers. A wireless
automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) system is a solution that
will decrease delays in getting parts to customers by enabling the warehouses
to keep more accurate records of parts in stock, shorten order-picking time, and
speed up the shipping-preparation process. The AIDC system will consist of a
wireless LAN, applicable application software, and database. The AIDC will need
to interface with the company’s existing corporate information system to feed
management and reporting systems already in place. The office system will consist
of a wireless LAN and existing laptops and applications.
This project will consist of a requirements analysis and feasibility study phase
that the president (Bob) and his financial officers will use to decide whether the
expense for the system is in the best interest of the company. If the feasibility of
implementing the system is positive, the project will also include steps for
designing, installing, and supporting the system.
• Constraints—The manufacturing company will fund the analysis and feasibility
study and will spend up to $500,000 during the next year to implement the system.
There are no restrictions on the selection of hardware and software for
this project.