On 15 January 2010, a German bank, Schwarzböse, will complete the acquisition of a UK financial services provider, Klesvask, that offers pensions, insurance and investments. Klesvask has 300 staff in 5 sites and uses 15 different software applications, 8 of which are COTS applications supported by the vendors and the others were developed and are maintained in-house. All the applications share a common customer index with a registry of which systems contain records about the given customer.

Schwarzböse plans to migrate 10 of Klesvask's systems (5 of the in-house and 5 of the COTS) to its standard corporate systems. The other Klesvask systems need to be maintained. The Schwarzböse systems all interoperate using an integration engine, defined XML transactions and a standard data dictionary and reference code tables. Schwarzböse also wants to get its corporate timesheet recording system in use by all the fomer Klesvask staff by June 2010.

The aim is to complete the system migrations within 12 months. Schwarzböse expects to be able to reduce its UK external IT support costs by 30%, decrease overall headcount by 15% and cut the in-house software development team from 15 staff to 4 when the migrations are completed. The financial services market continues to be volatile and the European and UK regulators are expected to seek assurances about the quality controls of the takeover plans. As part of its QMS, Schwarzböse has adapted PRINCE2 as its project management standard and ITIL as its service management standard. 

For both the group and individual work, use the PRINCE2 methodology. Tailor the method as necessary for the scenario presented, noting and explaining any variances. The standard document structures for PRINCE2 Project Initiation Documents and Product Descriptions are given below (from OGC, 2005). Note the stated exclusions.

Group work

1.  Write a project initiation document (PID) using a standard PRINCE2 template. You will need to make some assumptions but must state these clearly and explain your reasoning. Justify any variance from the template, for example omission or addition of any sections.

2.  Write product descriptions for at least three of the main deliverables.

3.  Provide a description of how the tasks were divided among your group, stating clearly who contributed or reviewed which parts of the report.

4.  Critically evaluate the business objectives of the project (listed in the PID) and explain how the products will meet those objectives.

5.  Devise a GANTT chart of the project plan, showing the stages and summary tasks. Select at least three summary tasks and show detail tasks for these. Show resource assignment on the detail tasks.

6.  Reflect on the likely factors that would cause staff resistance to the intended business change and suggest how these factors could be managed. Explain your reasoning and your proposals using a forcefield diagram with a narrative commentary.

7.  Identify and evaluate at least two significant advantages and two potential disadvantages of the PRINCE2 project management methodology when applied to the given case study.

8.  Write a reflective critique of the group work, analysing what was successful and what was unsuccessful and why. Suggest what this teaches about managing project teams.