Comprehensive Project Plan: Digital Transformation of EBTH Website

This project management plan details the digital transformation of Everything But The House (EBTH), an online platform for estate services. The plan outlines the project's structure, aiming to enhance EBTH's e-commerce platform for global expansion and maximize sales. It covers key aspects such as project background, development of a project plan, key deliverables, assumptions, schedule, organizational breakdown structure (OBS), work breakdown structure (WBS), resource management, risk register, and skill identification. The project's goal is to increase sales value and provide a more user-friendly e-store, addressing potential risks like technical issues and currency exchange volatility. The plan includes a detailed schedule with tasks across five phases, from initiation to closure, and emphasizes effective resource management and risk mitigation strategies to ensure successful project delivery within the set timeframe of 226 days.

Digital transformation of website Everthing But the Home (EBTH)
1

Brief summary
EBTH is an organisation that provides users of products such as jewellery, housewares and
property with an online platform. This plan covers an entire project structure and a specific
project to improve the company's operations by changing its e-commerce platform. With the
presence of a global market, the company can produce significant value for its customers by
bringing the universal dimension into the company's operations. This project Management
Plan shows how the company can deliver and use value by making the customers interested
in shopping worldwide and interested in auctioning a more comprehensive, easier to use e-
store. Research shows that in every company the project success is not clear and thus the
focus on cost, time and quality elements for successful operations must be obvious (Lock,
2013). The report provides a background on the project management of the digital expansion
of the Everthing but the house (EBTH).com.
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................5
Project Management Background..............................................................................................5
Developing a project plan..........................................................................................................5
Key points to deliver..................................................................................................................6
Key Assumptions of the project.................................................................................................6
Schedule of the project...............................................................................................................7
OBS of the Project.....................................................................................................................8
WBS(work breakdown structure) of the Project........................................................................9
Resource Management...............................................................................................................9
Developing a risk register........................................................................................................10
Identification of the Skills........................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12
Appendix..................................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
Everything But The House (EBTH) is an online platform headquatered in Cincinnati, USA
connects the sellers and shoppers for estate and property services. It is an online marketplace
where people can sell their pre- owned property from anywhere in US. People can browse,
search and can make a bid on sales through a transparent and a very simple process. The
founders of Everything But The House (EBTH) are Jacquie Denny and Brian Graves. EBTH
launches its first sale in 2008. EBTH's passion to assist people in transitions and the ongoing
development of the online platform made it convenient to purchase and sell pre-owned items
and provided broader audiences with an initial focus on online sales. With a complete
consignment approach, the team has developed a complete suite of technology to develop a
new way for dealers and collectors to reach a global market interested in individual products.
The company started its operations in order to help families who have decreased their
number, moved or someone died in the family and otherwise would have to turn to a mixture
of property sales, consignment stores and thrift stores. It was seen by the founders as a
service that helped families undergo a change.
Project Management Background
Project management refers to the training, execution, planning, control and closing practice
of a team to meet specific objectives and goals (Meredith et al., 2015). The main focus of
project management is to achieve all objectives in the given limits (Kerzner, H., 2017). In
addition, there are many principles that contribute a lot to maintaining effective project
services and design (Krahn, J. and Hartment, F., 2017). There are mainly six principles to
make a better project plan which are: vision, mission, goals, business strategy, alignment,
accountability and business standards (Litten, D., 2017).
Developing a project plan
The expansion of the project of EBTH (Everything But The House) globally will take 8 to 9
months time duration to maximize the sales value from $70 to $120 million using an e
commerce online platform. The resourcres which are required for the expansion of EBTH
project are as follows.
 Financial resources
 Human resources
 Expert’s opinions
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 Upgraded technology
Key points to deliver
 Sales maximization
 Awarness
 Expand globally
 Competitive Edge
 Maximization of profits
Key Assumptions of the project
Required Technology: To expand EBTH globally, It requires to procure hardware,softwares,
developing new softwares, coduct traning for existing employees and others. For the current
project, it is assumed that EBTH has all the essential resources in a timely manner for
developing an internation website, can be accessed globally.
Infrastructure : For the expansion of the project, EBTH requires some changes or
upgradation in the existing infrastructure such as networking, communication etc. So, It can
be assumed that EBTH has all the required infrastructure with it for completion of the project
successfully.
Resources: The expansion of the project requires essential organisational resources like
human capital, experts, finance and a team experienced developers etc. EBTH (Everything
But The House is a leading online platform that has enough finance provide funds for its
global expansion scheme. Although, employees with exceptional skills are not required, and
so companies need to recruit more employees and to remove any communication gap
between people EBTH should train its existing employees with international and intercultural
communication training. Though there will be multilingual service providers, regional agents
and translators globally, who will be hiring. Resources are therefore expected to be neither
overdetermined nor underspended in this area; EBTH managers probably would not have to
make changes.
Risk associated: There are some risk elements in the project that can have a tremendous
impact upon its operation. Inappropriate financial turbulence, technical system mistakes,
inefficient allocations, poor performance and other risks could also be dealt with by project
managers and teams. Therefore, technical issues with serious business effects are more likely
5

to arise, as the project aims to create a global e-commerce platform. Through the strong
supervision of the EBTH IT Expert, capable technical team members can therefore overcome
potential disability connection, poor testing, software bugs and others of major problems.
Moreover, companies are also likely to face a currency-exchange volatility risk, like a
decrease of euro or dollar value, which can lead to financial turbulence and exceed their
actual cost above expected cost. Moreover, as EBTH requires different resources, including
software, hardware, equipment, and other resources from its suppliers. There is therefore a
procurement risk, including delayed delivery, greater than expected costs and poor software
security testing.
Major constraints: The most significant constraint which can effect the project are technical
constraints. Furthermore, scope, costing and timeline are the three project constraints, which
EBTH can only accomplish in the context of its global expansion plan. The work of the
project is to be completed with in 226 days and if in any circumstances, the work is delayed,
renegotiation will be used for the final implementation of the project, for the allocation of
more employees, for multi-task personnel and other employees.
Schedule of the project
Table 1: Project Schdule
Project
Task
Duratio
n
Of task
Starting date Ending date
Digitalizing of the EBTH 226 days Tue 19-05-20 Mon 30-12-20
Phase 1: Initiation of the project 29 days Tue 19-05-20 Fri 22-06-20
Organizing the project 17 days Thu 22-06- 20 Fri 09-07-20
Phase 2: Project Planning 23 days Fri 09-07-20 Tue 10-08-20
Project approval 13 days Fri 10-08-20 Tue 23-08-20
Estimation of the budget 23 days Wed 23-08-20 Fri 16-08-20
Completion of the planning and
project 12 days Thu 16-08-20 Fri 27-08-20
Phase 3: Project Execution 51 days Fri 27-08-20 Fri 31-10-20
Application of the required changes in
the project 24 days Tue 31-10-20 Fri 24-11-20
Phase 4: Monitoring and closing of
Project 21 days Sat 24-11-20 Tue 15-12-20
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Delivering the final requirements of the
project 3 days Sat 15-12-20 Tue 18-12-20
Phase 5: Project Closure 9 days Wed 19-12-20 Mon 28-12-20
Ending the project 1 day Fri 29-12-20 Fri 30-12-20
OBS of the Project
S NO. Task Alloted Durstio
n of task
Starting Ending
1 Digital expansion website of EBTH 226 days 19-05-20 30-12-20
1.1 Phase 1: Initiation of the project 49 days 19-05-20 09-07-20
1.1.1 Conducting project related
interviews with EBTH executives 12 days 19-05-20 31-05-20
1.1.2 Analysis of the existing website 12 days 31-05-20 12-06-20
1.1.3 Analysis of the business and market 2 days 12-06-20 15-06-20
1.1.4 Considering the project approaches 1 day 15-06-20 16-06-20
1.1.5 Assessment of the various project
requirements 5 days 16-06-20 22-06-20
1.1.6 Organizing the project activities 17 days 22-06-20 09-07-20
1.2 Phase 2: Project Planning 43 days 09-07-20 22-08-20
1.2.1 Considering different project
requirements 3 days 09-07-20 12-07-20
1.2.2 Identification of the project goals 4 days 12-07-20 16-07-20
1.2.3 Identification of the project objectives 20 days 16-07-20 06-08-20
1.2.4 Defining the Scope 13 day 07-08-20 19-08-20
1.2.5 Project charter approval 3 days Fri 19-08-20 Tue 22-08-20
1.3 Estimation of the overall budget 53 days 22-08-20 16-10-20
1.3.1 Work breakdown 20 days 22-08-20 15-09-20
1.3.2 Scheduling the project activities 3 days 16-09-20 19-09-20
1.3.3 Resource distribution for individual
activities 10 days 19-09-20 30-09-20
1.3.4 Allocating the Stakeholders 5 days 1-09-20 6-10-20
1.3.5 Establishing a communication plan
with the main stakeholders 3 days 07-10-20 11-10-20
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1.3.6 Completion of the planning and
project approval 2 days 11-10-20 16-10-20
1.4 Phase 3: Project Execution 81 days Fri 17-10-20 Fri 30-12-20
1.4.1 Analysis of the existing auction
website 20 days 17-10-20 07-11-20
1.4.2 Analysis of the website requirements 20 days 07-11-20 27-11-20
1.4.3 Carrying out the executive interview 20 days 27-11-20 17-12-20
1.4.4 Analysing the present business 21 days 17-12-20 30-12-20
WBS(work breakdown structure) of the Project
Fig 1: WBS of the project
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Digital Expansion of EBTH
Phase 1 Initialization
of Project
Conducting
interviews related
to the project
Analysis of
existing website
Analysis of
market
Assessment of
requirements
Organising the
activities
Phase2
Planning
Considering project
requrements
Identification of
goals
Identification of
obejctives
Defining Scope
Project
Approval
Phase 3 Project
Execution
Analysis of
existing website
Analysis of
requirements
Carrying out
interview
Analysing present
business
Suggesting
alternatives
Determining
Methods
Management of
deliverables
Communicaton
with shareholders
Phase 4
Monitoring
Cost profit
analysis
Analysing reponse of
present employee
Testing
Collecting feedback
Promoting chnages
Delivery
Phase 5 Project
Closure
Documenti
ng the
project
Docmenting
the learning
Recording
issues
Providing
modifications
Ending the
project

Resource Management
Resource management is the efficient and effective use of an organization's resources, when
required. This may include financial resources, inventories, human skills, resources of
production or Information technology. For the best approach to allocation of funds, processes,
techniques and philosophies were developed in the field of project management.
Human Resource Planning
The project team is the most important resource for a project. Depending on the milestones or
the specific phase of the project, projects require specialised expertise at specific times of the
schedule. During a Budget Year, EBTH can host multiple strategic projects, allowing its staff
to work on over one project at a time. Alternatively, an employee may be relegated to a
project team because of his/her expertise, away from his/her role within an organization.
Team management
In order to meet the needs of a project, a highly effective team of technically qualified and
motivated individuals is important for achieving project outcomes. One of the many
responsibilities of a project manager is to improve the ability of each project team member to
participate in and to promote personal growth and accomplishment.
Resource Leveling
Resource levelling is used over time to assess unequal resources use (usually individuals or
equipment) and to resolve disputes or disputes over time. For the expansion of EBTH the
manager will try to plan certain tasks simultaneously in carrying out project planning
activities. When resources are needed more than are available, such as machinery or people,
or if in both tasks a certain person is needed, tasks must sequentially be rescheduled to
manage the limitation.
Developing a risk register
The aim of developing a project management risk register is to track the pontential risk. The
EBTH project manager should maintain a risk register for the carefull assessment of risk. A
risk is a uncertainty that will affect positively or negatively to the organization. When
something is identified by the project manager that could impact the EBTH, it should be
recorded by him in the register. The developer should have a map that has the correct design
9

and structure to help redirect the essence of the brand (Rasnacis and Berzisa2017). Lastly, the
project needs to update the CMS (content management system) and correct testing, since the
auction site needs greater efficiency worldwide.
Why Risk register ?
The project manager of EBTH will need to register risk, as the project will expand and will
be more complex, it will be hard for the project manager tpo stay on the top of everything. If
risk will not be recorded or tracked, the things will be missed or forgotten.
Identification of the Skills
The project manager must take the entire business dimension into account as part of this
project associated with the digital transformation of the auction website. This website
transformation is a visual conversion of business and organisational processes, activities,
modelling, and skills to leverage changes and other business opportunities (Sousa and
Rocha2019). The opportunities incorporate a combination of digital technology, which helps
to speed up social impact through a priority and strategic method that takes into account
current and future changes. In practise, customer experience optimization, innovation and
operational flexibility are the key drivers of this whole digital transformation (Hess et al.
2016).
A digital marketing expertise is also identified where the development and auctioning of the
website can help the company offer customers reliability and services opportunities. The team
members have identified the digital trends and are very important for the efficient
implementation of this project (Greenwayet al. 2018). Good digital marketing skills have a
big impact on website services for customers (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick 2019). Digital
marketing involves making good content, video production, social media engagement and
content marketing attractive to the public. In the project that increases technological expertise
and instincts to prevent various unconditional procedure for the different incoming risks and
to defend against such issues, the skills of digital security are identified (Justice and Pence
2016).
Conclusion
This report examines the digitisation of the development of the auctioned website EBTH
when the way companies and members work together from multiple points of view is
changed with advanced changes. Some points are therefore foreseen and some are
10

unexpected. While it can be a test to both know where to start and move, it is vital that the
skills of the workforce are remembered as an important part of the procedure. This report also
provides the structure of the project specification. In addition, the report recommends an
appropriate work breakdown structure for the entire project, defining the tasks or activities to
conduct the digital website transformation. The report provides background information on
the project management related to the digital transformation of the EBTH auction website.
The company underwent a digital transformation which contributed to sales growth. Finally,
the report identified the key skills required for the digital transformation of EBTH
( Everything But the House) to be carried out by this project.
11

References
1. Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
2. Greenway, A., Terrett, B., Bracken, M. and Loosemore, T., 2018. Digital
Transformation at Scale: Why the Strategy Is Delivery: Why the Strategy Is Delivery.
London Publishing Partnership.
3. Hess, T., Matt, C., Benlian, A. and Wiesböck, F., 2016.Options for formulating a digital
transformation strategy. MIS Quarterly Executive, 15(2).
4. Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: A Systems Approach to Planning,
Scheduling and Controlling. 12th ed. [Place of publication not identified]: John Wiley
& Sons.
5. Justice, L.M. and Pence, K.L., 2016. Language development from theory to
practice. Pearson Education (us).
6. Krahn, J. and Hartment, F., 2017. Effective project leadership : project manager skills
and competencies. [online] Pmi.org. Available at:
<https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/leadership-project-manager-skills-competencies-
8115> [Accessed 27 September 2017].
7. Litten, D., 2017. PRINCE2 Primer. [online] PRINCE2 Primer - Mastering PRINCE2
Project Management. Available at: <https://www.prince2primer.com/prince2-project-
plan/> [Accessed 2 October 2017].
8. Litten, D., 2017. PRINCE2 Primer. [online] PRINCE2 Primer - Mastering PRINCE2
Project Management. Available at: <https://www.prince2primer.com/prince2-project-
plan/> [Accessed 5 October 2017].
9. Lock, D., 2013. Project management, 10th edition. Farnham, Surrey, England: Gower
Pub.
10. Meredith, J., Mantel, S., Mantel. and Shafer, S., 2015. Project Management: A
Managerial Approach, Ninth Edition International Stud. John Wiley & Sons.
11. Rasnacis, A. and Berzisa, S., 2017.Method for adaptation and implementation of agile
project management methodology. Procedia Computer Science, 104, pp.43-50.
12

12. Sousa, M.J. and Rocha, Á., 2019. Digital learning: Developing skills for digital
transformation of organizations. Future Generation Computer Systems, 91, pp.327-334.
Appendix
Fig 1: Structure of the project
Table 1: Project Schdule
Project
Task
Duratio
n
Of task
Starting date Ending date
Digitalizing of the EBTH 226 days Tue 19-05-20 Mon 30-12-20
Phase 1: Initiation of the project 29 days Tue 19-05-20 Fri 22-06-20
Organizing the project 17 days Thu 22-06- 20 Fri 09-07-20
Phase 2: Project Planning 23 days Fri 09-07-20 Tue 10-08-20
Project approval 13 days Fri 10-08-20 Tue 23-08-20
Estimation of the budget 23 days Wed 23-08-20 Fri 16-08-20
Completion of the planning and
project 12 days Thu 16-08-20 Fri 27-08-20
13
Digital Expansion of EBTH
Phase 1
Initialization of
Project
Conducting
interviews
related to the
project
Analysis of
existing website
Analysis of
market
Assessment of
requirements
Organising the
activities
Phase2
Planning
Considering project
requrements
Identification of
goals
Identification of
obejctives
Defining Scope
Project
Approval
Phase 3 Project
Execution
Analysis of
existing website
Analysis of
requirements
Carrying out
interview
Analysing present
business
Suggesting
alternatives
Determining
Methods
Management of
deliverables
Communicaton
with shareholders
Phase 4
Monitoring
Cost profit
analysis
Analysing reponse of
present employee
Testing
Collecting feedback
Promoting chnages
Delivery
Phase 5 Project
Closure
Documenti
ng the
project
Docmenting
the learning
Recording
issues
Providing
modifications
Ending the
project

Phase 3: Project Execution 51 days Fri 27-08-20 Fri 31-10-20
Application of the required changes in
the project 24 days Tue 31-10-20 Fri 24-11-20
Phase 4: Monitoring and closing of
Project 21 days Sat 24-11-20 Tue 15-12-20
Delivering the final requirements of the
project 3 days Sat 15-12-20 Tue 18-12-20
Phase 5: Project Closure 9 days Wed 19-12-20 Mon 28-12-20
Ending the project 1 day Fri 29-12-20 Fri 30-12-20
OBS of the Project
S NO. Task Alloted Durstio
n of task
Starting Ending
1 Digital expansion website of EBTH 226 days 19-05-20 30-12-20
1.1 Phase 1: Initiation of the project 49 days 19-05-20 09-07-20
1.1.1 Conducting project related
interviews with EBTH executives 12 days 19-05-20 31-05-20
1.1.2 Analysis of the existing website 12 days 31-05-20 12-06-20
1.1.3 Analysis of the business and market 2 days 12-06-20 15-06-20
1.1.4 Considering the project approaches 1 day 15-06-20 16-06-20
1.1.5 Assessment of the various project
requirements 5 days 16-06-20 22-06-20
1.1.6 Organizing the project activities 17 days 22-06-20 09-07-20
1.2 Phase 2: Project Planning 43 days 09-07-20 22-08-20
1.2.1 Considering different project
requirements 3 days 09-07-20 12-07-20
1.2.2 Identification of the project goals 4 days 12-07-20 16-07-20
1.2.3 Identification of the project objectives 20 days 16-07-20 06-08-20
1.2.4 Defining the Scope 13 day 07-08-20 19-08-20
1.2.5 Project charter approval 3 days Fri 19-08-20 Tue 22-08-20
1.3 Estimation of the overall budget 53 days 22-08-20 16-10-20
1.3.1 Work breakdown 20 days 22-08-20 15-09-20
1.3.2 Scheduling the project activities 3 days 16-09-20 19-09-20
1.3.3 Resource distribution for individual
activities 10 days 19-09-20 30-09-20
14

1.3.4 Allocating the Stakeholders 5 days 1-09-20 6-10-20
1.3.5 Establishing a communication plan
with the main stakeholders 3 days 07-10-20 11-10-20
1.3.6 Completion of the planning and
project approval 2 days 11-10-20 16-10-20
1.4 Phase 3: Project Execution 81 days Fri 17-10-20 Fri 30-12-20
1.4.1 Analysis of the existing auction
website 20 days 17-10-20 07-11-20
1.4.2 Analysis of the website requirements 20 days 07-11-20 27-11-20
1.4.3 Carrying out the executive interview 20 days 27-11-20 17-12-20
1.4.4 Analysing the present business 21 days 17-12-20 30-12-20
15