Impact of Digital Technology on Business Project Management Plan

This assignment examines the impact of digital technology on business activities, focusing on small businesses like "Digital Shadows," a UK-based digital risk management company. It includes a detailed project management plan outlining the project's definition, implementation, and processes, emphasizing the significance of digital technology in shaping the future business workforce. A project log book provides evidence of project development, ongoing reflections, and problem-solving strategies. The performance review assesses project management processes and individual performances, highlighting the impact of digital technology on business operations, administration, communication, storage, distribution, and production. The report also addresses challenges and opportunities presented by digital transformation, concluding with recommendations and reflections on the research's value in meeting objectives and enhancing learning.

MANAGING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PROJECT
The Impact of Digital Technology on
Business Activity

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................2
PART 1 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN.........................................................................................3
1. Project Definition..................................................................................................................4
2. Implementation Plan............................................................................................................8
3. Project process...................................................................................................................13
PART 2 - PROJECT LOG BOOK........................................................................................................15
Primary research........................................................................................................................15
Data analysis and interpretation...............................................................................................18
Secondary research...................................................................................................................28
Logbook.....................................................................................................................................28
PART 3 - PERFORMANCE REVIEW..................................................................................................30
Analysis of the research and data.............................................................................................30
Recommendations based on the research and analysis of the data to draw conclusions.......32
Reflection on the value of undertaking the research to meet stated objectives and own
learning and performance.........................................................................................................33
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................34
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................35
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INTRODUCTION
This assignment has been prepared for the small businesses' management and their activities
and here the “Digital Shadows” company is taken into consideration. This business is managing
the digital risks and providing digital securities to the other companies that are located in the
UK. The assignment consists of a project management plan that is helpful in defining the
process of project planning, designing, executing and monitoring.
The project plan is also containing the actions that are to be carried out during the project and
helpful in achieving the objectives of the project. It also consists of a project log book which is
helpful in providing evidence if all the process that is being carried out in the project
development along with all the on-going reflections of the people that are connected to the
project. The project log book is also helpful in providing directions for the project and the
problems that are encountered while making project plans. Resolution to these problems is
given in this assignment and the ways they are resolved are also discussed. Another part of the
assignment is, the performance review, which is useful in providing evidence of reflections and
the assessment of the project management processes are also there along with the assessment
of individual performances. The impact of digital technology on the business activities;
especially on the small business and their activities are the main focus of this assignment.
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PART 1 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN
Project management is a technique which covers all the activities that are required to complete
a set project and all the necessities that are concerned with different stakeholders that are
related to the project. The project management plan provides direction to accomplish and
complete the project's objectives that are set to meet the targets of both the employees and
employers (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017.). There are various stages through which the project
management process has to be carried out, thinking, planning and scheduling, data collection,
status update through the network and giving warnings, collective efforts for successful
completion of the project. These processes are used by different businesses in order to
facilitate the working of its workforce in a prearranged manner for achieving the goals and for
evaluating the performance. In this way, the risk parameters are also reduced and the business
becomes able to implement the substitute business plan.
Figure 1: Stages of a project
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1. Project Definition
This assignment focuses on the impacts of digital technology on the business and its activities
and for this; a project management plan has been devised. The significance of digital
technology in modelling the future business workforce is also focused on the project
management plan. It is because the digital technology is impacting various businesses and its
operations in a positive way and enhances its operations. Many challenges need to be
functioning so as to transform them into opportunities and strengths of the business and to
automate the business in the best way.
Problem Statement
Digital technology plays a very important role in the alteration and transformation of different
business activities that include administration, communication, storage and distribution and
production. It is to analyse the impact of technology on these operations.
Project Strategy
In order to implement and plan for the project, different stages are needed that for strategizing
the project and they are called as the project strategies. These strategies are needed to be kept
in mind while performing all the activities of the project. Here, the main step is to devise the
aims and objectives for studying the influence of digital technology on the business and its
activities (Patanakul and Shenhar, 2016). There are various aspects which have to be kept in
mind like the expenses, performances and time period in order to implement the business in
the targeted schedule. The next part of the project management plan contains a Gantt chart
and breakdown structure is also developed. The Gantt chart is helpful for providing a base in
order to implement the next steps of the project plan. In the end, the execution plan will be
developed in order to execute the project’s procedures that are needed for implementing the
processes of the project, that are also included in the last step.
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Project Objective
Project objectives and aims are the clear guidelines through which are to be clear and specific in
nature as they are the base of the project (Matt, Hess and Benlian, 2015). Proper goals and
objectives are helpful in estimating the correct timeframe for achieving the success factor in an
organization. The main aim of this project is to identify how the digital technology is impacting
a business and its operations (Harrison and Lock, 2017). Following are the important processes
that have to be carried out while planning a business project:
 Planning and development
 Assigning roles and responsibilities to the workforce team, with a definite time period
 Monitoring the activities of the workforce team
 Controlling activities of the project
 Regulating the delivery procedures of the project
Following are the main objectives of the Project management plan:
 To analyse how the digital technology has made alterations in the business environment
 To determine how the digital transformation has impacted the individual's activities in
the workplace
 Examining procedures in which the digital technology is able to shape the future
personnel
 Exploring different challenges that the digital technology and advancement has
presented in the working environment
 To analyse the future prospects that are the resultant of the technological alteration in
the present time.
Performance, Cost and Time Objectives
Specifying the SMART objectives, the performance objective of the project can be given as to
analyse the performances of different workforce team at different stages of the project (West,
Loftin and Snyder, 2017). The impacts of the digital technology can be determined at the
minimal cost by analysing the business environment of the organization and the by observing
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the positive changes that it has made. A proper and minimal time need to be set for completing
the analysis say for 6 months or 1 year.
Deliverables
They are the outcomes of the project; in the form of a product of a development process. Here,
all the positive and negative impacts are obtained at the end of the project.
Project Scope Statement
It is a useful tool for outlining the deliverables of a project and to identify the constraints,
assumptions and important success factors (Pheng, 2018). This statement also clearly defines
the project’s boundaries i.e. what is to be included and what is to be excluded in the project.
Included Scope
Efforts are been made to enlist the impacts of the digital advancement on the business and its
operations. A primary research is helpful in collecting the feedbacks from the employees are
collected as they are evidence of the impacts.
Excluded Scope
The research will not hinder the working of the employees and the secondary research cannot
be effective in determining the impacts of digital technology on the business and its operations
as it changes from business to business and from employee to employee.
Success Criteria
The success of this process can be measured by analysing the loopholes in the business
management that is because of the technology changes in the business environment (Cserhati
and Szabo, 2014).
Project Assumptions
 No significant new developments in the technology to change the products of the
business.
 The growth of social media means customers are controlling the brand.
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 No significant market-related events.
 No significant new competition in the business market.
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2. Implementation Plan
It is one of the most important management tools that are supporting the strategic plan of the
project. It breaks every single strategy into identifiable steps, assigns each step to a specific
person or group of person and also suggests the time period by which the steps are to be
completed by the individual or the group (Pinto, 2015). Although, creating an implementation
plan is challenging for a business.
Figure 2: Steps for Implementation Plans
[Mary Colak, 2012]
Work Breakdown Structure
The project’s objective i.e. to identify the digital technology’s impact on the business activities
are to be carried out in various steps and different tasks are to be assigned to different people
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at different levels. These small tasks will collectively work in analysing the impacts that the
digital technology and development have made in the business. All the tasks have to be
completed in time so that they will not impact the other task’s that are assigned to the other
employees. Risks are identified easily by this procedure as every single task is analysed with
accuracy (Lock, 2017). It also motivates the transparency that has to be maintained while
performing different tasks. A large number of benefits is observed in the form of effective time
calculation as all the activities are tracked in an organized manner. Following is the workforce
breakdown structure that is important for analysing the digital technology’s impact on the
business and its operations:
Figure 3: Work Breakdown Structure
Following are the impacts of digital technology on different parts of the organization:
 Impact on Administration: the cloud technology enables effective filing, storage and
sharing of information in the business.
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Project
Plan
Analysis of
impact of digital
technology on
business
Impact on
Administrtion
Impact on
Communcation
Impact on
storage and
distribution
Impact on
Prodcution
Examination of
challanges and
opportunities
Working on
challanges
Examination of
impact on
workforce

 Impact on Communication: the social media and mobile technologies that are adopted
by the business allows the business to make effectively connecting, communicating,
collaborating and building a relationship with the other business on a global scope.
 Impact of Storage and Distribution: the IOT (i.e. Internet of Things) is helpful in
connecting and integrating the different business systems through its structure.
 Impact of Production: the artificial intelligence which is one of the biggest
developments in the technological field along with the big data analysis is driving
innovation and productivity growth in the business.
 Working on challenges: the business has to accept and deal with the change
management that occurred in various activities that are listed above. For this, it has to
recruit new, sustainable and creative talents that will work with the modern technology.
Investments have to be made in training and development programs and the in the new
technologies and the business has to respond to the competitive environment
(Eckerson, 2010).
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Gantt chart: this chart is helpful in scheduling all the activities of the project on a particular
scale of time.
Task / Duration 1 week 2 weeks 3 weeks 4 weeks 5 weeks 6 weeks 7 weeks
Planning for
project
development
Implementing
work definitions
Stakeholder’s
determination
Analysing the
administration’s
impacts
Analysing the
communication’s
impacts
Analysing the
storage and
distribution’s
impacts
Analysing the
production’s
impacts
Data evaluation
Project planning is prioritized in the Gantt chart as it the base of all the future activities and
have to be completed within the period of 1 week. After that, the work definitions have to be
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