Workshop Plan and Team Facilitation Report for IT Projects - ENSE882

This report presents a comprehensive workshop plan for team facilitation, specifically designed for an IT project aimed at developing new performance appraisal software. It begins with an overview of team facilitation and its importance in guiding teams towards common goals, emphasizing the role of a facilitator in leading group processes. The report then delves into the IT Project Life Cycle, outlining the various phases involved in the project, including requirements and analysis, architecture, design, construction, integration and testing, and implementation. Detailed explanations are provided for each phase, including resource requirements, potential solutions, and anticipated outcomes. The report also covers crucial aspects such as the design phase, which includes the arrival and welcome of team members, and the setting up of project components. Furthermore, it discusses the construction phase, involving the initiation of the process and the anticipated outcomes. The integration and testing phase involves testing outcomes, while the implementation phase covers the steps for completion. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of robust testing and continuous improvement to ensure the success of the new IT system.

TEAM
FACILITATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Overview................................................................................................................................1
IT Project Life Cycle..............................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Team Facilitation is a procedure of appropriately and effectively guiding a team of
individuals within a company, towards a set gaol and along with ensuring improvisation
throughout the process (Bens, 2017). It sees an active role of a facilitator, who is responsible
towards leading group processes, as well as assisting people within those groups towards solving
issues and making appropriate decisions. Therefore, the report below is associated with
facilitation of a team towards building new performance appraisal software in an appropriate
manner. It would be covering the structure of a workshop plan, which would be including the
application of IT Project Life Cycle.
MAIN BODY
Overview
It is very necessary for an organisation to indulge into practices that are related to
employee development and their long term engagement in the company. Moreover, it becomes
imperative after a while to provide them better opportunities for working through provision of
appropriate appraisal system that is relevant to the current business environment in which they
work. Hence, the company is planning to engage a team facilitator in order to develop a
workshop that would be associated with getting new software related to performance appraisals
for agreement. Therefore, the title of the new workshop would be “Employee Engagement
Initiative”, and the same is developed below in detail.
IT Project Life Cycle
IT project management includes all the processes and techniques it requires to complete an
information technology project. It covers time, resources and actions, which engages an
organisation towards developing an appropriate and detailed plan in relation to several issues or
decisions within the company, which aligns with their strategies. Hence, below is a detailed
outlay for Employee Engagement Initiative, which would be include several tasks, activities, as
well as timeline related to the project (Allison., Shuffler and Wallace, 2015).
Requirements and Analysis Resources Required
In order to set up a database for performance appraisals, there are several requirements of
resources that are subjected towards ensuring appropriate development. The very first type is the
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human resource, which requires the firm to gather a range of different and competent individuals
who would be responsible towards developing the code, design and structure of this new
software. Another resource would be associated with technical capabilities. For software to be
developed that has to be built over a large scale and for a longer time period, it becomes
necessary to have supportive infrastructure for the same to ensure that effective software is
developed to suit the requirements. Extra Roles Required
Apart from a team of software developers and team facilitators, there are certain extra roles
that are required to be taken into account. For instance, one role is associated with auditors, who
will be testing the software based on the ethical and technical requirements. Moreover, resource
investigators and implementers would also be required in order to ensure that the company has
all the necessary resources that is required for implementation of the set plan.
 Anticipated Time
The anticipated time that would be required to accomplish this workshop activity is 2
months, considering the approval of design, development, testing and final implementation. As
for this step, it would be requiring one week to be accomplished.
In context of the time, below is a display of how the anticipated time is divided:
ACTIVITIES TIME FRAME
Requirements and Analysis 3 Days
Architecture 2 Weeks
Design 2 Weeks
Construction 2 Weeks
Integration and Test 1 Week
Implementation 4 Days
TOTAL 2 Months
Architecture Current Situation of the company
Currently, the firm is facing a problem of high staff turnover, due to ineffective appraisals
and benefit schemes towards their performances. Hence, in this relation the organisation is in
requirement of better performance appraisals that address the demands of these employees
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effectively. This is majorly required by the organisation in context of determining and deriving
the alternatives which could be used to measure, as well as improve the performance standards of
employees through new systems. Possible Solutions
There are several possible solutions in light of the current situation. For instance, a fully
integrated program that is supportive towards recording grievances and providing personalised
attention to each employee. An advantage in link with the same is it would allow the individuals
to feel important and required within the company, which would ensure reduction in the level of
turnover. Another benefit is that due to integration, instant communication would be set up that
would allow the firm to address the problems of employees more effectively. Along with this,
another method is simple as it takes into account a separate and highly functional appraisal
system which would ensure accurate performance judgements and processes for its improvement
(Carmeli, A. and Paulus, 2015). A strength related to this method is that staff would be motivated
to work in an improved manner and become more productive, which straightaway aligns with the
goal of the company. Along with this, a proper appraisal would allow the higher management to
communicate essentially to the employees regarding in what areas they are lagging behind. Justification
Out of both the options that have been presented above, the firm must undertake the ones
with performance appraisal software. The reason for this is because this would be very much
convenient and feasible to the organisation, as well as to its employees due to being subjected to
the problem that has been stated above which is causing constant turnover of staff.
Design Arrival and Welcome
It is a very crucial step for a team facilitator to appropriately and effectively ensure effective
arrival and welcome of the human resources in order to ensure their proper engagement and
participation towards the activity in question. Hence, in order to ensure this, the group processes
must ensure proper and structured invitations and notifications to each of the members involved,
so that all of them arrive appropriately to development of the same. Furthermore, as for their
welcome, the facilitator is required to provide them with effective comfort level, as well as
manuals which would help them understand the agenda of the workshop plan (Hillberry and
Zhang, 2015).
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 Setting up of Components
All the components are necessary to be aligned and set accordingly to ensure that they could
be linked together in a manner which contributes towards accomplishment of the agenda. Hence,
in relation to development of Employee Engagement Initiative software, the components such as
Hardware, software, financial, technical and human resources must be anticipated, acquired and
aligned for the process to appropriately begin. For this purpose, the facilitator could also ensure
appropriate help from external professionals in information technology who would be guiding
them towards the necessary components that must be set in place to achieve required objectives.
In addition to this setting up the essential components for building up new software would
first require certified suppliers and authentication of the quality of technology which would be
provided to them. Therefore, the firm must approach suppliers which have certified quality
technology and must come under contract with them to supply the firm with latest technologies
to build the new software.
Construction Initiation of the Process
This step marks the initiative of the workshop plan to develop performance appraisal
software. There are several activities which are necessary to be followed by the organisation in
an appropriate and effective manner to give the project a head start. For instance, it is necessary
to get the idea approved from the top manager by providing them with the feasibility analysis,
forecasted benefits, estimated budget and so forth, which would allow them to judge the idea,
along with providing necessary resources which helps in development of the same.
After the approval process, it is necessary to allocate resources in a justified and required
manner to ensure maximum output and minimum waste. Hence, in this relation, the team
facilitator is required to conduct and induction of the people, along with allocating the group
with their respective duties and providing them necessary training regarding the software and
new technologies if there is a need for it (LeGros and et. al., 2015). Additionally, the initiation of
the project also involves detailed and effective performance testing of each of the component
involved within the project. Anticipated Outcomes
There are several anticipated outcomes which are associated with development of the new IT
system within the company. This is because while the new technology is being developed, there
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are multiple ways in which this workshop is likely to be accomplished. Hence, below are certain
anticipated outcomes in light of Employee Engagement Initiative software development:
o The very first anticipation with this new IT development is that it might turn out to be
at par with the expectations of the company and team facilitator. In this outcome, there
would be positive responses from each stakeholder within the company, along with
enhancement of employee engagement due to effectiveness of the new software.
o Another anticipated outcome related to development of this system is that it might
present some glitch in terms of performance, or might not sustain large quantities of
data. This would be resulting in ineffectiveness within its implementation that would
require changes in coding and acquisition of better technological inputs for its effective
processing.
o The software associated with the new employee engagement could also be a failed idea,
as the coding might be inappropriate, along with weaker equipments and unsupportive
technology which would be requiring a complete modification of the set plan in terms
of resources, components, as well as strategies which would be making the plan a
success in future (Szymanski and et. al., 2017).
Integration and Test Testing for Outcomes
In order to achieve the most desirable outcomes, it is imperative that each outcome is tested
in order to analyse the contribution which each of these aspects would be having on the
company. Hence, there are several ways in which the same could be achieved by the team
facilitator. For instance, they could use methods such as Key Performance Indicators, where he
could set certain indicators as medium to judge the success within the same. For this purpose,
employee engagement and their retention could be viewed as the indicators of success for the
new software (Gullo, Ha and Cook, 2015).
Another method which the firm and team facilitator could undertake to measure the
outcomes could be Benchmarking. Each software requires excelling in speed, accuracy and
convenience. Hence, all these factors must be considered as benchmarks for Employee
Engagement Initiative software to achieve, in regards to achieve the most desirable outcomes
that would help the organisation towards engaging and retaining its employees in an effective
manner.
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Implementation Steps for completion
After all the process is appropriately complete and outcomes are accomplished by the
workshop plan, it becomes imperative for the organisation and team facilitator to complete the
process in manner which provides a complete closure to the project and appropriate achievement
of the company’s objectives with the plan.
Hence, in regards to this, there are certain steps that must be undertaken to ensure that the
development of this new IT system is as per the necessary requirements. Some of the most
crucial steps are explained below:
o One way through which the step could be completed is through indulging in robust
testing of the new software in different situations and circumstances. This would help
in determining the effectiveness of the software in relation to speed and usage.
Moreover, performance testing would also be helping in denoting any scope of
improvement that is related to either its performance, or its sustainability. To achieve
this, the company could use automation and Artificial Intelligence as a method to test
the solution with enhanced and aggressive usage which would be able to determine
that whether the new software is capable of holding up data of hundreds of employees
and also calculate accurate measures to enhance their performance levels.
o Another step that is related to the completion process is ensuring that the software is
secure for usage and the personal data of employees and their performance is
segregated and into full safety. To achieve this, the facilitator must ensure
development and implementation of data encryption software that would be
promoting the safety of the overall plan (Brewer, Flavell and Jordon, 2017).
o Appropriate and structured feedbacks must also be acquired from employees and
other stakeholders to determine that the objective of this software is fully achieved.
This could be ensured through usage of methods such as questionnaires and surveys,
which would allow gathering information about employees and their opinion about
the new solution.
CONCLUSION
Thus, it is concluded from the report above that team facilitation is very crucial and
important in order to ensure appropriate guidance and pathway for teams to perform different
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activities. Moreover, it is also necessary to implement IT project lifecycle which would also be
giving in proper structure for the firm to follow in relation to better and effective structure of
developing new and appropriate IT systems and implement them to suit the organisation’s goals
and objectives.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Allison, B.B., Shuffler, M.L. and Wallace, A.M., 2015. The successful facilitation of virtual
team meetings.
Bens, I., 2017. Facilitating with Ease!: core skills for facilitators, team leaders and members,
managers, consultants, and trainers. John Wiley & Sons.
Brewer, M.L., Flavell, H.L. and Jordon, J., 2017. Interprofessional team-based placements: The
importance of space, place, and facilitation. Journal of Interprofessional Care. 31(4).
pp.429-437.
Carmeli, A. and Paulus, P.B., 2015. CEO ideational facilitation leadership and team creativity:
The mediating role of knowledge sharing. The Journal of Creative Behavior. 49(1).
pp.53-75.
Gullo, C., Ha, T.C. and Cook, S., 2015. Twelve tips for facilitating team-based learning. Medical
Teacher. 37(9). pp.819-824.
Hillberry, R. and Zhang, X., 2015. Policy and performance in customs: evaluating the trade
facilitation agreement. The World Bank.
LeGros, T.A., and et. al., 2015. Using learning theory, interprofessional facilitation
competencies, and behavioral indicators to evaluate facilitator training. Journal of
interprofessional care. 29(6). pp.596-602.
Szymanski, C., and et. al., 2017. Teams on the same wavelength perform better: Inter-brain
phase synchronization constitutes a neural substrate for social
facilitation. Neuroimage. 152. pp.425-436.
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