Analyzing Myer's Online Shopping Disaster: A Project Management View

This case study delves into the 'Myer's Online Shopping Disaster,' a project failure stemming from technical issues and a website crash during a critical sales period for the Australian department store chain, Myer. The analysis identifies key success criteria for project management, including goal setting, complexity management, the use of appropriate management tools, realistic expectations, flexibility, and robust existing systems. The case study critically evaluates Myer's project against these criteria, highlighting shortcomings in technical expertise, risk management, and contingency planning. The report concludes with recommendations for future project implementations, emphasizing the importance of thorough planning, continuous monitoring, skilled technical teams, and proactive risk assessment. The aim is to provide insights that can help prevent similar project failures and enhance the success rate of future online initiatives. Desklib provides a wide array of solved assignments and case studies for students.

Project Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Identification (from the literature), description and justification of the success criteria you
think appropriate for your selected project ............................................................................4
Critical analysis of the case based on the criteria chosen.......................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Recommendations in the event that the project should be re-run
in the future............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................8
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Project management is the process of completing work and achieve goals and objectives.
There are certain steps that are being followed to carry on a project in effective manner (Barbosa
and et.al., 2021). In this report there is discussion related to “Myer's Online Shopping Disaster.”
The evaluation of the criteria for the project and critical analysis of the case are mentioned.
Recommendations are mentioned in the end of this report.
MAIN BODY
Company Background and the project.
Myer is one of the Australian mid-range to upscale department store chain. It was
founded 122 years ago in 1900. The business organisation has its headquarters in Docklands,
Victoria, Australia. They deal in a wide range of products across women's, men's, and children's
footwear, clothing, and accessories, cosmetics and fragrance, food and confectionery, electrical,
home wares, connected home, toys, furniture, books and stationery, and travel goods. The
business organisation has more that 14000 employees. The business organisation has existence
on online platforms as well. It is necessary for all the business organisation to have online
presence in order to operate properly. They have planned to undertake the project related to their
online website that will help them to enhance the sales. There is requirement of having clear
aims so that the management team is able to carry on the work properly. Under Myer's Online
Shopping Disaster there was issue of communication breakdown faced by the company. It was a
technical issue that was faced by the company for a period of 1 month. They were unable to
continue their online presence due to the website breakdown. It was one of the biggest failure
being observed at that time and caused ample amount of loss to the company.
Identification (from the literature), description and justification of the success criteria you think
appropriate for your selected project
As per López-Robles, J.R and et.al., 2019 There is need of taking care various criteria
that are necessary for achieving success of the project. There is need to know about all the
criteria that will make a business successful or failure. They are discussed below:
Goals: Setting goals is necessary to set clear goals so that they are able to attain success.
By setting right and clear goals will help the company to attain success of the project. If the goals

are attained by the company. The use of right goals are necessary for the company. By working
effectively towards the goals will make them successful.
Complexity: The nature of the project also matters and decide success and failure. There
are major criteria that will make the project successful. If the project is complex then it becomes
difficult for the project team (Mavi and Standing, 2018). Also, the management team can work
properly so that they are able to minimise complexity.
Management tools: The work of management team and the tools that are being used by
the project team. The progress of the project depends on the the work done by the company. The
use of right tools will make the company successful.
Over-Optimistic Expectations: It is seen that if the expectations from the project are
higher then if causes problems. It is important to cross check the expectations so that the work
can be managed properly (Hair and Sarstedt, 2021). The project team can examine at the time of
project that all the objectives will be met or not.
Flexibility: The project must be flexible and can be changed if required. The project that
is not able to meet up the changes generally fails. The project management team must be ready
with the options that can be undertaken in case of project loss. By adopting flexibility the project
can attain success and is able to meet the objectives effectively. The dynamic nature of business
requires alternatives ready in case of requirement.
Existing Systems: There is need of checking the existing system that is being used by
project team. The use of latest technology also defines the success level of a project. The use
updated tool and techniques are necessary for the completing the project properly (Picciotto,
2020). The required software must be done by the project team in order to attain success of the
project.
All these criteria help a business organisation to manage their projects in proper manner.
The project manager must consider all these aspects in order to make the project successful.
Critical analysis of the case based on the criteria chosen
The “Myer’s Online Shopping Disaster” was one of the major project failure being
observed by the place. The issue was related to technical error and website crash on the day on
Christmas. This cause major losses for the company and the sales went down. The problem was
faced by the company and customers for a period of 1 week. There are certain aspects such as
documentation, scope and budget that must be considered. There is need of assuring that the

objectives is fulfilled. There is need to assure that the project is carried on right time and within
budget that is specified. If all the specifications are not followed then the project can be failed.
There are some criteria that help to check the success and failure of the project. They are
mentioned below:
Goals: The goals of the project were clear. The goal of the company is to enhance the
online sales of the organisation. They were unable to meet the objectives in proper manner and
that cause issue for them. The issue was related to technical error due to which they were unable
to meet the desired objectives.
Complexity: The project was not complex. The aim was to enhance the sales of the
company with the help online platforms (Zhang, 2021). But the situation of website breakdown
enhanced complexity of the project. They team was unable to deal with the situation and the
project failed.
Management tools: There is need of proper management as it help to carry on the
project effectively. The technical team of the project was not strong and due to the reason they
were unable to meet the objectives They were not prepared for the uncertain event. There is need
of proper management in order to make the project successful. The use of proper project
management methodology makes the project more successful.
Over-Optimistic Expectations: The management team must have optimistic
expectations from the project. In relation to, Myer’s Online Shopping Disaster they have not
made realistic expectations and that is major reason of failure. There is need of checking the
progress of the project on regular basis so that its success can be achieved.
Flexibility: The project was not flexible and their aim was to earn high revenues through
online sales. The major reason of failure was they were not having any back up plan that could
help them in the event (Chofreh, et.al., 2019). The projects that are flexible are able to overcome
the complex situation properly. There is need of being flexible so that the members are ready to
change at the time of emergency.
Existing Systems: There was lack of technical professionals who have ability to carry on
the work properly. At the time of website breakdown, the existing system was weak and unable
to help the company to overcome the situation (Obradović, Todorović and Bushuyev, 2018). If
better systems were followed the chances of project failure could be reduced.

These are some of the criteria such as weak technical system and lack of professionals
that have lead to project failure. There is need of keeping track on all the criteria through out the
project in order to make it successful.
Conclusion
From the above report, it is analysed that project management plays a vital role in success
of company. They have to undertake several projects that are necessary to enhance brand image
of the business. It is seen that some projects are able to achieve success and some are unable to
do the same. In this report, there is evaluation related to project that failed and the details related
to the company. There are some criteria that are being evaluated that decide the success and
failure of the project. The business organisation must consider all these points in order to carry
on the project properly. It is necessary to set clear project goals and then make efforts to attain
them. The use of right tools and techniques at the time of complex situation may also help the
company to overcome the challenging situation. By regularly checking the progress of project,
they are able to overcome the chances of loss and attain success. The project is then applied with
the theory so that the reason of failure can be identified. In the end, recommendations are
mentioned that will help the project to re-run in future. These recommendations are necessary for
the success of the project.
Recommendations in the event that the project should be re-run in the future
Project management can be defined as the process of leading the team to achieve the
goals within right time. There is need to assure the following points in order to re-run the project
successfully in future:
 All the stages of project management must be followed. There must be proper planning
done by the team and a contingency plan must be developed. The use of all the stages
such as project initiation, planning, executing and closure helps to carry on the project
properly.
 The company must keep on checking all the important aspects. Regular checking helps
them to know about the chances of failure and they are able to enhance their
performance. This will help Myer company to relaunch the website effectively.
 There is requirement of technicals who are able to handle the problems and uncertain
situations. There are changes of complexities that may arise but with the help of proper

management team they can be overcome properly. The use of right management tools is
necessary for success of the project.
 The project manager must work on analysing the risks in advance so that they are able to
take right measures. The use of right tools and techniques will be beneficial for them.
There is need to work on forecasting as the nature of business environment is dynamic
and it can impact the performance of the enterprise and the projects undertaken.

REFERENCES:
Books and Journals
Barbosa, A. P. F. P.L and et.al., 2021. Configurations of project management practices to
enhance the performance of open innovation R&D projects. International Journal of Project
Management, 39(2), pp.128-138.
Chofreh, A.G., et.al., 2019. The imperative and research directions of sustainable project
management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 238, p.117810.
Hair, J.F. and Sarstedt, M., 2021. Explanation plus prediction—The logical focus of project
management research. Project Management Journal, 52(4), pp.319-322.
López-Robles, J.R and et.al., 2019. Visualizing and Mapping the Project Management Research
Areas withing the International Journal of Project Management: A bibliometric
analysis from 1983 to 2018.
Mavi, R.K. and Standing, C., 2018. Critical success factors of sustainable project management in
construction: A fuzzy DEMATEL-ANP approach. Journal of cleaner production, 194,
pp.751-765.
Obradović, V., Todorović, M. and Bushuyev, S., 2018, September. Sustainability and agility in
project management: contradictory or complementary?. In Conference on Computer
Science and Information Technologies (pp. 522-532). Springer, Cham.
Picciotto, R., 2020. Towards a ‘New Project Management’movement? An international
development perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 38(8), pp.474-
485.Pan, Y. and Zhang, L., 2021. A BIM-data mining integrated digital twin framework
for advanced project management. Automation in Construction, 124, p.103564.