Project Definition Document: Expanding Job Areas at Phoenix IT

This Project Definition Document outlines a project aimed at expanding job areas within Phoenix IT to improve service quality. The project addresses the need for a larger workforce to meet customer demands and reduce employee pressure. It defines the project's scope, including its purpose of enhancing service quality, and objectives such as expanding the business and creating a robust project management team. The document details deliverables like improved customer service and employee satisfaction, along with a milestone schedule that focuses on creating new job positions, improving technology, and obtaining maximum benefit through external contacts. Success criteria, assumptions, and scope limitations are also outlined, emphasizing the importance of planning, leadership, risk management, and stakeholder engagement. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and an organizational structure are provided to illustrate the project's components and management hierarchy. The document is a comprehensive project plan, supported by a reference list of relevant academic sources, and it serves as a valuable resource for understanding project management principles and practical application. The assignment is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib.

Running Head: Interim Assessment: Project Definition Document
INTERIM ASSESSMENT: PROJECT DEFINITION
DOCUMENT

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Interim Assessment: Project Definition Document
Table of Contents
Project title.................................................................................................................................3
Contextual information about project........................................................................................3
Definition of the scope of the project.........................................................................................3
Priorities of the project...............................................................................................................7
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)...........................................................................................8
Organization structure of project................................................................................................9
Reference list............................................................................................................................11

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Interim Assessment: Project Definition Document
Project title
Extending Job areas to include more workforces within the business to improve service
quality
Contextual information about the project
This project is about the expansion of job areas for increasing the workforce to
provide quality service to customers in Phoenix IT. It is quite difficult for an organization to
provide quality service with a limited amount of resources. As opined by Venkatesh, Rai &
Maruping (2018), lack of workforce increases pressure on current employees that can cause
employee turnover. This project is required because customers of this firm are demanding
quick and error-free service, which the company is not able to provide at present due to a
weak workforce. As stated by Sundqvist (2019), the adequate workforce at each job position
of a company helps to provide quality service to customers. Key stakeholders are the
management of the company, employees, and investors. The expectation of management of
the firm from this project is to create a strong workforce that will meet consumer
expectations. Moreover, employees expect work division from this project, which can help to
increase their performance. The investor of the company will provide funds in this project
(Savelsbergh, Havermans & Storm, 2016). They have an expectation of increased
productivity of the company and greater return on investment. This project will help this firm
to increase its workforce in different positions, which will impact on the overall performance
of the company.
Definition of the scope of the project
● Purpose: This project includes the scope of improving the quality of service by hiring
a more efficient workforce. This IT Company has a limited workforce and due to this
reason, they are unable to satisfy the needs of their customers. The purpose of this
project is to create more job areas to enlarge the size of their workforce.

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Interim Assessment: Project Definition Document
● Description: The project management team is focusing on developing new positions
within the organization for including more efficient staff to satisfy the needs of
customers. As mentioned by Maqbool, Sudong, Manzoor & Rashid (2017), market
demand for IT services is increasing rapidly and this fact is forcing It companies to
include more employees to remain competitive. The project manager of Phoenix IT is
responsible for creating more job areas within this company. Kerzner (2017) have
contradicted that this project can increase employment opportunities as well, which is
good for economic development.
● Objectives: Main objectives are mentioned below,
i) To improve the service quality through increased productivity of the company
ii) To be able to satisfy the different needs of different kinds of customers
iii) To expand business in this present competitive marketplace
iv) To develop a good project management team that can complete this project within
limited time and cost
● Deliverables: The project outcomes will show improvement in consumer service and
progress in the business. As said by Meredith, Mantel Jr & Shafer (2017), it is
essential for a company related to consumer service to have a trained and adequate
workforce. This helps in achieving greater satisfaction level of customers. Thus, the
project outcomes will also result in increased loyalty to customers. Besides, the
increasing workforce will result in job division, which will decrease the stress level of
current employees. Overall service quality will be impacted because improved
technology and greater number of employees will be involved (Sutrisna, Ramanayaka
& Goulding, 2018). Moreover, future recruitment process will be improved due to
innovative technological input in operational process.

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Interim Assessment: Project Definition Document
● Milestones schedule: This project has three milestones and these milestones need to
be reached at the planned schedule. Several tasks are there that can help to reach the
following milestones of this project.
i) Milestone 1: Creating more job positions
There are three more sub-tasks that can help to reach this milestone. Firstly, the
project team needs to create job descriptions for new positions. As mentioned by
Chakrabortty, Sarker & Essam (2017), designing talent pipeline helps organizations to
hire and retain a talented workforce. Lastly, it is important to reshape the interview
process in Phoenix IT.
ii) Milestone 2: Improving technology
6 tasks need to be completed to reach this milestone. These tasks include research
about the latest advanced technologies, arranging and allocating funds, implementing
the appropriate technology and managing knowledge of employees with the help of
new technologies.
iii) Milestone 3: Obtaining maximum benefit by external contact
Through completing two tasks, this milestone can be achieved. Firstly, involving a
recruiting agency can help this IT firm to get a talented workforce. Secondly, the
outsourcing workforce through these agencies needs to be confirmed.

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Interim Assessment: Project Definition Document
Figure 1: Milestone
(Source: Created by the Author)
● Success criteria: There are some criteria that need to be fulfilled by the project
management team for achieving success. Efficacy and reliability of project team
members need to be accessed properly before recruiting in the team. Measuring
skills and abilities of team members is essential because it helps to eliminate any
chance of error and loss of resources (Otoom, AL Kateb, Hammad, Sweis & Hijazi,
2019). For achieving success, the project management team needs to adopt various
tools and techniques. For example, using a project scheduling tool to maintain the
performance of different activities. Moreover, Shirazi, Kazemipoor & Tavakkoli-
Moghaddam (2017) stated that time management is another success criteria that help
to complete a project in a given time. Hence, the expectations of all the stakeholders
of the project can be fulfilled.
● Main assumptions: Some key assumptions for this project are:
❖ A dedicated leader from the HR department of the company will support the
project management team to conduct every step.

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Interim Assessment: Project Definition Document
❖ Management of Phoenix IT must have conducted a meeting with investors and
all other stakeholders regarding the project of the increasing workforce. Clear
communication is essential for stakeholders to eliminate any sorts of confusion
regarding the scope of this project.
❖ Budget calculations are done properly and place to investors before starting
the project. As opined by Joslin (2019), lack of budget can cause a delay in the
project or may suspend it permanently.
❖ The roles and responsibilities of team members of this project team are
discussed and allocated properly by the leader. Each team member must have
specific roles and responsibilities in the project and the overlapping of roles
must be avoided. This can help them to eliminate conflict and performance
can be monitored easily.
❖ Measuring performance is essential in this project. Hence, it is assumed that
the project manager must have included different standards of performance,
which need to be achieved by the concerned members.
● Scope limits
Time and budget are major limitations of this project. The project management team is bound
to complete this project within the scheduled time and budget to ensure the stated scope of
improving the service quality. On the other hand, the project team members may not provide
their best effort and it may be considered as another limitation of this project that may
prevent obtaining the scope.
Priorities of the project
Priority 1: Proper planning
This project of Phoenix IT requires proper planning because it involves different tasks like
selecting and installing required technology, recruiting skilled candidates, provision of

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Interim Assessment: Project Definition Document
training. Hence, different activities must be conducted by planning earlier, which can
eliminate the risk of skipping of an activity. Different strategies need to be framed earlier by
conducting a general meeting of the project team consisting of essential stakeholders.
Priority 2: Good leadership
For preventing any disruption in the project, good and courageous leadership needs to be
prioritized (Sundqvist, 2019). The leaders must put them on a line and act with proper
integrity. This can help the project team to behave properly and deliver for the company.
Leaders need to describe the project activities properly and engage members in decision
making and problem-solving.
Priority 3: Risk management
This is a major factor in project management, which is essential to conduct by the
management of Phoenix IT. Lack of skills of members, shortage of resources, risk of budget,
investor engagement and disputes in project activities are some essential risks, which must be
managed. Mitigation of risks is essential to gain the desired objectives of a project (Kerzner,
2017). This can be done by properly identifying, planning and implementing strategies to
mitigate them.
Priority 4: Stakeholder engagement
This is another key priority that can be done by keeping essential stakeholders like employees
and investors at the heart of every scrap of planning and delivery. Leaders must make a
commitment to engage the stakeholders actively. This can be done by asking questions to
them about the project and listening to their views.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
The below-mentioned figure is the WBs and it is representative work packages of this
project. The main tasks have been developed by reviewing the milestones and sub-tasks have
been added under these main tasks accordingly. Due to its long size

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Interim Assessment: Project Definition Document
Figure 2: WBS (1)
(Source: Created by the Author)
Figure 2: WBS (2)
(Source: Created by the Author)
Organization structure of the project
There will be three groups present under the management of this company. These groups
include the controlling team, sponsors and the project management team. Under the project
management team, the project manager will work. The consultants, members of the project
team and reference groups will be there under the project manager.

Company Management
Controlling team Project management team Sponsors
Project manager
Reference group
Project team members Consultants
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Interim Assessment: Project Definition Document
Figure 3: Organizational structure of the project
(Source: Created by the Author)

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Interim Assessment: Project Definition Document
Reference list
Chakrabortty, R. K., Sarker, R. A., & Essam, D. L. (2017). Resource constrained project
scheduling with uncertain activity durations. Computers & Industrial
Engineering, 112, 537-550. Retrieved from:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ripon_Chakrabortty2/publication/
312083349_Resource_constrained_project_scheduling_with_uncertain_activity_durat
ions/links/5a6fcd0c0f7e9ba2e1c8fed0/Resource-constrained-project-scheduling-with-
uncertain-activity-durations.pdf
Joslin, R. (2019). Project Management Methodologies, Governance and Success: Insight
from Traditional and Transformative Research. US: CRC Press.
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Maqbool, R., Sudong, Y., Manzoor, N., & Rashid, Y. (2017). The impact of emotional
intelligence, project managers’ competencies, and transformational leadership on
project success: An empirical perspective. Project Management Journal, 48(3), 58-
75. Retrieved from:
http://repository.psau.edu.sa/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/1795/PMJ-
%20Rashid.pdf?sequence=-1&isAllowed=y
Meredith, J. R., Mantel Jr, S. J., & Shafer, S. M. (2017). Project management: a managerial
approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Otoom, A. F., AL Kateb, G., Hammad, M., Sweis, R. J., & Hijazi, H. (2019). Success Factors
Importance Based on Software Project Organization Structure. Information, 10(12),
391. Retrieved from: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/10/12/391/pdf
Savelsbergh, C. M., Havermans, L. A., & Storm, P. (2016). Development paths of project
managers: What and how do project managers learn from their

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experiences?. International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), 559-569.
Retrieved from:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chantal_Savelsbergh/publication/
296633927_Development_paths_of_project_managers_What_and_how_do_project_
managers_learn_from_their_experiences/links/5ae60a220f7e9b9793c7a013/
Development-paths-of-project-managers-What-and-how-do-project-managers-learn-
from-their-experiences.pdf
Shirazi, F., Kazemipoor, H., & Tavakkoli-Moghaddam, R. (2017). Fuzzy decision analysis
for project scope change management. Decision Science Letters, 6(4), 395-406.
Retrieved from: http://m.growingscience.com/dsl/Vol6/dsl_2017_3.pdf
Sundqvist, E. (2019). The Role of Project Managers as Improvement Agents in Project-Based
Organizations. Project Management Journal, 50(3), 376-390. Retrieved from:
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:1252112
Sutrisna, M., Ramanayaka, C. D., & Goulding, J. S. (2018). Developing work breakdown
structure matrix for managing offsite construction projects. Architectural engineering
and design management, 14(5), 381-397. Retrieved from:
http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/34442/1/Goulding%20et%20al%20-%20Developing
%20work%20breakdown%20structure%20matrix%20for%20managing%20offsite
%20construction%20projects%20AAM.pdf
Venkatesh, V., Rai, A., & Maruping, L. M. (2018). Information systems projects and
individual developer outcomes: Role of project managers and process
control. Information systems research, 29(1), 127-148. Retrieved from:
https://lmaruping.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Venkatesh-Rai-Maruping-ISR-
forthcoming-2.pdf