BSkyB Project Analysis: Recommendations for Project Management

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the BSkyB project failure, a major setback for the digital pay television platform operator. The project aimed to improve business functions using CRM software but suffered from unclear objectives, scope creep, and contractual breaches. The analysis identifies failures within the project management lifecycle, particularly in the initiation phase, and highlights issues related to stakeholder communication, risk management, and project monitoring. Recommendations are offered to address these shortcomings, including clearer goal setting, improved resource allocation, and the implementation of robust project management tools and techniques for future projects. The report emphasizes the importance of well-defined project scopes, effective change control processes, and thorough stakeholder verification to prevent similar failures and ensure successful project outcomes, with detailed timelines provided for suggested actions.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Discussion....................................................................................................................................2
2.1 Identification of failed aspect over Project Management Lifecycle......................................2
2.2 Project Details........................................................................................................................3
2.2.1 Scoping the Project.........................................................................................................3
2.2.2 Identification of Stakeholders and Communication Plan...............................................4
2.2.3 Risk Identification and Mitigation..................................................................................4
2.2.4 Ways of Project Monitoring...........................................................................................6
2.2.5 Aspects considered during Project Closure....................................................................6
2.3 Recommendation of Project Management Tools and Techniques........................................7
2.3.1 Recommendation for Future Projects.............................................................................7
2.3.2 Detailed Timeline for the Suggested Actions.................................................................8
3. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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1. Introduction
The present discussion if focused on a clear form of analysis over one of the major
project failure case for BSkyB Company. The company is considered to be one of the famous
and largest form of digital pay television platform operator in the UK. BSkyB had planned for
improving their business functions, marketing, normal sales and support for the use of CRM
software, which could be used by sales people for management of the account activities (Verner
and Abdullah 2012). With the rise in the number of digital customers from all across the world,
the company had decided to engage CRM activities in order to ease out the process of satisfying
customer demands and also lead the company in terms of innovation within their service.
The presented discussion in the document would further lay emphasis on the failed
aspects of the project in relation to their project management aspects. Research over different
literatures would be conducted in order to understand the aspects of project management leading
towards the failure. This report would thus also focus on the concepts as outlined by project
management key principles while relating to the discussed project. Hence, this report would also
be able to present a clear recommendation towards the project while also recommending some
actions, which could had been taken by BSkyB in order to draw better outputs for the concerned
project.
2. Discussion
2.1 Identification of failed aspect over Project Management Lifecycle
The project background is based on the fact that BSkyB can be considered as a failed
project since its objectives were not set clear and thus had to incur heavy loss towards the
company. During designing the project, there was a complex project view based on significant
integration level, larger scope and cost, task and technical complexity. The BSkyB Company did
not have a proper form of specific and project goals other than having a knowing that they did
required a CRM system. The company had planned for the implementation of a CRM software
that could be further used by sales people within the company for the management of normal
sales activities, provide support and market the reach of the product for the use of the software.
The project based on the implementation and installation of the CRM software was a highly
complex project in terms of a large scope and cost incurred towards the company. It would had
also required a significant level of systems integration while also incurring high task and
technical complexity for the system designers (Perkusich et al. 2015). In order to deploy the
project in a successful manner, BSkyB had appointed EDS towards the project.
However, the BSkyB Company had not set any specific and clear form of project goals
over which EDS could work properly to achieve the project outcomes. BSkyB had only a vision
of developing a strategic CRM system while they did not have any pre-requisite knowledge
about the aspects, which they need to possess in order to help their client in dealing with the
project. Hence, different form of ambiguities were being faced from the initial phases based on
setting up of clear requirements (Yim et al. 2015). In the next few months, after the emerging of
the project, the complexity and project scope had amplified. However, on the other hand, the
requirements as concerned for the project were still unclear towards the team while it also kept
changing until the year 2003. The estimated time of the project to go live had been set during the

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initial phases of the project. Although this was done by EDS, there remained a gap in analysing
of capabilities while affecting the set timescales for the project.
During setting of the contract between EDS and BSkyB, there were no proper setting of
goals. During the project lifecycle, the breach of contract was made during the initial phase of
the project management life cycle. The initial phase of the life cycle discusses on the planning
aspect of the project. During this stage, each of the requirements within the project needs to be
set clearly and thus contracts need to be signed accordingly. Thus, EDS had primarily breached
the detailing as written and mentioned within the contract. EDS could not hire enough resources
that could be required by the project in the later stages since they were not able to gauge the
exact requirements. Proper project management use of resource skills could not be used within
the project since the project implementation knowledge was not properly known to the main
stakeholders of EDS. There was an improper form of exercising of reasonable project
management skills and thus conform to the good practices within the industry (Lei et al. 2017).
The breach within the initially signed contract were manly based on delayed performance. These
breaches were not judged in a serious manner and thus amounted to repudiatory damages thus
leading to a fundamental breach.
From the understanding of the particular aspect leading towards the failure of the project,
it can be discussed that there were the two primary aspects, which were lacking during the initial
phases of the project (Niazi et al. 2016). The project initiation phase defines such kind of
processes, which would be highly required for the starting of any concerned project. Hence, the
primary purpose of the phase within the project lifecycle is based on determining the end results
or the final accomplishment that would need to be achieved for the project (Serrador and Pinto
2015). During defining of the initial phase within the project, a proper authorization of special
responsibilities would be handed over to different stakeholders. In the concerned case for BSkyB
there was no such clear form of assigning of project responsibilities since it had taken a long
time for understanding of clear requirements as proposed by the company. Hence, the initiation
phase of the project management lifecycle for BSkyB was considered to be failing leading to
poor outcomes over the entire project.
2.2 Project Details
2.2.1 Scoping the Project
In the concerned project related to BSkyB, it was considered that a proper form of scope
creep was not identified properly during the initial stages. The considered project is in this case
based on the implementation of a CRM software to be implemented for the company was a large
scale project. This is primarily due to the reason based on considering the large form of scope
and costs incurred for the project (Anslow and Maurer 2015). The CRM software would include
special customizations, which further complicated the process of designing the software by EDS.
The tools that would help in the identification of the project risks and solving of business
problems are: stakeholder identification and communication methods, risk identification and
mitigation plans and KPIs. These tools would help in the identification of the identified project
failure areas. These include:
1. Improper setting of project goals and objectives based on which the contractual agency
would start work on the project.

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2. Breach of contract as proper available resources were not hired for the accomplishment
of the project.
In order to ensure that such kind of projects would not face scope creep, the following
aspects should be considered:
1. During the initial steps, the project manager and other stakeholders preparing for the
requirements should be able to document the requirements as outlined by the client. EDS should
had detailed the project requirements from the client based on proper research. Based on the
gathered requirements, there should had been a prioritizing of different requirements and
assigning of proper stakeholders to each activity.
2. A successful process for performing change control should also be clearly defined.
Clients might suggest changes, which might have a need to be incorporated within the project
whenever required.
3. There should be a clear definition of the project schedule (Torrecilla-Salinas et al.
2015). The project schedule would help in detailing the activities that would be delivered within
the scope of the project.
4. A successful verification of each of the requirements should be detailed within the
initial requirements. Hence, this document should be properly be verified with the stakeholders
involved within the project (Varajão, Colomo-Palacios and Silva 2017). The project schedule
should also be verified with them so that they would present their approval over the
requirements.
2.2.2 Identification of Stakeholders and Communication Plan
The stakeholders and their communication plan in relation to the concerned project are
being discussed as follows:
Stakeholders Interest Influence Communication Plan Frequency
Business Manager at
BSkyB
High High They would be
communicate to different
stakeholders with video
conference, face-to-face
interaction and emails.
Daily
Project Manager High High Video conference, face-to-
face interaction and emails
Monthly
System Designer Medium High Emails Weekly
Software Engineer Medium High Emails Weekly
2.2.3 Risk Identification and Mitigation
The certain risks approaching towards the project and suggestion for appropriate risk
mitigation techniques are being discussed as follows:
Risks Likelihood Impact Risk Owner Risk Mitigation technique
Complexity within
understanding of
Medium High Business
Manager,
The requirements should be
clearly defined by the business

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project requirements Project
Manager
manager. Each of the
requirements should be
specified clearly based on
proper research. Each of the
requirements should be
specified clearly along with the
approval from the business
manager at BSkyB.
Execution of the
project
High High Project
Manager,
System
Engineer
Different kind of technical
problems that would occur
during the execution of the
project should be looked into by
the project manager and system
engineer (Hazır 2015). Each of
the requirements should be
specified clearly to the system
engineer who would be
responsible for working over
the specifications and including
them within the project
whenever required.
Contractual risks High High Project
Manager
Since BSkyB was not clear of
the requirements other than
knowing that they need a CRM
system, there were lot of
problems, which were faced by
the system engineers (Larsen et
al. 2016).
Defining scope and
requirements
High High Project
Manager of
EDS
The different scope and
requirements should had been
clearly defined. Monitoring
over the project scope and
requirements should be
monitored properly during
designing for the outcomes of
the project (Druschke and
Hychka 2015).
Project planning and
control
Medium High Business
Manager,
Project
Manager
The planning for the project and
control of requirements should
be managed by the project
manager (Abrahamsson et al.
2017). Designing of a personal
plan, which would include
quality assurance and
monitoring of project progress.
Defining roles for Medium Medium Project Each of the roles that would be

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project team Manager performed by project
stakeholders should be
explained to them properly.
This would help them to
understand their role and also
make them understand about
their responsibilities towards the
project.
2.2.4 Ways of Project Monitoring
The different ways in which the monitoring over the project could occur on a real-time
basis are discussed as follows:
1. Process Monitoring – In this process of monitoring over the project, the process
monitoring could help in conducting of guidelines and checklists (Sangaiah et al. 2018).
Feedback should be gained from the business managers in relation to the project outcomes.
2. Progress tracking – In this monitoring process, the project manager would be able to
assess the time-critical activities for ensuring that the project is on proper estimated schedule
(Permana 2015).
3. Progress Validation – During this process, the field staff would assess and verify
thoroughly the processes and activities conducted within the project.
4. Performance Monitoring – In this process, data would be collected and analysed in
relation and related to the baseline of the project based on tracking against performance
indicators (Kiefer and Behrendt 2016).
2.2.5 Aspects considered during Project Closure
The project closure is considered as the final step within the project phases. A formal
close over the project would be required and then the overall report over the project success
should be reported to the business manager at BSkyB. Hence, during the project closure phase,
each of the requirements that were specified during the defining of project scope would need to
be met accordingly (Conforto and Amaral 2016). After the completion of the project, a Post
Implementation Review would need to be performed, which would need to be completed based
on the determination of the success aspect of the project. This would also help the business
manager for determining the lessons that would be learned from the outcomes.
During the closure of the project, the following aspects should be reviewed properly.
These are:
1. There should be a proper approval over the confirmation that the work has been
completed as per proper specified requirements in the initial phase (Cooper 2016).
2. Each of the procurement activities had been completed properly (Joslin and Müller
2016).

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3. A formal acceptance should be completed based on accepting the project, which has
been completed as per the pre-defined requirement and expectations (Tomanek and Juricek
2015).
4. There should be a proper form of update over the lessons that have been learned.
2.3 Recommendation of Project Management Tools and Techniques
2.3.1 Recommendation for Future Projects
The discussed project for BSkyB had detailed the fact there were many aspects leading to
the failure of the project. The project based on the implementation of a CRM system within their
existing functionalities had failed tremendously since each of the project scope and their special
needs were not discussed clearly. Hence, a detailed recommendation of some actions that should
be taken by the company to ensure that their future projects would be clearly achieved in a
successful manner are discussed as follows:
1. The scope of the project should be detailed in a proper manner. In this aspect, it can be
discussed that the project details should be specified clearly with the project designer, system
designer and software engineers working over the project. This would help them in
understanding the aspects, which needs to be produced as a final output for the project.
2. After defining the project scope, the selection of the team members should be done in a
proper manner. The skill set of each workers and co-members should be made properly. This
would help the project manager in detailing the aspect of the project with each individual and
extract beneficial outcomes.
3. Outlining of project goals should be made and thus be made clearly understandable to
each member accordingly.
4. After outlining of project goals, the development work would proceed. Hence,
monitoring of individual sub-activities would also need to be monitored clearly.
5. After completion of each project aspect, these should be clearly be tested and hence the
quality of the project should be determined by the business manager at BSkyB. After proper
testing of each activity, the project should be declared as productive and made ready for final
deployment.

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2.3.2 Detailed Timeline for the Suggested Actions
ID Outline
Number
Task
Mode
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
0 0 Software Development for
BSkyB
727 days Mon 06-04-20 Tue
17-01-23
1 1 Defining scope and initial
meeting
201 days Mon 06-04-20 Mon 11-01-21
2 1.1 Defining the initial project
idea
100 days Mon 06-04-20 Fri 21-08-20
3 1.2 Defining key deliverables 65 days Mon 24-08-20 Fri 20-11-20 2
4 1.3 Verifying the deliverables
and scope
16 days Mon 23-11-20 Mon 14-12-20 3
5 1.4 Proper understanding of
key scope and objectives
20 days Tue 15-12-20 Mon 11-01-21 4
6 1.5 Approval of the project idea0 days Mon 14-12-20 Mon 14-12-20 4
7 2 Outlining of team members 47 days Tue 12-01-21 Wed 17-03-21
8 2.1 Signing of contract by EDS 4 days Tue 12-01-21 Fri 15-01-21 6,5
9 2.2 Hiring of experienced
technicians
43 days Mon 18-01-21 Wed 17-03-21 8
10 3 Specifying and setting of
project goals
12 days Thu 18-03-21 Fri 02-04-21
11 3.1 Detailing the project plan
to technicians
12 days Thu 18-03-21 Fri 02-04-21 9
12 3.2 Approval for project start 0 days Fri 02-04-21 Fri 02-04-21 11
13 4 Procurement of Resource 79 days Tue 15-12-20 Fri 02-04-21
14 4.1 Procurement of required
hardware and software
25 days Tue 15-12-20 Mon 18-01-21 6
15 4.2 Approval for procurement 0 days Fri 02-04-21 Fri 02-04-21 12,14
16 5 Development of Project 290 days Mon 05-04-21 Fri 13-05-22
17 5.1 Development of code works290 days Mon 05-04-21 Fri 13-05-22 15
18 5.2 Detailing each required
component
274 days Mon 05-04-21 Thu 21-04-22 15
19 5.3 Monitoring over each
project inclusion
0 days Fri 13-05-22 Fri 13-05-22 17,18
20 6 Testing and Quality Check 140 days Mon 16-05-22 Fri 25-11-22
21 6.1 Testing over the included
component
95 days Mon 16-05-22 Fri 23-09-22 19
22 6.2 Quality check over each
included deliverables
45 days Mon 26-09-22 Fri 25-11-22 21
23 6.3 Approval for the project
deployment
0 days Fri 25-11-22 Fri 25-11-22 22
24 7 Project Closure 37 days Mon 28-11-22 Tue 17-01-23
25 7.1 Documentation of the final
project output
35 days Mon 28-11-22 Fri 13-01-23 23
26 7.2 Handover of payments 2 days Mon 16-01-23 Tue 17-01-23 25
27 7.3 Project end 0 days Tue 17-01-23 Tue 17-01-23 26
14-12
02-04
02-04
13-05
25-11
17-01
M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T
19 Jan '20 22 Mar '20 24 May '20 26 Jul '20 27 Sep '20 29 Nov '20 31 Jan '21 04 Apr '21 06 Jun '21 08 Aug '21 10 Oct '21 12 Dec '21 13 Feb '22 17 Apr '22 19 Jun '22 21 Aug '22 23 Oct '22 25 Dec '22
(Figure 1: The Timeline for the Project)
(Source: Created by author)

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Listing of Milestones and KPIs
Milestones KPIs
Approval of the project idea Client Satisfaction
Approval for project start Detailed requirement presented
Approval for procurement Quality check over procured materials
Monitoring over each project inclusion Project requirements set properly
Approval for the project deployment Project specification met as per scope
Project end Client Satisfaction, All requirements
accomplished.
From the understanding of the identified areas of failure from the project of BSkyB, the
main recommendations, which could be suggested for the project are:
1. The BSkyB should have defined the clear form of scope and objectives for their project
in the future stages. A proper scope would include all the deliverables to be included within the
project. The objectives that would be set for the project needs to be set according based on the
kind of inclusions within the project. The objectives should be according to the type of inclusions
that needs to be designed by the agency designing the project.
2. After having a clear definition and understanding over the scope and objectives, EDS
should prepare for a proper contract in which each inclusions needs to be included properly. The
contract needs to be set properly. Based on signing the contract, the EDS should properly agree
over the supply of resources during the initial stages of the project. Based on proper
accumulation of resources, the project would proceed accordingly.
3. Conclusion
The above discussion clearly states the various aspects in relation to the failed aspect of
the implementation of CRM software for BSkyB. The project as discussed in the case highlights
the various individual activities that were not completed in a successful manner leading to the
final failed output of the project. The project also suffered from incurring high costs during the
last stages, which had led to great losses for the company. The above discussion clearly focuses
on the primary aspects that should be covered in project management and which could be helpful
for ensuring that the future projects should be detailed in a proper manner. The discussion helps
in the identification of risks that could approach towards the present project and thus focuses on
the mitigation actions that could had been taken to ensure that the project would had been
delivered in a successful manner. The final part of the discussion focuses on the plan of
recommendation and certain actions that could be helpful for designing the future projects by
BSkyB. Hence, a timeline focusing on the important aspect have also been planned that
underlines the recommended actions proposed above. The various determinable KPIs have also
been discussed along with the milestones to be included within the project. These KPIs would
help in determining that the project has achieved the successful outcomes, which might have
been planned during the initial project scope and that the project has been completed
accordingly.

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