Project Management and ERP Implementation Strategy for Walmart

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the ERP system implementation project at Walmart, emphasizing the critical role of project management and effective communication strategies. It analyzes the positive contributions necessary for project success, including the development of a project mission, vision, and strategies, the selection of appropriate tools and technologies, and the choice of suitable methodologies. The report details a communication design structure, highlighting the roles of senders, receivers, and communication channels, and advocates for formal but open communication among team members using platforms like email and conferences. It also discusses key leadership processes, such as strategy execution and business rhythm, and outlines steps for developing effective communication strategies. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the importance of quality management and control, including the creation of quality plans and the assurance of ERP system quality. Overall, the report underscores the significance of professional communication in creating a better working environment, fostering loyalty and motivation, increasing employee satisfaction, and mitigating intra-team conflicts, ultimately contributing to the successful implementation of the ERP system at Walmart. Desklib provides access to this and similar solved assignments.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management: ERP system implementation in Walmart
Name of the student:
Name of the university:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1. Project overview..........................................................................................................................2
2. Development of the communication plan for the project............................................................3
2.1Analysis of positive contribution for the success of the project.............................................3
2.2 Communication design structure...........................................................................................5
2.3 Communication channel method...........................................................................................6
2.4 Roles assigned to the project.....................................................................................................7
3. Leadership, groups, teams and control measures for project.......................................................9
3.1 Processes................................................................................................................................9
3.2 Effectiveness and efficiency of communication in Walmart Company..............................10
4. Quality management and quality control...................................................................................12
4.1 Quality control.....................................................................................................................12
4.2 Project management life cycle.............................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
Successful project communication is referred to as one of the most effective and efficient
practices that are required for managing and implementing any project in the business
environment. The nominated project is “Implementation of ERP system in Walmart”. While
implementing this project the project manager and team members should focus on the regular
practices. The process of project leadership can call clear communication regarding goals,
responsibilities, performance, expectations as well as feedback (Czajkowska & Stasiak-
Betlejewska, 2015).
This report focuses on development of professional communication plan for the
nominated Walmart project. Assigned project team is always comprises of diverse group of
people therefore, the project managers should focus on this aspect. Intra team conflicts and other
operational and functional challenges can be resolved with implementation of ERP system in
Walmart. However, communication is not responsibility of the project manager but all other
associate stakeholders and human resources are responsible to take part in professional
communication.
1. Project overview
Positive contribution from the resources and stakeholders are required for successful
implementation of the ERP system in Walmart Company. Professional communication will help
to articulate the mission, vision and strategies developed for the project. The aim of the company
is to grab new consumers and retain existing consumers (Song, 2018). Walmart Inc is one of the
most well known United States based retail corporation which offers electronic, home

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improvement, health and beauty products to their consumers. Due to high quality product and
services the consumer demand is growing gradually. For growing numbers of consumers data
management has become a major challenge. In order to manage each personnel and financial
information of the employees and regular consumers the company is required to implement an
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
Design and implementation of an ERP system in Walmart organization can change the
working techniques and approaches. The top management team needs to be practical while
explaining the reason of implementation (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). Issues in communication,
methods and workflow process will be completely resolved with implementation of an ERP
system. Cloud based ERP system will provide a huge storage, application resilience, better
disaster recovery and data backup to the project team members. However, implementation of
ERP system requires investment of time and money as well. The project complexity, operational
and functional errors will be resolved as soon as Walmart will implement an ERP system.
2. Development of the communication plan for the project
2.1Analysis of positive contribution for the success of the project
Project management and change management are referred to as two different managerial
disciplines which contribute cent percent in the change management approaches. Though, how
theses disciplines must works together to implement the ERP system are elaborated in the project
communication plan (Joseph, 2017). Lack of clarities in communication and operational
approaches can are completely resolved with ERP implementation. The lists of positive
contribution for project success are as follows:

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Development of project mission, vision and strategies: Before initiating the ERP
implementation project the project manager and business analyst need to design and develop
mission, vision and high level business strategies.
Section of proper tools and technologies: Depending on project complexities and other
requirement details at project initiation phase the project manager needs to select most suitable
project management tools and technologies.
Selection of proper methodologies: Different project management methodologies are
there such as Agile, Prince2, PMBOK, waterfall etc (Pozin, Nawi & Romle, 2016). Among these
methods the project team members needs to select the most suitable one.
Comparative ranking for the success criteria: Before planning the ERP implementation
project, the project manager should measure and list all success criteria. Based on the
comparative ranks the success criteria are also needed to be ranked accordingly.

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2.2 Communication design structure
Figure 1: Communication block diagram developed for ERP Implementation Project
(Source: created by author)
The above diagram defines the process of communication that needs to be followed while
designing and implementing any project. The communication process is comprises of three
leading elements such as sender, receiver and communication channel (Andersson, 2016).
Communication process is referred to as an information transmission approach used in all

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business organization. The senders must send the information through the most effective
communication channel overcoming all the barriers. Dynamic and continuous interaction is
required to make brief communication analysis. Thus, the sender plays the role of an initiator in
the communication process.
The assigned team of Walmart ERP system development project needs to ideate the ideas
those are to be communicate and then they should share those information with rest of the team
members. The message should be encoded at the initial phase so that only the receiver can
understand the information (Todorovic et al., 2015). However, communication channel is
another crucial component must be followed by the project managers to avoid barriers and
expected success of project. After receiving expected information the receiver should
acknowledge the information received with a feedback.
2.3 Communication channel method
Different types of communication channels are there such as formal, informal and
unofficial. Among three of these methods the most suitable method is needed to be chosen and
applied by project manager of Walmart while communicating with the project team members.
However, for the ERP implementation project formal but open communication should be
followed while sharing information among the project team members.
Open communication provides an independent platform to the project team members to
share information, ideas and creativities as well (Cooper, 2016). Open communication avoids the
issues and challenges of upward and downward communication. It is much important for
understanding the channels of communication which the project managers are using

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The open communication requires being formal and accurate communication channel
should be used by project manager and project team members. Face to face communication,
telephonic exchange of conversation, computer, emails and social media are the platform or
mediums must be used to communicate with each other. The communication channels should
have completely noise free (Wu et al., 2017). The channels which Walmart requires to use while
implementing the ERP system project are emails and conference.
2.4 Roles assigned to the project
Designations Roles Responsibilities
Project manager Internal The project manager should
accomplish the ERP design
and implementation project at
the estimated budget and time.
Finance manager Internal The responsibility of the
finance manager is to estimate
the net expected budget by
conducting a feasibility study.
System developer Internal The system developer is
responsible to design and
develop the outline and
prototype of ERP system
based on the project
requirements (Güngör &

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Gözlü, 2017)
Programmer Internal The programmer should
design the model using proper
coding for making the
structure
System Tester Internal Three different testing
approaches such as unit
testing, integrated testing and
acceptance testing will be
conducted by the system tester
Operation manager Internal Whether the expected
operations will be properly
serving by the ERP system or
not is checked by the
operating manager
Project sponsor External In order to design and develop
the ERP system proper capital
investment is needed by the
sponsors

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3. Leadership, groups, teams and control measures for project
3.1 Processes
Different key leadership processes are there which needs to be followed by project
managers and project team members to avoid communication barriers and noise that may
negatively impact the communication channel. Walmart led through the key processes which
translate the organizational identity into the execution as well as high performance (Turkulainen,
Aaltonen & Lohikoski, 2015). With the help of key leadership process leaders of Walmart can
lead the project collectively. The processes of key leadership include different factors and
elements. For Walmart ERP implementation project the project manager itself needs to play the
role of a leader.
Execution of any project without strategy is like a plan on the shelf. Therefore, in order
to implement any activity execution of proper strategy is much needed. Stronger, aligned and
understanding leadership strategies can eventually design and develop a strong team also.
Business rhythm and accountabilities are the other components should be considered by the
project managers and team members. Professional business rhythm will also help to track the
progress against the business strategies and planning (Butt, Naaranoja & Savolainen, 2016). It
helps to update strategies in regular basis. In order to build effective communication strategies
some processes in terms of steps should be followed by the team members.
Developing purpose of communication
The project manager needs to design and develop the actual purpose of communication.
For Walmart the purpose of communication is to share benefits and additional operational

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effectiveness those can be generated from the implementation of an ERP system. The
communication strategy for the company is elaborated in the below section:
Purpose Who When Frequency
To share the project
objectives and goals
Project manager and
sponsors
Before initiating the
project
Monthly
To share the benefits
that can be obtained
from implementation
of the ERP system
Project manager and
stakeholders
Before planning the
project details
Monthly
To subdivide the roles
and responsibilities
among the project
team members
Project manager and
team members
At the project
planning phase
Weekly
To discuss the current
status of the project
Project manager and
team members
Project manager and
company executives
Monthly
3.2 Effectiveness and efficiency of communication in Walmart Company
Effective communication will help Walmart to run all their business operations and
functionalities absolutely smoothly without any kinds of errors. It can also improve the bottom
line errors and operational complexities (Muszynska et al., 2015). Employee professionalism is
the other approach that ensure the reduced rate of employee turnover, employee empowerment
and employee commitment. The effectiveness can be obtained from professional communication
are as follows:

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Better working environment: Professional communication approach will support the
employees and ensure that they are getting a much better working environment (Andersson,
2016). Open communication will allow them all to use the needful information from the sources.
The issues of misinterpretation and communication barriers will be completely resolved with
usage of the professional communication. Less amount of time will be consumers and less rate of
money ws required to accomplish the project successfully considering all the requirements.
Loyalty and motivation: Loyalty and motivation are the two other supporting factors that
can be obtained with the implementation of the professional and formal communication
approaches (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). It will improve the employee morale and motivate them
a lot so that they can meet the project objectives and goals that are set at the project initiation
phase.
Increase satisfaction of the employees: Efficient formal communication can foster
pleasant relationship in the workplace environment that can successfully promote and improve
the business working environment. The employees who are much interactive get operational
support from their team members. Through this communication approach they can share their
expectation with the higher authority (Delerue & Sicotte, 2017). Moreover, the employees will
feel much satisfied from this type of working environment.
Mitigate intra-team conflict: Issues among the internal team members are resolved with
implementation of the open communication.