Executive Summary
Management of projects requires effective skills as a manager and in cases of business acquisition, all the stakeholders of the project need to play their role very effectively. In IT business projects where new software or hardware needs to be developed, the skills of managers are more important. In this study, the issues that can occur in a software development project as well as in a business acquisition project of a company are described. Various models and frameworks that can be used by the concerned company described in the case study are included and challenges that can be regarding those frameworks are also described in this study. Possible recommendations for potential improvements are given in this discussion as well.
Introduction
In a business project, program management refers to the handling and managing processes of multiple programs. Sometimes, these programs can be related to the same project while sometimes these are related to different projects. In technological projects, multiple areas of the project need to be handled by the management at the same time to keep the program management effective (Nieto-Rodriguez and Sampietro, 2017). In this study, critical issues that can occur in an IT project as well as in a business acquisition, and the ways to minimize them will be described. Various risks of the project will be identified, and mitigating ways will be given in this study as well.
Part A
Business case/ Program management
Key issues in overall strategic program
SB is a technology company based in the USA, and the strategic program of the company is to increase the revenue and profit of the company. The company also has a base of operation in Western Europe that supports engineering excellence. Thus, the company has undertaken 4 missions to grow the business of the company. They are market share increase, diversification, and product differentiation and reduced operational cost. In order to increase market share and diversification, acquisition is regarded as the most effective way (Aiyer et al. 2018). Thus the company has decided to purchase an integrated mobile phone manufacturer in Europe to increase product diversity as well as market diversity. However, the culture and regulations of the USA and Europe are not similar and gaining regulatory clearance from the European authorities is a major concern of the company.
Management of WN’s staff was a major issue in this acquisition process as the company needs to make structural changes in WN. In acquisition of manufacturing companies, cost and time management, as well as its control, are the major issues for the companies (Zhang et al. 2018). In the case of acquisition of WN by SB, the manufacturing facility was poorly managedthat reduced the quality of time and cost management. Moreover, due to cultural differences as well as differences in scope and requirements of manufacturing, change management of the project was not aligned with the strategic objectives, which reduced business quality as well. Moreover, in product development processes, an agile method named scrum was adopted, which failed to provide necessary solutions causing issues in the delivery project. The terms of scope in new software development processes and prices were very inflexible, which caused problems in the business project as well.
Advice on business issues:
SB Company faced serious issues in managing the regulatory terms in the European branch of operations and in managing the earlier workforce of WN manufacturing company. According to Kubasova et al. (2018), regulatory control could have been managed by SB by implementing legal consultants in the formation of a new code of conducts while forming the acquisition agreement. The acquisition process could have been made more efficient if the top management line of WN had kept intact even after the acquisition. Agile restructuring always causes problems in the acquisition process as it does not provide enough time to run a risk simulation of the selected structure. Thus, the staff of the purchased company becomes resilient to the change that causes business issues (Baldzhy, 2017). Keeping older management can thus help by providing better control over the workforce. Effective communication of new vision with all stakeholders of the company can help to retain the company’s reputation and consolidate the change management plan of the company.
Conclusion:
From the above study, this can be concluded that multiple contingencies can occur in cross-cultural business acquisition. Resilience of staff and inefficiency of management and supply chain network can disrupt the partnership, causing time and budget management issues in the process. Several models and frameworks can be applied other than traditional frameworks in IT software and hardware development to improve time and cost-effectiveness. In this study, a detailed description of the management and development processes of IT software projects is given. Various that can be faced regarding these projects are given based on the case study of SB Company, and possible recommendations for improvements are also included.
Reference list:
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