Optimizing Project Management at Vodafone

1 Introduction

The multinational corporations in the recent era of globalisation focus on developing effective project for the benefits of the workplace, where the companies try to maximise their profitability by improving organisational excellence and utilising the organisational resources and capabilities efficiently (Kerzner, 2017). This project management planning also effective for develop the project at the workplace of Vodafone, where the organisation to enhance their working activities and develop partnership working practice at the workplace, where open workspace is beneficial for the employees to communicate with each other and discuss the working activities for maximising their performance. Through the planning, risk assessment and risk management plan would be developed as well as the budget plan, communication planning and project milestone are effective to develop the project and complete it within estimated period of time.

2. Company background

Vodafone is the multinational telecommunication organisation based on London. The company serves the consumers worldwide and it is well-organised to maximise the values for all the customers by delivering high quality excellent services. The major products are fixed line telephone, broadband, mobile phone, digital television and internet television. Vodafone is a famous brand in the telecommunication industry, where the company aims at delivering the best telecommunication services to the customers across the international markets. The organisation also focuses on developing a project which is related to restructuring the workspace to maximise the performance of the employees. The project is related to changing the cubical work pattern in the workplace of the organisation into an open workspace where the employees are free to work as a team and it would be beneficial for maximising the organisational performance (Vodafone, 2020).

3. Project management planning

3.1 Role of project manager

The project manager plays an important role in this case, where proper management of the project activities, take the initiatives, arrange the resources and technology required for the project and hiring the team members for completing the task successfully are the major activities through which the project manager tries to achieve success and fulfil the project deliverables (Nicholas and Steyn, 2017). In this regard, the project manager at Vodafone is also crucial role to complete the project by making the workspace efficiently through designing it as open workspace rather than cubical one. The project manager is trying to develop the project plan, create the set up at the Vodafone offices, and lead the team embers for better management. The manager is also responsible to document the process, assign the tasks and review the performance of the staff on a regular basis, establish the project schedule, manage time table to complete each tasks under the project, arrange the materials and machineries to complete the task efficiently (Ibrahim, Ali and Sirshar, 2019). The project manager at Vodafone is efficient to handle the project and make the design attractive to develop open workspace. The project manager and the team members are experienced to lead the project, where the project manager is playing the role of leader to lead the employees for successful establishment the open space work at Vodafone. In this regard, the project management encourages the team members and lead them efficiently through improving internal communication and partnership working practice (Kerzner, 2018).

3.2 Purpose of the project

Changing the working pattern through developing open space work

Vodafone focuses on managing open workspace rather than cubical working pattern

The project is good for the organisation Vodafone to develop the workplace efficiently and encourage the staff members to perform as a team and serve the best telecommunication services to the customers. This project provides a scope to Vodafone to improve organisational excellence and gain high competitive advantage in the international telecommunication industry.

3.3 Project scope

The scopes of the project at Vodafone are such as,

Manage the workforce efficiently

Enhance communication among the group

Improve collaborative working practice

Enhancing employee’s creativity and technological innovation

Vodafone focuses on creating values for the customers by providing excellent services and improving the performance of the staff, where the open workspace is beneficial for the team members to develop a successful group to manage the customer’s issues and give them efficient services related to telecommunication services (Heagney, 2016). The other scope of the project is to monitor and evaluate the performance of the employees closely where the team leader and the managers can review the performance of the staff through the open workspace method, where direct feedback can also be provided to each staff over their performance and outcomes.

4. Risk management planning

4.1 Stakeholder analysis

As per the stakeholder’s analysis, it is advantageous to manage the stakeholders of the company to keep the satisfied and motivate them to perform efficiently (Fleming, and Koppelman, 2016). In this regard, meeting the needs of the stakeholders and manage them closely are necessary. Apart from that, the company is efficient to maximise the values of the stakeholders by giving them high return on investment during the project ad manage them with high communication and cooperation (Meredith, Mantel Jr, and Shafer, 2017). The stakeholders are such as, chief executives, project manager, team members, technicians, software developer and hardware engineer, contractors, suppliers and IT department tam as well as customers and tester.

Keep satisfied: Production manager and IT team

Manage closely: CEO, design director and sales director

4.2 Risk assessment

The major risks of the project are such as,

Financial risk related to lack of return on investment or poor capital investment in the project of Vodafone

Knowledge risks which is related to lack of proper knowledge and adequate experience of the staff to perform efficiently in the own workspace system

Operational risk of the project leads to failure of initiating and implementing the project at the offices of Vodafone

Budget constraint as the project process is costly to set up the open space workplace with all the necessary technology and hardware system

4.3 5Ms of resource management to manage risk

5. Project objectives and deliverables

5.1 SMART objectives

The objectives of the project are,

To enhance the performance of the team members through developing open workspace

To improve organisational excellence by improving communication

To monitor and evaluate the performance of the team through open working practice

To maximise employee’s capabilities to serve the customers of Vodafone

The above mentioned objectives need to be fulfilled at the workplace of the company Vodafone to make the business sustainable, where the organisation focuses on enhancing the group performance for serving the customers efficiently. Maximising organisational performance is the major objective, where Vodafone focuses on continuous improvement in the performance of the employees, and open workspace provides a scope to the managers to lead the people and enhance their contribution through proper support and guidance.

SMART objectives must be developed during the project on order to progress in the project and maximise the project outcomes (Fleming, and Koppelman, 2016). The project is about to change the cubical space into an office open space to work collaboratively and it is measurable through efficient performance of the staff and organisational excellence as well as the customer’s service efficiency and quality. The objective of Vodafone also is achievable as the company has the capability to implement the project and improve the working practice and organisational culture in long run. Additionally, the project objective is reliable, where estimated cost for the Vodafone project is £50,000 as well as total time required is 6 months. Hence, the objective of Vodafone in developing the open workspace design is SMART objective, where Vodafone is efficient to impalement the project and execute it successfully. This further helps the company to improve the working culture through introducing the open space working pattern.

5.2 Project deliverables

Improving interdependence

Maximise organisational excellence by working efficiently

Improve customer’s service

Good decision making skill through partnership working practice

Contribute positively in delivering the best telecommunication service

The above mentioned deliverables can be achieved through the project, where the project manager and the team members are responsible to monitor the progress and set up the working pattern successfully at the office of Vodafone. The open space work further enhance the capabilities and performance of the staff at Vodafone, where the team members and technical staff can guide others and share that experience to serve the best quality services to each customer across the international nations (Fleming, and Koppelman, 2016).

5.3 Work break down structure

Work break down structure is important for project management planning, where the working activities are distributed among the employee and the project managers are responsible to distribute the roles and responsibilities among the staff members under the project. The major functions of developing the project are such as management team, reviewing the machineries, electronics department, finance team and software team (Marchewka, 2016). The project management team is responsible to restructure the place, design the office, initiate the project, and hire the staff, electricians, technical team and other required staff at the project to develop the open space office at Vodafone. The technical team is responsible to manage the technological innovation, include the latest technique at the office, manage computer hardware and software programming and set up the whole office efficiently. The finance team is also crucial in this regard to manage the project and the finance manager tries to maintain the budget for the project and provide potential capital investment for setting up the office.

6. Financial planning

6.1 Estimated budget

The major expense items for the project are such as setting up the floor, interior decorations, machineries setting up, administrative cost and cost for the employees which is human resource cost. These are the major expenses for which the estimated budget will be represented further.

The estimated cost for the project is £50000. Vodafone has the capability of investing adequate capital for the project and the organisational workplace and experienced project management team are also able to achieve future success by developing the open space working pattern in the offices.

Communication plan

The communication plan is appropriate through which the project manager and the team members scan interact with each other and share their experience and working activities for better management of the performance. The project manager and the team members hired by Vodafone are efficient where they are successful to set up the open space workplace where the employees can share their roles and perform collaboratively. Daily feedback and discussion about the project progress are beneficial for the project management to evaluate the project and review the performance of the staff (Young, 2016). The quality of the project can also be managed well by the project manager through monthly review of project progress, daily email and telephonic conversation facilities at the office of Vodafone, where the performance of the staff are reviewed and the project manager tries to give feedback to each staff over their work so that they are able to perform better and complete the project successfully.

Project evaluation and control

Evaluating the project

Post implementation phase needs to be managed well through evaluating the project success factors and in this regard the leader and the management team of Vodafone must provide authentic feedback to the project manager about the workplace (Turner, 2016). Through this, it is possible to identify whether the project deliverables and objectives are met or not. The feedback from the customers about the services of Vodafone is also reviewed, so that the leader is able to identify the working progress and the performance of the staff after arranging open workspace rather than crucial one. The open workspace performance must be reviewed in order to evaluate the project and identify the success rate of the project. Hence, the feedback of the staff as well as the customers is necessary to control the system and monitor further progresses.

Balance score board

Balance score board is effective in this context to evaluate the project and it further helps to evaluate the quality of the project, productivity and efficiency of the staff to work through the open workspace system as well as enable the organisational management team to ensure high return on investment. The balance scoreboard is mandatory for the project to identify the success factors of Vodafone and implement the project efficiently.

Conclusion and recommendations

The project is good for the workplace of Vodafone, where open space design encourages the employees to perform as a team and improve their productivity in future. The workers are able to manage their performance and serve the best quality services to the customers and this further helps the organisation to gain high competitive advantage in the telecommunication industry across the international markets. Apart from the open workspace framework at Vodafone, it is mandatory for the technical team to develop intranet system and WAN system to have shared workspace where the team members can interact and work collaboratively and it would be beneficial to utilise the open workspace system to enhance the organisational performance of Vodafone.

Reference List

Ibrahim, S., Ali, A. and Sirshar, M., 2019. Analysis of Software Project Complexity Factors of Large Scale Systems and Their Impacts on Core Knowledge Areas of Software Project Management.

Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Kerzner, H., 2019. Using the project management maturity model: strategic planning for project management. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Marchewka, J.T., 2016. Information technology project management: Providing measurable organizational value. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Meredith, J.R., Mantel Jr, S.J. and Shafer, S.M., 2017. Project management: a managerial approach. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Nicholas, J.M. and Steyn, H., 2017. Project management for engineering, business and technology. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Young, T.L., 2016. Successful project management. London: Kogan Page Publishers.