Myki Project Boundary Essay Example for Free

Myki Project Boundary Essay Changes to the boundaries occurred during the development of MYKI project: * More than 350 changes were made to the specifications by the TTA, increasing the complexity, time and cost of the project. * Example of alteration made during development phase is the removal of city saver fare option that has been applied in Metcard system. * Change in relationship/management issues between TTA, vendor and sub-contractors. The continuous modifications of the project specifications and outcomes were mainly caused by the project’s ambiguous initial contractual precedence and specifications, such as the consideration of which necessities are within or outside the contractual boundaries, leading to disagreement on priorities and costs in later phases of the project. The impact of undefined boundaries and constant amendments to the contracts and requirements: Project Delay Initially, the MYKI project was scheduled to be completed in July 2007, but full operation has been behind the schedule by approximately 5 years * The optimistic 2-year deadline could not be achieved due to subsequent changes carried out by TTA to the original scope of the project, causing technical difficulties to re-surface and complexity to increase. Internal Audit was conducted in 2010 to evaluate whether MYKI project is still worth pursuing after the long overdue, indicating the government’s loss of trust to the project and vendor. As the results of the audit shows that cost of scraping MYKI will be higher than completing it, the Government decided to continue the project. Over Budgeting * The overall cost has increased by 35% from initial estimation of $999 million to $ 1. 35 million. * It is forecasted that additional cost is required for project completion and complete replacement of Metcard. * $ 50 million cost will be required annually to keep operating the MYKI system. * As the delay was prolonged, Metcard must be kept in operation for a longer period of time, requiring additional operating cost, which was accounted in the MYKI project funding. The funding of a project is an important part of project boundaries and significant over-budgeting by at least 35% indicated the breach of the set boundaries Fractured relationship between TTA and Kamco The relationship between TTA and Kamco has worsened due to the inability to meet deadlines and continuous amendments to the project’s requirements. Mistrust was developed, as more deliverables and contractual obligations were not achieved. However, the vendor cannot receive all the blame because TTA also kept changing the specifications and targets. Preventing Breach of Boundary  The main problem is that TTA selected vendor that has limited experience in developing smart card ticketing system. Kamco, as the project vendor, followed the correct procedure of agreeing and committing to all changes made by TAA throughout the project. However, it will be difficult for a company Kamco to come up with the most effective method to resolve any modifications to the contracts due to their limited experience and knowledge in this project type. Their ways to tackle these issues may be inefficient, leading to excessive use of their budget. TTA should realises this and must ensure that the initial project boundaries and scope is well defined, preventing any major change during the development phase. TTA should have given the project to proven and experienced vendor because MYKI itself is a new and unproven project that requires innovative and effective problem solving skill through experience in this type of project. The thought that the vendor can learn as they are conducting the project entails high risks which can lead to possible over-budget and delays. On the other hand, the vendor must also be able to refuse any changes made to the initial contractual agreements. They should be able to say â€Å"no† to any amendments during the negotiation as these may risk the project itself. Kamco neglected one of their role to refuse any agreement that may risk the project and ruin their future reputation. The project manager should take his role in convincing the project authority, TTA, that any changes would delay the projects and consult the best solution to meet the most of TTA’s expectations without significantly increasing the cost and time of the project. In this MYKI project, communication issue has also been one of the factors that caused boundary breach.