Analysis of E-commerce Project - Electronic Arts Inc - Case Study Example

Analysis of Ecommerce Project E-commerce is one of the medium to increase the sales of the products globally and an advertisement is one of the critical factors involved in the success of any product. The vital aspect of the advertisement is the creativity in a way to encourage and compel the viewers, listeners and / or readers (audience) for buying the product. There are several mediums to market the product includes but are not limited to the development of the website, marketing through social networks (either online or magazines), television, radio, newspaper, articles, email marketing, short message services and multimedia distribution methods (CD-ROM, DVD, mobile phone applications). Keeping in view the importance of the advertisement, the Electronic Arts Incorporation (customer) decided to advertise their products over the internet, sale of the products (eCommerce) and along with development of videos (EA Inc., 2013). The Electronic Arts Inc. selected the Rubicon (Project Vendor) to initiate the development of eCommerce enabled website along with the online videos for the advertisement. The vendor Rubicon is one of the leading companies for selling and buying of the advertising globally (Rubicon, 2013). Initially, this document presents the evidences and proof that the eCommerce enabled website along with advertisement is one of the projects of Electronic Arts Inc. completed by the Rubicon. The document examines the critical success factors of the project, the objectives and goals of the project. Moreover, it evaluates the risks involved in the project and how they (risks) avoided by the vendor. Finally, the document recommends that how the outcomes of the project could be improved further by managing the phases, activities and tasks of the project. It is pertinent to know the definition of a project to prove that Electronics Arts Incorporation eCommerce enabled website along with advertisement was a project. As per the PRINCE2 (PRoject IN Controlled Environment) a project can be defined as “management environment that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified business case”. The PRINCE2 is a standard, methodology and approach for managing the projects successfully and it is used by the Government of the United Kingdom (Office of Government Commerce, 2009). The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project as “a project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources. And a project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal”. From the definitions of a project by PRINCE2 and PMI, it has been drawn that there are several characteristics of a project include: the delivery of one or more products, the customer provides requirements specify in the business case, a project is time bound (start and end date), a project has several objectives and a goal. In order to prove that the initiate of the Electronic Arts Incorporation (EA Inc.) of developing an ecommerce enabled website was a project, then the initiative has to satisfy all the characteristics of the project. It is evident that the initiative of the EA Inc. was unique, as the EA Inc. sells and buys games for diverse platforms including the Xbox, PlayStation, personal computer, Nintendo, iPhone, Android, Facebook and online games. It is pertinent to mention here that eCommerce projects have been executed earlier and after the EA Inc. initiative, but the EA’s initiative can be categorized as unique because of their unique electronic business as well as they included advertisement in their project. Moreover, the EA Inc. has never developed such eCommerce enabled website before this initiative, therefore, keeping in view all the characteristics it can be stated that the initiative of the EA Inc. was unique. As per the PMI’s definition a project must have a start and end date (temporary in nature). The EA Inc. initiative fulfils the requirement, as the project was planned to start in June 2005 and scheduled to be finished on December 2006. Moreover, the EA Inc has requirements and scope of the initiative that has been identified and defined by the context diagram as given below. In software project management, the context diagram is used to define the scope of the project and shows the system boundaries. Moreover, the context diagram is used to specify the requirements of the customer (EA Inc.); moreover, the diagram also facilitates to identify the functional and non-functional requirements of the system (Lossaco and Castiglioni, 2009). Fig. 1 Context Diagram for the Website Fig. 2 Context Diagram for the Video Advertisement The initiative of the EA Inc. requires fulfilling the remaining characteristics to prove that the initiative was a project. The following table shows a comparison between a project’s characteristics with the features of the EA Inc. initiative. Project’s Characteristics Electronic Arts Incorporation Goal and Objectives (Portny, n.d) Get a diverse audience excited about the games of EA Inc. Educate that audience about EA Inc.’s features and services Development of a sophisticated website having a web-savvy look Website ability to sell and purchase games (eCommerce) Easy to maintain website Incorporate multimedia – Flash for the menus and video for advertisement Customer registration and membership Development of a site referral program It is pertinent to mention here that there are several more objectives of the EA Inc.’s project. Management Team (Eisenberg, 2009) The Rubicon utilizes eight (8) human resources to complete the project within specified time including the project manager, database administrator, eCommerce specialist, website developer, website designer, content developer, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert and video editing specialist. Resources - Software and Hardware (Customer) Requirements (Alsmadi, Alhami, and Alsmadi, 2009) Various Resources including hardware and software have been utilized by the Rubicon (Vendor) to satisfy the customer (EA Inc.) requirements. The above analysis shows that the initiative of the EA Inc. satisfies all the characteristics of a project (goal oriented, temporary, unique, management team, resource utilization, cycle of activities – explained below) , hence, it can be declared as one of the projects of the EA Inc. Now it is worthwhile to assess the phases of the project which were undertaken to complete the project. There were five (5) phases of the project including the requirement analysis, planning, prototyping, development and testing. The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines the five (5) phases of the project as conception and initiation, project definition and planning, project launch or execution, project performance and control and project close (ProjectInsight, n.d). The phases of the EA Inc. project are similar to the phases defined by the PMI. The project’s phases along with activities are usually planned by utilizing the software applications include: the Microsoft Project 2007 / 2010 and / or Primavera. The MS Project facilitates to develop Gantt chart, Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) chart and project Network Diagrams. The Gantt chart is one of the imperative project management tools and has become an industry standard to determine the schedule of the project by showing phases, milestones, activities and resources (equipment, human, financial, etc.) (Gardiner, 2005, 252). Keeping in view the criticality of the Gantt chart, the Rubicon (vendor) had developed a project plan along with the Gantt chart and Network diagram. The following snapshots show the project activities and the Gantt chart of the project. The logic network project management tool emphasizes on sequencing the activities of the project to determine the project duration. The project manager needs to identify the activities, the predecessors and successor relationship of the activities, the duration of each activity, the forward and backward pass, the activity float (or slack) and ultimately determining the critical path of the project by identifying the longest project path. The PERT chart is the graphical illustration of the critical path method or analysis (CPM or CPA). The critical path in the Gantt chart and PERT is usually represented with red colour and the project manager need to concentrate on the critical activities as if one of the critical activities delays the project would not complete within the planned completion date (Mind Tools, 2013). As it has been determined from the above analysis that the initiative of the EA Inc. can be categorized as a project, therefore, now the document presents the critical success factors of the project. There are four (4) predefined success factors of a project including cost, schedule (time), scope and quality. A project is said to be successful if the project has been completed within the specified cost, schedule (completion date), scope (delivered all the milestones / deliverables) and quality i-e the project fulfils user / customer requirements (Taylor and Schied, 2011). Therefore, it is the responsibility of a project manager to fulfil all the requirements of the customer by distributing all the deliverables of the project within specified time and cost to complete the project successfully. Moreover, the Aaron J. Shenhar, Dov Dvir, Ofer Levy, and Alan C. Maltz in 2001 explained the four success dimensions as the project efficiency (meeting project schedule and estimated cost / budget), impact on the customer (fulfilment of functional and non-functional requirements, domain requirements, solution of customer’s problem and customer’s satisfaction), business success and preparing for the future. It is worthwhile to compare the success factors described in the both studies. The first two success factors explained in the later study are similar to the three (3) success factors of the earlier study including the project should meet the schedule, the project should complete within specified cost / budget and the project should fulfil the user requirements. As per the study by Lavagnon A. Ika, the project success criteria is still an immature topic as all the research has been made on finding the success criteria or factors, however, only a few papers have been found on measuring the success of the project based on established success factors. “A lot has been written over the past ten years about how to achieve project success (the key factors). However, very little has been written about how success is measured or judged (the criteria). A PhD student of mine was able to find only two references. How can you say what the correct success factors are until you have identified the criteria?” (Lavagnon, 2009) Therefore, keeping in view the predefined success factors, it is worthwhile to assess the EA Inc. project. It is pertinent to mention here that neither Rubicon (vendor) nor EA Inc. (customer) mentioned the estimated or planned cost of the project, moreover, there are no proofs regarding the completion period of the project. Therefore, the document is silent regarding the first two success factors of the project. However, keeping in view the profile and customers of the Rubicon (vendor) it can be stated that the project would be successfully completed within the specified time and cost. As far as the remaining two success factors are concerned, including scope and quality, it appears that the EA Inc. is satisfied as the project has successfully been implemented and under execution since its completion. The project manager needs to develop a quality plan that would work correspondingly with the project plan and strictly following both the plan could bring quality in the project. Moreover, there is a vital role of quality control and quality assurance departments to bring quality in the projects (Goff, 2008). After completion of the project of EA Inc. has declared following benefits have been achieved from the project. The EA Inc. has widen their business globally, as the customer can order from more than thirty one (31) countries The customers get up-to-date information regarding the games of the EA Inc. from anywhere around the clock. The advertisements help to attract customers Facilitates to make loyal customers It facilitates to alter the attitude of people The customers recognize the brand name – EA Inc. The project would lead to interact with the customers The requirements of the EA Inc. can be analysed to get a clear idea regarding the project outcome so that it could be compared to the completed website. The information technology projects usually have two types of user requirements including the functional requirements and non-functional requirements. The functional requirements deal with the business process of the customer’s organization, whereas, the non-functional requirements deal with the behaviour of the system. In the words of Thayer and Dorfan in 1997, the functional requirements can be defined as "a requirement specifies a function that a system or component must be able to perform". Similarly, the non-functional requirements have been defined as “A non-functional requirement is a statement of how a system must behave; it is a constraint upon the systems behaviour". It has been noted in the project that the EA Inc. has provided both types of requirements to the vendor including functional and non-functional. From the typical non-functional requirements the EA Inc. specified for the project include: the usability, security, regularity, data integrity, maintainability, availability, reliability, manageability, and the performance. There were many risks which had been encountered during the execution of the EA Inc. project. Some of these risks were internal to the EA Inc. include but are not limited to the information risks, technological risks and business risks. However, the Rubicon during the execution of the project encountered jurisdictional risks that were external to the organization. The jurisdictional risks include: the delivery risks (whether the country’s policy allows to sell products to the location of the customer), foreign regulation and the United Kingdom’s regulation. In order to mitigate these jurisdictional risks, a thorough study had been conducted to get information on the rules and regulations of the business countries and legal views have been solicited from the local and foreign markets. Moreover, these regulations have been incorporated in the contract / agreement of the customer with EA Inc. There are many regulations regarding the eCommerce projects these include but are not limited to the ‘Data Protection Act 1998’, Computer Misuse Act 1990, and one of the critical UK’s regulations for eCommerce is the ‘Distance Selling Regulation’. There is requirement for Rubicon as well as the EA Inc. to follow the rules and regulations defined in the Distance Selling Regulation of the United Kingdom, ‘Data Protection Act 1998’ and ‘Computer Misuse Act 1990’. The EA Inc. had to take information security measures to avoid the offences mentioned in the Computer Misuse Act 1990, moreover, the EA Inc. required to have license for using the personal information of an individual (customer of EA Inc.) for the specific and specified purpose. Moreover, if the EA Inc. does not follow the rules, their eCommerce licenses could be cancelled; furthermore, legal actions could also be taken against the EA Inc. (Information Commissioner’s Office, 1998). Keeping in view the Distance Selling Regulation of the United Kingdom, the EA Inc. required developing a sample contract and publishing the contract over the website. Moreover, it is required for the customer to read the policy (contract) of the EA Inc. before purchasing any items, therefore, the EA Inc. should give options so that the customers read the policy and agree to the terms and conditions mentioned by the B-Spoke Bikes (Out-Law, 2010). Beside the four (4) predefined success factors of a project (discussed two diverse studies earlier in the document) there are several other guidelines to complete the project successfully and some of these guidelines are given below (Brown and Hyer, 2010): Sr. Guidelines 1 Defining clear and precise project objectives and goal 2 Providing status reports to the customers and higher management frequently (with regular intervals) 3 Strong and effective communication with all the team members and coordination with the customer 4 Realistic cost and schedule estimation of a project 5 Scope creep should be avoided 6 Efficient and effective management for uncertainty either positive or negative 7 It is always desirable for a project manager to be proactive rather than reactive 8 The team members should be clear with their roles and responsibilities The document presented some of the guidelines for implementing a successful project including project planning, initiation, specification of clear goals, positive and active relationship with customers, change management, monitoring and control. Despite all these guidelines the EA Inc. should also consider managing the critical risks. The risk management is one of the critical elements of the project management; therefore, it is essential to evaluate the project of EA Inc. in the light of managing uncertainty. In order to analyse and manage the risks of the EA Inc., the project manager needs to develop the risk management plan along with risk log. Principally, risk is an uncertainty in the project whose impact can be either negative or positive; therefore, the team members should give emphasis to the negative impact risks keeping in view all the identified risks including the external as well as internal to the organization. The team members are required to follow the five phases’ guidelines on risk management. In the first phase, the team members need to identify the risks through brainstorming sessions along with previous experiences. In the second phase of the risk management, they need to assess and specify all the identified risks. In the third phase, the team members have to evaluate the risks by assigning the probability of the occurrence of the risk along with the impact of the risk (if occurred). In the fourth phase of the risk management, they would prioritize and identify which risks are critical and need high level of attention. In the last phase of the risk management, the project manager necessitates to identify one of the four options for responding to the risks. These options include: risk avoidance, risk reduction, transferring risk, and accepting the risk(s) (AIRMIC, 2002). In risk management, the EA Inc. needs to develop a risk management planning keeping in view the above factors. Moreover, the EA Inc. should consider developing a table for each identified risk and the table should include: the risk name, scope of the risk, involved stakeholders, risk control, project phase in which the risk identified as well as the owner of the risk. Keeping in view the guidelines for successful project management, it can be stated that the projects of Rubicon would always be successful. Reference List EA Inc., 2013. Electronic Arts Incorporation Games. [online] Available at: [Accessed 17th March 2013] Rubicon, 2013. Our Customers. [online] Available at: [Accessed 17th March 2013] Office of Government Commerce, 2009. Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2. The Stationary Office Project Management Institute, 2013. What is Project Management? [online] Available at: [Accessed 17th March 2013] Lossaco, V., and Castiglioni, F., 2009. The operational Context Diagram. [online] Available at: [Accessed 18th March 2013] Portny, S. E., n.d. Project Management: How to state your project Objectives? [online] Available at: [Accessed 18th March 2013] Eisenberg, B., 2009. Building a Dynamic Ecommerce Team. [online] Available at: [Accessed 18th March 2013] Alsmadi, I., Alhami, I. and Alsmadi, H., 2009. The Requirements for Building an E-commerce Infrastructure. International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering, Vol 2, No. 2 ProjectInsight, n.d. 5 Basic Phases of Project Management. [online] Available at: [Accessed 19th March 2013] Gardiner, P. D., 2005. Project Management – A Strategic Planning Approach. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp 244 – 283 Mind Tools, 2013. Project Management Phases and Processes. [online] Available at: [Accessed 19th March 2013] Taylor, J. and Schied, J., 2011. Working with Project Constraints – The PM Triangle. [online] Available at: [Accessed 20th March 2013] Shenhar, A., J., Dvir, D., Levy, O., and Maltz, A. C., 2001. Project Success: A Multidimensional Strategic Concept. Long Range Planning Journal – Pergamon 711 – 714 Lavagnon A. I., 2009. Project Success as a Topic in Project Management Journals. Project Management Journal, Project Management Institute Thayer, R. H., and Dorfan, M., 1997. Software Requirements Engineering – 2nd edition. Wiley-IEEE Computer Society Goff, S., 2008. Measuring and Managing Project Quality. [online] Available at: [Accessed 20th March 2013] Information Commissioner’s Office. 1998. The Data Protect Act. [online] Available at: [Accessed 21st March 2013] Out-Law, 2010. The UK’s Distance Selling Regulation. [online] Available at: [Accessed 21st March 2013] Brown, K. A., and Hyer, N. L., 2010. Top ten Project success factors. [online] Available at: [Accessed 20th March 2013] AIRMIC, 2002. A Risk Management Standard. The Institute of Risk Management, the association of insurance and risk managers Read More