Alliance Project – Technology Project Management Case Study

The Alliance Project is a technology project management case study completed as part of my MSc at Cardiff Metropolitan University. The brief was to use Microsoft Project to plan and manage a real-world style IT system implementation – covering design, software development, networking, testing and deployment – while tracking time, cost and quality throughout. The work involved building a full schedule, resourcing plan and budget baseline, then incrementally updating the plan in response to a series of adverse events introduced during the module.

Across WRIT1 and WRIT2, I treated Alliance as an end-to-end project: defining the rationale for the strategy and team, modelling the budget and critical path, addressing seven unexpected problems, and integrating quality assurance techniques such as Fagan Inspections and reuse-oriented development.

Alliance Enterprises needed a technology solution delivered under tight time and budget constraints. The project had:

• An initial budget of £250,664 and a planned duration from 09/10/2024 to 29/01/2025.
• A requirement to balance the “Iron Triangle” of time, cost and quality while selecting a cost-effective but capable team.
• A mixed scope covering systems design, software development, network implementation, integration testing and final review.

The core objectives were to:

• Assemble a project team whose skills and Belbin roles aligned with the strategy.
• Establish a realistic baseline schedule, budget and critical path in MS Project.
• Re-plan responsibly when hit by unexpected problems (scope changes, resource unavailability, conflicts, pay-rate changes, misconduct, bereavement leave and key staff resignations) without losing control of deadlines or costs.

I approached Alliance as a structured yet iterative project management exercise combining traditional scheduling with modern quality and development practices.

• Project strategy & team design: Applied the Iron Triangle as the core success measure and selected a refined team based on experience, cost and Belbin roles (e.g., Resource Investigator, Plant, Teamworker, Implementer, Completer Finisher) to align people with project needs while keeping the budget under control.
• Baseline planning in MS Project: Built the Work Breakdown Structure, dependencies and milestones for design, development, networking, integration, testing and review. Created Gantt charts, a network diagram and critical path to visualise sequencing, slack and risk, then established an initial cost baseline and task cost distribution.
• Responding to seven unexpected problems: For each adverse event introduced (scope change, outsourced network specialist, developer conflict and replacement, pay-rate changes with integration testing extension, misconduct-driven staff replacement, a one-day project-wide bereavement holiday, and two key developers resigning), I:
  • Updated resource sheets, assignments and calendars.
  • Re-calculated cost overviews and cost variance by phase.
  • Checked the critical path and milestone dates to see if the timeline was at risk.
  • Documented the management rationale, risk mitigation and stakeholder communication.
• System development & quality approach (WRIT2): Evaluated several methodologies (Waterfall, Agile, RAD, XP, SCRUM) and justified SCRUM as the best fit for Alliance, supporting iterative progress with regular stakeholder feedback. Combined this with reuse-oriented development (component-based development with facilitated reuse) and a structured Quality Management System.
• Fagan Inspection planning: Designed a full Fagan Inspection plan for key deliverables, defining roles (Author, Inspectors, Reader, Scribe, Moderator), mapping each of the six stages to specific project tasks, and scheduling inspection activities alongside development so defects could be caught before testing and implementation.

• Controlled time, managed cost growth: Despite seven significant disruptions, the final planned completion date was held at 31/01/2025, only two days later than the earliest projections, while the budget increased from £250,664 to £270,984.50 – an 8.10% rise judged acceptable given the accumulated risk and staffing changes.
• Visibility of cost drivers: MS Project reporting and task-level cost analysis highlighted where money was really being spent – for example, a major variance in software programming costs and the impact of outsourcing and overtime on integration testing and network implementation.
• Resource and policy alignment: By refining the team mix, enforcing company equal-opportunities policy, and handling misconduct and conflict through structured replacements, the project maintained both capability and fairness while still meeting schedule pressures.
• Quality built-in rather than added on: The combination of SCRUM, reuse and Fagan Inspections meant that quality was designed into the process – through inspections, clear roles and documented rework – rather than being treated as a late testing activity.
• Project status at reporting point: At around 64% completion, the most expensive phases (design, development and network implementation) were largely behind the project, with remaining work focused on testing, implementation and review, which carried comparatively lower cost and risk.

Alliance was less about writing code and more about thinking like a project manager. I strengthened my ability to design realistic schedules, read and adjust Gantt charts and network diagrams, and use critical path analysis to understand where delays really mattered. Handling repeated “what-if” scenarios built confidence in revising resource plans, reasoning about cost trade-offs and justifying decisions to stakeholders.

From a methods perspective, the assignment deepened my understanding of the Iron Triangle, Belbin team roles, SCRUM, reuse strategies and Fagan Inspections – and how they can be combined into a coherent project approach. Most importantly, it taught me how to communicate changes clearly: documenting the impact of each adverse event on time, cost and quality, and explaining how the updated plan still supported project success.