Ford Motors. Ford Motors.
Ford Motors
PRM 501 MOD 1 SLP Assignment
Ford Motors
The organization that I selected is ford motors that was started and initiated by Henry ford in the year 1903. The company is associated and specialized in manufacturing and selling automobiles with a brand known as ford. The vehicles ranges from personal to commercially used automobiles. It has established a number of outlets in many countries which helps in the distribution and sales of these products to world clientele. Some of the companies it owns include Brazilian SUV, FPV (Australian manufacturer) and Troller.
One of the project management activities that the company was engaged in is development of Ford.com. The project involved collaboration between the Ford motor company’s internal development organization and Microsoft consulting services. Thus, it was a joint project that would help consumers access and buy products from the company website. It was commissioned in the year 2000 in the month of august where preliminary meeting took place between the two institutions. Subsequent meeting happened later on especially in September 2001 (Wideman, Max, 2001). The site is accredited for the provision of navigation services that enables consumers to access information useful in making decisions. The content management server provided the following features: Built-in workflow system, dynamic server load balancing, ease of development, custom properties, connected pages and web-based authoring. The out-of the box features would enable the entity integrate extra features such as vehicle recall information, links for email communication with the company, search engine and a shopping guide. These features are important in guiding and helping a consumer make critical decision.
The table below shows some features.
XML nodes | MSCMS Custom Properties |
<pagename> | Posting. Display Name |
<metakeyword> | Keywords |
<description> | Posting. Description |
<faqsection> | FAQ Section |
Table 1 represents customized features for ford.com
From the table above, the development and integration of the site to previous system was to take place within a period of 13 weeks. This took the effort of a determined and dedicated team of experts from both sides. At the same time, the company was running ford data center alongside the site because it would host the new system. Microsoft on the other hand would provide the solutions framework that would complement existing methodologies. The project was implemented through phases (Lavell & Waddell, 2016). The first phase was the envisioning phase that included the preparation of project charter and risk assessment document. The second phase which started at the start of week three through four to five was determined at constructing or structuring the deliverables. These deliverables included ford.com functional specification, architecture document, project schedule, revision of the risk assessment document, technical specification and testing environment effects. This stage was critical in the development and called for intensive lobbying for expert advice. The third phase was the development stage that came later between week six to nine. Some of the things dealt with at this stage included: MSCMS implementation, content tweaking and migration, testing and developer training. Lastly, the stabilizing phase which took place between week ten to thirteen saw the implementation and testing of the site. The activities carried out at this stage includes: integration testing, environment audits, deployment testing and stress and load testing (Duncan Haughey, 2014).
The architecture is as follows:
Figure 1 represents MSCMS-based architecture for Ford.com
From the figure above, consumers gets into the system and navigate what they need and request for guidance from the company. The advice provided either lead to purchase decision or more navigation by consumer. The entity will also store information by the entity for future reference (Microsoft, 2016). Internet users access information from the website which is characterized by web server, MSLMS data storage, application data and ford.com center. These features are supported through the files that are stored in various galleries. The galleries on the other hand contain files holding the same format and structure hence able to assist or ease the process of retrieval.
The outcome of this project was to build ford brands, improves the company mark values and drive traffic to the site. This increased customer base for the entity an action that is central to the sales and marketing activities.
References
Duncan Haughey. (2014, December 24). A Brief History of Project Management | Project Smart. Retrieved from https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/brief-history-of-project-management.php
Lavell, D. S., & Waddell, J. M. (2016). Project Requirements. Project Management ToolBox, 33(2), 81-110. doi:10.1002/9781119174820.ch4
Microsoft. (2016, January 14). Content Management Server – Ford Motor Company Technical Deployment Guide. Retrieved from https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb676164.aspx
Wideman, Max. (2001, March 2). Expert Project Management – First Principles of Project Management – Part 1. Retrieved from http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/first_principles/intro.htm
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