The User Requirements, Designing, Developing, and Implementation of the System by Smart Designs - Assignment Example

Contents Contents 1 Project overview 3 Scope of the project 3 Objectives of the project 3 Project assumptions 4 Design methodology 4 User requirements 5 Network diagram 5 Gantt chart 6 Time/duration: 7 Budget: 8 Resources: 8 Risk assessment 8 Risk identification 8 Risk analysis and prioritization 8 a. Risk assessment 8 Work break down structure 12 Cost of each activity 13 Cost estimation techniques. 13 Pricing to win 14 Parkinson’s Law 14 Implementation Strategies 15 Product software adoption; 15 Phased adaption strategy: 15 Pilot strategy: 15 Parallel implementation: 15 Project overview A project is a sequence of activities that are organized and executed within a given time and budget where defined goals are achieved. France Vacances (FV) is a company specialized in renting high quality accommodation in France and they would like to develop internet-based booking system. This system will be hosted on the internet so that the company can have internet presence. This project will involve analyzing of the user requirements, designing, developing and implementation of the system by Smart Designs which is my company that deals with internet consultancy. This report will present the scope of the project, objectives, time schedules, resource allocation, design methodology, work breakdown structure and network diagrams. Scope of the project The scope of a project defines the project boundary, how far does the project go what must be accomplished and should not be done because it is not within the project’s goals and objectives(PMBOK Guide, 2008). The activities of that will be done within the project defines the scope of the work. The activities that will be involved in this project include; analyzing the user requirements, coming up with appreciate design, coding of the system(development), implementation of the project for FV company. The scope of the project should be strictly followed because it defines the budget and resource allocation in terms of time and human resource. Any change in one of the activities above result to change of time, human resource requirement and budget it is therefore important project scope be well defined and constantly reviewed by the project managers. This project is expected to take 70 days with an expected budget of £14600. The development team of SD will ensure that they work within the budget and the expected period. Objectives of the project The main objective of this project will be to ensure that FV have a presence on the internet and the World Wide Web. The main objective will be guided by specific objectives such as: 1. To establish an internet based system that enable customer to do online booking of the accommodation in France. 2. To create additional channel that enables FV increases their revenue. Project assumptions That the research already done by the company provides user requirements of all the stakeholders of the company. There was no baseness in the collection of data during research by the company hence the requirements are realistic and attainable. The system is expected to: To have web interface that customers can search for desired accommodation Customers should be able to book accommodation online using the system. The system should be able to validate customer credit card information supplied by the customer. The system should be able to print a receipted for the customer with the room number and payment details. The system should be able to notify the staff about the rooms booked as soon as they are booked. Design methodology Incremental model is a methodology of software design that capitalizes on the prototype advantages. It is a model that can be easily managed because it is flexible, the system design can broken down into small and manageable modules which can be tested in early stages by the user. The steps of incremental methodology are illustrated below. Fig 1.0 incremental methodology User requirements Customer needs and desires must also be considered. The ability widening the project or produced in different quantities or for different uses and sizes should also be considered. Network diagram Fig 2.0 network diagram The network diagram above shows how tasks depend on each other. Activity 8 was dived into two parts because it had long duration of 39 days. It was equally dived into a and b with 20 and 19 days respectively. The critical path is indicated in red colour. Gantt chart Fig 3.0 Gantt chart The time schedule above illustrates how each task is scheduled to be tackled in a given period of time. There are those tasks that must complete before others take place in the time chart above they are represented Predecessors. Time/duration: Approximations of how long the project will take and the time of the project jobs must be executed accurately and reliably. Thus, the sequence and interrelationships between the tasks of work must be defined clearly. In this project it will take 73 days three days more than the expected time. Weekends are not counted as working days. Budget: All cost associated expenses must be taken into consideration and documented accurately. Life cycle expenses should be taken into consideration and maintenance, warranty, inflation, and other expenses. The expected expenditure for this project was expected not to exceed £14600. From the schedule there will be £5840. Resources: This includes the size, grade, and availability of the resources that will be required for the project. Skills must also be identified in the tasks that will be important for the project. Risk assessment Risk identification Recognizing the areas of the project where the risks may occur is the first thing that must be done in risk identification. This implies that the following areas must be investigated: Risk analysis and prioritization a. Risk assessment There are two major elements in risk assessment; likelihood and consequence therefore risk assessment can be defined mathematically as RISK = Consequence x Likelihood. Likelihood can be defined as a “individual or a group with the motivation and capability for theft or sabotage of assets, or other malevolent acts that would result in loss of assets” (Garcia, 2001, p. 302). Consequence according to Blades is the degree of damage that may in the event of threat occurrence (Blades, n.d. p.38). In the case of risk analysis and prioritization, every identified risk is investigated and assigned quantities for the following parameters: The probability that the risk condition occurs The impact if the risk condition occurs The risk exposure RISK ASSESSMENT MATRIX PROBABILITY AN INCIDENT WILL OCCUR (Read right and up) Frequent Likely Occasional Seldom Unlikely A B C D E S E Catastrophic 1 EXTREMELY HIGH MEDIUM E V E F F E Critical 2 HIGH MEDIUM R I T C T S Moderate 3 HIGH MEDIUM Y Negligible 4 MEDIUM LOW Table 1.0 Risk Matrix for risk assessment (Joe Teeples) When the risk probability is multiplied by the impact it would give the risk exposure. The risk exposure is then compared with all other risk exposures to determine which risk will be given priority for risk minimization. Consistency in assigning the probability and impact values is very crucial. A prioritized risks list that merits risks by their exposure value will define the order in which risks will be attended to in risk mitigation and contingency planning. . The final prioritization of risks is defined after analyzing the outcome of all risk exposures in terms of data-confidence level and other crucial considerations. In assigning quantity to the impact of a risk, it is crucial to utilize the knowledge of cause and effect in defining the real consequences of the failure. Risk assessment sheet Table 1.0 risk assessment sheet Risks in project development can be categorized as either project risks, process risks or product risks. WBS To ensure the effective and efficient execution of the above-mentioned activities, it is necessary for the organizers to prepare WBS (Daft, 2008). Harrison (2004), states that a WBS is a simple chart which shows the individuals who are assigned for particular jobs. WBS for FV’s online booking system Task Assigned Individual Responsible Additional Information Requirement engineering Benson, Jennifer Analyzing the user requirements Feasibility study Jennifer, Karen Study if the system is doable System analysis Jason, Emily & Benson Analyse the current system and define the system requirements according to priority System design Karen, Emily & Shirntel Design the system basing on the methodology(incremental) System coding Joseph, Abdu, Hassan, Fatima Do the coding of the system using PHP and Java script language for a web based application system System testing and integration Abdul, Benjamin, Emily Test each module then, Integrate them and test as a unit. System implementation All the team members Implement the new system Table 2.0 WBS for FV online booking system Work break down structure Below is a work breakdown structure which shows the work to be done with the estimated amount required to accomplish the tasks. Figure 1: Work Breakdown structure Cost of each activity From the instruction each day costs £80 it is therefore important to point out that the total cost for the project is £5840. There are 73 days where each day is £80. The cost of each activity was calculated as duration (days) x £80. I was not able to get the £ sign in the Microsoft project hence $ was instead used to represent it. Cost estimation techniques. Algorithimic cost modeling This is a mathematical formula represents as E= A*S P * M Where E is the effort of each person in a given period of time such as a mount A is technical adjustment factor S= project size P= project technical complexity factor which ranges between 1 and 1.5 M= is the multiplier combining product, project and development attributes. This is a formula that is being used in cost estimation of a project in many occasions. The size of the system can be measured using the line of code method, function point among other methods. The effort can be measured by estimating the hours each person need each day to perform a given task. Pricing to win This is a technique of estimating the cost where the development team calculates the cost of the system basing on what the customer has. This method is meant to win the customers over by encouraging them that it can be done with what they have. If the customer has less than what is needed then the system developed may not be of good quality because the team will work out with the aim of ensuring that what is available is well used. On the other hand, if the customer has more than what the system requires the team members may tent to over budget the system. Parkinson’s Law This is a technique that estimates the cost of the system basing on the available time. The law states that work expands to fill the time available. The formula is therefore defined to estimate the cost of the system basing on the available time and resources. The cost of developing a system for 5 months with 10 workers is higher than the cost of developing the same system in 9 months with the same number of workers. Implementation Strategies Implementation of the new system may take different strategies depending on the nature of the system, sensitivity of information being handled by the new system and type of the clients using the system. Product software adoption; Some system could completely replace the existing system just at once and the users are served using the new system the old system is removed at once. This is referred to as big bang implementation strategy. This may occur in cases where the system has been tested and certified as secure and stable. Complete replacement may also occur if the system if to be used by experts people with comprehensive knowledge of the new system hence they will not have problems. Phased adaption strategy: This is the strategy that enables the organization to transfer a new system in modules. The who;e system is not transferred at once, parts of the new system are implemented for instance according to departments from one department to the other. The main aim is to completely and slowly overhaul the old system. Pilot strategy: A large organization with distributed outlets can use this method where they introduce the system to outlets one after the other. An organization with many departments under same roof that is large can also use this method to implement the system in each department. Parallel implementation: Parallel implementation strategy occurs where the new system runs parallel with the old system. This is done when the users are still learning how to use the system. This strategy is also used to ensure that customers are served in case the new system breaks down. This strategy can be used for scenarios such as FV online booking system. The clients may not be aware of the new system hence they will come to the company to book as usual. If the new system completely replaces the existing ones, such clients will not be served. Internet presence is something that takes time hence parallel implementation strategy is the best. Clients may also feel insecure with the new online system and may want to continue using the ‘secure’ system they know. Parallel implementation considers such customers. Once the new system has proven to be meeting the criteria then the old system is completely disabled. References A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), Fourth Edition. Project Management Institute, 2008 Chadbourne, BC.(1999)To the Heart of Risk Management: Teaching Project Teams to Combat Risk, Sanders, A Lockheed Martin Company, Proceedings of the 30th Annual Project Management Institute 1999 Seminars & Symposium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Daft, Richard. (2008). Principles of Management, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Harrison, L. (2004). Advanced Project Management: A Structured Approach‎, Farnham: Gower Publishing Ltd. Joe Teeples 650 Duvall Ave NE #S1611 Renton, Washington 98059 Read More