Project Management Essay For Information System Development.

You have been contracted by a company to develop an information system for $50,000. During this assignment, you will provide a project management plan for the proposed system.

The business that you design the information system for is of your own choosing. Preferably develop a system for an area that you are interested in, have had prior experience, or perhaps for a company you work for.

You cannot design the system for the same company that another student has chosen, nor can you reproduce a design for an existing well-known company. The information system you chose should be of small to medium size/complexity.

1. Identify the Problem – Provide a one-page system vision document that outlines the problem description, system capabilities, and the expected business benefits.
2. Quantify Project Approval Factors – Complete the following tasks :
3. Provide a table with a breakdown of the estimated time for project completion using Excel or a similar program.
4. Provide a table with a summary of the development costs for the project and system using Excel or a similar program (use Australian dollars).
5. Provide a table with a summary of the estimated annual operating costs using Excel or a similar program (use Australian dollars).
6. Undertake a cost/benefit analysis:
7. Describe the anticipated benefits from the deployment of the new system (outline tangible and intangible benefits).
8. Provide a table with a summary of estimated annual benefits.
9. Perform a Risk and Feasibility Analysis – Complete the following tasks:
10. Determine organisational risks and feasibility.
11. Evaluate technological risks and feasibility.
12. Assess resource risks and feasibility.
13. Identify schedule risks and feasibility

The report is concerned with the project of development of an information system for the ABC organization. The report includes the details of the development of the project and the different type of feasibility study that would justify the project.

The ABC company which is being considered is a car inventory business who sells tools and parts of the cars for rectifying them. All the process of storing the details of the finances and client details are done in the organization manually in the current situation. Hence the process of serving the clients and maintain efficiency in the business procedures are hampered to a great extent.

The system which is to be designed would be able to perform the tasks of automating the process of the business of the organization. The system should be able to perform the tasks of storing the details of the inventory system into a database so that the staffs of the organization can easily update their customers about the product and also make an efficient financial structure with much of a fuss.

After the implementation of the system the organization would be able to speed up their procedures and reduce the overall response time for their customers. The system would also benefit the organization financially and help them to achieve a higher level of customer satisfaction.

The Schedule of the project is provided below:

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
Inventory Storage System	47 days	Mon 03-09-18	Tue 06-11-18
Project Initiation	5 days	Mon 03-09-18	Fri 07-09-18
Meeting with the clients	1 day	Mon 03-09-18	Mon 03-09-18
Present process Analysis	2 days	Tue 04-09-18	Wed 05-09-18
Identification of the areas for improvement	1 day	Thu 06-09-18	Thu 06-09-18
Requirement Analysis	1 day	Fri 07-09-18	Fri 07-09-18
Project Planning	2 days	Mon 10-09-18	Tue 11-09-18
project schedule	1 day	Mon 10-09-18	Mon 10-09-18
Budget Allocation	1 day	Tue 11-09-18	Tue 11-09-18
Project Design	7 days	Wed 12-09-18	Thu 20-09-18
Hardware and Software Procurement	2 days	Wed 12-09-18	Thu 13-09-18
Hardware and Software Set Up	3 days	Fri 14-09-18	Tue 18-09-18
Wireframe designs	2 days	Wed 19-09-18	Thu 20-09-18
Project Implementation	21 days	Fri 21-09-18	Fri 19-10-18
Database Setup	5 days	Fri 21-09-18	Thu 27-09-18
Front end designing	7 days	Fri 28-09-18	Mon 08-10-18
Back end Design	5 days	Tue 09-10-18	Mon 15-10-18
Project Integration	4 days	Tue 16-10-18	Fri 19-10-18
Project Testing	6 days	Mon 22-10-18	Mon 29-10-18
System Testing	2 days	Mon 22-10-18	Tue 23-10-18
Upgrade the system	4 days	Wed 24-10-18	Mon 29-10-18
Project Delivery	4 days	Tue 30-10-18	Fri 02-11-18
Preparation of Project Manual	2 days	Tue 30-10-18	Wed 31-10-18
Delivery of the Project Documentation	1 day	Thu 01-11-18	Thu 01-11-18
Uploading the project on the domain of the Organization	1 day	Fri 02-11-18	Fri 02-11-18
Maintenance	2 days	Mon 05-11-18	Tue 06-11-18
Assignment of the personnel to the project	1 day	Mon 05-11-18	Mon 05-11-18
Scheduling project maintenance	1 day	Tue 06-11-18	Tue 06-11-18

The development cost of the project is provided below:

Task Name	Cost
Inventory Storage System	$37,160.00
Project Initiation	$1,920.00
Meeting with the clients	$320.00
Present process Analysis	$640.00
Identification of the areas for improvement	$480.00
Requirement Analysis	$480.00
Project Planning	$640.00
project schedule	$320.00
Budget Allocation	$320.00
Project Design	$26,600.00
Hardware and Software Procurement	$13,360.00
Hardware and Software Set Up	$12,600.00
Wireframe designs	$640.00
Project Implementation	$4,120.00
Database Setup	$1,000.00
Front end designing	$840.00
Back end Design	$1,000.00
Project Integration	$1,280.00
Project Testing	$1,760.00
System Testing	$320.00
Upgrade the system	$1,440.00
Project Delivery	$1,480.00
Preparation of Project Manual	$640.00
Delivery of the Project Documentation	$320.00
Uploading the project on the domain of the Organization	$520.00
Maintenance	$640.00
Assignment of the personnel to the project	$320.00
Scheduling project maintenance	$320.00

The Annual Operating Cost of the project is around $2000 dollars. The detail of the resource Sheet is provided below:

Resource Name	Type	Material Label	Initials	Group	Max. Units	Std. Rate
Project Manager	Work		P		100%	$40.00/hr
System analyst	Work		S		100%	$20.00/hr
Database Designer	Work		D		100%	$15.00/hr
Server machine	Material		S			$7,000.00
System Developer	Work		S		100%	$25.00/hr
Software Platform	Material		S			$5,000.00
System Designer	Work		S		100%	$15.00/hr

The Cost benefit analysis of the project is provided below:

Cost benefit analysis for Infromation System
	Year 0	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
Annual benefits	$0	$10,000	$10,000	$10,000	$10,000	$10,000
Development cost	($37,160)	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Annual Operating Cost	$0	($2,000)	($2,000)	($2,000)	($2,000)	($2,000)
Net benefit/costs	$20,000	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Net cash flow	($17,160)	$8,000	$8,000	$8,000	$8,000	$8,000
Discount factors
Discount rate	5%
Year Index	0	1	2	3	4	5
Discount factor	1	0.95	0.91	0.86	0.82	0.78
Discounted flows
Cost	($37,160)	($1,905)	($1,814)	($1,728)	($1,645)	($1,567)
Benefit	$20,000	$9,524	$9,070	$8,638	$8,227	$7,835
Net	($17,160)	$7,619	$7,256	$6,911	$6,582	$6,268
Cumulative	($17,160)	($9,541)	($2,285)	$4,626	$11,208	$17,476
Net present value	$17,476
ROI	19%
Payback Analysis
	Years	Months
	1	16
Payback Period in Years	2.31

The annual benefits from the project is estimated at $10,000. These benefits are obtained from the staff’s salaries and the increased sales rate for the organization. A detailed report is provided below:

Estimated Annual Benefits
	Annual Income
Benefits of the increased sales	$              6,t000.00
Employees Salary Benefits	$              4,000.00
Total	$           10,000.00

The organization deals with a car parts business, and hence the organization requires an efficient storage system that would be helpful for them in storing the major details of the product catalogues and the information about the incomes and expenses of the business. The current procedures in the organization requires the work to be done manually. And this takes up a lot of time. Hence, the introduction of the information system for the organization is very beneficial for the business of the ABC Organization. However, there is risk involved with the introduction of the system to the organization and that is their employees would be losing out on their position if the procedures in the organization arte automated. However, on the other side this would be reducing the costs of the organization and the organization would an overall benefit from the system hence the project is feasible for the organization.

The introduction of the inventory system would be technically feasible for the o0regnication as this would help the organization to speed up their processes and reduce the response time for their clients to a great extent. The procedures within the organization would be automated with the help of the IT services. However, there is chance of employees facing difficulty in performing their tasks in the system, although this can be mitigated easily by providing proper training to the employees and also submitting the documentation and the manual of the project to the office so that the employees can understand the details of project and work efficiently on the system.

Problem Description

The main risk with the resources is that the project does not follow the iterative model and hence the risk of the resources falling short can take place. This affect the progress of the project and stall the further progress of the project. There might be situations where are the project has to be stopped due to lack of resources. Additionally, there can be situation where the resource allocated are more than abundant for the project then there is chance of unnecessary expenses for the organization. However, this can be mitigated with proper planning and budget analysis and according to the cost benefit analysis and project schedule the project is economically feasible and hence, the risks regarding the resources can also be addressed easily.

The project schedule is created according to the plan for the implementation. One of the risk involved with the schedule of the project is that the project has been estimated to be completed in around 47 days and if the project takes longer than 47 days then the cost estimation done with respect to the schedule of the project, and hence any alteration in the schedule would also change the estimation in budget of the project. However efficient planning would result in the feasibility of the schedule of the project.

The details of the hardware and the software required for the development of the system has been described in the tables provide below. The table below provides the details of the hardware for the system:

Hardware Requirement for the system
Location	Computer Name or Hardware Description	Manufacturer	Model	CPU speed	RAM	Hard Drive Size	Serial Number	Replacement Cost
Management
Project Manager	Needs the system for assigning the tasks	HP	Compaq 6200	2120(3.30GHz)	4GB	300GB	MXL207286B	$650.00
Administrator	Monitoring the systems				1GB	250GB	STY231DS	$200.00
Staff
Employees		HP	Compaq dx7400	2.33 GHz	5GB	500GB	M8DSA24D	$1,000.00
System Developer		HP	Compaq dx7400	2.33 GHz	5GB	500GB	M8DSA24D	$1,000.00
Database Designer		HP	Compaq dx7400	2.33 GHz	5GB	500GB	M8DSA24D	$1,000.00
System Analyst		HP	Compaq dx7400	2.33 GHz	5GB	500GB	M8DSA24D	$1,000.00
Servers
Server Room	Sever administrator	HP	Compaq Proliant ML350		4GB	300GB	MLSE232WS	$2,700.00
Server Room	Database Administrator	HP	Compaq Proliant ML350		4GB	300GB	3CQ232SE86Q	$2,250.00
Printers
Documentation	Breakroom LaserJet	HP	LaserJet 2055dn					$200.00
Hardware Total								$10,000.00

The details of the software requirements for the development of the system is provided below:

Software Requirement of the development of the system
Location	Vendor	Name	Operating System	Version	Number of Licenses	Replacement Cost
All Servers	Microsoft	Small Business	Windows	2003 - Premium	1	$    24,300.00
All Workstations	Microsoft	Small Business	Windows	2007	7	$      2,000.00
All Workstations	Microsoft	Office Standard	Windows	2010	7	$        168.00
Software Total						$    26,468.00

The working environment of the project should be very efficient and all the team members should be co-operative with the project manager and also make an effort in maintenance of all the responsibilities of the team members. In addition to this, the information system installation in the office would help the staffs of the organization to perform their task better with an increased level of efficiency. In addition to this, the safety measures of the employees and the data of the organization are to be kept safe from any type harmful activities. The machines installation is to be protected with a suitable barricade and also it is to be seen that no other employee except the administrator has access to systems. In addition to this, the access control for the access to the information system is to be maintained and the administrator should see to it that no other staffs or employees are granted permission without proper reasoning to access the main severs of the system. This would help in maintaining the workplace safety and free the employees from any type of hazards. In addition to this, the safety in the data access control for the systems would also help the organization in maintaining the confidentiality of their data which would safeguard them from any type of external intrusion of the system and prevent any type of data mismanagement and data deletion.

For the development of the system the Visual Studios are to be used and the front end development is to be done on the GUI of the Visual Studio Interface and in Addition to this, the Microsoft Sql Server is to be used for the development of the database for the system.

System Capabilities

The Work breakdown structure is an important aspect for any type of development and any type of project. The WBS (work breakdown structure) breaks a complex, unclear, confusing cluster of interdependent work-to-do into smaller, clear and clearly arranged form. Based on this structure, we can assign, manage, control the resources we need to complete for each of the work-packages - not only the human resources, material and underlying time and costs needed, but we can use this structure for assigning the project-discussion and attached project-files as well.  The Work Breakdown Structure for the project with which the report is concerned in here is provided below:

The main processes of the design of the information system for the organization are project initiation, project planning, project design, project implementation, project testing, project delivery and maintenance. The main summary task of the project is the Inventory Storage system.  

The Gantt Chart is an important tool which is to be considered for the development of any type project and useful in measuring the critical path of the project for any type of system development. A Gantt Chart is a pretty handy thing for planning a project, especially when it is used along with very rigorous application of the Critical Path Method (CPM). Without CPM, it is still a Gantt Chart, but also is just a collection of unconnected bars and its usefulness is greatly diminished. The Gantt Chart of the project that is being concerned with this report is provided below:

The above defined project consists of 25 activities which is to be completed in 47 days. In addition to this, the Gantt chart also displays the CPM for the project easily and it can be seen easily that the project consists of a single critical path and hence, it can be concluded that the project development is done in a waterfall model.

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