Web App Development For Social Media Research Centre (essay).

Project Deliverables

Question:

Discuss about the ICT Project Management on Social Media Research Centre.

As per the given information, there is a requirement to construct and develop new and better equipped research centres for students so that the quality of research and education can be improved. The main deliverable of this project is the web application which will be used for the proposed research centre and its marketing on internet. The project deliverables also include the application development for the research centre and the softwares and hardware’s which will be used for the development of research centre.

In Australia, there are no research centres which provide the details and information about social media. This project will benefit those sections of the society who are in need of the information about the social media. The stakeholders include the professors, students and the organisation.  The students will be benefitted as they will get access to the complete and more accurate information on social media which will help them in completing their knowledge and education. Web application will be very useful to them as they can access to many secondary information in the form of journals, thesis, papers, reports, researches and articles. The professors will also be benefitted as they will be able to provide greater pool of knowledge to their students in the social media research centre.

The project has some limitations as well. The project has financial limitation and time limitations. It is a huge project which has to be completed in the limited time period of 8 months which might lead to the avoidance of any important information in the database of application. The project will be considered as successful if it will achieve the defined objectives and within the given time and budget which is 8 months and AUS $50000 respectively.

Measurable Organisational value can be referred as to the tool which helps in measuring the return on the investment. It can also be understood as an alternative tool to the Return on Investment concept. This concept is used for measuring the overall success of the project by referring to the achievement of its goals and objectives. In the present project of web application development for Social media research centre, the success can be measured from the critical success factors (Clouse, 2015).

Below given are the desired areas of impact which are ranked in the order of their importance:

• Customers: The customers of this project are the students and professors who will be affected the most. They will get easy access to the information on social media which will help them in completing their studies.
• Financial: If the project will be completed successfully as per the plans and will be implemented, there will be huge profits for the owner. The Reader’s lab will get financial benefits from the collection of membership fees from the students at Reader’s lab web application.
• Operational: The operational efficiency will be better than before and more students will be attracted towards the web application of the Social media Research centre.
• Social: The project is going to have huge impact on the society by providing access to the stakeholders to the social media information which will develop their knowledge and help them in studies and further research.
• Strategy: the business strategy of Readers lab will be impacted with the help of better management of application and information for the users

With reference to the project, two values are created:

• Better: After the completion of the web application development, the possibility of better management and operations can be expected from the Research lab.
• Do more: This value is created which implies that the organisation should always strive for improvement in future (Larson & Gray, 2011).

• Improvement in the quality of services: the quality of the research materials and articles on the web application is to be improved in the further years.
• Increase in the market share of Readers lab: The measurable organisational value could be an increase in the market share of Readers lab. It covers 5% of the market at present. It aims at covering 15% of the market share by the end of next year.
• Increase in the targets: The target is to be increased to sell the scholarly articles in the future. The main aim is to increase the target of sales by 15% by the end of next year.
• Association within more experts and professors: Readers lab aims at associating with more experts and professors for collection of more knowledge for improving their database.
• Increase in customers: the web application needs more customers for earning more revenue. To improve revenue, more customers will be targeted next year.

The Factors determining success/ failure of project are:

• Budgets
• Time frame
• Performance criteria
• Accuracy level of project

(Dang & Le-Hoai, 2016).

The following assumptions are made during the completion of project:

• The idea of web application is approved and verified by all with the unanimity by all.
• The design and requirements of the web application are clear
• The employees, vendors and workers are employed on the basis of contracts.
• All the required approvals are taken from the authorities.

The project faced following constraints during the project completion:

• The laws of government will be a barrier in the completion of project successfully.
• Conflicts between different parties or in the management may create hurdle for the successful completion of the project.

Stakeholders are those which are affected by the actions of the organisations or the organisations are affected by the actions of stakeholders (Noro, 2012). In the project completion for Social Media Research centre, the stakeholders involved are listed below:

Customers: the customers are those members, students and readers who purchase the information available of the web application. The amount received from them is the revenue for the research centre. The students also upload their articles or academic works on the web application which adds up to the database of the centre.

Limitations of the Project

Sponsors: the sponsors are those who provide funds for the completion of the project successfully. They play a major role in the completion of web application (Noro, 2012).

Vendors: vendors are the suppliers or the sellers of material which is used in the development of web application. This material includes hardware’s, softwares and other supplies. They are paid in return.

Employees: the employees are the ones who are hired on the basis of contract for the completion of web application. These employees provide their expertise and knowledge to the project in order to complete it successfully. They get payments in return in the form of salaries or wages or a fixed amount.

Government:  the government has an important role of verifying whether the development of web application is legal and has complied with all the regulatory requirements.

Project manager: Project manager is the responsible one, who designs, communicates and manages the stages of the project and takes it to the final stage of completion (Noro, 2012).

With the completion of project, some lessons are learned which should be improved. The first lesson learned is that the risk management policy was weak which should be made stronger so that the project does not suffer in case of emergencies. There was no contingency plan developed which might have created a big problem for the project.

The project management should be completed within a limited scope defined at the beginning of the project. Continuous monitoring is required to identify the gaps between the requirement of the client and actual delivery of the project.

Communication plan refers to the decisions taken as to what audience should be targeted, the message and the medium to spread the message. The communication plan for the project of Social Media Research Centre is prepared below:

The communication in the project will be carried on between Project manager, management, project team and the stakeholders. The communication is planned upward and downward both in order to have clear communication between the top and lower level of authorities and among the workers as well (Dennis, 2012). The schedules given below will clear the communication plan during the project:

(Meredith & Mantel, 2011). 

Following are the stakeholders of the project and the information to be shared:

(Naybour, 2010).

Change management is a collaborative effort. It is not something which can be done by a single person. Change occurs between the currents state of the organisation to the proposed state. All the parties of the project like executive managers, project manager, sponsor, project team and support functions have to work together to face the change and to make the project successful.  When there will be some changes demanded in the project of Social Media Research Centre, the desired actions will be taken. The project team will handle the changes with the support of the project manager. The deadlines will be extended and the requirements will be explained properly to the team. Healthy and open communication will be developed in order to avoid any gaps between what is required and what is delivered (Torre & Solari, 2013).

Measurable Organisational Value

The ultimate goal of the change management is to bring effective results which can be done by engaging the employees and inspiring them for a new goal. Project will be successful if the employees will be supportive. The employees from top most level to the lower level. All the employees have to play their special roles during the change is applied in the project. This is how change management can take place effectively. All the employees have their own roles and responsibilities which are to be fulfilled in order to achieve success.

During the course of project, number of meetings is to be carried out so that the goals and objectives of the business could be shared and the team could work on its achievement. There are different agendas of meetings in the duration of a project. These are explained below:

Agenda of a meeting between project manager and management: To discuss the progress of the project and the changes required. This meeting is held so that the project can be delivered successfully at the end of the project duration.

Agenda of a meeting between project manager and project team: This meeting has main purpose to guide the employees and workers about the project requirements and how to complete it. The project manager motivates the team members by communicating with them through meetings at frequent basis.

Agenda of a meeting between project team members: These meetings are held to discuss the idea, opinions or information regarding project with each other. This helps in proving support among the workers.

Agenda of a meeting between stakeholders and management: stakeholders should be aware of the success or progress of the project. So, the management keeps on communicating with them to satisfy them and make them informed about the project through meetings (Singh, 2016).

References

Brandl, Dennis. (2012). Building your house of software: To stay on time and in budget, software project managers need to prepare for challenges with other organizations, develop a flexible plan and schedule to handle uncontrollable delays, develop an external communication plan, and develop plans to use resources for other parts of the project when there are delays.(IT & engineering INSIGHT). Control Engineering, 59(4), 14.

Clouse, S. F. (2015). BMIS 476.01: Integrated Project Information for Information Systems.

Dang, C., & Le-Hoai, L. (2016). Critical success factors for implementation process of design-build projects in Vietnam. Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology,14(1), 17-32.

Della Torre, E., & Solari, L. (2013). High-performance work systems and the change management process in medium-sized firms. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(13), 2583-2607.

Kerzner, H., Ebooks Corporation, & EBook Library. (2013). Project Management A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling (11th ed.). New York: Wiley.

Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2011). Project management: The managerial process.

Meredith, J. R., & Mantel Jr, S. J. (2011). Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Naybour, P. (2010). What is a Project Management Framework?, 2. Retrieved April 07, 2017, from https://blog.parallelprojecttraining.com/project-management-articles/what-is-a-project-management-framework/

Singh, R. (2016). The Role of Communication in Project Management. Information Outlook (Online), 20(5), 4-6.

Zajac, J., & Zajñac, Justyna. (2013). Communication in Global Corporations Successful Project Management via Email (Warschauer Studien zur Germanistik und zur Angewandten Linguistik). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften.