Project Implementation

MANAGING BUSINESS PROJECTS

Candidate Name:

Candidate No:

Title: Project Review Implementations

Examination Cycle: March 2005

Lecturer:

Class: Computing and Information System Year Two

Semester B

Submission Date: 14th February 2005

Intentionally

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CONTENTS

ASSUMPTIONS 4

HISTORY 4

CHOICE OF LIFE CYCLE 5

FEASIBILITY STUDY 7

INTRODUCTION 7

OBJECTIVE 7

SCOPE 8

SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENT 9

SYSTEMS DESIGN VIEW OF THE PROPOSED SOLUTION 11

COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS 13

Cost Considerations 13

Benefits Realized 14

TECHNICAL/FEATURES COMPARISON TABLE 15

EVALUATION 16

CONCLUSION 17

DETAIL PROJECT PLAN 18

PROCUREMENT 21

QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCESSES 22

CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT 24

PROJECT MONITORING AND CONTROL 26

ESTIMATING METHODS 28

COMMON METHODS FOR ESTIMATING PROJECT DURATION AND COST 28

OFF THE SHELF ESTIMATION SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS 31

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE METHODS 34

RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE PROJECT ESTIMATING PROCESS 37

APPENDIX A 38

GANTT CHART 38

APPENDIX B 39

COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS TABLE 39

BIBLIOGRAPHY 40

BOOK REFERENCES: 40

WEBSITES REFERENCES: 40

Assumptions

History

The Shandice Cosmetics International was established in Trinidad in 1993. The organization has grown with two points of presence in the Caribbean:

пЃ± Trinidad - the headquarters

пЃ± Barbados

The headquarters in Trinidad is the nerve centre of the operations. The organization has a staff complement of ten (10) office staff and five (5) mobile sales staff. The office building has two stories, with a floor space of three thousand square feet (3000) per floor on the ground floor and two thousand square feet (2000) on the upper floor. The Executive President of Shandice Cosmetics Inc. approached the Marketing and Sales Manager of Rentel Business Communication Systems Ltd to implement a network for the office staff with an effective accounting application and database, which will be access by the mobile sales force in the field. The Information Technology Project Manager of Rentel Business Communication Systems Ltd was subsequently entrusted with the task to do a written guide to the processes for this project.

CHOICE OF LIFE CYCLE

The Rapid Application Development life cycle was chosen for this project. This was done after carefully comparing it with the Waterfall model and V Model. The Rapid Application Development Model has a more radical approach. Implementing network systems in general are unpredictable (dynamic) and full of surprises (environmental uncertainty).

Information systems within increasingly competitive and dynamic business environments need to be able to deal with such uncertainty and must be able to be developed rapidly and effectively to meet changing business needs. These factors have lead to the acceptance of Rapid Application Development (RAD) as a useful and appropriate information systems development framework for the Information Age.

The dynamic nature of the Client’s business, and its need to develop information systems more quickly to meet changing environmental needs, has affected the way in which information systems are analysed, designed, implemented and evaluated within the business environment. As business needs change, so do information requirements, leading to the adoption of information systems development methodologies that allow for rapid business systems development. Therefore, within increasingly dynamic environments, characterised by continuous change, there is a critical business need to change and update, as rapidly as possible, information systems to support changes in the business environment.

Unfortunately, the traditional systems development life cycle (SDLC), often known as the “Waterfall” approach, is too slow to react to external business changes and is often inappropriate as a methodological systems development framework in the Information Age. The traditional Waterfall approach to systems development is prone to a number of inherent weaknesses, as follows:

1. Too rigid, slow, sequential and inflexible to deal with change;

2. Normally lengthy, often costly, and laborious;

3. Ignores and underplays end-user involvement in the development process;

4. Often fails to deliver business requirement and system user needs;

Therefore, Rapid Application Development is an attractive systems development framework that offers the possibility of fast, flexible and “tailored” business information systems.

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