CIS 498: Information Technology Capstone Document Control

CIS 498: Information Technology Capstone

Document Control

Change Record

Date	Author	Version	Change Reference

Reviewers

Name	Position
	Project Manager
	Project Sponsor
	Operations manager
	Main developer

 

 Business Requirements

Project Overview

The project will entail establishment of an e-commerce business where the company will be involved in the sale of products online. The intention of this project is to establish a great platform that will ensure that the people from distinct regions are able to access all certain commodities without limitation of their locations. Some of the products that the project intends to sell on the e-commerce platform include TP-links, laptops, anti-virus desktops, tablets and smartphones among other ITR related products. They will ultimately provide solutions to the people in all the given locations (Lock, 2017).  The prices will involve critical stakeholders ranging from the project sponsor to the project manager. They will have specific tasks which they will apply in the course of implementing the project.

The key deliverables will include:

• Deliberating in the best designs for the app
• Discussing what to include and what not to include in the course of the project
• Having the best team support that will assist in the attainment of the goals
• The hiring of the best technical support which will constitute of developers and designers who will be critical in the coming up with the most suitable platform for use in the project
• Consulting with the prospective customers on what they think of the app and making changes based on the suggestions and recommendations given by the customers and other stakeholders.
• Making constant progress reports regarding workshops after every two weeks

The project seeks to focus on the area of using the coerce platform since the current companies in place are yet to meet the needs in the market. By having a quality platform that meets the needs of the prospective customers will ensure that all expectations of the operations are addressed through the platform.

Background including current process

There has been a paradigm shift in the use of technology in the day to day services. This is the key reason as to why the product being launched, in order to meet the needs of the market base. The e-commerce platform will be used to reach out to people in various destinations and assist them with their IT solutions that they may need. The project goal is to meet the needs of the prospective customers in the market as a value proposition for the business.  The aim of IT application in this project is to facilitate the development of the e-commerce platforms which will require designing and development through the use of IT experts, IT products will also be sold through the platform once it is established.  The IT products are likely to make a huge impact on the market due to the fact that they will meet the most current needs in society. This is since most of the needs in the current market are   based on the IT needs in society (Turner, 2008). The persons mandated with this role will have to be conversant with the needs of society and how to use the technology in meeting the needs in society.

Scope

Scope of Project

Applications – In order to meet the target production date, only these applications will be implemented: The first major application is the e-commerce platform which will be in the form of a mobile application. The app will assist one toe easily 0rder for a product and even make an online payment. The communication with the selling team will also be through the mobile app. Other applications which will be implemented include having social media platforms that m will enhance communication and assist in the marketing of the IT products.  A company website will also be developed as an alternative of the app, where marketing and showcasing of the product will be undertaken.

Sites – These sites are considered part of the implementation: The mobile App, the website of the company and the Social media platforms which include Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Process Re-engineering – Re-engineering will be conducted by a group of experts who are conversant with the development, designing and even testing of the app.

Customization – Customizations will be limited to the design of the app and the needs of the customers, with regards to the provision of IT solutions

Interfaces– the interfaces included are the home page for the app, pages for selecting specific products, payment options pages, inquiry pages and the about page in the app.

Architecture – Application and Technical Architecture will be qualified staff members, who will have the process in developing a platform that is easy to use and up to date

Conversion – Only the following data and volume will be considered for conversion:  costs and scheduling.

Testing – Testing will include only involving few technocrats, chosen prospective customers, the project team and the project manager

Funding – Project funding is limited to the development, designing, marketing and piloting the project

Training – Training will be undertaken to all team members, the designers and the developers who will be made conversant with the expectations of the project and what each and the role of each of them

Edcucation – Education will include only the developers and designers who will be the key members of developing the e-commerce platform.

Constraints and Assumptions

The following constraints have been identified:  The schedule of the project may be disrupted; more so if there may be a failure in the system or in the course of the development of the platform. Another constraint is on the cost and the budget may be surpassed. The budget may fail to be enough for the success of the project. Budgeting is a highly essential matter. The project team, led by the sponsor and the manager of the project hence needs to ensure that they work within the designated budget and that the area be to use the allocated resources in attaining the goals. However, there may be other miscellaneous which may arise in the course of the project (Kerzner, 2017). They also need to be handled accordingly. The other constraint is the issue of scope, were increasing the scope of the project may require more time and resource, which may prove to be a challenge in the implementation of the project. Another likely challenge is the lack of well-coordinated teak which may result in failing to agree on best strategies and the ways to use in the establishment of the platform.

Assumptions

The following assumptions have been made in defining the scope, objectives, and approach:

An assumption can be defined as something or rather an idea that someone perceives to be true without proof.

The following assumptions have been made in defining the scope, objectives, and approach:

• It is assumed that the customer base is well conversant with the online market platform and its dynamics. This might not be the case as others might have different views and opinions concerning the same. For example, some customers might have previous bad experience while transacting online hence making them not to indulge
• It is also assumed that social media is a profitable venture. The online traffic on the website and the social media pages do not automatically translate into sales. There might be huge traffic on the website and the social media platforms but the visitors don’t necessarily have to buy the product
• Project funding is only limited to the development, designing, marketing and piloting the project. It is therefore assumed that there will be no other critical emerging issues or emergencies arising during the project that might require immediate funding.
• The project will involve all the critical stakeholders, where project managers project sponsors, team members mad the subordinate staff will all work together with ensuring that the e-commerce platform is a success and that it meets the gaps in the market
• It is assumed that finally after the app is launched, then it will be attractive to the customers, who will use it to access the needs of their IT products which meet their needs and help them in identifying the best products in the market.
• It is also assumed that the platform will meet the modern  designs of application and appease the users , who will  assist it in meeting  their specific needs  , with regards to ensuring they are easily able to aces the products and that the process of gaining these products will be relatively ensured than the rest of the competitors in the market.

Risks

The following risks have been identified as possibly affecting the project during its progression:

• Lack of enough funding
• Lacking a clear scope and requirements
• Lack of supporting stakeholders and team members
• Project exceeding the set budget
• Failure to meet the set goals and objectives of the project
• Failure of the corporation by authorities
• Unavailable resources to help in the realization of the set goals
• Failure of cooperating with the authorities in place
• Loss of the necessary data which is critical for the e-commerce platform
• Physical risks and hazards in the process of the development of the platform

Scope Control

The project will involve several critical stakeholders who will work together with an aim of making sure that an easy to use online platform is established and that the platform is greatly marketed to all the target markets where it will ultimately meet the set goals and objectives. All critical stakeholders will be required to work together as a team to come up with the best ideas, plans, budget allocations and final testing of the project in order to ensure that the set goals are met (Nicholas & Steyn, 2017).  They will be required to use the available resources accordingly in order to ensure that the budget allocations I effectively sued to ensure that quality and easy to use platform is finally established and sued accordingly as per the expectations. The time to be undertaken for the project is Five months, where the levels, which will range from the planning, stage of the project, to analysis and software requirements. The design process of the project will be followed by the development, testing, training, documentation, piloting, deployment and the post-implementation review. Finally, this will be followed by the conclusion of the project and the distribution of the app to the market.

Relationship to Other Systems/Projects

It is the responsibility of the business unit to inform IT of other business initiatives that may impact the project.  The following are known business initiatives that this will impact the productivity of the app. They include IT companies and developers, software firms that will provide critical requirements for the app and social media platforms amongst others. A number of IT projects and advancements may have an impact on this particular project (Binder, 2016). The major impact to the project includes the evolution of the IT industry which is very costly. The Technology sector continuously changes in terms of designs, new applications, new coding methods and new developments which the developers and the designers have to be keen on in ensuring that the platform is up to date used up to date software which will ensure that the platform is competitive in the market.

Definition of Terms (if applicable)

• Initiation entails the first phases of a particular project a
• Stakeholders are the people engaged and influenced by the project
• A Milestone is a process of scheduling that gives more information on the set of deliverables
• A work plan is a profile of goals and objectives which assist the project team to achieve those goals
• A business plan is a document that pro properly describes the goals and objectives of the project
• A work breakdown structure is a hierarchy that defines the project into bits that are manageable for the project team to understand each level
• Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) basically defines the organization of a particular project informs of a hierarchy(Paramati, et al., 2017).
• A contingency plan is a backup plan just in case the main plan doesn’t work
• A deliverable is an expected output in a particular project
• A feasibility study is a process of evaluating a particular plan in a project
• A case study is a procedure by which an individual or the project team conducts research on a particular project in order to examine the key aspects of the project
• Cost estimation is the technique that is used to calculate the costs in a project
• Cost overrun refers to the actual costs that surpass the estimated budget of a project
• A dashboard is a platform where all the crucial information on a particular project can be checked
• A network diagram is a chart or graph that clearly shows how the different elements of a project flow
• A Gantt chart is simply a bar chart graphically showing the scheduled information of a project
• Closing processes are the act of calling off all the phases and processes in a particular project
• A project life cycle is basically the different phases a particular project goes through from the beginning to the end of the project
• Assumption entail the beliefs of what may occur in the future of the project

References

Binder, J., 2016. Global project management. s.l.:Routledge.

Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and monitoring project performance.. s.l.:John Wiley & Sons.

Lock, D., 2017. The essentials of project management. s.l.:Routledge.

Nicholas, J. M. & Steyn, H., 2017. Project management for engineering, business and technology. s.l.:Taylor & Francis.

Paramati, S., Apergis, N. & Ummalla, M., 2017. Financing clean energy projects through domestic and foreign capital: The role of political cooperation among the EU, the G20 and OECD countries.. Energy Economics, pp. 61, pp.62-71.

Turner, J., 2008. Handbook of project-based management.. s.l.:McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing.