IT Business Applications

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IT Business Applications

• Week 13
• Planning Your Project

This Presentation is in Self-Study Form. Press F5
to Begin the Presentation
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Session Objectives

• The purpose of this presentation is to
• Discuss the project timescale,
• Indicate some of the milestones during this
  semester
• Offer some tools and methods which may help in
  project planning.

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Menu

• This Semesters Work
• Project Development
• Project Management
• What should I do now?

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This Semesters Work
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This Semester

• This week we look at project management, and
  re-focus on the project.
• In the next 4 weeks we will learn more skills,
  involving the Visual Basic Environment
• During this time, you will be undertaking
  essential planning development work for your
  project.

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The Project Brief

• Within a realistic context of application,
  identify a range of sources and targets of data
  both external and internal to the context, which
  are generated or supplied as part of the normal
  business working
• Formulate a range of spreadsheet models and
  applications which can be used to work with the
  data.
• Evaluate the usefulness of these models and
  applications.

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Breakdown of the task

• The task has five parts
• Finding and investigating a context
• Discussing Initial Ideas
• Presentation of proposals
• Development Work
• Creation and Submission of a report

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The Timescale

• Weeks 13-18
• Create project outline proposals
• Weeks 19-20
• Present Work-in-Progress
• Weeks 21-24
• Develop Complete Applications Package
• Week after Easter Break
• Submit a final report with supporting evidence

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Team Working Stage 3

• This document is available in this weeks
  resources on the website, and is the second
  instalment. This part takes you through
  step-by-step until the middle of this semester..
• You should download this follow this carefully,
  in a week-by week fashion.

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The Project Proposals T3

• In Week 20 you will present your proposals as
  work-in-progress to the tutor and to the rest
  of the class.
• Before this you will have submitted project
  planning with timescales.

• The Presentation is compulsory and is worth 5 of
  the marks

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The Presentation T3

• The purpose of the presentation is to ensure that
  you are going along the right lines,
• and that
• Your project is viable
• You are making progress
• your planning is effective
• you have good ideas for how the project can be
  completed.

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The Presentation T3

• You will be marked on the quality of the
  proposals, the level detail of the analysis,the
  quality of the presentation and the teamwork.
• The Presentation should be designed to last about
  10 minutes, use PowerPoint and is worth 5

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The Presentation T3

• This presentation will cause you to focus and
  summarise your ideas.
• Within the presentation you should present
  spreadsheet models, produce story boards and
  mock-ups.
• This means the work should be fairly well
  advanced
• In doing this, you will receive suggestions as to
  how you might improve, or what else you could do.

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Beyond the PresentationThe Walkthrough T4

• In the final session of this term, you will
  undertake a walkthrough of the applications
  package that you have created.
• This means that you will demonstrate it,
  outlining all the features in a well-thought
  through, structured manner.

• The Walkthrough should last about 15-20 minutes
  and will be worth 20

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Beyond the PresentationThe Final Report T5

• The report consists of a number of sections, and
  will include full descriptions of the proposed
  applications
• The report will be highly structured, and will
  include analysis and justification, together with
  sources, Bibliography etc.
• There will be appendices consisting of user
  guides, technical specifications etc.

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In this session

• We now consider Project Management and some of
  the issues which you should be addressing over
  the next few weeks.

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Project Development
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A Systems Approach

• The approach adopted in this module attempts to
  model how a project would be tackled in a real
  context.
• This normally occurs as a cycle of
• analysis-proposal-development-testing-evaluation..

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Project Development
Problem Specification
Problem Analysis
Product Evaluation
Product Testing
Design Proposal
Product Development
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First Stage (T2)
The part leading up to Assignment T2 is simply a
part where you gather together information, and
undertake a small amount of analysis.
Problem Specification
Problem Analysis
Product Evaluation
Product Testing
Design Proposal
Product Development
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Second Stage (T3)
The second stage leading up to T3 is where you
actually decide on what you will produce even at
this stage, you are only creating a design and
proposal.
Problem Specification
Problem Analysis
Product Evaluation
Product Testing
Design Proposal
Product Development
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Third Stage (T4)
The next stage leading up to T4 is where you
actually develop produce the application.
Problem Specification
Problem Analysis
Product Evaluation
Product Testing
Design Proposal
Product Development
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Final Stage (T5)
The final stage leading up to T5 is where you
test and evaluate the product. You may or may not
have time to make changes.
Problem Specification
Problem Analysis
Product Evaluation
Product Testing
Design Proposal
Product Development
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Project Management
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Your Project

• From this point onwards you should be undertaking
  work which is contributing to your project.
• This will involve designing, developing and
  testing materials, and writing documentation
  reports.
• In order to do this successfully, the projected
  must be planned and managed effectively.

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Project Planning

• Effective planning involves
• Identifying the activities which need to be
  carried out
• Specifying what exactly is required in each case
• Determining the sequence in which activities will
  occur
• Allocating tasks to individuals
• Estimating the time needed to complete each of
  the activities
• Producing a schedule of events.

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1. Identifying Activities

• You will need break down the project into
  sections and subsections
• In this project, you will have the following
  broad headings
• Meetings Consultations
• Design and Planning
• Development Construction
• Testing Evaluation
• Reporting

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1.1 Meetings Consultations

• You will need to meet
• As a team, to sort out the details of the
  project, to plan and to ensure that what you
  produce meets specifications
• With the client, to ensure that you have all the
  data that you need, and that what you are
  producing meets expectations
• With your tutor to ensure that you are on track,
  well-focused and that the ideas are feasible and
  the software is viable.

Examples of Meetings
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Examples of meetings

• Meetings with the owner
• to collect details
• To consult, check and to report on progress.
• To make a final presentation.
• Meetings with the Team
• To agree on the Terms of Reference
• To agree on allocation of tasks
• To agree on overall design structure
• Meetings with the tutor
• To check on progress
• For advice guidance

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1.2 Design Planning

• You will need to create project designs,
  prototypes mock-ups. These designs will be
  part-written, part visual.
• There should be an overall design structure which
  shows how the whole fits together, and the
  purpose of each element within it The Master
  Plan
• There will be some items which are produced in
  order to establish the look feel of the
  finished product
• There will be some items produced to establish
  principles, methods and demonstrate proof of
  concept

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1.3 Development Construction

• At some point, the discussion, planning and
  design stops, and you will need to actually write
  the software.
• When that time comes you should be absolutely
  clear upon what is needed, who will do it, how
  long the task will take, and how this task
  enmeshes with all the other tasks

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1.4 Testing Evaluation

• After the development work has been completed,
  you should test the applications to see that all
  elements function appropriately, and evaluate
  whether they are fit for purpose.
• In Testing, you should devise a testing scheme
  whereby you systematically check every feature
  for all possible responses.
• In Evaluating you should ask a potential user to
  use the software in a realistic task, observe
  their actions and ask them to comment on the
  software.

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1.5 Reporting

• There are two essential elements to the
  reporting
• A Walkthrough of the finished product
• A Final Written Report to be submitted at the end
  of Semester 2
• You may decide to add a third
• Report to the client

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2. Specifying what is required
Example

• The project needs to be manageable in the time
  available, and needs to be managed, in order that
  it does not grow uncontrollably.
• You will need to write the Terms of Reference
  (TOR) carefully to describe the system.
• You also need to break the project down into
  smaller activities, specifying clearly what is
  required for each activity.

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Example Quotation and Billing System
Web-Pages for advertising Marketing
Initial Query Form
Customer Database
This proposed system is designed for use in a
small plumbing repairs installation
company. We will use this as an example of how
such a a project might be planned managed.
Quotation Brief
Completed Quotation
Schedule of Jobs Costings
Bill for work carried out
Payment Records
Receipts
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Billing System TOR

• The task is to produce a Billing System for a
  plumbing contractor, consisting of
• Quotation Forms Records
• Invoice Receipts
• Job Schedules
• There will be databases of Customers and Jobs,
  which will also contain payment records.
• In addition, a small website of 4 pages will be
  created for marketing purposes.

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The Scope of the Project

• As you can see, this project is a major
  undertaking, taking many hours and one person
  could not possibly complete this in the time
  available.
• The whole point is that each person will need to
  work on an individual element, but the whole
  package will need to work in unison, and will
  need to have the same look and feel
• To do this, the project must be broken down into
  manageable activities.

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Project Activity Breakdown
This list of activities gives a title and a brief
description of each activity attempting to
capture what is needed for each one.
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3. Determining the Sequence
Example

• Some of these activities can be started
  immediately
• Some activities will need to wait until previous
  activities have been completed.
• An Activity Diagram can help to work out the
  sequence of Activities.

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Quotation and Billing System Activity Diagram
Main Tasks
Construct Quotation Forms
Write Quotation Forms Macros
Design Database Forms
Construct Query Form
Write Queries Macros
Construct Customer Database
Test System
Connect Customer Jobs Database
Decide on TOR
Design Job Schedule
Construct Job Schedule
Construct Payments Database
Design Payment Records
Write Macros to Update Billing Receipts
Construct Billing Receipts
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4. Allocating Tasks
Example

• Tasks should be allocated to individuals, or
  groups.
• These groups should examine the tasks and agree
  what is required, and what the task
  specifications are.
• Remember, each person needs to have sufficient
  work to be able to be marked separately on their
  element of the project.
• In addition, you will need to consider which
  parts of the project are crucial, I.e. the
  project will fail if they are not produced.

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Task Allocation Example
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5. Estimating the Time
Example

• Each activity should be allotted a specific
  amount of time in order for it to be completed.
• This is a bit like budgeting. Activities should
  be given enough time to ensure that they are
  completed in time for the next activity
• Each Activity should be allocated a start
  finish date.

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Time Allocation Example
There are several ways of allocating time. This
could be a number of days or hours. In this
project, it is suitable to specify start and end
dates.
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6. Scheduling Activities.
Example

• Finally, all the activities need to be scheduled
  in one overall plan.
• One way of doing this is to use a Gantt Chart.
• A sample Gantt Chart is supplied with this weeks
  resources.

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Gantt Chart Scheduling
The details on how to use this chart are included
in the software. If you know of other tools which
achieve the equivalent results you may use those
instead.
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Managing The Project

• Good management rests on Good Communication.
• If you are to succeed tin this project, it is
  imperative that you maintain a schedule of weekly
  meetings, and share with team members what you
  have been doing, and call on them for ideas.

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What Should I do Now?
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What should I do now?

• First of all, download Team Working Stage 3 from
  the website and read it carefully.
• Use this as a guide in the next phase of your
  project.

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What happens next?

• During this week, your team should re-examine
  your TOR (Terms of Reference) and agree precisely
  what you will produce for the project

If you are unsure, you should discuss this with
the tutor before the end of the seminar session,
to ensure that you have got sufficient breadth
and depth, and that you are NOT taking on too
much..