software project management: project summary
TRANSCRIPT
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ResearchColab Project Summary
Team: Reckless 7
Institute of Information Technology
University of Dhaka
25th November, 2016
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Contents Project Summary ............................................................................................................................. 3 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 3 Project Team and Staffing .............................................................................................................. 3
Project Deliverables (Planned vs. Actual) ...................................................................................... 4 Project Major Activities and Milestones......................................................................................... 5 Transition to Operations ................................................................................................................. 7 Recommendations ........................................................................................................................... 7
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Project Summary
Team Reckless 7 recently completed the ResearchColab Project which has been deployed
successfully. This marks the end of a difficult but successful project for the Reckless 7
group.
The main objective of this document is to provide an overall view of the project and discuss
main learnings of the project. Another objective is to provide indicators for assessing the
success of the project and provide recommendations for use in similar projects in future.
Finally, the main goal of this document is to formally close the project summarizing all
required information.
Executive Summary
The project is for a web application called ResearchColab.com which offers review and data
sharing service and a discussion platform for researchers. To avail these services, users need
to register as either a researcher or a reviewer. A researcher will post a review request and the
reviewers will bid for it. The poster will then see the list of interested reviewers and choose
the most suitable candidate and have a one to one communication with the person in order to
hire him for the paper review. Researches can also post data on the website that can be used
in further researches. The data can either be free or paid. A discussion system will also help
the researchers to discuss research related topics in the discussion room.
Project Team and Staffing
The ResearchColab project consisted of a skilled and knowledgeable team. The chart below
provides information about the project team members:
Name Assigned task Contact
Md. Adiluzzaman Adil Project Management [email protected]
Minhas Kamal System Analysis [email protected]
Kishan Kumar Ganguly Development [email protected]
Md. Rakib Hossain Quality Assurance [email protected]
Mostaque Ahmed Documentation [email protected]
A.H.M. Azimul Haque Communication &
Collaboration
Israt Fatema Shantu Documentation [email protected]
ResearchColab project team members utilized standard project management methodologies
to successfully complete the project. The project team was a matrixed organization with full
support from functional managers and senior leadership. Effective communication, detailed
planning, stakeholder involvement, project management tools, and organizational structure
all played key roles in the project’s success.
Staffing lessons from previous projects were used in building the project team. Rather than
allocate too many resources, as some past projects have done, the team was staffed with one
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resource per development area. The project sponsor made clear to the project manager that if
any additional resources were required, they must be requested through standard channels
and the impact on project cost and schedule would need to be defined.
Project Deliverables (Planned vs. Actual)
The ResearchColab project has been completed successfully. There were planned
deliverables for each phase of this project as well as for the completed product. This section
highlights the planned deliverables and compares them to actual deliverables as they
occurred.
Planned
Deliverable
Actual Deliverable Summary
Project
Management
Reports.
The team provided the entire project plan. It
contains which development process to follow, how
to coordinate between team members, which
development tools to follow.
This deliverable was
completed as
planned
SRS & Design
document
The analyst team provided the architecture of the
software and UX design is described in this report.
This deliverable was
completed as
planned
Configuration
Manual
The documentation team provided with a
configuration manual that describes about how to
configure the tools and what environment is
required for running the software.
This deliverable was
completed as
planned
Executable code
module
The development team has deployed the actual web
application to be used.
This deliverable was
completed as
planned
In summary all documented project deliverables have been met by the MicroFiber project
team. All stakeholders have submitted their feedback and acknowledge that there are no
deliverables which were missed or omitted for this project.
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Project Major Activities and Milestones
Main Activity
Planne
d
Time
(days)
Actual
Time
(days)
Time
Deviation
(days)
Major Reason for deviation
Starting Project and Defining Scope
and Objectives 15 15 0
Developing Project Charter 4 4 0
Receiving Project Charter Approval 5 5 0
Project Plan Development 4 6 2
Additional time needed on risk
identification and deciding performance
indicators
Project Plan Approval 2 2 0
Requirement Specification 4 4 0
Design 4 3 -1 Some component logics were reusable
across the whole architecture
Development 5 5 0
Testing 3 3 0
Installing Live System 2 4 2 Time deviation due to installation
problem in the production environment
Update Documents 2 3 0
Additional time spent on finding
traceability of documents and fixing
these
Gain Formal Acceptance and Close
Project 1 1 0
Project End 51 55 4
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Project Cost The budgeted cost for the Researchcolab.com Project was set at 7,23,500/=BDT. This cost
was broken out by project phase in the following chart with actual costs compared to the
planned/budgeted cost.
Project Phase Budgeted Cost Actual Cost Comments
Project staffing 63,000/= BDT 65,000/= BDT Staffing cost were
over budget due to
Schedule pressure
Logistic 11,500/= BDT 10000/= BDT Logistics were over
budget due to under
estimation
Utility 7,000/=BDT 6000/= BDT Utility costs came in
under budget
Miscellaneous 2,000/=BDT 5000/= BDT Miscellaneous cost
was over budget
Laptop 2,80,000/=BDT 2,80,000/=BDT costs were on budget
Desktop 1,20,000/=BDT 1,20,000/=BDT costs were on budget
Premises 2,40,000/=BDT 2,20,000/=BDT costs were on budget
Total actual costs of the Researchcolab.com Project amounted to 706,000/=BDT. The
Researchcolab.com project was not only successful in meeting all of its objectives and
deliverables, but by completing under budget, it also allowed project team to allocate
17500/=BDT to other important initiatives.
Project Schedule
The Researchcolab.com Project schedule called for a four-month project with initiation
beginning on September 29, 2016 and project closeout ending on November 26, 2016. There
were initial concerns by the project team that the schedule would potentially slip due to
limited number of resources and time to the project. The below chart shows each phase of the
project lifecycle, the planned schedule dates, and the actual completion dates of each phase.
Project Phase Scheduled
Completion
Actual Completion Comments
Initiation September 29, 2016 September 29, 2016 Completed on time
Planning October 30, 2016 October 30, 2016 Completed on time
Design November 8, 2016 November 8, 2016 Completed on time
Build November 12, 2016 November 20, 2016 Not Completed on time
Testing November 15, 2016 November 22, 2016 Completed on time
Trial Build/Install November 22, 20xx November 25, 2016 Not Completed on time
Transition to Ops November 22, 2016 November 26, 2016 Not Completed on time
Project Closure November 26, 2016 TBD Progressing on time
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The Researchcolab.com Project successfully completed most of the phase on time which can be
attributed to effective planning and communication as well as sponsor support of this important
initiative.
During the initiation and planning phases there was concern among the team members that there
were inadequate resources assigned to this project. However, due to team members experience,
additional resources were not needed and the assigned staff was adequate to complete all work
packages in the planned timeframes.
The only project phase which encountered schedule problems were the build and trail builds
phase.
Transition to Operations
Transition of a project to an operational environment can be a challenging task for many
organizations. The ResearchColab project was successfully transitioned to operations as a
direct result of effective communication and detailed planning. The inclusion of the effective
members as stakeholders ensured a collective approach to the creation of an improved
product which could be transitioned smoothly to a manufacturing environment.
Future projects can benefit by involving operations staff early in the project planning phase
and soliciting input from operations team members on important considerations for the
project from an operational perspective. The project team was not only successful in
communicating and planning with operations staff but they leveraged these strengths to
determine expectations of what operations required as part of the transition. In this case, the
project team was able to develop complete technical data packages and process specifications
for operations to use in the manufacturing of the product. This resulted in an almost
seamless transition of product lines on the development floor. If the operations staff had not
been included as stakeholders nor participated in the project planning, it is likely this step
would have been overlooked and the project would have encountered delays and additional
costs.
Recommendations
The ResearchColab Project was an example of a carefully planned and successfully executed
project for Reckless 7. However, it is not without its recommendations or lessons learned.
Recommendation #1:
Involve operations personnel during the initiation phase for new product development
projects so they are involved during every step of the planning and execution process. This
is imperative in establishing familiarity with the product and processes as well as establishing
expectations of what operations will require during transition.
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Recommendation #2:
Researching previous project archives was extremely beneficial in establishing budgets and
schedules for project phases. As a result of studying documentation from similar past
projects the project team was able to accurately determine budgets, work packages required,
and resource allocation.
Recommendation #3:
The most challenging part was the planning of the budget and timeline. Although the project
team successfully met the budget constrain, the schedule was a bit off track. Its
recommended to be careful the next time.