Software Project Management: Project Summary
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The ResearchColab project, led by the Reckless 7 team, successfully developed a web application aimed at facilitating review and data sharing among researchers. Key highlights include completion of all planned deliverables, adherence to project management best practices, and effective stakeholder communication, although some schedule deviations were noticed. The document concludes with recommendations for future projects, emphasizing the importance of involving operations personnel early and leveraging past project data for better planning.
Software Project Management: Project Summary
- 1. 1 ResearchColab Project Summary Team: Reckless 7 Institute of Information Technology University of Dhaka 25th November, 2016
- 2. 2 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
- 3. 3 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 adil@researchcolab.com Minhas Kamal System Analysis minhas@researchcolab.com Kishan Kumar Ganguly Development kishan@researchcolab.com Md. Rakib Hossain Quality Assurance rakib@researchcolab.com Mostaque Ahmed Documentation mostaque@researchcolab.com A.H.M. Azimul Haque Communication & Collaboration azimul@researchcolab.com Israt Fatema Shantu Documentation shantu@researchcolab.com 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
- 4. 4 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.
- 5. 5 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
- 6. 6 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
- 7. 7 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.
- 8. 8 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.