Table of contentsTitle Page

Game site analysis…………………………………………....3

Project Charter………………………………………………..7

Scope Statement………………………………………………8

Work Breakdown Structure………………………………….10

New Processes……………………………………………….11

Milestones…………………………………………………....13

Resource Assignments…………………………………….....15

Scheduling……………………………………………………19

Change Management…………………………………………21

Scope verification and change………………………………..24

Network Diagram…………………………………………….26

Initial Gnatt chart……………………………………………..27

Final Gnatt Chart……………………………………………..28

Financial Data………………………………………………...29

Decision Matrix……………………………………………....30

Game site AnalysisI chose to do my project on Gamefly.com because of the wide range of services it

provides and the popularity of their site. The capabilities of the website and the information

system they use are detailed below.

Capabilities:

1. The website has the ability to track the shipping of products as they are delivered to and

are returned to their storage facilities. (included under the My game page)

2. It can add up to 2 games at a time to be handled and can automatically send another game

from the list as soon as one of them has been returned.(part of the My game segment)

3. The system allows for the adding and removing of games from the game queue.(using the

My game tools)

4. It can track the availability of its stocks. It uses a system that marks the availability of the

specific game with an availability stamp of High, Medium, Low and Very Low,

depending on the % likelihood of its arrival date.(showed when ordering a game)

5. The system allows the user to purchase any of the games.(the option is always available)

6. The user can sort the arrangement of products according to several criteria: By

category

By console

By cost

By popularity

By release

date

By rating

7. You can buy a gift certificate for someone. (on the home page and in the main menu bar)

8. There is a rewards system which adds a specific amount of points with each new

selection. (active when a purchase is made)

9. It allows for the use of different payment methods.

10. A video is also available that details the service of the site. (on the home page)

The following details the necessity of each of the capabilities in regards to the proposed web-

application.Option Mandatory Optional Nice-to-have

1 Yes2 Only one game is

mandatory3 Yes4 Yes it must be able to

say if a game is available or not

It does not need to sort by percentages a simple yes or no is

sufficient but its nice.

5 Yes6 Yes7 Yes8 Yes9 Yes10 It attracts attention

which is always good, but not

mandatory

The main interface

The video

Purchasing a game

Game availability

Tracking a game

Adding games to the queue

Project CharterProject Title: Video Game Delivery Project

Project Start Date: 31.01.09 Projected Finish Date: 31.01.10

Budget Information: The project has been allocated $500,000 for the 12 months of the expected development time. $50,000 for the first year and $60,000 for the following 2 years are also allocated.

Project Manager: Issa Baisden,ibaisden6500@gmail.com, 347-652-6702

Project Objectives: To provide a monthly video game rental program. It involves developing a web- based application and a support structure to provide customers with the monthly rental service. The application will allow the user to pay a monthly subscription and order the games over the internet. The games will then be mailed to the customer then returned in the same fashion and then receive the additional games in the mail. It must service different languages, be user friendly and provide different search mechanisms. Payment must be able to be received online via different sources and write reviews on the game they borrowed. The system must also be able to track referrals from all other sources and track these patterns. The project must be completed in a year for less than $500,000.

Approach: Assess the needs of the system and its critical components for the web- application, database and

website. Develop a database that has the ability to provide the support for the web-application. It must

include the ability to sort the data as well as the user data for shipping and handling of games and feedback.

Develop the web-based application that will be able to track the shipping details of customer’s orders, incorporate the database and payment systems and provide feedback.

Research software to provide accurate security for online transactions, manage user inputs and be user friendly.

Develop a proper mechanism by which to test results and effectiveness of the system and how customers will view the product.

Roles and Responsibilities

Role Name Organization/Position Contact Information

Project Supervisor Lori VP Marketing Lori.light@one.com

Project Manager Issa CIO Issa.light@one.com

Design consultant Julie Outsourced Edys Julie.o@edys.com

Programming consultant Guarav Outsourced ABC Corp Guaraz.l@abc.comSecurity consultant Nandy I.T. supervisor 1 Nandy.light@one.com

Sign-off: (Signatures of all above stakeholders. Can sign by their names in table above.)

Comments: (Handwritten or typed comments from above stakeholders, if applicable)

Scope Statement (Version 1)

Project Title: Video Game Delivery ProjectDate: 31.01.09 Prepared by: Issa BaisdenProject Justification: Baisden marketing Inc. has decided to provide a monthly game rental program. The video Game Delivery Project involves customizing a web-based application built by ABC Corp. and a support structure for it. A budget of $500,000 has been allocated for the estimated time of 12 months to ensure that hardware, software and outsourcing data is completed. It will be supported by an allocated amount of $50,000 the first year and $60,000 in the years after that. It is important that the system allow the users to pay via different forms (at least 5 sources). It must sort the video games by a set of defined characteristics. It must also track referrals to the site from corporate partners and customers, display advertisements and track customer usage patterns.Product Characteristics and Requirements:

1. Payment- The site must be able to accept different methods of payment. (At least 5).2. Sort data/ Search- The users must be able to sort the listing of titles of games and

decide which games they want to order. It must be able to sort in at least 3 different ways.

3. Referrals- the site must be able to track the referrals from other sites and from corporate partners and customers.

4. Links- The site must provide links that all work and that are useful. It must link to other corporate partners. It must also be able to link the pages together.

5. Feedback- at least one page must be dedicated to feedback so that we can continue to upgrade and enhance the performance, reliability and accuracy of the system.

6. Security- The design must not allow for any unauthorized access and must ensure that user’s data is safe.

Summary of Project DeliverablesProject management-related deliverables: business case, charter, team contract, scope statement, WBS, schedule, cost baseline, status reports, final project presentation, final project report, lessons-learned report, and any other documents required to manage the project.Product-related deliverables: research reports, design documents, software code, hardware, etc.1. Needs assessment- The team will need to assess where the current software is and

how much needs to be done to complete it.2. The web application change proposal- An initial proposal of what needs to be changed must

be submitted to ABC Corp.3. Design a network infrastructure- A network infrastructure design must be decided

upon. It must be able to support the web- based application.4. The database design must be completed- a database that is able to sort the data in real time

for customers must be finished. It must be supported by the hardware.5. Completed network design- A finalized product of what the infrastructure will be constructed

to show how the network will be designed and how it will relate to the other segments of the system.

6. A database design must be finalized- the final product of the database design must be produced.

7. The network must be built- the final design must be implemented.8. The database must be built- the finalized data structure must be implemented.9. A final change to ABC- a final presentation must be made to ABC on the changes.10. Payment structure- A payment structure with benefits and downfalls of each type.11. Test Plan- a test plan must be developed in order to test the software.12. Project benefit measurement plan- A plan that details the benefits of the project13. A security analysis of the payment system’s needs14. A finalized security plan- details the methods used to ensure security15. A list of referrals- the list of all the sites that will be used on the website. They must be

classified into essential and non-essential.16. The final web-based application uploaded.

Project Success Criteria: Our goal is to produce the system in less than 12 months at a cost of less than $500,000. The project needs to be well coordinated between marketing, the design team and ABC. Corp.

Work Breakdown Structure Template for Project Name

Prepared by: Issa Baisden Date: 31.01.09

1.0 Initiating1.1 Select Project management1.2 Select project team1.3 Develop Project charter

2.0 Planning2.1 Develop Scope Statement2.2 Create WBS

3.0 Executing3.1 concept3.2 web application

3.3.1 assess shortcomings3.3.2 correct problems

3.3 User inputs3.4 web site design

3.4.1site plan3.4.2 templates and tools3.4.3 web content3.4.4 links

3.5 User requests (database)3.5.1 database design plan3.5.2 design tables3.5.3 data entry3.5.4 queries3.5.5 forms

3.6 System testing3.7 Project benefits measurement

4.0 Monitoring and Controlling4.1 Scope management4.2 Price management4.3 Quality Management4.4 Time management

5.0 Closing5.1 Approval and sign off meeting

New Processes

In order to estimate the resources needed for the specific milestones in the project, we

need to asses the scope of each of the individual parts of the project. Since I have subdivided the

project into 4 sub categories, it will be easier to asses how to estimate resources and durations. In

order to cater for these new estimations we need to include several tasks in the WBS. The four

new tasks that I would assign to help estimate resources and durations are:

1. Create resources table

2. Establish Gnatt chart

3. Establish critical path

4. PERT analysis

1. The table of resources would include the assets of the organization that will be available to the

company and how long they will be available for the project. It would give an accurate

representation of all of the resources that will be available for the project. It can also be used to

create time sheets that will manage how much time the respective personnel will be able to spend

on each process.

2. The Gnatt chart would give a visual representation of the work to be done, the durations and

the resources that are to be used. This document would provide a comprehensive way of viewing

the durations and resources utilized by the project in a concise manner. Assigning the

dependencies of the tasks and the length of time that each of them would take gives a great

wealth of information for staying on course with the project.

3. The critical path is the least amount of time it would take for the critical processes of the plan

to occur. It takes into consideration the dependencies of the tasks and summarizes the finings of

the process into a stream (list) of which processes would invariably determine the length of the

project. It is the greatest amount of time that critical tasks will be completed so that the project

will be finished.

4. The PERT analysis is a way of gestimating the expected length of each of the deliverables. It

gives statistical data which can be used with a high degree of certainty and predict the range of

time that a particular task will take. It also gives the critical path which is cruicial to the

scheduling og the project.

These four methods effectively work together to produce an accurate picture of how the

scheduling of the project will take and what resources will be available at any given moment to

work on the project.

In conjunction with other tools for schedule control, these processes are used in order to

make a fully functional plan of how the scheduling will work.

Milestones

In order to make a milestone SMART it must be Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and

Time-Framed. The milestones that I would choose for this project are as follows:

Initial scope statement finalized and signed off on

WBS finished

Gnatt chart sign off

Resources table completed

Security needs compiled

Database initial draft completed

Web- application initial draft completed

Web site initial draft completed

Test plan

Web site goes live

When the scope of the project has been realized, the specific goal of finding out what the project

entails and getting permissions from the sponsors would have been achieved. This will set the

tone for the rest of the project. The document itself can be quantified as the measurable result of

the process and is easily attainable. It is also realistic and time- framed. We can set a deadline for

the sign-off of the project scope an estimate its length. The delegation assigned to assessing the

needs of the project are specifically trained for their abilities

The work break-down structure is the basis of all the scheduling that comes after it. It analyses

the key points that the project will cover. In this respect the WBS is specific and measurable. The

actual document is the means to tell if the goal has been achieved. It is therefore attainable in a

realistic time frame because it can be estimated based on the resources and the work to be done.

The ascertaining of resources and documentation of them is specific and measurable within the

scope of any project and this document would be presented and signed off in a realistic time-

framed manner enabling the document to be SMART compliant.

The team that was assembled to assess the security risks of the project will put forward the

security needs assessment and ways to solve them in the form of a document. This specific

measurable result is achievable within a realistic timeframe if assigned to the right team

members that represent a microcosm of the team that will perform the actual work on the project.

Needs shall be met from every segment of the project including database, web- design, web

applications, payments, and user inputs.

The database team will work to achieve a specific structure that will be able to ad to the

capabilities of the project. When they have completed the final product this part of the system

should have met the goal of being ready to integrate and achieve the final goal of getting the

system ready within a year. It hence meets the goals of the SMART criteria.

Working with the team from ABC corp. the team will be able to establish a finalized product

within a given period of time. This final product will serve as a milestone for the assigned task in

a reasonable condition so that the integration can begin.

The website and its links and all of the other attributes of the website can be easily surmised in a

site plan. This model will serve as the beginning of the building of the website. After it has been

completed and the website programmed to accommodate the other parts of the system it can then

go live. The web design segment would therefore meet the needs of the SMART criteria.

Each individual segment of the system must be tested individually, however, when the

system is integrated, many unforeseen difficulties may arise. Therefore ongoing integration

testing needs to be performed to ensure that the project components all work together. The

starting of integration testing is the beginning of the final leg of the project. The team that will

perform this task is made of the team members from each of the specific area so that the process.

It hence complies with the SMART criteria.

After the security team and the other teams have completed their segments of the project

the entire bundle must be put together. The website will be the composite of all of these parts.

When it and all of the systems are integrated then the website can go live, completing the project.

This specific, measurable event is the goal of the project. It is attainable within a year and will be

the final step in the process.

Resource Assignments

To assign people to each activity it is mandatory that we have a table of their available times to

work for the week and their skills. It is also wise to take into consideration the needs of the project

above that of the individual. If John is the best programmer but he can program websites as well and we

do not have anyone to fill that role he may have to perform that role and someone else will take his

place. The teams will be formed according to which segment needs to be performed at the specific point

in time. The current resources available to the project are as follows:

Name Time on project Time in Hours

Issa Baisden 75% 40

Matt 75% 30

Najwa 75% 30

Magda 75% 30

John 75% 30

Nora 75% 30

Najwa, John and Nora are working on programming the database, website and web-

application respectively this week. Magda and Matt are working with Lori (the sponser) and

ABC corp. to ensure that the system is able to meet purchasing needs. We know how long each

project is scheduled to take from the table below. We can therefore assign our resources to the

tasks.

Task Required Hours

Database development 2000

Website Development 2000

Security Analysis 1000

Web application needs assessment 1000

Using the two above tables and knowledge of the specific skills of each of the individual

team members we can assign tasks to each individual. If people have a relatively good

knowledge of more than one area, we can assign different roles to that individual as shown in the

table below.

Name Team

Matt Database development, Security Analysis

Najwa Website Development, Security Analysis

Magda Security Analysis, Database development

John Web application needs assessment, Security

Analysis

Nora Database development, Website Development

Using this information we can now determine how many hours each individual would

spend on each project by assigning the needs of the project to the most capable individual.

Example: Matt will spend 10 hrs a week on the database team and 20 hours on the security

analysis this week towards reaching his goal of 750 hrs on database and 500 on Security

analysis.

Scheduling

In order to ascertain if the specific functions and tasks that are being performed are really

necessary we should always refer back to the scope statement and ensure that we are not straying

from the original goals of the project. In future a plan should be initiated whereby the scope is

referred to more frequently in order to grasp a better view of how the project will form.

The more the original project scope varies from the original, the more it draws away from

the original estimates of cost and time, as the law of triple constraint is satisfied. In the future, we

must learn from the mistakes we make on every project. The mistakes like focusing too much

attention on one area or not properly analyzing a situation will get better with time an

experience. Each organization is different because of its policies, culture and varied experiences.

Hence, no one solution can be adopted in order to stem scope creep or better the solutions for

resource and duration estimating.

In order to make up the time more resources may need to be consumed. If we ask for

another team member to join us, outsource a portion of the project to another company or extend

the amount of time that we require the personnel on the project we will still experience some

difficulties. To meet the budget of $500, 000 we may need to consider that outsourcing may be

too expensive and that recruiting another person from within the company may be more viable.

On the other hand, if it does so happen that outsourcing is cheaper, we will still have to deal with

the disparity between any works that another company would do versus our own. Hence it may

still be wise to choose someone either already on the team or that already works for the

organization. In this case, asking that employees be granted more than 75% of the time that they

work would probably get the schedule back on course without having to spend more money.

To avoid this problem in the future proper resource estimation must be done properly. If

the resources that are needed to accomplish the project is not accessible then we will always find

the same problem.

It has been proven in countless cases that the more detailed the plan is, the easier the

project will go and the more it will stick to plan. This principal can be applied here as well. If we

spend more time assessing the issues we may be able to stave off any future delays of the same

sort.

Change ManagementChanges to the scope, cost, schedule, staffing, technology or other should be documented

in order to properly ascertain the risk of implementing such a change. The purpose of the change,

the options, the benefits and the risks associated with any proposed change should be addressed

in a timely manner. To that end, a document in the form of a change request should be submitted

to the project manager. All of the effected systems that the change will touch need to be notified

of the prospective change. The project sponsors are the most important people to know of any of

these proposed changes as they are the final ok for any project. The project sponsors may also be

the ones that can provide the changes to the original charter. If the project requires more funds to

effect a change that will drastically improve the quality of the final project, the project sponsor

(if convinced) may deem it necessary to grant the additional resources.

Initially a change that is proposed by any of the team members should be proposed in a

format that is easy to convert to a change request, if not a change request itself. It is the job of the

project manager to effectively deal with top management and the sponsors. Hence, he should

bring the necessary documentation to the forefront with them and respond to the related issues

before they are implemented.

To effectively manage any kind of change a change control system needs to be put into

place. This system is essentially a documented process that describes how and when official

project documents may be changed. Usually to mediate this process a Change Control Board

comprising of management is enacted. The CCB is a formal group of people that approve or any

changes to the project. The CCB will also manage how the processes are implemented and how

the change management process flows. This process may be slow in other companies; however,

to enhance the speed of this process I propose to use virtual teams to cope with the latency.

Within a few hours of a change being proposed a conference call can be set up to discus the pros

and cons of implementing the prospective changes.

Another significant method of controlling the process of change management is

configurations management. This process ensures that the descriptions of the products of the

project are accurate and comprehensive. It deals with managing the characteristics of these

products and their supporting documentation. To ensure that no changes are made to critical

processes and documents in the design of the project, at least one of the team members needs to

be trained in configurations management. This would eliminate any time consuming problems

that would result from one of these changes.

To accompany a CCB and a change control system a process for communication of these

changes also needs to be established. To ensure the proper working of the teams and to ensure

that all are informed of important developments there needs to be a project meeting held every

week. Oral communication is necessary for some things for example if 2 database engineers are

working on the same project they should not edit the same table at the same time because it

would cause a defect in the system. Communication is the most important issue when dealing

with people and hence deserves a lot of attention. The proper communication channels can mean

a big difference in terms of making a critical error that may mean re- developing the project or it

may cost the company thousands of dollars to fix a problem that could have been easily averted.

To ensure that proper communications occur at all times, a system can be developed whereby the

channels of communications remain open. The project manager can have an open door policy as

well as have a cell phone that he can answer at any point in the day. He should also be available

by email at any time.

Policy and changes made by sponsors and the CCB must also be disseminated to the team

members in a timely fashion to avert any unnecessary work that would be in violation of the

policies or updates that are changed by the CCB.

This comprehensive approach should deal with all of the necessary changes to the

project.

Scope Verification and Change Management

Scope verification is the ongoing process of checking the scope of the project to ensure

that it meets the requirements of all of the stakeholders. The authorization of the scope means

that the stakeholders have finalized the deal with the team to perform the project. The

stakeholders sign documents that legally bind them to the project. In order to receive this formal

signature on the key deliverables of the project, the project team would need to prepare a clear

concise document that details the project entails. It must include details of the products and

procedures that will be used in the project so that the stakeholders can get an accurate picture of

the system before it is built.

To prevent scope creep the scope verification process extends so that it encompasses the

time frame that the project is being conducted. When the project is ongoing it is absolutely

essential to ensure that the parameter set by the initial draft is as close as possible to the system

that will be built. Therefore, the scope must be managed so that it does not exceed its guides.

Scope verification can provide one such means of limiting the unwanted growth of the project.

By mandating that the stakeholders sign off on all of the changes that will be made, as well as

managing the change in an effective and controlled manner, the scope an thus the size, cost and

length of the project will be effectively guarded against expansion.

In order to ensure that the scope is ideally verified all of the change requests will have to

be submitted to the CCB so that they can determine how much we can compromise on a decision

to make a change. The planning phase should also be very detailed so that the documents

presented to the stakeholders would leave as little doubt as possible as to the intentions of the

project. A formal meeting should be held with all of the people that share a vested interest in the

project, whereby they will sign of on the project. Documentation is the key to verification. To

this end, every piece of documentation that is used must be saved.

The verification process should also be detailed so that, as much as possible, unwanted

scope creep can be exempted from the model. Completion dates must also be clearly identified

and adhered to. If it is possible a visual representation of the dates, times and goals of the team

should be up at all times and visible for all to see. This will help with scope verification as a

complete picture of the project can be seen at all times.

An additional tool (CASE tool) may also help manage the change as it may be able to see

problems and ways to make the system function better than can be done manually. This would

also aid in getting rid of unwanted changes. Another method of stemming the tide of unwanted

changes may be to create prototypes of the system with limited functionality that would serve as

a learning platform. It would test how the change would affect the model in the actual physical

working environment.

Consistently and constantly giving updates and asking for inputs from the stakeholders

will prove to be very helpful in ratifying the scope of the project and will enhance the process of

managing change.

These combinations of different mechanism should help with the scope verification

process, as well as the change management. They would drastically reduce the amount of scope

creep that would have otherwise been experienced an will bring a level of professionalism and

organization to the project.