Project Briefing
Please be advised that Virtucon and Globex are fictitious companies developed for the educational purposes of ITC218 and ITC505.
Your Assigned Project
Congratulations! You have been successful in gaining an appointment as an IT Project Manager consultant with Virtucon (virtucon.uimagine.edu.au) to learn more about Virtucon, and it’s ranges of services (note: you will be prompted to enter your username and password to access this site). Once you have learned about Virtucon and the ranges of services, please access the ‘Staff Login’ area by clicking on ‘Staff Login’ in the main menu and enter:
Username: staff101
Password: staff101
Once logged in to the staff only site, you will be able to access details of the current projects Virtucon is working on by clicking on ‘Current Projects’ and select Online Stud Farm Management System (OSFMS). You also have access to a number of templates to be used throughout the project. To access these please click on ‘Templates’.
Your Client
Your client is Globex Corp (globex.uimagine.edu.au). The project that you need to address is detailed below in the ‘Background Information’ and ‘Project Description’ sections. As a Virtucon staff member and in order to gather information for your assigned project, you have been granted temporary access to the Globex staff intranet. Please access this by navigating to the ‘Staff’ menu option. You will need to enter:
Username: staff101
Password: staff101
In this area you will find the current form used to collect information for potential volunteers for the project (found under the ‘Documents’ menu option) as well as other related information regarding Globex.
Online Stud Farm Management System (OSFMS)
Background
Stud farms in the rural communities of New South Wales have been growing rapidly in the past few years. These Stud farms makes sure that the true parentage of thoroughbreds is maintained and breeding services are offered. Many stud farms use manual systems for service bookings with the Stud Manager taking bookings over the phone or email and recording them in hardcopy diaries or spreadsheets. These farms also keep a record of the stud’s enrolment into breeding registers which align with Australian and International standards.
To improve the efficiency and accuracy of the existing manual systems, Globex has decided to invest in the development of an Online Stud Farm Management System (OSFMS) to on sell to existing and prospective clients. Globex has identified that this online system will have potential clients from New South Wales and other rural stud farms around Australia. Based on their long-standing relationship, Globex has contracted Virtucon to develop the required system.
Project Description
Globex is a long-standing client of Virtucon. Therefore, Globex has contracted Vitucon to project manage the development of the new online stud farm management system. Globex will develop the OSFMS in house, and will endeavour to deliver the solution on time, and as inexpensively as possible while still meeting all project requirements.
An Online Stud Farm Management System (OSFMS) will replace current manual systems. On many study farms, breeders book services by calling or emailing the stud manager, who records bookings in a spread sheet and accepts credit card payments or cheques. This current process is unsustainable, open to error and double handling of information. Therefore, the decision has been made to invest in an online booking system, so that breeders can book and pay for seasons/services online.
The system should enable breeders to make bookings and payments from any online platform and mobile device through the OSFMS. Breeder’s details, stud details, payments and a range of reports should be generated by the system. Breeders should still have the option to call the Stud master and book over the phone should the need arise. It is expected, however, that the ability to book services will significantly reduce error and administration and involvement of the stud manager.
Globex has identified that several factors should be considered and/or recorded when breeders book a season/service,, which includes, but is not limited to:
Breeding features:
- superior interface for entry of horse breeding procedures and vet examination results
- database of Mare and Stallion owners, with full stallion booking history, to allow for targeted print and digital marketing and news releases
- Person/Company name and contact details of breeder
- Type of business
- Book for “Broodmare” and/or “Stallion”
- Book DNA test for parentage
- Obtain certification of paternity (Including name of the sire and dam)
- To book for micro-chipping and other identification process
- To obtain foal identification card
- To check colour description
- Public liability insurance details
- To check the breed registry
- Closed registry
- Open registry
- Appendix registry
- Performance of Merit
Financial features:
- general ledger and marketing database so that information from one process feeds into the next, with no duplicate entry of information – so that key information about treatment and progress of horses is captured efficiently and billing is accurate
- Stallion bookings contract management
- >produce stallion contracts and invoicing service fees
- monitor location status of horses for charging agistment on a monthly basis, and take into consideration horse ownership percentages and other factors when issuing owner statements.
- Vet and Farrier charges entered (or imported) and allocated to horses.
- track all costs and expenses for the business and provide full financial reporting options including GST and BAS submission.
- allow for discounted rates to selected owners, markup of external costs, reallocation of charges for a horse over a date range from one person to another, reversal of charges and owner adjustments, and reflection of GST free services and recognition of mid-month horse ownership changes.
Mobile features:
- quick and easy recording of procedures to horses out of the office
- review of breeding and vet history for any horse on farm.
- produce and send a comprehensive set of advices to horse owners including arrival and departure advices, horse progress notes, foaling advices, scan result notifications and pregnancy certificates
- communications generated can be customised to include customer corporate branding by our design team
Next Steps
Once you have read and familiarised yourself with all of this information, please read the requirements for Assessment 2 and Assessment 3 carefully. You will be allocated to your team during week 2 and you should arrange a suitable time to meet during week 3. There are a range of technologies you can use to ‘meet’ in the virtual space, such as Team Viewer, Google hangouts, Skype just to name a few. It is up to the team to select, trial and agree on a preferred method.
Assessment 2 has been designed to inform your understanding of the scenario and how the subject theory should be applied. You will work in teams of approximately 4 students while preparing Assessment 2 to facilitate peer-to-peer learning, and to complete the required tasks, however Assessment 2 is not a traditional group assessment. You will submit individual assessments based on the discussions and outcomes of your team meetings. A minimum of three team meetings should be held during the session. Suggested timing of these meetings can be found in the subject schedule. Assessment 2 also includes a personal reflective piece on your teamwork experience and the role of ICT project manager requires in the IT profession. Each topic will prepare you for an assessment task and you will be prompted at the end of each topic as to which assessment tasks you should commence working on. However, in the meantime please ensure you familiarise yourself with the project and the subject requirements by following the above.
Please find the template for this assignment via the link below and refer to ITC505 -Assignment 3 Template.docx(this is the structure that should follow)
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/w7er1h4cpans8jf/AAAPY3XZgjppF-fqbRcfuvqza?dl=0
References should be APA6 th format
Assessment item 3
Charter
Value: 30%
Due date: 21-May-2018
Return date: 13-Jun-2018
Submission method options
Alternative submission method
Task
You are to prepare and submit Assessment 3 as an individual, based on the Virtucon/Globex scenario, and your peer to peer learning from Assessment 2.
You are required to develop a charter for the Project including:
- The Project description and overview you developed as part of Assessment 2. Citations and a reference list must be included to support the decisions in your charter.
Part One:
MOV – Measurable Organisational Value
(This is the goal of the project and is utilised to define the value that your team project will bring to your client)
• Identify the desired area of impact – Rank the following areas in terms of importance: Strategy / Customer / Financial / Operational / Social
• With reference to your project, identify one or two of the following types of value:
- Better – is improving quality important to your client?
- Faster – does your client want to increase efficiency?
- Cheaper – is cutting costs important?
- Do more – does your client want to continue its growth?
- Develop an appropriate metric – this sets the target and expectation of all the stakeholders. It is important to determine a quantitative target that needs to be expressed as a metric in terms of an increase or decrease of money.
• Determine the timeframe for achieving the MOV – ask yourselves, when do we want to achieve this target metric?
• SUMMARISE THE MOV IN A CLEAR CONCISE STATEMENT OR TABLE
(Note: the MOV should inform everyone what the project will achieve, not how it will be achieved. It should also focus on the organisation, not on the technology that will be used to build or support the information system).
Part Two:
Define Scope and produce a Scope Management Plan
Define the scope of the project and detail how the scope will be managed.
Provide a list of Resources
Identify and detail the resources for the project using MS Project where appropriate, including:
- People (and their roles), plus any extra personnel that is required for the project.
- Technology – any hardware, network and software needs to support the team and your client.
- Facilities – where will most of the teamwork be situated?
- Other – for example, travel, training etc.
Part Three:
Using Project Libre (or MS Project), develop a schedule using a high level Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). It should include:
- Milestones for each phase and deliverable
- This will tell everyone associated with the project that the phase or deliverable was completed satisfactorily.
- Activities / Tasks
- Define a set of activities / tasks that must be completed to produce each deliverable.
- Resource Assignments
- Assign people and resources to each individual activities.
- Estimates for Each Activity / Task
- Develop a time estimate for each task or activity to be completed.
A summary of the WBS should be clearly provided in the report. The Project Libre file must also be submitted for marking.
Part Four:
Project Risk Analysis and Plan
- Document any assumptions you have made about the project
- Using the Risk Identification Framework as a basis, identify five risks to the project – one for each of the five phases of the methodology.
- Analyse these risks, assign a risk to an appropriate member, and describe a strategy for the management of each specific risk.
Part Five:
Quality Management Plan. It should include:
- A short statement that reflects your team’s philosophy or objective for ensuring that you deliver a quality system to your client.
- Develop and describe the following that your project team could implement to ensure quality;
- A set of verification activities
- A set of validation activities
Part Six:
Closure and Evaluation
- Develop a closure checklist that the project team will use to ensure that the project has been closed properly.
- Develop a project evaluation – outline and discuss how your project’s MOV will be evaluated.
Rationale
This assessment addresses the following learning outcomes:
- Identify and reflect on project stakeholders, communication management, the project management knowledge areas, common tools and techniques, and project success factors.
- Critically evaluate how a practising ICT project manager applies ICT project management techniques, skills, methods and software tools in the IT profession.
Marking criteria
| Criterion | High Distinction | Distinction | Credit | Pass | Fail |
| Provides an MOV and identifies the target and expectations of all stakeholders in a suitable format. (15 Marks) |
The MOV illustrates the student’s detailed consideration of the target and a thorough analysis of the expectations of all stakeholders. The format is logical, clear and well-structured. |
The MOV illustrates the student’s detailed consideration of the target and an attempt at analysis of the expectations of all stakeholders is evident. The format is logical and appropriate to the information presented. |
The MOV illustrates the student’s generalised consideration of the target and an attempt at analysis of the expectations of most stakeholders is evident. The format is suitable to the information presented. |
The MOV illustrates the student’s generalised consideration of the target; however analysis of the expectations of all stakeholders is not clear. The format is suitable to the information presented. |
The MOV fails to cover any of the specified project requirements. |
| Provides a list of resources associated with the project – including reference to people, technology, and facilities and associated costs (10 Marks) |
A comprehensive list of resources, demonstrating in-depth analysis of the project’s needs. | A list of all resources required for the project; demonstrating analysis of the project’s needs. | A list which identifies most of the resources required for the project; some evidence of analysis of project needs. | Some key resources are correctly identified and documented. | Key resources have not been identified. |
| Produces a Scope Management Plan (SCM). (10 Marks) |
Consistent application of industry standard language and formatting. | Well written with some demonstration of industry standard language and formatting. | Well written with demonstration of academic standard language and formatting. | Well written but lacks acceptable formatting. | Writing is not of an acceptable standard. |
| Utilising MS Project -evidences the processes involved with a WBS, including budget. (15 Marks) |
Demonstrates high level project management skills, integrating and applying project management tools in meaningful and purposeful ways towards completion of WBS design, correctly and comprehensively addressing all project requirements. | Demonstrates competent management skills, applying project management tools in meaningful and purposeful ways towards completion of the WBS design, correctly addresses the all project requirements. | Demonstrates essential management skills, applying project management tools in meaningful and purposeful ways towards completion of the WBS design. Essential project requirements addressed. | Demonstrates minimal management skills and needs some improvement in applying project management tools in meaningful and purposeful ways towards completion of WBS. Not all project requirements are clearly addressed. | The WBS design fails to correctly address one or more essential project requirements. |
| Provides a project risk analysis and plan using the risk identification framework as a basis for discussing alternate strategies for the management of such risks. (15 Marks) |
All steps in project risk analysis and alternate strategies are comprehensively discussed and presented in the context of the project, with evidence of thorough consideration of the framework to validate the alternatives. | All steps in project risk analysis and alternate strategies are clearly discussed and presented in the context of the project, with reference to the framework to validate the alternatives. | Evidence that key steps in project risk analysis and alternate strategies are discussed and presented in the context of the project, with some linkages back to the framework to validate the alternatives. | Key steps in project risk analysis and alternate strategies are accurately presented. Minimal reference to framework in the discussion presented. | One or more key steps in project risk analysis and alternate strategies are not presented. |
| Produces a quality management plan which includes a statement about the team’s philosophy and verification and validation activities. (15 Marks) |
All required project steps are correctly identified and appropriately contextualised for the selected project. | All required project steps are correctly identified and are applied to the selected project with some contextualisation. | All required project steps are correctly identified and are applied to the selected project. | Most required project steps are correctly identified and applied to the selected project. | Multiple project steps are missing or not applied to the selected project. |
| A closure checklist is produced alongside the development of a project evaluation. (10 marks) |
The closure checklist is detailed, and has been used accurately to close the project. The evaluation has been professionally documented. | The closure checklist is detailed, and has been used accurately to close the project. The evaluation has been well documented. | The closure checklist has been used appropriately to close the project, and the evaluation has been adequately documented. | The closure checklist has been used to close the project, and the evaluation has been addressed. | The closure checklist has not been addressed adequately, and the evaluation is lacking detail. |
| Referencing of sources (APA 6th ed citation) to reinforce findings. (10 marks) |
All written evidence is professionally communicated using correct referencing. | All written evidence is good with appropriate referencing | Generally well organised but more support is required in terms of referencing. | Content is loosely connected, and referencing is not always effective. | Content is poorly organised and there is a lack of referencing. |