manager. Students are required to use Microsoft Project 2013 management software as part of this assessment task. This is a group assignment with a maximum of four members per group. However, note that all members are also expected to attempt all parts of the assignment individually as assessment item sub-deliverables 1- 5. Members of the group are required to submit their own individual attempt for each of the sub-deliverables in Moodle before the group meets to consolidate answers to produce the "group solution". There are separate submission areas and due dates for the individual submissions. On time submission of the 5 sub-deliverables is worth a total of 5 marks, but these submissions may also be used to assess individual contributions and may impact on a student's final mark. Groups must meet at least once a week to produce the "group solution" for the work scheduled for completion in that week. This solution should then be added to the developing final group solution. It is also important to meet early in week 10 to produce the updated schedule to be used to complete the Part C questions and status report. Each group is responsible for providing their own status data. This means that the group members must collaborate on this and ensure that all members are working with the same PartC.mpp file when completing the Part C questions. This is explained further in part C. There is one final group solution to be submitted at the end of the assignment. It is worth 35 marks and is to be submitted by only one member of the group. The names and student ids of all members of the group must appear clearly on the coversheet of the final assessment submission. Peer assessment and your individual submissions will also be used to assess group member contributions. If any member of a team is not contributing satisfactorily to the group then he/she may have marks adjusted and/or be asked to leave the group and be required to complete the assignment as an individual. If you are having difficulties within your group you must alert your tutor/lecturer as early as possible. To assist students in their assessment solution development the following information is provided:  A product development case description.  Specific assessment questions that must be answered.  Information regarding the submission of the assessment.  Marking criteria. Where necessary, students are expected to find relevant information in the academic literature to justify their answers. Students may have to make assumptions and argue the pros and cons for any recommendations that they make. Any assumptions made must be clearly documented in the answers. 2. The Case Study Page | 4 2.1 Background Progressive Software Ltd is a leading web design & development company based in Sydney. The company specialises in mid to large sized corporate and government web projects. Recently, Progressive Software Ltd has been awarded a contract by a major retail company to develop its website. You are appointed as a project manager to manage the development of the website. Several people are involved in this project including:  Yourself (Mr. Corbitt), the project manager.  Ms Julia Robertson, Director  A project team is to be drawn from the following skill sets o Software engineer/s o Business analyst/s o Test Engineer/s o Project officer/s The project will begin on 1 December 2016. This will be the official start date of the project and should be noted in the Project Information section in Microsoft Project. 2.2 Milestones When creating your work breakdown structure, you consider the points in the projects where you could identify the projects progress. You list these milestones for the project as: Milestone Name M1 Functional design specifications approval This can only be approved after the functional specifications are delivered. M2 Technical design specifications approval After the review technical specifications are complete. M3 Database specifications approval This milestone occurs after the review of database specifications. M4 Interfaces specifications approval This milestone occurs after the IT needs are defined. M5 Design reports complete This milestone occurs after the completion of the final functional specifications. M6. Go-live approved by Project Board The project board will approve the Go-live after the system & user interface bug fix and training activities have been completed. M7 Post project review report approval Approval of the post project review report can only be done after the report has been written. 2.3 Initial Data As the project manager, you have described a number of tasks that will need to be completed to achieve the desired outcomes of the project. You use these tasks as a basis to create the project schedule and allocate resources. You have noted down the following information: Page | 5 1. A work break down structure (WBS), resource estimates and some dependencies summarised in Table 1 below. Note that the following resource abbreviations are used:  Project Manager (PM)  Business Analyst (BA)  Software Engineer (SE)  Test Engineer (TE)  Project Officer (PO) Table 1- Work breakdown structure Task Name Duration Predecessor 25 1. Web design 1.1 Create user interface mock-ups 10 person days of SE 1.2 Conduct design review 1 person day of PM and BA 1.1 1.3 Deliver functional specifications 10 person days of SE 1.2 M1 Functional design specifications approval 1.4 Develop technical specifications 5 person days of SE M1, 1.3 1.5 Review technical specifications 5 person days of SE 1.4 M2 Technical design specifications approval 2. Database design 2.1 Develop database specifications 10 person days of SE M2, 1.5 2.2 Review database specifications 1 person day of PM and BA 2.1 M3 Database specifications approval 3. Interface design 3.1 Determine data import/export elements 5 person days of BA M3, 2.2 3.2 Define user needs 5 person days of BA 3.1 3.3 Define IT needs 3 person days of BA 3.1 M4 Interfaces specifications approval 4. Final design 4.1 Collect user requirements 3 person days of BA M4, 3.2, 3.3 4.2 Design reports 5 person days of SE 4.1 4.3 Review report design 1 person day of PM and BA 4.2 4.4 Deliver final functional specifications 3 person days of SE 4.3 M5 Design reports complete 5. Development 5.1 Code web pages 10 person days of SE M5 5.2 Conduct unit test 3 person days of TE 5.1 5.3 Review web page design/functionality 3 person days of SE and BA 5.1, 5.2 5.4 Identify database relationships 5 person days of SE and BA 5.3 5.5 Build database tables 10 person days of SE 5.4 5.6 Review tables 3 person days of SE 5.5 6. Testing 6.1 Verify design and functionality 3 person days of TE 5.6 6.2 Perform integration test 5 person days of TE 6.1 6.3 Perform user acceptance test 5 person days of TE 6.1 6.4 System & user interface bug fix 6 person days of SE 6.2, 6.3 7. Training 7.1 Assemble technical specifications 3 person days of SE 6.4 7.2 Develop system flowcharts 3 person days of SE 7.1 7.3 Deliver source code 2 person days of SE 7.2 7.4 Complete system documentation manual 5 person days of SE, 7.3 Page | 6 PO 7.5 Create training materials 3 person days of SE, PO 7.4 7.6 Assemble functional specifications 3 person days of SE 7.4, 7.5 7.7 Develop "As Is" and "To Be" documentation 3 person days of SE 7.6 7.8 Update business processes 3 person days of SE 7.7 7.9 Complete user training manuals 5 person days of SE 7.8 7.10 Train users 2 person days of SE 7.9 M6. Go-live approved by Project Board 8. Launch 8.1 Deployment and go-live 1 person day of SE M6, 7.10 9. Closure 9.1 Lessons learnt 1 person day of PM, PO, SE, TE 8.1 9.2 Release project team 1 person day of PM 9.1 9.3 Finalise and archive project documentation 5 person days of PM and PO 9.1 10. Post project review 10.1 Post project review report 3 person days of PO 9.3, M6 M7 Post project review report approval Notes: 1. One "person-day" is a "unit of work" representing the work done by one person in one day. It means that the task will normally take one person one day to complete. You can assume that a week refers to a normal working week of 5 days (Mon-Fri) with people working 8 hours per day. This is the default in Microsoft Project. Unless otherwise stated you can also assume a linear relationship, i.e. 3 person-weeks will take one person 3 weeks or 3 people one week. Note that this is not necessarily the case in practice. Refer to the discussion of the "mythical man-month" in your text book (Brooks' law, chapter 9). In addition, some tasks will be a fixed duration (e.g. delivery times). 2. For the purposes of this assignment (to reduce variability in solutions and complications for the markers) build your Part A1 schedule by assuming that you allocate one resource (i.e. one person with the required skills) to each task. In that case, if the task required 3 person-weeks of an SE you would assign one SE to the task and give it a duration of 3 weeks. Table 2 - Dates staff will not be available to work on the project Work exception Dates Christmas Day 25 December 2016 Boxing Day 26 December 2016 New Year's Day 1 January 2017 Australia Day 26 January 2017 Good Friday 14 April 2017 Table 3 - Available resources Resource $/hour Number Available Page | 7 Software Engineer $85.00 2 Business Analyst $70.00 1 Test Engineer $65.00 1 Project Officer $50.00 1 Project Manager $120.00 1 The software engineers work a 40 hour week from Monday to Friday (i.e. a 5 day week with 8 hour days). There are no differences between the abilities of the two software engineers). You know that there are items that you may not have sufficient information about yet and that you may need to make some assumptions to complete your schedule and budget. Make sure that you list any assumptions you make at the beginning of your assignment submission. Page | 8 3. Assessment Tasks 3.1 Part A: Developing the schedule For part A of the assessment you must complete the following tasks and questions. Read all the questions before you commence the tasks. The schedule is to be developed in an appropriately named Microsoft Project 2013 file (see the name specified below) and the questions are to be answered in a Word document. As stated above, any assumptions must also be listed at the beginning of the Word document (after the coversheet). 1) Use Microsoft Project 2013 to develop the project schedule. Note that Ms Julia Robertson has also asked you to include the following in your schedule: a) The project title as the overall project summary (as task 0 and WBS number 0). All other tasks should be "indented" according to the WBS structure described in the case study. b) The project name and start date be noted in the Project Information section in Microsoft Project. c) The Microsoft Project workbook columns are set up as shown below: (task numbe r – no colum n title) Task Mod e Task Nam e Predecessor s Duratio n Star t Finis h Resource Names d) The task names are to include the WBS identifiers prior to the name in the 'Task Name' column (1.2 Conduct design review) and the milestones are to be placed throughout the schedule, with the milestone identifier included at the start of the milestone name in the 'Task Name' column (M1 Functional design specifications approval). All milestones are to be highlighted yellow. e) Resource allocation details are included. f) Holidays are entered. g) The critical path(s) automatically displayed in red on the bars of the Gantt chart view of your schedule At this point there may be resource over allocation issues. Do not attempt to resolve these before answering question 2. Save this version of your schedule as Web_A1.mpp. You will be required to submit this file as part of your assignment submission. 2) At this point, ignore any resource over allocations. For the purposes of this question only, you can assume that there would be no resource constraints so do not attempt to resolve any resource over allocation (if any exists). Based on your Web_A1.mpp schedule: a) Use the "view tab" filter to display only the critical tasks. Provide a screenshot showing the task names and the Gantt chart of all the tasks on the critical path(s). b) Did the annual holidays make any difference to the end date of your project? If so, note the previous and changed end date. Explain why/why not there was/was not a change in end date. c) You were asked to complete the project 3 days earlier by reducing the duration of some of the tasks in the project. Fill in the table below stating what tasks you will reduce the duration of, by how much and how you will reduce the duration of each task. Page | 9 Table 4 – Tasks with proposed duration reductions Task WBS identifier and name Original task duration (prior to reducing) New task duration (after reducing) Suggestion of how to shorten the task . d) Create a new version of the schedule with the changes you outlined in part (c) highlighted green using the "background colour" icon on the task ribbon. Make sure that your changes have reduced the project duration by 3 days. Call this file Web_A2.mpp. You will be required to submit this file as part of your assignment submission. This file is not to be modified/developed further. 3) Create another copy of your original question 1, Web_A1.mpp in another file called Web_A3.mpp. In this question, unlike question 2, assume that you will not have any additional resources assigned to the project even if there are resource over allocation issues. If your schedule had any resource over- allocation issues, resolve these in the Part A Q3_resources.mpp file without adding any additional resources. For this assignment, do not "split tasks". Save this "modified" version of Web_A3.mpp file. You will be required to submit the Web_A3.mpp file as part of your assignment submission. a) Describe how you used (or how you would have used Microsoft Project) to resolve any resource over-allocation issues. b) Does the fact that you cannot have any additional resources for this project have any impact on your project duration and end date? Explain. 4) Continue working with Web_A3.mpp. In this file, include two additional milestone to show the following notifications: a) The Design Reference Group needs notification to be sent out five business days prior to being able to approve the Design reports complete (M5). Continue working with Web_A3.mpp. In this file, include an additional milestone called 'N1 Design Reports Notification' to highlight the latest date that the project manager should contact the Design Reference Group to provide notification and papers. i) According to Web_A3.mpp what is the latest date that notification and papers can be sent to the Design Reference Group? b) The Project Board needs notification to be sent out a week prior to being able to perform Deployment and go-live (8.1). Continue working with Web_A3.mpp. In this file, include an additional milestone named 'N2 Project Board Go-live Notification' to highlight the latest date that the project manager should contact the Project Board to provide notification. i) According to Web_A3.mpp what is the latest date that notification can be sent to the Project Board? Make sure that these new milestones have the appropriate predecessor relationships so that the dates will be automatically adjusted if there is any change to the schedule. On your schedule, highlight the rows that include these milestones in blue. This change is to be saved in your Web_A3.mpp file. 5) Write a memo to the Director, Ms Julia Robertson, providing your project proposal and include following information: a) an explanation of the project need and what it is trying to achieve. b) the expected completion date of the project, assuming it commences on 1/12/16; Page | 10 c) the total duration of the project; d) an explanation of the main factors that cause the project to require that length of time and any recommendations that you might make if time was a priority for the project; e) the estimated labour costs for each of the resource types working on the project. Present the costs in a table similar to the following: Table 5 – Labour costs Resource Name Cost ($) Business Analyst Software Engineer Test Engineer Project Manager Marketing Manager Project Officer Total labour costs: Assume that you will send the project schedule (Web_A3.mpp) as an attachment to the memo. The information in the memo should correspond to the attached schedule. Some notes regarding memos can be found on the course website in the same area as this specification. 3.2 Part B: Modifying the schedule Ms Julia Robertson advices you that you need to make the following changes stated below.  She states only one Software Engineer will be available for the project.  The task '2.1 Develop database specifications' needs to be reduced to 4 days.  The task '5.1 Code web pages' needs to be reduced to 8 days. Based on the information given above complete the following tasks: 1. Copy your Web_A3.mpp file into a file called Web_B.mpp file. Amend the project schedule in your new Web_B.mpp file incorporating the change requests by Ms Julia Robertson. If this has created any resource over allocation issues resolve these before progressing to the next question. Save the changes. The Web_B.mpp file is also to be included as part of your final assignment submission. Have the changes impacted on the duration or costs of your project and if so in what way? Be very precise in your answering of questions 2 and 3 below. If the project is longer or shorter state the previous finish date the new end date and by how much the project has been shortened or lengthened. If the changes had an impact on the cost, mention what the previous cost was and what the cost was after the change and explain why there was or was not an impact. 2. Describe the impact of each of these changes on the project duration in a table similar to the following: Table 6 – Impacts of changes to project duration Change Impact on By how much Explanation Page | 11 project duration (longer, shorter or no impact) Reduction to one Software Engineer Change to the duration of '2.1 Develop database specifications' Change to the duration of '5.1 Code web pages' Note that if a combination of the changes has had an additional impact that would not have occurred if the change was made in isolation, clarify this in your explanation. 3. Describe the impact of each of these changes on the labour costs for the project in a table similar to the following: Table 7 – Impacts of changes to labour costs Change Impact on labour costs (more, less or no impact) By how much Explanation Reduction to one Software Engineer Change to the duration of '2.1 Develop database specifications' Change to the duration of '5.1 Code web pages' 3.3 Part C: Tracking Progress In this part of the assignment, you are to imagine that your project is underway and that it is time to produce one of a project performance report. 1. Copy Web_B.mpp to Web_C.mpp. Save the baseline for this version of your project. 2. You are back at work after the Christmas and New Year's holidays. You are writing the project performance report for the period from the start of the project to the end of December 2016. You review the information provided to you by your project staff on the progress of the project and need to update your schedule accordingly. In your Web_C.mpp file a. Set the current date to 5 March 2017, the status date to 1 March 2017 and include a solid, purple status date gridline in your project to ensure the status date is clearly visible in your Gantt Charts. 3. Most of the tasks up to the 1 March 2017, were completed as per the schedule. However the following data represents information on tasks where the performance was different to what was planned. Page | 12 Table 8 – Actuals differing from planned estimates (as at 1 March 2017) Task WBS identifier and name Actual start date Actual Duration to date % Complet e Notes 1.3 Deliver functional specifications 17 December 2016 7 person days 100% Completed three days earlier than planned. 1.5 Review technical specifications 12 January 2017 5 person days 100% This was completed during the development of technical specifications. As all staff were present, the resources cost for this task is duplicated. Remove the resources for this task. 3.3 Define IT needs 20 February 2017 8 days 100% This was completed during the definition of user needs. As all staff were present, the resources cost for this task is duplicated. Remove the resources for this task. 4.1 Collect user requirements 23 February 2017 3 days ?? You are not sure of the %Complete for this task. However the Business Analyst went on leave from 24 February and has started working on the prototype basic design today (5 March 2017). He states that as at the 1 March 2017 (the status date for the report) there were 2 days of work left on the task. a. Update your schedule with the information from the Include a screenshot of the top of your tracking Gantt chart showing the tracking table and the Tracking Gantt Chart for some of your tasks. For example, if asked to do this for the Microsoft Project practical 4 schedule, you would have included a screenshot similar to the following: Page | 13 b. Include a screenshot of the top of the earned value table for your Web_C.mpp file. You will probably have to add the additional CPI and SPI columns. For example, if asked to do this for the Microsoft Project practical 4 schedule, you would have included a screenshot similar to the following: c. Based on the current status of your project, you are to produce a status report with a similar format to "exhibit 13.1" in the textbook (the actual template you are to use for the status report is provided as Appendix 1). Detailed explanations for why tasks are not tracking according to their original estimates are not required for this assignment as the data you entered is "fictitious". However, you can suggest reasons for tasks to be tracking better or worse to make your report more realistic if you wish. Even if you do not give specific reasons, you must still flag which tasks are responsible for your project status being better or worse than planned. 4. You have been informed that the users insist on certain refinements of the project. You believe that the requested actions make sense to the project, but they constitute a major change to the project. Do you agree/disagree to make the changes? If you agree, what steps should be taken to ensure that the project completion time will not be affected? 5. It is a week out from when you will be released from the project. You decided to arrange a team meeting to identify and analyse lessons learned from quality control with stakeholders. What should be considered while organising documents as lessons learned? 3.4 Assumptions You are free to make any assumptions necessary to complete the assignment. However, each assumption must be justified and stated clearly in your assessment word document. Marks will be deducted for any unreasonable assumption or for stating an assumption and then ignoring it in your assignment. Page | 14 4. Assessment Submissions This assignment requires 5 individual submissions of the sub-deliverables online by all members of the group and one final group submission of the complete assignment by one member of the group only plus three peer group assessments. The individual sub-deliverables are to be submitted in weeks 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. The final group submission is due in week 11. The exact due dates and times are given on the Moodle course website. The details of what is to be submitted for each sub-deliverable and for the final group submission are given below. 4.1 Individual submission of sub-deliverables These are to be submitted by all members of the group as zip files in their own submission area on the Moodle course website. Each individual submission has a different due date. The table below provides a summary of what is to be submitted in the zip files. Sub-deliverable Week due Description of zip file contents