Project management Assignment

COSC 4321 IT Project Management

Term Project

I. Purposes In this project, you are going to apply the theory you have learned, including project

scope management, project time management, project cost management, project human

resource management and project communications management, in a real world project.

You are going to learn to use Microsoft Project, a popular software tool used in IT project

management.

This is an individual project. Team work is not allowed.

II. Software You need Microsoft Project 2019 for the project. You can get free access to this software

tool through Microsoft MSDNAA program, at Microsoft Azure Dev Tools: https://aka.ms/devtoolsforteaching

Log in with your Blackboard username and password. Then download and install the

software for free.

Microsoft Project is easy to learn and intuitive to use. Kathy Schwalbe’s book contains a

detailed step-by-step guide for using Microsoft Project. Free online tutorials are also

available if you just search for them online.

III. Project Description: Website Development This is a real world application of project management of a Website Development

Project. The Website Development Project is a fictitious scenario. The description and

requirements are as follows:

A nonprofit organization would like you to lead a Website development project. The

organization has Internet access that includes space on a Web server, but no experience

developing Websites. In addition to creating its Website, the organization would like you

to train two people on its staff to do simple Web page updates. The Website should

include the following information, as a minimum: description of the organization

(mission, history, and recent events), list of services, and contact information. The

organization wants the Website to include graphics (photographs and other images) and

have an attractive, easy-to-use layout.

1. Project Scope Management Create a WBS for this project and enter the tasks in Microsoft Project. Create

milestones and summary tasks. Some of the specific analysis, design, and

implementation tasks will be to:

a. Collect information on the organization in hardcopy and digital form (brochures, reports, organization charts, photographs, and so on).

b. Research Websites of similar organizations.

c. Collect detailed information about the customer’s design preferences and access to space on a Web server.

d. Develop a template for the customer to review (background color for all pages, position of navigation buttons, layout of text and images,

typography, including basic text font and display type, and so on).

e. Create a site map or hierarchy chart showing the flow of Web pages. f. Digitize the photographs and find other images for the Web pages; digitize

hardcopy text.

g. Create the individual Web pages for the site. h. Test the pages and the site. i. Implement the Website on the customer’s Web server. j. Get customer feedback. k. Incorporate changes. l. Create training materials for the customer on how to update the Web

pages.

m. Train the customer’s staff on updating the Web pages. 2. Project Time Management

a. Enter realistic durations for each task, and then link the tasks as appropriate. Be sure that all tasks are linked (in some fashion) to the start

and end of the project. Assume that you have four months to complete the

entire project.

b. Print the Gantt Chart view and Network Diagram view for the project. c. Print the Schedule table to see key dates and slack times for each task.

3. Project Cost Management a. Assume that you have three people working on the project, and each of

them would charge $20 per hour. Enter this information in the Resource

Sheet.

b. Estimate that each person will spend an average of about five hours per week for the four-month period. Assign resources to the tasks, and try to

make the final cost in line with this estimate.

c. Print the budget report for your project. 4. Project Human Resource Management

a. Assume that one project team member will be unavailable (due to vacation) for two weeks in the middle of the project. Make adjustments to

accommodate this vacation so that the schedule does not slip and the costs

do not change. Document the changes from the original plan and the new

plan.

b. Use the Resource Usage view to see each person’s work each month. Print a copy of the Resource Usage view.

5. Project Communications Management Print a Gantt chart for this project. Use a timescale that enables the chart

to fit on one page. Then paste a copy of the Gantt chart in your report.

IV. Assumptions on Customer Input Information

If your activities or tasks may depend on the customer input or the result of an

intermediate process, you may make up fictitious data. For example, in

1.a. Collect information on the organization in hardcopy and digital form (brochures,

reports, organization charts, photographs, and so on).

If your future process depends on the collected information on the organization, you can

make up this information.

You can make a fictitious organization and fictitious operations, for example, Lightning

Publishing Co., or you can use scenarios from your prior working experience.

Note again, this term project is about MANAGING the Website Development Project,

instead of developing a Website yourself. If you submit a Website or the screenshots of

the Website, you will not receive any credit.

V. What to Submit

The deliverables are a set of files which contain your work. You should zip all the files

into one single zip file, with a file name convention

Lastname_Firstname.zip,

where Lastname is your last name and Firstname is your first name. Do not use other

format of file compression like .tar or .rar.

There are many free software tools to do zip and unzip. 7-Zip is one of them, which you

can use. The following describes what should be included in the zip file:

1. All the .mpp files in your project 2. A report in PDF or Word format In this report, you need to include:

(1) A description using your own words, how you implemented this project step

by step, with the appropriate screenshots for each step.

In the project requirement, whenever it says “Print” something, you can export the view

as a .pdf file or .xps file (See more details in the next subsection “The screenshots as a set

of separate files in the form of .pdf or .xps”). Include a reference to each of the exported

screenshot file in your report. For example, when the project requirement says “Print the Gantt Chart view and Network Diagram view for the project”, you need to export to files (You can choose appropriate file names)

Gantt_Chart_view.xps and Network_Diagram_View.xps. Then include a sentence in

your report:

“See the screenshots in Gantt_Chart_view.xps and Network_Diagram_View.xps”.

(2) A summary of what you have learned in this project.

3. The screenshots as a set of separate files in the form of .pdf or .xps Whenever the project requirement says “Print” something, you need to export the view to

a .pdf file or .xps file. This is easy to do. Just choose menu “File -> Save As … ”, then

choose a file type of PDF or XPS. Include these screenshot files in your project zip file.