Project Plan
Content
Developing a Cloud-based Mobile Application for Shipment and Delivery of Goods across the
USA
Work breakdown structure (WBS) originated from the military. The U.S. Department of Defense
(DOD) created the concept when it was developing the Polaris missile program in the late 1950s.
After completing the project, the DOD published the work breakdown structure it had used and
mandated that this procedure to be followed in future projects of this scope and size. The Work
Breakdown Structure (WBS) is used for defining work packages as well as developing and
tracking the cost and schedule for the project. Aims of developing a WBS are for the project
team to proactively and logically plan out the project to completion, to collect the information
about work that needs to be done for a project and to organize activities into manageable
components that will achieve project objectives. The project is broken down into tasks, each of
which has a manager, a responsible institution, costs and schedule, technical scope and a specific
geographic piece of the machine. WBS can illustrate the relationship between each task in
different levels and a whole project. When creating a WBS, the project manager defines the key
objectives first, and then identifies the required tasks. WBS takes the form of a tree diagram, and
the primary requirement or objective is shown at the top, with increasingly specific details shown
as the observer reads down. So, the elements at the bottom of the diagram represents tasks small
enough to be easily understood and carried out. A change in one of the requirements may affect
the other. A well-organized, detailed WBS can be effective and efficient in allocation of
resources, budgeting, scheduling, risk management, and quality control. However, a work
breakdown structure should focus only on the outcomes of a project, not on the methods of
bringing the project to fruition. Additionally, the structure should strive to include only mutually
exclusive elements in the tree. This prevents overlap and ensures that everyone knows their
assigned tasks. It is important to keep the WBS as simple as possible. There are still some rules
in WBS. The first is the “80 hour rule” which means that no single activity to produce a single
deliverable should be more than 80 hours. However, it is easy exceed the 80 hours. As a result,
the hours ought to depend on the size of the project. The second rule is that no activity should be
longer than a single reporting period. Nonetheless, there may be some factors which can affect
progress.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for Developing a Cloud-based Mobile Application for
Shipment and Delivery of Goods across the USA
Below is a work breakdown structure showing the scope of work for the project. It identifies all
of the tasks that must be performed in order to achieve project objectives. Phase one and two of
the project activities will commence on November 13, 2014. The last phase (i.e. training of
support staff and truck drivers) will be executed once the first two phases are completed.
1.0
2.0
Developing a Cloud-based Mobile application
1.1
Module One: A Search Customer Screen
1.2
Module Two: A Search Address Screen
1.3
Module Three: A Confirm Delivery Screen
Upgrading Internal Network and Application Infrastructure to a Cloud-based Model
2.1 Ensuring a Secure Connection to the Cloud
2.1.1 Cloud Security
2.1.2 Web Security
2.1.3 Unified VPN
2.2 Simplifying Operations and Management
2.2.1 Branch-Office Consolidation
2.2.2 Unified Management
3.0
Provision of Training
3.1 Training of the Support Staff
3.2 Training of the Truck Drivers
Developing a Cloud-based Mobile application
This part of the project management consists of activities geared towards seeing the development
and release of the mobile client platform in the cloud-based infrastructure. This application will
use GPS tracking to track the shipment and delivery of goods in trucks across the United States.
The mobile client application will have three modules which will consist of a search customer
screen, a search address screen and a confirm delivery screen. According to a report by the
programmers, each of the three modules will take approximately 200 hours (8 1/3 days) for it to
be completed. The development of the three modules will be developed concurrently. This
estimation is achieved through the PERT process which is based on the decomposition of the
architecture which is embedded in the WBS packages. A single programmer is to develop one
module. This means that there will be three programmers who will be responsible for developing
the modules. Completion of the development of the three modules will be due on November 25th,
2014 at 5 pm.
Module One: A Search Customer Screen
The customer filter better known as the search for customer will be accesses by clicking the
search button will be located on the “view customer screen”. It will have the field of the first and
last names of the customer. The staff members will need to enter a value either in the first or last
name fields as the search criteria. To access an abbreviated version of the customer filter, the
programmer intends to incorporate a search button on the “addresses” tab. The addresses tab will
be located on the “manual orders screen”.
Module Two: A Search Address Screen
As mentioned above, the search address screen will be located on the manual orders screen. This
screen will contain the five fields of company, email, city, state and zip code. The five
components are the ones to be used as the search criteria under the search address criteria.
Module Three: A Confirm Delivery Screen
A confirm delivery screen will consist of the “already delivered button”. Clicking on this button
will take you to the item description which will have the customer company, name and address
next to it. The proposed cloud-based mobile application will need to be installed in the phones of
all staff members including the truck drivers. It will incorporate a GPS tracking system. Once a
truck driver delivers the goods to specific customers who have already made payment and whose
addresses are registered on the cloud-based application database, a command will be sent to the
system to register the customer and item details under the confirm delivery screen. The GPS
system in the application will detect arrival of goods at their destination.
Upgrading Internal Network and Application Infrastructure to a Cloud-based Model
The system of Cloud Computing functions by configuring, providing, and reconfiguring servers.
The essential idea underlying the cloud computing technology is that information is stored on the
internet or web-based servers. There is one major gain for hosting the information or data on the
web. That gain is the ability for owners of such information to access it from anywhere and at all
times provided that they have an internet connection (Chevance, 2005). They just need to have a
personal device such as a mobile phone or a computer for them to get the stored information. For
the company to move from local servers to web-based servers, there is need for upgrade of the
internal network and application infrastructure. The upgrades will be in the areas of security and
operations management. Since the acquisition of the application infrastructure depends on
external factors such as the availability of third party service providers who will be awarded
tenders to make the necessary hardware and software installations, it is difficult to make an
estimation of the duration of this exercise. The existing “what if” scenarios mandate the use of
the rule of thumb to make the estimations. However, the urgency of development and
implementation of the current project calls for promptness. Therefore, this part of the project will
be allocated a maximum of 22 days (weekends are excluded) under which it will be completed.
The upgrades and infrastructure improvements will be finished on December 12th, 2014.
Ensuring a Secure Connection to the Cloud
The project intends to ensure execution of activities that warrant secure connection to the cloud.
Such activities will touch the areas of cloud security, web security and a unified VPN.
Cloud Security. The project aims at suggesting comprehensive networking and security services
in a virtual form factor for deployment in cloud environments. This will enable the company to
extend and control various facets of the enterprise network in cloud while providing cloud
service with increased revenue opportunities through an on-demand, flexible network-as-aservice (NaaS) mode.
Web Security. The project also aims at providing direct and secure access to the cloud. There
will be web connectivity to “safe-scan” cloud services which will block web-based malware
from enterprise networks and allow IT managers to control web access requests and content
blocks.
Unified VPN. The project will see the unification of VPN within the company. Having a unified
VPN offers a highly secure, scalable, and manageable solution for IP security and remote-access
VPNs. Installation of such a next-generation encryption which has the latest cryptography
standards and regulated cryptographic algorithms will improve the management of VPNs.
Simplifying Operations and Management
The current project aims at improving the operations efficiency, to simplify and accelerate
network deployment and reduce costs through the unified management solution. It will see into it
that the company embraces a pay-as-you-grow network model as well as an on-demand service
enablement architecture which reduces the operation costs.
Branch-Office Consolidation. The project aims at providing a virtualization platform suited for
our organization since we will need to host some applications locally in our branch offices which
will be connecting to the cloud-based servers. This aims at improving performance, survivability
or compliance.
Unified Management. The project will oversee the initiation of proactive and central monitor
services across the entire branch office, cloud and data center. This will also provide deeper
visibility into the applications’ user experience and health. It will also resolve problems faster the
provision of workflows which allow IT team to look into the health of the services and
applications in context of the health of the underlying infrastructure.
Provision of Training
Base on the PERT technique, all support staff members and truck drivers will be taken through
intense training on the execution and management of the current application. The project team
which consists of one system administrator, a technical writer, two programmers, two network
engineers and four technical trainers will have 2 days of all-inclusive training which they will
undergo together, starting from December 15th, 2014. The fifty truck drivers will converge at the
company headquarters for a 5-days training which will begin after the training of the support
staff and run up to December 23rd, 2014 (weekends are excluded). At 5 pm on December 23rd,
2014, all of the project activities must have been completed.
Training of the Support Staff
The support staff in our company will undergo training activities geared towards ensuring that
they are able to embrace the new changes in the organization which will be brought about by the
software development. The support staff will be trained on how to use the cloud-based mobile
application. They will learn on how to install, register and utilize the application. They should
be able to navigate through the application and most importantly know how to determine
whether goods have been delivered to their intended destinations by the truck drivers.
Training of Truck Drivers
The truck drivers will also undergo rigorous training on how to use the new cloud-based mobile
application. They will be taken through the installation procedures. Since GPS is the most
important component of the application on the part of then truck drivers, they will be shown how
to ensure that the GPS tracking system is always running on this application. They will be
notified on the available penalties for tampering with the tracking system or going offline since a
large part of the new application relies on their cooperation for it to meet its objectives.
USA
Work breakdown structure (WBS) originated from the military. The U.S. Department of Defense
(DOD) created the concept when it was developing the Polaris missile program in the late 1950s.
After completing the project, the DOD published the work breakdown structure it had used and
mandated that this procedure to be followed in future projects of this scope and size. The Work
Breakdown Structure (WBS) is used for defining work packages as well as developing and
tracking the cost and schedule for the project. Aims of developing a WBS are for the project
team to proactively and logically plan out the project to completion, to collect the information
about work that needs to be done for a project and to organize activities into manageable
components that will achieve project objectives. The project is broken down into tasks, each of
which has a manager, a responsible institution, costs and schedule, technical scope and a specific
geographic piece of the machine. WBS can illustrate the relationship between each task in
different levels and a whole project. When creating a WBS, the project manager defines the key
objectives first, and then identifies the required tasks. WBS takes the form of a tree diagram, and
the primary requirement or objective is shown at the top, with increasingly specific details shown
as the observer reads down. So, the elements at the bottom of the diagram represents tasks small
enough to be easily understood and carried out. A change in one of the requirements may affect
the other. A well-organized, detailed WBS can be effective and efficient in allocation of
resources, budgeting, scheduling, risk management, and quality control. However, a work
breakdown structure should focus only on the outcomes of a project, not on the methods of
bringing the project to fruition. Additionally, the structure should strive to include only mutually
exclusive elements in the tree. This prevents overlap and ensures that everyone knows their
assigned tasks. It is important to keep the WBS as simple as possible. There are still some rules
in WBS. The first is the “80 hour rule” which means that no single activity to produce a single
deliverable should be more than 80 hours. However, it is easy exceed the 80 hours. As a result,
the hours ought to depend on the size of the project. The second rule is that no activity should be
longer than a single reporting period. Nonetheless, there may be some factors which can affect
progress.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for Developing a Cloud-based Mobile Application for
Shipment and Delivery of Goods across the USA
Below is a work breakdown structure showing the scope of work for the project. It identifies all
of the tasks that must be performed in order to achieve project objectives. Phase one and two of
the project activities will commence on November 13, 2014. The last phase (i.e. training of
support staff and truck drivers) will be executed once the first two phases are completed.
1.0
2.0
Developing a Cloud-based Mobile application
1.1
Module One: A Search Customer Screen
1.2
Module Two: A Search Address Screen
1.3
Module Three: A Confirm Delivery Screen
Upgrading Internal Network and Application Infrastructure to a Cloud-based Model
2.1 Ensuring a Secure Connection to the Cloud
2.1.1 Cloud Security
2.1.2 Web Security
2.1.3 Unified VPN
2.2 Simplifying Operations and Management
2.2.1 Branch-Office Consolidation
2.2.2 Unified Management
3.0
Provision of Training
3.1 Training of the Support Staff
3.2 Training of the Truck Drivers
Developing a Cloud-based Mobile application
This part of the project management consists of activities geared towards seeing the development
and release of the mobile client platform in the cloud-based infrastructure. This application will
use GPS tracking to track the shipment and delivery of goods in trucks across the United States.
The mobile client application will have three modules which will consist of a search customer
screen, a search address screen and a confirm delivery screen. According to a report by the
programmers, each of the three modules will take approximately 200 hours (8 1/3 days) for it to
be completed. The development of the three modules will be developed concurrently. This
estimation is achieved through the PERT process which is based on the decomposition of the
architecture which is embedded in the WBS packages. A single programmer is to develop one
module. This means that there will be three programmers who will be responsible for developing
the modules. Completion of the development of the three modules will be due on November 25th,
2014 at 5 pm.
Module One: A Search Customer Screen
The customer filter better known as the search for customer will be accesses by clicking the
search button will be located on the “view customer screen”. It will have the field of the first and
last names of the customer. The staff members will need to enter a value either in the first or last
name fields as the search criteria. To access an abbreviated version of the customer filter, the
programmer intends to incorporate a search button on the “addresses” tab. The addresses tab will
be located on the “manual orders screen”.
Module Two: A Search Address Screen
As mentioned above, the search address screen will be located on the manual orders screen. This
screen will contain the five fields of company, email, city, state and zip code. The five
components are the ones to be used as the search criteria under the search address criteria.
Module Three: A Confirm Delivery Screen
A confirm delivery screen will consist of the “already delivered button”. Clicking on this button
will take you to the item description which will have the customer company, name and address
next to it. The proposed cloud-based mobile application will need to be installed in the phones of
all staff members including the truck drivers. It will incorporate a GPS tracking system. Once a
truck driver delivers the goods to specific customers who have already made payment and whose
addresses are registered on the cloud-based application database, a command will be sent to the
system to register the customer and item details under the confirm delivery screen. The GPS
system in the application will detect arrival of goods at their destination.
Upgrading Internal Network and Application Infrastructure to a Cloud-based Model
The system of Cloud Computing functions by configuring, providing, and reconfiguring servers.
The essential idea underlying the cloud computing technology is that information is stored on the
internet or web-based servers. There is one major gain for hosting the information or data on the
web. That gain is the ability for owners of such information to access it from anywhere and at all
times provided that they have an internet connection (Chevance, 2005). They just need to have a
personal device such as a mobile phone or a computer for them to get the stored information. For
the company to move from local servers to web-based servers, there is need for upgrade of the
internal network and application infrastructure. The upgrades will be in the areas of security and
operations management. Since the acquisition of the application infrastructure depends on
external factors such as the availability of third party service providers who will be awarded
tenders to make the necessary hardware and software installations, it is difficult to make an
estimation of the duration of this exercise. The existing “what if” scenarios mandate the use of
the rule of thumb to make the estimations. However, the urgency of development and
implementation of the current project calls for promptness. Therefore, this part of the project will
be allocated a maximum of 22 days (weekends are excluded) under which it will be completed.
The upgrades and infrastructure improvements will be finished on December 12th, 2014.
Ensuring a Secure Connection to the Cloud
The project intends to ensure execution of activities that warrant secure connection to the cloud.
Such activities will touch the areas of cloud security, web security and a unified VPN.
Cloud Security. The project aims at suggesting comprehensive networking and security services
in a virtual form factor for deployment in cloud environments. This will enable the company to
extend and control various facets of the enterprise network in cloud while providing cloud
service with increased revenue opportunities through an on-demand, flexible network-as-aservice (NaaS) mode.
Web Security. The project also aims at providing direct and secure access to the cloud. There
will be web connectivity to “safe-scan” cloud services which will block web-based malware
from enterprise networks and allow IT managers to control web access requests and content
blocks.
Unified VPN. The project will see the unification of VPN within the company. Having a unified
VPN offers a highly secure, scalable, and manageable solution for IP security and remote-access
VPNs. Installation of such a next-generation encryption which has the latest cryptography
standards and regulated cryptographic algorithms will improve the management of VPNs.
Simplifying Operations and Management
The current project aims at improving the operations efficiency, to simplify and accelerate
network deployment and reduce costs through the unified management solution. It will see into it
that the company embraces a pay-as-you-grow network model as well as an on-demand service
enablement architecture which reduces the operation costs.
Branch-Office Consolidation. The project aims at providing a virtualization platform suited for
our organization since we will need to host some applications locally in our branch offices which
will be connecting to the cloud-based servers. This aims at improving performance, survivability
or compliance.
Unified Management. The project will oversee the initiation of proactive and central monitor
services across the entire branch office, cloud and data center. This will also provide deeper
visibility into the applications’ user experience and health. It will also resolve problems faster the
provision of workflows which allow IT team to look into the health of the services and
applications in context of the health of the underlying infrastructure.
Provision of Training
Base on the PERT technique, all support staff members and truck drivers will be taken through
intense training on the execution and management of the current application. The project team
which consists of one system administrator, a technical writer, two programmers, two network
engineers and four technical trainers will have 2 days of all-inclusive training which they will
undergo together, starting from December 15th, 2014. The fifty truck drivers will converge at the
company headquarters for a 5-days training which will begin after the training of the support
staff and run up to December 23rd, 2014 (weekends are excluded). At 5 pm on December 23rd,
2014, all of the project activities must have been completed.
Training of the Support Staff
The support staff in our company will undergo training activities geared towards ensuring that
they are able to embrace the new changes in the organization which will be brought about by the
software development. The support staff will be trained on how to use the cloud-based mobile
application. They will learn on how to install, register and utilize the application. They should
be able to navigate through the application and most importantly know how to determine
whether goods have been delivered to their intended destinations by the truck drivers.
Training of Truck Drivers
The truck drivers will also undergo rigorous training on how to use the new cloud-based mobile
application. They will be taken through the installation procedures. Since GPS is the most
important component of the application on the part of then truck drivers, they will be shown how
to ensure that the GPS tracking system is always running on this application. They will be
notified on the available penalties for tampering with the tracking system or going offline since a
large part of the new application relies on their cooperation for it to meet its objectives.
