Final Assgnmt Project Management-1

Table of Contents
Project Charter .............................................................................................................................................. 3 Project Description .................................................................................................................................... 3 Project Scope ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Business Objectives and Success Criteria .................................................................................................. 4 Stakeholders .............................................................................................................................................. 5 Vision ....................................................................................................................................................... 10 Milestones ............................................................................................................................................... 10 Business Risks .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Approvals ................................................................................................................................................. 11 Project scope ............................................................................................................................................... 12 Target Users ............................................................................................................................................ 13 Resources ................................................................................................................................................ 13 Project goal.............................................................................................................................................. 14 Project Justification ................................................................................................................................. 14 Project requirements .............................................................................................................................. 14 Success criteria ........................................................................................................................................ 15 SWOT Analysis ......................................................................................................................................... 15 Project Work Breakdown Structure ............................................................................................................ 17 Project General WBS ............................................................................................................................... 17 The Project schedule ................................................................................................................................... 18 Project estimation ....................................................................................................................................... 18 Assumptions ............................................................................................................................................ 18 Schedule estimation ................................................................................................................................ 20 Effort Estimation ..................................................................................................................................... 21 Cost Estimation........................................................................................................................................ 22 Cost Estimating ........................................................................................................................................ 22 Hardware and software cost estimate .................................................................................................. 22 System development estimates ............................................................................................................ 23 Networking estimates .......................................................................................................................... 23

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On-going support estimate .................................................................................................................. 24 Admin estimate cost ............................................................................................................................ 24 Cost Budgeting ........................................................................................................................................ 25 Cost control ............................................................................................................................................. 25 Risk Management ........................................................................................................................................ 28 Risk Management Planning ..................................................................................................................... 29 Project Purpose ................................................................................................................................... 29 Project Scope ....................................................................................................................................... 29 Roles and Responsibilities ................................................................................................................... 29 Risk Documentation ............................................................................................................................ 30 Overview.............................................................................................................................................. 31 Risk Identification .................................................................................................................................... 31 Risk Analysis ............................................................................................................................................ 33 Cost Risk .............................................................................................................................................. 34 Scheduling Risk .................................................................................................................................... 35 Technical Risk ...................................................................................................................................... 35 Compatibility Risk ................................................................................................................................ 36 Programmatic Risk............................................................................................................................... 36 Transition Risk ..................................................................................................................................... 37 Analysis Summary................................................................................................................................ 38 Risk Mitigation ......................................................................................................................................... 39 Risk Monitoring and Control ................................................................................................................... 43 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 45 Individual Journal Reflections...................................................................................................................... 47 Appendices A: Detailed Work Breakdown Structure .................................................................................. 56 Appendices B: Project Schedule .................................................................................................................... 1 Appendices C: Proposed Hardware Specification ......................................................................................... 2 Appendices D: Primary Connection between branches ................................................................................ 5 Appendices E: Backup Connection between branches ................................................................................. 8 ISDN components description ................................................................................................................... 8 Appendices F: System Development Methodology .................................................................................... 10

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Advantages .............................................................................................................................................. 10 RAD Tools ................................................................................................................................................ 11 References .................................................................................................................................................. 15 Academic Books............................................................................................................................... 15 Online Resources ............................................................................................................................. 15

Workload Matrix ............................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

Project Charter
Project Description
Asia Pacific Basic IT Support Centre (APBITSC) system is a project that is used to assist the manner in which basic (first–level) hardware and software technical support will be managed and centralized for the Asia Pacific Regional Offices. In addition to this, another of its objectives is to

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overcome the lack of technical expertise and duplication among the various offices within Asia Pacific Region. The project is sponsored by Global Alliance Resources Co. Ltd (GARCL) who is the Key stakeholders. Other parties include the project manager, Assistant project manager, systems engineer and analyst. The project deliverables are divided into project management deliverable and product-related deliverable. The project charter items include the project milestones, a list of the risks, assumptions, constraints, project strategy, and sign off.

Project Scope
This project will be required to result in overcoming the poor quality of IT support services in Asia Pacific regional offices. All the reports to be made will focus on the IT field as first priority to understand and determine project establishment requirements followed by other project management concerns such as estimation, budgeting, resources allocation, support, and project development-related aspects. Company history and issues related to organizational firm won‟t be included in this project. Besides that, other projects that are related to business support services implemented in GlobalAlliance Resource Co. Ltd won‟t be touched as well in order to give much concern on developing IT support services rather than looking at other unrelated areas.

Business Objectives and Success Criteria
The overall intent of this project is to ensure that the first level hardware and software technical support are provided centrally for the Asia Pacific Regional offices and that poor service and lack of expertise is eliminated due to this. Also we aim to ensure that duplication as a result of providing similar support services is reduced if not eliminated. The final project should be able to support 24 x7 with reliable primary and backup support staff. Besides that, the current IT infrastructure must support the new system. All support must be only from one of the Asia-Pacific regional offices. In addition, all staff must have access to the new system. Overall, the success criteria will be evaluated by taking into consideration the triple constraint scope, time, and resources- once all these factors are met and at an appropriate and

APBITSC | Project Charter 4

time and manner, then we can conclude that the project is successful. These will be explained in detail in the project scope section.

Stakeholders
Stakeholder Project Sponsor Name GARCLGlobal Functions. To provide the necessary funding Win Conditions Being able to fund the project and Constraints Though funding is available the project

APBITSC | Project Charter 5

Alliance Resource Co. Ltd

required in making this project successful.

seeing that it is well underway and finally finished and successful, and all the objectives have been met.

may not be rolled out in the 8 week window time, and so the sponsors may be forced to increase some of the funds to facilitate for the extra time.

Project Manager

Rabera Angwenyi

To facilitate and assign tasks to members of the

Successful management of the project team, with

Uncooperative project members or simply not being able to find the right individuals to perform the tasks

project, supervise and targets met and their tasks and amend and approve their tasks. work distribution set out, and reports

given by the project required, thus team on their progress. leading to time lost as tasks have not been distributed and the targets not met on time.

Assistant Project Manager

Ahmed

Support the project

Helping the project manager where possible to finally ensure that all the tasks are completed and the project has been completed successfully.

Similar problems to that of the project manger although his could be with the uncooperative project members who may not be able to create necessary reports on time that should be handed to

Abdul Jalil manager in task management and being the extra set of „eyes‟ to foresee that the project runs smoothly.

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the project manager. System Engineer and Analyst Reza Responsible for the technical aspects of the system, testing and ensuring that its realization is met. Creation of the new System system that will ensure that the centralization of the system is achieved. Also testing the system and ensuring that the transition from the old to new system is smooth. Database Designer and Administrator Pete brook Responsible for designing the database for the project and ensuring that all the data required to be accessed by employees is properly accessed ensuring that security is maintained and all records are intact. If there is need to carry on old records, then their task is to ensure that the transition for the new records is When the new database is compatible to the new software and all required documents are backed up and transitioned successfully and that security is ensured to secure all the files and records of the organization. There may be some problems with ensuring that the database is compatible with the new systems coding language and so some alterations may need to be made. compatibility with the current system may bring about some problems when it comes to the testing and transition phase.

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smooth and they then are backed up effectively Senior Programmer Susan Miller Responsible for the supervising the coding of the APBTSC system Ensuring that it is compatible to the Ensure that the Junior programmer designs and programs the new system properly and that all The senior programmer may delay the roll out of the new system as he my be waiting on the junior programmer to finish coding, compiling and debugging. Also he may face problems during the supervision of the coding from trying to approve some ideas that the junior programmer may have. Junior Programmer Mary Kent Concerned with the actual coding of the system using a Designed and Coded an effective system that will be The actual programming may be a tough task and to ensure that the system is compatible to the database; also she may find it challenging to meet all the requirements

database and also that programming it is running properly and usable to the employees. reports and queries are addressed and now the transition from the old to the new is smooth.

specific programming approved, by the Language and reporting to the senior programmer for approval of if any query is raised senior programmer and also that the debugging and testing are successful, in that

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pertaining to the coding of the system Also responsible for debugging. Network Administrator Tom Stevens. Responsible for ensuring that the GARCL company in the US and that in the Asia branch can effectively communicate in terms of over the network. He should ensure that the network is secure and free of any threats or vulnerabilities. Customers APBITSC users These are the employees of the

there are not bugs anywhere.

of the senior programmer and ultimately client in the given time.

Being able to secure the network that the GARCL company in the US

The actual securing may be an uphill task considering the time and also seeing

and the Asia branch as the internet is system, and also make see that communication is efficient with no lag detected. filled with threats and vulnerabilities, ensuring this will be a task in itself.

Being able to use the new system

Getting used to the new system after being used to the old system may take some time to getting used to.

company that will use without any the new system. hurdles, and also work efficiency is noticed as there should be no duplication or poor quality services

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Vision
The Asia Pacific Basic IT Support Centre is a system created For Global Alliance resource Ltd division in Asia Pacific which has been seeking to create a centralized system to be used in conjunction with the US headquarters in terms of assisting Basic first level hardware and software technical support, and to ensure duplication among regional offices is eliminated. The implementation of this system will ensure that quality of service is improved and that all the regional offices are able to communicate efficiently with the Headquarters in the US.

Milestones
Event or Deliverable Project charter approved Target Date Week 1 Responsibility Regional Operations Manager Project plan completed Project plan approved Week 1 Week 2 Project Manager Regional Operations Manager Project team assembled Project execution initiated Week 3 Week4 Project Manager System Engineer and Analyst Project execution completed Week7 System Engineer and Analyst Customer acceptance Week 8 Asia Pacific GARCL employees Project closed out Week 8 Project manager.

Business Risks
Risk Timing Issues Probability Impact Mitigation

The timing of the 8 This would lead to the Ensure that all roles are weeks roll out may be need to get extra specified for each project

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less than expected and funding

from

the member by the project

may exceed by an extra sponsors to cater for manager and reports are week or so. the extra time used done on time to ensure up. User Acceptance The users of the system May take everything is timely time to Train staff a few weeks

may have a hard time using the system and before to ensure that they adjusting into using the so performance during are familiar with the new new system during the the first few weeks system by the time it is transition to the new. may be lower than rolled out. expected.

Implementation Issues.

The

system

engineer Time in this sense Ensure

that

an

initial is

may have some issues may be a constraint as compatibility

test

implementing the new it may take some time performed and that any system concurrently as to move from the necessary they stop using features that

the current to the new need to be done are system. performed before the roll out date.

current method.

Approvals
Approval Decision:  Approved, development of detailed project plan is authorized APBITSC | Project Charter 11

 Approved, project execution is authorized  Approved, but project is on hold until future notice  Revise charter and resubmit for approval  Charter and project proposal are rejected Role or Title Project Sponsor Name and Signature GARCL Company Rep……………..……………………….. Project Manager System Engineer/Analyst Senior Programmer Network Administrator. Database Designer and Analyst. Rabera Angwenyi ………………………. Reza…………………………………. Susan Miller…………………………….. Tom Stevens……………………………... Pete brook……………………………….. 4thst June 2010 4thst June 2010 4thst June 2010 4thst June 2010 4thst June 2010 Date 4thst June 2010

Project scope
This project will be limited to certain scope that shall come out with the required result which is overcoming the poor quality of IT support services in Asia Pacific regional offices. All the reports to be made will focus on the IT field as first priority to understand and determine project APBITSC | Project scope 12

establishment requirements followed by other project management concerns such as estimation, budgeting, resources allocation, support, and project development-related aspects. Company history and issues related to organizational firm won‟t be included in this project. Besides that, other projects that are related to business support services implemented in GlobalAlliance Resource Co. Ltd won‟t be touched as well in order to give much concern on developing IT support services rather than looking at other unrelated areas.

Target Users
The target users are the employees of Global-Alliance Resource Co. Ltd in Asia Pacific regional offices. The total employees are 330 in the 9 regional locations which are Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India, China, Philippine, Japan, Thailand, and Hong Kong. The system requires a total of 42 support PCs and 6 new servers. The following table shows the distribution of employees in all branches. Asia Pacific Location Malaysia Singapore Thailand India Hong Kong Indonesia China Australia Korea Total No of Employees 95 72 43 38 7 12 11 45 7 330 IT Support Desktop PCs 10 8 4 4 2 3 3 6 2 42

Resources
The Project should be developed in a manner to keep resources without any wastage to be able to meet budget requirements. The total resources required are listed as follows: APBITSC | Project scope 13

-

Technical expertise Project management expertise Design and estimation expertise Implementation teams Service Providers for connection Hardware and software.

Project goal
This project is aimed to overcome the lack of IT support services and technical expertise and duplication in the Asia Pacific regional offices, by implementing a new IT centralized system, under the name Asia Pacific Basic IT Support Centre (APBITSC) System within a period of 8 weeks.

Project Justification
APBITSC will provide centralized processing and database so all branches will avoid duplication and latency of operations It will provide a better first level hardware and software support service for all regional offices in Asia Pacific Increase the quality of first level IT support in all regional offices. Provides interactive user-friendly interfaces so users can interact effectively with the system. It will help reducing internal operating cost by eliminating redundant IT support services found in various offices Increase efficiency and effectiveness of various operations Provide easy communication between branches.

Project requirements
42 PCs distributed in different Asia Pacific regional offices 6 servers (database server, file server, web servers) Firewalls and routers Connection links APBITSC | Project scope 14

-

Backup connections Computer accessories Maintaining internal networks in all branches to be compatible with each other. Network management and monitoring software Maintaining platforms to be compatible with APBITSC.

Success criteria
The final project should be able to support 24 x7 with reliable primary and backup support staff. Besides that, the current IT infrastructure must support the new system. All support must be only from one of the Asia-Pacific regional offices. In addition, all staff must have access to the new system. Overall, the success criteria will be evaluated by taking into consideration the triple constraint scope, time, and resources as follows: Scope The completion of this project should meet user requirements and the objectives made prior to start doing the project with efficient and reliable development considerations Time Resources The project must be completed within the time given which is 8 weeks The project should be completed without any wastage of the resources provided and with minimal extra resources.

SWOT Analysis
Strengths Expertise from different countries that are enhanced with technical IT support Availability of necessary project funds Availability of IT infrastructure in all branches

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Weaknesses -

Availability of global networked connections Short project development duration Cross regional Different current platforms implemented in each branch. Different flow of data input and type in different branches where it cause problem in creating the centralized database.

Opportunities

-

Availability of similar systems that are already implemented Availability of tons of hardware and software solutions on the internet

-

Availability of vendors who can provide hardware and software with different options

Threats

-

Unstable internet connection Natural disasters happening in the Asia Pacific area that might affect the connectivity between branches.

SWOT analysis is being used to assess different situations and factors likely to influence the project. After conducting it, it is obvious that the system could be enhanced by consulting global expertise for input to the system requirement and since there is availability of similar system, that could be used to outline the structure of the system and take the advantage of employing people who has worked on similar systems. Though, the time given to complete the project is short (8 weeks), the development process can be done to meet time requirement by evaluating the available similar systems architecture and to review their problems faced to overcome them. Also, internet solutions could be an enhanced factor for the development. Since the fund is highly available, weaknesses and threats could be overcome by providing similar platform and infrastructure in all branches besides implementing backup connection using different module to overcome any connection failure.

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Project Work Breakdown Structure
Project General WBS
1 APBITSC

1.1 Scope

1.2 Analysis/System Requirem

1.3 Design

1.4 Development

1.5 Testing

1.6 Deployment

1.7 Documentation

1.8 Training

Refer to Appendices B for detailed Work Breakdown Structure

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The Project schedule
Refer to Appendices B for Project Schedule

Project estimation
In order to come out with successful project, most aspects of developing the project need to be estimated to avoid any risk might shows up in future and to allocate required resources prior to initialization of development process.

Assumptions
Global-Alliance Resource Co. Ltd has considered a high fund for developing APBITSC. The team gathered the requirements from end-users and reviewed them with virtual team partners to determine the scope. The requirements are well-defined The requirements of the project don‟t contradict with the company‟s roles and objectives. The Statement Of Work and Work Breakdown Structure were reviewed by the end-users and virtual team partners. The development and operational environment is adequate to support the project.

Before conducting the estimation, a checklist of various aspects in the project must be done to ensure the estimation is based on related basis. The following table shows the pre-estimating checklist of APBITSC development: Project process Yes No Not necessary

Requirements Are the project requirement clearly defined and understood? Are the criteria for meeting each requirement defined? Are the project requirements baselined? Is there a “client approved” plan for requirements changes? Has a requirement traceability Matrix been developed? Have the requirements been validated against the business √ √ √ √ √ √

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objectives? Have you considered all of the processes that must be followed √ during the project life cycle? Have you considered all of the interfaces that must be adhere √ to? Scoping Has a statement of work (SOW) been reviewed/ approved by √ client? Has the statement of work been reviewed by virtual team √ partners? Has a Work Breakdown Structure been reviewed by the client? Has the WBS been reviewed by virtual team partner? Risk Is there an approved risk management plan? √ Was a client representation involved with the risk management √ plan? Environment Is the process of identifying, acquiring, establishing, and √ verifying the environment understood and included in the plans for the project? Is the development environment adequate to support the √ project? Is the operational environment adequate to support the project? Staff Are appropriate staffs available for the project? √ Are the resources committed to participate in the required √ activities? Is there a training plan to cover deficiencies? √ √ √ √

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Schedule estimation
The duration of the development process is 8 weeks starting in (1 June 2010) and ends in (26 July 2010). The overall tasks of development are listed below: Studying objectives and scope by programmers, designers, project managers, testers and other people in charge of the development process. Gathering user requirements from the target users who are the 330 employees of GlobalAlliance Resource Co. Ltd by conducting various primary research methods. Analysis of requirements gathered System design using appropriate methods that are suitable with the methodology and programming language chosen Prototyping of system interfaces then review them with users to ensure the design meet their expectation Coding the system. Testing the outcome from coding. Final implementation of the system in the workplace.

The time frame of those tasks will be discussed in details in scheduling part in appendices B

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Effort Estimation
The efforts estimation will be conducted by identifying all the tasks required to develop the project and the resources related to them. Besides that, estimating the cost per hour of each task. The cost estimation here will be a generalized estimated cost since the cost estimation will be explained in details in the next part. Task ID Task name Resources type Resourc es quantity T001 Studying user requirements and scope T002 Gathering user requirements and analysis T003 System design and prototyping Design expertise 2 RM 54 Project management expertise System analyzing expertise 2 RM 100 1 Rate per hour RM 100 Effort hours required 4 days* 8 hours = 32 Hours 10 days * 8 hours = 80 Hours 16 days *8 hours = 128 Hours T004 Coding the system Programming expertise 8 T005 Testing the system T006 Allocating hardware T007 Allocating networking T008 Implementation of project Hardware and software Networking devices and links Technical assistance expertise 7 RM 312.5 4 days* 12 hours = 48 Testing expertise 5 RM 69 RM 66 4 RM 208 18 days* 8 hours = 144 Hours 3 days*10 hours = 30 RM 214,000 RM 154,600 RM 105.000 RM 120,000 RM 80,000 RM 10,000 RM 14,000 RM 16,000 RM 3,200 Estimated effort cost

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Cost Estimation
According to Ghosh A (2007)” Project cost management may be defined as management of the processes involved in planning, estimating, and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the approved budget. · · · Cost Estimating Cost Budgeting Cost Control”

Therefore, the cost estimation of developing APBITSC will be examined in three levels which are cost estimating, cost budgeting, and cost control.

Cost Estimating
There are different types of cost to be estimated during the development of APBITSC. Costs estimates to be considered are hardware and software, system development, network, on-going support, and admin estimates. Technique of cost estimating to be used here is „Determine Resource Cost Rates‟ which is estimating or collated actual per unit human and material resource rates. The following tables show the estimation cost of each project development requirement per unit Hardware and software cost estimate Hardware Desktop computers Servers Price Per unit RM 3,000 RM 8,000 Quantity 42 6 Total RM 126,000 RM 48,000 RM 30,000

Office equipments (Printers, Fax machine, and RM 30,000 other accessories) for the server rooms Software and platforms RM 10,000

-

RM 10,000

Total  Hardware specifications will be listed in Appendices C

RM 214,000*

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System development estimates Task developer Cost Number of persons 1 2 4 8 2 5 7 Total

Project manager System analyst Senior programmers Junior programmers Designers Testers Technical assistants (for system implementation)

RM 25,000 RM 8,000 RM 30,000 RM 10,000 RM 7,000 RM 2,000 RM 15,000

RM 25,000 RM 16,000 RM 120,000 RM 80,000 RM 14,000 RM 10,000 RM 105,000

Total

RM 370,000

Networking estimates Networking item Primary connection implementation (VPN) Secondary connection implementation (ISDN) Price RM 40,000 RM 25,000 Quantity 1 Total RM 40,000 RM 25,000 RM 24,000

Router for the main server (Cisco 4500 Internet RM 24,000 router) Router for other servers (Cisco 2600MX) Firewall (Cisco PIX) Cabling RM 11,000 RM 8,200 RM 10,000

2 3 -

RM 22,000 RM 24,600 RM 10,000

Total Refer to Appendices D & E for network specifications.

RM 145,600

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On-going support estimate Item Disaster recovery Depreciation cost Cost RM 80,000 RM 40,000

Total

RM 120,000

Admin estimate cost Admin item Travel between branches Facilities Licensing Cost RM 50,000 RM 30,000 RM 10,000

Total

RM 90,000

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Cost Budgeting
Cost budgeting involves aggregating the estimated cost of individual activities that are identified in Cost Estimating previously to establish a total cost baseline for measuring project performance. Besides that, to come up with the total amount required to develop the project. The Cost Budgeting technique used here is „Cost Aggregation‟ The following table shows each requirement stage cost and the total cost required: Project Area estimates Hardware and software System development Networking On-going support Admin Cost RM 214,000 RM 370,000 RM 145,600 RM 120,000 RM 90,000

Total

RM 936,600

Therefore, the total amount required to develop APBITSC is RM 936,600.

Cost control
After estimating and budgeting the cost, the project team will start to conduct the project with the estimated cost after it is provided by Global-Alliance Resource Co. Ltd. Hence, the cost need to be controlled and monitored to meet the budget requirement and to avoid over-budget problem which may lead to failure of the project. Earned Value Analysis technique will be used for the purpose of cost control in APBITSC as it is shown below. BCWS (Budget Control of Work Scheduled): it is the planned cost of the total amount of work scheduled to be performed by the milestone date. In this case it is the estimated cost calculated in cost estimating up to 4 weeks that is RM 320,000 APBITSC | Project estimation 25

BCWP (Budget Cost of Work Performed): the planned (not actual) cost to complete the work that has been done to date. After starting the project, the planned budget to be spent in the fourth week is RM 362,800 (exclude hardware and software estimated cost) which will be spent in the implementation phase. So BCWP in week 4 = RM 362,800 ACWP (Actual Cost of Work Performed): the actual cost incurred to accomplish the work that has been done to date. Hence, in the fourth week of project development, the actual cost spent during 4 weeks is RM 390,000 which is more than the estimated cost to be incurred up to the fourth week. ACWP = RM 350,000 The following table shows the Cost Variance and Schedule Variance for the first 4 weeks development of APBITSC. Schedule Variance (SV) SV = BCWP – BCWS SV = 362,800 – 320,000 = 42800 Cost variance (CV) CV = BCWP – ACWP CV = 362,800 – 350,000 = 12,800 The cost variance for the first 4 weeks which is RM 12,800 is the remaining part from the planned cost of the first 4 weeks development process.

We can see that the cost variance of the first 4 weeks is RM 12,800 so we can conclude that the estimated cost for APBITSC development is precise and the project will be developing on the estimated budget. The remaining cost will be added to the other 4 weeks development in case of any shortage of budget. The following chart shows the SV and CV of APBITSC for the first 4 weeks. APBITSC | Project estimation 26

400000 350000 300000 250000 BCWS 200000 150000 100000 50000 0 Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 BCWP ACWP

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Risk Management
According to (Kendrick, 2003) Every Project has a risk. Risk is the product of loss and likelihood. It is any undesirable event associated with the work or project at hand. There is always at least some level of uncertainty in a project‟s outcome. High tech projects like this one for GARCL are particularly faced with risk because they have high variations, and each have unique aspects and objectives to them that differ from previous projects in some material way. Project risk management is undertaken primarily because to improve the chances that a project will achieve its objectives. It develops a credible foundation for the project showing that it is possible and what is not feasible should be avoided or transformed. Before Global-Alliance Resource Co. Ltd (GARCL) implements the project Asia Pacific basic IT Support Centre System (APBITSC), it is vital to analyse it in all scopes using the risk management processes below so as to achieve the objectives of the clients and to determine the project as feasible and avoid or transform certain features that may hinder this.

RISK MANAGEMENT PLANNING

RISK IDENTIFICATION

RISK ANALYSIS

RISKS MITIGAION OR RESPONSE PLAN

RISK MONITORING AND CONTROL

Risk Management Process.

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Risk Management Planning
According to (Kendrick, 2003) risk and project planning allow one to be able to distinguish among and to deal with the three reasons for project failure, which are: Impossible and unrealistic projects where the objective lies outside the technical capabilities of available; the second being, they have a perfectly written down deliverable but the rest of the objective is unrealistic; the last reason being where the deliverable is feasible and the objective too, but too little thought is put into the work and no useful results emerge. Below is the project plan for Asia Pacific basic IT support Centre System.
Project Purpose

This document describes how we will perform the job of managing risks for Asia Pacific basic IT support Centre System It defines roles and responsibilities for participants in the risk processes, the risk management activities that will be carried out, the schedule and budget for risk management activities, and any tools and techniques that will be used.
Project Scope

This document describes the risk management process for the Asia Pacific basic IT support Centre System project and assigns responsibility for carrying out the activities. These activities are applicable to the development, integration and test of the new system which his supposed to be used in the Asia Pacific region office for the GARCL Company.
Roles and Responsibilities

Role Project Manger

Responsibility The Project Manager will assign a Risk Officer to the project, and identify this Individual on the project‟s organization chart. The Project Manager and other members of the Project Management team including the Senior Programmer, Database Analyst, System Engineer and Risk Officer shall meet on a bi weekly frequency; to review the status of all risk mitigation efforts, review the exposure assessments for any new risk items, and redefine the project's APBITSC | Risk Management 29

Top Ten Risk List. Risk Manager The Risk Officer has the following responsibilities and authority: coordinate the risk identification analysis activities and report the risk resolution status to the management

Project Member Assigned a Risk

The Risk Officer will assign each newly identified risk to a project member, who will assess the exposure and probability for the risk factor and report the results of that analysis back to the Risk Officer. Assigned project members are also responsible for performing the steps of the mitigation plan and reporting progress to the Risk Officer biweekly.

Risk Documentation

The following table identifies the risk documentation that will be beneficial in identifying the risks of the APBITSC and their analysis and mitigation process. Risk list The risk factors identified and managed for this project will be accumulated in a risk list, which is located in the risk identification section. These will be the ten risk items that currently have the highest estimated risk exposure. Closing Risk. A risk item can be considered closed when it meets the following criteria: the planned mitigation actions have been completed and the Estimated risk exposure of probability is low.

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Overview

Below we shall explain all the other steps included in the Risk Management process for the Asia Pacific Basic IT Support Centre. These will include the Risk Identification, Risk Analysis, Risk Mitigation and Risk Monitoring and Control.

Risk Identification
According to (AIRMC, 2002) Risk identification sets out to identify an organization‟s exposure to uncertainty. Risk identification should be approached in a methodical way to ensure that all significant activities within the organization have been identified and all the risks flowing from these activities defined Risk identification determines the risks that might affect the project and documenting these characteristics, throughout the project lifecycle. For this process to be successful, the project team decided to have a formal risk assessment workshop for a brainstorming session so as to be able to decide on the main risks that were going to face this project another important element that was added to make sure that we were able to cover all the bases of the risks involved was to have an, interview session at the beginning of each life cycle phase so as to ask heads of project parts to let the Risk office know what the risks they discovered were. Role Project Manager Task Concerned with Risk. Concerned with the risks that affect

scheduling, cost and a general l overview of the entire system so that this is reported to the management, being the sponsors GARCL. Risk Office Concerned with collecting all the risk factors from the parties involved in the risk process, and coming up with a document that is to be presented to the management. Senior Programmer Concerned with identifying any risks that will affect the programming and coding of the system, thus leading to an unsuccessful or delayed roll-out. This report will be submitted to the Risk Office. APBITSC | Risk Management 31

Database Designer and Analyst

Concerned with the risks related to the database and compatibility issues of the system. This report will be submitted to the Risk Officer.

System Engineer

Concerned with the finding risks that may affect actual functioning of the system, its technicalities and testing. This report will be submitted to the Risk officer.

Network Administrator.

Concerned with finding risks that may affect the network aspects of the project in relation to the connection between the Regional office and the headquarters. This report will be submitted to the Risk Officer.

In the case of this project (APBITSC), there are seven categories of risk identification to be considered: Below is the table concerned with the risks that have been identified in relation to the Asia Pacific Basic IT Support Centre System. Category of Risk Cost Risk Risk Involved This is the possibility of the available budget being exceeded. Cost risks include the possibility that additional resources will have to be expended to solve technical, schedule or Programmatic problems. Scheduling Risk This is the possibility of the development program failing to meet scheduled milestones. Schedule risks include the possibility that difficulty will be experienced in achieving scheduled technical accomplishments, or that procurement and/or integration and test

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durations will be exceeded. Technical Risk This is the possibility that a technical requirement of the system may not be achieved in the system life cycle. Examples of technical risks include the failure to meet performance requirements, requirements, testability and the or failure verification to meet

integration requirements. Compatibility Risk This is the possibility of the new system not being compatible with some of the old features, that the company may want to retain, this involves areas like the Database and programming areas.. Programmatic Risk This is the possibility of events which are detrimental to the system development but which are beyond the control of the project manager. Transition Risk This is the possibility of the system not having a smooth transition phase from the current to the new system, not only from a technical standpoint but also with the new users of the system who are the Employees in the Asia Pacific Regional Offices.

Risk Analysis
Asia Pacific basic IT Support Centre System (APBITSC) will use Qualitative Risk Analysis in order to do the analysing conditions to determine and prioritize their impact on project objectives. This process focuses on prioritizing the risks identified in terms of impact on the project objectives. When the impacts are identified, actions can be taken and decided to determine the risk probability. The result is the status of the project can be determined because reliable and APBITSC | Risk Management 33

qualitative data are available. Then the probability or impact risk rating matrix can be constructed with assumptions to test the possible consequences to the project. Below is the Risk Matrix that will be used to qualify the risks according to their level or risk and likelihood.

Cost Risk

The risks that would be involved with the cost are: a) The Budget being exceeded. There is the possibility that the budget that will be set aside for this project by the sponsor GARCL will be exceeded. This is because there is the likelihood of their being some technical problems on the way such as incompatible systems and software which would lead to having to buy more software to allow the system to run perfectly. b) Another problem that would make the budget to be exceeded would be the timing factor. The project team may have difficulties in in rolling out the project on time, and this would mean that more money has to be put in to cater for the extra man hours to pay the team for the extra time they are spending. This type of risk would be categorized as a MediumHigh risk because, the Likelihood of it happening is Medium but in the event of it happening, then this would mean that the Impact is high as this GARCL will have to put in more money for the project to be a success.

APBITSC | Risk Management 34

Scheduling Risk

Risks involved for the scheduling of this project would be: a) There is a risk that the project may not be rolled out on time. This is because the system may have a few issues with technicalities and testing and so this may delay the actual timing of the system being completed and rolled out. This may be due to certain changes from the project sponsors, and since these have to be taken into consideration, changes will be made and this will take up time that would delay the schedule that was set for this specific project. This risk is deemed as being Medium and critically risky because, chances of there being delays in the whole process will definitely be there but this should be handled by the project manager to ensure that it does not happen. Even the least of events would cause the schedule to fall out of places, and this would be detrimental because this also means that the costing of the project will increase due to the extra time spent on the project.
Technical Risk

Risks involved when it comes to the technical aspect of this project are: a) There is a possibility that there would be some technical problems that may come in the way of the project being completed. This could be due to the fact that there are some technical transition problems from the old to the new system or even testing of the system. The technical team may find some problems when they test the system and this may delay the actual roll out of the system. This would have a low-medium risk status as they likelihood of this usually happening is low, as the team will be testing every phase of the system to ensure that there are not so many hitches towards the end of the project. The impact would be medium in the sense that once the technical problem has been identified, then the technical team would solve the problem to allow the project to proceed properly.

APBITSC | Risk Management 35

Compatibility Risk

Some of the compatibility risk that may arise would be: a) Some of the compatibility problems that are predicted are the new system not being totally compatible with some of the old features of the system, this could mean that even the new database would not be able readily able to transfer previous records to the new system, and so a compatible software has to be sort and time taken by the Database Analyst to ensure that this takes place. Also the programming language necessary to write the system and ensure that the system may experience some compatibility problems with the new database and therefore extra time which in this case is a liability has to be taken into consideration to ensure that a good balance is found to ensure that all aspects of the system are compatible. This risk would be considered a Medium-Medium risk as in the event that this occurs which is not that probable since the technical team would already have had an idea of the language and database to use hence the „medium‟ its impact would not that be great as the technical experts will be able to know a suitable language to use based on their experience to ensure that all aspects of the system are all compatible.
Programmatic Risk

a) This is a risk that usually affects the technical aspect of the system. This is whereby the programmer has some problems with the actual coding of the system either because of syntax problems or the testing process of the system to ensure it has no bugs. This we consider a Low-Low risk as the programmer will be chosen based on their expertise and the company trusts that the programmer will be able to understand the compatibility of the system to other technical aspects of the system, and in this way the system will be coded and tested. In the event that this happens, then the impact can be considered as Low because the programmer uses a software language that will indicate where the problems are, and so she can be able to go to the specific line of code and fix it up.

APBITSC | Risk Management 36

Transition Risk

a) Some of the issues related to transition risk is usually the users of the new system. They may have a hard time being able to adjust from the old system and thus take some time in being able to use the system. This would be considered as a Medium-High risk, because measures would have already been taken to ensure that the users are familiar to the system, but in the event that this happens, then this would be a highly risky because the users cannot be able to use the system effectively and efficiently meaning that most of the work is not being done properly and this would be detrimental to attaining the goals of the organization. b) Another transition problem that may arise would be the actual roll out of the new system from the old- to the new system. This would be considered as a Low-Medium risk problem, as it would not usually happen that the system does not transition well as prior periodical checks would have already been done before, thus its likelihood being low, but in the event that this occurs, then its impact would be medium, as the new system would be able to be rolled out on time or effectively, but this would mean that the regional offices are able to use the older system as the project team finds a fast way to ensure that in no time, the new system is ready for use.

APBITSC | Risk Management 37

Analysis Summary

Medium High 1

High

Critical SCHEDULING RISK

TECHNICAL RISK COST RISK

(1 x50) 50 Low Medium COMPATIBILITY Medium 0.5 Low Likelihood PROGRAMMATIC Low 0.1 RISK (0.1X50) 5 (0.1X10) 1 Low 15 Medium 50 Impact High (>50 to100) Medium (>10 to 50) Low (1 to 10) RISK (0.5X50) 25 Low

(1X100) 100 High TRANSITION RISK

(0.1X100) 10 Medium

High 100

APBITSC | Risk Management 38

Risk Mitigation
According to (Stoneburner, Gogoen, & Feringa, 2002) Risk mitigation is a systematic methodology used by senior management to reduce mission risk. Risk mitigation can be achieved through any of the following risk mitigation options:

a) Risk Assumption. To accept the potential risk and continue operating the IT system or to implement controls to lower the risk to an acceptable level b) Risk Avoidance. To avoid the risk by eliminating the risk cause and/or consequence (e.g., forgo certain functions of the system or shut down the system when risks are identified) c) Risk Limitation. To limit the risk by implementing controls that minimize the adverse impact of a threat‟s exercising a vulnerability (e.g., use of supporting, preventive, detective controls) d) Risk Planning. To manage risk by developing a risk mitigation plan that prioritizes, implements, and maintains controls e) Risk Transference. To transfer the risk by using other options to compensate for the loss, such as purchasing insurance. The goals and mission of an organization should be considered in selecting any of these risk mitigation options. It may not be practical to address all identified risks, so priority should be given to the threat and vulnerability pairs that have the potential to cause significant mission impact or harm. Also, in safeguarding an organization‟s mission and its IT systems, because of each organization‟s unique environment and objectives, the option used to mitigate the risk and the methods used to implement controls may vary. For the project we are working on, we will look at each risk and find a migration methodology that can be applied together with the person in charge of ensuring that this follows through. Risk Scheduling risk Mitigation Responsibility

Risk Avoidance will be applied GARCL Sponsor to this risk. The reason for this is Project Manager that most projects usually face Risk Officer unforeseen circumstances along the project path. These could be APBITSC | Risk Management 39

like project staff resigning or other technical issues, therefore we shall ensure that the project manager assigns something like a 4day grace period in the 8weeks for any issues that have not been addressed to allow the project to be rolled out on time. This schedule then has to be checked by the Risk Officer and approved by the Sponsor. Cost Risk Risk Limitation will be applied Project Manager to this risk. As we know most GARCL Sponsor projects tend to not keep to the Risk Officer expected dates that they should be working in. This leads to more manpower and hours put in, leading to more money that has to be used by the sponsor. We will therefore limit this risk by ensuring that the scheduling of the project is in such a way that there is some grace period that will cater for those unseen issues, be they technical, or design based. This will ensure that the project does not go into overtime thus saving the sponsor adding in more money. The project manager will use the schedule to plan for the costing APBITSC | Risk Management 40

which will be viewed by the risk office and confirmed by the project sponsor. Compatibility Risk Risk Planning will be Senior Programmer

implemented in this part. This Database Analyst will mean that all the people Risk Officer involved with the technicalities of the system who in this case are the senior programmer

together with his team, the database analyst will which and meet are senior and the

programmer decide on

appropriate

approaches,

languages, database versions and testing equipment to use, so as to avoid any compatibility

problems in future. This plan will be viewed and approved by the Risk Officer. Transition Risk Risk Transference we think Project Manger would be an effective GARCL sponsor

methodology to use here. For Risk Officer transition the main focus is the employees who will have to use the new system they may be unfamiliar with it and this may impact the organizations

performance for the first few months, so to avoid this the project manger suggests to the APBITSC | Risk Management 41

sponsor

that

some

of

the

management are taken for a training workshop that will help them in better understanding the project such that when it is rolled out they will be able to adjust well. Technical Risk Risk Limitation will be applied System Engineer in this case, as seen before Database Analyst because all the with of the people Risk Officer the system

responsible technicalities

would have already met and planned before and decided on the appropriate database,

programming language etc. and this therefore limits the technical risks that may arise during this project. These steps are then approved by the risk officer. Programmatic Risk Risk Limitation will be applied Senior Programmer in this case, as seen before Junior Programmer because all the with of the people Risk Programmer the system

responsible technicalities

would have already met and planned before and decided on the appropriate programming

language and this therefore limits the programmatic risks that may arise during this project. These APBITSC | Risk Management 42

steps are then approved by the risk officer.

Risk Monitoring and Control
When dealing with risk control and monitoring according to (Stoneburner, Gogoen, & Feringa, 2002) we have to ensure that we address the greatest risks and strive for sufficient risk mitigation at the lowest cost, with minimal impact on other areas. The following risk mitigation methodology describes the approach we will use to control implementation of the (APBITSC). • Step 1 Prioritize Actions Based on the risk levels presented in the risk analysis report, the implementation actions are prioritized. In allocating resources, top priority should be given to risk items with unacceptably high risk rankings these are the Cost and Scheduling risk. We have to ensure that the priority goes on from the High from Low in terms of risk level. • Step 2 Evaluate Recommended Control Options The controls recommended in the risk control process may not be the most appropriate and feasible options for a specific organization and IT system. During this step, the feasibility (e.g., compatibility, user acceptance) and effectiveness (e.g., degree of protection and level of risk mitigation) of the recommended control options are analyzed. The objective is to select the most appropriate control option for minimizing risk. • Step 3 Conduct Cost-Benefit Analyses To aid management in decision making and to identify cost-effective controls, a cost benefit will be conducted for this project. This has been shown above in the Cost analysis after estimation. • Step 4 Select Control On the basis of the results of the cost-benefit analysis, management determines the most costeffective control(s) for reducing risk to the organization‟s project to be successful. The controls

APBITSC | Risk Management 43

selected should combine technical, operational, and management control elements to ensure adequate security for the IT system and the organization. • Step 5Assign Responsibility Appropriate who have the appropriate expertise and skill-sets to implement the selected control are identified, and responsibility is assigned. RISK CONTROL TASK PARTICIPANT

The status and effectiveness of each mitigation Risk Officer action is reported to the Risk Officer every two weeks. The probability and impact for each risk item is This is done by each member who is concerned reevaluated and modified if appropriate with their own risk according to the mitigation table above, and approved by the risk officer. If any new risk items have been identified, they Risk Officer are analyzed as were the items on the original risk list and added to the risk list. The Risk List is regenerated based on the Risk Officer updated probability and impact for each remaining risk Any risk factors for which mitigation actions Risk Officer are not being effectively carried out, or whose risk exposure is rising, may be escalated to an appropriate level of management for visibility and action.

APBITSC | Risk Management 44

Conclusion
The six project management areas examined for developing APBITSC are in fact the best areas to manage the project effectively because they almost cover and examine every single aspect of the project. For the project charter , this is an important document that can be used to breakdown the tasks of the individuals in the project, it gives a clear indication of which task belongs to who and the role that they will play in the entire project , this reduces confusion and provides a systematic method of task assignment. Project scope process discussed about the overview of developing the project and identifying project goals and recourses required. These help to set a fixed goal for developers to be followed as steps and aims to be achieved. Identifying the resources helps to determine methods of resources allocation and estimation of cost. Project scope contains overall requirements and success criteria that are indeed helpful to determine success or failure of the project. Also, SWOT analysis that is a part of project scope was very crucial to identify different strong and weak elements around the project. Work breakdown structure was one of the important processes that show all the tasks involved in the project in details. It is crucial in case of classifying every task and its sub-tasks. Besides that, it gives a clear picture of which task to start and which to finish. Also, it helps in determining cost estimation by identifying all resources required throughout the whole tasks. Regarding project schedule, it is another critical and crucial process that helps the project manager to plan the time and the period required for each task in order to keep developing each task up to date and results by completion of project on time. Project estimation helps to come out with planned cost and efforts so the company can prepare for that earlier. Besides that, the project manager is able to allocate efforts needed and determine location of development based on the efforts and costs. The estimation was very crucial since it is the critical standards to determine project budget, resources, devices, and expertise to develop APBITSC.

APBITSC | Conclusion 45

The Risk management methodology is one of the most important in any project it is very essential in identifying any risks that may be faced during the life cycle of the project therefore putting forth the correct measures in trying to avoid them. It is very essential also in preparing the team on the scheduling and cost estimation processes by allowing the members to identify the risks and taking corrective measures so as to prevent the project from not being rolled out on time or failing.

APBITSC | Conclusion 46

Individual Journal Reflections
Conducting this assignment has taught me a great deal so many crucial learning outcomes that would benefit me in the near future in working environment since the case study of developing APBITSC is very practical where it is easier to experience managing projects that closely resembles current projects in the workplace. Managing the project in every stage and performing its activities in sequence taught me to understand the project development flow and working on related tasks. Therefore, I learnt that completing a project cannot be conducted by just distributing the tasks among group members but it indeed requires team work and heavily communication among the group members. Fortunately, all the group members were very hardworking in achieving each task without any communication barrier encountered. Team work has taught me a lot in working in projects with relying on each other effort to produce an outcome. We had several meetings and communicated among each other using online meeting as well to keep the project development up to date. Besides that, every task in the assignment was done in sequence and relating to other member‟s tasks. Every member in the group was freely allowed to give out their views on any point related to the assignment so we put our heads together to come out with this assignment using different ideas and insights. In team work environment done in this assignment, I would absolutely have no obstacle to work with other teams in future working environment since I have already learnt how to handle many team work issues and be able to have effective communication among group members. Regarding other outcomes gained through developing this project, I learnt a lot about theory of a project and common steps to be made in any project development initialization and completion. Working on project charter taught me how to conduct it in any project and how it is used as a notice to inform the participants of the project to know more about the important factors. Therefore, now I am able to create a project charter for any project which is a task that I didn‟t know before how to do and even what was it about. The project charter based on researching is very important because it will also be used by project managers to conduct a project within a specific scope, quality, time, cost and also resources constraints. Besides that, I learnt how to define the project scope by identifying every stage in the project to be conducted and target users, also identifying the resources required to develop the project. APBITSC | Individual Journal Reflections 47

Moreover, determining success criteria to be a role to be followed during the development in order to meet them at the completion of the project. Doing SWOT analysis was another great outcome by identifying and determining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that are related to developing the project and how to provide a fixed plan to take corrective action when any threat arises by taking into consideration the opportunities and make a use of the strengths to solve the weaknesses. I also learnt how to create work break down structure (WBS) for the project which is a tool to show all the stages in details starting from planning and ending up by delivering the project to the end-users. A note to be enlightened that WBS can be done according to the project requirements, so WBS of any project might be different from other projects but the point here is learning how to conduct it in general for any purpose and project. My individual task in this project was estimation so conducting it for this case was so helpful for me to learn how to estimate different requirements in any project. Starting by schedule estimation which was a part to be done with the group members to identify the different tasks of the project and to come up with required tasks and time frame. That was followed by effort estimation which is estimating the cost of developers who will pay an effort for the development process such as programmers, project managers, system analysts, and designers. Cost estimation was the last part conducted in Estimation and it was done according to project cost estimation techniques by identifying cost estimating, cost budgeting, and cost control. Every level of those was explained and done effectively to come up with total estimated cost of the whole project. I learnt a lot from applying those techniques and I am definitely able to conduct estimation for any project in future using academic and well-defined methods of estimation. Other parts of this project that are project scheduling and risk management were assigned to my other groupmates, but all group members discussed about different aspects in every individual part in order to come out with whole great work. On the other hand, all group members shared ideas and suggest resources for doing the individual tasks. There were some challenges encountered in order to complete this assignment. Firstly, the lack of knowledge in project management that required us to read several books in project management and refer to online resources but there were different approaches proposed by different authors APBITSC | Individual Journal Reflections 48

that create confusion in some cases which ended up by discussion with the group members to choose the proper method and reference to follow. Another challenge was time constraint to work on this assignment besides other assignments and final year project in the same time so it required me to manage time in order to get all assignments and project done prior to the due date. To sum up, this assignment was really one of the most beneficial works for my knowledge and future reference as well. I would like to thank Ms Hemalata for her guidance and support through this assignment, also thanks to my group members Alireza and Elizabeth who showed great team work interaction and hard-work.

APBITSC | Individual Journal Reflections 49

As an IT student, focusing on technical computer stuffs has been always the only concern in my studies. Working on such a critical and major assignment has added new ideas and skills to my project management knowledge and understanding capabilities. During my studies I have passed few management modules; although they all have been helpful to me but none of them discussed about methods of managing the projects. In order to complete this project management, the methodology selected to be used, PMBOK is vital due to the efficiency and usefulness of the methodology to be able to handle the organization well. Other than that, with the detail information acquired and listed all in the Project Charter, Scope as well as the Work Breakdown Structure have helped a lot in managing the departments in the organization for a better future. Other focus such as the scheduling, estimation of account runs within the organization and the risk management also helped to get the assignment done professionally. Learning Outcome The learning outcome of this assignment is where the organization has been assigned the people and departments well in order to run the organization more systematically and professionally with the least problems occur by the help of the PMBOK methodology. Apart from that, For the completion of this project, almost every chapter learnt during the lecturers is used. Among the chapters done during the lectures, following are the ones that used for the completion of this project: 
       Project charter Project scope Work breakdown structure (WBS) Estimation Change management Monitoring and Control Managing communications Quality Management

Work Breakdown Structure: APBITSC | Individual Journal Reflections 50

It was an interesting and challenging job to develop the work break down structure since it plans the entire project. All the tasks and activities which need to be done in order to manage and develop the project successfully should be mentioned and classified in WBS. It allows the development of Gantt chart which plans the sequence of the tasks and the time that each task needs to be applied. Pert chart will implemented upon the Gantt chart. Hence, it is obvious how important the WBS is in development any project. Project Estimations This is another part which was not really easy at all, first as an international student, it was somehow hard for to estimate the cost of some equipments, offices and the salaries in Asia as the project was located in Asia pacific. I learnt that different types of estimation and it were quite challenging to choose one to be applied and how to relate it to the project. Project Charter Doing the project charter was quite interesting, as it needs to understand the whole project, its purpose, the objectives, goals, deliverables, etc. As well as identifying them in a project. From this perspective and with the studies and researches we accomplished, I am able to understand the subject matter with more specific understandings. Different types of project risks, risk management process and different estimations and scheduling techniques are the topics that I have learnt in taking this module and applying its assignment. They all helped me to be able to implement real business management plans in future. Applying theories and concepts learnt in this subject has helped me in completing this assignment because in this subject, “Project Management”, the lecturer has taught us in different style which I think is effective and very attractive, which made me able to succeed in applying the theories and concept in the topics such as how to develop a quality management and in dividing tasks like work breakdown structure and project charter. The lecturer made us understand it, not to just theoretically read the slides and points. As far I understand more about this subject, I feel more capabilities in understanding project management systems. Participating in an active, clever and friendly group, hardworking and influencing environment are the factors to achieve success in applying the concepts. Using project APBITSC | Individual Journal Reflections 51

management concepts and techniques help me in other subjects and other aspects of my life since the framework, style and format of the assignments, and concepts I had learnt, will boost me up in completing other assignments and projects especially when it involves time management, quality management and cost management. At the same time this can enhance my work and career in communication and documenting a professional work. Conclusion As to conclude of the entire assignment process my group and I have been through, it helps me in understanding the module and the studies. The theories I have learnt in the module have also helped us in completing the assignment by applying most the theories. With these knowledge and theories obtained, we have known how to manage the project well for the assignment. At the end I would like to appreciate my lecturer Mrs. HemalataVasudavan for her efforts to teach this professional subject to our class and my diligent group mates for the efforts they have made in order to do this assignment.

APBITSC | Individual Journal Reflections 52

Throughout the whole project management module and during the assignment period, various experiences were gained concerning the project management module and how to work in a team. We were able to work as a team coherently and with the guidance of our lecturer able to deliver the assignment in good time. At the beginning of this project, tasks were divided among the three members of the team; the methodology to be used for the project was chosen and agreed by all group members and each did research on it in order to ensure the success of the project. The project was very challenging since we were not so familiar with some of the tasks that were supposed to accomplish. The assignment group part which includes project charter, scope and WBS was done by all three group members and the other 3 individual methodologies divided out among the group members. We were able to research and come up with a detailed report on all the processes and knowledge areas. During the lectures of project management module, I learnt a lot on the following chapters:         Project charter Project scope Work breakdown structure (WBS) Project scheduling Estimation Risk management Monitoring and Control Project failures

I was able to apply theories and concepts learnt in this subject or in other subjects to help myself in completing this assignment. The lecturer taught us in a way that we were able to apply the theories and concept in the topics such as risk management and in dividing tasks like work breakdown structure and project charter etc. The lecturer made us understand it, not to just theoretically read the slides and points but to relate it to real life situations Besides that, i had a nice, hardworking group that was very cooperative. As in other subjects, it seriously helped me a lot especially with my final year project, because of the framework, style and format of the assignments, and concepts I had learnt.

APBITSC | Individual Journal Reflections 53

I have to say that it was a challenging assignment but this enabled us to gain a lot from it, and all that we were able to learn would be and will be very useful in the future when put in positions where we have to manage various projects. As group we were able to depend on each other for support and also share ideas on how to do the whole assignment. Everyone was free to give their ideas, and this was facilitated during many meeting that we had, be it face to face or on online forums. All these contributed to the great piece of work that we have been able to accomplish. For the project charter which was the group part that i was concerned with, i have to say i have never before done, one, but from the guidance of Ms Hemalata, the lectures and exercises that she have us were able to make me understand how to make one well, and for this I‟m thankful to her. According to assignment requirement, I needed to create a project charter to fulfil assignment requirement, project charter is a statement of the scope, objectives and participants in a project. It provides a preliminary delineation of roles and responsibilities, outlines the project objectives, identifies the main stakeholders, and defines the authority of the project manager. It serves as a reference of authority for the future of the project. For the individual part I was concerned with the Risk Management portion of the assignment. I have to say this was one of the most challenging parts of the assignments as it was based on logical assumptions that had to be made. I had to research and read more on the various levels of risk and how to manage these steps; i also had to constantly show this part to my lecturer who showed me where to make changes and to improve it. I have to say it was very useful in learning the risk management aspect of any project as it is useful in helping one come up with a logical schedule and cost estimation for the entire project. Overall it was a well-coordinated assignment and not only useful now, but very useful in the future when we all go into different working environments and are required to manage a project. These lessons and techniques we learned in this whole module will definitely come in handy. Conclusion: Though at the beginning of this module as an IT student, I used to think that this module was only fit for business students; As the time went on, I realised that the module is far more interesting than I ever imagined and as well quite challenging. I got to know how big projects are conducted, the techniques used, the methodologies, the triple constraint of any project (Scope, APBITSC | Individual Journal Reflections 54

Time, cost), what exactly is a project and I got to know as well that as an IT student, this module was very important for my future workplace and everyday life. I would conclude saying thanks to our lecturer, who provided me with this knowledge Ms Hemalata, with her great teaching skills and also being able to relate projects to IT related and real life events making it easier for us to understand.

APBITSC | Individual Journal Reflections 55

Appendices A: Detailed Work Breakdown Structure
1 APBITSC

1.1 Scope

1.2 Analysis/System Requirem

1.3 Design

1.4 Development

1.5 Testing

1.6 Deployment

1.7 Documentation

1.8 Training

1.1.1 Determine Project Scope

1.1.2 Define Preliminary Resou

1.1.3 Define Project Goals

APBITSC | Appendices A: Detailed Work Breakdown Structure 56

1 APBITSC

1.1 Scope

1.2 Analysis/System Requirem

1.3 Design

1.4 Development

1.5 Testing

1.6 Deployment

1.7 Documentation

1.8 Training

1.2.1 Conduct Needs Analysis

1.2.2 Draft Preliminary System

1.2.3 Develope Preliminary Bud

1.2.4 Review System Specificat

1.2.5 Incorporate Feedback on

1.2.6 Develop Delivery Timelin

APBITSC | Appendices A: Detailed Work Breakdown Structure 57

1 APBITSC

1.1 Scope

1.2 Analysis/System Requirem

1.3 Design

1.4 Development

1.5 Testing

1.6 Deployment

1.7 Documentation

1.8 Training

1.3.1 Develop Functional Speci

1.3.2 Develop Prototype Based

1.3.3 Network Design

1.3.4 Database Design

APBITSC | Appendices A: Detailed Work Breakdown Structure 58

1 APBITSC

1.1 Scope

1.2 Analysis/System Requirem

1.3 Design

1.4 Development

1.5 Testing

1.6 Deployment

1.7 Documentation

1.8 Training

1.4.1 Identify Modular.Tiered

1.4.2 Develop Appropriate Netw

1.4.3 Develop The System

APBITSC | Appendices A: Detailed Work Breakdown Structure 59

1 APBITSC

1.1 Scope

1.2 Analysis/System Requirem

1.3 Design

1.4 Development

1.5 Testing

1.6 Deployment

1.7 Documentation

1.8 Training

1.5.1 Developer Testing

1.5.2 Develop Unit Test Using

1.5.3 Develop Integration Test

APBITSC | Appendices A: Detailed Work Breakdown Structure 60

1 APBITSC

1.1 Scope

1.2 Analysis/System Requirem

1.3 Design

1.4 Development

1.5 Testing

1.6 Deployment

1.7 Documentation

1.8 Training

1.6.1 Determine Final Deployme

1.6.2 Develop Deployment Metho

1.6.3 Deploy Deploy Hardware Software

APBITSC | Appendices A: Detailed Work Breakdown Structure 61

1 APBITSC

1.1 Scope

1.2 Analysis/System Requirem

1.3 Design

1.4 Development

1.5 Testing

1.6 Deployment

1.7 Documentation

1.8 Training

1.7.1 Develop help Specificati

1.7.2 Develop User Manuals Spe

1.7.3 Develop User Manuals

APBITSC | Appendices A: Detailed Work Breakdown Structure 62

1 APBITSC

1.1 Scope

1.2 Analysis/System Requirem

1.3 Design

1.4 Development

1.5 Testing

1.6 Deployment

1.7 Documentation

1.8 Training

1.8.1 Develop Training Specifi

1.8.2 Develop Training Specifi

1.8.3 Develop Training Materia

1.8.4 Staff Training

APBITSC | Appendices A: Detailed Work Breakdown Structure 63

Appendices B: Project Schedule

APBITSC | Appendices B: Project Schedule 1

Appendices C: Proposed Hardware Specification
Dell server- PowerEdgeTM 2900       

PowerEdge(TM) 840, Quad Core Xeon Pro X3220, 2x4MB Cache, 2.40GHz Microsoft® Window® SBS 2003 R2 SP2 standard edition 3 years warranty 4GB (4x1028), DDR-2 667MHz ECC 1R Fully-Buffered Memory 500GB SATA hard drive 3.5 inch 7.2k RPM SATA 2 20/40GB TR-40 44 internal Tape Drive Price: RM8,000

Staff Workstation Dimension C521 AMD Sempron™ 3400+ Operating System:     Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic

Monitors: 15 inch E157FP Analog Flat Panel

Memory: 512MB Single Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz

Hard Drives: 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ CD or DVD Drive:   48X CD-RW/ DVD Combo Drive

Video Cards: NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Integrated Graphics GPU APBITSC | Appendices C: Proposed Hardware Specification 2

Sound Cards:    Mouse Network Interface:   Labels:   Windows Vista™ Basic Integrated 10/100 Ethernet Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

Keyboard and Mouse Bundles: Dell USB Keyboard and Dell 2-button Scroll Mouse

Modem: 56K PCI Data Fax Modem

Miscellaneous: Award Winning Service and Support

Warranty and Service: 1Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor - Next Business Day

Price: RM3,000 Samsung CLP-300N Laser Printer  Samsung introduces the smallest and lightest color laser printer in its class, the clp-300. it features the same exclusive no nois print engine that's in the professional series of color laser printers, for quiet operation and simple toner changes  Price : RM 550

Operator Headsets Speaker size:40mm Frequency range:20-20,000Hz Speaker impedance:32 Ohm¡À15% Speaker sensitivity:105dB¡À3dB Microphone impedance:2200 Ohm Microphone sensitivity:-58dB¡À2dB APBITSC | Appendices C: Proposed Hardware Specification 3

Maximum power:100mw Standard operating voltage:4.5V Wire length:2.2 metres  Price: RM110

Microphone Altec Lansing • • ABM-200 Noise Rejecting Desktop Computer Microphone with Mute Switch

Price: RM30 Juster SP693 2-piece Multimedia Speakers General Features: Beige color Output power (RMS): • • • • • • • • • • 1W + 1WDriver: 2.25-inch full range cone, 8 Ohms Frequency Range: 20 Hz ~ 20 KHz P.M.P.O.: 300 Watts Signal to Noise Ratio: 62 dB Input Power: 110V 50 Hz Power supply: AC, Integrated into casing Volume control Knob Power On/Off button Power LED Headphone jack Magnetically Shielded Dimensions:3.38 x 2.68 x 6.54-inches (D x W x H) Price: RM 30

.

APBITSC | Appendices C: Proposed Hardware Specification 4

Appendices D: Primary Connection between branches
The proposed primary connection between APBITSC branches is VPN over MPLS line. The requirements to do this connection are listed below as it was proposed in the cost estimation: Requirement Hardware MPLS line connection The link chosen by our team to connect VPN within the company is MPLS technology which will be configured to the main office of the company by TM Internet service provider in Malaysia branch. The technology can run in different software which will be installed in company devices. From this characteristic make the main corporate network to be comprised with Windows NT servers with various Operating System for workstations. This technology enables secure and reliable performance levels. Privatebased MPLS network provides better security and control compared to public-based MPLS networks.(TM, 2009) Cisco 4500 internet Cisco 4500 internet router run Cisco IOS software, Cisco's industryrouter leading networking software that provides a variety of feature sets. You can choose a feature set that supports your specific protocol environment. Cisco IOS software assures robust, reliable internetworks by supporting both LAN and WAN protocols, optimizing WAN services, and controlling internetwork access. In addition, Cisco IOS software allows centralized, integrated, and automated installation and management of internetworks. (Cisco, unknown date) Cisco 4500 internet router should be implemented in the main office network of Matrix Solutions. Cisco 2600XM router As described by Cisco Systems, 2009 the Cisco 2600 Series Multiservice Platform is a modular multiservice access router that provides flexible LAN and WAN configurations, multiple security Explanation

APBITSC | Appendices D: Primary Connection between branches 5

options, and a range of high-performance processors. With more than 70 network modules and interfaces, the modular architecture of the Cisco 2600 Series allows interfaces to be easily upgraded for network expansion. The latest additions to the Cisco 2600 Series include the Cisco 2600XM models and the Cisco 2691 Multiservice Platform. These new models deliver extended performance, higher density, enhanced security performance, and increased concurrent application support to meet the growing demands of branch offices. The Cisco 2600 Series shares modular interfaces with the Cisco 1600, 1700, 3600 and 3700 series routers, providing network managers and service providers a costeffective solution to meet branch office needs, including:
      

Internet and intranet access with firewall security Multiservice voice and data integration Analog and digital dial access services VPN access Inter-VLAN routing Routing with bandwidth management Integration of flexible routing and low-density switching

Cisco 2600XM router was chosen for Matrix Solutions since it is the latest technology developed by Cisco. Each branch of the company must have one Cisco 2600XM router for the connection. VPN servers A VPN server is a piece of hardware or software that can acts as a gateway into a whole network or a single computer. It is generally „always on‟ and listening for VPN clients to connect to

it.(HomeNetHelp, 2009). There should be 3 VPN servers placed in the main office. Cisco PIX firewalls It provides three basic VPN requirements: it separates the packet APBITSC | Appendices D: Primary Connection between branches 6

filtering functions from the main gateway router, it dynamically shares a pool of internet addresses among many internal users , and several PIX units can be combined to create a VPN tunnel session between sites. The PIX has two Ethernet ports: one for the internal (or private) network and one for the external (or public) network, which is normally the internet. The PIX uses two Intel 10/100 Ethernet cards to handle highcapacity sites. It is essentially like other Cisco router products, although it does not run Cisco‟s popular IOS operating system. The PIX can also be deployed redundantly to create a fail-safe router, so that a failure in one PIX automatically causes a transfer of traffic to the router. The PIX provides firewall protection by completely isolating the private network from an outside one. The internal network uses private addresses, such as those in the 192.168.n.n range defined by RFC 1918, and the PIX translates them dynamically to a range of external addresses used on the internet using NAT. Scott et al (1999) Software Cisco Easy VPN This is the server that has software enhancement for existing Cisco routers and security appliances for the purposes of VPN deployment for the remote offices and teleworkers. It centralizes VPN management across all Cisco VPN devices in order to reduce the complexity of VPN deployments under the company system. The software also enables remote side administration to integrate the VPN remotes-Cisco routers, Cisco ASA and PIX Security Appliances, Cisco VPN concentrator or software clients within a single deployment with a consistent policy and key management key technique.

APBITSC | Appendices E: Backup Connection between branches 7

Appendices E: Backup Connection between branches
The secondary connection of APBITSC branches will be implemented using ISDN PRI connection. The requirements of this connection are elaborated below. ISDN devices include terminals, terminal adapters (TAs), network-termination devices, linetermination equipment, and exchange-termination equipment. ISDN terminals come in two types. Specialized ISDN terminals are referred to as terminal equipment type 1 (TE1). NonISDN terminals, such as DTE, that predate the ISDN standards are referred to as terminal equipment type 2 (TE2). TE1s connect to the ISDN network through a four-wire, twisted-pair digital link. TE2s connect to the ISDN network through a TA. The ISDN TA can be either a standalone device or a board inside the TE2. If the TE2 is implemented as a standalone device, it connects to the TA via a standard physical-layer interface. Examples include EIA/TIA-232-C (formerly RS-232-C), V.24, and V.35.

ISDN components description
Table: ISDN components description Component Terminal Equipment (TE) Terminal Equipment (TE1) Description End device in the ISDN link. ISDN native equipment which accesses ISDN communication directly. Example; fax machines and desk phones. Terminal Equipment (TE2) None ISDN equipment which requires a terminal adapter (TA) to establish an ISDN connection. Terminal adapter (TA) Provides non ISDN devices access to the ISDN link. Network Termination (NT1) Equipment for terminating the ISDN signal at the end system. Example a multiplexer. Network Termination (NT2) Equipment used for

switching/transporting the ISDN signal to APBITSC | Appendices E: Backup Connection between branches 8

the TE1 Reference points within an ISDN loop R: The link between a TA and any other unrelated equipment. S/T: The link between an NT1 and an NT2, the S/T reference point is a fourwire UTP cable. U: The U reference point is the incoming unshielded twisted pair (UTP); The link between an NT1 and the public network

It is highlighted that most of the components listed above will be provided by the service provider after subscribing. The service provider in Malaysia will be TM n other SPs in other countries that have association with TM. The backup connection will be connected to the same Cisco router of the primary connection and it will be configured to switch between links when any failure occurs.

APBITSC | Appendices E: Backup Connection between branches 9

Appendices F: System Development Methodology
Since the time frame to develop APBITSC consider as a short period (8 Weeks) so the proper system development methodology to use is RAD (Rapid Application Development) that support high-tech projects with short time frame. RAD is only suitable for certain kinds of applications, i.e. those which are interactive, with clear functionality at the user interface, have a clearly defined user group, are not computationally complex and have requirements which are not too detailed and fixed. The spiral methodology reflects the relationship of tasks with rapid prototyping, increased parallelism, and concurrency in design and builds activities. The spiral method should still be planned methodically, with tasks and deliverables identified for each step in the spiral.

Advantages
 Increased Speed As the name suggests, Rapid Application Development's primary advantage lies in an application's increased development speed and decreased time to delivery. The goal of delivering APBITSC | Appendices F: System Development Methodology 10

applications quickly is addressed through the use of Computer Aided Software Engineering or CASE tools, which focus on converting requirements to code as quickly as possible, as well as Time Boxing, in which features are pushed out to future releases in order to complete a feature light version quickly.  Increased Quality Increased quality is a primary focus of the Rapid Application Development methodology, quality is defined as both the degree to which a delivered application meets the needs of users as well as the degree to which a delivered system has low maintenance costs. Rapid Application Development attempts to deliver on quality through the heavy involving of users in the analysis and design stages.

RAD Tools
Process Below is a brief overview of the RAD process, which consists of four lifecycle stages: Requirements Planning, User Design, Construction, and Implementation. Also described are typical pre and post project activities. Pre-Project Activities As with any project it is vital to identify the details of the project up front in some form of document such as a Project Management Plan. All parties should agree up front on details such as potential risks and mitigation strategies, a development schedule including resources, milestones and deliverables such as a completed data model or types of documentation to deliver, an approach including standards, tools, and technologies to be used, a desired end result, terms and constraints and financial considerations including budget and cost of tools. Requirements Planning The Requirements Planning stage consists of meetings between requirements planning team and key client users. Meetings focus on both developing a high level list of initial requirements as APBITSC | Appendices F: System Development Methodology 11

well as setting the project scope. The requirements planning team identifies primary business functions. The Requirements Planning stage should result in a list of entities as well as action diagrams that define the interactions between processes and data elements and should take between one and four weeks. At the end of the Requirements Planning stage project estimation should be considered. User Design During the User Design stage (also known as the Functional Design Stage) the analysis team meets with end users in Joint Application Development (JAD) Workshops. During the workshops the analysis team flushes out the requirements in more detail, develops the entities developed in the Requirements Planning into a data model (Entity Relationship Diagram), formalizes business rules, develops test plans, and creates screen flows and layouts for essential parts of the system. The User Design stage should last between three and five weeks. Construction During the Construction Phase the Design Team develops the application in iterative cycles of development, testing, requirements refining, and development again, until the application is complete. Development iterations should last between one day and three weeks. The development team should convert the Data Model that was developed during the User Design Stage into a functional database (all data modeling tools have this ability). The CASE tool used (which may be the same as the data modeler or a separate tool) should now generate large sections of the application, at a minimum data access code, but preferably business functions and user interface as well. A prototype developed in this way may reduce the first iteration of development to days instead of weeks. It is vital to keep each development iteration on track, and functionality may need to be dropped to keep development within the time box. Management plays a vital part in ensuring everything is progressing according to schedule, keeping the customer in the loop regarding changes in the functionality, and keeping the team motivated.

APBITSC | Appendices F: System Development Methodology 12

Once the prototype has been developed (within its time box), the construction team tests the initial prototype using test scripts developed during the User Design stage, the design team reviews the application, the customer reviews the application and finally the construction team, design team, and customer meet in Focus Group meetings in order to determine the requirements for the next iteration. After the meeting (additional meetings may be necessary), the development team and design team should update the requirements, data model, test scripts, and project plan as during the User Design stage. Again the teams should identify core and secondary requirements, plan out the next development iteration, keep the user in the loop regarding what will be done, and then start the next iteration of development over again. As the system approaches a sufficient state the development team should focus on the system as a finished application rather than a prototype. During the final iterations of development the design team should update user documentation, perform User Acceptance Testing and define the steps necessary for

deployment/implementation. Implementation The Implementation Stage (also known as the Deployment Stage) consists of integrating the new system into the business. The Development Team prepares data and implements interfaces to other systems. The Design Team trains the system users while the users perform acceptance testing. and are trained by the Design Team. The Design Team helps the users transfer from their old procedures to new ones that involve the new system. The amount of time required to complete the Implementation Stage varies with the project. Post-Project Activities As with any project final deliverables should be handed over to the client and such activities should be performed that will benefit future projects. Specifically it is a best practice for a Project Manager to review and document project metrics, organize and store project assets such

APBITSC | Appendices F: System Development Methodology 13

as reusable code components, Project Plan, Project Management Plan (PMP), and Test Plan. It is also a good practice to prepare a short lessons learned document.

APBITSC | Appendices F: System Development Methodology 14

References
Academic Books

AIRMC. (2002). The Association of Insurance and Risk Management. A Risk Management Standard. Kendrick, T. (2003). Identifying and Managing Project Risk. New York: American Management Association. Scott c et al, (1999), „Virtual Private Networks‟, USA, O‟Reilly Associates, Inc Stoneburner, G., Gogoen, A., & Feringa, A. (2002). Risk Management Guide for IT projects. National Institute of Standards and Technology .

- Online Resources Cisco , unknown date,

„Cisco

product

information[online],

available

at”

http://www.kmj.com/cisco/cisco.html”, (accessed: 25 May 2010). Ghosh A, 2007, „Project cost estimation‟[Online], ASP Alliance, available at‟

http://aspalliance.com/1155_project_cost_estimation‟ (accessed: 15 May 2010). HomeNetHelp, 2009, „VPN an overview‟[online], available at

“http://www.homenethelp.com/vpn/”, (accessed: 25 May 2010). TM, 2009,‟ Virual Private Network‟[online], available at”

http://www.tm.com.my/business/small-medium/data-services/vpn/” (accessed: 25 May 2010).

APBITSC | Appendices F: System Development Methodology 15