The first step will be to select an organization as the target for your Software Project Management Plan. This organization will be used as the basis for each of the assignments throughout the course. Select an existing organization, or identify a hypothetical organization, and submit a proposal to your instructor before proceeding with the assignments in the course. Approval must be sought within the first several days of the course. Your instructor will tell you how to submit this proposal and what notification will be given for project approval.

The following is a background scenario that will be used to help define your project:

You have been hired as a consultant to manage the development of a human resource management system (HRMS) for your chosen organization. The system will integrate seamlessly with other applications, such as the core financial system, e-mail, inventory, procurement, and so forth.

Below are samples of several types of requirements for creating a software project management plan. Depending on the concrete situation of your chosen organization, you are allowed to make modifications, additions, or deletions to these sample requirements. However, you should keep at least 60% of the original sample requirements for each type of requirement (functional, technical, operational, and security).

• Basic information on the project’s triple constraints:
  • Delivery time: 6–18 months
  • Cost: No more than $2.5 million
  • Quality: Easy to use, secure, has remote access capability, and has multiple redundancy

The project management office reports to the chief information officer (CIO) and will be your point of contact for providing necessary information to your team. The following are the major components of the system requirements that were gathered from key project stakeholders using various joint application development (JAD) sessions:

Sample Functional Requirements

• The system should be used to streamline the various human resources (HR) activities in the organization. The following stakeholders are examples of various roles and their functional requirements. If your chosen organization does not have all of these roles, choose 7 roles from this list for your project.
  • Senior management [chief executive officer (CEO), chief information officer (CIO), and others] wants the system to be deployed on time and within the given budget.
  • The office of the chief financial officer (OCFO) wants all financial systems to work seamlessly with the new HRMS.
  • The office of human resources wants all information regarding position advertisement, hiring, screening, benefits, payroll, and others to be secure and easily accessible.
  • Administration services wants enough document retention procedures in place.
  • Regulatory agencies want to know if the organization follows the required rules and procedures.
  • The unionwants to make sure that the new application will not invade employees’ privacy information.
  • Employees want to be paid biweekly, and they want their benefit information to be kept secure.
  • The customer support team wants to be involved in the project from the beginning to be able to understand the system.
  • The information technology team wants to make sure that the new system is in line with the organizational enterprise architecture framework.

Sample Technical Requirements

• The system will be Web-based.
• The new system should use a relational database to store information.
• The chief enterprise architect designed the infrastructure so that all of the following components were on the same platform: servers, workstations, operating systems, Web browsers, e-mail, and databases. The new system should be compatible with all of these systems.
• The application will use the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products, so the focus of the project is to integrate this product with the existing systems.
• The application will use a change and configuration management system.
• The application uses other existing applications, such as e-mail, customer support software, the inventory management system, backup, and storage management systems. As a consultant, you should plan a smooth integration with all of these applications.
• The new application should have a reliable backup and restore system.
• The new application should use the existing infrastructure of routers and switches, Web servers, load balancers, and intrusion detection system (IDSs).
• The development team should select 1 software development integration framework model.
• The project should use the standard software development life cycle phase adopted by the office of the CIO. These phases and deliverables include the following:
  • Identify and verify the scope.
  • Select the appropriate software development model.
  • Conduct stakeholders’ analysis.
  • Gather, analyze, review, and get approval for requirements.
  • Develop a configuration and change management plan to track and document the possible changes.
  • Identify project risks.
  • Design the system and security architecture.
  • Start the development of the application.
  • Conduct unit, system, integration, and regression tests.
  • Start training the end users.
  • Document all steps.
  • Conduct pilot tests using selected users.
  • Conduct user acceptance tests.
  • Conduct operation readiness checks.
  • Deploy the system.

Sample Operational Requirements

• The system should be running 24/7 (all of the time).
• The system should have the required service level agreement (SLA) with all of the other systems and support groups.
• The system should perform based on the specifications identified in the technical requirement section.

Sample Security Requirements

• Because the system collects personal identifiable information (PII), such as employees’ phone numbers and social security numbers, it should be secured by using various security technologies (certificate and encryption).
• Proper access control mechanisms should be developed to restrict users from accessing sensitive information.
• The new application will use a central authentication system that supports the use of a single sign-on (one user name and password).
• The system will be integrated with the existing anti-virus system for periodic updates and checks.

Assignment

The goal of the Individual Projects in this course is to create a Software Project Management Plan, which will be submitted at the end of the final unit. This will be the Key Assignment for this class. The Software Project Management Plan consists of several key components that you will create in each of the individual projects. Each individual project will contribute to the Key Assignment, which is the final plan document. The first project (Week 1’s Individual Project) consists of the following 3 parts:

1. Create a document shell for your Software Project Management Plan.
2. Select the project management methodology to be used for the project that was outlined in the project background scenario above, and include this information in your Software Project Management Plan. Include identification of the IEEE and ISO standards that should be part of the software development process.
3. Conduct stakeholder analysis to identify key project stakeholders, their power and interest, and how you plan to manage them.

The deliverables for this assignment are as follows:

• Software Project Management Plan shell
• New content

See the details below for each deliverable.

Software Project Management Plan Shell

• Use Word
• Title Page
  • Course number and name
  • Project name
  • Student name
  • Date
• Table of Contents (TOC)
  • Use autogenerated TOC
  • Separate page
  • Maximum of 3 levels deep
  • Be sure to update the fields of the TOC so it is up-to-date before submitting your project.
• Section Headings (create each heading on a new page with TBD as content except for sections listed under New Content below)
  • Project Outline (Week 1)
  • Project Management Methodology (Week 1)
  • Stakeholders’ Analysis (Week 1)
  • Scope and Requirements Analysis (Week 2)
  • Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) (Week 3)
  • Project Schedule (Week 3)
  • Resource Plan (Week 3)
  • Control and Monitor Project Progress (Week 4)
  • Risk Management Plan (Week 4)
  • Team Management Plan (Week 5)

New Content (this is to be added to Software Project Management Plan document)

• Project Outline
  • Brief description of the project
    • You can use some text from project’s background information
  • Project goals
• Software Project Management Methodology
  • This is a description of the software project management methodology based on the software development process model chosen for the project. Some of the methodologies/models include incremental-build, evolutionary, agile, scrum, spiral, and waterfall. For further reading on the various models, use the following link: http://infolific.com/technology/methodologies/
    • Justify the methodology choice.
      • This should clearly identify why the selected methodology is appropriate for the project.
  • Project Stakeholders’ Analysis
    • Identify key stakeholders.
    • Categorize them as high, medium, and low by their power and interest.
    • Provide justification for your decisions. Name the document “yourname_CS640_IP1.doc.”