Principles of Project Management

Homework Assignment 1:

Write a short outline of your project (2-3 pages) following the form of a Project Charter as described below.

This is not graded on the precise format -- the goal is to provide a high-level preliminary description of your project as it might be done for a deliverable in the early 'Concept' phase of the project lifecycle. But, you must include each of the sections outlined below that do not say ‘optional’.

This is due by next week. I’d prefer to receive this by email but you may also bring a printed copy into class next week.

Use this outline

– Overview (2-4 paragraphs)

• What the system is (summary)

• Who will use it

• What problem is it solving (Objectives)

– Scope of Work (outline format or text)

• Deliverables

» What the system is (details)

• Rough time estimate (2 months or 2 yrs?)

– Approach (optional)

– Out of scope items

– Assumptions

Here are examples of the types of items you may include. Note that it is very important the content fit your project and not be entirely “generic”. This should reflect the unique aspects of your project.

• Assumptions

• We will reuse the architecture from the previous ordering system

• The system will be built using an ASP model

• Customer will provide necessary business experts as needed during development

• System will run on existing networking and computer resources

• Customer will sign-off on interim deliverables within one week of each delivery

• All import data will be available in XML format

• This will be a web-based application

• Our in-house development team will do the work

• The rendering engine will be licensed from a third party

• We will partner with an overseas development firm to create the security systems

• Primary Stakeholders (following examples are not of one set)

• Sponsor: VP of Marketing

• Sponsor: Five Star Brokerage Consortium

• Sponsor: Bill Smith, CEO

• Users: Call center operators

• Users: Our partner banks

• Customers: Attorneys from small-to-mid size law firms

• Customers: Males 30-45 earning $75K or more

• Deliverables

• Retail Web Site

• Full catalog

• Shopping-cart system

• Search engine

• User registration system

• Trading System

• Equities order entry system

• Portfolio management

• Order execution engine

• Integration with X legacy systems

• Security infrastructure

• Corporate Application

• Network and hardware

• Web-based HR portal

• Connectivity for VPN

• “Asset Management Viewport” application

• Customized Reporting Engine

– Allowing users to Perseus data mart

– Delivery into HTML and Excel

• User manuals

• Out of Scope

• News feeds

• Dynamic pricing

• Jazzy color picker

• Auction engine

• EDI support

• Legacy integration

• Help system

• Schedule

• We anticipate an overall 12-14 month development timeframe

• The project is expected to start in Q1 2003 and complete in Q3 2004

• The initial release is expect within 10 months with the follow-on delivery within 4-6 month

• Approach (optional)

• Use a staged development model to deliver the product in three stages

• Issue a request for quotes to obtain hardware and packaged software

• Will mitigate risk by using existing experienced development team from the X project