Why projects can fail.

Perhaps the most common reason a project can fail is simply lack of time, many projects can get stuck in development for along time for any number of reasons such as technological problems, in some cases products can get stuck in development for so long that they actually become outdated, this is the case with several video games, most recent of which would be duke nukem forever which spent 15 years in this phase because they had to constantly update it so that it would run on the latest systems. 

Many problems can arise when a project runs over time, a missed release date could have major consequences on a products success, for example if a product is promised to be released in Jan 2013 but is delayed several months. This may mean that a competing product can get to the market first and 

Another case that we studied involving NASA's design of the Mars orbiter that faced problems due to poor communication between collaborating companies  which resulted in them losing around $125 million. This problem was caused by the fact that the British company they were collaborating with used imperial measurement units for the design, however NASA used metric units, this was realised when it was too late and the navigation system failed.
This is a more extreme example of poor communication  however it is fairly common for such communication problems to arise as a result of poor infrastructure within a team, or between departments, language barriers or cultural barriers between countries.

Another reason is poor market research, this can lead to many problems such as a product being developed and introduced to the market, only to find that no one actually wants to buy/use the product. Research must also be carried out during the development phase, this involves getting opinions from the actual users of the product to ensure that it is something that would sell well and be fit for purpose.

IF team members working on the project are not trained and do not posses the skills required to carry out the project, this will generally mean that the project will take longer and cost more than projected since team members may have to take time to learn these skills. It can also result in the product being of a poorer quality than the brief requires of it.

prototype of final product

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i2mcfsnii4du3jo/Project%20Prototype.fla?m

Please look at my folder for slideshow

P2 - Resources available

A project manager needs resources to complete any task, If any of these resources are missing or lacking then the completion of the project could be hindered or even completely halted.


Financial backing and a suitable budget is vital to any projects success, with out the proper funds a manager cannot afford to pay for other resources to get the job done. A poor cash flow means that the project is unable to move forward or cover any unexpected costs that will almost certainly arise during the project life cycle. With out the adequate amount of money a project will simply fail.


People is another very important resource. A manager must ensure that his/her team members have the skill set and attitude that is needed to complete the task. For example a website company that has too many graphics experts and no enough coders will find that the programmers are being overloaded, or that the graphics designers are sitting around with nothing to do while they wait for the programmers to catch up. It is also very important that there is a high level of motivation  as this is vital to the quality and amount of output that the team will achieve. 


A manager must have the correct equipment at hand in order to efficiently complete the task at hand. For example, a company like pixar has extremely powerful render farms at their disposal so they can render scenes as fast as possible. With out these machines the production time is significantly increased. 
If a manager does not have the software to communicate with his/her team then it can lead to massive problems with people not knowing what to do. 

In terms of software there are many different packages that a manager can use to maintain control over the task. 
One example of this is file sharing software, In our task we used Drop box, however there are several different alternatives. This type of software is used to have a shared folder which updates in real time on multiple machine. This makes it much easier for a team to work together on separate parts of a project. 
Another example is email software such as outlook express or the very popular blackberry message (BBM), this allows the team manager to keep in contact with the team.
There are also many packages which can be used to create gantt charts or similar graphs, there are free as well as paid for solutions. A gantt chart is very useful to show the team what part of a project needs to be done and when it needs to be done by. 

D1 - Communications

The first step in our process was finding out exactly what is required of our system, We chose to interview Miss Walpole to find out exactly what she wanted for our system.

Paraphrased interview with Miss Walpole

WHAT DOES THE CURRENT SYSTEM OFFER?
Saved in staff
Seperate spreadsheets (one per year group)
Password needed to edit
Shows CATS, Reading ag, MEs
Intervenction (flags up when below MEs)
Allows teachers to hide certain things

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE WITH THE CURRENT SYSTEM?
Make easier
Intervection function doesn't work
Annoying having one per year group
Make it so it is able to run reports

DO YOU WANT TO KEEP ANYTHING FROM THE CURRENT SYSTEM?
Information stored
Hiding system

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO WITH THIS DATA?
Enter
Edit
Export
Show to others

HOW DO YOU WANT TO ACCESS THE DATA?
Possible better spreadsheet
Decide what you want to see

During the course of the project we would bounce ideas of both Mrs Walpole and Mr Enright and we ensured that we were staying on track and providing what they both wanted from the system. 

P7 - D2

We faced many different problems in the task:

Lack of coding skills from team members - There were also long periods of time in the task were team members had nothing to do as a result of lack of skills and time to teach the skills needed, So there were periods of time in which the what to do file had nothing in.finding suitable free webhosting

Registration hosting site failed completely after a week of development - After a while of development the system was at a state of working with the sql database, however shortly after this stage the site we used for registration deleted all of out entries and refused to add new ones. We had to use our extra time to find a free source code for a registration system and make it work with our current system.
Two days before the deadline the hosting company where our site and database was hosted stopped hosting our site for unknown reasons and we didn't have time to make our system work locally.

Lack of time - We simply didn't have enough time to complete the task properly, we had to settle for a basic mockup of the site in the end as a result of the problems above and the lack of time.

Time management - We followed the gantt chart for the first half of the task, then when we faced problems we had to change and adapt our plan.

Teamwork - Team work went well through the task, the research went very well as did communication with the stakeholders. There was also a research folder in which I could post a subject that needs researching and one of the researchers would look it up and post findings in the folders.

From the stand point of project management i think the task was hard to organise and keep everyone busy simply because we didn't all have the skills needed to produce the product or the time needed to get people to the skill level they needed to be. It was hard to ensure that everyone was communicating properly about any work outside of school.

D2

We used the following tools during development:
Dropbox - We used dropbox as our main file sharing system, We kept all project files in our dropbox and it allowed one person to change a file or add a file at home, and it would update for everyone else. It allowed us to communicate effectively and share our work with each over quickly and simply. I think that this software was very effective in the manner that we used it, it kept all of the project files in one place and everyone could access it and do what ever they needed with it. The only problem that we found with the software was that it would sometimes not provide a notification when something was updated which meant that sometimes some of us did not know when something was changed or a task had been added.

Excel - We used Excel to create our gannt chart as well as basic database mock up, It was a good choice of software since all group members have and are familiar with using it. We could have downloaded some specialist software to achieve the same results but we would have had to spend time learning to use it properly, there is also a lot of support available for excel so any problems that we encountered could easily be solved.
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Skype - We used Skype to communicate out of school, Skype was a very effective tool for us to voice call or video chat, however it was hard to get it so that everyone in the team would be on skype at the same time which is the only real problem we faced with it.

P4 - M2 Specification

Specification

We have been tasked by the john Bentley school to create a system for use by students, parents and teachers which would allow them to access student grades as well as track their progress online. We have been told that this system should be able to:

·         Have the ability to view the grades and other information of students easily

·         The ability for students and parents to also view the grades of the student

·         Teachers need to be able to edit the information

·         A section for teachers to record actions taken as well as comments for the student/  parents

·         Three permission levels associated with the accounts, Teacher, Student and     parents

·         A way to export the information in a printable format

·         Filters to hide irrelevant information to the teacher, also have some fields hidden for the different permission levels.

Project team

Leader/ programmer: Ashley Coles
Design: Daniel Buckwell
Research leader: Chris Plumb
Google operative: George Bishop

Success criteria

Create a working prototype for the product specified above

M2 - Risks to the project

Time - The biggest problem we face is time, we feel that we will most likely not have enough time to create a fully functional system, for this reason we have decided that we aim to create a prototype which will show the features that would be included in the full product. We have created a gantt chart to help us complete the project in the short amount of time given which, if all goes to plan, should allow a prototype to be completed.

Communication - Another risk we face is poor communication  we intend to make use of skype and dropbox to communicate using a tasks document which states what everyone should be doing. The risk is that members cannot dedicate enough time to the project so may not be available for communication, we all have other commitments outside of the project

Finance - One big problem  with our project is that we have literally no financing, a budget of £0. This is a problem for us as we will require we hosting as well as a domain name, all of which generally cost money. This means we will have to find a free solutions which works effectively for us.

Skills - Another risk and possible problem is the coding part of our solution, We have not been taught any coding yet, I already have experience with Python and C++ but no one else in the group has any coding skills. This ties in with our time restraints, we will most likely not have time for anyone to learn to write code for the project.
We have decided that I will be the lead programmer and that a team member will learn a basic knowlege of the code being written (SQL, Java script, HTML) so he can help with testing and looking for problems in the code.