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.

http://prezi.com/elsuvegblzwq/project-management/

P3 Issues affecting project management

Resistance to change
Many people will be stuck in their ways, for example if a client has been using a particular software tool for a long time, making them use a new one may not go down well. One way around this is training, if you teach the new users how to use the new software. You can also use motivation techniques to try and make the users happier to use your new product.


Motivation
Poorly motivated staff can have a massive impact on the project, for example team members who don't want to be there they will do much less work and at a poorer standard than highly motivated employees. It will also take longer to complete tasks which costs you more money. There are several different methods of motivating your staff. Monetary methods such as bonus or payrise is an obvious way to increase motivation. There are also cheaper ways to motivate your staff, these can be better since they don't affect your cash flow as much such as: extra praise, better working environment or free meals.

Tools
If you don't have the tools available it will be much harder and less efficient to complete your project, for example a ICT company may not have the correct software for the task, a woodwork company may not have the correct tool.  


Finance
Finance is obvious, if you don't have the cash available to complete your project you will fail, you may have to look at getting more money in the form, for example getting a loan from the bank. You must ensure that you have the cash available to cover all predicted costs, plus extra for any unpredictable or uncontrollable costs that may arise. 


Skills
If your team do not have the skills needed to complete the project you will have people doing nothing, you may have to outsource with external recruitment companies which costs you a lot of money and negatively impacts your cash flow. You may even have to employ new team members which is also a expensive and time consuming process. 


Communication
Communication problems can completely break a project, for example: If you are relying on the internet to communicate between teams and the internet goes down on one end the teams will no longer be able to communicate.


Time
In business time is money, when you plan your project unexpected problems will arise and these will set you back time. With out a suitable amount of extra time you will simply not be able to cope with the extra work. If the time scale is too short anyway the quality of the final product will likely suffer since the team are being rushed to complete their tasks.


External factors
External factors are uncontrollable, for example, changes in government legislation can have a massive effect on a business's costs. Another example is the recession, many projects failed as a result because they could not predict it. 


Managing expectations
When you are communicating with the client it is important that you keep them grounded and realistic about what to expect from the final product.

P1 / M1

                                                            Image taken from cnx.org

Here is an example diagram of a project life cycle.
The project starts with the initiation, this is where you need to define what your project is so you have a clear specification of what you want to achieve at the end.
The next stage is planning, when planning it is important to make a clear and simple action plan. With this it will be easier for you to not only follow the plan, but also to check back at you plan and see what you still need to do. Financial plans are also vital to achieve your goals, Clear budgets and forecasts should be made to allow you to be ready for your costs. A action plan would also be useful so you are ready in case any unforeseen costs should arise 
The next stage is project execution. This stage is obvious, you build your project and implement it.
The final stage is project closure, this is where you evaluate the project and review what you could change, after a while of testing your project you can write a comprehensive review of what you need to change and fix with your project.
It is also important to communicate throughout the project. If you are working as part of a large team communication is essential to achieving your goals.
Poor leadership and lack of direction is main reason why a project can fail, this is linked with planning in that if the team members don't know whats going on they can't work.



Key reasons why a project can fail:

The first reason is poor planning. Big projects can be very complicated, if your team are not sure what they are supposed to be doing there will be sections missing, there may even be people working on the exact same thing. Also, as shown by the second example bellow, not accounting for all factors when planning can result in failure.
 Financial planning is also essential for a leader to correctly budget the project and allocate each section a suitable spending limit. Without a good financial budget that allows for unexpected costs and problems, the risks are significantly raised since you may not be able to cover your costs and thus run out of cash. 
Lack of communication can also result in failure, one good example of this was NASA loosing their mars rover, were one team was working in metric, and the other was working in imperial units.
If you don't release your product in time, it is possible that it will be out of date by the time that it is released. This is extremely important in the technology business, take a look at example 3 bellow. You must also ensure that the product you are releasing is fit for the times.




Here are some examples of failed projects from a range of backgrounds. 


1: Apple Power Mac G4 Cube
This is an example of how Tech giants can still fail. In 2000 Apple released the G4 Cube and sales were slow.
The reasons for this were:
High price tag
Flawed design
Poor quality


Since apple had the reputation of premium quality products for a premium price, when they released the system and the plastic case cracked and had mold lines consumers were not happy. There were also several things overlooked in the design, such as the fact that you had to tip the machine on the side to connect wires and the hidden power button. These two flaws combined with the extortionate price tag resulted in a failed product for Apple.
This example goes to show that even huge companies projects can fail. Apple did all the planning right and had plenty of financial backing to push the project forward, they just messed up the product it's self.


2: Soviet missile early warning system
In '83 the soviet's had a early warning system which would warn them should America launch an attack on Russia. However the system had triggered that 5 ICBM's had been launched by America, when in reality the system had been triggered by sunlight reflecting of clouds. Fortunately the operator did not believe the warning and did not respond.


3: Nokia
Rather than updating their phones to smart phones, Nokia stuck with just regular phones which were in very low demand. Nokia were not with the times and released outdated products which led to a massive fall in market share and stock prices


Relation to my project
These examples and points relate to my project and every project. I have learnt from my research of project failures, I can bare these failures in mind while I am working on my project. So, from the powermac g4 cube example I will ensure that the design meets the standards that are required as well as the quality of the final product. 
From the Early warning example I will carefully consider all of the factors that i can see which would affect my project. Finally from the Nokia example I will ensure that the project meets the technology standards of the time.