Minor Project (System Upgrade Plan)

Certificate IV in IT (ICA40599)

Diploma of Information Technology (Systems Administration) ICA50199

Minor Project (System Upgrade Plan)

ICAITU019C - Migrate to new technology

BSX154L405 – Apply skills in quality management

BSX154L403 – Apply skills in time management

ICAITPM129A - Apply skills in project integration

This is a take home test which must be completed within three days.

Please complete the answers to the following questions and return this paper to your assessor. Questions 1 to 12 is worth 1 mark each, Question 13 is worth 8 marks.

1. What is the best course of action plan for the Fragrance Shop to adopt to update their technology?

· Analyse Market Trends

· Cost analysis of updating technology vs improved system efficiency

· Cost analysis of updating technology vs implementing technology, staff training

· Cost analysis of updating technology vs future projections in technology

· Cost analysis of updating technology vs improved customer service

2. What current hardware and software products are available that would be suitable for The Fragrance Shop?

• Hardware: Update all PCs computers to min 512 RAM and possibly HD to 40GB and to Pentium IV
• Database: Update Database of products to sit on Oracle on Unix Box
• Web Development:

Ø Update eBusiness site to be created in Dreamweaver or similar application

Ø Update eBusiness site to be interactive with database and clients

3. Where would you source information for updating to new technology?

· Consulting Company: Engage a consulting company to analyse your IT Systems and provide advice

· Approach major vendors for advice on their products (Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Oracle)

· Review computer literature including magazines and on-line academic papers.

· Make comparisons with other companies who have recently migrated to new technology. Find out what their requirements were and the products they purchased. Discuss what the advantages and disadvantages of these products are for them.

4. What strategic direction is The Fragrance Shop taking in relation to future IT requirements?

· An organisation’s business strategy is its top level direction.

· Corporate planning comprises policy statements that define the corporate aims and objectives and strategies and plans which provide a means to achieve the corporate aims and objectives.

· The IS Strategy interprets the business strategy in IS related terms by identifying the requirements for resources and investment in IS and sets priorities and allocates responsibility.

· Strategy planning includes; scope study, strategy study, strategy definition, implementation planning and monitoring tuning

· In relation to The Fragrance Shop:

Ø IT upgrades and enhancements accepted and encouraged by Managing Director Judy Reynolds

Ø System needs to support high demand times such as Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Valentines Day, Christmas.

Ø A global presence in eBusiness may see increases in other countries and they will probably have specific days where business will intensify.

5. How does the IT Organisational plan fit in with the rest of the organisation at The Fragrance Shop?

· The eBusiness part of the business will increase presence of the company.

· The Fragrance Shop should not lose sight of its infrastructure and delivery systems to satisfy customers receiving their orders on time.

· In relation to IT within The Fragrance Shop:

Ø Upgrades in Systems need to support the 10% increase in sales from $3,590,000

Ø Infrastructure and timely delivery needs to match the international global presence

6. List some features and functions of the Operating System that may be suitable for the Fragrance Shop database.

• Capable to support client / server computing model where application processing load is distributed between client computer and a server computer to share processing loads.
• Support the number of users whether staff or clients for single job, multiprogramming or multiprocessing.
• Easy user Interface:

Ø to enable easy management of system

Ø to control languages for multiprogramming systems

• Service routines Interface:

Ø provides access to I/O facilities

Ø provides communication interfaces

• Prevents user from interfering with runtime environment
• Adequate application services and identity management.
• Delivers the security, manageability and performance to increase service levels and decrease costs and risks
• Types of OS appropriate for The Fragrance Shop: multi threading, multi user others are:

Ø multi-user : Allows two or more users to run programs at the same time. Some operating systems permit hundreds or even thousands of concurrent users.

Ø multiprocessing : Supports running a program on more than one CPU.

Ø multitasking : Allows more than one program to run concurrently.

Ø multithreading : Allows different parts of a single program to run concurrently.

Ø real time: Responds to input instantly. General-purpose operating systems, such as DOS and UNIX, are not real-time

7. How does the development of the IT Business Solution for The Fragrance Shope relate to the Business Planning Process?

· Now IT integral part of Business Planning

· The Fragrance Shop wishes to increase sales by 10% and must have adequate computer systems to support this increase in transactional processing and tracking systems for efficient delivery.

· Adequate systems for electronic buying and selling of products.

8. What do you recognise as important factors of The Fragrance Shop’s Business Domain?

· Interpersonal and team communication and ownership

· Market/business understanding by IT developers

· Customer focus

· Clear specifications including dependencies

· Architecture is understandable by all

· Solve at least the current problem

· Validation of requirements during each step of the process

· identifying organisation specific issues

· monitoring and adjusting procedures

9. How would you implement quality management in the project life cycle of the new technology introduced at The Fragrance Shop?

· Documentation standards to be introduced from planning to implementation to final stage.

· Planning overview: defining vision and scope based on business need;

· Planning address development testing techniques and communication methods

· Developing: documenting each stage continues and testing occurs. Once testing completed pilot programs implemented and reviewed.

· Deployment: testing the solution is stable and useable. Responsibility shifts to operations and support staff.

10. How to ensure that employees are able to take responsibility to ensure quality management process is implemented?

· Ensure that the employee is an expert in the field.

· Employees must take responsibility for the implementation of quality management within their job specification.

· Ensure all job specifications are clearly understood by everyone in the IT team.

· Ensure standard processes and procedures are clearly understood by everyone in the IT Team.

· Ensure automatic processes are implemented where possible to improve project efficiency and throughput time such as electronic forms, email, and multi access to project management documentation.

· Ensure systems are implemented so employees can perform their best. This includes, that they know their duties, obligations and rights and have opportunities to make their views known to management on issues that affect them

11 Why is it important to ensure employees are able to take responsibility to ensure that time management to be implemented into the IT Project and followed?

· Time management is a subset of Project Management.

· Employees must take responsibility for the implementation of time management within their job specification.

· Employees must complement their area of responsibility within the allocated time frame.

· BUT Flexibility in time must also be allocated for unforeseen circumstances to ensure quality management is continued.

· If time management is not followed, it may impact on a number of other factors in the organisation.

12. How, when and why do Project Managers implement schedule identification, monitoring and reporting processes?

· Introduced at the beginning of the planning process of the project and continues until the end of the project.

· Frequently accessed to ensure that each phased is started and completed on time.

· Used to calculate the time spent specific issues of the project.

· After the project complete the documentation. Evaluate the success of the project and document for future reference for similar projects.

· Allow any external resources to be referenced or ordered at the appropriate time.

13. For assessing your Project Integration knowledge, describe the following:

a) Information gathering techniques that you used for the Fragrance Shop project

· Walkthrough, sampling, Internet research, Interview, Internal database reports

b) The nine functions of Project Management

· Scope, hr, communication, risk, time, cost, quality, procurement, integration

c) The project process, the project life cycle and the relationship between project phases

· Phases: concept, development, implementation, close out

· Life cycle is collection of phases which connect sequentually

d) The components have you identified for the business planning process relevant to the development of IT business solutions

· Definition of components of business planning processes – (the features of the business that has to be considered when engaging in business planning ie. Technology infrastructure, Organisation structure, its market, its suppliers, business domain, legislative framework)

· Definition of process: series of actions directed toward a particular result

· Need to consider the following: employment policy, assessment strategy; cross functional processes;

· Business Plan needs to consider policies, goals, objectives, strategies, tactics require for decision-making.

e) Concepts for planning, control procedures, resource management and risk management

· Planning:

· Control procedures

· Resource mgt:

· Risk mgt: why, what how who when how much, user involvement, executive support, planning, ownership, market risk, financial risk, technology risk

f) Three methods, techniques or tools available to project managers

· Methods: Management

· Technical processes: CASE (Computer Aided software Engineering) - design, software, documentation

· Tools: Low end tools: provide basic management features, Mid-range tools: designed to handle larger projects, multiple users, multiple projects; high-end tools: enterprise project management software. Provide robust capabilities to handle very large projects, dispersed workgroups, enterprise functions that summarise and combine individual project info

· Vendor products eg. MS Project, MS Visio

· Techniques can include CPA, PERT, Gannt Chart

g) Internal and external environment factors that may affect the project

· External: political, economic, social, technology, customers, suppliers, competitors

· Internal: ORGANISATIONAL ecology model – view organisation. As result of external controls, managerial innovation, attitude, IT Knowledge, business size, structure, culture

h) Scope Creep

· Tendency for project scope to keep getting bigger and bigger

i) Pareto Analysis

· Identifying the vital few contributors that account for most quality problems in a system.

· Pareto Diagrams: Histograms that help identify and prioritise problem areas

j) Milestones

· Significant event on a project with zero duration

· May use SMART criteria to define them ie specific, measurable, assignable, realistic, time-framed

k) Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

· Definition: A basic unit of work used to plan out the plan for project management purposes

· Use for outcome oriented document that defines total scope of project

· Use for foundation document in project management providing the basis for planning and managing project schedules, costs, changes

· Decompose the project into pieces small enough that you can reliably estimate each piece

l) Performance Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

· PERT analysis is one means for evaluating schedule risk on projects

· Used to estimate project duration with the individual activity duration estimates (earliest, most likely and latest).

m) Gantt Chart

· Display project schedule information

· Provide a standard format for displaying project schedule info by listing project activities, start, finish dates

n) Delphi Method

· An approach for risk management where the decision is based on convergence of opinions from a panel of expert to minimise risk

· The responses are evaluated, where there is divergence, the process is re-iterated with feedback to identify the problem.

o) Project Charter

· Key document to initialise the project signed off between project manager and project owner

· Provides direction on project’s objectives and management; scope, schedule, resource requirements and cost

p) Estimation of task time

· Example - Use of historical as-completed product, its size and resource usage database (bottom up approach); industry standard metrics.

· Use for task tracking

· Can include load factor for improve estimation based on environmental variables

PRACTICAL :