Alexandra Calaunan
Dan Carrillo
BCIS 350
BASELINE PROJECT PLAN REPORT
The Western Planner
1.0 Introduction
A. Project Overview – The Western Planner is a non-profit organization that
publishes journals eight times a year. It is a network of information and
education about the unique aspects of the West that is available to the public.
Journals are being stored every year by volume and number. The problem is
Western Planner needs an organized way to categorize articles in an effective
way for users to maneuver through the articles with ease and less time
consumption.
B. Recommendations – The Western Planner Organization should invest in
creating a more sophisticated electronic database that is more dynamic for
users. The new database will separate the existing articles and catalog future
references in a systemized approach.
2.0 System Description
A. Alternatives – Western Planner Organization can continue to use their
original database with the complications of muddled articles placed together
as one. Another alternative is to rebuild a more complex electronic database
that is able to sort, shape, and unify articles based off of client’s
specifications. (Discussed in System Description).
B. System Description – Upon completion, the new database will strictly be a
searchable database. The Western Planner Organization will be able to enter
new articles each year effortlessly with improvement. The organization will
still be able to organize articles based on their volume and number, but with
enhancement of categorizing them into subdivisions such as topic, author,
title, state, and date. It will be a more prearranged data system that
maintains the articles throughout the years with a controlled routine.
3.0 Feasibility Assessment
A. Economic Analysis – In working with our team in completing the new
database, it would take approximately 80 hours. In working in a two-man
team, each employee working the same amount of hours will be receiving
$25.00 per hour. Total cost will be approximately $4,000. Western Planner
will not receive revenue due to the fact they are a non-profit organization,
but will be receiving intangible benefits of more readers to their website and
more use of their new database.
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Alexandra Calaunan
Dan Carrillo
BCIS 350
B. Technical Analysis – The making of a new database is practical as well as
reasonable. We have the expertise, technical support to create and test the
functionality of the database that will withhold all the resources given by
Western Planner. Based off the facts that articles are imported eight times a
year and data has already been being placed within the original database
since 1980, it is a large amount of data to transfer over and to handle. With
technical support from our team, the new database will be an attainable
solution in a reasonable time frame.
C. Operational Analysis – The proposed database that categorizes the articles
based off of topic, author, title, state, and date will be a fitted solution for
Western Planner. Resources such as technical support, software, and
hardware are available within our team. Building a new and improved
database will keep Western Planner’s educational information organized. Not
only is the proposed database good for the organization, but also creates a
more friendly-user interface. End-users will be able to navigate throughout
the resources with directional help with the paths created within the
database.
D. Human-Factors Analysis – Usefulness of the new database will benefit both
input-users and end-users. Articles can be handled and imported with ease,
and accessed by users with assistance based on the break down articles are
categorized. Creating an easy access database for referencing resources will
create more readers for Western Planner. The new system created for the
database will require employees to be computer literate in understanding
how the database processes the articles and how it is maintained.
E. Legal and Political Analysis – The Western Planner Organization is made up
of 13 representative associations, but stand as a whole. Working with
Western Planner Organization, copyright will still hold true to them.
4.0 Management Issues
A. Team Configuration and Management—Currently there are two team
members. Each member will assume a management role and split the work.
As the project goes on, work will be split based on the strong points of each
team member.
B. Communication Plan—Each team member will communicate by phone
mostly, and face to face interaction to discuss and work together on the
project. Email will be sent on occasion if for some reason phone contact is
unavailable.
C. Project Standards and Procedures—If the customer is available, deliverables
will be evaluated by the customer, but will mostly be evaluated by the team
2
Alexandra Calaunan
Dan Carrillo
BCIS 350
based on what the customer discussed. The deliverables will mostly be
looked at and critiqued by Jennifer Kreie. She will provide the input needed
to be sure the customer would be satisfied by the work we are providing.
Project documentation will be created in Microsoft Office Software. Any
tables created will be created with Visio. The project timeframe will be
created in Microsoft Project. Diagrams will be available in JPG format so they
are easily viewable.
5.0 Project Deliverables
Deliverables in addition to these may be created as the project develops; also,
some of the names may change.
Tables:
Topic-topics the journals will be classified
Authors-articles written by authors
Year- category of years of journals
State- category of states
Title- Journal titles
Forms:
Journal Input—Input the Journal data, including title, author, year, state, and
topic categories
Reports:
Journal Entries- List of all journal entries by title, author, year, state, and
article topics
Along with the forms and reports available to Western Planner, they will have
standard searching features to help navigate through the database.
Estimated Project Duration:
Estimated project timeline shows that the project will be completed in
approximately 3 weeks.
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