Reflective Report
Course
407009_2012_03V2 BCIS Project Vietnam 2012
R&D Project
Student Information Management System
Clients
Mr. Leo Hitchcock
Created by
Thanh Trinh Ngoc
Mr. Petteri Kaskenpalo
Student ID
1002801
Mrs. Thu Nguyen Tran Minh
Publish date
6/20/2012
Supervisors
Mr. Loc Bui Tan
Thanh Trinh Ngoc | Student ID: 1002801
Reflective Report
Table of Contents
1.
Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 5
2.
Project evaluation .................................................................................................................... 8
3.
4.
2.1
Project achievements against those outlined in project proposal ..................................... 8
2.2
The significance of the project to the organization ........................................................ 12
Link between theory and practice .......................................................................................... 15
3.1
Analysis of the project with regard to relevant theory ................................................... 15
3.2
Development methodology adopted in the conduct of the project................................. 16
Personal and professional development ................................................................................ 17
4.1
Growth against the expected skills and knowledge outlined in the project proposal .... 17
4.2
Identification of future learning needs ........................................................................... 18
4.3
Individual projects evaluation ........................................................................................ 18
5.
Summary and conclusion of total project experience ............................................................ 18
6.
References ............................................................................................................................. 29
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Reflective Report
Abstract
As clear as its name implies, the purpose of this report is to reflect the project experiences, the
way of how to apply theory to practice and demonstrate the achievement of the research and
development project.
The project named Student Information Management System, which was started in December
2011 and will be completed at the end of June 2012.
Project Scope: it is required a researching and developing a new Student Information
Management system that is based on an Open Source system. This system will help the AUT
Collaboration Program department in bringing benefits to its partners and customers and
managing student information more effectively and efficiently.
Project Development Methodology: in order to ensure that the project objectives can be achieved
properly and we can better manage the constraint for project, such as time, cost and quality, my
team and I decided to apply COTS methodology and Scrum model (an agile model for software
development).
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Acknowledgement
Project Time: from December 27th 2011 to June 20th 2012.
Although I have taken great efforts in completing this project, it would not have been possible
without the kind support and help of many individuals and departments. I would like to express
my sincere gratitude and thanks to all of them:

The Supervisors: Mrs. Thu Nguyen Tran Minh and Mr. Loc Bui Tan, who have been
playing key roles in instructing, supervising and encouraging me in working for the
whole project.

The Clients: Mr. Leo Hitchcock and Mr. Petteri Kaskenpalo, who have been helping and
collaborating with my team to accomplish the project, their help with significant
comments and full of suggestions.

The Coordinators & Advisors: Mr. Vu Lam Quang, Mrs. Hanh Nguyen Thi Phuoc
(Teaching and Study Managing Department). I am highly indebted to them for their
guidance and providing necessary information regarding to the project requirements for
completing the project.
Finally, I would also like to express my special gratitude towards my team members (Mr. Nghi
Hua Tran Quoc, Mr. Anh Nguyen Duc, Mr. Dat Nguyen Van), my parents, Mr. Irwin Ho (IT
Manager of Amway Vietnam) for their kind cooperation and encouragement, which help me a
lot in achieving such good harvest.
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1. Introduction
The purpose of this project is to implement and develop a useful system for effectively managing
student information.
In order to successfully complete this project, my team and I have to deeply analyze the needs
and business requirements of clients (AUT Collaborative Program department), then design and
implement the Student Information Management system (SIMs) to improve the current student
services of AUT collaborative programs and effectively manage student information that goes far
beyond the current system. If this new system and the project objectives could be attainable,
AUT Collaborative Program department can take advantage of the benefits for satisfying their
key customers, utilizing the advanced facilities to manage student information and records, to
provide accurate and consistent data for the effective operation of the institution.
My team and I must ensure that all the school information can be stored securely and available
from anywhere, at anytime to authorized end-users. This system must be able to well integrate
with other student management system, for this utility, student information can be shared and
synchronized between different systems much more faster.
My main roles in this project:
1. Business Analyst:

Analyzing the requirements of business, student life cycle matrix, assess business
models and the integration with technology. This role must outline the system
design and cost benefits of new SIM system, work closely with the developer and
the client to implement the proper solution.
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2. System Analyst:

Analyzing the design of new system, creating specific reports, business
requirement gathering.

Like Business Analyst role, this is an important role that I have to clearly
understand the requirements of client’s business and be able to identify
the functionalities for SIM system.
3. Document Writer:

It is obvious that this role is responsible for creating and writing analytical reports
for the whole project, included needs analysis, project proposal, system evaluation
report, proposed new solutions, rationale for project decisions, work schedule
monitoring and planning, training plan, poster presentation.
4. Security Administrator:

This role is important for the project, I am responsible for planning the security
requirements, design a security solution, how to guard information stored on the
online system. For long-term project, this role needs to create security policies,
conducting security training to end-users.
5. Project Manager:

The role of the Project Manager is to plan, manage the constraint of project, such
as time, cost and quality of service deliver that the team can finalize project by the
strict deadline at lowest cost.

This includes utilizing resource, coordinating the effort of project team and
supervisors in order to deliver project in time. I used the Project Planning and
Monitoring
Publish date: June 20th 2012
Tool
(Document
name:
“Work
Schedule
Monitoring
and
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Planning(v4.0).xlsx”. Document ID: SIMs-1.2) to organize and monitor the
project status.

At the end of this project, I worked as a Scrum Master to supervise the quality of
service throughout its life cycle by using the Issue Log to ensure that Project
Problems are resolved.

Although our project is not completed and implemented as expectation at 100%,
we did a great job that helps client in more effectively managing student
information using our new system and solution, it is conducted by:
 Analyzing their requirements and needs.
 Evaluation and selection the right solution for AUT Collaboration Program
(using openSIS system to manage student information).
 Making a proposal and implementation of additional application connects
directly to the database server and create reports as client’s request. This is
a rapid solution, our group can achieve in time due to the constraint of time
and the lack of programming knowledge.
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Reflective Report
2. Project Evaluation
2.1 Evaluation of Project Achievements
Evaluations are used to assess project achievements, as well as to determine whether the
priorities and needs of the target populations were met. Evaluations may be conducted at
strategic points during the life of the project, or at the end of the project to determine whether its
objectives were met. Evaluations also generally look at unexpected results of project activities.
Because adaptation is a process rather than an end state, it can be complex to evaluate. This is
further complicated by the medium- to long-term timeline of climate change, which makes it
difficult to evaluate whether people are adapting to climate change within the timeframe of
typical CBA projects. Therefore, evaluations in CBA projects will typically assess changes in
adaptive capacity of target groups, as well as improvements in the enabling environment for
adaptation at the local level. They may also assess how effectively people are managing current
climate variability as an indicator of capacity to manage longer-term changes in climate.
Project Effectiveness
Effectiveness relates to the purpose and goal levels after completion, and should refer to the
extent to which:

the project produced the expected outputs;
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
the outputs achieved lead to project purpose; and

purpose attainment contributed to the goal.
Reflective Report
Sample evaluation questions that relate to effectiveness are:

How timely and cost-effective has the performance of input delivery been?

How well has the project performed in terms of producing the expected outputs?

How well has the project performed in achieving the purpose?

To what extent has the project contributed to the goal of the program or sector it
supports?
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Indicators and possible causes should be found in the indicator and assumption columns.
Critical thinking
Positive
Personal worth => Responsibility
Partnership – Team Work: if there is a problem, or delay in project timeline. Just like a problem,
a false analysis report of some members, I find out that we should not blame each others.
Thebest way is that we together discuss further and look for a better solution.
4 - 6 core value
We can review the old courses or papers as CIS, Needs Analysis, IT Service Provision, IT
Service Design, Project Management. Training pLan in NA course.
ISM, IST course. Database management.
Data Structure and Introduction to Software Engineering (Use Case Diagram).
Bài RR của 9CIT
=De lam Project TOT - Critical Thinking va good Reflective.docx
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What are our issues? (Priority by the number in order)
1. It is very difficult for us in defining Client’s Requirements, and their Needs. We
stuck at this phase a long time and it impacted our project progress.
2. Due to the different locations and time zones, the communication was not
effective and prompt feedbacks.
3. Not expert on Open Source Systems.
4. We also find out that we have Lack of Leadership skills.
 How to solve them?
1. Currently, the Project is quite late. We must keep the project on track and we
must understand not just the technical requirements of a project, but also the
requirements of each role in SIMs (teacher, student, project leader, project
owner,) and the underlying rationale of clients.
 In order to solve this, there was a communication that we can discuss with
client and find out what we need to address.
 It’s our responsibility to understand the overall strategy of client.
 Because there is a time constraint on the task, we simultaneously started doing
the next phase:
o Comparing and selecting the most suitable Open Source system for
SIMs, and we started to host, build on, and test the Open Source
system online, at this Internet address:
o If our client happy with that, we can move forward and we can review the
progress as scheduled plan.
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2. Building a strong communication and involvement strategy.
 Keep update the project status and frequently contact client.
3. We are not expert on Open Source Systems and programming skills.
 We are going to self-study, improve programming skills and learn how to
improve software development process. Get advice and assistance from
experienced Developers as well.
2.2 Evaluation of the significance of the project to the organization
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Business Objectives
Student information management system (SIMS) is developed in order to serve the integration of
other student management system from several universities. This SIMS is designed by using an
open source for the management objectives including self-service for student, information
centralization and information security.
Business Benefits
The Student management system is a collaborative system involving number of users in the
system for instance: Program Leaders, Lecturers, Student, parents, administrator, marketing and
Finance. The system also helps the central university AUT to manage difference branches in the
Viet Nam, Singapore, and China. The system helps all the branches along with the central AUT
standardized the process of managing the students.

Program Leaders: Each program leaders in branches has information regarding the
needed program and they can use information to plan ahead the courses need for student.

Lecturer: The lecture involves in the system and help to oversee the status of each
student related to the progress of the course and feedback to student what needed.

Student and Parents: Student has the benefit of using the system in terms of the
progress of the course and they can feedback instantly to the lecture or program leaders.
Moreover, they can view their status of the course such as pass or failed. Furthermore,
parents could benefit by using this system in order to track their children status if they are
actually take the course and progress as well.
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
Reflective Report
Marketing, Admin and Finance Staff: These roles are the employee of the school and
through the system which can help them to do better in communicate with students in all
aspect of the student life cycle.
Business Impacts

The cost is reduces due to the standardization of the way managing students in the central
AUT and other branches.

More training needed to all employee in the university due to the new system in place and
take times to do training.

Slow response to the students during the implementation phase of the system and it could
cause the problems in the university.
Recommendations
We recommend AUT to utilize this Student Information Management System, this will help the
Collaborative Program department and expanded school centers (other branches) closely work
with their students, parents, lecturer, faculty and alumni through web portal, and manage the
entire student lifecycle: admission, enrollment, course planning, student progress records, grade
system, financial management, and alumni relations.
This user-friendly system allows school to work collaboration with other universities, manage
and report student information more effectively and accurately. With this system, AUT will
achieve competitive advantages by offering better services to customers.
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3. Link between theory and practice
3.1 Analysis of the project with regard to relevant theory
This SIMs project is very important for the AUT Collaboration Program, thus I firstly discover
the theoretical framework and methodology for project management and planning. In this way, I
have the knowledge on how project should be managed and why the planning and software
development methodology is crucial in any IT project.
COTS, Scrum
WBS
Gantt chart
SWOT
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3.2 Development methodology adopted in the conduct of the project
project team decided to apply the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) methodology in the project.
Using this methodology, project team could continue to expand functionality on the chosen
open source. COTS method not only saves time and budget for both team and clients
respectively, but also SIMS developed by project team could replace other proprietary systems.
There are six steps (Figure 1.0) in COTS Methodology. They are:
Analyze software requirements
Evaluate and select COTS solution(s) (no viable solutions??==> Re-Analyse
requirements)
Negotiate purchase/lease arrangement with vendor
Implement the COTS based solution (COTS fall short of expectations???==> ==> ReAnalyse requirements)
Maintain and upgrade the software solution
We adapt SCRUM model as software development methodology for our project. It is a common
applied method. Furthermore, SCRUM help team and clients to understand what necessary
features are in a SIMs and how they support clients in managing student information. And SIMs
could be updated or changed by unexpected requirements of clients easily.
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Reflective Report
Scrum Team is the name given to a small yet highly skilled and committed group of people who work
on a software development project which uses scrum methodology. They are self driven and
accountable people who are experienced in delivering key functionality within a short period of time.
That is the reason why they are put onto a project which are either falling behind the schedule or
projects which are problematic. Basically a Scrum team is akin to a "special team" in American
Football. As a team they have a very specific skillset ensures the work is "kick started" and finishes
on time.
3.1 Composition of a Scrum Team
In traditional methodologies of software development, there were several members in a project
team. These usually included developers, designers, system analysts, business analysts, project
manager, quality specialist, testers and project management stakeholders. Thus when development
was handed from one team to another it took time, When the business requirements
documentation or the project management requirements were unclear more time would be wasted.
4. Personal and professional development
4.1 Personal and professional growth against the expected skills and
knowledge outlined in the project proposal
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4.2 Identification of future learning needs
4.3 Individual projects evaluation
5. Summary and conclusion of total project experience
I do not want to defeat my own purpose by not working hard enough.
Before studying AUT training programme, my writing skill was very bad. I was very lazy to read
English books, even the IT books (which I love the mot) as well. Because it takes much more
time to study in comparison with the Vietnamese ones. But a great pleasure in life is that I can do
what others say I can not do.
The more I research by heart, read more book and write reports by myself, the more I love the
useful course, widen my knowledge, which also had significantly improved my weak skill.
The more I learn the more there is to learn. And the more we improve the more we recognize
how much more we can improve” (Hinchcliff, 1997).
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Conclusion
What the experiences did I collect and have? And what did I learned from this long-term
project?
-
Be able to know how to solve the project problems.
-
Know how to overcome the difficulties of a large project.
-
Learn the theory of team work and take the advantages of team work
management skill in practice.
-
Know
how
to
apply
the
frameworks
and
software
development
methodologies to the real project.
-
Know how to manage a project using Ms.Project tool and Work Planning tool,
how to manage the triple constraints of project as time, cost and quality of
delivered IT services.
-
Know how to attain the project objectives at fastest way: the project team must
deeply understand the exact needs of the client before moving to the
implementation stage (based on the solution of COTS framework).
-
Know how to write professional reports and cite references using APA 6
format.
-
Improve the analysis skills for assessment and evaluation the feasibility of
project, the requirements of clients to implement the exact needs of the client.
-
Improve the communication skills: how to work closely with Client and
Supervisors to get the things done in time, how to deal with the hard requests and
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frequent change of clients, how to negotiate with client and how to work well in
the project as a consultancy company.
-
Improve the presentation skill: this is my weak skill. I need to improve:

The speaking skill and talk loudly.

The things I have learned is I should use:
 Interesting words and content
 Signpost language
 And presentation open posture
 And how to use hands to describe my expression more
clearly.
 Keeping the eye contact looking around the audiences is
also important.
It is great if I could do well in the final presentation by applying above
methodologies, which I have learned from school.
I intend to think differently to make something is different:

For instance, I will use special gifts to make audiences, examiners
and teachers more interesting in my team’s final presentation, they
will receive gifts when answering or questioning during my
presentation. I will also ask the audiences some questions related
to the project to involve them in the session and to create a nice
atmosphere.

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Reflective Report
Solving Project Issues:
I brace myself up in tough time and overcome the difficulties of SIMS project, there were a
number of projects problems and issues that my team and I have to face up.
The project progress was quite late in April 2012 due to the ambiguity of the business
requirements of our client. But we face the problems, take up challenges instead of withdrawing
from the projects.
Below table is the list of issues for my SIMS project:
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Issue ID Issue Name
Current
Category
Priority
Status
Rating
Date
Next
Date
Raised
Follow-up
Closed
Date
1
example issue number 1
green
technical
medium
open
28-Jun-06
7-Jul-06
2
example issue number 2
red
business
high
escalated
25-Jun-06
29-Jun-06
3
example issue number 3
yellow
technical
high
in progress
24-Jun-06
1-Jul-06
4
example issue number 4
green
business
low
closed
4-Jun-06
5-Jun-06
5
example issue number 5
green
technical
rejected
31-May-06
31-May-06
Thanh Trinh Ngoc | Student ID: 1002801
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Reflective Report
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Team Work
Moreover, our team work is the most important thing for the success of project. The key success
to work well in a team is:

Defining appropriate role for each team member that is most suitable with individual’s
capacity.

Role Rotation

Dual Work Management

Partnership

Cooperation

Collaboration

Personal Worth

Responsibility of individuals

Never blaming each other. We always try the best to work together to find out the best
solutions instead of arguing or quarreling.
As far as I know, a large R&D project like this can contain a high potential of "social
loafing". In other words, a member may do less work in a team than what he does
independently.
In order to minimize social loafing, Team leader or Project Manager must:

Assigned proper tasks and daily monitoring the progress of member in
order to keep the project on track.

Deadlines could not be slip. Late work Penalty will be applied.
Thanh Trinh Ngoc | Student ID: 1002801
Reflective Report

Keeping the people on the project.

Minimize the conflicts inside the team.

Conducting the Meetings better with well preparation and assigning a
clerk to note the key discussed things.

Facilitative leadership skills.

Coaching and mentoring skills.

Increased use of cross-functional teams.
What we are doing well:
 We have cooperation, team work, and adequate communication with Supervisors and
Client.
 Selecting and assigning the right people to the right roles.
 Roles and Responsibilities Table:
Clearly defined project roles help avoid later confusions or disagreements. The Roles and
Responsibilities Table helps prevent misunderstandings and provides a way to prepare the time
by making explicit each person’s role on the project, each person’s responsibilities.
Phase 1 and 2
Members
Thanh Trinh
Quoc Nghi
Van Dat
Duc Anh
Sprint 1
System Analyst
Developer
Scrum Master
Database Admin
Sprint 2
Business Analyst
Scrum Master
System Analyst
Developer
Sprint 3
Scrum Master
Business Analyst
Business Analyst
Tester
Sprint 4
Developer
Tester
Tester
Scrum Master
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management can make individual performance more visible while in a team setting. This can be
done by forming smaller teams, specializing specific tasks to certain individuals, and measuring
individual performance. Social loafing can also be reduced by increasing employee motivation,
by selecting employees who have previously shown themselves to be motivated, and increasing
job
enrichment.
In
experiments
conducted
in
the
1990s,
an
increase
in group
cohesiveness appeared to decrease social loafing.
In summary, we have analyzed the requirements and business needs of client to help prevent the
misunderstandings of service provider and possibly conflict in the requirements.
This needs analysis document is crucial to the success of our SIMs project that follows up with
the above service design processes, we are confident our team will do well to better bring a
quality SIM service to our customer:

The SIM system will make the easy flow of information between AUT and its school
branches.

The information overload problems on relevant departments will be minimized.

The difficulty of collaboration work and sharing information will be resolved. The
project owners will be satisfied with this SIM system and will be eager to adopt it.
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Thanh Trinh Ngoc | Student ID: 1002801

Reflective Report
Manage student information more effectively and efficiently related to the life cycle of
student. For instance, managing recruitment process, enrollment, course planning, study
progress, study results, attendance summary reports, graduation, post-graduated, and
alumni.

Easy to generate various types of reports and track missing documents for each student
based on requirements.
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher___________ as well
as
our
principal_________who
gave
me
the
golden
opportunity
to
do
this wonderful project on the topic__________, which also helped me in doing a lot
of Research and i came to know about so many new things. I am really thankful to them.
Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in
finishing
thisproject within
the
limited
time.
I am making this project not only for marks but to also increase my knowledge .
THANKS AGAIN TO ALL WHO HELPED ME.
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References
OGC_UK-Government-department (Ed.). (2007). ITIL Service Design book Office of Government
Commerce.
Prevention, C. f. D. C. a. (2011). System Requirements. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/npcr/tools/registryplus/wp_tech_info.htm
Secretariat, T. B. o. C. (2009). Business Case Guide. Retrieved from http://www.tbssct.gc.ca/emf-cag/business-rentabilisation/bcg-gar/bcg-gar02-eng.asp#T40
Shende, T. (2011). Three-tier architecture in .Net. Retrieved from
http://www.thesmartcodes.com/three-tier-architecture-in-net/
techlearning.com. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/article/48288
Wikipedia, t. f. e. Risk Register, a Risk Management tool. Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_register
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6. References
http://www.my-project-management-expert.com/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-agilescrum-software-development.html
http://www.my-project-management-expert.com/scrum-team.html
Marc Clifton, J. D. (18 Aug 2003). What is SCRUM? Retrieved 08 Jan 2012, from
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/architecture/scrum.aspx#ProductBacklog10
InfoTech.com. Work Schedule Monitoring_Project Planning Tool. Retrieved from
http://www.infotech.com/research/data-center-relocation-project-planning-tool
http://www.mbanetbook.co.in/2010/05/sample-project-report-acknowledgement.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_some_examples_of_acknowledgements
http://www.iadb.org/ove/engbook/evaiv.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_6869857_do-reflection-report-research-project_.html
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Writing Abstracts
http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/bizwrite/abstracts.html
http://www.slideshare.net/boydcarter/nobodys-perfect-but-a-team-can-be-es-presentation
Terminology trong Project Proposal va cac report da làm
Effective in Team Work - Security Solutions? System Design? UseCase? Reporting
Solutions? Training?
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