To
From
Date
Subject
: IFS440 Students
: Bill Eddins
: Tuesday, February 17, 2009
: Initial Project Requirements
The purpose of the team project is to use a disciplined or structured approach to project management in a team setting. As you know, a technique that maximizes project success is to create several mini-projects from a larger project. Therefore, each student will propose a potential IT mini project based upon your case. Each student’s IT project will be represented in the work breakdown structure as a separate executing section (see page
193). Put another way, each student will design their own part of the overall project.
Projects with a real sponsor are preferred. However, if you cannot get a real project and sponsor, then use the Video Game Delivery Project (pages C.1-C.9). Team composition appears in a separate document.
Each team will do the following:
1.
Plan how your team will do all of the work required for the team project. Present your plan as part of the first status report (about 10 minutes for the presentation, normally given by the project manager), and track progress as the course progresses. For the first status report, which is due Wednesday, April 1, 2009, prepare the following, give me a hard copy before your presentation , and have the data available on your team Web site (see templates and samples in the text and online) in html format (you may create links to non-html documents if you prefer) as follows:
 the index.html page of your web site including the url
 a one-page status report
 a charter and preliminary scope statement for your project
 a team contract
 a draft schedule. Include columns that list each major task, estimated start and end dates for each task, who has the main responsibility for each task, and your estimate of the number of hours it will take to complete each task.
2.
Prepare a final status report which is due Wednesday, May 6, 2009 , including a one-page status report, a detailed Gantt chart created using Microsoft Project (you may need to take a screen shot to put on the website), a detailed scope statement, updates to other planning documents (as needed), and a comparison and brief discussion of planned and actual information to date, including the number of hours each member worked on the project vs. what was planned and when tasks were actually started and completed. Focus on showing your progress in creating the products of your project as well. Have all information on your Web site in html format before class starts and links to non-html documents as necessary.
IFS440 – Project Requirements Page 1

3.
Develop and present a 10-15 minute presentation for the final status report. Put a copy of the presentation on your team’s Web site before the presentation. You can also bring a hard copy along with a flash drive or CD of your presentation as a backup.
4.
Create a team Web site to host your project information and topic presentation.
You can prepare the site using any software you choose. You can link to documents created in Word, Excel, Project, etc.; however, html format should be used. See example team Web sites from Professor Schwalbe’s Web.
5.
Prepare a final project notebook. By the last day of class, each team will hand in one project notebook that includes the following:

Cover page and detailed table of contents. List the project name, team members, date, and project Web site url on the cover page. Be sure to number all pages. You may include tabs or dividers between major sections of the notebook, too. Use a small binder, and make it look professional.

A double-spaced project report and a final presentation . This report should briefly describe the whole project and each individual member’s IT mini project. Answer questions like the following: What did your team produce?
What did each member’s IT project plan produce? Was the overall project a success or not? Was each student’s individual IT mini project a success or not? Include some type of quote or evaluation from your project sponsor if you were able to come up with a real project.
What project management tools/documents did you use, and did they help? What went right on the project? What went wrong? What did your team learn by working on this project? How did you select the project manager? Did he/she do a good job at leading your team? Did you work well as a team? How closely did you follow your plan? Discuss this information in your final project presentation.
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Project management documentation, as described above. Include a print out of your team’s Web site home page, your charter, and final presentation.

Product documentation, as applicable. For example, if your project produced a business plan, include that plan.

Each team member will document their part of the project by means of clearly envisioned WBS items in an execution section as follows:

Three or more levels of summary and work tasks.
 Work tasks that clearly specify deliverables such as decisions, documentation, products or services.

Tips for envisioning or planning WBS items.
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Plan, create and organize lists of activities that produce deliverables.
 Plan and create models including but not limited to:

Use cases diagrams.

Short descriptions or narratives of use cases.

ERD.

Data flow diagrams
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
Class Diagrams.

Use chapters 6-12 as guidelines for creating plans to specify and control time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, risk, or procurement activities whichever is most appropriate for your project.

Each team member will keep an individual journal that includes description of activity, date, number of hours and other information as appropriate using MS
Access.

Identify the student who made the journal on the journal report.
 Include each student’s journal in the project appendix and on the web.
 Upload to my faculty Inbox an Access database of each student’s journal.

Each team member will create one or more supporting documents as follows.
 Identification of the student who made the document.

Use the author’s templates or templates from some other site.

Use consistent formatting, type fonts, and style.
Your grade will be composed of an evaluation of the presentations and Web site, the project notebook (one notebook per team), and a peer evaluation. Team project managers may earn extra credit for successfully leading their project teams.
IFS440 – Project Requirements Page 3