Information System Project Management

Introduction:

This report details the study that was conducted to provide the various project management aspects that should be considered while taking on such a project under the given six months deadline, defining both requirements and risks that might arise and interfere with the success of this project.

This report also covers both human and material resources and techniques necessary to successfully complete this project, which shall be managed and prepared precisely to meet the tight deadline.

Based on a survey that was conducted by the Graphics, Visualization & Usability Centre at the Georgia Institute of technology in (1997), the most cited reasons for using the web for personal shopping was convenience (65%), followed by availability of vendor information (60%), no pressure from sales person (55%) and saving time (53%).

Based on these findings we can conclude that customers using web for personal shopping have specific convenience points reached through using the web instead of going to the front street store, points that should be kept in mind all throughout the project.

N.b: This report was based on findings based on information provided in the case study which is believed to lack details on the project as for the limitations on the word count to 2300.

Feasibility and planning:

In This section, we will be studying strategic, technical and economic aspects and also establishing an execution plan to determine the feasibility of this project following the requirements and deadline presented in the case study.

Therefore, it will be necessary to determine the project to be evaluated first, at a high level of precision to define the maximum number of possible risks that might face the project, in order to determine the adequate strategy and methodology most suitable to manage the project.

 Object of development: online e-commerce platform(website)

 Deadline: 6months

 "Solar Ltd have technical skills to develop a world class online retail store", "Solar maintained electronic mail boxes, mount their own web pages and so on"(case study)which would lead us to assume that they have the technical competence necessary to develop a web site, and therefore the necessary human resources to meet microfashion's tight deadline.

 Solar Ltd is an internet service provider offering the services of producing and maintaining web pages to particular (especially commercial) user's requirements: which would lead us to assume they have the skills to maintain the site; and shall also dispose of a secure online payment solution fully functional.

 Solar also has a vision of the web development and maintenance to be the future direction for growth of the company.

Strategic aspects:

The contract that solar signed with microfashion taking on the development and maintenance of an online retail store that is expected to be used in the UK primarily and would be going worldwide later should be considered a great opportunity for solar to stand closer to their future direction for growth of the company; The more consumers connected to the platform, the greater the number of consumers will want to join this platform. ARMSTRONG (2004) referred to this effect as the membership externality.

Which basically states that the more users reached, the more will follow which applies to solar in that it will open up numerous markets and opportunities for growth, therefore human resources should be considerably a major resource to allocate to this project, which shall be followed by many similar projects. By providing additional services and functionality to the user, Solar's market share shall increase considerably as an indirect result of this project, because this project will demonstrate their ability to deliver effectively, efficiently, on time and on budget a reliable, secure and fully functional e-commerce web site.

Knowing that the company always provided a service of producing and maintaining web pages to particular (especially commercial) user's requirements => provide additional functionality for users (database interfaces, online secure ordering and payment) => fit actual system.

Given the consideration of the sector as a possible expansion of Solar's activities, the development of such a solution allows a reference and launching a similar service offering, and to dispose of a functional platform for the next customer's needs.

Organisation structure:

This project needs a different organization structure to line management; it needs to be more flexible and is likely to require a broad base of skills for a comparatively short period of time. The project is normally cross-functional, an involved partnership. CCTA (1999).

A tactic that has been proven to be very effective in that a project's organization shall contain staff from various fields and sectors that will be directed by the project manager whom actions would be in the benefit of all involved stakeholders and to the project's success in parallel. Satisfactions, sometimes hard to bring together; Therefore the choice in the project manager would be crucial to the success of this project especially constrained by the tight six months deadline.

This project's organisation structure should have four layers which undertake:

*direction of the project (project board)

*day-to-day management of the project (project management)

*team management (team leaders)

*the work to create the products, that is the team members (web developers (php, CSS, XML, XHTML...), web designers, web engineer, documentation staff, testing specialists, web analysts)

Management information system (MIS):

- Knowing that this project's success shall affect both organisations supplier (Solar) and client (microfashion) in the way they conduct business which by the growth in demand, which will bring to surface any weaknesses that might be underlying bellow the solutions used previous to this project by both parties. Therefore this site has to be linked to microfashions' existing MIS which should not be an issue using new technologies and languages (XML).

Technical aspects:

Project brief:

the objective is to set up an online retail store, therefore a website (including its hosting) with a catalogue, an administration interface that allows