Agile Methodology and Project Management

The assignment delves into the application of Agile methodology for a development project, specifically addressing its strengths, limitations, and potential drawbacks. It outlines investigation techniques like using project management tools (Start) and individual interviews to gather feedback and track progress. The document emphasizes the importance of managing time schedule and budget constraints within the Agile framework. Ultimately, it argues that the chosen methodology and investigation techniques effectively address project requirements, ensuring timely and high-quality development within the allocated resources.

COIT 20248: Information Systems Analysis and Design
Term 2, 2017
Assessment 1 - Systems Development
Lecturer: Lecturer Name
Tutor: Tutor Name
Prepared by:
Student Name
Student Number

Table of Contents
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................1
2.1. Best approach to Develop System..............................................................................................2
2.2. Justification for the approach.....................................................................................................2
3. Systems Requirements......................................................................................................................3
3.1. Requirements - Primary functional.............................................................................................3
3.2. Requirements - Non-functional..................................................................................................3
4. Project Cost Benefit Analysis.............................................................................................................5
4.1. Estimated Cost............................................................................................................................5
4.2. Recurring cost.............................................................................................................................5
4.3. Estimated Benefits......................................................................................................................5
4.4. Cost-Benefit Analysis (Tabular)...................................................................................................5
4.5. Discussion for Cost-Benefit Analysis & further Recommendation..............................................6
5. Project Schedule................................................................................................................................7
6. System Information Requirement Investigation Techniques.............................................................9
6.1. Stakeholders...............................................................................................................................9
6.2. Techniques of Investigation........................................................................................................9
7. Reflections and Conclusions............................................................................................................10
List of Tables
Table 1: Cost-Benefit Analysis...............................................................................................................5
List of Figures
FIGURE 1: Work Breakdown Structure..................................................................................................7
FIGURE 2: Gantt chart............................................................................................................................7

1. Introduction
The aim for the report is to analyse the drawbacks in the currently using system at the
famous sports club (Allsports Sports Club) which has around many thousands of members
who comes to play cricket, football and athletics along with the indoor games like table
tennis.
With current objective the consultancy job to develop an automated system has been
awarded to HighVoltage Information Services. The objective is to find the limitations the
club president is facing in releasing the weekly newsletter as their tradition to motivate the
members. Now in the report we shall go through the issues being faced, methodology
adopted to rectify the issues, and justify with some cost and schedule analysis an final
recommendation.
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2. Approach to Develop System
2.1. Best approach to Develop System
The club, Allsports Sports club has a tradition to release the weekly newsletter by appointing
new editor among the members of the club. The proper releasing of the newsletter is being
headed by the club president. He needs to appoint a new editor ever week among the many
thousands of members. Now in the newsletter 10 articles need to be published written by
members and 5 advertisements are required to be published from the outside business
companies to earn the revenue for the newsletter. In doing so, they need to face many
issues like:
Difficulty in maintain the members name who has not yet reviewed the article for
once
Difficulty in doing follow-up with the members who has not yet been selected for the
editorial role
Difficulty in maintaining the advertisements and articles in their respective subject
wise
So, to overcome all such issues, an automated system is required which can format, deliver,
follow-up and so on, on its own as per the set criteria. To develop such system, Agile
methodology of developing the system is the best approach for the given situations.
2.2. Justification for the approach
Agile being the modern methodology developed mainly to develop the system for such
work such as related to IT or Marketing, where more human interactions are required for
the proper functioning of the system. Similarly in current case there is lot of human
interactions and at every step comments need to be incorporated and then only can
proceed for the rest. The benefits we can get by using the methodology are:
The methodology can deliver the best service along with maintaining the
transparency in the system
It is far better than maintain the data in word and excel and then grouping them
according to the subjects
Even the loss of data from any such software also is nullified, once any fie is
uploaded only the administrator has the right to change or delete such files.
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3. Systems Requirements
3.1. Requirements - Primary functional
The primary expectations from the system are:
Registration: all the users must be asked to create their account and register with
the system for accessing further files of pages.
Authentication of users: all the users need to enter password while registering with
the system, so that they can be asked for in future while log-in in the system.
Moreover the system should not immediately provide access to all files, unless the
user has been verified personally by the administrator or his representative, so that
none of the unidentified user can access the system.
Proper access to the users: once the user is verified, full access to the system should
be provided for proper utilisation of the system
Sending online notifications to users: the automated system should be capable of
sending the notifications on its own as per the set criteria and club president need
not personally follow-up all
Maintaining the large database: the system must be capable enough to handle large
required database and also group all the files and folder according to the needs of
the users.
Grouping subject wise: subject wise grouping should also be done by the system
automatically.
Pending activity for the releasing of newsletter need to be highlighted at club
president and editor’s system: this system is also required to properly feed
information to club president for taking appropriate action
3.2. Requirements - Non-functional
Non-functional expectations are:
The security standard of the system must be strong enough to prevent from any
outside attack. The system need to have strong database management system with
proper back-up server to avoid loss of any data
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At the same time the web pages and the exploration of the system must be easy
enough to motivate the maximum use of it
The system must be accessed from all OS and networks
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4. Project Cost Benefit Analysis
4.1. Estimated Cost
Estimated Cost Amount
Hardware cost $ 35,000
Software cost $ 25,000
Total Estimated Cost $ 60,000
4.2. Recurring cost
Recurring Cost Amount
Maintenance Cost at $ 1200 per month $ 14,400
Administration Cost at $ 100 per month $ 1,200
Total Recurring Cost $ 15,600
4.3. Estimated Benefits
Estimated Benefits Amount
Reduce salary (profit) at $ 2000 per month $ 24,000
Increase income (profit) at $ 1000 per month $ 12,000
Total Estimated Benefits $ 36,000
4.4. Cost-Benefit Analysis (Tabular)
Table 1: Cost-Benefit Analysis
System development project
Cost-Benefir Analysis
0 1 2 3 4 5 TOTALS
Net cost benefit -$ 28,500.00$ 36,000.00$ 36,000.00$ 36,000.00$ 36,000.00$
Discount Rate 6% 100% 94.34% 89.00% 83.96% 79.21% 74.73%
Pv Of Benefits -$ 26,886.79$ 32,039.87$ 30,226.29$ 28,515.37$ 26,901.29$
NPV of all BENEFITS $0 26,886.79$ 58,926.66$ 89,152.96$ 117,668.33$ 144,569.62$ 144,570$
One Time Costs 60,000.00$
Maintenance Cost -$ 11,400.00$ 14,400.00$ 14,400.00$ 14,400.00$ 14,400.00$
Utility Cost -$ 950.00$ 1,200.00$ 1,200.00$ 1,200.00$ 1,200.00$
Discount Rate 6% 100% 94.34% 89.00% 83.96% 79.21% 74.73%
Pv Of Recurring Costs -$ 11,650.94$ 13,883.94$ 13,098.06$ 12,356.66$ 11,657.23$
NPV Of All Costs 60,000 71,650.94$ 85,534.89$ 98,632.95$ 110,989.61$ 122,646.84$ 122,647$
Overall NPV 21,923$
Overall ROI = (Overall NPV / NPV Of All Costs) = 17.87%
Break-Even Analysis
Yearly NPV Cash Flow -$ 15,235.85$ 18,155.93$ 17,128.23$ 16,158.71$ 15,244.07$
Overall NPV Cash Flow 60,000.00$ (44,764.15)$ (26,608.22)$ (9,479.99)$ 6,678.72$ 21,922.79$
Project break-even occurs between the year 3 and 4
Use 1st year of positive cash flow to calculate break-even fraction (16,158 - 6,678) / 16,158 = 0.59
Actual Break even at 3.59 years
Year of Project
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4.5. Discussion for Cost-Benefit Analysis & further Recommendation
The cost benefit analysis is the mathematical technique to calculate the return on any
investment made, so that the investor can know forehand that how much he can earn from
the investment and from when one can expect getting the profit (Carnegie Mellon
University, 2017). On the basis of the figures developed from the above table, by entering all
the required data like estimated cost, estimated other miscellaneous expenditure and the
estimated monthly profit from the system can generate few results like NPV (net present
value) it should always give positive result for any healthy investment, ROI is the return on
investment need to be also positive and the pay-back period that is by when we can expect
earning benefits from the investment.
The figures obtained are:
NPV = $ 21,923, ROI = 17.87% and the period of pay-back = 3.59 years. So the investment is
highly recommended.
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5. Project Schedule
FIGURE 1: Work Breakdown Structure
FIGURE 2: Gantt chart
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Work breakdown structure or the WBS is the hierarchical structure method adopted to
divide the total scope of work into manageable figures. It is mainly used by the top
management of the organisation to know the status of the project at each WBS levels. Then
it also acts as the backbone of the schedule. Gantt chart is the technique used to distribute
the scope of work along the time line of the project and is developed by sequencing the
activities with proper relationships; the duration of the schedule is defined by the critical
path developed during the process.
As per the schedule developed it can be observed that the schedule hardly has any scope of
freedom in the form of slack or float. So the schedule needs to be followed-up very strictly.
The start date of the development project is 1st Sep 2017; end date 15th Nov 2017, which is
manageable. So the schedule is achievable too.
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6. System Information Requirement Investigation Techniques
6.1. Stakeholders
Stakeholders are the person who gets impacted by the project or the people which can even
impact the project are called as stakeholders (Usmani, 2013). The stakeholders can be
divided in many groups, but to major category is internal and external. The stakeholders are:
Internal stakeholders:
ASC-owner, ASC-Club President, ASC-Members, ASC-Staffs, ASC-Sports
Instructors
External Stakeholders:
Advertisers, Consultant (HighVoltage Information Services), Investors, local
authorities and even competitors
6.2. Techniques of Investigation
Three most popular investigation techniques are (ProjectManagementGuru, 2012):
1. Expert’s Review meetings: in this technique, the subject experts’ sits together
and debate on some issues to find the resolutions and the way out of the topic.
This is the best technique which can be used to resolve any serious issues, so that
the experts can debate, discuss and resolve.
Use: it is very much useful in current situation because the Agile methodology is
very much sophisticated approach but it need special attention too and need to
be tracked at every stage.
2. Progress / Issues escalation Trend Analysis: it is an excellent project management
tool which can be used to derive the progress rate of the development. And the
progress or any issues can be put using a graph to plot the trends and the future
of the project or the impact due to the issue going to have cab be predicted well.
Use: this can be very much useful for the current methodology being adopted
where the stage completions must be tracked properly and the trend curves
need to be checked properly for predicting the impacts on the schedule and cost,
as both are the constraints in the development project.
3. Individual’s interview: this technique is used to get the unbiased feedback from
the individual on the basis of set questions by one expert. This can extract the
original feedback from the users.
Use: it can help in getting better results or feedback by expending less. Since the
budget is constraints, so this technique is highly recommended.
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7. Reflections and Conclusions
The methodology used and the techniques of investigation are best match with each other.
The drawbacks of using the Agile methodology can be rectified by the investigation
procedure. The best approach is adopted and the best investigation approaches are too
adopted for getting the desired results.
As discussed earlier too that there is only two constraints which are the time schedule and
the budgeted cost of the project. Since Agile has many advantages but its lacunas should
also be addressed to avoid any overrun of the time and cost. The budget allocated for the
job $ 60,000 could be an issue, but certainly can be avoided by adopting smart skills of
spending.
Form the overall report it can be concluded that the methodology used for developing the
system is best and it can be developed as per desired requirement within given time and
cost and after the development, it will positively have good results and help the whole
system to release the newsletter within time and maintaining the best quality.
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8. References
Carnegie Mellon University. 2017. Cost Benefit Analysis Method. [online]. [Accessed 23 August
2017]. Available from World Wide Web: < HYPERLINK
"http://www.sei.cmu.edu/architecture/tools/evaluate/cbam.cfm"
http://www.sei.cmu.edu/architecture/tools/evaluate/cbam.cfm >
ProjectManagementGuru. 2012. Project Management Monitoring and Controlling Tools &
Techniques. [online]. [Accessed 11 August 2017]. Available from World Wide Web: < HYPERLINK
"http://www.projectmanagementguru.com/controlling.html"
http://www.projectmanagementguru.com/controlling.html >
Usmani, F. 2013. PM Study Circle. [online]. [Accessed 29 July 2017]. Available from World Wide Web:
< HYPERLINK "https://pmstudycircle.com/2013/03/total-float-versus-free-float/"
https://pmstudycircle.com/2013/03/total-float-versus-free-float/ >
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