I-Crop Project Management: Team Details, Charter, Stakeholders, and Reflection

This paper describes the I-Crop Project Management, including team details, charter, stakeholders, and reflection. It also discusses the necessary skills and methods required for a project manager in IT.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
I-Crop Project Management
University/Affiliation
Student ID
Student Name
Lecturer Name

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Part 1
1.1 Project name: I-Crop Project Management
1.2 Team details:
Team Name: HiTech IT Group
First Name Last Name Mobile Email
1.3 Project description: Background and overview of the project with brief description
Presently, there exists many vendors providing Information Technology (IT)
solutions, for example, Amazon and oracle. Therefore, implementing recent technologies in
companies such as cloud computing has become much easy (Gong, Liu, Zhang, Chen &
Gong, 2010). For instance, concerning Globex corporation, most of its IT solutions has been
implemented by Virtucon company. Hence, it has contracted Virtucon to develop an online
platform – I-Crop. Globex is situated in Riverina Region of NSW. Besides, it has 3 locations
Albury, Griffith and Wagga Wagga. It deals with buying of grains from customers as well as
growing. Its main reason of developing a platform is to bring growers and buyers together.
Recently, it has opened new office at Orange aiming at providing better services in Central
West. Moreover, it has described explicitly several transactions that the proposed platform
need to facilitate, for instance, offers and bids. Regarding transaction types, the platform

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should be able to support pay on delivery, which allows payment after delivering of grains
to buyers and cash transactions. Furthermore, information sources consist of the following;
price and grain silo site information. In addition, system can be accessed freely as a mobile
phone application or web browser. My team that is made up of 4 individuals has been tasked
with developing proposed platform. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to describe
entire steps involved in development of proposed online platform; including costs incurred.
1.4 Team charter:
Skills & knowledge
inventory
Member 1 <Leadership skills, project management skills,
knowledge in high level programming languages,
for example, java and C, knowledge in web
programming, knowledge in configuration of
devices, knowledge in designing applications
(Claro et al., 2012)>
Member 2 <Writing skills, empathy skills, designing skills,
knowledge in methods of gathering data such as
questionnaire and observation, knowledge in
drawing diagrammatic representations such as
UML (Claro et al., 2012)>
Member3 <Listening skills, writing skills, decision making
skills, knowledge in web programming,
knowledge in designing software such as
AutoCAD, knowledge in high level languages
such as java (Eisenberg, Johnson & Berkowitz,
2010)>

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Member4 <technical skills, evaluation skills, knowledge in
devices configuration, knowledge in data storage,
knowledge in software testing, knowledge in risk
management, knowledge in system maintenance
(Eisenberg et al., 2010)>
Roles and Responsibilities Member 1 <Monitoring entire processes involved such as
data collection, design and testing, leading other
team members to carry on with their tasks
effectively, ensuring hassle-free co-ordination
between team members (Whatley, 2012)>
Member 2 <Listing all activities involved while developing
application, sketching all diagrammatic
representation of system requirements and
functionality especially UML diagrams, ensuring
that activities are completed within a specified
time (Whatley, 2012)>
Member3 <Listing all completed tasks in conjunction with
tasks to be performed at a specified time,
involved in all design processes such as defining
requirements, preliminary and actual designs
using software such as AutoCAD, coding using
programming languages such as C# (Whatley,
2012)>
Member4 <Involved in both verification and validation,
therefore, making sure that developed system has

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met all customer requirements, ensuring that
necessary change has been incorporated incase
customer has requested for the same (Whatley,
2012)>
Team communications Week-5 9am-6pm. Motel 24.
Week-6 3pm-10pm. Globe Apartments.
Week-7 8am-4pm. Albury Manor House.
Communication and sharing methods; google
hangouts and team viewer (Cochrane & Keegan,
2012).
Team rules &
expectations (team values,
code of ethics, rules &
expectations)
Team values <Empathy, better decision making, integrity,
teamwork, knowledge sharing, dependability,
efficiency, respect, motivation (Warren & Lucas,
2016)>
Code of ethics <Understanding system requirement, delete
flawed data, develop high quality system,
consider public interest, inform customer in case
there are some difficulties in implementing some
requirements, reject bribery, assigning duties
basing on competence, being responsible for any
defects (Warren & Lucas, 2016)>
Rules and
expectations
<Team members should be consistent, thus
delivering quality work, team members are
required to inform project manager of their

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absence in any meeting, all members must be
consulted before anything is approved, all
members must take responsibility in case there
are some errors in delivered work, all team
members are required to participate actively in all
processes (Warren & Lucas, 2016)>
previous experience as
team
Member1 From my previous experience, teamwork helps
members to develop problem solving skills.
However, unequal involvement is a major
problem I’ve encountered while working as a
team.
membe
r
Member 2 From my previous experience, teamwork helps
members in developing skills in their areas of
study as work is allocated basing on skills. On the
other hand, team work encourages laziness as
some members depend on others.
Member 3 From my previous experience, teamwork
enhances learning as information can be shared
among members. However, it encourages rivalry
as some members may try to outshine others.
Member 4 From my previous experience, teamwork results
in new ideas as members tries to find new ways
of solving problems encountered. However, it
results in blaming game in case some problems

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arise, thus leading to conflicts.
Signatures Member1 <>
Member2 <>
Member3 <>
Member4 <>
Part 2
Week-5 Organiser Scribe
What should be done?
Estimating total costs using
several methods, for
example, pricing to win and
estimation by analogy,
determining requirements of
proposed application
(Abrahamsson, Salo,
Ronkainen & Warsta, 2017).
What was done?
Total costs for project
development was
approximated to about 3000
U.S. dollars, requirements
were documented, which
formed a basis of
specification, drawing of
several diagrams; use cases
and class diagrams regarding
system functionality, thus
enhancing easy
understanding about the
application.
Week-6 Organiser Scribe

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What should be done?
Coding of proposed system,
which consists of both
designing and coding
concurrently using designing
software and high-level
programming languages, for
example, AutoCAD and C#
respectively (Abrahamsson et
al., 2017).
What was done?
Application was developed in
accordance with requirement
documentation that was
created in week 5. Also,
object-oriented approaches
such as analysis and design
were used to enhance easy
accommodation of necessary
changes.
Week-7 Organiser Scribe
What should be done?
Configuration of system
developed in week 5;
including connecting it to the
database that we developed
using MySQL, testing
functionality of developed
application (Abrahamsson et
al., 2017).
What was done?
Configuration of devices,
testing configured
application, hence ensuring
that it is satisfying customer
needs and has met
specification.

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Part 3
3.1 Stakeholders to the project
Stakeholder
name
Information
to be shared
Frequency of
information
exchange
Location of
information
exchange
Purpose of
communication
Mechanism
(hard copy,
PDF, PPT,
DOC)
Who what when Where Why How
System user
both internal
and external
such as IT
personnel and
grain buyers
respectively
(Abelein,
Sharp &
Paech, 2013).
Software
requirements
Held
meetings
weekly.
Motel 24 Ensuring that
developed
application can
solve problem
at hand,
ensuring that
interphase is
simple, thus
easing
understanding
DOC
System
designers
(Abelein,
Sharp &
Paech, 2013).
System
architectural
designs
Held
meetings
after every
two weeks
The Houston
Wagga
Ensuring that
application is
designed
basing on
specification,
ensuring that
best
PPT

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architectural
patterns such
as client-server
architecture
has been used.
Security
administrators
(Wallach &
Scholz,
2012).
System
security
Held
meetings
monthly
Globe
Apartments
Ensuring that
recent
technologies in
data security
such as VPN
has been
integrated
correctly, thus
enhancing
overall security
of the system.
PDF
Support team
(Wallach &
Scholz,
2012).
Maintenance Held a
meeting after
two months
Victoria
hotel
Ensuring that
system
developed can
be maintained
easily,
therefore;
reducing
maintenance
PPT

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costs.
Part 4
4.1 Reflection
Leadership Qualities to Successfully Lead a Project
Leadership skills consists of character traits of a team leader that can enable him to
successfully lead a project. It’s essential in project management (Sunindijo, 2015). I’ve lead
several teams previously and afterwards, identified crucial leadership skills, for instance,
communication skills are vital as it enables project manager to issue directives clearly. Also,
a project manager should have organizational skills, therefore; planning activities and
strategies (Sunindijo, 2015). Apart from organizational skills, decision-making skills is
equally important as it enhances better ways on which problems can be solved. Besides, a
project manager should be able to put himself in other people’s shoe, thus empathy is also
vital. Moreover, a project manager should have trust and be confident that his/her team can
deliver quality work, hence confidence is also a necessity of a good project manager. In
addition, perseverance is also essential as it creates stress-free working environment and
better solutions to overcome obstacles (Skulmoski & Hartman, 2010).
Techniques, Skills, Methods Required for a Project Manager in IT
Other than leadership skills, I’ve also identified some methods and techniques that
can enable a project manager to lead a project successfully, for instance, planning of
activities is important as it forms basis to which project management methodology can be
used (Balaji & Murugaiyan, 2012). Therefore, it’s a necessity for a project manager to
understand existing methods and techniques used in system development. For instance, the

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following are some of the common methods used; agile and waterfall methodologies, which
can be differentiated with the ways on which activities are organized. Agile method enables
different activities to take place concurrently, for example, requirements collection and
design. It is guided with different principles such as accommodating change and small
releases (Balaji & Murugaiyan, 2012). On the contrary, waterfall method involves
determining all requirements that are required before starting design process. Other methods
include; scrum and lean.
Conclusion
Concluding, working as a team has some advantages and disadvantages as evidenced
from previous experience of members involved in development of I-Crop, for instance,
some of its advantages consist of the following; enhancing creativity as new ideas for
solving problems are developed as well as learning. On the other hand, some of its
disadvantages include the following; blaming game and laziness. Regarding I-Crop project, I
encountered several problems, for example, poor communication skills and incompetence.
However, I applied different leadership skills and project management methodologies that
resulted in leading I-Crop project successfully. Some of the skills and methods include
organizational skills and agile method respectively.
References
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really influence system success? IEEE software, 30(6), 17-23.

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Abrahamsson, P., Salo, O., Ronkainen, J., & Warsta, J. (2017). Agile software development
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Sunindijo, R. Y. (2015). Project manager skills for improving project
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