Managing Successful Computing Project: A Case Study of Virgin Airlines

This report examines the implementation of a computing project aimed at enhancing data security and performance for Virgin Airlines. It outlines a comprehensive project management plan, including a work breakdown structure and Gantt chart, to address vulnerabilities and improve data management practices. The report also delves into qualitative and quantitative research methods employed to gather insights from organizational employees, analyze the impact of vulnerabilities, and formulate recommendations for security enhancements. The research findings and analysis provide valuable insights into the importance of robust security measures and the role of effective project management in achieving organizational goals.

MANAGING SUCCESSFUL
COMPUTING PROJECT
1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
P1. Devise project aims and objectives for a chosen scenario....................................................2
P2. Project management plan......................................................................................................3
M1. Comprehensive project management plan...........................................................................5
P3 Work break down structure and Gantt chart...........................................................................6
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................8
P4. Carry out small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods. 8
M2. Evaluate the accuracy and reliability of different research methods applied.....................11
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................12
P5 Analyse research and data using appropriate tools and techniques......................................12
P6. Communicate appropriate recommendations as a result of research and data analysis to
draw valid and meaningful conclusions....................................................................................13
M3. Evaluate the selection of appropriate tools and techniques for accuracy and authenticity to
support and justify recommendations........................................................................................14
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................15
P7 Reflect on the value of undertaking the research to meet stated objectives and own learning
and performance........................................................................................................................15
M4 Evaluate the value of the project management process and use of quality research to meet
stated objectives and support own learning and performance...................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................17
References......................................................................................................................................18
2

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Measures of milestone.......................................................................................................5
Table 2: Project Gantt chart.............................................................................................................7
3

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Main activities of the project management plan..............................................................3
Figure 2: Work breakdown structure...............................................................................................6
4

Introduction
Project management process is required to be created by the organization and its project
management team. This report will use the case study of Virgin airlines in which computing
project is created as their main aim is to identify the impact and issues related to the
vulnerabilities. This report will create a project management plan for Virgin organization
including work breakdown structure and Gantt chart. This report will also conduct the research
in which the select the organizational employees as their sample size and conduct interview and
questionnaire to get the answers of their questions regarding this computing project.
1

Task 1
P1. Devise project aims and objectives for a chosen scenario
Information about computing project
Proper accuracy and adequate performance has enhanced the utilization of the computing system
and resources in the business. There are many organizations which use the computers for three
main reasons such as- availability, confidentiality and integrity. There are various types of
vulnerabilities which put impact on the computer system and data security compromise and the
usability. This computing project is conducted to design the resources of computing for Virgin
organization so that they can effectively manage their airlines services for their customers and
properly manage their details with their computing resources (Schwalbe, 2015).
Aim of computing project
The main aim of this computing project is to evaluate the vulnerabilities and its impact on the
computing system used in the organization. Another aim is to uncover the usability and impact of
vulnerabilities and also to resolve the issues with the help of computing resources management.
Objectives of computing project
The objective is to understand the CIA triad significance in the organizational business
and also to identify how this is related to the computing resources.
Another aim is to identify the internet which based on vulnerabilities and the issues of
security on the resources of computer.
Also to understand the major issues of the organization this can be bear with
vulnerabilities (Martinelli and Milosevic, 2016).
Objective of this project is to analyze the performance and recommendations suggestions
in respect of the security improvement within the Virgin airlines organization.
2

P2. Project management plan
Virgin airlines can consider following some steps for developing their project management plan
through which they can achieve the security and performance requirement against the
vulnerabilities and issues within the computing system:
Official meeting for the project
First they need to organize official meeting with their stakeholders so that their ideas and opinion
in respect of security and performance can be achieved. The practices and approaches with the
scope will also be communicated to the stakeholders.
Identify project scope
Scope of the computing project is to attain the data and security availability with this project as
this will reduce the data loss with vulnerabilities. The computing system will be analyzed for the
issues which can improve the data management and its reliability (JOSEPH et al, 2018).
Figure 1: Main activities of the project management plan
(Source: Duncan Haughey, 2018)
Create baseline
Creation of baseline is essential to achieve security, integrity and data availability for data
sharing and management in this project. So computing hardware can also be identified for robust
implementation regarding security.
3

Project cost
Project cost includes the human resources, skills, software components and hardware
components. Virgin airlines can bear cost only for one time installation and they can also provide
training to their employees. It is also expected from this project that cost for $3000 is required
along with 10% of the additional margin that will be used within the case of risk and project
delay so that performance can be covered (Kerzner, 2017).
Duration (time)
It is planned that this project must be completed within six months. The whole project is divided
as per the activities which are required to achieve effective quality with performance. This
computing project is expected to be completed in six months but on the other side 15 days are
also consider for handling the issues of risk and time management. The set additional duration
can also be used for monitoring the employee practices and to ensure about the security.
Project quality
It is essential to review the outcomes and activities of the project so that quality of the project
can be achieved. After reviewing the project if quality of project is not effective than they need
to make strategies for further improvement. They can manage the project quality by the software
or manual that is defined for testing of software and hardware implementation.
Risk involved
There are some risks which are associated with this project such as- misuse of the data,
unauthorized user, virus, malware functions etc (Brower et al, 2018). It is essential for project
management team to identify the involved risk and overcome them so that configuration of
computers can be achieved with the high security. Cost, resources and time management are also
one of the major risks involved in this project and this can be resolved with the help of Gantt
chart and work breakdown structure.
Resources for the project
Skilled and knowledgeable employees and experts are required for this project that has the
knowledge of computers and its resources. Resources in this project are required to collect the
prototype of design, identify client requirements and execute the changes in hardware and
software.
4

M1. Comprehensive project management plan
The above created project management plan is considered with the important schedules and
milestones so that defined issues or constraints in respect of the cost and time will be achieved
by the organization along with effective results. This project can use the following type of
milestones:
Table 1: Measures of milestone
Project activity Milestones(Days) Remark
Project plan 20 Finished
Engineering need 20 Finished
Project pre-designing 15 Finished
Project design 40 85%
Execution 20 40%
Project actual testing 10 30%
Project post-execution 10 0%
Responsibilities and roles
The designed computing project required to define the activities and work to their employees so
that they can understand their roles and responsibilities and that need to be communicated to the
employee so that their contribution can also be gain in the project (Nicholas and Steyn, 2017). It
is the responsibility of the organization to define the roles and responsibilities of the workers
such as- team of data collection, project management team, project tester and designer through
which they can reduce the internal issues and conflicts.
5

P3 Work break down structure and Gantt chart
Management of the project can be achieved by designing work breakdown structure and Gantt
chart. With the help of work breakdown structure and Gantt chart, organization can effective
segment the project activities between the workers according to the priority and time required.
Following is the work breakdown structure and Gantt chart for the computing project:
Figure 2: Work breakdown structure
Gantt chart
Work breakdown structure is designed mainly to distribute the activities of project in sub-
activities. On the basis of work breakdown structure, Gantt chart is prepared or created. They
distribute all the activities mentioned in work breakdown structure within their required duration
or time. This type of action will reduce the chances of internal conflicts due to roles and
responsibilities and they can effectively manage the time for this project.
6

Table 2: Project Gantt chart
Activities per
Month
1st month 2nd month 3rd month 4th month 5th month 6th month
Project plan
Specification
for additional
requirement
Project pre-
designing
Project design
Execution
Project actual
testing
Project post-
execution
7

Task 2
P4. Carry out small-scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods
Quantitative research method
As per the Carroll (2014), the primary research is important for collecting the figured and factual
data along with the user’s engagement. So, survey in which questionnaire is prepared for
conducting primary research method through which questions will be asked to the employees of
the organization which are selected as the sample number. Following are some of the major
questions which are asked in the survey to the organizational employees:
1. Do you think that the systems authentication is effective for the organization to achieve
the security?
o Fingerprints
o digital certificates
o Password
o Secure USB keys
2. Is the data of the organization is secure in the data operations in which processing,
management and sharing is included?
o Agree
o Disagree
o Sometimes
3. What are the primary mechanism or data storage locations?
o Cloud service
o Local storage
o Remote access
o Instant request
4. Give you opinion about the data operations within the multiple user environments and
data processing on real-time based?
o Agree
o Disagree
o Sometimes
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5. What is the primary method for retrieving the data after data lost?
o Report crash
o Restore
o Reload
o C and A both
Qualitative research method
With the increase and enhanced use of internet in the organization there are various types of
benefits achieved by them but this will also introduce the data management issues and
vulnerabilities. As per the Stallings et al (2012) the connection of internet connects the end
devices in more faster and share and communicate the data with along with reliability but on the
other side security and issues of vulnerabilities put major impact on the business operations and
relationship with the customers and suppliers also get affected. This author also justify that the
internet based on the security vulnerabilities has increased in current time as most of the
computer systems are connected with each other for achieving the effective performance and
data synchronized data on real time based. As per Pieprzyk et al (2013), the unauthorized or
misuse of the data will become one of the major issues behind the damage of goodwill and
financial loss.
For understanding the issues of vulnerabilities and its major impact on the business, this
organization collects the information through books, magazines and journals. They can also
conduct interview process for interacting with the organizational employees to identify the
effectiveness of computing system on their business as they are selected as the sample size.
Following are the questions asked to the employees regarding this project:
Are the software and devices within the computer system are reliable and secure? Give
your opinions and thoughts.
What you understand about CIA triads in the functions of the business? Are all the
systems in the organization are capable enough to achieve it or not?
9

Are you facing any issues or problems in respect of data disclosure, unwanted delete, data
unavailability or data damage in the computer system and the process is not under your
knowledge? Do you think that the computer system is compromised?
What do you think about the project configuration? Is this required for reliability and
security?
As per the knowledge is there any requirement of changes in the computer system for
optimizing the security and reduction of vulnerabilities?
10

M2. Evaluate the accuracy and reliability of different research methods applied
As per the requirement of the organization they can use primary research method for this
computing project in which they can collect the information and data. Such as- historical data
and organizational structure which can be used for generating the effective decisions and they
can also use journals and books to fetch the figures and facts requirement. So overall it is
identified that data reliability and accuracy is adequate as the user is required to generate the
proper decisions which depends upon the available data. This will also not involve the
consideration of business changes in respect of the certain conditions and some context. So it is
analyzed that this is reliable and fast way to collect and gather the data and information in the
decisions (Bernard, 2017).
On the other side, quantitative research is the method which is also used by the organization for
collecting the information and data in accurate manner. In this method, questionnaire including
specific questions is generated along with the sample number to get the information for the
support of the project in the business. This type of method has the data analysis with the help of
prepared questionnaires which deliver the most accurate outcomes of data and information. So,
information provided and collected from this method is accurate and reliable and that depends
upon the users that participate in questionnaire. The interest of the participants identifies the
accurate answer and understanding of the questions just to meet the accuracy and reliability of
the data and information. This will also help the organization for generating the valid and
specific decisions for their computing project.
11

Task 3
P5 Analyse research and data using appropriate tools and techniques
Research is required in every type of project so that accurate data and information can be
collected for the project. There are various types of techniques and tools which can be used by
the organization and its team to identify the research data. To evaluate the quantitative data
through research the organization can use the hypothesis tool that shows the list of the figures
and facts related to the selected topic. The created list will contain the results and factors for the
issues related to vulnerability and its impact on the organization. Information collected through
hypothesis tool is required to be hypothesis or nearby it so that this can be used in any research
but if it not so than it may be discarded (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016). This helps to direct the
project research to get the specific type of result or outcomes. Data identification with the help of
theories will make the implementation process quite easy.
For analyzing the primary data, researcher uses the sample data. Such as- some research
questions and the process of interview will also be accomplished with the 30 employees from the
organization as they have their individual roles, capabilities and skills for supporting the
operations and functions of their business. The data collected from the sample will help to
identify the impacts the vulnerabilities on the organization and its business. With the help of
sampling they can easy lead the robust and reliable solutions to ensure about the security in their
business (Bryman and Bell, 2015).
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P6. Communicate appropriate recommendations as a result of research and data analysis to draw
valid and meaningful conclusions
With the help of research, organization analyzed the data confidentiality, availability and
integrity through which they can get the high quality and performance in this project. This
organization can also use internet services for sharing the essential information and data between
the users. It is also determined that the malware and virus are the major issue which affect the
data management. It is also concluded that the vulnerabilities put major impact on the functions
and operations of business which can prevented by the installation of the network devices so that
they can monitor and control the issues and ensure about the security Following are some
recommendation which can be implemented by the organization to avoid and reduce these types
of issues:
Apply encryption
This organization can use this method for protecting their data from any unauthorized user and
from unwanted modification and reading. This encryption method is used to get the data
permission, processing and management to attain the security. Such as- some of the confidential
information or data will be encrypted before sharing or transmitting it (Dukhovni, 2014).
Strong and proper authentication
The Virgin organization can install or configure the network device and software so that they can
ensure about the authentication. User management and the configuration permission are also
required for achieving the security. With the help of strong authentication policies they can
easily enforce the data management and security (Freedman et al, 2015).
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M3. Evaluate the selection of appropriate tools and techniques for accuracy and authenticity to
support and justify recommendations
The computing project use the hypothesis technique and data sample method for the analysing
the data. The reliability and accuracy of the techniques is quite efficient for meeting the adequate
decisions to support the understanding about the vulnerabilities and its impact on the
management of the data in the organization. In this project quantitative and qualitative research
methods are also used to generate the effective decision in support of the data. Such as-
questionnaire is also used to collect the data from primary research method from their users. The
questionnaire is also created to provide authenticate and accurate data from the vulnerabilities
and its impact on the performance of the organization and the quality of their airlines services.
Questionnaire tool is used as this is the most effective tool for collecting the information even
fast and data generated is quite reliable and accurate in this method (Heagney, 2016).
On the other side, another method is used which is interview process as this is used to collect the
data and information besides from journals and books. This process is also useful for factual,
accuracy and validity of the data which check the data with authenticated tools presented in the
organization.
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Task 4
P7 Reflect on the value of undertaking the research to meet stated objectives and own learning
and performance
The main aim of this project is to understand about the vulnerabilities and its impact on the
system regarding data security, confidentiality and availability and also to identify the
sustainable changes and its impact on the system with the configuration of the software and
hardware abilities. This research helps me to gather the information about the vulnerabilities and
its impact on the computing system and also help me for understanding about the internet and
how this will change the practices of the business (Hsiao et al, 2014).
The research also provides me the information about the technological threats which may occur
on the computing system due to which data lost and other risk or damages can be faced by the
organization. With the research also help me to identify the impact of malware functions and
virus and how this can be avoided through authenticated password and encryption method. The
methods of research are also used for accomplishing the project in the constraints and also
identify the usability of the methods.
15

M4 Evaluate the value of the project management process and use of quality research to meet
stated objectives and support own learning and performance
The process of project management is created and included various types of activities which
drive the cost and efforts of the required outcomes or results. This will help to organize the
resources, constraints and activities so that a systematic plan can be generated so that
organization can meet the organizational goals and objectives. This project management plan is
effective for the organization for adding the values within the project so that performance and
quality of the project can be identified (Kerzner, 2017). This type of systematic plan will help the
organization to avoid the risk and associated barriers in the project implementation. This project
management process is also effective to focus on the research and its quality for achieving the
accurate outcomes. This project also enhances the performance and learning of the employees as
per their roles and responsibilities.
16

Conclusion
This project management plan is related to the computing project in which impact and issues
related to the vulnerabilities are also concluded in this report. This report also concluded that the
organization have various types of threats such as virus and malware which causes the data lost
issues for the organization but this report has provide various types of measures which avoid
these types threats. This report also conducts research for the organization in which they use
interview and questionnaire process which generate the accurate and reliable data and
information for this computing project.
17

References
Books and Journals
Bernard, H.R., 2017. Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative
approaches. Rowman & Littlefield.
Brower, R., Christ, N., DeTar, C., Edwards, R. and Mackenzie, P., 2018. Lattice QCD
Application Development within the US DOE Exascale Computing Project. In EPJ Web of
Conferences (Vol. 175, p. 09010). EDP Sciences.
Bryman, A. and Bell, E., 2015. Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.
Carroll, J.M., 2014. Computer security. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Dukhovni, V., 2014. Opportunistic security: Some protection most of the time.
Freedman, L.P., Gibson, M.C., Ethier, S.P., Soule, H.R., Neve, R.M. and Reid, Y.A., 2015.
Reproducibility: changing the policies and culture of cell line authentication. Nature
methods, 12(6), p.493.
Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt
Assn.
Hsiao, D.K., Kerr, D.S. and Madnick, S.E., 2014. Computer security. Academic Press.
JOSEPH. PHILLIPS, P.M.P., CBAP, I. and PMP, C., 2018. PMP PROJECT MANAGEMENT
PROFESSIONAL STUDY GUIDE. McGraw-Hill Education.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring
and monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.
Martinelli, R.J. and Milosevic, D.Z., 2016. Project management toolbox: tools and techniques
for the practicing project manager. John Wiley & Sons.
Nicholas, J.M. and Steyn, H., 2017. Project management for engineering, business and
technology. Taylor & Francis.
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Pieprzyk, J., Hardjono, T. and Seberry, J., 2013. Fundamentals of computer security. Springer
Science & Business Media.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R., 2016. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Stallings, W., Brown, L., Bauer, M.D. and Bhattacharjee, A.K., 2012. Computer security:
principles and practice (pp. 978-0). Pearson Education.
Online references
Main activities of project management plan, 2018 [Online] [Assessed through]
<https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-role-of-the-project-manager.php>, [Assessed on 18th April,
2018]
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