Mobile Based Farmer Support Application PILOT: Kisumu County

Develop a farmer support mobile application that will work with the major mobile operating platforms (Android, Windows, IOS) and can be downloaded by farmers to their phones and be ready for use in five steps (installation and configuration steps).

Title - Mobile Based Farmer Support Application PILOT: Kisumu County

Part One: MOV - Measurable Organisational Value
The desired impact area for the project is operational; the mobile application is aimed at
making farmers more productive and effective through direct support via he application, which
implies that the application will have an operational impact on how farmers access information
and technical services/ support.
The application will essentially add two types of value; cheaper and faster- cheaper
because using the application cuts out the time and accosts associated with sending a technical
support/ extension office to visit farmers to provide technical support. Faster because it will
greatly improve efficiency; for example, a farmer that wants to know the best fertilizer tor seed
to use based on their soil types can quickly seek the information from the application and get it in
a matter of seconds. This is a much better proposition than visiting the local agricultural office or
having an extension and support officer visit their premises to recommend the best seed
(Paschetta, 2018).
Metric: The metric to be used is the Lead-time: Lead-time refers to the time taken to
move from the idea creation delivering a working application that meets the needs of the client
(Usmani, 2019)
Time frame: The application should be ready for deployment within 16 weeks (four
months) to have downloadable software that meets user requirements.
Summary of MOV
Measurable Organizational value
MOV Number MOV
1 Desired impact area Operational
2 Value Types Cheaper and faster
3 Metric Lead time
4 Time Frame 16 weeks

Part Two: Project Scope
The scope of the project is to develop a farmer support mobile application that will work
with the major mobile operating platforms (Android, Windows, IOS) and can be downloaded by
farmers to their phones and be ready for use in five steps (installation and configuration steps).
The application will work seamlessly in different versions of the mobile operating systems and
the application should be ready in six months and work with even the lowest network signals
(2G, 3G, and 4G) and have AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) feature
Scope Management Plan
This was developed based on PMBOK guidelines (Roseke, 2014; Hartney, 2017)
Requirements
The application will be supported by the major mobile operating systems of Android,
Windows, and IOS and be an application available for download at any time form the respective
operating systems application stores. The application will require the user too input some
identifying information and a password, all completed in five steps or less and will contain all
relevant agricultural and technical support information, including search parameters, ability to
post queries and chat with an agricultural technical support officer 24 hours, 7 days a week. A
member’s area will be available to enable users communicate and share ideas with each other;
this means it will have chat and messages applications within the main application. The
application will work with even the lowest network configurations, starting from 2 G to 4 %
networks and with capabilities to use 5G networks in future. It will be an easy to use application
with User Interface design principles incorporated in the design to enable quick learning and
navigation, with a help section on how to use the application.
Stakeholders
The stakeholders include the main project sponsor/ executive sponsor that is the
representative/ chairperson of the farmers group
A project board consisting of the executive members of the farmers group

The development team consisting of a project manager, a project accountant, developers, and
testers (project team)
Scope Statement
To develop a user friendly data base driven mobile application to provide technical
support to a farers group through their mobile devices; the application will work of different
operating platforms and platform versions and use even low internet speeds for access and be
available 99% of the time with minimal service degradation at peak use with AI (artificial
intelligence) and ML (machine learning) features.
Work Breakdown Structure\WBS Dictionary
The WBS is as depicted in the image below;
Roles and Responsibilities
The roles and responsibilities are depicted in the table below;
Role Responsibility
Approvals for the project Executive sponsor (farmers group chairperson)

Advisory and evaluation of project Project board (farmers groups executive
officers)
Project delivery to meet set objectives and
goals
Project manager
Resources management Project manager and project accountant
Application development and testing Project development team
Conflict resolution and risk management Scrum master
Deliverables
A working mobile application that is easy to use and works on the Android, Windows,
and IPS platforms, capable of using low internet speeds (2G) and able to provide technical
support to farmers, with chat, querying and messaging systems to be developed within 16
weeks.
Acceptance by Sponsor
The project will be accepted when all the deliverables have been met and the mobile
application is fully functional within the specified functional and non-functional requirements
Scope Control
The scope of the project is to develop a database driven mobile application to provide
technical support to farmers; the application will run on Android, Windows, and IOS platforms
of different versions as defined in the functional requirements and be available for downloading
and installation from the respective applications’ application stores. The application will enable
direct messaging and chatting and work 24 hours a day 7 days a week, with AI (artificial
intelligence) and ML (machine learning) features incorporated.
To develop the application, detailed project management planning will be done and then
the user requirements solicited, through interviews as well as through
List of Resources

Role Person
Successful management and delivery of
project within scope, budget, and time
Project Manager
Interface development Programmer
Database development Data base engineers
Content creation Programmers
Testing and evaluation Programmers
Conflict management Scrum master
Financial control Project manager and project accountant
Risk management Scrum master
Technology
 Six computers for the development of the application
 Four laptops for development and remote access
 Cloud based server service for backup
 Project management software
 Mobile application development platforms and software
 Internet services
 Requisite furniture
Facilities
The team will work from a project office located at the clients (farmers group)
headquarter offices with some teams working remotely due to the need to visit other farer offices
and farers, during user requirements gathering and application development and testing
Other
The project budget will have allocation for travel, accommodation, meals, refreshments,
and stationery. Some team members will be traveling in collecting user requirements and during
filed testing of the application

Part Three: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
These were developed in MS project 2010 as shown below, based on tasks to be done and
resource requirements and based on PMBOK guidelines (Norman, Brotherton and Fried, 2011;
(Dummies, 2018);
Task Mode Task Name Duration Unit cost Total
Auto Scheduled Project idea inception and discussion
with sponsor 5.95 days
Manually
Scheduled
Agreement on project and signing initial
terms and contract to develop application 2 days
Manually
Scheduled
Planning on project management
approaches/ methodology 1 day
Manually
Scheduled Milestone 1 0 days
Manually
Scheduled Initial user requirements gathering 14 days
Manually
Scheduled
Determining human resource
requirements for project 5 days
Manually
Scheduled
Determining project requirements/
resources 5 days
Manually
Scheduled
Requesting quotations for project
resources/ materials 7 days
Manually
Scheduled
Sending out requests for various team
members to apply for various roles 21 days
Manually
Scheduled Procuring for good, materials 10 days
Manually
Scheduled
Determining current remuneration for
various team roles 2 days
Manually
Scheduled Interviewing and selecting team members 7 days

Manually
Scheduled
Assigning team members roles and
responsibilities 2 days
Manually
Scheduled
Developing detailed project plan (tasks
and duration) 7 days
Manually
Scheduled Developing a detailed project budget 10 days
Auto Scheduled Obtaining approvals for project plan and
budget 5 days
Auto Scheduled Milestone 2 0 days
Auto Scheduled Refine user requirements 1 day
Auto Scheduled Develop iteration 1 7 days
Auto Scheduled Test iteration 1 and make changes 5 days
Auto Scheduled Milestone 3 0 days
Auto Scheduled Develop iteration 2 7 days
Auto Scheduled Test iteration 2 and make any changes 5 days
Auto Scheduled Milestone 4 0 days
Auto Scheduled Develop iteration 3 7 days
Auto Scheduled Test iteration 2 and make any changes 5 days
Auto Scheduled Milestone 5 0 days
Auto Scheduled Develop iteration 4 7 days
Auto Scheduled test iteration 4 extensively in the lab
environment and make any changes 14 days
Auto Scheduled Milestone 6 0 days
Auto Scheduled Develop iteration 5 14 days
Auto Scheduled test iteration 5 extensively in real life
situations 14 days
Auto Scheduled Refine iteration 5 and test live 7 days
Auto Scheduled Go live with application 1 day
Auto Scheduled Milestone 6 1 day?

Auto Scheduled Develop project report and support/
maintenance schedule 5 days
Auto Scheduled Project handover to sponsor 1 day?
Auto Scheduled Milestone 7 0 days
Manually
Scheduled review project performance with team 3 days
Manually
Scheduled
Develop report on lessons learned and
close project officially 1 day
Manually
Scheduled Milestone 8 0 days
Part Four: Risk Analysis and Plan
Project Risk Analysis and Plan
 Project Assumptions
The executive sponsor will support the project through its entire course.
Having collected the user requirements using a detailed process, the application will meet
farmer needs
The various operating platforms for mobile devices will fully support the application
The application will meet the security and safety standards set by the various mobile
operating system companies to be installed and made available to users through their
respective application stores
The team sourced to undertake the development has the requisite knowledge and
experience to undertake the tasks as defined in the functional and non-functional
requirements for the application.
 Using the Risk Identification Framework outlined in your text as a basis, identify five
risks to the project – one for each of the five phases of the methodology.

Risk Effect Probabilit
y
Impact Mitigation/
Response
Assigned
person to
manage
risk
User
requirements
misses key
requirements
There is
ineffective
gathering of
user
requirements
resulting in an
application
that does not
fulfill/ meet
all or most
user
requirements
Very high Very
high
Detailed soliciting
of user requirements
Using case
scenarios and
stories to capture all
user requirements
Continuous testing
and identification of
any new user
requirements that
were missed during
requirements
gathering (Cast
Software, 2019)
Project
manager.
Scrum
master
Developed
budget is
less than
actual
expenses
The project
and its
requirements
under
budgeted for
resulting in
cost overruns
High Very
High
Accurate estimation
by asking for quotes
for products/
services to be used
in project
Incorporating
contingency budget
in the project
budget
Strict scope and
budget control
Accurate estimation
of labor costs and
Project
manager
Project
accountant

time duration for
each human
resource (Cast
Software, 2019)
Extreme
scope
change
There are too
many changes
to the project
scope and
deliverables
Very High Very
High
Strict scope
management and
control
Scope monitoring
Having a defined
change management
plan
Sticking to project
schedule and tasks
(Larson and Larson,
2009)to avoid scope
creep
Project
manager
Time
overrun due
to staff
issues
There are
delays due to
staff
absenteeism/
sickness/
quitting
midway
Very high Very
High
Hire technical staff
with multiple skills
to cover temporarily
when other staff are
unavailable
During hiring, have
extra staff on
standby in case the
main staff are
unavailable
Project
manager
Scrum
master
Application
does not
meet user
requirements
The envisaged
user
requirements
are not fully
met resulting
High Very
high
Detailed and
continuous user
requirements
gathering
Continuous testing
Project
manager
Scrum
master
Testers

in sponsor not
accepting
project
based on
incremental
development to
ensure all
requirements and
functionalities are
incorporated in the
project
Part Five: Quality management plan
Quality management plan
This defines the policies and procedures for quality relevant to the development of the
application and its management; the planning for quality is for both the project processes and
project deliverables
Quality Statement
The application will be developed to fully comply and meet/ exceed the ISO 9126–1
software quality model (Buenaflor, 2017) that includes:
Quality Characteristics Defined for Project
Functionality The application to provide farmers technical support information on
agriculture through the application after a user posts a request in the
‘Query’ section.
Enable chatting and sharing of ideas among farmer’s
Enable direct messaging to obtain information directly from
agricultural support/ extension officers
Have video and sound functionality to demonstrate using short
‘light’ videos any support issues
Have AI and ML features to enable fast response and autonomous
support throughout

Must work on Android, Windows, and IOS platforms of different
versions seamlessly
Reliability The application must be available a minimum of 96% times per
year
Functionality must not degrade by more than 10% at peak use
(when there are several requests) in terms of speed, loading
The application will be updated regularly
Usability Must be easy to use with and easy to use and navigate interface; the
interface must be easy to learn
Efficiency Work even at low internet speeds, including with 2G
Use less than 5% of mobile device resources in terms of installation
space (size on disk), memory, and processing power
Maintainability Accept updates and have an error log on the backend to enable fixes
to be made to the software
Portability Work with different versions of operating systems mobile devices
Verification activities (process based)
The development will be based on, and strictly follow the project plan; project to be
managed based on the critical path method (Project Management Skills, 2019). The schedule
baseline will be used for monitoring progress and scope management that must not vary
significantly (more than 10%)
Verification activities (product based)
Application to be developed using SCRUM agile method and be developed incrementally
with continuous testing based on the set quality statements and parameters and changes made at
each iteration to solve identified problems before moving on to the next stage
Part Six: Closure and Evaluation
Closure checklist

 The application meets the ISO- 9126-I standards
 Fulfils functional and nonfunctional requirements
 Performs as expected based on quality statement
 Completed within stipulated time
 Completed within budget
Evaluation
Closure is when project is accepted and handed to sponsor; the closure will entail
extensive laboratory testing and simulation (on load performance) with last minute adjustments
made before being tested in real life conditions and then deployed. The documentation for
project will be done and handed over to sponsor, including maintenance and support schedule as
well as project documents. The project team will then review the project execution, identify
issues, lessons learned, and a report generated and documented as per the project documentation
policy.

References
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https://medium.com/@leanardbuenaflor/iso-9126-software-quality-characteristics-
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Cast Software (2019). Risk Management in Software Development and Software Engineering
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and-software-engineering-projects [Accessed 27 May 2019].
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May 2019].
Norman, E., Brotherton, S. and Fried, R. (2011). Work Breakdown Structures. 1st ed. Hoboken:
John Wiley & Sons.
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27 May 2019].
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management-skills.com/critical-path-method.html [Accessed 27 May 2019].
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management-according-to-the-pmbok/ [Accessed 27 May 2019].
Usmani, F. (2019). Lead Time and Lag Time in Project Scheduling Network Diagram. [online]
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