Report on Managing a Computing Project: Big Data Analytics at TCS

This report provides a comprehensive overview of managing a computing project focused on big data analytics, specifically within the context of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The report begins by exploring various project planning methods, including waterfall, critical path, critical chain, and agile project management, highlighting their respective advantages and disadvantages. It then delves into the roles and responsibilities of individual team members, such as project managers, technical leads, software developers, and testers, emphasizing their contributions to successful project development. The report also addresses quality management in project development, outlining steps to ensure high-quality outputs. Furthermore, it evaluates project management tools and techniques like Gantt charts, work breakdown structures, and Microsoft Project. The report offers recommendations for management tools and techniques, emphasizing the importance of updated software and integration with other information systems. Finally, it covers risk and issue management, system implementation, and success criteria, concluding with recommendations for project improvement. The report is a valuable resource for understanding the intricacies of managing big data analytics projects in a corporate environment.

Managing a Computing Project

Table of Content
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ACTIVITY 1....................................................................................................................................1
Methods to Plan Computing Project............................................................................................1
Roles and responsibilities of individual Team Member in Project Development Process..........2
Quality Management in the Project Development.......................................................................4
Evaluation of Project Management tools and Techniques...........................................................4
Recommendation for Management Tools and Techniques.........................................................5
Risks and Issues Management.....................................................................................................6
System Implementation...............................................................................................................6
Success Criteria............................................................................................................................7
ACTIVITY 2....................................................................................................................................1
Following a project plan..............................................................................................................1
Managing the risks and issues of the project...............................................................................2
Communication Methods.............................................................................................................3
Changes made in the project plan to meet computing project requirements...............................4
ACTIVITY 3 ...................................................................................................................................5
How project was implemented.....................................................................................................5
Reviewing the project against the agreed criteria........................................................................6
Recommendations for improvement............................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Big data analytics is normally considered as a process to examine large and varied data
set. This analysis is performed to find different patterns and sequences in the collected data to
make correlation and connection between data and company goals to help the organization for
making important and required changes in various process and operation (Smirnov and
Storublevtcev, 2019). Big data analytics is based on the high powered computer system that is
based on the data learning and analysing process. There are different benefits of Big Data
Analytics that can improve the business of business organization. Tata consultancy Services is a
multinational organization that is working all over world. Company is providing IT services to
the customers. TCS was founded in year 1968 by Tata Sons and F. C. Kohli. Headquarter is in
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. This report is providing the brief of Big Data software in the Tata
Consultancy Service company. Different methods are provided in the report that can be used to
plan computer project in an organization. The roles and responsibilities of the project
development team are covered inn the study. Tools and techniques that can be used in the
implementation process are studied in the report. Risk management and process management
tools are explained in the study. Project development plan is evaluated with different risk factors
and their solutions. Different changes and improvements are suggested for the future
development of the project.
ACTIVITY 1
Methods to Plan Computing Project
There are different techniques are used in the planning to make the further
implementation process effective for the organization. These tools help the organization to make
an effective plan for the system ans project development. These tools are- waterfall project
management, Critical path Method, Critical Chain Project and Agile Project.
Waterfall Management
This is the simplest method to plan the software or computing project. In this method the
process of computing project is prepared in a flow and whole process of development follows
this flow chart for development of project (Messina, 2017). Different steps of project
development are concept designing, development of physical product, integration to current
system, testing and debugging, implementation of project and maintenance.
Critical Path Method
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A sequential path method is a method where a sequential planning where the project
development planning is performed in particular sequence. In this method each task of the
sequence is depended on the previous task. Efficiency of this method is depended on the
cooperation and quality of performance in each task. There mights be some independent task
could be there which are important for completion of task. This process follows different steps
that are- naming the task, create flow chart for process, defining different critical or non-critical
relations in the process of tasks, completion of each step of development path and back up plan
for condition of failure.
Critical Chain Management
This method is somehow is same as the critical path management and process is also
same but only different come in the execution of the plan. There are different uncertainties in
each step of the project development and these uncertainties can cause different issues in the
development of the system or software for the TCS company (Ramachandran, 2016). For
effective management of the task all the steps of critical chain management method safety
marginal tome allocated. This help to the team to complete the task with in the pre decided time.
Agile Project management
The advantage of this technique of computing project development is more concern4d
about the guidelines and requirement of client. This helps the project team to provide better
project for high performance. This is an iterative and incremental approach of project
development that is more focused on the full filling of the requirement of client nthrough the
proper project development cycle. The different advantages of Agile project management are-
higher consumer collaboration, interaction over thye processes and tools, responsive to the
change in the management plan. The most advantage of the Agile project management is, this
works on the prototype planning and solution on comprehensive documentation.
Roles and responsibilities of individual Team Member in Project Development Process
For a project developing team each person have particular role and responsibility. The
different roles team members are allocated with are- project manager, technical lead, software
developer and testing team.
Project Manager-
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Role- The project manager is the leading body of the project development task and whole the
task is directed by the project manager. The role of manager in the team is leader and task
allocator in the team.
Responsibility-
The responsibility of the project manager is to manage the operation of each team
member in the development process. Selection of right team member and allocate them with
respective work as per their quality and education background. Cause the effectiveness of each
team member is based on the right allocation of task.
Technical Leader
In the project development team is leaded by the manager but this will be difficult for the
team manager to manage technical work of team member. This is how the technical leader come
in the order.
Role-The role of the technical leader is to provide guidance to software developer and testers to
gain higher efficiency in product development for organization.
Responsibilities- This is basic responsibility of the technical leader is to manage the technical
task of the developers and help them to solve various technical problems that comes in the
software development process.
Software developer
Software developer is the person in team who develop software for the client. This person
is important part of the team cause for project development for Big Data Analysis need a
software to handle and scan the provided data.
Role- Role of software developer in the team is to make different software by simple
programming languages (Erevelles, Fukawa and Swayne, 2016). In this role they have to meet
requirement of customer by making respective software.
Responsibility- The responsibility of the software developer is to develop an efficient software
for client to full fill their requirement and develop a bug free and effective software for TCS.
Testing Team
These are the members who are specially trained to test different software that are
developed by software developer.
Role- The role of the software tester is to use the software that is developed by the technical team
and different bugs and loop holes and gaps in the software are evaluated by the teasing team.
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Responsibility- It is responsibility of testing team is to test the software for the maximum
efficiency and check the limits and problems in the developed project to provide the best product
to the Client.
Quality Management in the Project Development
To maintain the quality in the computing project various steps can be used by the project
team. This steps are designed to provide maximum quality work and project to the client. These
steps are by making quality management pragmatic, plan for quality, commitment, invest in
quality management, conducting appropriate tests and high performance goals (Ross and
Blumenstein, 2015). These steps can help the project development team to manage the quality of
product.
First thing team can de to manage the quality of the product is by making right
investment in the Big Data Analytics software development. This will provide better opportunity
to the team members to develop quality product for TCS company. Team also can use different
plan to maintain quality of developed product. High commitment to develop quality product will
encou8rahge the team members to keep the percentage of product failure minimum. For the high
quality output project team need to make high investment to get the best quality components for
the software and developed computing project. The high quality component used in the
computing project will reduce the chances of failure in operation. This will also provide better
data collection, storing and processing to find particular patterns, sequences of data and relation
between the data and processing of organization (Zaharakis, Sklavos and Kameas, 2016). Also
the project development team can test the software multiple time on high ratings will improve
the quality of Big Data Software.
Evaluation of Project Management tools and Techniques
Various project management tools are used by the project developing team to complete
the project with in the time period. In the management of Big Data Computing software different
tools are used. These tools are- Gantt chart, Work breakdown structure and Microsoft projects.
Gantt Chart
The Gantt chart is a kind of chart that presents the project scheduled . The list of the chart
is presented on the vertical axis and the width of the horizontal bar presents the time interval for
each task. As per the tasks are allocated with respected time. The graph represented for the
allocated time and allocated task shows whole process for the project on which the team, is
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working on. This will reduce the complexity of the project for the task of management. This
project management tool can be used by team to illustrate the dates of starting time and ending
time and date to track the project performance and progress of the task as per the provided guide
line.
Work Break Down Structure
The WBS is a project management system and system engineering tool that is used by the
different organization to break the larger tasks in the smaller parts to reduce the complexity of
the project (Börstler and Hilburn, 2016). Work of the team is provided to them in the organized
manner to maximize their performance for the development of computing project. The improves
the capability of management over the task performed by the project team.
Microsoft Project
Microsoft project is a project management tool that is used by the different organization
to manage their task. This tool is developed by the Microsoft incorporation. This tool is used by
the different organization to perform scheduling, assigning resource for particular task, tracking ,
managing and budgeting for the process. This project management tool is also used by the
project development team to analyse the project growth as per the allocated task and allocated
timing.
This is how different software management tools are used by the project management
team to get maximum and timely output from the projerct team. Project management tools
improve the performance of the whole team.
Recommendation for Management Tools and Techniques
For the project development in there are different things are required to implement and
these things can improve the performance the project development team and process. To get
higher output with high quality and performance different changes are required. The software
techniques used by the team are the best suitable for the project development team to design the
Big Data Analytics software for Tata Consultancy Services. Better planning and high quality
standards can improve the quality of work delivered by the project team. The software used by
the project development team should be new and updated to provide good output for developed
software for data processing, storing and collecting (Mahmood, 2017). Other information system
like DSS (Decision Support System), Transaction processing system, management information
system and artificial intelligence system can be used by the development team to imp-rove the
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data handling through the Big Data Analytics software. Big data software is a software that is
related to the cloud computing and internet. So, the project team can integrate different
information system with the big data analytic software to provide better data handling to the
company. The most effective change project team can made by implementing Artificial
intelligent system with the Big data Analytics software. This integration of software and AI
system will improve the work quality of information system in the TCS company.
Risks and Issues Management
There are different common challenges are faced by the project development team during
the development process. These challenges are poor defining of goals, unrealistic deadlines, lack
of using of management software, insufficient team skills, improper communication. Risk
management, conflicts with in the team and lack of training and development.
Directionless work can reduce the efficiency of the project team. Poor goals of team will create
barriers in the working of team members (Hislop and Ellis, 2017). To perform the tasks with in
the time line is importation for the team performance and unrealistic deadlines of the
organization prevent the project to complete the task with in the given time line. This can be
improved by using the Gantt chart and this will provide better time allocation for each task.
Other risk in the project team is lack of management. This risk can be reduced by using different
management software to improve the time management and process management for the project
of Big Data Analytics software development. The skills of the employees or team members are
important for the project team for the quality and performance of product software. This issue of
lack of skills in the employees can be minimized by providing them with effective training and
development sessions. Communication issues between the employees can be reduced by
organizing different activities which are designed by HRM to improve the communication
between employees (Wang, Kung and Byrd, 2018). The conflicts with in the team can be
reduced by providing equal opportunity to the team members and task allocation with in the team
also need to be equal for satisfaction of employees.
System Implementation
The different stages of system implementation for the project development are
Exploration, installation, initial implementation and full implementation. The Exploration
process if consists of assessing the needs of the system, intervention of components for
implementation, consideration of the implementation driver and assess the fitting of the
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implementation process. The installation process id consisting of acquiring the resources to
prepare the implementation process, make the TCS ready to implementation of the system and
prepare the staff of the company to work on the Big Data Analytics software. In the initial stage
of implementation is important for the project team cause the efficiency of software is depended
on this stage cause it is consists of implementation of drivers, changes in the traditional system
and initiative for the change cycle also implemented for further process (Fan, Zhu and Liu,
2018). In the final implementation process monitoring and managing of the driver is performed.
Benchmarking is prepared for the functionality of the software in the TCS. The outcomes of the
software are analysed to check the efficiency of the system.
Success Criteria
The different criterion of the project are Schedule, Quality, cost stake holder satisfaction.
The performance of the project is judged on these measures. If the task is running as per the
schedule that is decided by the management. Management of task and timing of completion
reduce the cost to the company and improve their capability to perform different tasks with in the
time line (Mallet, 2018). The quality of work is important for both organization and project
development team,. As per the quality of software developed by the project team the success and
failure of organization is judged. After the quality of the project the main thing is how much the
particular task cost the company. The efficiency of project also judged by criterion of cost or
expenses to the company.
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ACTIVITY 2
Following a project plan
Project plan is the formal document that is designed for guiding and controlling as well
execution of the project, it is the key to success of computing projects and is the most important
document that is needed to created when new project is started (Botta and et.al., 2016). A proper
plan was followed in order to implement the computing project there were various step involved
in the project plan for the successful implementation of the project which are as follows:
Step 1: It was really important to identify the key stake holders of the project, for whom this
computing project is done. Common examples of key stakeholders are project sponsors, users of
the project, project managers, customers etc (Project Plan, 2019). Once stakeholders are
identified then it was important to their needs. In order to identify the needs of the stakeholder an
interview was conducted and then their needs were prioritised and clear goals were set for the
project.
Step 2: Once goals were defined in step 1 then list of project needs were created in order to
deliver to meet goals of the computing project. Delivery dates during the scheduling phase were
accurately established and it was also specified how and when to deliver each item.
Step 3: In third step list of tasks were carried out for each deliverables which were defined in
step 2 and for each task following were determined
 Amount of efforts like hours and days required for completing task.
 Resources required for carrying out the task.
At this planning stage suitable software packages were chosen in order to analyse the data
of TCS various data analytics software were chosen like Microsoft HDInsight and Skytree. Also,
Microsoft Project was used in order to create project schedules. One of major challenge at this
stage was imposing the deadline of the project.
Step 4: In the fourth stage supporting plans for the projects were crated which included:
Human resource planning: Total number of team members were decided in order to conduct the
project and various roles and responsibilities where assigned to them (Hillson, 2017). Also,
leader of the project was chosen in order to guide and support throughout the project.
Communication plans: Proper communication plan was developed by creating a document
which showed who is to be kept informed during the project and who will receive the
information.

Risk Management plan: This was the important part of the project, various risks were taken
into consideration like:
 Cost estimates.
 Time.
 Unclear team roles.
 Poor communication.
 Computing Errors.
 Lack of resources.
 Unfamiliarity with software
Managing the risks and issues of the project
During the project there were various risk and issued faced and it was really important to
minimise these risk and overcome these issues. In order to minimise these risks and issues proper
mitigation plan was developed was developed which is defined as:
Risk/Issues Impact Action Plan
Cost Estimates Any errors in cost estimate of the
project will have a strong impact
on the project. Poor estimation of
cost may result in poor quality of
research.
Proper budgeting plan was
developed and costs of each
task was estimated in order to
overcome this risk.
Time Time is the major factor for this
project (Whyte, Stasis, and
Lindkvist, 2016). Delays in
project will increase the cost of
project and may result in increase
in pressure on team if there are
any delays in tasks.
In order to overcome this risk
proper Gantt chart was
developed which included
various task with specific dates
of completing them (Butler,
Vijayasarathy and Roberts,
2019).
Unclear role This may have resulted in
conflicting situations among the
team members of the project
which can delay or suspension of
Roles and responsibilities were
properly documented and
members were made
understand proper what are the
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project. goals and objectives of project.
Poor communication Poor communication could have
resulted in confusions and lack of
collaboration within the team.
Proper communication
strategy was formulated and
effective communication was
set within the team members in
which leader of played an
important role.
Computing Errors Computing errors would have put
the project in the wrong direction
and goals and objectives of the
project would not have been
achieved (Magoulès, Pan and
Teng, 2016.).
In order to overcome this
issues suitable data analytical
tools were used which are the
best software for computation.
Lack of resources Lack of proper resources for the
project will result in hindrances
and decrease the quality of
project.
Proper resource planning was
done which included the
human resource planning and
tools used in the project.
Unfamiliarity with
software
Unfamiliarity of the software was
the major issue of the project as it
would have resulted in the
stoppage of project.
Before using the software team
was made familiar with
software and where understand
how to use it for computing
process.
Communication Methods
For any project communication is critical factor for project management effective
communication methods helps in fulfilling the communication gaps, various methods of
communication which were used to communicate with client during research. It includes the
following:
Push communication: It is a type of a communication in which communication will be passed
to the client about the progress of the project where the feedback will not be required. Leader of
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