Computing Problem Solving Report: Website Development and Training

This report details a computing problem-solving approach for developing a secure e-commerce website and training IT and sales staff for a UK-based plumbing merchant expanding into Germany. The project, with a budget of £60,000, involves creating a website with an interactive interface for online product viewing, ordering, and secure payments. The report outlines a comprehensive project plan, including feasibility studies, requirement analysis, implementation, testing, and staff training. It defines the problem of developing a user-friendly and secure website, establishes selection criteria for experienced project managers, multilingual content, and robust security measures, and details the selection process involving resource allocation and a planned project management approach. The solution involves detailed research, a phased project lifecycle, and the use of cryptographic techniques to ensure website security and functionality, aiming to equip staff with the necessary skills for website operation and management. The project's success hinges on effective planning, problem definition, and the implementation of a well-structured training program.

Running head: COMPUTING PROBLEM SOLVING
Computing Problem Solving
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
1. The Project Plan...........................................................................................................................2
2. The Problem Solving Process......................................................................................................5
2.1. Problem Definition...............................................................................................................6
2.1. Identifying selection Criteria................................................................................................6
2.2. Process of selection...............................................................................................................7
2.3. Statement and details of solution..........................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
A plumbers’ merchant based on UK that supplies plumbing and bathroom products to
public all over the UK, is currently planning to expand their business in Germany. The company
has an objective to open 15 new branches and a regional office in Germany. Apart from this, the
company has decided to create an e commerce website that will allow the customers to view and
order products online. The project aims at developing a secure website along with imparting
training to the IT staffs in the new regional office, for which, a budget of £60,000. This allocated
budget should be spent effectively in order to get a better result. The report discusses in details
the plan for developing the secure website with a detailed work break down structure of a project
development life cycle. It further discusses the problem definition, the proper selection criteria
for getting best results, process of selection and detailed solution (Kerzner 2013).
1. The Project Plan
The main objective of this project is to create a secure website with an interactive
interface to allow the customers and users to view products online, check the stock availability,
submit orders and make secure payments. The business is new in Germany and therefore, the
process of website development should undergo extensive research work, in order to develop a
website that would be useful to the people of Germany. Furthermore, it is necessary to train the
IT and sales staffs to make them competent in using the website. This is a part of the project as
well. The estimated budget for the project is £60,000. A project plan is laid in accordance to the
budget and project requirements. The schedule and the activities of the project involving the
development of an online website and training the staffs are elaborated below (Tasevska, Damij
and Damij 2014)-

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WBS Task Name Duration Start Finish
0 Website Development and Training 86 days Wed 15-11-17 Wed 14-03-18
1 Project Starts 0 days Wed 15-11-17 Wed 15-11-17
2 Feasibility Study 6 days Wed 15-11-17 Wed 22-11-17
2.1 Performing the Technical Feasibility of
the Website 2 days Wed 15-11-17 Thu 16-11-17
2.2 Performing the Economic Feasibility 2 days Fri 17-11-17 Mon 20-11-17
2.3 Performing the Operational Feasibility 2 days Tue 21-11-17 Wed 22-11-17
3 Requirement Analysis 7 days Thu 23-11-17 Fri 01-12-17
3.1 Understanding the basic requirement of
the website 2 days Thu 23-11-17 Fri 24-11-17
3.2 Discussion with the project team
members 3 days Mon 27-11-17 Wed 29-11-17
3.3 Documenting the requirements 2 days Thu 30-11-17 Fri 01-12-17
4 Planning 13 days Mon 04-12-17 Wed 20-12-17
4.1 Evaluating the Technical requirements
of the website 2 days Mon 04-12-17 Tue 05-12-17
4.2 Understanding the resource
requirements 3 days Wed 06-12-17 Fri 08-12-17
4.3 Estimating the time required 2 days Mon 11-12-17 Tue 12-12-17
4.4 documenting the report 4 days Wed 13-12-17 Mon 18-12-17
4.5 sharing documents with client 1 day Tue 19-12-17 Tue 19-12-17
4.6 Client's Approval 1 day Wed 20-12-17 Wed 20-12-17
5 Implementation 19 days Thu 21-12-17 Tue 16-01-18
5.1 Framework 11 days Thu 21-12-17 Thu 04-01-18
5.1.1 Designing a simple interface 4 days Thu 21-12-17 Tue 26-12-17
5.1.2 Coding 7 days Wed 27-12-17 Thu 04-01-18
5.2 Database 8 days Fri 05-01-18 Tue 16-01-18
5.2.1 Designing the database 2 days Fri 05-01-18 Mon 08-01-18
5.2.2 Coding 3 days Tue 09-01-18 Thu 11-01-18
5.2.3 Sending a prototype to client to check
with the features 1 day Fri 12-01-18 Fri 12-01-18
5.2.4 Client's Approval 1 day Mon 15-01-18 Mon 15-01-18
5.2.5 Implementing Changes (if required) 1 day Tue 16-01-18 Tue 16-01-18
6 Testing 12 days Wed 17-01-18 Thu 01-02-18
6.1 Performing Unit Testing 2 days Wed 17-01-18 Thu 18-01-18
6.2 Performing Black-box and white box
testing of the website 2 days Fri 19-01-18 Mon 22-01-18
6.3 Performance and usability Testing 1 day Tue 23-01-18 Tue 23-01-18
6.4 Integration Testing 2 days Wed 24-01-18 Thu 25-01-18
6.5 User Acceptance testing 3 days Fri 26-01-18 Tue 30-01-18
6.6 Debugging( in case required) 2 days Wed 31-01-18 Thu 01-02-18

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7 Go-Live 5 days Fri 02-02-18 Thu 08-02-18
7.1 software demonstration 1 day Fri 02-02-18 Fri 02-02-18
7.2 Training the users 2 days Mon 05-02-18 Tue 06-02-18
7.3 Project executed by client 1 day Wed 07-02-18 Wed 07-02-18
7.4 Debugging( if required) 1 day Thu 08-02-18 Thu 08-02-18
8 Training the IT and Sales Staffs 14 days Fri 09-02-18 Wed 28-02-18
8.1 Arranging training sessions 2 days Fri 09-02-18 Mon 12-02-18
8.2 demonstrating the use and application of
the website to the staffs 5 days Tue 13-02-18 Mon 19-02-18
8.3 Training the staffs about the control of
the back end of the website 7 days Tue 20-02-18 Wed 28-02-18
9 Project Handover 10 days Thu 01-03-18 Wed 14-03-18
9.1 Documents Archive 1 day Thu 01-03-18 Thu 01-03-18
9.2 Completing the Payment 3 days Fri 02-03-18 Tue 06-03-18
9.3 Releasing the resources 1 day Wed 07-03-18 Wed 07-03-18
9.4 Client Signoff 3 days Thu 08-03-18 Mon 12-03-18
9.5 Client's feedback 2 days Tue 13-03-18 Wed 14-03-18
10 Project ends 0 days Wed 14-03-18 Wed 14-03-18
Table 1: Representing the work break down activities of the Project Plan
(Source: Created by Author using MS Project)

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Figure 1: Representing the Gantt chart of the Project Plan
(Source: Created by author using MS Project)
2. The Problem Solving Process

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COMPUTING PROBLEM SOLVING
The budget allocated by the senior management of the team will be available only if the
detailed project plan is approved. The budget allocated for the project should be spent in a
planned approach in order to get an appropriate result.
2.1. Problem Definition
The major challenge in developing the website is creating a simple user interface so that
customers can view the products online in order to place an order or check the availability of the
stock. The website should incorporate secure payment gateway. The project aims at developing a
new and secure website. The website development should be planned according to the budget,
which is £60,000. This allocated budget is sufficient enough to develop a website with rich
graphics and meaningful content with an user-friendly approach.
The problem is that, the business would be completely new for Germany branches and
therefore, there is little scope of errors. The website should be secure enough for hassle free
transactions. Designing of a proper database is another important part of the website
development. Connection to the database is an important part of a website development, as it is
required to store and manage the customers’ data. Furthermore, it allows the users to perform
different functions in the website with ease. Another major objective of this project is to train the
IT and the sales staffs in using the website. Proper demonstration about the website and
arranging a training session is needed for the purpose.
2.1. Identifying selection Criteria
The selection criteria of the project are based on developing the best website with the
allocated budget.

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Appointment of project manager: The selection criteria therefore include appointment of
a well-experienced project manager who has a considerable experience in handling software
projects. The project team members should include experienced designer and coder for coding
and designing the website as per requirements.
Multilingual web content: Since the business is completely new in Germany, there is
very little scope for errors. Developing a multilingual website is a good idea as people in
Germany speak a number of languages, such as German, Sorbian North Frisian and so on.
Security and Privacy: The website should be secure enough to store the confidential data
of the customers and therefore proper security methods of encryption and cryptography should
be incorporated in the website coding (Kulkarni 2013). The key selection criterion of the project,
apart from developing the website is training the staffs about the operation of the website. This
would need selection of a proper trainer and arranging a training program.
Therefore, it can be said that the selection criteria for problem solving should aim at
identification of the elements that would be required for developing the website as per
requirements.
2.2. Process of selection
An extensive research about the plumbing goods market is necessary to understand,
which products would best sell in the market. A detailed project plan has to be laid before
implementation of the project, which includes breakdown of the entire project of website
development into number of phases.

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Feasibility study: The process of selection includes performing a proper feasibility study
of the project in accordance to the project requirements. The content of the website should be
strategically estimated, which includes the number of pages the website is going to have, the
style of design, the copywriting of the pages, integration to the website and secure e commerce
functionality. For this website, the number of pages is estimated to be at least 250.
The resource allocation is another necessary step that is needed to be planned before the
implementation of the project, as the project cannot go over budget. The project includes training
the staffs and therefore, adequate resources must be allocated for that task as well (Saunders and
Lewis 2012).
Use of planned approach: The possible solution to the problem identified is a planned
approach of project management in project implementation. The problems are to be evaluated on
a technical ground and proper solutions are to be discussed with the project manager and the
team members. The entire project life cycle is needed to be planned properly in order to
implement the project within the scheduled time. A business analyst has to be appointed in order
to evaluate the business perspective of the project and the website that is needed to be developed.
The requirement analysis and the planning phase of the project that is mentioned in the project
plan is a critical aspect of selection procedure of the project. The website thus designed should
undergo different testing phases for elimination of the bugs if present in the system (Larson and
Gray 2013).
2.3. Statement and details of solution
Therefore, the identified problems or the challenges that is associated with the project can
be solved by doing a proper research and understanding the feasibility of the project. The project

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COMPUTING PROBLEM SOLVING
manager is an important part of the project, who will be responsible for the planning, managing,
monitoring and control the project from project initiation to project completion (Burke 2013).
An experienced trainer would be required to impart training to the IT and sales staffs and
demonstrate them the use and control of the back end of the website) (Sternberg and Frensch
2014).
Ensuring the security of the website is another major aspect of this project as the website
should incorporate an option of secure payment. This can be achieved by ensuring proper
cryptographic techniques in the website to be developed (Biham and Shamir 2012).
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that implementing project
according to a detailed plan is a major problem solving aspect a project. The report includes a
detailed plan and schedule for development of a website and training the IT and sales staffs. The
report further discusses the problem definition of the project, the selection criteria and the
process of selection. The report concludes with the details of the solution that should be
undertaken in order to implement the project successfully.

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References
Biham, E. and Shamir, A., 2012. Differential cryptanalysis of the data encryption standard.
Springer Science & Business Media.
Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
Kerzner, H., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kulkarni, P.P., 2013. A literature review on training & development and quality of work
life. Researchers World, 4(2), p.136.
Larson, E.W. and Gray, C., 2013. Project Management: The Managerial Process with MS
Project. McGraw-Hill.
Saunders, M.N. and Lewis, P., 2012. Doing research in business & management: An essential
guide to planning your project. Pearson.
Sternberg, R.J. and Frensch, P.A., 2014. Complex problem solving: Principles and mechanisms.
Psychology Press.
Tasevska, F., Damij, T. and Damij, N., 2014. Project planning practices based on enterprise
resource planning systems in small and medium enterprises—A case study from the Republic of
Macedonia. International journal of project management, 32(3), pp.529-539.