Design of E-Commerce Applications: Aussie Vacancies Project Analysis

This project analyzes the design of e-commerce applications for Aussie Vacancies, a travel agency. It includes an assessment of project risks, detailing market, financial, technology, people, and process risks. The assignment presents a Net Present Value (NPV) analysis using an Excel spreadsheet to evaluate the project's financial feasibility, including cost breakdowns and ROI calculations. A comprehensive Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is provided, outlining the project's phases and tasks. Furthermore, the project covers communication management, including a Stakeholder Communication Analysis (SCA) table and a Monthly Progress Report (MPR), detailing communication strategies and progress updates. The project also addresses project management tools and techniques, including a Gantt chart to visualize the project schedule.

Running head: DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
Design of E-Commerce Applications
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

1DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
Table of Contents
1. Understanding of Project Risks...................................................................................................2
2. Net Present Value (NPV) Excel Spreadsheet..............................................................................5
3. Project Work Breakdown Structure.............................................................................................6
4. Understanding of Communication Management, SCA and MPR...............................................7
5. Understanding of Project Management tools, techniques and ability.......................................11
6. Gantt chart for the Project..........................................................................................................13
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................14

2DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
1. Understanding of Project Risks
The different forms of scenarios of risks, which could be acquired within the
development work over the project are:
1. Market Risks – Based on the discussed scenario of developing of the Internet-based
booking system for Aussie Vacancies, it can be discussed that there could be several forms of
emerging risks within the market. The implementation of the software for the company would be
highly beneficial for the organisation. The information system software would be able to help the
company in gaining a foothold over the market. There are a number of users who want to make
use of the service offered by the company. The discussed project would be highly beneficial for
the company. Hence, the major form of investment should be made over the application
development scenario. Although there is a high competition in the market, the company should
develop a highly interactive and fully-functional website for supporting the needs of the
customer. A highly functional website would be helpful for supporting each of the needs of the
customer. The customer would also be able to book for the services based on required sort filters
that should be implemented within the website.
2. Financial Risks – Based on the discussion over the NPV, ROI and estimates of
payback, it can be confirmed that the project would be feasible for the organisation. The project
has an NPV of the project is 0.14. The ROI for the project is 2.06 years. During this project, the
entire investment made over the project would come as a positive return for the project. This
would help the financial phase for the project. Hence, the organisation can continue as it would
be feasible for the project. Based on the discussed project feasibility, it would be helpful for the

3DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
stakeholders to start with the project. Each of the financial resources used within the project
would be helpful for managing of the project.
3. Technology Risks – The project would be technically feasible for the company.
During the design of the project, it could be recommended that the project should make use of
bleeding edge technology. The use of this technology defines that the latest technology that
would be implemented for the website might be risky for the project. This would be mainly due
to the reason that it would not be tested with a vast number of users. Hence, the introduction of
the application service within the market could be considered as a risky approach as the user
community might not accept the product due to poor functionality or many other reasons.
Based on the design aspects, it can be confirmed that the decisions for making of designs
would be made before the start of the project. The project manager should conduct a meeting
with the in-house technical and development team. During this meeting, the appropriate
decisions based on hardware, software and network function usage would be determined. The
cost of each of the required hardware, software and other network components would be
estimated. This would be helpful for defining the project and financial plan for the project.
4. People Risks – Aussie Vacancies has a wide range of people within their company
who are highly efficient in delivering a high quality business application. Based on the
discussion about the skills owned by each person involved with the project, it can be discussed
that the technological risk category could be framed as:
Hardware Risks – The hardware resources might not be procured within the given the
proper time period. Hence, it would lead to the problem that the project might not start due to the
lack of proper project resources.

4DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
Software Risks – The software defined under the development of the project might not
be efficient and not function for the development works of the project.
Network Technology Risks – There might be a lot of network issues during the project
development phase. This might disrupt the working progress of the project.
5. Process or Structure Risks – Based on introducing the new system within the
company, it would prove to be beneficial for the company. Based within the present business
scenario, the project should be able to understand about the needs of customer groups. The
stakeholders who would be involved in the project should also be responsible for handling the
plans for the project. The project manager should be satisfied after the development of project.
The development team should be responsible for taking each of the necessary steps for the
development of the project as per the needs of the company. The testing team should also be
responsible for testing each of the components included within the project. They should have a
quality check over the system and thus they should mitigate the future risks incurred over the
project.

5DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
2. Net Present Value (NPV) Excel Spreadsheet
Project Planning and Initiation 158400
Procurement phase of the project 52000
Project Development Phase 109120
Project Risk Assessment Phase 34400
Total Cost for the project 353920
Total Cost for the project
(Figure 1: The Total costs incurred for the Project)
(Source: Created by author)
Year of Project
year 0 year1 year 2 year 3 year 4 year 5 TOTALS
Net economic benefit $0.00 $1,15,000.00 $1,15,000.00 $1,15,000.00 $1,15,000.00 $1,15,000.00
Discount Rate 8% 1 0.9259 0.8573 0.7938 0.7350 0.6806
PV Of Benefits $0.00 $1,06,481.48 $98,593.96 $91,290.71 $84,528.43 $78,267.07
NPV of all BENEFITS $0.00 $1,06,481.48 $2,05,075.45 $2,96,366.15 $3,80,894.59 $4,59,161.65 $14,47,979.32
One Time Costs $2,10,400.00
Recurring Costs $0.00 $200.00 $400.00 $400.00 $400.00 $400.00
Discount Rate 8% 1.0000 0.9259 0.8573 0.7938 0.7350 0.6806
PV Of Recurring Costs $0.00 $185.19 $342.94 $317.53 $294.01 $272.23
NPV Of All Costs $2,10,400.00 $2,10,585.19 $2,10,928.12 $2,11,245.65 $2,11,539.67 $2,11,811.90 $12,66,510.52
Overall NPV $1,81,468.80
Overall ROI = (Overall NPV / NPV Of All Costs 0.14
Break-Even Analysis
Yearly NPV Cash Flow $0.00 $1,06,296.30 $98,251.03 $90,973.17 $84,234.42 $77,994.83
Overall NPV Cash Flow $2,10,400.00 ($1,04,103.70) ($5,852.67) $85,120.50 $1,69,354.92 $2,47,349.76
Project break-even occurs between years 2 and 3
Use 1st year of positive cash flow to calculate break-even fraction 2.0643 years
(Figure 2: The NPV for the Project)
(Source: Created by author)

6DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
3. Project Work Breakdown Structure
Internet-based booking
system
Start of the Project Project Planning and
Initiation
Feasibility Analysis
Gathering of feedback and
surveys
Analysis of the results
Preparing the project plan
Approval of the plan
Completion of the phase
Procurement phase of the
project
Procurement of
workstations
Procurement of computer
hardware and software
Procurement of servers
Setting up of the technical
part for the project
development
Completion of the phase
Project Development
Phase
Developing the technical
plan for the project
Approval of the technical
plan
Development phase of the
project
Testing of each of the
code modules
Quality check over the
project
Completion of the phase
Project Risk Assessment
Phase
Analysis of project related
risks
Making recommendations
for the project
Creating the technical
documentation for the
project
Completion of the phase
Final Closure of the
Project
Project Sign-off
Making of final payments
Handover the project
documentation report
Closure of the project
End Project
(Figure 3: The Work Breakdown Structure for the Project)
(Source: Created by author)

7DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
4. Understanding of Communication Management, SCA and MPR
Stakeholder Communication Analysis (SCA)
Stakeholders Document name Document
Format
Contact Person Due Date
Director Monthly Status
update report
Hard copy,
meeting and
email
David Martin
and John West
22/04/2019
Manager Quality update
report
Hard copy and
email
Silvia Archer 12/06/2019
Project Manager Project charter Hard copy and
email
Richard
Vaughan
22/04/2019
Finance
Manager and
Company
Secretary
Financial
Management
Plan
Hard copy Barbara Currie 22/04/2019
Management
Accountant
Statement of
Work (SOW)
Hard copy Gail Hardie 14/05/2019
Development
Team Head
Project technical
documentation
Hard copy Richard Alan 14/05/2019
Testing Team
Head
Test update
reports
Hard copy Allen Sotsby 07/06/2019
Quality Analyst Quality
assurance report
Hard copy Norman Pierce 12/06/2019
Subject Matter
Expert
Project
documentation
Hard copy and
email
Gary Heigard 27/06/2019
Customer
Services
Manager
Email Email Jack Hunt 27/06/2019
Sales Supervisor Sales report Hard copy and
email
Helen Winter 27/06/2019
Comments: The stakeholders are regarded as the most important aspect within the project.
The stakeholders involved within Aussie Vacations are highly efficient based on
understanding the idea of project. They would be design the project plan and then executing
them. These stakeholders would also be responsible for building a positive relationship with
other organisations and people. The most important stakeholders are Development team,
Testing team and Quality Analyst team. They would also be responsible for communicating
each of the project ideas to other members involved within the team. Based on a proper

8DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
working of each of the concerned team members, it could be ensured that the designed project
would be completed in a successful way.

9DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
Monthly Progress Report (MPR)
Submitted By: Project Manager Date:
Summary of
Progress:
Based on the discussed problems about the given scenarios, it can be
discussed that the project would be progressing as per the approved project
plan. Each of the development based works over the project such as
innovating the User Interface would be necessary to be performed within
the mentioned time period.
Meetings held: Each of the concerned meetings with the stakeholders based on project
development plan, financial stability maintenance plan would be needed to
be completed within the estimated time period. The meetings would be
highly be essential for discussing over strategies that would be implemented
in order to focus over the plan of the project.
Issues discussed and
reached decisions:
Some of the issues within the project are:
1. Issue with managing the internal decision making aspect of the project.
2. There might be some kind of issues based on managing the idea of
communications within the internal team members.
3. Issues based on delivering the project within the estimated project
schedule.
4. Training requirements might not be met based on low availability of
computer resources.
Based on the discussed issues, some of the reached decisions for mitigating
the issues are:
1. The administrative department should be responsible for conducting
meetings with each of the other stakeholders. They should thus decide over
the best approaches that could help in making important decisions for the
entire team.
2. Each of the ideas collected from every stakeholders should be collected
and analysed properly. The project manager along with the upper level
management team should hold responsibility of implementing such ideas
that would be generated from each of the necessary stakeholders of the
project.
3. The project manager should develop certain ideas based on scheduling of
the project. They should also ensure that each of the objectives of the
project might be met as per the schedule of the project.
4. The computer resources required during the training implementation
period should be procured before the project start date. The project manager
should ensure that each of the training requirements have been procured

10DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
early.
Estimated
completion dates:
The estimated completion dates for each of the necessary project tasks are:
Tasks to be made
ready within specific
dates:
The time within some of the tasks would be made ready are:
Resolution of
Specific Problems:
Some of the problems that need to be resolved are:
 Issue based on project scheduling and budgeting
 Timely allocation of resources within the project
 Implementation of the best form of training plan and requirement
specifications
 Classification of communication related problems
Need of Research
Activities:
Research activities are considered as an important aspect within a project.
Different levels of research would be made within a project would be based
on analysing the problem and thus take necessary actions over them. Based
on a proper level of research, the concerned team members would perform
the project activities in successful manner.
Some of the specific research activities that need to be done are:
 Setting up of realistic plan for the project
 Preparing a technical plan
 Designing the financial budgetary plan for the concerned project
 The topic for the project should be researched.
 Feedbacks should be gathered from the administrative department in
order to detail out the decisions that need to be made by the project
members
Needs of
collaboration or
constraints in
resources:
The use of collaboration within the project team would help in
implementing the best kind of project measures. Based on the needs of
collaboration, the members within the project team would discuss about the
specific needs that would be required within the project. The various
resources obligatory within the project would be decided on an early basis.
They should also handle each of the resources that would be procured
within the project. They should keep a track over each of the resources and
thus they should maintain the project related scenarios efficiently.
Specific assistance
needs:
Based on a complex project such as the development of an application for
the company, the administrative department might hire some other technical
people within the team in order to increase the expertise of the team. Some
of the specific needs of assistance that would be included within the project
are:
 Some technical people should be involved within the team based on

11DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
proper knowledge over a particular domain of interest.
 The documentation for the entire project might be handover to the
subject matter experts who might be specially hired.
Proposed Risks and
Proposed Solutions:
Some of the potential risks incurred within the project are:
 The executives might not be efficient for supporting the project
within the later stages.
 There might be a conflict between the stakeholders that might be a
major factor for the disruption.
 The project scope might not be well structured
 The time and budget for the project might not be followed
The proposed solutions for the project are:
 The executives involved within the project should be signed for the
project based on a contract.
 The conflict among stakeholders could be improved by having a
proper level of communication with each of the members of the
team.
 The scope of project should be defined before the start of the
project. It should be approved by project management team.
 The time and budget required for the project should be defined much
before the plan for the project.
5. Understanding of Project Management tools, techniques and ability
Some of the tools based on Project management that would be required for creating the
best and appropriate diagrams for visualising information that would be necessary for the project
are:
1. Gantt chart – The tool can be defined as a proper project management bar chart that
would help the project management teams to track the tasks and arrange them in proper order.
The help of the demonstration based on Gantt chart would be helpful for describing the tasks,
phases, milestones and resources that would be needed within the project.
2. Logic Network – With the implementation of the Logic network, it would be useful
for the project team to discuss about the sequence of activities that would be made within a

12DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
project over a certain time period. With the help of the logic network, the logical activity would
be preceded followed by another activity. The help of the logic network would also help in
identification of critical path and milestones for the project. The use of the logic network would
also be helpful for understanding of dependencies within the project, workflow and timescale for
the entire project. Some of the valuable information that might be overlooked by the project team
members might get revealed with the help of this technique.
3. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) – The WBS is discussed as a hierarchical
decomposition over each of the deliverables that would highly be needed during the completion
phase of the project. The use of WBS within the project would break down each of the
deliverables into a controllable form of work packages. These work packages would be
scheduled, costed and then assigned to people involved within the project team. The WBS could
thus be defined as a standard form of project management tool that could build the base for the
planning of project.
4. Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) – The PBS can be defined as a form of
exhaustive and hierarchical tree structure based on components. This would be helpful for
delivering the project in a better manner. The PBS could be helpful for clarifying the exact
delivery of the project such that would help in contributing towards the building of the work
breakdown structure. The PRINCE2 could also be defined as a method of project management
that would be able to suggest the ways of planning for product. The PRINCE2 method would
also be used for developing the Product Breakdown Structure.
5. PERT chart – The PERT chart can be discussed as a method for the purpose of
analysing each of the tasks required during the project that would be involved for the completion
of the given project. This method could also be helpful for the completion of each of the tasks

13DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
and then identifying the minimum time that would be required for the completion of the entire
project.

14DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
6. Gantt chart for the Project
ID Outline
Number
Task
Mode
Task Name Duration Start Finish
0 0 Inte rnet-based
booking system
64 days Mon
01-04-19
Thu 27-06-19
1 1 Start of the Project 0 days Mon 01-04-19 Mon 01-04-19
2 2 Project Planning
and Initiation
16 days Mon
01-04-19
Mon
22-04-19
3 2.1 Feasibility
Analysis
4 days Mon 01-04-19 Thu 04-04-19
4 2.2 Gathering of
feedback and
surveys
6 days Mon 01-04-19 Mon 08-04-19
5 2.3 Analysis of the
results
8 days Tue 09-04-19 Thu 18-04-19
6 2.4 Preparing the
project plan
2 days Fri 19-04-19 Mon 22-04-19
7 2.5 Approval of the
plan
0 days Mon 22-04-19 Mon 22-04-19
8 2.6 Completion of the
phase
0 days Mon 22-04-19 Mon 22-04-19
9 3 Procure me nt
phase of the
project
9 days Tue
23-04-19
Fri 03-05-19
10 3.1 Procurement of
workstations
2 days Tue 23-04-19 Wed 24-04-19
11 3.2 Procurement of
computer
hardware and
software
2 days Tue 23-04-19 Wed 24-04-19
12 3.3 Procurement of
servers
2 days Thu 25-04-19 Fri 26-04-19
13 3.4 Setting up of the
technical part for
the project
development
5 days Mon 29-04-19 Fri 03-05-19
14 3.5 Completion of the
phase
0 days Fri 03-05-19 Fri 03-05-19
15 4 Project
Developme nt
Phase
28 days Mon
06-05-19
Wed
12-06-19
16 4.1 Developing the
technical plan for
the project
7 days Mon 06-05-19 Tue 14-05-19
17 4.2 Approval of the
technical plan
0 days Tue 14-05-19 Tue 14-05-19
18 4.3 Development
phase of the
project
14 days Wed 15-05-19 Mon 03-06-19
19 4.4 Testing of each of
the code modules
4 days Tue 04-06-19 Fri 07-06-19
20 4.5 Quality check
over the project
3 days Mon 10-06-19 Wed 12-06-19
21 4.6 Completion of the
phase
0 days Wed 12-06-19 Wed 12-06-19
22 5 Project Risk
Asse ssment Phase
10 days Thu
13-06-19
Wed
26-06-19
23 5.1 Analysis of
project related
risks
4 days Thu 13-06-19 Tue 18-06-19
24 5.2 Making
recommendations
for the project
1 day Wed 19-06-19 Wed 19-06-19
25 5.3 Creating the
technical
documentation for
the project
5 days Thu 20-06-19 Wed 26-06-19
26 5.4 Completion of the
phase
0 days Wed 26-06-19 Wed 26-06-19
27 6 Final Closure of
the Project
1 day Wed
26-06-19
Thu 27-06-19
28 6.1 Project Sign-off 0 days Wed 26-06-19 Wed 26-06-19
29 6.2 Making of final
payments
1 day Thu 27-06-19 Thu 27-06-19
30 6.3 Handover the
project
documentation
report
0 days Thu 27-06-19 Thu 27-06-19
31 6.4 Closure of the
project
0 days Thu 27-06-19 Thu 27-06-19
32 7 End Project 0 days Thu 27-06-19 Thu 27-06-19
01-04
Manager,Project Manager
Project Manager
Manager
Project Manager,Subject Matter Expert
22-04
22-04
Workstations[1]
Computer Hardware and Software[1]
Servers[1]
Development Team ,Subject Matter Expert
03-05
Subject Matter Expert
14-05
Development Team
Testing Team
Quality Analyst
12-06
Project Manager
Subject Matter Expert
26-06
26-06
27-06
27-06
27-06
F W M S T T S F W M S T T S F W M S T T
25 Mar '19 08 Apr '19 22 Apr '19 06 May '19 20 May '19 03 Jun '19 17 Jun '19 01 Jul '19
(Figure 4: The Gantt chart for the project)
(Source: Created by author)

15DESIGN OF E-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS
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