Project Management Assignment: Mobile App Development for QAHE

This project management assignment details the development of a mobile application for the QAHE Birmingham campus. The assignment is broken down into three parts, covering a project initiation document (PID), work breakdown structure (WBS), a simplified risk register, and a discussion on project management methodologies. Task 1a includes the PID, outlining the project's title, estimated budget, start and finish dates, objectives, and suggested agile-based approach. Task 1b presents the WBS. Assignment 2 focuses on risk management, with Task 2a presenting a simplified risk register, and Task 2b discussing the importance of a detailed risk register. Assignment 3 provides an introduction and discussion on the importance of structured communication and critiques of project management methodologies. The student also includes a stakeholder analysis, identifying key stakeholders and their interests. The assignment emphasizes the agile approach to software development, addressing potential risks and mitigation strategies throughout the project lifecycle. The assignment concludes with references to cited literature.

Running head: DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MOBILE PHONE APPLICATION
Development of a new Mobile Phone Application
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MOBILE PHONE APPLICATION
Table of Contents
Assignment 1...................................................................................................................................2
Task 1a – PID..............................................................................................................................2
Task 1b – The Work Breakdown Structure.................................................................................6
Assignment 2...................................................................................................................................7
Task 2a - Simplified Risk Register..............................................................................................7
Task 2b – Importance of a Detailed Risk Register......................................................................9
Assignment 3.................................................................................................................................10
3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................10
3.2 Discussion............................................................................................................................10
3.2.1 Importance of a Structured and Effective Communication..........................................10
3.2.2 Critique and Analysis on PM Methodologies...............................................................12
3.3 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15

2DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MOBILE PHONE APPLICATION
Assignment 1
Task 1a – PID
Title of Project – Development of a new QAHE Recreation Mobile Phone application
Estimated budget (from brief) – The budget for the project would be the result of all
forms of costs that are used within the project and at each phase. Hence, the estimated budget for
the project is £200k.
Start date – 14-04-20
Finish date – 26-05-21
Project Sponsor – To be filled by student
Project Manager – To be filled by student
Main objectives – From the primary understanding of the project, which would be
developed for the QAHE Birmingham campus, the objectives are considered as follows:
 To map each of the activities included within the QAHE campus
 Determine the best possible technologies based on which the application would be
developed
 Determining the key inclusions that would be included within the mobile application
 Completion of the project within the allocated project budget and specified time
Overall suggested approach – In the concerned case, during the development of the
mobile application for the QAHE campus, an agile-based or iterative approach would be

3DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MOBILE PHONE APPLICATION
followed (Flora 2018). In the case of the software development aspect, agile based approach
would be used, Continuous feedback and accommodating of changes towards the project would
need to be considered. Using this approach, there would be a need for close collaboration with
the different departments at the college campus that would majorly help towards developing the
application according to the specific needs of the campus.
In relation to the development of a software application for the QAHE campus, the agile
approach would thus be followed under which the certain processes that would be required to be
followed are discussed as following:
1. Defining and planning for a project approach – After been assigned to the project,
the different responsible stakeholders would be helpful for defining a proper risk management
plan, scope plan, a proper quality plan layout and different other approaches related to
scheduling of the project activities.
2. Understanding and mapping of the project and business requirements – Based on
the understanding of the needs of the QAHE campus, it can be discussed that they would require
the software application for providing daily activity notifications through the application (Brhel
et al. 2015). This application is also intended for publicising their own events and provide
external links to contact details of supervisors for the events.
3. Underlying the architecture and technical details – After the determining of
business details, the underlying architecture that would be laid would be made. This technical
report that would be laid would further focus on detailing the key steps that would need to be
done during the setting up of the project (Abrahamsson et al. 2017). Hence, the development
team would proceed accordingly towards the development of the application.

4DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MOBILE PHONE APPLICATION
Any major risks – While detailing the software application for the QAHE Birmingham
campus, the major risks that could face towards the project at the later stages are:
1. The project might not run successfully after its development has been completed.
2. The software might not tend to provide the necessary benefits as was expected during
defining the project and business plan (Qazi et al. 2016).
3. Inaccurate approach towards the management of faults during the software
development phase could lead to negative implications in the future.
4. With the starting of the project development works, more and more new requirements
might creep up, which would in turn lead to a situation of chaos within the software development
team (Gilpérez-López et al. 2017). Hence, the many number of new changes might not be
incorporated properly.
5. Due to high number of inclusion of activities or functions within the developed
software application, the software might not tend to function properly as intended. Slow loading
of different pages and other UI problems would pose a risk as students might not use the
application further.

5DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MOBILE PHONE APPLICATION
Simplified Stakeholder Analysis
Name of stakeholder Interest towards the Project Influence Power
Campus Supervisor Their major interest would be based on detailing the mapping of
business requirements for the project. They would thus be
responsible for hiring an efficient project management team who
would be responsible for designing the software application and
thus help the campus by delivering the application in proper time.
High High
Student Coordinator They would be responsible for coordinating all possible
inclusions to be made within the application. Hence, they would
work closely with the project manager and software developer to
decide over the particular features and necessary inclusion within
the application.
Medium High
Project Manager They would work closely with the software developer and tester
while determining that each possible inclusion is being made
within the software application.
High High
Software Developer Their interest would lie in developing a proper inclusion by
including all possible form of features as described by the project
manager during outlining of key project ideas.
Medium Medium
Quality Tester They would be responsible and focused over determining the
bugs within the application (Vrhovec et al. 2015). They would
thus report the bugs and the developer would work accordingly to
ensure their immediate removal.
Medium Low
Subject Matter Expert They would be focused over documenting the proper approach in
which the software was developed according to the specified
requirements.
Low Low

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Task 1b – The Work Breakdown Structure
The QAHE Recreation
mobile application
Initial Research Mapping
Preparing an initial
meeting
Discussion on the
project aspects
Defining a new plan
for the project
Understanding
available resources
Mapping of different
business requirements
Researching over
the existing
scenario of the
campus
Defining regulatory
and legal compliance
factors
Waiting for approval
of the compliance
Developing a new
technical plan and
layout
Waiting for approval
of document
verification
Hiring resources and
procurement
Hiring software
developers and
testing team
Procurement of
essential hardware
and software
Final check and
approval for project
start
Starting of development
works
Developing the
coding manual
Hardware and
Software setup
Development of the
application design
and frameworks
Working over the
network
Implementation
Testing and quality check
over the application
Development of a
test plan
Defining the new
test environment
and quality checks
Quality check over
the application
Reporting of final
results and approval
Application deployment
and installation
Importing previous
data
Understanding of the
application use to
important
stakeholders
Documentation
works of the entire
project
Paying off to
stakeholders
Project End
(Figure 1: The Work Breakdown Structure for the application development project)
(Source: Created by author)

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Assignment 2
Task 2a - Simplified Risk Register
Risk description Likelihood Impact Mitigation and Contingency Action Risk Owner
Based on the unique nature of the
software, the project manager along with
the software developer should focus on
the development continuously (Niazi et
al. 2016). Thus, too many new and
unique requirements might pose a risk for
the project manager to accommodate
such new inclusion accordingly.
High Low Based on using the agile nature of projects, the
project manager would be able to make proper
planning estimation regarding the required
changes that are expected by the student
coordinator.
Project manager
New features and inclusions that would
be made on a continuous basis would
lead to a threatening factor over the pre-
determined project timelines and
budgetary estimates. Thus, the project
might not be delivered under expected
time.
Medium High Since the project would be proceeding based on
agile formats hence, the requirement inflation
would be accepted. However, prioritization
sessions would need to be scheduled accordingly
so as to fit only the worthwhile changes.
Project manager,
software developer
During the progress of the project, key
personnel might leave midway of the
project development phase. This might
impact the ongoing project since those
personnel might be carrying some useful
information and might be lost midway of
project development phase.
Medium High Agile based projects would involve information
sharing methods that includes pair programming,
ownership of common code and frequent
reporting (Jan et al. 2016). Hence, multiple team
members would be sharing primary information
in relation to development.
Project manager
Problems might arise whenever the
project specification defined at the initial
stages in incomplete or there would be
certain conflicts within the requirement
Low Medium The agile based project would specify a subject
matter expert who would be responsible for
breaking down the project specifications and list
them down. This would help the project manager
Subject matter
expert

8DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MOBILE PHONE APPLICATION
gathering and detailing aspects. to focus carefully in understanding the specified
requirements.
Productivity in the project work and
delivery might become a factor as long
deadlines would be provided (Lei et al.
2017). Hence, the team might feel
reluctant to work accordingly.
Low Medium The project manager should prepare short time
iterations and work should be made time-boxed.
Hence, there would always be a need of urgency
to complete the project deliverable within the
specific time bounds.
Project manager
Proper designing and better UI might not
better provided. This is because
developers might focus on delivering the
main tasks without focusing on the outer
UI experience for clients.
High Medium The developers should develop the software
dedicatedly and thus they should focus on
incorporating better UI for the clients (Xu, Peak
and Prybutok 2015). This would in turn enhance
the output and ensure best customer satisfaction.
Software developer
The software developer might reduce the
system functionality based on
compensating overruns and maintaining
scheduling. This might lead to future
problems as the application might not
return the expected benefits.
Medium High Developing a proper software by including all
possible facilities should be the responsibility of
the developer (Patel and Cassou 2015).
Software developer
After the software development has been
completed, it might not be liked by the
college authorities and might be rejected
by the campus supervisor.
Low High The software should be properly reviewed by the
campus supervisor at each phase of development
and progress (Zein, Salleh and Grundy 2016).
Constant reviews and updates should be provided
and hence progressing over the next step should
be proceeded upon.
Campus supervisor,
Project manager
The project might incur a high cost after
every development phase have been
completed. This would in turn lead to
problems in paying off the stakeholders.
Low Medium The cost incurred during each phase of the
development should be carefully noted and thus
reviews should be generated accordingly.
Student coordinator,
Campus supervisor
The breach in the security within the
student’s data might hamper the
reputation of the organization. It might
also incur a tremendous loss to the
QAHE campus.
Medium High End-to-end encryption should be provided within
the software. This would allow for the reducing
of probability in the number of security attacks
happening over the system.
Software developer

9DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MOBILE PHONE APPLICATION
Task 2b – Importance of a Detailed Risk Register
A risk register can be defined as a core component within the over process of project
management. This risk register is mainly created at the initial stages of a project. Within the risk
register, the project manager would record all possible kind of risks that might incur over the
project. They should also detail out the mitigation steps based on each defined risk scenario. A
proper analysis over the plans and their related risks would be thus need to be determined. Based
on understanding over the analysis, the risks would need to be treated accordingly (Hubert et al.
2017). The risk register could be viewed and used by the project manager based on a
management tool for helping the project manager for ensuring a proper workflow over the
project processes. Hence, thus risk register should be updated at proper time intervals.
One example factor in which the project risk might be detrimental for the project when
the risk register aspects are not properly managed over the projects are that schedule of the
project might be missed. Every project would have a certain end period according to which the
project would need to be completed. Thus, the project manager should plan accordingly on the
next steps of the project. A lack in this aspect might lead to the fact that the important deadlines
would be missed and impact on the entire future aspects.

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Assignment 3
3.1 Introduction
The project is based on the different aspects of discussion for the development of a
mobile application that would be helpful for the students at the QAHE Birmingham Campus. In
order to complete the project under all possible covered deliverables, there would be a massive
need for understanding of the important inclusions to be made within the project (De Kerviler,
Demoulin and Zidda 2016). However, in order to complete the given project, there should be a
proper establishment of standard communication and use of efficient project management
methodologies.
The following parts of the report would thus focus on the discussion of the need of an
efficient and structured communication that needs to be made during the development stages of
the project. Further the discussion would also focus on the different methodologies that could be
related to the project and providing a certain recommendation over the best kind of methodology
suitable for the project.
3.2 Discussion
3.2.1 Importance of a Structured and Effective Communication
An effective kind of communication would mostly depend on the communicator of a
message for the project. Based on efficient level of communication, crucial challenges could be
diverted in an easy manner (Hoehle, Aljafari and Venkatesh 2016). Some of the primary reasons
justifying the need of an efficient and structured communication between the project manager
and different team members within the project are:

11DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW MOBILE PHONE APPLICATION
1. Proper relay of information – It would be the primary responsibility of the
stakeholders and team members for determining the information that would be necessary for
them to be informed in relation to the project. The responsibilities and roles for each team
member should be specified accordingly (Ali et al. 2017). The project manager should also
determine the project details and mention the progress of the project.
2. Receiving of genuine information – The project manager should access the
information within the project on a regular basis. There would also be stakeholders in the
concerned project who would continuously require information to be conveyed to them regarding
the progress (Othman et al. 2015). These information would include customer needs, time
constraints, plan and objectives.
3. Situational changes – Different challenges might be faced within the project based on
completing the project according to the provided specifications. In order to ensure that the
effective communication would be made across all project phases, a communication plan needs
to be prepared. This plan would comprise of all forms of information that would be
communicated at specific meetings within the project (Csapó et al. 2015). The frequency at
which communication would be made should also be specified within the project plan.
4. Discussion of problems – The project manager should properly discuss with the team
members based on understanding their problems in relation to the specific project (Hou et al.
2017). Efficient discussion with various team members should be consistent throughout the
project and hence solving of the problems would need to be performed so that the project would
be completed in a successful manner.