Picoso: Mobile Application Development, WBS, and Outsourcing Report

This report examines the strategic decision of Picoso, a Mexican restaurant franchise, to develop a mobile application to enhance its business operations and expand its customer base, particularly through home delivery services. It begins by highlighting the advantages of a mobile app over a website, such as increased visibility, ease of accessibility, and improved customer engagement. The report then details the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for the mobile application's development, outlining the project's phases and activities. Finally, it evaluates different development alternatives, including commercial off-the-shelf software, customized software, and outsourcing, recommending the outsourcing approach for its cost-effectiveness and ability to meet Picoso's specific requirements. The report emphasizes the importance of continuous improvement and strategic planning to ensure the success of the mobile application and overall business growth.

Introduction to System Design
Picoso
10/5/2017

Introduction to System Design
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Benefits of Mobile Application...................................................................................................................3
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).............................................................................................................5
Alternatives to in-house Development.........................................................................................................7
Commercial Off-the-shelf Software........................................................................................................7
Customized Software or Application.......................................................................................................7
Outsourcing the Development Process....................................................................................................7
Recommendations & Conclusions...............................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction to System Design
Introduction
Picoso is a Mexican restaurant franchise that has a number of operating locations on the
Sunshine coast. The franchise carries out its strategic analysis annually and in the latest process,
it has been identified that the home delivery services shall be added to the list of business
operations. It has also been recommended that a mobile application shall be developed for Picoso
in order to attract a wider range of customers. The report covers the benefits that the mobile
application may offer to the business unit along with the work breakdown structure and the
development method that shall be used.
Benefits of Mobile Application
Picoso currently has a website that the customers may use for placement of the orders for pick-
up. The mobile presence is not currently associated with the company and therefore, it has been
proposed to develop a mobile app for Picoso.
There are several benefits that the mobile application may offer to the company in comparison
with the website.
 Visibility and ease of accessibility are the two primary parameters that can assist the
growth of a business. In case of Picoso, the business organization does not have any
visibility on the mobile platform. The customers in the present time prefer the use of
mobile devices, such as tablets and Smartphones instead of desktops. These devices can
be easily carried anywhere and the applications can also be accessed at any point of time.
The development of the mobile application for Picoso will enhance its visibility along
with the ease of accessibility for the customers (Ventola, 2014).
 The customers expect the business units to be reachable at any point of time. This also
enhances the customer engagement with a particular organization. In case of a website,
the customers are dependent upon the specific time period wherein they may access the
site with the aid of a computer system to contact the business unit. However, with the
mobile app, the users may contact the business units from any location. This leads to the
enhancement of the customer engagement level (Morris et al., 2016).
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Introduction to System Design
 There are various restaurant chains and setups that are available for the customers in the
market. In order to make sure that Picoso gains and maintains a competitive edge in the
market, it becomes necessary to ensure that latest technological aspects and customer
demands are met. The mobile applications have been an integral technological
component for the business units to achieve a competitive advantage which is no longer
possible with the websites (Islam, 2010).
 Mobile applications can also be used for integrating the customer information and details
with the social media platforms. There is a lot of information that is available on these
platforms that may assist Picoso in understanding the customer needs and preferences.
The integration of the social media apps is easier on mobile applications as compared to
the websites.
 There are additional steps that are involved in accessing the websites. This includes the
opening of a web browser, entering the URL in the browser and then accessing the site.
However, the access to the mobile application can be simply done by clicking on the icon
of the app. There are lesser steps involved in the process which is as per the need of the
customers to have a quick access to the services (Ally, 2013).
 There is a lot of information that can be gained through the mobile applications in terms
of the location of the users. Picoso may get an idea of the preferred food items being
ordered from the people of a specific area. This may also help in the better designing of
the home delivery services and strategies associated with the same. Geo-tagging and geo-
targeting can be easily executed and experienced in case of the mobile applications as
compared to the websites.
 Mobile applications can also be used by Picoso for generating alerts and reminders for
the users regarding their food orders. Such a utility cannot be made possible through a
website; however, it can be simply done by adding notifications in the mobile
applications (Corral, 2012).
 Customers in the present times prefer the payments to be done by using mobile
applications. It is because the mobile payments are safe and secure.
 The payments can also be made by using the QR codes which is possible only in case of
the mobile application or use of mobile device for payments.
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Introduction to System Design
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Work Breakdown Structure is also known as WBS and it is a project deliverable that displays
and organizes the project activities in the form of different packages that can be easily managed.
It is a hierarchical decomposition of all of the project tasks and activities in the form of project
packages and sub-packages.
In order to design the WBS for a project, the project team members analyze all of the project
tasks and activities that need to be accomplished and the same is represented by using a
hierarchical decomposition (Khera, Ransom and Speth, 2013).
In case of Picoso, the project involves the development of a mobile application for the business
including the home delivery services as well.
There will be four phases that will be involved in the mobile application development for Picoso.
These four phases along with their specific set of activities have been displayed in the WBS that
is designed for Picoso.
The four phases of the project include initiation and planning, execution, implementation &
testing and the closure phase. All these four phases have their own activities which have been
represented in the form of sub-packages (Indelicato, 2010).
The WBS for Picoso mobile application development project has been represented in the form of
a 3-level WBS and has been represented below.
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Introduction to System Design
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Picoso - Mobile
Application
Development
Initiation and
Planning
Feasibility Study
Project
Estimations
Risk Assessment
Allocation of
roles and
responsibilities
Communication
Planning
Milestone One:
Project Plan
Execution
Application UI
and Wireframes
Interactivity
Tools Set-up
Source code
Syncing with
analytical tools
and database
Unit testing
Source code
release
Milestone Two:
Source Code
Implementation
& Testing
Test Creation
and Execution
Mobile app
testing and
defect reporting
Management of
the changes
Walkthroughs
and Reviews
Module
integration
Milestone Three:
Defect Report
Closure Phase
Documentation
Activties
Acceptance of
Deliverables
Closure Report
Preparation
Milestone Four:
Closure Report

Introduction to System Design
Alternatives to in-house Development
Picoso is a restaurant chain and the majority of the workforce that is engaged with the
organization is from the non-technical background.
The in-house development of the application will demand deployment of the external resources
to complete the tasks and activities and there will also be a lot of infrastructural cost that will be
involved.
There are several other mechanisms that may be used for this purpose that have been listed and
described below with their pros and cons.
Commercial Off-the-shelf Software
There are many ready to use applications and software packages that are available in the market
that may be acquired and used by Picoso. This will provide advantages in terms of the quick
deployment and easy maintenance and support. However, the requirements as desired by the
Picoso team may be partially met in this case (Ur and Ziv, 2015). The cost of these applications
may also be higher as compared to other methods that may be used for application development.
Customized Software or Application
There are vendors and mobile application developers available in the market that may agree to
customize an already developed application.
It would be required to provide the developers with the specifications and requirements that need
to be changes and upgraded. In this manner, the application that will be developed will be in
accordance with the demands of Picoso. However, this will be a costly process since there will
be a lot of additional costs that may be involved in terms of the cost of changes, resource and
operational costs, infrastructure costs etc.
Outsourcing the Development Process
Outsourcing of the application may be done by Picoso to a third party in the market. The
requirements and specifications along with the functionalities that need to be covered in the
application shall be provided to the third party and the budget and schedule associated with the
project shall also be provided (Lilley, 2014).
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Introduction to System Design
The cost of the infrastructure would be absent in this case as the development process will be
carried out at the third party location. The requirements will be completely met as the
representative of Picoso will be informed about the project progress at all stages.
There may be issues of information security that may crop up in association with the production
data. However, it may be avoided by developing a legal contract with the third party to keep the
information protected and secured as per the Intellectual Property laws.
Recommendations & Conclusions
After analyzing the needs of Picoso and the specifications of the mobile application, the method
that has been recommended is the outsourcing of the application to a third-party. The
recommendation has been made because of the benefits that this method will provide to Picoso.
There will complete adherence to the functional and non-functional requirements and the
infrastructure costs will be avoided. The maintenance and support activities will also be carried
out by the third party developers only.
The decision that has been taken by Picoso to develop a mobile application and inclusion of
home delivery services will enhance the customer base associated with Picoso. There shall be a
continuous improvement process carried out in Picoso to identify and understand the needs of the
customers and develop the strategies and decisions accordingly. There shall also be adequate
planning and monitoring carried out by the management and leadership to avoid any errors or
major flaws and deviations.
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Introduction to System Design
References
Ally, M. (2013). Use of Mobile Learning Apps in Workplace Learning. [online] Available at:
http://www.ieeetclt.org/issues/october2013/Ally.pdf [Accessed 5 Oct. 2017].
Corral, L. (2012). Potential advantages and disadvantages of multiplatform development
frameworks – A vision on mobile environments. [online] Ac.els-cdn.com. Available at:
https://ac.els-cdn.com/S1877050912005303/1-s2.0-S1877050912005303-main.pdf?
_tid=4673973a-a9cd-11e7-9751-
00000aab0f6b&acdnat=1507208657_510f8176c7bddcc6aa39d4b1fd570160 [Accessed 5 Oct.
2017].
Indelicato, G. (2010). Work breakdown structures: The foundation for project management
excellence. Project Management Journal, 41(3), pp.101-101.
Islam, M. (2010). Mobile Application and Its Global Impact. [online] Available at:
http://www.ijens.org/107506-0909%20ijet-ijens.pdf [Accessed 5 Oct. 2017].
Khera, R., Ransom, P. and Speth, T. (2013). Using Work Breakdown Structure Models to
Develop Unit Treatment Costs. Journal - American Water Works Association, 105, pp.E628-
E641.
Lilley, J. (2014). Outsourcing benefits and pitfalls. [online] Available at: https://www.stm-
assoc.org/2014_12_04_E_Production_Seminar_Lilley_Outsourcing_benefits_and_pitfalls.pdf
[Accessed 5 Oct. 2017].
Morris, N., Lambe, J., Ciccone, J. and Swinnerton, B. (2016). Mobile technology: students
perceived benefits of apps for learning neuroanatomy. [online] Available at:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcal.12144/abstract [Accessed 5 Oct. 2017].
Ur, S. and Ziv, A. (2015). Off-The-Shelf Vs. Custom Made Coverage Models, Which Is The One
for You?. [online] Available at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?
doi=10.1.1.69.8822&rep=rep1&type=pdf [Accessed 5 Oct. 2017].
Ventola, C. (2014). Mobile Devices and Apps for Health Care Professionals: Uses and Benefits.
[online] Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4029126/ [Accessed 5
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