Musicana Project: Software System for Music Teachers - Overview

The Musicana project outlines the development of a software system aimed at assisting self-employed music teachers with their administrative tasks. The system, accessible via desktop and mobile devices, is designed to streamline lesson scheduling, student/parent management, billing, and messaging. The project details the requirements for teachers, students, and parents, including features such as schedule management, course information access, and payment processing. The project follows a 3-tier design and a waterfall approach, encompassing initiation, planning, implementation, and closure phases. The report includes a work breakdown structure, Gantt chart, and references, concluding that the software has the potential to significantly benefit music teachers and the IT team involved. The software provides a messaging system for communication and non-functional requirements such as security, user-friendly interfaces, and scalability. The project implementation plan includes business analysis, requirement setting, software testing, and user training. The project aims to improve the efficiency of music teachers by automating administrative tasks.

Musicana
Software System for Music Teachers
Project Overview
8/25/2017

MUSICANA Project
Project Introduction.....................................................................................................................................2
Project Overview.........................................................................................................................................3
For Teachers............................................................................................................................................3
For Students.............................................................................................................................................4
For Parents...............................................................................................................................................4
The messaging system.................................................................................................................................4
The non-functional requirements of Musicana............................................................................................4
Software Implementation plan.....................................................................................................................5
Project life cycle..........................................................................................................................................5
Initiation Phase........................................................................................................................................5
Planning Phase........................................................................................................................................5
Implementation Phase..............................................................................................................................6
Closure Phase..........................................................................................................................................6
Work Breakdown Structure.........................................................................................................................7
Gantt chart...................................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................10
References.................................................................................................................................................11
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MUSICANA Project
Project Introduction
Self-employed music teachers are busy teaching music lessons to their students and they
have tremendous time pressure to schedule, communicate about and organize music
lessons (Cheng & Leong 2017. A few music teachers living in Adelaide area have
approached the IT students to create software for them that can be used in a desk top
machine as well as in a Smartphone. The IT students have named this project Musicana
and are intending to make it a standard software package that can be offered to individual
music teachers. The software must help the teachers to spend more time teaching and less
time in class administration.
Project Overview
The goal of Musicana project is to develop and implement a system that can be accessed
by both standard HTML browsers and new generation mobile devices. Since the
standards of web application and mobile devices are distinct, the software needs to be
coded differently for both the application. But, this proposal focuses on the desk top
application. Both applications share the same database, so that the students can access
information from both applications i.e. desk top and mobile phone. Musicana is an IT
tool that can be used by music teachers, students and their parents. Music teachers will
schedule the classes which will be automatically communicated to the students or
parents. The music teacher can change the data and schedules. Students and parents are
users who can assess data and information but cannot change them. However, they can
leave messages and files for the teacher to review. Students and parent can access both
applications i.e. HTML and mobile.
Project requirements
The following are the specifications and requirements of the proposed software
(Musicana).
For Teachers
 Manage Lesson Schedules
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MUSICANA Project
 Manage Students / parents
 Manage Billing
 Manage Personal branding
 Mange messaging services
For Students
 Update personal details
 Search courses, lessons and music information
 Access lesson schedules and history
 Submit practice lessons
 Send messages to the music teacher
 Manage payments
For Parents
 Access Schedules, attendance and evaluations of the student
 Send message to the teacher
 Manage payments
The messaging system
The messaging system is critical part of this software. The music teachers can set their
schedules and students/parents can access information and view notices about schedules
and changes. The system will provide messages in two ways. Context specific messages
sent by teachers, students or parents to a specific receiver or to the group. Automatic
messages based on the rules set by the teacher or system administrator. Each time a data
base is updated; an appropriate message will be generated and sent to the relevant users.
The non-functional requirements of Musicana
 Secure student /parent Authentication
 Faster data retrieval, storage and updating
 user friendly interfaces
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MUSICANA Project
 Scalability features
 Data Backup and protection
 Safe and secure transactions and communications
 Accurate report generation
Software Implementation plan
The proposed system is to be developed in a 3-tier-design. The first tier is Data tier,
which is the lowest one and contains database. The second layer is data access tier with
an intermediary functional role. And the highest tier is presentation tier which is visible
to the users and uses graphical user interface.
Project life cycle
Every project has a beginning, a middle phase and an end (Turner 2016). The
professionals have acknowledged that there are four major stages for project i.e.
initiation, planning, implementation and closure. These four steps are also called project
life cycle.
Initiation Phase
In this phase, the project objective or need is discovered through observation or interview
with the key stakeholders of the project. The critical needs, problems and issues of the
users are identified and documented in this stage. In the Musicana project, the needs,
issues and problems of music teachers, students and parents need to be identified. After
establishing the project need, the project scope and deliverables must be verified with the
users.
Planning Phase
The second stage of project implementation involves planning the project. The team
members identify the work to be carried out to achieve the goals of the project. Along
with detailed work structure, the resources required and the time frames to complete the
activities are estimated. Risk analysis is also part of this phase.
In the current project, the planning phase includes the following activities.
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MUSICANA Project
 Conducting business / system analysis
 Identification of needs and setting objectives
 Developing project requirements
 Planning the project
 Monitoring the progress of the project
 Testing and debugging the software
 Installation of software and training to the users
 Following up the actual use of the software
 Evaluate the IT product and make changes to the software
Implementation Phase
This phase is the core of the project. Actual work is carried out and the progress of the
project is monitored in this stage (Markovic, Mihić & Obradović 2017). The project
manager has critical role in this phase to coordinate and integrate the work done. All
project participants must be informed about the project progress and their works must be
incorporated into the system.
In Musicana project, the software team must develop modules as per the requirements i.e.
scheduling, student management, billing function and messaging tool.
Closure Phase
After completing the software coding and testing, the system may be installed and
training to the users may be provided. Apart from providing the software, the project
manager must obtain a satisfaction letter as testimonial to the project. The insights and
lesson learnt from the project also need to be documented before closing the project.
The Musicana project may be ended by taking the final feedback from the users i.e.
teachers, students and parents.
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MUSICANA Project
Work Breakdown Structure
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MUSICANA Project
Gantt chart
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MUSICANA Project
The project follows waterfall approach, hence all the tasks are executed in linear way. This will
result in almost every task on critical path which shown below:
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MUSICANA Project
Conclusion
Software to help the music teachers to monitor the music classes, send reminders and
messages to the students, organize music events, and track payments would be highly
beneficial. There are more than hundred music teachers in Adelaide and the national
figure indicates a few thousand teachers are available in Australia. By developing this
software, the IT team is not only making temporary income but also has tremendous
scope become world leader in music teacher assistance.
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References
Cheng, L. and Leong, S., 2017. Educational affordances and learning design in music software
development. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, pp.1-13.
Markovic, G., Mihić, M. and Obradović, V., 2017. Implementation of project management
concept into industrial energetics: Case study in paper factory. Management: Journal of
Sustainable Business and Management Solutions in Emerging Economies, 20(75), pp.27-37.
Turner, R., 2016. Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.
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