IT Project Management Assignment: Home Automation System Project Plan

This project management assignment details the development and implementation of a low-cost home automation system. It encompasses project goals, objectives, and both functional and non-functional requirements. The project plan includes a work breakdown structure, time estimation, resource allocation, and cost analysis. Gantt charts and network diagrams illustrate the project schedule. The report further addresses quality planning, stakeholder analysis, communication strategies, and risk management, culminating in a project deployment plan and post-project review recommendations. The project aims to reduce human labor and enhance home security through a cost-effective automation solution, emphasizing the importance of networking skills and coding expertise within the project team. The plan also includes the skills of team members, project deployment, and sign-off procedures, offering a complete overview of the project lifecycle.

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IT Project Management
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
A project is chosen that aims in development and deployment of a home automation system. The goal
of this project is to implement the project in a significantly low cost. The project planning document that
is developed provides an idea of the scope, goals and the objective of the project. The project team
members are skilled enough to execute the project as per plan. The plan development identifies the
risks that are needed to be addressed along with the stakeholders linked with the project. The details of
the project deployment and sign off is discussed. The report concludes with post project review
recommendations and recommends the need of training.

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Table of Contents
1. Goals...........................................................................................................................................4
2. Objectives...................................................................................................................................4
3. Requirements of the Project.......................................................................................................4
3.1. Functional Requirements.....................................................................................................4
3.2. Non-Functional Requirements.............................................................................................5
4. Skills and Expertise of Team Member.........................................................................................5
5. Project Plan.................................................................................................................................6
5.1. Background..........................................................................................................................6
5.2. Scope...................................................................................................................................6
5.3. Work Breakdown Structure.................................................................................................7
5.4. Time Required......................................................................................................................9
5.5. Resource Needs.................................................................................................................11
5.6. Schedule (Gantt Chart and Network Diagram)...................................................................12
5.7. Estimation of Cost..............................................................................................................15
5.8. Quality Planning.................................................................................................................17
5.9. Stakeholders’ Analysis.......................................................................................................17
5.10. Communication Planning.................................................................................................18
5.11. Risk Management............................................................................................................19
5.12. Project Deployment.........................................................................................................19
5. Project Sign off..........................................................................................................................19
6. Post Project Review and Recommendations............................................................................20
References....................................................................................................................................21

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Project Title: Development and Implementation of Home Automation System
Start Date: Tue 28-05-19
End Date: Tue 19-11-19
1. Goals
It is necessary to identify the goals of the chosen project in order to develop a project planning
document. The project that is chosen to be executed in development and implementation of a Home
Automation system.
 The requirement and the benefits of home automation system is identified
 With the successful deployment of the home automation system, the human labor can
be reduced
 The deployment of the home automation system aims in increasing the security of the
houses
2. Objectives
The project planning document identifies the objectives that the project team need to fulfill to
ascertain the successful execution of the project. The most prominent objective with which the
particular project is being undertaken is indicated as follows-
 To identify the need of implementation of a Home Automation system
 To ascertain that a secure home automation system is deployed
 To ascertain that the project is being deployed in a cost effective manner
 To ensure that the undertaken project is completed within the time allocation
3. Requirements of the Project
For successful development and deployment of a home automation system, the basic project
requirements are needed to be identified. It is necessary to correctly identify the plan for
implementation of a project in order to develop a project planning document (Pavithra & Balakrishnan,
2015). In this section, both the functional and the non-functional requirements of the system to be
deployed is identified.
3.1. Functional Requirements

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The functional requirement of a system to be deployed mainly involve the technical needs of the
project. Without considering the critical functional requirement of the project, it is quite difficult to
execute a project in a successful manner. The functional requirements of the system generally specifies
the overall characteristics of the system including the reliability and the cost. The main functional
requirements that are identified for development and deployment of the home automation system is
indicated as follows-
1. The system to be deployed should be cost effective so that it can be adopted by maximum
number of households
2. The home automation system that is to be deployed should be easy to install and should be
less complex
The above two points indicate the two main functional requirements of the system that is being
developed. Development of a home automation system is not a complex task, and therefore, the cost
effectiveness of the system to be deployed is a major functional requirement of the system.
3.2. Non-Functional Requirements
Along with the functional requirement, it is quite necessary to identify the non-functional
requirement of the system as well. The non-functional requirements that are identified for deployment
of the home automation system is indicated as follows.
1. The security of the system to be deployed is a critical non-functional requirement of the
system (Gunge & Yalagi, 2016)
2. The home automation system to be deployed should be reliable and therefore, reliability is
one of the major non-functional requirements of the system.
3. The system to be developed should be scalable.
4. The maintenance need of the system should be reduced.
4. Skills and Expertise of Team Member
The undertaken project is related to networking and therefore, the team members should
possess the skills and knowledge of networking. A group of four people has formed a team to execute
this project and each of the team member possesses necessary networking skills to understand the

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project requirements and the process of implementation and execution of the project in an effective
manner. Apart from the networking skills the project team members are skilled in coding and software
engineering, thus helping the project team in implementation of a home automation system.
5. Project Plan
A project planning document for the undertaken home automation project is to be developed to
enable the team member to execute a project in a successful manner. The project plan for the project
that is developed provides a detailed idea of the project background, scope, the work breakdown
structure of the project, the resources and the cost of successful execution of the project. The project
plan further identifies the quality management aspects, the risks linked with the project along with the
plan for deployment of the project (Jacobsson, Boldt & Carlsson, 2016). The detailed plan for project
implementation is discussed in the paragraphs below.
5.1. Background
A home automation system can be described as a technological solution that enables the owner
of the home automation system to automate all the electronic and technology based tasks that are
conducted within a house. One of the most significant benefits of making use of a home automation
system is that it significantly reduces the human error. This particular project is undertaken with an aim
of implementing it in a much lower cost so that it can be adopted by a number of individuals. This
project aims in development of a low-cost home automation system.
5.2. Scope
Scope of a project can be described as a part of project planning that generally helps in
determination and documentation of the major and specific goals, deliverables and the cost
considerations associated with the project. The in scope and the out scope of the home automation
system project is indicated as follows-
In Scope
 A home automation system will be delivered in a low cost A secure home automation system will be delivered
Out Scope

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 The product launch and delivery will only involve demonstration of the product, no formal
training on the use of the home automation system will be delivered The project does not involve maintenance
5.3. Work Breakdown Structure
For better management of the project, the entire project is divided into a number of smaller
phases, which are indicated in the work breakdown structure below-

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Figure 1: Representing the WBS of the Project
The WBS, in the figure above indicate the tasks that are needed to be executed to successfully develop and deploy the home
automation system project that is undertaken.

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5.4. Time Required
The time needed for excution of the project is represented in figure below-

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Figure 2: Representing the Time Needed

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The figure above identifies the time required to complete the entire project along with the time
needed to execute each task of the project.
5.5. Resource Needs
The resources considered for this project is indicated in the resource sheet below-
Figure 3: The Resources considered for the Home Automation Project
The resource overview of the project is indicated in the following figure-

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Figure 4: The Resource Overview of the home automation Project
5.6. Schedule (Gantt Chart and Network Diagram)
The Gantt chart generated provide an idea of the time required to complete a project and the
sequences of execution of the tasks to complete the project in an efficient manner. The Gantt chart
generated for the project is indicated as follows-

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Figure 5: Representing the Gantt chart of the development of the Home Automation system
The schedule of the project is further depicted in form of the network diagram that is
developed.

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Figure 6: Representing the Project Network Diagram
5.7. Estimation of Cost
Since this project aims in deployment of a home automation system in a low cost, appropriate
cost calculation of the project is necessary. The estimated cost for execution of this project is indicated
in the figure below-

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Figure 7: Representing the Project Cost
The overview of resources considered and the cost of resources are indicated in the figure
below-

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Figure 8: Representing the Resource Cost Overview
The figures above indicate the cost estimation considered for execution of the home automation
project. The total implementation cost of the project indicate that it is possible to develop and deploy
this particular project in a low cost. However, the estimation of the cost of the project is subjected to
certain assumptions, one of which is that the cost of resources considered for the home automation
project, will remain unchanged till the completion of the project.
5.8. Quality Planning
Quality planning in a project ascertains that a project is executed in accordance to the
specifications of the client (Muller, 2017). Since this particular project deals with the development and
implementation of a home automation system, security of the system is considered to be a major aspect
(Goetsch & Davis, 2014). The acceptable quality standard of the project is related to delivery of a secure
system and for accessing the quality of the system, a quality control manager is appointed .
5.9. Stakeholders’ Analysis
Stakeholder Category Power/Influence Impact

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Project Manager Internal Medium High
Business analyst Internal Medium Medium
Networking Engineer External High Medium
Resource Manager Internal Medium Low
Project Sponsor External High High
The table above provides an idea of the major stakeholders linked with deployment of the home
automation system. It is necessary to keep all the stakeholders engaged with the project to ascertain
that the project is delivered within the anticipated time frame (Binder, 2016).
5.10. Communication Planning
Communication planning is one of the most critical approaches of eliminating the
communication gap between the stakeholders and the team members linked with a particular project
(Zulch, 2014). For the communication planning of the home automation system development project a
communication plan is developed.
Stakeholder Communication
Activity
Vehicle Frequency Format of
Information
Storage
Project Manager The status and
progress
reporting of the
project
Face-to-face
meeting and
email
Daily .doc
Business analyst Reporting the
project’s business
needs
Email Monthly pdf
Networking
Engineer
Reporting the
technical needs
and the issues in
the project
Email Weekly pdf
Resource
Manager
Reporting the
issues related to
Email Weekly .doc

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resources
Project Sponsor Reporting and
communicating
the financial
issues and needs
Email Monthly pdf
5.11. Risk Management
Assessing the level of uncertainties and their effect in the project is needed to ascertain that the
project is successfully completed and the home automation system is deployed.
Risks Description Severity Probability of
Occurrence
Risk Response
Technical Technical Issues in
Servers and
Coding
High High Avoid
Budget Budget Constraint
is faced
High High Accept
Schedule The Schedule is
Unrealistic
Medium Medium Avoid
Resource Extreme resource
shortage is
observed
Low Low Share
5.12. Project Deployment
The project deployment process involves the demonstration of the project and launch. The
demonstration will be provided to inform the client about the functionalities of the home automation
system that is deployed.
5. Project Sign off

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The project sign off will be carried out by the project team members. However, the main
responsibility of the sign off is provided to the project manager.
6. Post Project Review and Recommendations
The project plan indicates that it is possible to deploy the project as per the plan. The
recommendations to be considered post launch of the project is indicated as follows-
Training: A formal training of regarding the use of the home automation system is to be
delivered
Maintenance: Post deployment, it is needed to invest in the maintenance of the project as well
so that if any bugs are identified, it can be mitigated effectively.

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References
Binder, J. (2016). Global project management: communication, collaboration and management across
borders. Routledge.
Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: pearson.
Gunge, V. S., & Yalagi, P. S. (2016). Smart home automation: A literature review. International Journal of
Computer Applications, 975, 8887.
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.
Jacobsson, A., Boldt, M., & Carlsson, B. (2016). A risk analysis of a smart home automation
system. Future Generation Computer Systems, 56, 719-733.
Muller, R. (2017). Project governance. Routledge.
Pavithra, D., & Balakrishnan, R. (2015, April). IoT based monitoring and control system for home
automation. In 2015 global conference on communication technologies (GCCT)(pp. 169-173).
IEEE.
Zulch, B. (2014). Leadership communication in project management. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 119, 172-181.