I-Crop Project Management: SmartTech IT Group - Project Management

This document provides a comprehensive solution to the I-Crop project management assignment undertaken by the SmartTech IT Group. The project focuses on developing an internet-based application for Globex Corporation, connecting growers and buyers. The solution details the project's background, objectives, and team structure, including skills and responsibilities. It covers the team charter, communication strategies, and a detailed breakdown of tasks performed across multiple weeks, including requirements engineering, application design, and system configuration. The document also reflects on leadership qualities essential for successful project management, highlighting the importance of communication and motivation. The project utilizes both Agile and Waterfall methodologies, ensuring a robust and functional application. The complete solution showcases the entire development process from initial planning to final testing and integration, offering valuable insights into effective project management practices. Students can find more solved assignments and resources on Desklib.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
I-Crop Project Management
University/Affiliation
Student ID
Student Name
Lecturer Name

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Part 1
1.1 Project name: I-Crop Project Management
1.2 Team details:
Team Name: SmartTech IT Group
First Name Last Name Mobile Email
1.3 Background to the Project Overview
There is a rapid change in business activities, for instance, most companies have
upgraded their systems from standalone to internet based, therefore; enhancing
communication between management and their customers (Paterno, 2012). Internet-based
applications are vital, for instance, a company can automate its activities, therefore;
enhancing easy management of operations (Ra et al., 2011). Besides, it can also enable a
company management to communicate effectively to its customers through recent
technologies such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), therefore, maintaining its
customers and increasing sales (Ernst, Hoyer, Krafft & Krieger, 2011). However, there are
some factors that should be considered prior to incorporating IT solutions, for instance,
choosing best vendors is one of the factors that need to be considered as there are several
vendors such as IBM (Watson, 2014). A company can evaluate different vendors depending

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
on its previous experience more so focusing on how its solutions were implemented and
whether a given company can develop a quality application. Regarding Globex company,
which is found in Riverina Region of NSW, has contracted most of its application
development projects to Virtucon. Currently, Virtucon has been contracted to develop an
internet-based application referred to as I-Crop. My team, which has four members, has been
assigned to develop proposed application. Hence, this paper has described entire processes
that we followed while developing proposed application.
1.4 Project Description
Project description is vital as it forms a basis for developing specification. It consists
of detailed description on how proposed system should work, including transactions that can
be supported. Therefore, any company must come up with preliminary description in respect
to proposed application. The first step of writing project description is defining problems
encountered and consequently, explaining explicitly how proposed application can solve
situation at hand. Regarding Globex Corporation, there are some reasons for developing
proposed system, for instance, there is a need of connecting growers with buyers through
proposed application, easing management of operations and selling warehoused grains.
Apart from selling warehoused grains, Globex also buys grains.
Other than describing problems that need to be solved, Globex has also defined
transactions regarding proposed application and ways on which it can solve problems as it is
a new application rather than replacing existing application. I-crop application consists of
several features such as offer and bid transactions. Concerning offers, I-crop will allow
sellers to set their cash price, and afterwards, potential customers can accept offers that have
been placed. Similarly, buyers can list their preferred cash prize, and afterwards, growers or

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
sellers can view and sell their grains. Listing of cash price is called as bids. Therefore, offers
and bids cannot be separated, thus working hand in hand.
Apart from offers, I-crop will also enable sellers and growers to list their preferred
buyers, therefore; selling grains to trusted buyers. Besides, I-crop will not support both bids
and offers that were placed for previous seasons, thus supporting seasonal sales.
Furthermore, it will enhance availability of information such as contact details about grain
silo sites though only limited for those ones that are registered. Moreover, I-crop will be
implemented as both a mobile application and website, therefore; supporting a range of
users. Although clients are not supposed to pay any subscription fee to download the
application, but normal network charges will apply. In addition, a client will be informed
incase high internet connectivity may be required for updating information on a certain page
because businesses are dynamic, thus offers and bids are likely to change from time to time.
Regarding miscellaneous features, user’s interphase will enable a client to download
summaries of a given page using ‘printing option’ button. Besides, any client can be a seller
or a buyer concurrently, which will be made possible using one login system.
1.4 Team charter:
Skills & knowledge
inventory
Member 1 <leadership skills such as communication skills,
motivation, trustworthiness, responsibility, respect,
commitment and flexibility, project management
skills such as risk management, negotiation and
planning, programming skills such as structured
thinking, knowledge of software used in designing
such as AutoCAD and photoshop, knowledge of

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
system development processes such as
requirements and testing (Claro et al., 2012)>
Member 2 <Writing skills such as excellent grammar and
familiarity of technical terms used in IT,
designing skills such as creativity and design
strategies, knowledge in data analysis methods
such as graphical analysis, knowledge of
interpreting collected data, knowledge of Unified
Modelling Language (UML), Knowledge of
UML software such as starUML and ArgoUML
(Claro et al., 2012)>
Member3 <Listening skills such as demonstrating concern,
writing skills such as excellent spelling to avoid
issues related to ambiguity and clear
understanding of information, knowledge of
software that are used in design, for example,
AutoCAD, knowledge of programming languages
such as C# (Claro et al., 2012)>
Member4 <technical skills such as improvement,
observation and priorities, evaluation skills such
as critical thinking and research, knowledge of
recent technologies such as ERP, CRM and cloud
computing, knowledge of software that are used
in database development such as MySQL and

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
oracle (Claro et al., 2012)>
Roles and Responsibilities Member 1 <Delegating duties and responsibilities to other
team members, determining team goals, keeping
track of all processes, thus ensuring that quality
application has been developed, taking charge in
case there are problems encountered such as
financial constraints and schedule overruns
(Whatley, 2012)>
Member 2 <Involved in entire process of collecting
requirements from relevant stakeholders of
Globex company, and afterwards, developing
specification, analyzing collected data, and,
afterwards, determining if it will be implemented
successfully using i-Crop application, involved in
drawing UML diagrams using software such as
starUML and ArgoUML, involved in planning
and identifying tasks that should to be performed
such as software design (Devolder, Vanderlinde,
Braak & Tondeur, 2010)>
Member 3 <Developing solutions in case there are issues or
problems related to functionality of developed
application, informing ICT project manager
regarding work progress, keeping track of all
designing processes (Whatley, 2012)>

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Member 4 <Assisting in measuring performance of
developed system, ensuring that recent
technologies such as CRM and ERP systems have
been integrated properly, ensuring that database
and servers are functioning correctly, assessing
overall functionality of developed system,
involved in user and release testing (Devolder et
al., 2010)>
Team communications Week-5 9am-6pm. Motel 24.
Week-6 3pm-10pm. Globe Apartments.
Week-7 8am-4pm. Albury Manor House.
Communication and sharing methods; google
hangouts and skype (Tang, Wei & Kawal, 2012).
Team rules &
expectations (team values,
code of ethics, rules &
expectations)
Team values <Commitment, dependability, reliability, respect,
positivity, teamwork (Warren & Lucas, 2016)>
Code of ethics <Developing achievable goals, understand
requirements of proposed application, use of
appropriate methodology, ensure that application
is tested properly, apply standard charges, inform
Globex management concerning any dangers
associated with developed application, maintain
confidentiality (Carsten, 2011)>
Rules and
expectations
<All team members are required to respect others
including stakeholders, team members are

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
required to be transparent, team members should
deliver assigned tasks within a specified time
frame, team members should be genuine while
sharing ideas, Team members are free to ask any
clarifications, Team members should correct
others in a better way that can enhance mutual
discussion (McDermid, 2015)>
previous experience as
team
Member1 I’ve identified some positive and negative impacts
of working as a team member such as enhancing
collaboration and resulting in conflicts
respectively. Teamwork aims at development of
new ideas as well as sharing of information, thus
increasing productivity.
membe
r
Member 2 I’ve worked previously as a team member, and
afterwards, identified some of its positive and
negative impacts such as enhancing collective
ownership and encouraging laziness respectively.
Member 3 From my experience, I’ve identified some of the
positive and negative impacts associated with
working as a team member such as development of
a quality application and time consuming
respectively.
Member 4 I’ve worked previously as a team member, and
afterwards, identified some of its positive and
negative impacts such as enhancing innovation

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
and communication breakdowns respectively.
Signatures Member1 <>
Member2 <>
Member3 <>
Member4 <>
Part 2
Week-5 Organiser Scribe
What should be done?
Determining total costs that
will be incurred for
developing i-Crop
application, identify and
analyze requirements
collected through
Requirement Engineering.
(RE) (Abrahamsson, Salo,
Ronkainen & Warsta, 2017).
What was done?
We estimated costs that will
be incurred by Globex
company for development of
i-Crop application to 2000
U.S dollars. However, an
addition of 1000 U.S. will be
required to purchase
necessary infrastructure.
Thus, we approximated total
costs for development and
implementation of i–Crop to
3000 U.S. dollars. Also, we
interacted with relevant
stakeholders and afterwards,
developed specification.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Diagrammatic representation
of requirements collected by
UML diagrams using
software such as ArgoUML.
Week-6 Organiser Scribe
What should be done?
Designing application using
project management
methodologies such as agile
and waterfall. Choosing best
programming language that
can be used to develop a
quality software.
(Abrahamsson et al., 2017).
What was done?
We developed i-Crop using
both agile and waterfall
methodologies. Besides, we
written codes using C# and
android programming
language
alongside other languages.
Moreover, we executed codes
using android studio
alongside other software.
Week-7 Organiser Scribe
What should be done?
Configuration of all
individual components,
selecting best platform for
creating database, testing
application that was
What was done?
We integrated individual
components to form i-Crop
application, developed
MySQL database, and
afterwards, connected with i-

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
developed; both users and
release testing (Bhuvaneswari
& Prabaharan, 2013).
Crop application. We tested
i-Crop properly through
generation of test cases from
data that was entered by
customers.
Part 3
3.1 Communication Plan
Stakeholder
name
Information
to be shared
Frequency of
information
exchange
Location of
information
exchange
Purpose of
communication
Mechanism
(hard copy,
PDF, PPT,
DOC)
Who what when Where Why How
Business
analyst (Eva,
Hindle, Paul,
Rollaston &
Tudor, 2014).
Software
requirements
Held
meetings
weekly.
Motel 24 To understand
real needs of
Globex; including
ways on which it
carries on its day-
to-day business
operations,
learning much on
business models
that are
DOC

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
currently used in
Globex company
and
understanding
how proposed
application can
improve ways on
which operations
are carried out.
System
designers
(Abelein,
Sharp &
Paech, 2013).
System
designs
Held
meetings
after every
two weeks
The
Houston
Wagga
Understanding
information
related to a plan
that shows
guidelines, which
should be
followed while
developing i-
Crop, ensuring
that application
has been
developed in
accordance with
specification and
understanding
recent
PPT