ICT201 – Information Technology Project Management
Assignment 1
Project Proposal and Preliminary Planning
| INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION This is an INDIVIDUAL activity, which must be developed by the submitting student. You must submit your assignment through the LMS. This assignment addresses issues pertaining to Topics 1, 2, 3 and 4. Please note that if a student includes direct copies of content from within this document in their assignment materials, this will be assessed as being plagiarism. This would be deemed as a significant academic breach. The key is for you to use your own words. |
BACKGROUND
You are a Project Manager working for EdMedia International Pty Ltd (EdMI). EdMI is a small to medium enterprise that employs 36 people in various roles. Our company is based out of Perth in Western Australia, but we have some staff located in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The staff operating in the cities outside Perth are purely sales personnel. There is one of these salespeople operating in each of these capital cities to service a relatively large customer base, which includes many primary and secondary schools in those cities and some commercial organisations (e.g. we are supplying some specialised adult education). Up to this point, we have not attempted to sell our services to the mass market (i.e. we have not attempted to sell to individual subscribers and EdMI has only focussed on organisational clients like schools and businesses).
Up to now, EdMI has been deploying our educational videos and educational games on DVD/Blue Ray. In the past, our company held nearly 40% of the market share in Australia. However, EdMI’s considerable market share has been eroding over the last few years and we now hold only about 27% of the available market for schools and government organisations/businesses. We do, however, have an advantage. EdMI still controls the primary rights to more than 60% of the available educational videos and games packages available in Australia. However, this does not appear to be helping us to maintain our market share. The erosion of our market share appears to be due to clients wanting to access their educational content more flexibly. EdMI has, therefore, decided to investigate implementing a new media deployment solution, as a part of a key business expansion. This project is known as ‘EduStream’, and the resulting system will have the same name.
The proposal put to the EdMI Board involves creating a system, which utilises a similar architecture to the one implemented by Netflix (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXQpgAAeLM4), and leveraging the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) (https://www.techopedia.com/definition/4753/real-time-streaming-protocol-rtsp). The preliminary intent is to roll out a one-year Pilot Project that will establish the foundation for the EduStream system, and then expand on this through following project phases. However, for the moment, the focus will only be on the Pilot Project.
The EdMI Chief Information Officer (CIO) (Mr Ben Dover) is the delegated Project Sponsor, and he will be reporting directly to the EdMI Chief Executive Officer (CEO) (Mrs Donna Jenner). You have been selected as the Project Manager. This means that you are responsible to the CIO for implementing and overseeing the Pilot Project from initiation to closure. If the Pilot Project is successful, the intent is that you would then assume the role as Project Manager for the following phases.
As a first step, you will need to deliver key project initiation and planning materials to the Board by 9:00 AM on Monday 07 Feburary 2022. These materials must deliver clarity regarding the business case and outline how the project can be implemented successfully (once it is approved). The deliverables for this submission are outlined in the section beginning on Page 7 of this Assignment Information.
THE PROJECT
The objectives of the project
The aim of this project is to create a stable, effective and user-friendly streaming solution, which will allow educational training videos and games to be deployed over the internet. For this Pilot Project, the Board has decided to begin by deploying Content Delivery Network (CDN) nodes in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. The pilot sites should be delivered in the same order as discussed in the previous sentence.
In addition to the streaming systems, you will need to implement a range of other elements. A preliminary technical architecture has been developed for this system. This architecture and some descriptions of key system elements are available through the LMS under the Assessment heading. The file is called ‘EduStream Technical Architecture Overview’. You will need to ensure that you understand this architecture.
Key issues to be addressed
To implement this project, the following important issues will need to be addressed:
- The Board is still not convinced that this will be a viable solution. The materials that you provide in this Assignment will, therefore, have to be detailed and convincing, or you may find yourself out of a job.
- You are not an expert in video streaming technologies, and there is no expertise related to these technologies within the company. Additionally, EdMI’s knowledge of establishing large scale web-front-ends and databases is minimal. Consequently, you will need to engage one or more experienced contractor, who can coordinate/implement this solution under our control. This identification and selection of contractors will be a high priority for your efforts. When conducting this selection process, it is recommended that you implement a weighted analysis approach as a part of a Request for Tender (RFT) preparation process. This weighted analysis approach will be discussed during the Topic 2 Workshop.
- EdMI is not a dedicated technology company. Consequently, setting up ‘green-fields’ (all new) data centres and systems is beyond our core business. For this reason, outsourcing will be important. Consequently, you will need to identify appropriate Data Centres in each of the pilot cities, and a Call Centre that you can use to provide support. You may also want to think about aspects such as leasing of equipment to help minimise up-front costs.
- At the end of the project, we will need to ensure that EdMI can maintain and manage the EduStream system that is created. This may mean that we need to bring skills and Intellectual Property (IP) into the company or set up reliable relationships with other organisations, who can do this for us.
Key Milestones
You will need to achieve the following key milestones, to meet the Board’s defined requirements. Please note that these only reflect some of the pertinent high-level objectives. You will need to work out other key milestones involved in this approach. The subordinate milestones that you select must allow the following to be achieved.
| Date | Event/Milestone |
| 03 Jan 2022 | Preparations Commence. You will begin developing informal team relationships (e.g. start talking to possible contractors and internal stakeholders) and complete the development of the materials required by the Board (your assignment). These discussions can be represented by asking questions of the lecturer (e.g. during the Workshops). |
| 07 Feb 2022 | Submission to the Board. Insert the required project materials to the Board, so they can make a decision on whether to proceed with the project or not. |
| 07 Mar 2022 | Planned formal project Start Date. This milestone will trigger formal allocation of project funds from this date, and it will only be initiated if the Board approves your submission. Until this is authorised, other members of staff and contractors cannot be engaged formally on a paid basis. In practical terms, this means that you have to do the initial work on your own, but you can ask questions during the Workshops, which you can consider as team meetings. |
| 02 May 2022 | Engage Contractors. By this date, you need to contractually engage one or more technical contractor to conduct the development work. This activity will require a Request for Offer (RFO) process. The key steps in this process are outlined in the following cell. Additionally, you will need to engage other contractors to provide Data Centre and Service Desk facilities (an detailed tendering process may not be necessary for these). |
| 08 July 2022 | Finalise the Technical/System Architecture/Design. The EdMI staff and engaged contractors will need to complete the technical design prior to this date, so the developments can be completed prior to the Pilot 1 go-live date. |
| 11 July 2022 | Kick-off development of software and systems. This will be the start of the period in which all of the required developments will be implemented. These will also include procurement for the Development, Test and Operational environments. Please note that a significant amount of preliminary work will be needed prior to this date. |
| 18 July 2022 | Commence Marketing. The following period will be used to build the client base, so we can get them to participate in the Beta/Acceptance Testing. Prior to sending out the sales personnel, they will need to be trained, so they will understand the new EduStream system. Obviously, we can’t do the training for the sales team unless we have completed the design, so they will know what EduStream does and how it will work. |
| 14 Oct 2022 | Beta goes-live for the first Pilot CDN node (Perth). Once the system is set-to-work, detailed Beta/Acceptance testing will be conducted. Problems identified through the testing will need to be rectified prior to the go-live date for the second Pilot CDN node. Any changes initiated as a result of problem resolution must also be uploaded to the Perth node prior to the go-live date for the Sydney node. |
| 16 Dec 2022 | Beta goes-live on second Pilot CDN node (Sydney). Once this node is set-to-work, multi-site Beta/Acceptance testing will be initiated. These tests will focus on aspects such as replication and load sharing across sites and will also provide Acceptance Testing for rectifications initiated after identifying problems in the Perth node tests. Rectifications and updates for the builds at both the Perth and Sydney nodes will need to be completed prior to the Melbourne go-live date. |
| 24 Feb 2023 | Beta goes-live for the third Pilot CDN node (Melbourne). After this node is set-to-work, full multi-node Acceptance Testing will be commenced. Any problems identified through this testing must be rectified and the builds for all three sites must be updated and retested. Once this is done, an additional round of load tests must be undertaken. These steps must be completed prior to the Full Market Opening. |
| 10 Mar 2023 | Full Market Opening. This is the date that is set as the full market opening. The Board have identified this as a hard-wall milestone (e.g. it cannot be moved), because it is designed to coincide with EdMI’s anniversary of establishment. Prior to this date, there will be a full one-month media blitz to gain mass-market buy-in. To avoid any possible embarrassment after opening, the entire system must be fully operational and stable by this date. |
| 14 April 2023 | Formal Pilot Project Closure. The Pilot Project will be closed (See Topic 11), and final reports and other deliverables must be provided by this date. If the Pilot is successful, it is intended that the project would continue, but the Pilot Project Closure process must still be done by this date. |
Your Team
Apart from you as the Project Manager, the Board has indicated that you will have access to the following people, so they can give the advice needed to prepare the project documentation (that needs to be delivered to the Board). These people/organisations will then be engaged as necessary to support the project.
| Person | Roles and additional information |
| Board | The Board’s only role will be to determine whether the project will go ahead. If they approve the project, the allocated funds will be controlled by the Project Sponsor, to facilitate the achievement of the project objectives. As much as they will not be highly active participants, you will need to keep the Board informed on progress at a strategic level (typically through the Project Sponsor). However, please remember that they would not normally have any direct day-to-day management involvement. |
| Donna Jenner (CEO) | The CEO is responsible to the Board and is also the primary Executive Member of the Board. In particular, she is responsible for the day-to-day executive management of EdMI. Consequently, the CEO will have some strategic oversight requirements for the Project, and you will need to provide some reports to her through the Project Sponsor. However, she would not normally get involved in the direct day-to-day management of the project. |
| Ben Dover (CIO & Project Sponsor) | The EdMI Chief Information Officer (CIO) is primarily focussed on broader aspects than this project. The CIO is, therefore, responsible to the CEO for all aspects of ICT utilised by EdMI. As the Project Sponsor, he will be responsible for the strategic coordination of this project and its budget. You are directly responsible to him for the operational management of the project and you would, therefore, need to proactively keep him up-to-date on progress. Additionally, you would need to engage him in key operational decisions. However, he would not typically get involved in direct operational management (unless he thinks there is a problem and you are not doing your job – you do not want this to happen). Therefore, you will generally keep him aware of the project through formal and informal communication (as discussed in Topic 8), and you will do the bulk of the management and coordination that is necessary. |
| Pam Duggins (Educational Content Expert) | She is the educational content expert in the company, and she will be available (part-time) to help build/evolve the media catalogue/content for deployment through the streaming environment. She also knows the main providers of educational videos and games, so she can help you to define engagements that can enhance the existing library of materials (so the product becomes more appealing to clients). |
| Bill Sykes (Legal Support) | He is EdMI’s legal and contractual expert. In particular, he can support contract development and negotiations with suppliers and contractors. Additionally, he can help with the development of the license agreements (e.g. End User License Agreements (EULA)) that will be necessary for client engagement. |
| Don Lemon (Security Expert) | He is our expert on security issues and the associated legal requirements (e.g. implementing the solutions in accordance with the Privacy Act). He is an outside consultant but will be considered an internal stakeholder. Consequently, he will be available as necessary to provide this support once the project commences. In the interim, he is happy to answer some questions (which will be simulated by you asking questions of the lecturer). |
| Marketing & Sales team: | Marketing team: EdMI already has a marketing team of five people. These are: Kate Lundy (Marketing Manager).Jim Davis (Salesperson – Perth)Doug Dundas (Salesperson – Sydney)Sue Ledger (Salesperson – Melbourne)Joe Bunnings (Salesperson – Brisbane) These staff will not work directly for the Project Manager. For instance, the Marketing Manager works directly for the CEO and all of her staff are responsible to her. However, the marketing/sales team have committed to providing advice on their existing clients during this preliminary planning period because they know the existing customers and their needs very well. Additionally, it has been agreed that, if the project proceeds, they will conduct the following activities in support of the project (while not working directly for the Project Manager): engage existing and new customers to participate in the Beta/Acceptance testing; andprovide some of the on-site liaison with the clients who will be participating in the Beta/Acceptance testing. The marketing and sales team have also indicated that: for them to conduct the marketing of this product and the liaison with the clients for the Beta/Acceptance testing, they will need detailed training in the EduStream system and the concept of operation for this software; andthey don’t have expertise in mass marketing, so an outside consulting organisation will need to be engaged to support this aspect of the project. |
| Technical Development Contractors | From the preliminary Request for Offer (RFO) investigation, you have identified three companies that may be able to meet at least part of the needs for this project. These are StreamTech, VidCon, and DemSet. You will need to discuss the issues with these companies, so you can develop ideas, possible solutions and selection criteria. This information will then shape the RFO as discussed above. Please note that the timeline for this contractual engagement is very short, so you will need to start working on this very soon. Please also take into account the following notes: For this assignment, you will only need to do the Weighted Analysis part of the RFO development. You will not need to do the financial analysis component that would normally also be required.These organisations are separate from EdMI, and they will not work for you or assist directly in your design work unless they are engaged as a contractor. Consequently, you will need to work with them as openly as possible, but you will not have any control over them until a formal contract is in place. |
| Suppliers | You will need to engage appropriate suppliers/service providers for the equipment, Data Centres and other systems (e.g. Telcos, etc.). Additionally, you will need to find an appropriate Service Desk, which will be able to provide support for any Academic or Organisational clients that you engage. Please note that you will not provide Service Desk support to all users, as this would be too expensive. For the mass market users, you will provide a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) web site. |
| Other Staff | If you need any additional staff/expertise to complete the project successfully, you will have to create proposals to the Project Sponsor. In the real world, you would need to explain the cost, time, quality and scope implications. For this assignment, you will not need to do this. Therefore,, you can assume that you have already identified that you will need staff to support the Project Office, which you will have to establish on the Project Start Date. Some of the additional staff that you will need to engage will be required to support: administration, payments, Quality Assurance, training of the sales staff and clients, procurement, testing, development of key knowledge tools such as a Wiki and Knowledge Base and the FAQ web site. |
Preliminary Cost/Revenue Information
A preliminary analysis has indicated that the following costs and revenues are likely to accrue from the implementation of the Pilot Project. These are Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) figures only, but they should provide a useful starting position for the analysis.
| Description | Year 0 | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
| ROM Costs/Expenditures | $1,205,000 | $710,000 | $820,000 | $860,000 |
| ROM Benefits/Revenues | $256,000 | $1,115,000 | $1,800,000 | $2,500,000 |
Assumptions
The following base assumptions need to be taken into account when analysing the preceding ROM cost/revenue figures and the associated project aspects:
- These figures do not take into account the discount effects related to inflation and the cost of capital.
- The inflation rate is expected to remain at about 1.8% per annum for the next four years.
- This project will be funded through debt (a loan from EdMI’s Bank). There will be no establishment costs (as this will be an extension of existing funding agreements), and the bank has offered a fixed loan rate of 3.8% per annum.
- Year 0 commences at the Project Start Date. Following years are consecutive.
- The ROM expenditures take into account expected personnel (development, maintenance, Service Desk, management, etc.), equipment (hardware and Data Centres), software (products, licenses, etc.), services (network communications, maintenance, etc.), and indirect costs (e.g. applicable ancillaries), which will be required to conduct the project and then maintain/pay for the pilot sites and services with no further expansion.
- Revenues in Year 0 relate to the sign-up of clients on the Beta program, and for engagement of clients after Acceptance Tests (AT) have been completed for each Pilot.
- Revenues from Year 1 are based on transitioning many of the existing customers onto the new EduStream plan. This will be additional revenue, as the clients had already paid an up-front fee for use of the existing software and videos. However, to entice them to upgrade, the EduStream product will have to deliver real benefits to the clients (e.g. they are not just going to be paying a monthly fee to get access to the materials they already possess). The Marketing team has also indicated that they believe that they can deliver some expansion in the customer base, and conservative estimates have already been included in the ROM figures. Most importantly, the Marketing Manager has said that there is also considerable scope for expansion from these figures as the company transitions from its traditional media deployment methods (i.e. revenues may be larger but be aware that this could also impact on demand and the system design).
- In terms of revenues, it is intended that individual users would pay a flat monthly fee, which would be kept small to entice them to join the system (e.g. going for mass-market sales). Institutions, such as schools would be charged a monthly rate, based on student numbers/utilisation (this would make seat prices lower because they are working on higher license volumes).
ADDITIONAL VIEWING/READING
As you are not an expert in streaming technologies, it is highly recommended that you do some preliminary research into this technology. Consequently, in addition to reviewing the URLs listed on Page 1, please use the internet to do some background reading/viewing, so you can understand key aspects of the design and technology. In particular, you might want to begin by viewing these videos:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUHF-UWGoVU – This gives some basic information on video streaming and RTSP;
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgKaKWomh-A – This provides some more detailed information on RTSP;
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll68ndJZW4g – This one also gives some more detailed information on RTSP if you want to get into the detail;
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8k4foAsWVE – This video provides another way of understanding RTSP;
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeJzoqtuf-o – This video gives a simplified overview of video streaming (Although it discusses the issues in relation to the Real Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) the concepts are similar for RTSP); and
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fawcboio6g4 – This video provides some basic information on video compression and codecs (and in particular H.265), which can give you some useful background information.
There are plenty more of these types of video and there is also lots of pertinent information available through various web pages. You will not need to know everything about the protocols and systems, but it will be important for you to have a reasonable understanding of the technology, so you can manage the project effectively (this is a very real-world issue). Additionally, you will need this type of knowledge to fill in the material needed in the Definitions and Acronyms section within the Project Charter.
WHAT YOUR PROPOSAL MUST CONTAIN
By the delivery deadline listed on Page 1, you must provide the following proposal information:
- Project Charter. The Project Charter must be included. Use the template provided in the LMS. Advice on the content to be included in this document is supplied in this template.
Project Assessment Workbook. This Excel workbook is available in the LMS and contains two key worksheets. Advice on filling these in will be covered during the Topic 2 Workshop. These worksheets are:
- NPV-IRR-Payback. Use this worksheet to develop the discounted cost/revenue information, NPV, IRR, and break-even calculation information that is required for the Project Charter. This is not an assessable element of the workbook, as you will get the marks for the answer in the Project Charter.
- Contractor Selection. Use the Weighted Analysis worksheet to develop the weightings for more than 30 issues that you would want to take into account within your RFT. This is an assessable element of the workbook. This optional work. DO NOT need to include in the report. DO NOT submit.
- Project Management Plan. Complete the required parts of the Project Management Plan (PMP) by using the template provided in the LMS. Advice on the content to be included in this part of your response is supplied in this template.
Work Breakdown Structure. Insert the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) that you have developed in MS Project. This must be provided with a work package and deliverable focus and go down to a minimum of four levels.
Once you have completed these files, each of them must be uploaded to the LMS. To help ensure that your work doesn’t get mixed up, use file names which follow this convention: Unit Code-Assignment Number-the first three characters of your last name, your first initial, your Student Number-the file identifier. For instance, files uploaded by student Jun Chong with a student number of 12345678 would be named as follows:
- Project Charter. ICT201-1-ChoJ12345678-PC.docx
- Project Management Plan. ICT201-1-ChoJ12345678-PMP.docx
FOR MORE INFORMATION
The lecturer/tutor will be available to answer questions on behalf of the experts listed earlier in the document. You can ask such questions during the Workshop you will be attending, or you can send an email to the lecturer/tutor. Please note, that it is recommended you get your questions in early. If you ask questions late in the assignment development cycle, you may not get the answer in time.
Please also be aware that additional information will be provided, in line with the topics being covered each week.
ASSIGNMENT MARKING
The assignment will be reviewed as though it was a document forwarded to the Board. Consequently, you will need to ensure that your materials reflect a high professional standard (Remember – in the real world, your job can depend on this). The marks allocated for the Assignment will be allotted in terms of the percentages shown in the following table.
| Content | Clarity and Logic | Total mark | |
| Project Charter | 40% | 5% | 45% |
| Project Management Plan | 50% | 5% | 55% |
Use this as a guide for allocating the amount of time and effort that you allocate to each assignment deliverable. Within this allocation, the marks will be assigned in terms of the following:
- Content. As a general rule, if your response covers all of the aspects explicitly provided in the documentation and Workshop discussions, you will get a better score. If you have not included pertinent information in your solutions, you will get a lower mark. Higher marks will be allocated where it is clear that you have gone beyond the information provided and thought about the real-world implications when developing your content.
- Clarity and Logic. In this real-world scenario, you are writing the documents to go to a Board. These people are not technologists and want to understand the logic through your clear communication of the issues. Therefore, you will need to deliver the documents in a manner that is logical, readily understandable and well written. Where you write the documents well and make it easy for the Board to understand, additional marks will be allocated. These will equate to a maximum, as shown in the right-hand column of the preceding table.
Academic Integrity
As always, students are reminded of their responsibilities as regards academic integrity. Therefore, as specified in http://our.murdoch.edu.au/Educational-technologies/Academic-integrity/ :
‘Academic integrity is an adherence to five fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility in all work. Academic integrity is fundamental to the operation of all scholarship, whether it be original research or undergraduate assignments. It ensures that proper credit is given to those who do the work and that their intellectual contribution is acknowledged. It ensures that proper evaluation and feedback of performance can be given, and it buttresses the worth and reputation of academic awards on the basis they have been honestly earned. Murdoch University regards academic integrity as a fundamental value of student learning. It requires all students enrolled in the University to adhere to academic integrity in fulfilling each assessment task.
The University regards most seriously any acts of dishonesty relating to assessment of University courses and research. This includes plagiarism, unauthorised collaboration, examination misconduct, theft of other students’ work and misconduct in research. Acting unfairly or dishonestly in assessment is defined as misconduct under University statute.
Depending on the seriousness of the case, dishonesty in assessment can lead to a requirement to undertake additional work, failure in a unit or in a part of it, suspension from the University or even permanent expulsion from the University. The University regards any form of cheating as a serious matter of academic dishonesty that threatens the integrity of the assessment processes and awards of the University, to the detriment of all other students and graduates of the University.
Plagiarism constitutes using the work of another without indicating by referencing (and by quotation marks when exact phrases or passages are borrowed) that the ideas expressed are not one’s own. Students can use the ideas and information from other authors, but this use must be acknowledged. It is also not acceptable to submit an assignment that is simply a paraphrasing of extracts from other authors: the work submitted must include some intellectual contribution of the student’s own. The Foundation and Transition units, in particular, assist students in identifying what is considered plagiarism at Murdoch University.
Re-submission of previously marked work — the submission of the same or substantially the same piece of work for assessment in two different units by the student author — is not acceptable practice.
Unauthorised collaboration (‘collusion’) constitutes joint effort between students, or students and others, in preparing material submitted for assessment, except where this has been approved by the Unit Coordinator. Students are encouraged to discuss matters covered in units, but when writing an assignment, computer program, laboratory report or other piece of assessed work, the recording and treatment of data and the expression of ideas and argument must be the student’s own.
Dishonesty in assessment applies to work in any medium (for example, written or audio text, film production, computer programs, etc.)’
Any suspected breaches of academic integrity rules will be referred immediately for investigation.
| A Final Note This assignment is specifically designed to help you build skills that will help you gain fulfilling and well-paid work in the ICT industry. Consequently, investing time and effort in this assignment is worth more than just getting a passing grade. Use this opportunity to go beyond the minimum and develop your capabilities, so you can build the foundation for a fulfilling career. |
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