IT Project Management Sample Assignment

Executive Summary

Head Hunt is an undertaking which gives and secure and lawful stage for the general population who have new business thoughts and financial specialists to meet and talk about their tentative arrangements and trade thoughts safely. This undertaking proposition is created to make this thought a reality. Issue which is being attempted to comprehend by this undertaking isn't having a protected stage to associate financial specialists and individuals having thoughts. The answer for the issue is at first building up a site as referenced in the proposition and ideally a portable application later on. Undertaking will be overseen utilizing SCRUM agile management procedure since it obliges late changes and iterative improvement. Task is assessed to finish in 1 year by burning through 100,000 AUD. This will encompass a website and connected database which will be created using MS Visual Studio, MS Access and development languages like C/C++/C#. By culmination of this venture the clients who are having new and inventive business thoughts and the financial specialists who are eager to contribute on these thoughts will probably associate safely. When they are marking the agreement the Head Hunt legitimate gathering will be the mindful outsider to oblige it and the Head Hunt will win the commission from the arrangement.

Problem Description

The project in focus is called Head Hunt which is to be a web based online platform. It is aimed at being the first of its kind legal platform and gateway between entrepreneurs and investors. The aim is to develop a website first and then in future extend into an app for Android and iOS. The project aims at being a bridge between people who have fresh, innovative ideas and people who are willing to invest in it.

Sometimes people have money to invest somewhere and they are looking for worthy ideas to invest in but fail to find any, so end up investing where ever feasible. This at times runs into trouble since a strong investment needs a strong idea to support it. Good research and good ideas are needed as much to run a financially supported business, one cannot run without the other. Another side is that there are so many people who have interesting start-ups, with research and working done on these ideas, and are looking for monetary investments to support their ideas, but fail to find any. For example, international students often find themselves with ample amount of knowledge and know-how when it comes to good business ideas given that they meet a lot of people for work or study so get good research on different niches and topics. However, they don’t have the required money because they can work only limited hours and cannot take out loans on their student status. So, their talent goes to waste.

This project can be very successful because this aims at providing people with the first of its kind platform that legally accepts the responsibility as third party between entrepreneurs and investors, and can help fulfil dreams of a lot of people.

• Project will provide a safe platform to the entrepreneurs and people who have new innovative ideas.

• Will help connect and exchange new ideas.
• It will help students be more creative and work on more innovative ideas that can be worked further upon, given that they would now have the opportunity to get investment.
• It will give chance to fresh ideas and encourage people to be more creative.
• It can increase the employment rate and more people will be entrepreneurs.
• It will allow investors to come across more fresh people and ideas and things truly worth investing in.

The report will follow a pattern where the problem description has been given, followed by a detail of the system development, which will encompass of website structure, databases in use, and other such information that describe the overall look and feel of the solution. The next section will outline the technologies that will be used like the platform, software etc.

Project Methodology and Product Analysis

Detailed Description of the Solution

Given that the proposed project is a website, it was decided to implement a database that links with the online website portal to facilitate the data management and retrieval. A website would be created that would cater to three users in total: Admin, Investors, and Entrepreneurs. The website will allow investors and entrepreneurs to sign up on the site, sign agreement terms and conditions and successfully become part of the platform. Once users are successfully signed in and logged in, they can explore a number of things on the platform.

Investors can:

• View lists of proposed ideas
• Update profile with name, occupation, designation etc.
• They can specify how much money they’re willing to invest.
• View potential and rising entrepreneurs
• Overview details of proposed ideas and entrepreneurs if they’re interested
• Mark an idea as interesting if they feel it’s worth their time
• Comment and communicate with the entrepreneurs through a chat and comment option
• Ask for more details on the proposed ideas
• Assess the ideas and its back working against their requirements by communicating to the proposer
• Once they find a suitable match, with all backing data available and they feel satisfied, they can proceed with the investment by clicking on a button called invest.
• If they decide to invest, the request will go into process and the admin will then review this request and then take further action to set terms between the two parties.

Entrepreneurs can:

• Upload their proposed ideas
• Update their profile with their details like occupation, education etc.
• Describe and detail their ideas and boost their ideas.
• View potential investors and their proposed invested amounts.
• Be able to communicate an investor through a chat option where they can further propose their ideas and ask questions from the investors or answer theirs.
• Click an interested button which can show an investor that an entrepreneur has something to propose to them.
• Upload portfolios and presentations to attract investors through interactive and creative ideologies.
• Once an understanding between an entrepreneur and investor is developed through chatting and exchange of ideas, and investors press the invest button, entrepreneurs will have an option to accept the investment, and once they do, the whole application will go into processing and the admin will step in here.

Admins can:

• Monitor the whole website
• Review the authenticity of the entrepreneurs and investors by verifying their details.
• Monitor the communication between the two parties, making sure no rule has been violated.
• Once both parties have agreed on an idea and are willing, admin will over view their application and process it, drafting up a legally bonding document to help both parties start their work.

A database will be developed, with tables developed, namely, Admin, Entrepreneurs, Investors, Proposed Ideas, and Invested Ideas, as shown in Appendices. All 3 users will be able to enter and edit their data accordingly, while admin will be able to edit and update all tables. Forms will be developed on the database and will then be linked to the website online. All relevant screenshots of the proposed design of the database have been attached in the Appendices. The website will then later be developed in connection to this database, and forms will be linked to the website through C/C#/C++, HTML and other technologies that will be outlined later.

Technologies Used

The technologies that will be used to create the website and database are:

• Database will be created through MS Access or MySQL to integrate with the website. The present mock-up design has been created on MS Access to create an overview of the required tables and data.
• The website will be created using either C or C#, all these languages can be easily integrated with the database in use.
• The website will be developed using Microsoft Visual Studio.
• C# has MVC framework which is controlled by C# classes for development of web-based and mobile based applications. It supports HTML5, CSS and razor scripts.

Project Schedule

Resource Planning

Since we plan on using the Visual Studio for the development of the website, we need the software to be available to the development team. A domain will be required to host the website, while servers will be needed to host the database. Laptops will be required per member to work on the development phase, while once website is launched, maintenance will be done through a set of IT support personnel who will be responsible to manage the website and respond to client queries through live chat.

Budgeting

Estimated cost for the proposed “Head Hunt” project is 100,000 AUD and the estimated time duration for the project will be 1 year. The functional requirements of the project would be two basic things-that are a user-friendly platform for investors from where they can check and select ideas to invest on; and a platform for people with business ideas where they can put ideas and their required budget to launch a new business. The entire purpose of the project is to create a platform for both ends that would work as a collaborating stage.

Since the resources required to create the website are not any corporate software, we do not need to invest in the software. However, some basic investment is required in acquiring essentials like domain name, servers etc. A table that extends from the project proposal to define the budgeting expenses for the project is added in Appendices.

User Guide

General Use of Website

Head Hunt is a website that will be used as a platform between entrepreneurs and investors who will be able to interact with each other, viewing and presenting ideas through a UI that allows easy navigation and usage of the functionalities of the site. The site will allow users to perform certain acts according to their defined roles, as mentioned earlier in the solution part of the report, while the admin will be allowed to control all functionalities and operations of the website and view and manipulate data accordingly.

Information and Procedures

Users will be required to provide their basic details like usernames, occupations, contact and other such details that will allow the users to sign up on the site. The information will then be verified by the admin and users will be accepted to use the site. Username and passwords will be required to help users log onto the website. Once logged on, users will view the site as per their roles. Entrepreneurs will view investors lists and will be allowed to upload their ideas and details, while investors will view entrepreneurs and their ideas and choose what to invest in.

The basic procedures on the website will be:

• Sign up/ Log in
• Upload personal information
• Upload ideas
• Upload supporting content/ documentation
• View ideas/ investor/ entrepreneur ideas
• Comment
• Live chat between entrepreneurs and investors
• Live chat with customer care
• Button to allow investor to invest
• Button to allow entrepreneur to accept investment
• View application status

Functionalities

• Sign up/ Login

Allows user to sign up or log in if they are a new user.

• Update Profile

Allows user to enter personal data

• Upload Idea

Allows user to upload idea

• Upload supporting material

Allows user to upload supportive documentation to the proposed idea

• Comment

Allows user to comment on a proposed idea

• Chat

Allows user to chat with other users

• Invest

Allows user to confirm interest in the idea

• Accept

Allows user to confirm accepting the investment interest from another user

• Check Status

Check application status

Conclusion

To conclude, Head Hunt goes about as the middle person between the general population who have enough skilled thoughts and for the general population who needed to put resources into them. The Head Hunt will procure enough attractive benefits and gives an effective stage that will helps in creating best tasks by teaming up opportune individuals. Both the gatherings would feel protected as Head Hunt likewise incorporates lawful gathering to deal with all the documentation. Head Hunt has more opportunities to turned out to be fruitful with in the market as it gives lawful and simple stage for individuals to collaborate from various pieces of world to accomplish their fantasies. We additionally worked on security for the Head Hunt subsequently, gives secure stage to every one of the gatherings to associate about their ventures. We worked on the website end and database end to present a platform to our intended users in order to help realize the Head Hunt as reality.

Future Work

The project has a lot of scope and aspects of progress which can be further worked on. By doing more research and gathering more user requirements once the website is up and running and has accumulated a number of users. After this more improvements can be made to website and more functionalities can be added to it in order to further facilitate the users on both sides.

Plans for Extension

As the future work and plans for the extension following ideas were suggested.

• Build an Android and iOS mobile applications so the users will be able to use the application easily from their mobile phones.
• Start a contest for the users and choose the best entrepreneurial idea of the year to motivate the users and the investors
• Make the legal platform of the contracts more secure and strong by hiring a legal firm to oversee the contracts
• Make the investments more secure by making partnerships with the banks and other authorities
• Start a program to get ideas from the users to improve the “Head Hunt” project

Individual Reflections

Member 1

This was an interesting project for us given that we took on an idea that could even benefit us if it were to be implemented to its full potential. I believe that we should definitely pursue this project farther than this Assignment. We did face a little issue in coming up with certain requirements, like deciding on the legal involvement of the Head Hunt in the interaction between the two parties. The data gathering, we did for the project was based on most of our own experiences, we felt that many of our fellow students had innovative ideas which could be very successful if they were to be implemented. While developing ideas for the website and the database, we felt confused as to which platform would be the best, given that we needed an efficient, all inclusive solution. We used MS Access as a starting point for our database in order to give a shape and starting to the project, so that we may have an idea on what we need to improve and what we further need. Our team was cooperative, we divided most of our tasks equally between ourselves, and focused on dividing work load. We felt that the languages and platform we decided on using were compatible with most of our skill sets. We did face problem in deciding between whether we should pursue a website first or directly work on an Android or iOS application. However, given our skill sets we felt that a website will be more suitable.

Member 2

Our project was an innovative idea, and we felt that it was a good start. I was one of the members responsible for creating the database for which I was responsible for gathering all required data and deciding on which tables should be implemented. Given that our project has 3 users, I was responsible for deciding the exact fields that fulfilled the need for our project requirements. Programming language was a hurdle for us since we needed to decide which language will be best suited to our project while also suiting our skill sets. I am not proficient in programming, that is the reason I was given the responsibility of handling the database. I was also in charge of creating the Gantt chart along with other members. We mostly divided all tasks equally, and we played to strengths of all team members. I am more proficient in database management and scheduling, and other such tasks, thus, I took on these responsibilities. We unanimously chose to work initially on MS Access given that we felt it was the most readily and easily available software which could be handled by anyone of us. I too felt that this would be feasible for us since not all of us know how to manipulate SQL. We have also considered developing the website to its full extent on a web development platform already available like Zoho Creator or other such options. However, this did not help me or any of our group members make most of our skills that’s why we chose to work with whatever we were skilled in.

Member 3

I was responsible for working on the website end, along with other members. I and other team members felt that Visual Studio was a compatible platform for us to work on since most of us knew how to use it. Most of our choices were based on skills we all had since we wanted to make something small but efficient and compatible. I felt that the website was the best choice to be developed as the basis of our platform. Websites are very open ended and allow most users to access them easily given that websites are easily available and accessible. Creating websites is an interesting process too. Our project needed a scope that would be easily available to everyone. I was very keen about our project. I felt my team members were good at the implementation and execution of our project. The only obstacle for me was the report parts of the project given that writing is not my strongest suit. However, I did that to my best part as well, since we all had divided sections of most tasks between all of us. I and my other team members wanted to pursue the project actively since we all felt that this was a very innovative project on our end, and I am one of those people who feel that most of us need a platform like this since we all have ideas to share and need the boost to be more innovative. The website end of the project was highly dependent on the database, thus we decided to work with something we all were familiar with.

Member 4

I was responsible for creating the reports and assessing the over all requirements for the project, accumulating the user guide once we had a mock up idea of our website. Our entire project was focused on creating an easy, comprehensive solution, which needed to be reflected in the website and database we develop. I was in-charge of deploying which task should be done by which member as I was in-charge of assessing the report and scheduling requirements. I felt I faced issues as initially members were not happy with the roles they were being assigned, after which we decided that we would be better suited if all tasks and roles are divided equally and involve some role from all members even if it is a small contribution. I believe that we were very successful in gathering initial data for the requirements of our project. I did not want to pursue an iOS app as a future extension for now as I felt it would be a little out of our expertise, however, given that we cannot ignore the huge iOS data user base, I changed my opinion and agreed with my team members.

Member 5

I had a good time working on this project and along my team members. I was very excited about our project as well since the topic we chose was very interesting and in the long term could be good project to enterprise on. The most issues I felt that I faced were in determining the scope of the project, since there was so much, we could do but we did not want to over stretch it obviously. Our project was limited when it came to actual data to test the system. We had a lot of dummy data but we wanted some corporate data to help realize the full extent of our project but we felt we were limited in that scope. Other than that, I was also feeling limited with the database, given that we had loads of options but since MS Access is something everyone was familiar with, I did not object much. My roles and responsibilities included working on the core functionalities and development of the main workings of the site, thus I also played a part in developing the user guide section. All in all I was very satisfied with the simplicity of the functionalities we decided on as we did not want to over crowd the user with too many options and things going on the site, nor limit the options to something so less that the user would feel that the site lacks enough functionalities to begin with.

Appendices

Admin Table

Entrepreneur Table

Investor Table

Proposed Ideas Table

Invested Ideas Table

Admin Form

Entrepreneurs Form

Investors Form

Cost Table for the Project