Assignment 4: Performing Effective Project Monitoring and Risk Management

Due Week 9 and worth 90 points

Imagine that you are employed as an IT project manager by a prestigious coffeemaker organization. This organization operates many coffee shops within the region and would like to promote its brand by creating a mobile application that will provide its customers with the ability to view the nearest coffee shop location within their geographical area.

As a member of the software development team, you estimate a total project cost of $150,000. You have designated control points to measure project progress. At control point 2, the following data is available:

There are various stakeholders that are interested in the progress of the project. These stakeholders include the marketing management team (internal customers), software designers, programmers, testers, and upper management. The software development team has attempted to release a mobile application of this magnitude in the past; however, lack of sponsorship, mobile development expertise, and technical infrastructure has limited the team’s success.

Write a four to six (4-6) page paper in which you:

1. Identify at least four (4) attributes of the mobile application development project that can be measured and controlled and evaluate how each is a critical factor for the success of the project.
2. Generate a project plan summary of the various project milestones. Develop a WBS that details work packages required to complete project scope.
3. Develop a workflow model that can be used to inspect and detect defects during the acceptance of this mobile product through the use of graphical tools in Microsoft Word or Visio, or an open source alternative such as Dia. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length.
4. Describe how the defects detected during the acceptance of the mobile application should be reported and explain the circumstances in which a defect may not require reporting.
5. Analyze the communication needs of the different project stakeholders. Explain the types of project status reports that would be useful to each.
6. Compute the cost variance, schedule variance, cost performance index, schedule performance index, and estimated actual cost using the information presented at control point 2. Interpret the project schedule and budget status from the calculations.
7. Explain how work package, binary tracking, and earned valued reporting can be used effectively during the maintenance phase of the software life cycle if various change requests may be assigned to individuals and processed on an individual basis.
8. Develop a risk register that will document all of the estimated risks. Assign one (1) risk management technique for each risk and explain the basis for your selection.
9. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
• Include charts or diagrams created in Visio or Dia. The completed diagrams / charts must be imported into the Word document before the paper is submitted.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Develop a software project plan based on IEEE 1058 to solve a business problem.
• Explain the methods of creating, measuring, and controlling work products and work processes.
• Explain and analyze earned value reporting techniques in software projects.
• Describe ethical issues and risk management factors inherent in software projects.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in IT Project Leadership Strategies.
• Write clearly and concisely about topics related to IT Project Leadership Strategies using proper writing mechanics and technical style conventions