Research Project

Proposal with
Appendixes
Samuel Painter

Solving Issues in Client Product Manager - Developer

Communication

Samuel Painter
spainte9@uncc.edu
tel. 704/813-7791
817 Normandy View
Gastonia, NC 28052

Memorandum
Date:
To:
From:
Subject:

Nov 11, 2015

Dr. Robert Arnold
Samuel Painter
Request for Approval of Research Project

The purpose of this memo is to formally request approval of my research project

topic. I am interested in examining a problem within my workplace, that is the
communication of technical requirements and documentation between members of
the development team, the project manager, and clients. This memo will elaborate on
the importance of this topic, outline a solution plan, and explain my qualifications.
Problem
This project is necessary in order increase the efficiency of the workplace and to
reduce errors due to miscommunication of requirements. Recent miscommunications
have negatively impacted the companys ability to bill and be accountable for all
developer time.
Objectives
A solution to this problem must enable a project manager to communicate approved
technical requirements to the development team. The development team must also
be able to share documentation within the team to increase understanding and
expedite code review.
Solution
In the interests of keeping costs low, I propose the company utilize its existing
subscription to Atlantean services that is currently underutilized. Within the Atlantean
suite, there are two products that combined provide a solution. The first is Jira which
would enable project managers to define technical requirements and place them in a
backlog. Specifically, particular items within Jira can be marked as approved and
given priority levels. The other product is Confluence. Confluence provides an internal
wiki that would act as a central store for documentation and specific requirements
documents within the organization. When performing code review or looking for an
internal API, developers can find these resources within Confluence.

Samuel Painter
spainte9@uncc.edu
tel. 704/813-7791
817 Normandy View
Gastonia, NC 28052

Schedule

Task
Researching Products
Deploying Products
Writing Product Manual
Migrating Existing Internal
Documentation
Running Test Project
Total

Hours
8
4
12
20
?
44+

I can make an effective deployment within the software in little more than a week of
work. Time for running internal test projects is of course indeterminate depending
upon the size and scope of internal projects in the backlog at the time of
implementation.
Qualifications
I am qualified to implement this solution because I represent the companys interest
as a member of the development team. I am in a position to evaluate the efficiency
and quality of communication under any new system. Further, I have prior experience
using Jira and other Project Management tools like it.
Cost
Because the company already possesses a license to utilize this product suite,
implementation costs are minimal. There is no cost for dedicated hardware as the
suite can run on our existing source code management systems server. The cost then
is best expressed in developer hours rather than monetarily. In addition to the 44
hours for implementation, all other developers will need to be introduced and climate
to the new system. I estimate a period of 10 hours per developer will be necessary
before use of this system no longer necessitates an increase in developer time from
our current model. Thus, at this point, the developer time needed is ~144 hours.