Planning a project

Set Task Brief

You work for a software development company that has been contracted by Suncrest Travel to
plan and develop their new digital solution.
Your manager has asked you to analyse the potential costs, benefits and risks associated with
the project and then produce a plan for the development of the new digital solution.
Your manager intends to use your plan during the next monthly meeting with the client.

Set Task Information

Suncrest Travel is an organisation that provides holidays to customers in the local area. The
organisation currently relies on old booking system to meet its clients’ needs.
After a review of its current situation, the organisation has decided that it needs to develop
a new solution.
The aims of the new solution are to allow:

● customers and company representatives to communicate more effectively customers

to:

 be able to view and purchase holidays in store and

online
 have faster access to a wider range of holidays

● management to:

 access tools for carrying out business analysis

 help improve service around client needs (data
analysis).

The requirements of the product are:

● an easy to use interface (GUI) with appropriate accessibility features
● provide customers with access to goods and services
● ability for staff to interact with a dashboard of business information
Planning information
Suncrest Travel has forecast that developing the new digital solution will lead to a forecast
increase in average annual revenue of 5% in the first year with a further increase of at least
10% in the second and 15% in the third year.

Suncrest Travel and your manager have provided you with information to help you produce your
plan.

Financial information provided for the project

Description of the revenue/costs Amount (£)

Current average annual revenue 150000

Current average annual total costs 120000

Forecast costs for the development of Amount (£)

the new digital solution

Software development company base fee 10 000

Support and training: 1000

Cost of Booking terminals (3 terminals Option 1 – PC-based touchscreen (16 inch)

required) terminal – 699.99 (per terminal)

Option 2 – PC-based (18 inch) terminal –

479.95 (per terminal)

Cost of software licensing 1000

Cost of cloud server 48 (per month, ongoing)

Cost of infrastructure (networking) 2 000

upgrades

Project leader’s pay (you) 200 per day

Forecast ongoing annual costs Amount (£)

Maintenance and support costs 2 250

(server, equipment, infrastructure,
 Travel software)

Most of your company’s software developers are currently working on other projects.

Therefore, the senior managers have recruited some new members of staff for this project.

Your project development team will consist of:

● One senior software engineer (current

employee) o Priya Sorvall
● One junior software engineer (new employee) o
Jenny Jones
● One database engineer (new employee) o
Harpreet Kaur
● One network engineer (new employee) o
Malcolm Gomez
● One cloud architect (new employee) o Shaun
Harris

Profiles for the new staff

Name Priya Sorvall

Job title Senior software engineer

Core skills ● System and user requirements analysis
● Writing and testing code
● Refining and rewriting code
● Integrating existing software products
● Testing and maintaining systems by monitoring and
correcting software defects
● Specialism – Python, PHP and SQL

Previous ● Significant experience of delivering solutions for small-scale

experience projects
● Developing cloud deployed solutions
● Worked on small projects
● Setting up reproducible environments and applications ●
Recently promoted to role of senior software engineer

Cost Cost £70 per hour

Name Jenny Jones

Job title Junior software engineer

Core skills ● Researching, designing and developing new software
programs
● Developing existing programs by analysing and
identifying areas for modification
● Specialisms – Python PHP JavaScript
● The ability to explain complicated processes in
nontechnical language

Previous ● One year working on web development projects

experience

Cost ● £25 per hour

Name Harpreet Kaur

Job title Database engineer

Core skills
● Specialisms in Java, Python 3, SQL and NoSQL in the
cloud
● System and user requirements analysis
● In-depth understanding of system security
● Development of both back-end data systems and front-
end accessibility features
● Installation and testing of database management
systems (DBMS) and associated hardware and software
● Good team working skills

Previous ● Experience of delivering database systems for commercial

experience airlines

Cost £55.75 per hour

Name Malcolm Gomez

Job title Network engineer

 Core skills
● Excellent problem solving and troubleshooting of
network problems to maximise network performance
● Specialisms in planning, implementing, and monitoring
computer networks ● Experienced in:
• administering firewalls and maintaining IT security
systems
• router configuration
• upgrading data servers and network equipment
● A comprehensive knowledge of network protocols and
services such as TCP/IP, DNS, and DHCP

● Worked for the Civil Service updating network

Previous
equipment to the latest firmware releases and creating
experience
reports for key stakeholders

Cost £63.50 per hour

Name Shaun Harris

Job title Cloud architect

Core Skills • Creating well-informed cloud strategy to manage the
adaption process
• Evaluating cloud applications, hardware, and software
• Developing and organising cloud systems
• Responds to technical issues in a professional and timely
manner
• Specialisms – Python and Ruby
• Good leadership skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication
• Strong people skills

Previous ● Experienced in delivering cloud solutions for small

experience companies

Cost £74.50 per hour

Your manager has produced an outline of the key tasks that need to be completed
during the project. The table shows the key tasks and the estimated number of work
hours it will take to complete each task.
 Task Estimated number of work
hours
Upgrade infrastructure 26
Develop Module 1 - Back-end database 120
Develop Module 2 - User interface 50
Develop Module 3 – Business Information 132
Develop Module 4 – Booking systems 85
Develop Module 5 - Communications 80
Develop and deploy virtual cloud server 50
7 (per
Deploy modules module)
20
Unit testing (per module)
25
Integration testing (per module)
14
Fixing and regression testing for major fault (per fault found)
3
Fixing and regression testing for minor fault (per fault found)
User/acceptance testing 25
Create a test plan 14
User training 25