Zayed University INS 377 Term Project

Outlines of INS377 Group Project

Due Dates: Refer to Blackboard Dates

The aim of this group project is to simulate the effect of working in industry (frequently you are part of a team).
Instructions, and Mode of Work
1. This is a Group-based project. A group size of around 4 is highly recommended due to the effort
required in the timescale given.
2. Different students in the group may lead each of the parts of the project, while others collaboratively
work with the leader to support the decision-making process.
3. All students in the group will be working together to compile all the tasks and create the final report.
4. Each team is responsible for submitting their original work; plagiarism will be dealt with firmly
according to ZU’s policy.

Outline and Introduction

This project is designed to assess your learning in a number of areas relating to INS377 IT Project Management. In
addition, it gives you an opportunity to apply your learning and acquire practical skills while managing a real system
project without some of the pressures that exist in the industry, such as changing requirements and cost constraints.
This will enable you to consider alternative approaches to your project, giving you an opportunity to reflect on your
work and, hopefully, learn from what you have done. It is also an opportunity to work in a team with other students,
and to learn how to manage people and workloads in a way that removes many of the problems of difficult teams,
but still allows you to engage fully with all aspects of the project work.
Remember that the purpose of this project is to provide you with an opportunity for learning, and your instructor
with a means of assessing your knowledge retention.
Keep in mind that the outcome of your work in this project can be a jump start for your senior project. If you choose
to do so, you will have an excellent starting point having completed a detailed project plan.

Your team must complete the following deliverables as part of this project and submit cumulative reports,
as follows:

Deliverable 1: (25 Percent)

(a) Selection of Project

Each team will propose a project idea for a new or improved information system/technology or engineering.
Previous project ideas include: (You are encouraged to propose new ideas related to your major).
1. Developing an IT management system for Dubai Taxi,
2. Developing a mobile system for one of the Dubai Banks,
3. Developing houses/apartment rental and sale system for one of Dubai Estate Agent,
4. Developing an online shopping and delivering goods for one of the Retails in Dubai.
5. Developing a mobile application for monitoring and advising on food intake for patients
with chronic diseases like diabetes, obesity, etc.
6. Developing a mobile application for registering blood donors, managing blood
collections in different local centers, and sending SMS for urgent needs,
7. Developing a course registration and timetabling system,
8. Developing an online order processing system,
9. Developing an event ticketing system,
10. Developing a textbook management system,

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 Zayed University INS 377 Term Project

11. Developing a donation tracking/management system,

12. Developing resource tracking/utilization management system,
13. Any idea related to AI, IoT, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, engineering, etc.

Use Chapter 3 as a guide, come up with a business case for your project. Give reasons why you are selecting
a particular project out of the above list, At the minimum, this phase should have the following:
a. Introduction
b. Business objective
c. Current Situation and Problem/Opportunity Statement
d. Critical Assumptions and Constraints
e. Analysis of Options and Recommendations

(b) Project Charter

Your next task is to develop a Project Charter that will serve to convince your supervisor (professor will
play this role) that the project is worth pursuing and investing resources in. Your charter should include
the following elements:
A. Project title
B. Project overview
a. Project description
b. Business needs
c. Expected benefits
C. Project scope
a. Objectives
b. High-level requirements
c. Major deliverables
d. Project boundaries/exclusions
D. Estimated project duration
a. Timeline
b. Major milestones (for the project, not for the project plan)
E. Budget estimate (very high level)
a. Identify one-time project costs
b. Identify recurring costs (costs that continue once project is implemented)
c. Identification of cost categories is more important than accuracy of actual cost estimates
F. Project assumptions/constraints/risks
a. Identify assumptions
b. Constraints on the project—there is one constraint for sure: the due date for the assignment
c. Risks Analysis: Identify and briefly discuss topics likely to impact project success where you have the most
uncertainty
• Project charter is to be professionally formatted and submitted online and via Blackboard as an MS Word document.
Use of relevant figures and charts is encouraged but not required.
• Include a single-page coversheet that has provides the project title, indicates that the document is a project charter,
and identifies all team member names and student ID numbers.
• Document should not exceed 1,000 words (excluding cover page).

In addition to the above

• Team member contribution and reflection: Each team member must include a paragraph reflecting on
their individual contribution to the project deliverable and what they learned in the process.

Deliverable 1: Refer to the syllabus and blackboard for the due date.

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 Zayed University INS 377 Term Project

Deliverable 2: (35 Percent)

(a) Project scope management (15 Percent)
Create a scope statement draft.
a. Project Title
b. Project Summary and Justification (a summary from your project charter)
c. Product Characteristics and Requirements
d. Summary of Project Deliverables
e. Project Success Criteria

(b) Project time management (20 Percent)

A. A work breakdown structure developed in MS Project 2010 using Gantt chart and PERT Chart techniques. The work
breakdown structure must contain at least 4 levels (with level one being the complete project) and be constructed to
support the development of a project schedule that identifies:
Major milestones (0 duration events)
a. Project activities, with duration estimates
b. Activity sequencing (identification of predecessor activities)
c. Identification of critical path and explicit identification of schedule slack (if any exists)
B. Include a section in the narrative plan titled: Work Breakdown Structure and Project Schedule. This section should
list the major project deliverables and major project milestones and include a statement indicating that the detailed
WBS and project schedule are available in an attached MS Project file.

In addition to the above

• Include prior work from Deliverable 1 with corrections.
• Team member contribution and reflection: Each team member must include a paragraph reflecting on
their contribution to the project deliverable and what they learned in the process.
Deliverable 2: Refer to the syllabus and blackboard for the due date.

Deliverable 3: (40 Percent)

(a) Project Cost Management (15 Percent)

A. A detailed project budget (including all reasonable one-time and recurring costs) using the cost management
templates.

B. Analyze the Financials for your project. For this, you will need to estimate the costs and the benefits of your
project. You may use the templates (i.e., cost estimates, business case financials, payback) to help you calculate the
NPV, Payback, and ROI of your project.

C. Use earned-value management (EVM) to help control the performance of the tasks in your project by
comparing the initial costs and times you set for the project. By providing cost and schedule performance
assessments of both the total project and its major parts, EVM allows you to identify the likely problem
areas so you can take the most effective corrective actions and forecast the cost and time required to
complete the project.

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 Zayed University INS 377 Term Project

(b) Project risk management (10 Percent)

A. Identification, discussion, and prioritization, in terms of seriousness, of project risks

(c) Project integration management (5 Percent)

• Report any integration process which took place in your project (e.g., SWOT analysis)

(d) Project report professional writing and self-reflection (10 Percent)

• Formatting
• Writing clarity/understandability
• Writing mechanics (spelling/grammar/headings/numbering)

In addition to the above

• Include prior work from Deliverables 1 and 2 with corrections.
• Team member contribution and reflection: Each team member must include a paragraph reflecting on their
contribution to the project and what they learned in the process.

Deliverable 3: Refer to the syllabus and blackboard for the due date.

Term Project Presentation: Refer to the syllabus and blackboard for the due date.

Important Notes:

• The project management plan project is to be professionally formatted and submitted to Blackboard as an MS Word
document. Use of relevant figures and charts is encouraged but not required.
• Include a single-page coversheet that provides the project title, indicates that the document is a project charter, and
identifies all team member names and student ID numbers.
• No minimum or maximum document length is specified. However, if the plan is less than five pages, the team has
probably written too little. And if the plan is greater than twenty pages, the team has probably written too much.

NB: As this Group project is itself a project, there might be changes in its outlines.

Grading Rubric

The assignment above indicates the percentage of the marks that will be allocated for the three deliverables and
indicates the percentage assigned to each section of the deliverable. Marks will be awarded based on:
• The extent to which the documents demonstrate an understanding of the IT project management
principles provided in this course.
• The quality with which these principles are applied to the project selected.

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