Baseline Project Plan Report

Project Plan Report

Project Name: Book World (BW) Processing System

Project Manager:

Project Overview

The BW processing system will enable employees at BW to process sales orders efficiently, to track inventory more effectively, and to serve customers better when they make a purchase. This application will be built in Oracle and APEX and this selection was made after evaluating three alternatives.

The development will be done by SAD (Systems Analysis and Design, Inc.) The technical feasibility assessment found that SAD has the experience to handle this project and economic feasibility assessment favored doing this project due to an estimated return on investment of 18% over three years. From a legal standpoint, proper licenses will be maintained for the software and data will be password protected. The organizational feasibility assessment found good support for Book World’s goal of better service to customers.

Alternatives and Selection

There are alternatives considered for the Book World application. One alternative was to keep the current method of processing orders. Another alternative was to build an application using Microsoft Access because the software is reasonably priced. The third alternative was to have an application built by SAD using Oracle APEX with an Oracle database. After weighing tangible and intangible costs and benefits, the third alternative was chosen because the Oracle platform is more suitable for multiple users on the database simultaneously and for development and expansion will be easier to do. The construction of a database and order processing application has been approved by the customer, as outlined in the Project Charter.

Feasibility Assessment

A. Technical

· Familiarity with Application - This project is similar to five other projects the SAD development team has completed for small commercial businesses. SAD has successfully used RAD to provide basic functionality for end-users, then incorporated additional features during each iteration of the development process.

· Familiarity with Software - The application will be built with APEX based on an Oracle database, which SAD analysts/programmers have extensive experience with. The employees at BW have virtually no experience using databases or an automated order processing system but all are comfortable with using PCs. Training should be sufficient to overcome their inexperience.

· Product Size - Project size is relatively small. There is only one BW store at this time. Future expansion is planned but will not affect this project, though business expansion may lead to subsequent projects.

B. Economic - A return on investment of 18% is estimated for this project. Details about benefits and costs are listed below.

Tangible benefits include:

· Faster order processing is expected to increase orders by 5% per month (approximately $1,250 monthly).

· Database-based inventory management is expected to improve inventory management—estimated savings of $7,500 annually.

· Reduce staffing by one part-time employee--$833 per month.

· Intangible benefits are:

o Increase quality of service to customers.

o Help employees be more efficient.

o Increase customer satisfaction with BW.

· Complete cost-benefit analysis is provided in a spreadsheet.

Tangible costs include:

· Development costs will $15,500 for 4 networked PCs and software, $12,000 for user manuals, videos and training, and $18,500 for application development and implementation done by SAD.

· Annual operating costs of $3,000 to SAD for technical support and $7,000 for hardware and software replacement and upgrades.

Tangible benefits include costs savings and revenues:

· It is estimated that the annual increase in orders will be $15,000.

· There will be an annual savings of $10,000 in payroll and $7,500 due to better inventory management.

C. Legal and contractual – The computer where the database resides is password protected and only authorized users can access the database. Software licenses will be properly maintained. The proposed system does not present any legal or contractual issues.

D. Operational – The proposed system will streamline the order process, provide better management of inventory, and help keep employee and customer information up-to-date. The proposed system directly supports BW’s business goals to increase revenue and provide better customer service. BW employees are enthusiastic about automating some of the work they do at BW. Steve Haskins believes this project is essential to BW’s success. He also see the possibility of expanding to other outlets.

E. Schedules, Timeline, Resources –

· An MS project file and Gantt chart detail the activities and timeline for this project.

· BW has allocated $50,000 for the processing system. This amount must cover the development costs, as well as hardware, data conversion, and training.

· The project team has agreed on a project timeline. Tasks will be completed on time.

· Team members will follow standard procedures for reporting progress, documenting work, and communicating with other members.

· The project manager will be the contact person for the BW customer.

· The system should be operational by ______.

Project Management Conventions and Standards

· The development team will consist of 4 people—the project manager is assigned full-time and other team members are assigned half-time. The project manager will maintain the project repository for all project artifacts.

· Team members will used their business email when communicating about the project and will respond within 24 hours during the work week. There will be a weekly meeting to report progress, identify problems and assign tasks. This meeting will be on Tuesday mornings, unless notified otherwise.

· All documents will be created using MS Word, Excel, Project, Oracle SQL Developer, or Oracle Data Modeler.

Project Deliverables (Checked items (√) are within this project scope. Other items are for documentation and possible future development).

The features/functions listed below have been reviewed by Steven Haskins. He has agreed that the items preceded by a checkmark are within the scope of the current project. Items preceded by a dot are features that will be added in a future project.

Deliverables:

Input functions:

ü Capture inventory data.

ü Capture new member data from membership application form.

ü Capture sales order transaction data (including employee number, member number & inventory number).

ü Set sales order date to current date automatically.

ü Set sales order status as “open” (the default), “closed” or “cancelled.”

· Track membership information (whether a customer is a member or not).

Processing functions:

ü Assign a membership number automatically to a new member.

ü Assign an order number and date automatically to each order.

ü Display member’s first and last name in sales order form.

ü Display the name of the employee who processed the order, unless the customer made the order without assistance.

ü When processing an order, be able to open that customer’s record.

ü Cancel a sales order transaction if for some reason it cannot be processed.

ü Change the order status from “Open” to “Closed” when the order is completely processed.

· Update inventory when items are removed from stock on hand or added to current stock levels.

Output functions:

ü Listing of all customers and their sales orders, if any.

ü Listing of inventory with the ability to sort and group by category or by status.

ü List of inventory items with a stock level below reorder point.

ü Listing of customers, with the ability to group by member status.

ü Listing of employees.

ü Listing of sales orders, with the ability to group by order status.

Storage functions:

ü Sales order data.

ü Customer data.

ü Inventory data.

ü Employee data.

Control functions:

ü Verify sales order inventory data.

ü Verify membership/customer data.

06_BW_PP_Report.doc