Project Plan Inception Project Introduction

Running Head: Section 1: Project Introduction 1

Section 1: Project Introduction

Background: Information of the Company

ABC Adventures is an innovative e-Commerce start-up company that a venture capital group has funded. Currently the company has a semi-automated system through which the firm manages its information needs. At present the has merely one computer and stand alone application and the system experiences a set of problems. Therefore the firm hired CIO to carry out analysis and submit a project plan to upgrade the systems. Thus, the aim of this report is accurately carry out this analysis and clearly propose the project plan for the system.

The Object of this report is to help ABC Adventures to remove the problems faced by them, with the help of the new system. For this, proper specifications for a new automated information system would be developed and implemented with the new system. As the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the company, I have been asked by The CEO to submit my plan well within sixty (60) days to deliver an information technology project plan in anticipation of the company acquiring the new systems. Since this is a start-up company, there is currently no building or technology infrastructure to support the business. All information technology (hardware and software) must be implemented in either a hosted solution, on-site solution or a hybrid model. The CEO is expecting you to integrate different technologies from different partners and incorporate industry best practices in connection with the development of technological systems. The new facility is a two-story stand-alone building. The company currently consists of ten (10) employees with revenues of $5 million but is expected to grow to thirty (30) employees with revenue of $30 million over the next two (2) years.

The type of business in which the company is involved

At the moment the company is involved in travel booking using the online web based application. Along with this the company plans to launch a mobile app which can be installed on the client’s Smartphone or a mobile device. In this mode the company wishes to do the business as it is always easier and convenient from the client’s standpoint. With this the company wishes to do the business as the market survey reveals that having an ecommerce website tends to increase the number of business transactions, especially for the companies in travel business. The company has asked the CIO to develop a very innovative plan for the new application so that the company has a definite competitive edge and the application should be very user friendly and ergonomically designed.

Description of the information systems that the company should have to support the business

CIO wishes to propose the new plan for the system which is not only advanced, in terms of usage of modern and innovative new technologies, but, also most advanced design methodology like Rapid application and Scrum. It is also well known that nowadays, usually the sites are linked to the Social sites like Facebook & Twitter, so the new web design must integrate well with these sites. At times users are more likely to login to the ecommerce sites with their facebook credentials and in that case they have to remember less number of passwords. So these features will be accommodated in the new system design plan. With the advent of smart ways to attack through the security of a system, safe and secure design considerations will be undertaken in the development. Users’ inputs like their personal profiles, any bank related information and trip related details need to be maintained with utmost security and privacy.

Databases

As a senior IT Resource person, CIO is well aware that the convention databases are unable to support huge data and the volume in which the data arrives. With lot of analytics used by the companies, as well as multiple formats of the data like multimedia formats, video/audio, images, messages, and so many different formats in which the data comes nowadays, the CIO advises to use the Bigdata technology. In effect Hadoop / Bigdata is not only open source, but, it can take care of huge amounts of data and can handle the analytics efficiently. As the computing power is increasing rapidly, with lot of CPU power and Memory to harness and easily available, it is possible to undertake data analytics which provide lot of decision making information. This is possible through Hadoop and Bigdata technology.

Systems Analysis

The CIO propose to use prototype development or Rapid Application development methodology. It is possible to use Waterfall method – which is conventional way of developing a system, but, it is pretty serial. If a major change is required by the project stakeholders, then it is very difficult to accommodate and everything is serialize. Hence the scrum development or the rapid application development enables the creation of the prototype application at a faster rate. Thus, a new version of would be application is delivered within weeks or months of starting the development. This helps users of the system to have an opportunity to access the application as it takes the shape. They get fair ideas as to what they are going to get from the project. So they can actively participate in the development by providing their feedback. This feedback is valuable from the system development context and the feedback is then incorporated into system development by refactoring the application.

In the scrum development, the user stories or the user views or activities are taken as the input to design the application. The user can actually have a trial by attempting to have a hands on usage and testing during the development stage. This is necessary as the user gives the accurate feedback and develops more confidence on the new application.

Security

Security is a very essential feature in today’s context as often we hear so many cases of fraud, cybercrime, sabotage and attack on the online applications. There are many attacks using different methodologies employed by the intruder to hack a system. It is very crucial therefore to safeguard a web application from these attacks. A very comprehensive and through approach is adapted to in-build the security features. The data has to be encrypted so that even if the attacker happens to steal the data, it is of no use to him. Apart from that, the software is to be plugged with all the security loopholes and vulnerabilities through the application of security patches and critical upgrades. This will prevent any spyware or malware attaching the ecommerce website.

Networking

Standard and recommended best practices for setting up the network will be undertaken. This helps in setting up an efficient and proper network with high availability and good performance. Packages like CISCO packet tracer will be used to design the company’s network. CISCO routers will be used and the company will be providing a Web server and an application server to host its applications and website. A public domain will be created so that the site is visible publicly. The overall design will be attempted to reduce the network latency and improve the throughput and performance. Wireless Linksys routers will be setup to create a wi fi network for the benefit of the employees of the company.

Computer Infrastructure

High Availability and failover servers will be acquired by the company to provide a 24 X 7 highly available website. As the customers tend to book the reservation any day or any time, so it is mandatory to have a 24 X 7 uptime for the website. Therefore, a failover server will be setup which will help in providing an alternative support, should the main server develops a fault or glitch. Apart from that, branded infrastructure would be used to set up the application and the webserer and all of them would be having no single point of failure.

Human computer interaction

The application will be designed using Java/J2 EE platform and will have a mobile version. The app can be downloadable on the client’s Smartphone or a mobile device. The application and the website will adhere to all the standards and best practices of the web design. Cool colors, clear and sufficiently visible fonts, uniformity and symmetry for all the pages and user friendly approach will be built in to the interface. The help feature, support and trouble-shooting facilities will be available at every page so as to help the user to operate the app.

Web design

The HTML5 and javascript will be used to design a dynamic and vibrant website. The content of the site will be dynamic in nature and the user will have the ability to create the profile. The site can be linked to any social site and provide the connectivity through the social site. A user profile data could be imported like address and billing details if permitted by the client. Innovative and cool features, and moreover, the focus will be on usability and ergonomics.

References:

Satzinger, J. W., Jackson, R. B. & Burd, S. D., 2010. Systems Analysis & Design in a changing world, s.l.: Cengage Learning.

Scott Ambler, 2014. The Agile System Development Life Cycle (SDLC), s.l.: Ambysoft.