Letter to Sponsor Style Co.

Question: Describe about facing a critical challenge from its competitors of Style co? Answer: Executive summary Heading back to a decade from now, it is seen that for businesses it was necessary to possess own websites for their customers to know more about things such as the location of stores, timing, return policy to name a few. Fast forwarding to the present or ten years ahead, bearing a website is not the only relevant requirement anymore, but having a website which serves as an alternative for selling a company's products or services is way more important. And, that is exactly the reason for Style Co to need its own, unique e-commerce website. A paper has been presented here as a project charter which shall highlight the high quality plan to make this dream website a successful one in the near future. Purpose of the Project The primary objective of the project is to design and develop an exclusive website for Style Co., which are a fascinating company in the clothing segment. It's going to involve the much needed critical activity revolving around website design and development starting with the requirement analysis and the user acceptance of a fully ready to use website. The main motto behind developing such a website is to allow Style Co. to totally meet the increasing demands of the customers coming through internet. Hence, it will not just be serving the customers connected to internet, instead simultaneously stepping into the era of the ample opportunities and receive the market share that has been rising considerably. At present, time is conducive with the trend in the world of ecommerce and therefore also with the alluring opportunities and demand of the online clothing; the main purpose of creating a website once created, the company shall not have the opportunity to transform with the advanceme nt in technology and invading yet another new market. Business Needs The website has been developed for permitting Style Co, a super stylish clothing company for exploring new possibilities in the world of e-commerce. After the development, this website is going to be handed over to a client only when it is absolutely ready to use and functional. Front-end is used mainly by the end-users while the backend is used by operators of Style Co. The website is going to further facilitate the lists of products, process payments and manage the contents of the most talked about website. Business Objectives The business objectives of this project are found to be in a direct alignment with the companys strategy of improving sales and increasing the customer outreach. The organization shall be able to increase the number of customer on entering a totally new market which gets push from the advancement of platform of internet. In addition, it will offer the company the chance of reaching the untouched areas when it is virtually working full time. When a company, enter the world of online business, it automatically increases the number of customers by 20 per cent thus the market share is bound to increase. This shall enable decrease in marketing cost by as much as 40% by reaching to larger customers across the world. An increase of 30% sales can be estimated. The company will be able to retain customers by implementing customer friendly approaches. Project Description The planed website shall provide a robust platform which will provide Style Co. a golden opportunity to foray the e-commerce market. The developments of the website will be utilized to provide a simple and easy to use interface to the esteemed customers at the same time to the system administrators. Project Objective Developing the listing of products online which will act as the product catalog, with the facility of processing payments for any ordered product in about 10 days makes a website more attractive. It indicates that the company is gradually transforming to be an e-retailer. Development of a functionality of enlisting a details of products within 20 days, development of the functionality for informing the customers about the products and the designs within about just 5 days along with the functionality for offering discounts, deals as well as rewards to the customers within the next ten days. Development of the functionality for studying the behavioral pattern of the varied customers who are visiting the website. This will enable to identify the market trends Success criteria Following are the success criteria: Availability of the necessary resources whenever demanded. Objectives and requirements of the project are crystal clear to the whole working team The project is periodically monitored with respect to its progress etc. i.e. quality check and Gantt chart. A mature management process which are capable to do any change in scope. Requirements A project has to meet the requirements for attaining success: A website must be well tested under different conditions and performances prior to its deployment. A website must also undergo a user-acceptance test before the final delivery. Constraints The constraints that might impact the project are as follows: Time - A website must be completed definitely within the given time otherwise a project will require to hire some new resources as a result the budget may increase beyond the acceptable limits. Budget - A website must be completed in its given budget otherwise a project might feel the need to approach the sponsors for an additional budget. Resources - A project ought to bear skilled and absolutely committed resources. Moreover, the resources must be readily whenever (PMI, 2010). Coding standard The website need to be developed keeping the specification as per the specified standards and it should use the licensed software and technologies. Assumptions The Budget along with the allied marketing activities is not in the scopes of this current project. The artifacts should get a sign off within four days to expedite completion of the project within stimulated time. The skilled human resources are available for the project-off. The tools are readily available to design and develop the website. Preliminary Scope The scopes of this development include the design and coding along with the testing of the functional website of Style Co. Project team will maintained the hardware and software. The website is going to be functional within the mentioned deadline (Schwalbe, 2013). Project manager will manage the project funding. The project will be closed after submitting report and final testing. The installation of the IT infrastructure is not within the scope of this project Project resources Project manager Develops the proposed Plan Acquires necessary resources leads and manages the kick off meeting QA/ Testing Engineer Analyses and understands the documents related to BRS Tests the system with respect to the compliance and plan Documents and reports if any discrepancy or change is Participates in the process of Peer reviewing, ensure QA standards Design manager monitoring the quality of work Ensures team has correct working environment and they are equipped with necessary tools and specifications. Look after design standards and consultation Senior Developer Integrate the project module wise Look after payment processing process Also responsible for designing and developing the encryption algorithm Database Admin Responsible for installation of database as per the requirements Also responsible for creating required database, views and tables Responsible for the backup and recovery of data Responsible for creating user accounts and is also responsible for database security Risk management Following are some of the risks factor: Type of Risk Description Level Impact Contingency Method Insufficient job details/description Lack skill set Low Medium Review by the experts Improper allocation of resources Lack of the minimum number of resources Low High Hire resources from the other similar projects delay in the hiring process Resources were taken before the initiation of the project Low Medium Decrease the frequency of hiring Disapproval or disagreement of client Difference in thoughts of client and requirements Medium High Arrange ad hoc or periodic meeting with the client Discrepancy in identification of the requirements related to the project Mismatch between the client and project requirements Medium High Review through the external expert Loss of important documents Technical failure Low High Available IT techniques for recovering Loss/resignation of key programmer Left the job Low High Hire another competent programmer Summary of the Milestone Schedule Milestone Deliverable Project initialization Project approval by CEO sounds abrupt without initial planning, without knowing the scope, the aims and objectives of the core team. Project Planning The WBS and the final plan for the project need confirmation by the CEO. Without an approval, the project cannot begin. Finalizing the Project requirements Requirements that have already been approved by the Sponsor once have been finalized; further processing can thus be started without hesitation. Finalize the Project training program The Project training plan must be given a green signal by the Sponsor. Until and unless the training plan has not been approved, the whole team will be unsure about the issue of how clients can use it without difficulty. Finalize the Project Design The CIO to make coding possible fruitfully must approve the final design, it must be remembered that the design needs to be confirmed first. Project prototype A total finished prototype is to be approved by a client. To reach the target of delivering high quality content for a website, the prototype is the fundamental requirement to keep the client in sync. Database The Project has to be finalized and the database must be approved by CIO- any client is not going to store their data and thus will fail to make their shopping predictions. Project code A system implemented by Project code is yet another thing that must be approved by the CIO before the final delivery, the additional requirement is that the website should be coded without its client will not get the key deliverable. Project code must be pre-tested and resolved The tested system to be approved by the CEO has to deliver a website free of bugs. Demonstration Demo ought to be approved by the CEO to receive the final approval. WBS WBS ID Name of the Task 1 Website development 1.1 Project Kick start 1.1.1 Analyze current system 1.1.2 Creation of the Project charter 1.1.3 Approve charter 1.1.4 Sign-offs 1.2 Planning 1.2.1 Creation of the scope and statement 1.2.2 Finalizing project team 1.2.3 Finalizing Project Plan 1.2.4 Approval of the project plan 1.3 Designing 1.3.1 Finalize domain name 1.3.2 Finalize marketing strategies 1.3.3 Site maintenance 1.3.4 Evaluate Web Design Methods 1.3.5 Choose web design method 1.3.6 Creation of wireframes 1.3.7 Competitive analysis 1.3.8 Finalize content requirements 1.3.9 Create information architecture 1.3.10 Finalize navigation scheme 1.3.11 Design the contents 1.3.12 Create visual design 1.4 Coding 1.4.1 Finalize code document 1.4.2 Select IDE 1.4.3 Create user-interface-design 1.4.4 Create database model 1.4.5 Testing at unit level 1.4.6 Bug Fixing 1.5 Testing 1.5.1 Create testing environment 1.5.2 Create test plan 1.5.3 Perform user acceptance testing 1.6 Deployment 1.6.1 Creation of hosting and website agreement 1.6.2 Integration of applications 1.6.3 Finalizing the operations 1.6.4 Documentation 1.6.4.1 Creation of End User Documents 1.6.4.2 Creation of system admin documents 1.6.4.3 Disaster Recovery 1.7 User Training Communication plan What Who Purpose When Method(s) Initiation of meeting Stake-holders Gathering information for the given plan Before the project initiates Meeting Distribution of the kick start plan Stake-holders Alerting the stakeholders regarding the project scope Before meeting is kick-started Email Project kick-off Stake-holders Communicating plans as well as responsibilities to the stakeholders As and when the Project starts Meeting Team meetings The Project team as well as the meetings among the sub-teams, technical team and actual functional teams To review the generalized plans Will be scheduled regularly Meeting Post project review Stakeholders, Sponsors and Project managers Identifying improvements, taking down the lessons learnt and reviewing accomplishments At the end of the project Meeting or report Stakeholders Stakeholder Stake Impact What do we need from Them? Stakeholder Management Strategy Project manager Assign work to team and monitor them High Avoid conflicts among team members and meet deadline Meetings Project sponsor Provide required funds High Commitment in providing required funds Meetings Project Team Provide completed task on time High Coordinate with each other Status meetings Lesson learnt Following are lessons learnt from the implementation of project: Resources form the critical aspect of a project development. However, they are required to be monitored from regular basis. Milestones should be meeting on time and within the assigned deadlines. Project should be monitored to avoid any chance of deadline slippage and corresponding increase in budget. References Burgenson, A.L. Risk Assessment and Management, [Online], Available: https://www.asq509.org/ht/a/GetDocumentAction/id/26024 Duncan, W. R. A guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge. Feitelson, D. (n.d.). Lifecycle Models: Waterfall / Spiral / EVO. Retrieved from https://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~feit/sem/se11/2-lifecycles.pdf Gulla, J. (2012, Feb). Seven Reasons IT Projects Fail. Retrieved from https://www.ibmsystemsmag.com: https://www.ibmsystemsmag.com/power/Systems-Management/Workload-Management/project_pitfalls/?page=2 Hamilton, G. (n.d.). Risk management and project management go hand in hand. Retrieved from https://www.cio.com.au: https://www.cio.com.au/article/385084/risk_management_project_management_go_hand_hand/ HubPages. (n.d.). Project Management Time Cost Estimation Techniques: An Overview. Retrieved from https://hubpages.com: https://hubpages.com/hub/Project-Management-Time-Cost-Estimation-Techniques-An-Overview Nix Project Management Online (2014) Nix Project Management. Available: www.nix.net.au/ PMI. (2010). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide). USA. Schwalbe, K. (2013). INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECT MANAGEMENT.