Software Project Management Plan

Automated Railway Reservation System

Huitang Li

Vahid Keshmiri

Yasin Esmail

Zaida M. Morales

Natasha Dunaeva

Rehan Khan

November 7, 2000

 

 

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.                                                                                                            

1.1 Project Overview.                                                                         

1.2 Project Deliverables.                                                                                              

1.3 Evolution of the SPMP.                                                                             

1.4 Reference Materials.                                                                                  

1.5 Definitions and Acronyms.                                                             

2. Project Organization.                                                                                                           

2.1 Process Model.

2.2 Organizational Structure.

2.3 Organizational Interfaces.

2.4 Project Responsibilities.

3. Managerial Process.

3.1 Management Objectives and Priorities.

3.2 Assumptions, Dependencies, and Constraints.

3.3 Risk Management.

3.4 Monitoring and Controlling Mechanisms.

3.5 Staffing Approach.

4. Technical Process.

4.1 Methods, Tools, and Techniques.

4.2 Software Documentation.

4.2.1. Software Requirements Specification (SRS).

4.2.2. Software Design Description (SDD).

4.2.3. Software Test Plan.

4.2.4. User Documentation.

4.3 Project Support Functions.

5. Work Packages, Schedule, and Budget.

5.1 Work Packages and Schedule.

5.2 Dependencies.

5.3 Resource Requirements.

5.4 Budget and Resource Allocation.

6. Additional Components.

6.1 Index.

6.2 Appendices.

 

 

 

 

1.     Introduction.

The Chinese railroad system currently consists of 65,000 km of rails and plans are being developed to increase it to 70,000 km by the year 2002.  It is estimated that approximately 3.7 million Chinese and foreign visitors use the country’s railway system.  Railroad use is bound to increase as the population grows and new railways are added.  At present, train tickets can usually be purchased at the China International Travel Service (CITS) desk in major tourist hotels, or through advance booking offices and foreign desks at the train stations.  In order to keep up with the increasing use of the railroad system in China, the current reservation systems needs to improve.  The Chinese Railway Ministry (CRM) is requesting proposals to build a prototype of an Automated Railroad Reservation System (ARRS) for their current system.  This new ARRS needs to be scalable enough so that it can accommodate the increase in reservations caused by new railroad building in China. The essential and most important part of this proposal will be the Project Plan (PP).  The PP and the prototype to be presented will be evaluated on the feasibility of the development plan and process description.  The management approach and appropriateness to the project at hand will play an important part in the decision.  If the prototype proves to be a feasible alternative to the needed ARRS, our team will be given the opportunity to manage the overall development of the actual ARRS that will be implemented throughout reservation offices in China.  In the case that our plan is approved by the CRM, the PP will be updated as the project progresses.

1.1 Project Overview.

ARRS begins the new journey in the development of a scalable and improved reservation system for Chinese Railroads. The goal of the project is to create a working prototype of the ARRS.  The system will be designed to provide an electronic version of the railway passenger reservation system in China.  The system will have a user-friendly graphical interface and will be more cost effective compared to the current non-electronic version of the reservation system. 

The objectives of this development effort are:

 ·        To provide existing clerks with a new environment in which to make reservations for railroad travel.

 ·        To provide an avenue for customers to get their tickets in a more convenient way.   

 ·       To regain control of the railway ticket sales to avoid scalping and overselling of tickets.

 ·        To implement a prototype of a scaled down version of the final system to test the solution and further         develop requirements.

·        To collect statistics in a more efficient manner for future railroad development and construction.

·        To increase efficiency of railroads.

The major work activities for the project include:

·        Problem specification

·        Risk Analysis

·        Design stage

·        Implementation

·        Testing and evaluation

·        Quality Assurance

·        Maintenance

Project resources for the ARRS include 26 professional software developers of Chinese nationality, which will be provided by the CRM, and the 6 members from our management team.  The CRM will also provide the necessary hardware and software for implementing the project. Major work activities will be divided between the members of our team and the developers provided by the CRM.  The ARRS system to be developed will include a central database to keep all reservation information and a web server to process all reservation transactions.  Traveler will be able to get their tickets online through a web browser or by calling a reservation desk.  There are no budget constraints for the project at this time.  

The major milestone involves building a prototype within one month of getting to China, which will be a tough challenge.  This prototype relates to the attempt by CRM to develop a full-blown reservation system, which unfortunately failed. The actual look and feel of the reservation system prototype will be similar to the current online reservation system implemented by AMTRAK at www.amtrak.com.

1.2 Project Deliverables.

Table 1: Project Deliverables

 

1.3 Evolution of the SPMP.

The different parts of the project will be divided among the team members, who will submit their work in a group Yahoo web account. The individual parts of the project will be checked and put together by the project manager. All changes will be reflected on the table at the beginning of this document and each version and change date will be noted. A team member will regularly review all documents. Weekly updates shall be communicated to the project manager who will immediately address these changes. After comments and issues are resolved, the document will be approved and a new version will be made available.

1.4 Reference Materials.

More information about the project can be found in the following documents:

·        Introduction – Chinese Railway Passenger Reservation System Prototype

http://www.cs.swt.edu/~donshafer/project_documents/5391_Case.html

·        China 2000

§         http://www.china2thou.com/

§         Pressman, Roger S., Software Engineering:  A Practitioner’s Approach, McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1997.

1.5 Definitions and Acronyms.

APMM – AsiaPac Marketing Manager

ARRS – Automated Railroad Reservation System

CASE – Computer Aided Software Engineering

CITS – China International Travel Agency

CRM – Chinese Railroad Ministry

PP - Project Plan

SDD - Software Design Description

SRS - Software Requirement Specification

SDS – Software Design Specification

SPMP - Software Project Management Plan

GUI – Graphical User Interface

QAM – Quality Assurance Manager

PDM – Project Development Manager

TBD – To be determined

UML – Unified Modelling Language

 

2.     Project Organization.

This section specifies the process model for the project and its organizational structure.

2.1 Process Model.

The ARRS project requires frequent customer and user interaction.  For that reason, our first choice included the Prototype model. However, we had doubts about the prototype model, and therefore we concluded to use the Spiral Model. The risk-based approach of the Spiral Model is significant to the development of this prototype, and it would also help select an established lifecycle model or determine a different model constructed from various phases of other lifecycle models. After regular reviews using the risk analysis table stated in the appendix, we decided that the best approach was to use a hybrid model that would implement the risk management of the spiral model along with the incremental model, which is a mixture of the prototype model and the linear sequential model.  Currently, the project revolves around two established stages: Requirement Analysis and Prototype Development.  Figure 1 shows the life cycle for the development process as well as entry and exit criteria for the different phases of the project.

Figure 1: Life Cycle Model

2.2 Organizational Structure.      

The internal management of the project, as well as how the project relates to the rest of the organization is included in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Organization Chart

2.3  Organizational Interfaces.   

The administrative and managerial interfaces between the project and primary entities with which it interacts are presented in Table 2.

Table 2: Project Interfaces

 

2.4 Project Responsibilities.

             The project responsibilities are presented in Table 3.

 

Table 3: Project Responsibilities.

 

3.     Managerial Process.

This section specifies the management process for this project.

3.1 Management Objectives and Priorities.  

The goal of the project is to satisfy the requirements with a feasible development process that will improve the reservation process for the China Railway System and allow flexibility in finding creative solutions for the problem.  However, quality is always the first priority and will not be compromised.  The central idea of the management of this project is the on time delivery of a reliable and good quality product, along with an intensive and early exchange of ideas and concepts necessary for the successful completion of the project.  This will be achieved by early reviews of existing or new information and implementation on a regular basis. 

The flexibility matrix in Table 4 communicates the characteristics of the different project dimensions

Table 4. Flexibility Matrix.

3.2 Assumptions, Dependencies, and Constraints.

The ARRS project will be tested among three major cities before being implemented on a larger scale. Therefore, the foundation of the prototype must be based on several assumptions and restrictions.

Assumptions on which the project management plan is based are as follows:

·        Ten trains transport the passengers between three cities known as Guangzhou, Shanghai and Nanjing. These trains originate only in cities Guangzhou and Shanghai, and they make a stop at Nanjing before arriving to their destination.

·        Five trains travel from city Guangzhou or Shanghai each day and five travel from city Guangzhou or Shanghai each day.  Two of the trains traveling from Guangzhou or Shanghai stop at Nanjing each day and one of the trains traveling from Guangzhou or Shanghai stops at Nanjing each day.  No trains originate Nanjing.

·        There are five classes of tickets as listed below

§         Sleeping (soft) - compartment style coaches - 4 passenger per compartment

§         Sleeping (hard) - compartment style coaches - 6 passenger per compartment

§         Sitting (soft) - typical first class coach

§         Sitting (hard) - tourist class couch

§         Standing (hard and soft sitting coaches only)

·        Reservation can be made up to one month before a particular trip.

·        Seats are assigned during reservation.

·        Phone reservation involves tickets being purchased within 24 hours after making the reservation.  Otherwise, the reservation will be cancelled.

·        No reservations can be made 48 hours prior to the trip.  Rather, it will be done on a first come first serve basis from that point on.

·        Passenger lists will be provided for conductors at each stop.

·        The trains will be assumed to be of a constant size that accommodates 1080 passengers at a time.  They will consist of:

§         2 soft-sleeping coaches (12 compartments each)

§         2 hard-sleeping coaches (12 compartments)

§         2 soft-seating coaches (60 seats)

§         9 hard-sitting coaches (80 seats each)

·        The following management reports will be available:

§         Number of reservations made for each departure date/train

§         Number of customers turned away because of full trains for each departure/train

§         Number of no-shows for each departure

§         Number and names of people who show up without reservation for each departure

§         List of high buyers of train tickets.

·        The expected reservations during test period may amount to approximately 25,000 per day.   This volume varies by hour, day, and season.

·        Chinese Ministry will provide us with information about identification process used in China, so that it can be applied to the reservation system and scalping of tickets is avoided.

·        Network connection will always remain established.

Dependencies, or external events, upon which the project is dependent on are:

·        CRM trains occasionally may become non-operational.   In that case, a new train will be dispatched, but a delay of up to a few days could occur.

·        Scalping of tickets is a popular activity in China, and CRM wants to discourage such practices.

·        26 developers will be provided by the CRM.

·        The CRM will provide all the required hardware and software resources for the development of the project.

·        The telecommunications channels available in China are sufficient for the development of a feasible client server system.

 

Constraints, under which the project is to be conducted, are:

·        The number of trains from city A to city C and from city C to city A is limited to 5 trains.

·        The number of passengers that can be taking a train at once is limited to 1080 passengers.

·        The number of trains that can travel from city B to city A is limited to one and the number of trains that can travel from city A to city B is limited to two.

·        The functional prototype should be available after 30 days upon the arrival of the management team to China.  This may prove to be a serious time constraint on the development of a successful prototype.

·        Communication with the Chinese team members may prove to be difficult since some Chinese developers do not speak English and the management team does not speak Chinese.  Even with the presence of a translator, communication may be difficult. Absence of the translator may severely affect project development.

·        Team members are restricted from bringing their own equipment, and insufficient equipment supply may hinder project development.

·        Team members are restricted to bringing only the analysts of the team to China.  This might affect the project development if more people are needed or the required skills are not available.

·        The majority of the Chinese population does not have or have a limited access to the Internet.

3.3 Risk Management.   

Table 5 gives a detailed description of the process used to identify, analyze, and manage the risk factors associated with the project. 

Table 5: Risk Management.

 

3.4 Monitoring and Controlling Mechanisms. 

Reporting

Auditing Mechanism will be as follows: The Report Formatting procedure will be that it will discuss the progress of the project. How is the present phase going , it will also include the errors and difficulties that team had during that phase .In the last the future plans for the next phase of the project

                      Software Quality Assurance Plan

            The Software Quality Assurance Plan is a proposal for the Software Quality Assurance System of the organization, an organizational structure and a series of activities that must help ensure a persistent high quality for the software developed by the Development department of the organization.

            Quality Assurance (QA) consists of the procedures, techniques and tools used to ensure that a product meets or exceeds pre-             specified standards during its development cycle.

            The purpose of this Software Quality Assurance Plan (SQAP) is to define the techniques, procedures, and methodologies that will             be used to assure timely delivery of the software that meets specified requirements within project resources.

                        Management

            Within an organization, Quality Assurance should be carried out by an independent software quality assurance team that reports to             Software Manager and  project development manager The Quality Assurance team will be  associated with a particular             development group but also responsible for Quality Assurance across the organization. Figure 3 shows the basic management               structure for software Quality Assurance.

 

Figure 3: Basic Management Structure

The Quality Assurance team must, in the first place, ensure the quality of the software process. So, the Quality Assurance team:

·        Defines process standards such as how reviews should be conducted, and when reviews should be held;

·        Monitors the development process to ensure that the standards are being followed; and

·        Reports the software process to software manager and project development manager.

                        Responsibilities

            The Quality Assurance team is responsible for the development and maintenance of the product and process standards, The QA

            team is responsible for proposing and establishing techniques, procedures, and methodologies that may be effective used to assure

            timely delivery of the software that meets specified requirements within project resources.

                        Communication and Reporting Plan

Table 6 shows the reporting and communication plan for the project. This may change as the project progresses.

Table 6: Communication and Reporting Plan.

 

3.5 Staffing Approach.

We intend to use the people recommended by the CRM for various tasks.  At the moment, we don’t foresee a need for any extra staffing on the project.  The staffing approach for this project is as follows:

·        Management Team – Yasin, Zaida, Natasha, Rehan.

·        The Project Management Team decides who is qualified enough to be Project Development Manager among the 26 people provided by the CRM.

·        The Software Manager for team 1, team 2, and team 3 and the Programming Manager is interviewed by the Project Development Manager and the Project Management Team.  The Project Development Manager decides who gets to be manager of which team.

·        The Software Manager of team 1, team 2, and team 3 and the Programming Manager will decide who will become Development Engineer, Test Engineer, Code Developer, and Test Technician.  In the end, the Project Development Manager approves the decision.

·        The Project Development Manager and the Project Management Team staff the Quality Assurance Manager and the Quality Engineer positions.

·        Vahid and Huitang will receive UML and CASE training in the next two weeks in USA and apply this new knowledge on this project to improve work efficiency and effectiveness. They will not go to China. However, parts of their jobs will serve as home knowledge base for client training and advising.

·        The Project Manager gets to decide or redistribute the work force among teams in the case that any member of the team gets sick. Nevertheless, he needs to inform the Project Development Manager about it.

 

4.     Technical Process.    

This section specifies the technical methods, tools, and techniques to be used on the project. It also includes identification of the work products and reviews to be held and the plans for the support group activities in user documentation, training, software quality assurance, and configuration management.

4.1 Methods, Tools, and Techniques.

The method to be applied to the project development leans more towards the objected oriented approach. Therefore, the programming language will be object oriented as well. Furthermore, defects on the modification and maintenance will be tracked by use of the Function Points method.  More details will be added as the Software Requirements Specification is further developed.

4.2 Software Documentation.      

The work falls into separate categories, where each category involves one or more people working on it. A reference to initial computing design structure is shown in Section 4.2.2 Software Design Description (SDD) to illustrate the functionalities of the work products. The initial design requires four work products.  However, this is a target of constant change after every review. The work products are divided according to their different contributions to the whole project. For instance, data storage and warehousing is a different module from the server, since both have different functionalities. One holds data, while the other controls traffic flow and access to the database.

Table 7 displays the work products and the types of reviews held for each one.

Table 7: Work Products and Review Schedules

4.2.1 Software Requirements Specification (SRS).    

Refer to the SRS document for more information.

4.2.2 Software Design Description (SDD).        

Figure 4 is not a concrete software design description, but it is the basis for the design structure that we will develop at a later time. Furthermore, the diagram helped to determine our resource requirements and it effectively focused our thoughts and refined our ideas. Once again, this is not an established SDD for the project but a rough implementation of the project design.  More information will be provided during the High Level Design and Detailed Design phases.

Figure 4: Software Design Description

4.2.3 Software Test Plan.      

Before establishing a complete set of requirements in the SRS, 90% of the gathered information relevant to the ARRS in the SPMP must be evaluated and fully understood. The SRS can be tested in two ways. First, we can validate the SRS by cross checking it with the SPMP to ensure all identified risks are resolved and the requirements are satisfied. The second test will occur when the CRM is fully satisfied with the SRS and agrees to proceed to the next phase of the project.

The design must satisfy the SDD, since it is based on the SRS. Reviews of the SDD must be based on the SRS, and the test criterion includes strictly validating the SDD against the SRS. Each risk in the SRS must be confronted and shown to be resolved in the SDD. Redesign or alteration of the SDD will be implemented if unsatisfied requirements are confronted during SDD validation tests or reviews.

Each developer will be responsible for a portion of the project. There are two things that are important in the coding phase. First, the code functionality must strictly meet the SDD.  The second important part is the consistency of code writing for the ease of product maintenance.
Therefore, weekly code reviews shall track the progress made by individuals, and furthermore, eradicate any undetected serious errors. In addition, there shall be consistency in the program, and the developers will become familiar with each other’s code.  This makes it easier for them to maintain the product in the future. Finally, the code reviews will be checked against the SDD to ensure the project implementation in the right direction.

Developer’s work will be validated and verified to satisfy the SRS and SDD by other developers before commencing the system and functional tests. Once all modules have been verified, only then will the modules be integrated together. Ten Chinese testers, who will make sure that the system meets the SRS and the SDD, will perform the system test.

4.2.4 User Documentation.     

User documents will be uploaded online and the CRM will receive a hardcopy after the project completes.

 

5.      Work Packages, Schedule, and Budget.  

In this section, the work packages, dependency relationships, resource requirements, allocation of budget and resources to work packages, and a project schedule are specified

5.1 Work Packages and Schedule.    

Table 8 shows the work packages for the activities and tasks that must be completed in order to satisfy the project agreement.  Each work package is uniquely identified.

Table 8: Work Packages and Schedule

 

5.2 Dependencies.    

Figure 5:  Dependencies of the Main Work Packages

5.3 Resource Requirements.      

The resource requirements are divided into four separate categories, and these may be needed at different times during the lifecycle of the project. The division of resources falls into hardware and software requirements, travel, computer time and number and types of personnel.

At the initial stages of the project, we need offices, phones, fax machines and other editorial and visual programs on each workstation. This phase of the project involves the six members of team 2 refining and polishing the SRS and SDS. The time frame varies from six months to one year for a satisfactory completion of these phases since they are a vital part of the project implementation.

Furthermore, a large chunk of resource requirements involves hardware and software.  However, major use of these resources comes into play after the project design is completed. Some of the resources required are listed below:

·        A network (LAN) is required to facilitate the whole operation. This network consists of a database server, several workstations, and a build server to host the compilers. Refer to section 4.2.2 - Software Design Description for more information.

·        Each person will have a separate workstation. Since there are 26 Chinese employees and six members of team 2, then we need 32 workstations for each employee.

·        A Linux operating system for different servers and apache server programs is also required.

These are the basic computer resources required. The coding period involves the use of all hardware and software, as well as 32 persons working on the project. Therefore, all resources are used at this point in time.

Travel issues for maintenance purposes will be addressed after the completion of the project. Therefore, such resource requirements come at the end of the project. However, there will be traveling done to the three different cities once the installation of the software and testing begins. Once again, such requirements fall at the later stages of the project lifecycle.

Use of resources is limited to a minimum during the initial stages of the project. However, this increases once the coding, testing and installation processes begin. Close to the end of the project, the requirement of these resources stabilizes since some amount of maintenance is expected.

Figure 6 displays the relation of the resource requirement as a function of time.

Figure 6: Approximate Resources Vs Time Graph

5.4 Budget and Resource Allocation.    

Table 9: Resource Allocation

Required software for the project includes:  Oracle DBMS, Linux Operating System, Apache Web Server, Sun Java Virtual Machine 1.2, Sun Java Development Kit 1.2, C/C++ Compiles, Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, and some version control software, such as CVS or CMVC.

Budget

Some of the basic items required for the development process, and their prices are listed in Table 10.

Table 10: Budget Allocations

           

6.      Additional Components.    

This section contains any additional components required for clarification of the different part of the SPMP.

6.1 Index.  

An index to the key terms and acronyms used throughout the SPMP will be provided in the future.

6.2 Appendices.

A. Current Top 10 Risk Chart    

B. Current Project Work Breakdown Structure   

C. Current Detailed Project Schedule

D. Software Risk Management Plan

 

D. General Information

Map of China