·        1 project manager who speaks English very well.                                   

·        3 analysts, who have had extensive experience in developing applications, none speak English, all read English, and all have a fair ability to write in English.

·        1 Programmer/Analyst who has extensive telecommunications skills and communicates fairly well in English.

·        11 Programmers with 5 or more years experience in developing extensive applications.  3 of this group have excellent English                                     communication skills.

·        10 Programmers with less than 5 years experience.  The Ministry is extremely interested in these people receiving on-the-job training so they must be used.  Only 2 of this group can communicate in English.

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

·        A facilitator from CRM will help to make arrangements with government authorities, organize travel arrangements, and serve as a host to China.

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

·       Three additional analysts are available from Banglore Software Development in Banglore, India. Our company hired them in case we required some form of help for the ARRS project.

·       A software design company located in Australia is sponsored by our organization to aid if neccessary.

·       Two documentation specialists from our company.

·       Three field applications mangers from the Taiwan office.

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

·        The number of trains from city Guangzhou to Shanghai and from Shanghai to Guangzhou is limited to 5 trains.

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

·      Two of the trains traveling from Guangzhou to Shanghai stop at Nanjing each day and one of the trains traveling from Guangzhou to Shanghai stops at Nanjing each day.  No trains originate Nanjing.

·        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 have limited access to the Internet, and thus they may not be able to get to the system.

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. In addition, it is also an organizational structure and a series of activities, which help ensure a persistent high quality by product monitoring and control during the development of the software

            Quality Assurance (QA) includes procedures, techniques and tools used to ensure that a product meets or exceeds 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 project plan 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 approach used for the project development is an objected oriented technique, and thus, the programming language will be object oriented as well. Furthermore, Function Points will be used to track defects on the modification and maintenance.  More details will be added as the Software Requirements Specification is further developed.

The CASE tool and its object oriented development methodology with unified modeling language representation (UML) and instant Java code generation is used in this software development project. The manager with Project Management Professional (PMP) knowledge works closely with international marketing groups to use all the varied hardware and software capabilities within the corporation to win new international business.

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).    

This requires separate documentation so 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.      

90% of the gathered information relevant to the ARRS in the SPMP must be evaluated and fully understood. The problem domain must be explored extensively then we proceed to the SRS. 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 and verification 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 verified against the SDD to ensure that the project implementation follows the process we originally intended.

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. The two document specialists from our organization will prepare these documents.

                                                4.3 Project Support Functions.       

                                                           The project manager is responsible for the project configuration management.

Zaida is assigned the job for software quality assurance, the testers from CRM are responsible for verification and validation while Rehan and Natasha are the supervisors for planning and inspecting the verification and validation.

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 four members of team 2, then we need 30 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 30 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.

The other resource that is worth acknowledging since it may be used extensively throughtout China. The wireless resource falls in both the software and hardware categories. According to our Liason, Don Shafer, the mobile phones have excellent reception in China, and several Chinese own these mobile units. Furthermore, the technology to have access to the internet is possible through specially designed mobile phones that support WAP structure. Therefore, we decided to use the semi-conductor fabrication plant in Taiwan to design the components that provide the support for internet access. Additionally, the cellular phone assembly plant in Guangzhou can assemble these components to be sold to the Chinese. Finally, the application design such as WML (language interpreted by the WAP technology) shall be implemented by us so that the Chinese have the ability to access the ARRS using their mobile units.

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, wireless equipement.

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