ITEC610 final exam 2017

Question # 00513796 Posted By: neil2103 Updated on: 04/18/2017 01:44 PM Due on: 04/18/2017
Subject Computer Science Topic Algorithms Tutorials:
Question
Dot Image

Please review the scenario below, as it is different than the one on the midterm.

General Expectations:

This is an open-book exam; however, you must cite any external resources in APA format. If you use ANY outside material in your submission, you must cite the source.

You are encouraged to refer to and build upon the concepts, techniques, and ideas you have explored in previous coursework (including the midterm exam and group project). However, everything you submit on this exam must be original work written by you specifically for this course and for this exam. Resubmission of coursework from a previous or concurrent course (whether taken at or not), partially or in its entirety, is unacceptable unless prior approval is obtained from me.

You are certainly permitted to add facts above and beyond those provided in the hypothetical below if they add value to your deliverables.

Submission Requirements:

· Submit to the Final Exam Assignment Dropbox as a single document (combine all deliverables into a single document).

· Format: Microsoft Word

· Double-spaced

o The minimum page requirements for each deliverable are outlined below

· APA citations as appropriate

· Using tables and graphics to better organize and convey information is highly encouraged. For some deliverables, it is required.

· There are some required components such as the GANTT or organization charts that will require you to use the Virtual Lab or another software tool. Please do NOT submit MS Project files. You may take a screenshot of a Project file, or export to PDF, PNG, or JPG format and embed in your deliverable. I will NOT be able to grade any MS Project files submitted to me.

· You MUST use the provided template for your final submission. You may insert other files into the provided template, or you may include them at the end as an Appendix as long as you label them and indicate which deliverable they are intended to supplement. If you absolutely cannot get the provided template to work, please let me know.

· Please review the grading rubric.

· All submissions will be submitted to Turnitin for a plagiarism check. Please ensure that any material from outside sources is cited in APA format.

Hypothetical Scenario:

After successfully completing the migration of the State of Confusion’s voter registration system to your company, HangingChads, your client has asked you to provide your company’s Software as a Service (SaaS) Electronic Voting platform to them. Software as a Service (SaaS) refers to a Cloud Computing Service Delivery model where applications are provided via the Internet using a web browser or mobile application, and where the organization requiring the application pays a third party a subscription fee instead of managing the application itself. Cloud Computing can be described as a utility service, offered under a subscription and “pay-as-you-go” model. Much like you may obtain electricity from a utility company, and do not own or operate your own power plant, cloud computing enables an organization to obtain a service and only pay for what it uses.

The client has told you that their existing voting platform was hacked during the previous election, and they need a secure, reliable, and cost-effective solution for the 2018 Congressional Midterm Elections. The State of Confusion is under investigation by the Election Assistance Commission, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has threatened legal action if the voting system is not replaced prior to the 2018 elections. Unlike the voter registration system, there is nothing to migrate and you do NOT need to worry about a data center or servers, because your customer has chosen to use your company’s existing SaaS platform, which is currently providing voting systems to ten (10) other states and three (3) countries in Europe.

Your company’s SaaS platform consists of the following components:

· SaaS Election Administration System used to decrypt and tabulate votes, results reporting, and an auditing module.

· SaaS Voting System used by voters and accessible via commodity tablet devices

· Commodity tablet devices (i.e. iPads and Android Tablets) encased within protective enclosures and connected wirelessly to a printer

· Barcode scanner application that voters can download to their own mobile devices, scan their ballot receipt, and verify that their votes match

At a minimum, your client has requested that your project cover the following areas:

· Hold meetings with election officials to understand requirements and ask any questions

· Conduct focus groups for voters, to obtain feedback as part of your ongoing quality initiative

· Connect the SaaS Election Administration System to the State of Confusion’s existing voter registration database that you migrated in the previous project

· Deploy the devices in the Bill of Materials to the client’s two hundred (200) polling places

· Conduct training for election workers on the SaaS Voting System

· Conduct training for election officials on the SaaS Election Administration System

· Setup and Conduct On-site Voter Training for the new system in September and October of 2018 at the two hundred (200) polling places. You will need to either provide internal resources, or hire an outside company to assist with this.

· Create an online voter training for the new system, to be launched in June 2018

· Conduct a one-year marketing campaign to introduce voters to the new system starting in November 2017, and obtain feedback from voters

State of Confusion has also requested some application enhancements to your SaaS platform, and expects that the completion of those will be incorporated into your project management deliverables. The application enhancements requested are:

· Real-time results reporting, with subscription data feeds made available to the media.

· Biometric security (fingerprint or retina scanners) to confirm the identity of elections officials. The actual scanners will be purchased at a later date, and do not need to be included in your submission.

These enhancements need to be completed by January 2018.

These enhancements are expected to require 4000 hours of development effort, 1000 hours of project management effort, and 500 hours of support effort. Your company’s hourly billing rates for these enhancements are as follows:

· Development: $300/hour

· Project Management: $200/hour

· Support: $100/hour

At the end of the day, your client’s requirement is for a secure, reliable, and cost-effective voting solution. Your client is counting on you to complete this project on-time.

You are encouraged to be creative in developing your deliverables, and are free to add any additional facts that you may need to successfully deliver for your client.

Bill of Materials:

· 10,000 tablets are to be procured and deployed to 200 different locations

· 800 wireless printers are to be procured and deployed to 200 different locations

· 10,000 protective enclosures are to be procured and deployed to 200 different locations (These enclosures cost $400 each)

· 1,000 surge protectors are to be procured and deployed to 200 different locations

· 200 high-speed cellular Internet devices (i.e. MiFi or Wireless Hotspots) are to be procured and deployed to 200 different locations

· Unless otherwise specified above, you may either research costs of the above using the Internet, or make up a per unit cost, and then use this information when preparing your project budget

· If you believe that I have missed a critical item, then you are free to include that in your budget

Constraints

The customer has expressed that there are a few constraints that you will need to consider in your project planning:

o The new SaaS Electronic Voting platform must be live by July of 2018

o The new voting platform must go through a certification process between July and September of 2018. You must include this certification process in your plan, and ensure that you have identified and allocated appropriate resources. To aid you, a similar project at a similarly sized organization required twenty (20) full-time employees working for six (6) months to complete all certification tasks. These certification tasks may include:

§ Verification of Software and Hardware security (on the tablet devices)

§ Verification of processes for deployment, recovery, repair, and field operations

§ Verification of the operation of the SaaS platform

§ Verification of the SaaS platform security

§ Verification of processes for training and certifying election workers and officials

§ Verification that all legal requirements for the jurisdiction are met by the SaaS platform

o All devices in the Bill of Materials must be deployed by September 2018

o The State of Confusion requires that any procurement activities conducted on behalf of the state go through a competitive bid process, with at least three bidders. This will be important in Deliverable 4.

o You are NOTto discuss data centers, cloud hosting (i.e. Amazon or Microsoft Azure), servers, storage, or networking. This project requires none of these, as indicated in the hypothetical and I do not want you to spend any time on these areas.

o Quality is of the utmost importance in this industry, and the client will want to see that you’ve given thought to this throughout your project

Resources

· You will determine the resources that you need, and prepare a project budget for client review and approval. The client has not given a target budget for the project, and has instead instructed you to prepare an appropriate budget for their approval.

· You have full freedom to define what the resources will do for the project

· You may use whatever mix of internal staff, and external vendors that you wish to complete the project

Deliverables

You have been asked to prepare the following deliverables for your client:

· Deliverable 1: Project Proposal Summary and Project Plan (Minimum: 8 pages, No Maximum)

o Introduction

o Statement of Need

o Identify Project Stakeholders, Roles, and Responsibilities

§ Be sure to describe each stakeholder’s relative control of the project, and why they have that level of control

o GANTT Chart/Detailed Project Schedule

o Generate a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of at least three levels

· Deliverable 2: Financials (Minimum: 4 pages, No Maximum)

o Prepare an estimated budget for the project

§ Include:

· Resource costs

· Equipment (refer to Bill of Materials)

· Installation/configuration costs for the items in the Bill of Materials

· Reserve analysis for cost overruns

· Deliverable 3: People and Communication (Minimum: 4 pages, No Maximum)

o People

§ Write a summary containing the following:

· An assessment of how you as the project manager will build trust and credibility with your project team

· How you would propose developing an understanding of your project team, and improving relationships?

· Identify and explain your leadership style

§ Prepare an organization chart for your project team

§ Prepare a RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consult, and Inform) chart for your project for each major task in the project. Refer to the reading here:Olson, D. (2014). Chapter 6: Estimation inInformation Systems Project Management(EBSCO E-Book from the library)

o Communication

§ Write a summary containing the following:

· Identify and explain the communication skills that are critical for your success on this project

· How will you establish and maintain trust with your project team?

· How will you handle negotiation on the project?

· How will you handle conflict resolution on the project?

· How will you delegate responsibility to others?

· What areas of the project do you anticipate delegating to others on the project team?

· What type of project culture are you planning to develop as you kickoff this project?

· What types of meetings do you plan to hold for the project? How often will you hold them?

§ Develop a meeting minute template for your project meetings

§ Now that you have a template, prepare meeting minutes for your project kick-off meeting

· Deliverable 4: Project Procurement and Closure (Minimum: 4 pages, No Maximum)

o Develop Procurement Plan (Chapter 12 in the Saylor text can help you)

§ Select the contract approach

§ Assess required project work, and determine how work will be divided between the project team, and outsourced vendors

§ Determine the qualifications for potential bidders on your project

§ Determine whether you will use a Request for Quote or Request for Proposal to solicit bids, and develop a template for your vendors

§ Determine how you will evaluate project bids

§ Develop a plan for how you will closeout procurement contracts

o Develop a project closure plan

In addition, you may complete the following OPTIONAL deliverables for EXTRA CREDIT:

· Deliverable 5: Risk Assessment (Minimum: 3 pages, No Maximum)

o Perform a Risk Assessment (You MUST prepare this as a matrix table with supplemental narrative text explaining your table.)

§ Risk Assessment Matrix

§ Risk Identification – minimum of twenty-five (25) risks

§ Risk Evaluation – likelihood and impact

§ Risk Mitigation

§ Contingency Plan

· Deliverable 6: Project Control and Quality Management (Minimum: 3 pages, No Maximum)

o Quality Management (the readings from Week 11 will help you)

§ Explain why you think that quality is so important in IT Project Management

§ Explain the similarities and differences between process and project quality management

§ Explain how you will ensure that the outputs of your project will meet the client’s requirements

§ Conduct a cost of quality (CoQ) analysis for your project

§ Prepare a quality plan for your project

§ Prepare a flowchart of a quality control process that you would propose for your project

§ Prepare a fishbone diagram identifying the following for your project:

· Potential Quality Issues

· Causes of Quality Issues

§

o Project Control (the readings from Week 11 will help you)

§ Identify the three general phases of the control process, and explain how you will manage these in the project

§ Explain how you will implement cost control for your project

§ Explain how you will implement work authorization within your project team to manage change

§ Describe project reporting that you will use to monitor project control

Dot Image

Click chat on right side to get answer. Click on Chat
Whatsapp Lisa