- Home
- Free Samples
- Information and Communication Technology
- ICT508 Project Management: EduStream ...
ICT508 Project Management: EduStream Pilot (Phase 1) Assessment 1 Answer

ICT508 – Information Technology Project Management Assignment 1 Project Proposal and Preliminary Planning
BACKGROUND
You are a Project Manager working for EdMedia International Pty Ltd (EdMI). Up to now, EdMI has been deploying educational videos and educational games on DVD/Blue Ray. In the past they held nearly 40% of the market share in Australia. Additionally, EdMI control the rights to more than 60% of the available educational videos and games packages available in Australia. However, EdMI’s considerable market share has been eroding over the last few years. This appears to be due to clients wanting to access their educational content more flexibly. EdMI has therefore decided to investigate implementing a new media deployment solution, as a part of a key business expansion. This project is known as ‘EduStream’. The proposal put to the EdMI Board involves creating a system, which utilises a similar architecture to the one implemented by Netflix (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXQpgAAeLM4), and leveraging the Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) (https://www.techopedia.com/definition/4753/real-time-streamingprotocol-rtsp). The preliminary intent is to roll out a one-year Pilot Project that will establish the foundation for the EduStream system, and then expand on this through following project phases. However, for the moment the focus will only be on the Pilot Project. The EdMI Chief Information Officer (CIO) is the delegated Project Sponsor, and he will be reporting directly to the EdMI Chief Executive Officer (CEO). You have been selected as the Project Manager. This means that you are responsible for implementing and overseeing the Pilot Project from initiation to closure. If the pilot is successful, the intent is that you would then assume the role as Project Manager for the following phases. As a first step, you will need to deliver key project initiation and planning materials to the Board by 9:00AM on Monday 1 April 2019. These materials must provide clarity regarding the business case and outline how the project can be implemented successfully (once it is approved).
THE PROJECT
The objectives of the project The aim is to create a stable, effective and user-friendly streaming solution, which will allow educational training videos and gamesto be deployed. For this Pilot Project, the Board has decided to begin by deploying Content Delivery Network (CDN) nodes in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth. In addition to the streaming systems, you will need to provide secure systems for managing personal information (e.g. databases that include client financial information and usage records) that will be utilised to manage the gateways to access content. All of this infrastructure and the associated systems will also need to be protected by effective security systems (e.g. physical, application, network, data, etc.).
Key Issues to be addressed
To implement this project, the following important issues will need to be addressed: • The Board is still not convinced that this will be a viable solution. The materials that you provide will therefore have to be detailed and convincing, or you may find yourself out of a job. • You are not an expert in video streaming technologies, and there is no expertise related to these technologies within the company. Additionally, your expertise in establishing large scale web-frontend databases is minimal. Consequently, you will need to engage one or more experienced subcontractor, who can coordinate/implement the server and application related solutions. This will be a high priority. When conducting this selection process, it is recommended that you implement a weighted analysis approach. • EdMI is not a dedicated technology company. Consequently, setting up ‘green-fields’ (all new) data centres and systems is beyond our core business. For this reason, outsourcing will be important. You may also want to think about aspects such as leasing of equipment to help minimise up-front costs. • In addition to the provision of the EduStream system, you will need to think carefully about the provision of ancillary services, such as the establishment and operation of a service desk.
Key Milestones
You will need to achieve the following key milestones, to meet the Board’s defined requirements. Please note that these only reflect some of the pertinent high-level objectives. You will need to work out other key milestones involved in this approach. The subordinate milestones that you select must allow the following to be achieved:
• Begin developing informal team relationships: From 4 March 2019;
• Planned formal project Start Date: 29 April 2019 (this triggers formal allocation of project funds from this date – until this time other members of staff and contractors cannot be engaged formally on a paid basis – In practical terms this means that you have to do the initial work on your own, but you can ask questions during the workshops);
• Contractually engage one or more technical subcontractor: 24 June 2019;
• Finalise the Technical/System Architecture/Design: 30 August 2019;
• Kick off development of software and systems (includes procurement for Development and Test Environments): 2 September 2019 (Note: some preliminary work will be needed prior to this date);
• Commence Marketing: 9 September 2019 (build client base for Beta and User Acceptance Testing (UAT));
• Beta goes-live for the first Pilot CDN node (Perth): 6 December 2019 (Commence detailed System tests and UAT); • Beta goes-live on second Pilot CDN node (Sydney): 7 February (Commence multi-site system testing & UAT);
• Beta goes-live for third Pilot CDN node (Melbourne): 17 April 2020 (Commence full system pilot testing);
• Full market opening (includes an advertising blitz): 1 May 2020 (The entire system must be stable and robust by this time); and
• Formal Pilot Project Closure: 1 June 2020 (submit final reports, etc.).
WHAT YOUR PROPOSAL MUST CONTAIN
By the delivery deadline listed on Page 1, you must provide the following proposal information:
• Project Charter. The Project Charter must be included. Use the template provided in the LMS. Advice on the content to be included is supplied in this template.
• Project Financial Analysis. Provide the NPV, IRR, and break-even calculation information required to determine project viability. To develop these, use the Project Assessment workbook provided in the LMS.
• Subcontractor Selection. Use the weighted analysis worksheet provided in the Project Assessment workbook provided in the LMS. It is expected that you will include a much more detailed analysis of the issues in this worksheet than what is covered in the workshop. Think about this realistically.
• Project Management Plan. Complete key parts of the Project Management Plan (PMP) by using the template provided in the LMS. You will need to complete up to and including Section 4.2. The remaining sections in the template will not be required for Assignment 1. • Work Breakdown Schedule. Insert the Work Breakdown Schedule (WBS) that you developed in MS Project. This must be provided with a work package and deliverable focus and go down to a minimum of three levels
Answer
Overview Information
Project Title/Name | EduStream Pilot (Phase 1) |
Project Description | Development of an online streaming platform like Netflix through which customers can watch and play Educational videos and games. |
Project Purpose | Purpose of this project is to increase the profitability of the company and regain market share. |
Project Scope | The scope of this project is limited to the education videos and games that are currently provided by the organization and there is no additional service provided in a new platform. |
Project Organisation
2.1 Organizational chart
This organization chart represents the roles and responsibilities with respect to this particular project. Following diagram will help in establishing accountability between different employees in the organization-
Above organizational structure clearly states that all the employees in the organization are responsible to each other for reporting purposes. The project management team has been established which includes legal and contractual expert, security expert, marketing team and educational content expert. All of these team members are responsible for reporting to the project manager. The project manager will provide progress of the project to Chief Information Officer who is also a project sponsor in this scenario. Chief Information Officer will report to the chief executive officer and finally, the progress of the project will be communicated to the board of directors (Winnubst, 2017).
2. 2 Project responsibilities
Description of the project management plan will involve identifying the roles and responsibilities of different employees and stakeholder analysis. Roles and responsibilities of team members are the roles and responsibilities of team members are already identified in the roles and responsibilities matrix.
Stakeholder analysis
Name | Role on Project | Responsible To | Level of Interest | Level of Influence | Issues affecting the engagement |
Project team members | project team members are responsible for completing the project | Project manager | High | High | These stakeholders should receive instructions from project manager and top management on a regular basis. |
Project sponsor | Responsible for overseeing the project | Chief executive officer | High | High | The project sponsor should receive a progress report on a regular basis (Eskerod and Jepsen, 2016). |
Investors/ banking organization | Providing finance for starting the project | - | High | High | They should receive interest on their capital invested on a regular basis |
Board of directors | Overseeing the progress of the project | - | Medium | High | Should be in direct communication with the chief executive officer |
Customers | Final users of the project | - | High | High | All the needs and requirements in relation to the type of services provided on a streaming platform should be achieved. |
Work Breakdown
Work breakdown structure
Following is the work breakdown structure that should be adopted by the organization-
Workstream number | Description | Start date | Completion date | Duration |
1 | Planning activities | Mon 29-04-19 | Thu 05-11-20 | 56 |
2 | Starting the process of hiring | Mon 29-04-19 | Mon 15-07-19 | 67 |
3 | Finalising the system architecture | Tue 16-07-19 | Wed 16-10-19 | 3 |
4 | Development of software and system | Thu 17-10-19 | Mon 21-10-19 | 7 |
5 | Starting Marketing and advertisement campaigns | Tue 22-10-19 | Wed 30-10-19 | 88 |
6 | Beta goes live in Perth | Thu 31-10-19 | Mon 02-03-20 | 63 |
7 | Beta goes live in Sydney | Tue 03-03-20 | Thu 28-05-20 | 70 |
8 | Beta goes live in Melbourne | Fri 29-05-20 | Thu 03-09-20 | 14 |
9 | Full market opening | Fri 04-09-20 | Wed 23-09-20 | 31 |
10 | Project closure | Thu 24-09-20 | Thu 05-11-20 | 2 |
| Total | | | 399 |
Key Deliverables
Work stream number | Description | Key deliverable |
1 | Planning activities | Project charter |
2 | Starting the process of hiring | Job offer letter |
3 | Finalizing the system architecture | Written codes |
4 | Development of software and system | Actual system in the physical form |
5 | Starting Marketing and advertisement campaigns | Marketing plan |
6 | Beta goes live in Perth | Test results |
7 | Beta goes live in Sydney | Test results |
8 | Beta goes live in Melbourne | Test results |
9 | Full market opening | Actual streaming platform |
10 | Project closure | Closure documents |
Scheduling
Total time estimated that will be required for completion of this project are 400 days. The detailed schedule for each of the identified project activity is as follows-
Activity number | Start date | Completion date | Duration |
1 | Mon 29-04-19 | Thu 05-11-20 | 56 |
2 | Mon 29-04-19 | Mon 15-07-19 | 67 |
3 | Tue 16-07-19 | Wed 16-10-19 | 3 |
4 | Thu 17-10-19 | Mon 21-10-19 | 7 |
5 | Tue 22-10-19 | Wed 30-10-19 | 88 |
6 | Thu 31-10-19 | Mon 02-03-20 | 63 |
7 | Tue 03-03-20 | Thu 28-05-20 | 70 |
8 | Fri 29-05-20 | Thu 03-09-20 | 14 |
9 | Fri 04-09-20 | Wed 23-09-20 | 31 |
10 | Thu 24-09-20 | Thu 05-11-20 | 2 |
| | | 399 |
