Approach of Rapid Prototyping for Systems Development

Aimed at providing financial support for education and medical treatments of children who needs to travel abroad but have limited amount of resources, International Charity Foundation (ICF) was set up in Australia. Starting out for helping one particular child, the company now finances education and medical treatments for thousands of children. The company is financed by various sponsors around Australia as well as from other countries. With the increasing number of children applying for services, the organization is facing certain troubles to keep up records mainly because the entire process is manually handled and the records are kept in paper documents only. The company has decided to implement a new information system to replace the manual processes and increase the accuracy and efficiency of all operations of the company.

The aim of this report is to develop a suitable implementation plan for the project proposed by the company. The report also aims to address the issue regarding the choice of development methodology and the calculation of cost benefit that is estimated from the project.

There are many different approaches to systems development that are chosen based on the overall requirements of the project and the nature of system to be developed. Some of the common approaches to systems development include waterfall, agile, scrum, prototyping and others (Wasson 2015). The most appropriate methodology must be chosen in order to suit the needs of the project and also keeping under consideration the overall time and cost required if the selected method is followed.

For this particular project, it is seen that the development process of the system include different components like online portal, stock tracker, online chatting and others. These systems can be designed separately side by side and then integrated into one common system. Hence, the most appropriate approach to systems development of the proposed system is rapid prototyping (Richey and Klein 2014). This systems development approach will allow the developer to separately design prototypes for the different systems and after testing, he can integrate all the systems into one, conduct final testing and go live.

The proposed system will include both functional and non-functional requirements that will play major roles in ensuring the proper functioning of the entire system. The functional and non-functional requirements of the system are discussed as follows.

Functional Requirements

Computer Work Stations – Since the developed system will be fully computerized, some computer work stations will need to be installed along with suitably upgraded hardware and software. The systems must support the online applications that will be installed within the same.

Functional Requirements

Online Portal for Users – An online portal will be designed through which, new users can register for services and registered users will be able to make online payments, view various information, enrol in different programs and others (Oinas-Kukkonen and Harjumaa 2018).

Stock Tracking System – Another major functional requirement of the system is a stock tracking system that will keep track of the stock of resources. When there is shortage of resources or excess resources, the system will send a notification to the procurement to buy or not to buy more resources.

Security of Payment Gateway – The company is planning to migrate all the payment systems to online platform so that the sponsors and other users will be able to make payments online and cashless. However, this system may be at risk as many hackers will try to steal personal information of the donors while the payment process is ongoing. Hence, it is important to ensure the security of the payment system for protecting the privacy of the donors.

Creation of Unique User Profile – Each new user of the system who wants to enrol for a service should be able to register in the website such that a unique password protected user profile can be created for him. Only the specific user will be able to access his profile (Grønbæk et al. 2017).

Chat System – The company also desires a 24×7 customer care system such that the customer care personnel are available for the users all the time. In addition to a helpline number, there will be a chat system through which the users will be able communicate with the personnel through texts.

The cost benefit analysis is a process by which, the monetary benefits from the project are estimated. The monetary benefits include profit, return on investment, payback and others. A cost benefit analysis is generally conducted considering all the expenses and savings from the project as well as the operations that will be resumed after the course of the project.

Cost Benefit Analysis for ICF
Required Software	$         30,000.00
Required Hardware	$       125,000.00
System Development Costs	$         45,000.00
Training Program	$         50,000.00
Total Development Cost	$       250,000.00
System Maintenance	$           7,200.00
Operational Changes	$           2,500.00
Labor Costs	$           4,000.00
Total Operational Cost	$         13,700.00
Savings from Salary	$         60,000.00
Savings from Reduced Wastage of Resources	$         48,000.00
Total Benefit	$       108,000.00
Discount Rate Used	10.00%

Project Cost-Benefit Analysis
Analysis Variables:
Discount Rate Used	10.00%
Annual Benefits	$   108,000.00
Annual Operational Costs	$     13,700.00
One-Time Development Cost	$   250,000.00
				Year of Project
		0	1	2	3	4	5	TOTALS
Economic Benefit		$0.00	$        108,000.00	$        108,000.00	$          108,000.00	$        108,000.00	$      108,000.00
Discount Rate		1.0000	0.9091	0.8264	0.7513	0.6830	0.6209
PV of Benefits		$0.00	$98,181.82	$89,256.20	$81,142.00	$73,765.45	$67,059.50
NPV of all BENEFITS		$0.00	$          98,181.82	$        187,438.02	$          268,580.02	$        342,345.47	$      409,404.97	$     409,404.97
One-Time COSTS		$(250,000.00)
Recurring Costs		$0.00	$         (13,700.00)	$         (13,700.00)	$           (13,700.00)	$         (13,700.00)	$       (13,700.00)
Discount Rate		1.0000	0.9091	0.8264	0.7513	0.6830	0.6209
PV of Recurring Costs		$0.00	$         (12,454.55)	$         (11,322.31)	$           (10,293.01)	$          (9,357.28)	$         (8,506.62)
NPV of all COSTS		$(250,000.00)	$       (262,454.55)	$       (273,776.86)	$         (284,069.87)	$       (293,427.16)	$     (301,933.78)	$    (301,933.78)
Overall NPV								$     107,471.19
Overall ROI

Table 1: Cost Benefit Analysis

FIGURE 1: Work Breakdown Structure of the Project

(Source: Created by Author)

FIGURE 2: Gantt Chart of the Project

(Source: Created by Author)

The work breakdown structure and the Gantt chart are two important components of a project management plan that are interrelated with each other. The work breakdown structure is used to break down the project into work package units under different phases. The gantt chart is used to connect between these work packages and prepare an overall estimated schedule for the project.

Non-functional Requirements

The stakeholders involved in the project and their duties are as follows.

Name of the Stakeholder	Designation of Stakeholder	Stakeholder Roles and Responsibilities
Adam	Project Manager	Planning, management and control of the project
Stephan	Manager of Finances	Management of project funds
Mark	Project Supervisor	Supervise and report project progress
Matthew	Developer	Development of the information system
Rick	Tester	Testing of the information system
Aaron	Trainer	Conduct training of the employees regarding the use of the new information system

System investigation techniques are generally utilized to monitor the working of a system and detect any issues that the users are facing on the system. There are several investigation techniques that can be deployed to gather information on the system. Some of the most effective and common investigation techniques are described below.

Monitoring through Devices – One of the most popular and extensively used system information requirement investigation techniques is direct monitoring using devices like CCTV camera. This allows the management to monitor the working of the system and identify issues faced by the employees and also whether the employees are working correctly with the system as per guidelines.

Questionnaire Survey – Another common system information requirement investigation technique is questionnaire survey in which, the employees are handed over with questionnaires containing specific questions regarding the system and specific choices of answers. In this survey, the employees have to select the most appropriate answers and report to the authority accordingly. Based on the answers, the authority will take suitable steps to solve the issues in the system.

Personal Interviews – Although time consuming, it is a much more effective investigation technique than the questionnaire surveys. In this technique, the employees are called for personal interview with a specific member from management and he can express all the problems he is facing while he is working on the system. Based on the feedbacks, suitable steps can be taken to ensure the problems and issues are appropriately addressed.

Conclusions

This report is based on the development of an implementation plan for ICF regarding the newly proposed system having certain features. For the entire project, rapid prototyping method will be utilized and an expected amount of $250,000 will be spent for the project.

This project management course has helped me gain significant amount of knowledge on the subject and different project management techniques that are used in various types of projects. Not only this course helped me gain academic skills but it has also helped me in professional development as most of the learning in this module will be helpful for me when I start my professional career.

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