Developing a web application essay

Project Summary and Justification: The University President B. L. Johnson requested this project in order to make the process of course analysis more efficient and less time consuming. Also by using a web application the hope is that the analysis will be helpful in evaluating the departments. Each course offered by the university will be analyzed in order to report the average grade obtained during the Winter-2012 term. The total budget for the project is $30, 000 for a total of three months at which time the application must be delivered. One IT operations manager’s time is being donated by the university. The budget will be used to hire four computer science graduate students for the job under the work study program.

Project Characteristics and Requirements: The web application will use the existing university interdepartmental computer network system. The faculty of each department will turn over the final grade data for each of their classes to departmental secretaries. A database designed during this project will be the reservoir to which the secretaries will type in the data from the faculty. Once the database has received all the necessary final grade data for the Winter-2012 term the web application being designed will analyze the data.

The project includes the following objectives.

1. It will report the average grade for each class
2. It will report the average grade for each department at each class level (freshman, sophomore, junior or senior).
3. It will have embedded statistical equations so the data can easily be manipulated to report information according to the needs of the university.
4. An easy to understand user’s manual will be written.
5. Training of the departmental secretaries to input data into the database and the steps for statistical analysis
6. Training of the department chairpersons how to use the information from the database

Summary of Product Deliverables:

1. The web application which will
a) Create a database for final grades
b) Connect the university’s departments to the database
c) An application to calculate class average grades
d) Include simple statistical calculations so the class average grades can be reported by single class, by department, or by university class level
e) Include simple calculations embedded in the application in order to report percentages and compare class and department grade averages

Plus

f) A user’s manual
g) Training session for department secretaries (at least one training session)
h) Training session for department heads (at least one training session)

Project Success Criteria:

a) The database is large enough to handle all the data necessary over the long term.
b) The university departments are able to input and gain information from the database using the university’s established computer network system.
c) The average grade for each class can be obtained.
d) Simple statistical calculations are easily carried out.
e) The User’s Manual has all the information necessary to use the web application.
f) At least one training session for the departmental secretaries is offered.
g) At least one training session for the departmental heads is offered.

References

Diana, R. (2010 November 8). Defining Project Failure. Regular Geek, Retrieved from http://regulargeek. com/2010/11/08/defining-project-failure/
Gilb, T., (2006). Project failure prevention: 10 principles for project control. Methods & Tools: Global Knowledge source for software development professionals, 14(2), 3-5. Retrieved from www. methodsandtools. com
Schwalbe, K. (2011). Information Technology Project Management, REVISED (6th ed.), Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.