Cost-Benefit Analysis and Project Budget free essay sample

We are creating a Smartphone application for use as a travel aid for the public and the profit will be donated to the partnership for children charity. The total budget allocated for this project is ? 20,000. We have ? 10,000 from our own funds and we will be using this fund for the promotion of the app with ? 10,000. The council has also provided us with ? 10,000 subsidy. We have used our funds on Feasibility, User Requirement and Analysis, Design, Coding, Testing and Operation. This is very useful as it is a one-off cost, and we will not be spending on this again but it will benefit us in the long run. The total population in the Kingston upon Thames Borough is 160,400 according to the Office of National Statistics 2012. We hope that 25% of the population in the Kingston upon Thames Borough will purchase this application within the first 12 months of release. If 25% of the population purchased the app, there would be 40,100 customers. Therefore, the total revenue generated for 25% of the population would be 40,100 x ? 1. 49 = ? 9,749. The profit would be (Revenue – Cost) ? 59,749 ? 20,000 = ? 39,749. This project is very sustainable because it is simple to run and easily profitable. Any profit generated will go back to the maintenance of the application and the remainder will be donated back to Partnership for Children Charity. As a team we have come up with a more accurate budget for creating a Smartphone application. We have investigated and researched into all the areas of the project where we as a team think money will be used. Below you can see a table of our budget plan. The total budget is the overall cost of the project. Methodology Prince 2 In addition, when we were creating a smart phone app project clearly we focuses the best way to have an effective project management was by following PRINCE2 methodology. The selections of Prince2 methodology clearly focus on business justification. Besides that it is commonly used by the UK government and is a well known project methodology approach. Overall we believe these two methodologies meets the requirements of our project and it will help us and guide us to develop the final application of the project. The key features of PRINCE2 methodology: * It’s clearly focus on business justification * A defined organisation structure for the project management team * It’s product-based planning approach * It’s emphasis on dividing the project into manageable and controllable stages * It’s flexibility to be applied at a level appropriate to the project This diagram shows the stages of our project in detail Source: http://upload. wikimedia. org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6d/Prince2_diagram. png/480px-Prince2_diagram. png(From 24/03/2013) Waterfall (Traditional) methodology When we were creating a smart phone app project clearly we focuses the best way to have an effective project was following by the Waterfall (Traditional) methodology. Furthermore the waterfall model describes a development method that is linear and sequential over the time. However In our Project Waterfall development has distinct goals for each stage of development. The key features of Waterfall (Traditional Methodology) are: * The Waterfall method is also well known methodology method in mobile application project. Its describes a development method that is linear and sequential way * The project requires the achievement of one stage before moving to the next stage (Therefore any fault in this application will be detected during one of the stage) * It is flexibility to be applied to the project Maintenance Implementation Coding / System design User Requirements Analysis Waterfall Model Testing/Debugging Installation We are going to hire IT profes sionals to do all the stages. Requirement analysis involves finding out what the customer wants and showing clearly the purpose of the product. All specific requirements are found out at this stage. This information can be obtained through questionnaires, customer interviews and use cases. Design involves translating the identified requirements into a logical structure and consists of defining the hardware and software architecture, components, modules, interfaces, and data to satisfy specified requirements It involves defining the hardware and software architecture, specifying performance and security parameters, designing data storage containers and constraints, choosing the IDE and programming language, and indicating strategies to deal with issues such as exception handling, resource management and interface connectivity. System design helps in specifying hardware and system requirements. The system design specification is a starting point for the next phase of the model. Implementation consists of constructing the product according to the design specification. It involves converting the new system design into operation. This may involve implementing the software system and training the operating staff before the software system is functional. This step is performed by a development team consisting of programmers, interface designers and other specialists, using tools such as compilers, debuggers, interpreters and media editors. In testing all the components are methodically verified to make sure it is error-free and make sure the requirements are met. An independent quality assurance team defines test cases to evaluate whether the product fully or partially satisfies the requirements in the first step. Three types of testing takes place: unit testing of individual code modules; system testing of the integrated product; and acceptance testing, formally conducted by or on behalf of the customer. If defects are found they are logged and feedback is provided to the implementation team to correct the defects. Installation occurs once the app has been tested and certified as fit for use, and involves preparing the system /product for installation and use at the customer site. Maintenance: This occurs after installation, and involves making changes to the system or an individual component to alter or improve performance. These modifications arise either due to change in requests by the customer, or defects uncovered during use of the system.