IS480 Team wiki: 2010T1 Veritaz

Team Veritaz

Veritaz

Team Logo

"***VERITAZ***!"[Goddess of Light & Truth]

[To be updated]

Members (Roles and Responsibilities)

Primary Role	Secondary Role	Name	Email
Project Manager	Secretary	Ernest Cai Kunrong	ernest.cai.2008@sis.smu.edu.sg
System Developer	Project Manager	Cheong Wei Hsien	whcheong.2008@sis.smu.edu.sg
Secretary	Tester	Elizabeth Chin Yun Wen	eliz.chin.2008@sis.smu.edu.sg
Tester	Design Analyst	Reena CHIN Hwei Ying	reena.chin.2008@sis.smu.edu.sg
System Analyst	System Developer	Jolene CHIA Shi Ming	jolene.chia.2008@sis.smu.edu.sg
Design Analyst	System Analyst	Loh Wei Yi	weiyi.loh.2008@sis.smu.edu.sg

Roles Breakdown

Roles	Responsibilities
Project Manager	Manage the project team. Keep track of progress Responsible for communication, including status reporting, risk management, escalation of issues that cannot be resolved in the team, and in general, making sure the project is delivered in budget, on schedule, and within scope
System Developer	Structure the skeleton of the application Assist with design, analysis, maintenance, documentation, and testing of software. Verify that system meets performance criteria.
System Analyst	Prepare detailed process flow charts and diagrams outlining systems capabilities. Troubleshoot and resolve hardware, software and connectivity problems. Record and maintain hardware and software inventories.
Secretary	Responsible for arranging meetings with the clients and group Recording requirements and updates during clients meeting Liaising with client Working with metrics
Design Analyst	Responsible for User Interface Deliver user testing data, use case scenarios
Tester	In charge of testing each functionality Provide feedback on functionalities Suggesting improvements on system and functions

Stakeholders

Name	Position	Company	Email
ZHENG Baihua	Assistant Professor	Singapore Management University	bhzheng@smu.edu.sg
Barry Lim	Managing Director	The Shipping Solutions Pte Ltd	barry@theshippingsoultions.com
Jason Goh	Sales Director	The Shipping Solutions Pte Ltd	jason@theshippingsolutions.com

Company Background and Formation

Overview of Company Detail (Client/Sponsor)

• The Shipping Solutions is a new Electronic-Solutions and Media organization with an extensive background in logistics.

• The core of our business is to aid the Singapore shipping industry to excel in terms of improved efficiency, and productivity, through the provision and advertisement of vital information of the services that these companies provide, to the public.

• The Shipping Solutions understands the demanding process faced by Shipping Lines (Carriers) when they handle their service lanes enquiries from their logistics partners (Co-Loaders, Forwarders, Direct Shippers). In the current globally competitive logistics market, there is a constant need to make necessary changes and strategically plan for vessels' sailing schedules in order to cater to the ever changing, fast-paced, and dynamic market's needs. Hence, the operations or sales department have dedicated a lot of time to the answering and clarification of their clients' enquiries.

• www.TheShippingSolutions.com was designed and developed especially for the sole purpose of compiling and streamlining your service lanes and sailing schedules. These data will be distributed and shared with the relevant members of the portal, to provide a one stop solution centre to cater to all your clients' needs, as well as to answer all their queries as to the details of the services you provide.

Project Overview

Project Description

We are proposing to develop a one-stop logistics platform,a Freight Management Portal .In order to understand the reasons and motivations behind our choice of project,we would provide you a brief introduction of the background of the shipping industry in Singapore

Background

There are 3 main groups in the shipping industry and they are the Carriers,Direct Shippers and Forwarders.Below is a brief and simplified description of each group.

Operation Flow - Director Shipper,Forwarder and Carrier

Root Cause Issues and Problems

1) Lack of Auto-Mated process & Real Life Information

Business to Business(B2B) between Forwarder and Direct Shipper

Problem Description: Currently,a lot of manual labours are required when placing a request.Firstly,the direct shipper will make his logistical request via the forwarder.The forwarder will then match the direct shipper's logistical request with the sailing schedule of the carrier.If the carrier is unable to accede to his request,he will then have to check with several carriers until he finds a match and then place a booking.

Solution: The Shipping Solutions is our client and they have proposed a idea on resolving this huge inefficiency by developing a portal that provides a Fast and efficient means of searching for the most appropriate schedule and we have chosen the development of this portal to be our project.This will provide Real time Information update.'We are going to set a avenue for the clients to Advertise.

Business Impact: Reduce the tedious manual process time, Reduce probability of human error propagation which will in turn increase the efficient level.

Objectives

As mentioned earlier,our main purpose is to deliver the Freight Management Portal which is deployed on a web server to the sponsor.Beside the main functionalities that the client has proposed,we have also proposed several additional functionalities which we strongly believe will strengthen the usability and attractiveness of the portal.

Project Goals

• Overview: Develop a Freight Management Portal to replace manual based operation

• Ease of Use: Usable by people of minimal IT Skill Knowledge

• Time:Working Function to be completed by every iteration

• Accuracy: UAT to be completed before passing to clients

Scope

Our Scope comprises of a development of a one-stop logistics portal.It constitutes the following functionalities:

Function	Brief Description
Search Engine	Allow Users to search through the database for specific sailing schedules. Two simple fields ( Port of Loading (POL) and Port of Discharge(POD) to perform the search) Forwarders Search and Carriers Search Lane administration Transit feature
Administration Function	Managing members,users,lanes,member types and mailer approval Allow the administrators to customize access rights of members
Roll Back Function	Provide assurance for the client User activity will be tracked
Member Administrative Control Panel	Members will have a panel for them to manage their company profile, lanes and user password.
Advertisement Management Function	Advertisement on the portal Uploading and placing of Advertisement
Quotation Management	Allows forwarders to send quotations and carriers to approve

Preliminary Storyboard

Search Engine Function:

Search Function

• Appear at different tabs for different purposes. Several search capabilities for different user tiers - Carriers, Forwarders and Lane Management.'

• Different categories of search, returns different fields.

• This search allows one to search from Port of Loading and Port of Discharge and returns a Carrier/Forwarder which have such a service lane.

• Individual Carrier/Forwarder which holds an account in this portal, to perform a search of current lanes they have for administration purposes.

There are 3 different searches:

• Forwarder search - a simplified search with just the POL and POD returning the Forwarder that provides this service lane. This action can be performed without logging in.

• Carrier search - a search with just the POL and POD with keyword search and day search returning the Carrier that provides this service lane. This action cannot be performed without logging in.

• Lane administration - this search allows registered users be it Carrier/Forwarder to search for their sailing schedule entries.

Transshipment Function:

• This functions allows us to allow suggestions of traveling from various ports. For instance, if there isn’t any existing lanes from Singapore - Dubai. The search results will show our various alternatives how can the shipment goes from Singapore - Dubai. Results may be in the form of such possibility: Singapore - Thailand - Dubai or Singapore - Indonesia - Philippines - Dubai.

Member Administrative Control Panel

• Members will be allowed to update the various fields within the profile such as company address, telephone number and fax number. They can also add, delete or update the contact person details. These information will be then put up on the company profile page.

Password Management:

• A tool necessary for members to change their password for confidentiality purposes.

Administration Function

Create New Profile Type

• Members will be allowed to update existing lanes schedule if there is a change. Delete existing lane schedule if there is a mistake or even add new lane schedules.

• Add new members that carry the company’s information and the different profile types and member types.

• Administrator will be allowed to deleted any members if they post up any false information.

User Creation:

• Once a member is created, then can users for that particular company be created.

• Administrator will then be able to assign new user accounts. He can also be able to deleted or update the password if one has forgotten the password.

Member/Profile Type (CRUD):

• Creation of new profile/member type with ability to assign specific access rights.

Lane Management:

• Ability to make changes to any lanes if client is unable to log into the system

News Broadcast:

• Ability to create/approve news broadcast on the portal.

File Upload Function:

• Allow the members to upload different excel formats of schedule to be input into the system without keying each and everyone in.

Roll Back Function

Roll Back

User Tracking Function:

• It is an important function to track users movement. If someone intentionally deleted all the information pertaining to the company’s schedule, we would be able to track them out without any hassel. All the actions will be recorded and overwritten. 7 days of actions will be tracked and in it is more than enough reaction.

Roll-Back

• In any case of failure to backup the information in the system, in any event that crashes.

Advertisement Management Function

• It is an aspect for company to generate revenue for the company.It can let customer post advertisement on portal. They will also provide another outlet for customer to promote their brand especially for newly setup.

Advertisement Management (Admin)

• This module allows the administrator to change the main page/lane search advertisements

Advertisement Management: Search Results

Quotation Management Function (newly added)

• When a Carrier/Forwarder searches for particular sailing schedule that he has a shipment, he can express interest by raising a quote.

• Carrier/Forwarder will then be able to view the progress of the different users.

Statistical Report Function:

• Statistical reports on the frequency of searches from various ports of loading to port of discharge. This information will let companies have a easier time for planning their following sailing routes.

Assumptions

Risks/Assumptions	Mitigation Plan
If the RTC Server is down,We would be unable to view our work schedule,would lose track of our deadlines	Our Backup plan allows us to still track our work schedule using excel sheets with the stipulated time and deadlines.
If the RTC Server is down, not able to monitor our task assigned easily	This would be mitigated with the help of our minutes in accordance to our meetings.
If the RTC Server is down, we will not have any access to source code	Backup of codes on an external hard-disk after every iteration.
We will be using the server provided by the client that uses PLESK - the server control panel, we assume that PLESK has the appropriate Tomcat and MySQL software that we intend to use for the portal.	If PLESK does not have the required software,we would have to upgrade to the latest PLESK or we will decide to bypass the panel(worst case scenario)
None of us have prior knowledge in using AJAX and we assume it will be easy to learn through resources available on the Internet and reference materials from the library.	If AJAX proves to be difficult to learn via online resources alone,we will be contacting friends who have prior experience with AJAX and they are willing to spend some effort to guide us in using AJAX
We assume the learning curve for RTC(Rational Team Concert)is not steep.	If the learning curve for RTC is too steep,we might drop the idea of using it to aid the development process and use a simpler tool such as Microsoft Live Small Business
We assume that all change of requirements by our supervisor and project sponsor will not hamper our project schedule	If the change of requirements is too huge,we will re-evaluate our current situation.If we are unable to accommodate to the change in schedule,we may reject it completely.However,if the change is critical to the client then we may drop an existing functionality in the place of the new change.

Resource and reference

1) Web resources in using RTC,AJAX

2) A Web server to host and deploy our portal

Learning Outcomes

1) Client Management: Ability to understand functional requirements from clients

2) Buiness-IT Value Linkage Skills: Ability to analyze the operations and business process of the logistics industry and use IT to drive it

3) Ability to provide documentation understandable by users(Requirements specification,risks management plan,assumptions,constraints,architecture choices,design choices etc.)

4) Ability to implement the change of requirements from our supervisor and project sponsor and to sustain the change over time

5) Ability to analyze the operations and business process of the logistics industry and use IT to drive it

6) Ability to identify,prioritize, mitigate and document the necessary project risk

7)Establish a proper work breakdown structure, time and effort estimates,resource allocation and precise scheduling

8)Use Proper tools to manage the teams' development and management progress

Joint Initiative of Project Sponsor

The Shipping Solutions is a new Electonic-Solution and Media organization with an extensive background in logistics.The core of our business is to aid the Singapore Shipping industry to excel in terms of improved efficiency and productivity,through the provision and advertisement of vital information of the services that these companies provide,to the public.

The Shipping Solutions understands the demanding process faced by Shipping Lines(Carriers) when they handle their service lanes enquiries from their logistics partners(Co-loader,Forwarders, Direct Shippers).In the current globally competitive logistics market,there is a constant need to make necessary changes and stratgically plan for vessels' sailing schedules in order to cater to the ever changing fast-paced and dynamic market's needs.Hence,the operations or sales department have dedicated a lot of time in answering and clarification of their clients' enquirers

Project Management

Ground Rules

1 .Identify training requirements for all team members and ensure everyone possesses the know- how to use all software and programs involved in the portal development.

2. Confidential information must not be disclosed to anyone and must be kept within our team. The information includes all non-public information concerning our client, its clients and/or its shippers, that might be of use to competitors or harmful to its business partners.

3. Meeting must be held at least once a week. Minutes to be done and uploaded within 24 hours after every meeting to keep everyone updated.

4. To keep our client updated on our progress, we will need to submit a report on the modules that we have completed every fortnightly.

5. Team would have to follow closely and track the timeline as per scheduled so as to deliver our work promptly.

6. .It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that he/she is committed to complete tasks assigned on time.

7. Punctuality should be observed for supervisor, client, and group meetings at all times.

Objectives

1. Develop a portal which fits the requirements of the company and implement solutions to improve the portal based on feedback received.

2. Facilitating easy access and locating resources on the portal for our client, ensuring that it is sustainable in the long run.

3. Working with an external client would gear us with better knowledge and determination to not only complete our tasks, but to produce quality deliverables.

4. Fostering strong bonds among our team would allow us to learn from one another, and be receptive to opinions and advises as a team.

5. We should not only apply what we have learnt in our course work. It is essential for each of us to learn something new in the midst of developing the portal as a takeaway in order to enhance our skill set.

6. Learning to establish healthy working relationship within our team and most importantly with our client.

Project Schedule

We are employing 8 Iteration.

Phases in each iteration

• Review planned tasks

• Development of functionalities

• Integration of functionalities

• Debugging

• Release

Iteration	Task to be completed
Iteration 1: 18 May - 14 June	Diagramming - ER, Class, Use Case, Logical Search Engine - Port Sourcing for suitable web-hosting Set up PLESK terminal Equip terminals with appropriate softwares Set up database Web Interface UAT 1
Iteration 2: 15 June - 12 July	Search Engine - Day and Date Login / Logout Functions Member’s Self Administration - Member’s Profile Management, *Password Management, Lane Modification Administration - Lane Administration, Add Member, Delete Member, *Update Member UAT 2
Iteration 3:Iteration 3: 13 July - 9 August	Search Engine - AJAX Implementation, Lane Administration, *Forwarder Search Project Acceptance Presentation UAT 3
Iteration 4: 10 August - 2 September	Search Engine - Transshipment Administration - Profile / Member Type Customization Rollback Feature - User Tracking UAT 4
Iteration 5: 3 September - 23 September	Rollback Feature - Rollback to previous setting Mid-Term Review Preparation UAT 5
Iteration 6: 24 September - 14 October	Member’s Self Administration - Add Broadcast Administration - Broadcast Approval Quotation Management - Delete Quotation, Add Quotation, View *Quotation UAT 6
Iteration 7: 15 October - 4 November	Advertisement Management - Main Advertisement Administration, *Implementation of Banner Search Result UAT 7
Iteration 8: 5 November - 22 November	Update documentation Create user manual Prepare for Final Presentation Prepare FYP Poster

Schedule Metric

• Goal: To ensure prompt delivery of project.

• Question: How many days are we ahead or behind schedule?

• MetricPlanned Day - Actual Day.

• Use:: Help us to manage our time better to meet deadlines

Usability Metric

• Goal: To ensure our clients to be able to carry out their intended tasks on our portal efficiently, effectively and satisfactorily.

• Question: How easy is it for users to use our portal?

• MetricNumber of points given to each category[Performance,Comfort,Navigation] by different users.

• Use:: Help us manage our usability of our portal.

Usability Metric: Performance

Points	Description
1	Too many steps to perform my task. I find it extremely troublesome and difficult to use the portal to the extent that I don’t use it unless it is really necessary.
2	Portal is not really user friendly and I find it quite complicated to perform my tasks.
3	Generally the portal is useable but there are times when I find it a little troublesome to use.
4	Most tasks can be accomplished easily and the portal is easy to understand and use but there are still a few areas that can be improved on.
5	It is so easy to accomplish all my tasks and I find it extremely convenient to use.

Usability Metric: Comfort

Points	Description
1	The look and feel of the portal is really bad. I feel like I am using something that is in its draft form.
2	There are quite a number of glitches here and there. I also find it difficult to understand how to use the portal at times.
3	The portal has some look of professionalism but there is substantial room for improvement.
4	Overall the portal looks professional and does not have a steep learning curve. I might consider recommending this to a fellow shipping firm.
5	I feel very comfortable using the portal as it looks professional and is easy to use. I would definitely recommend this to a fellow shipping firm.

Usability Metric: Navigation

Points	Description
1	The links on the portal do not take me to where I expect to be. I am often lost trying to navigate to the right place.
2	I got lost in my first few attempts at the portal but after getting familiar with it, I am ok with navigating around it.
3	The links in the portal are generally understandable but I do get confused by some of the links in my first attempts.
4	The links are clear and I understand them all. I do not really face any difficulties navigating around the portal.
5	The links are well defined and easy to understand. I can navigate around quickly even if it is my first time using the portal.

Usability Metric: Action Plan

Points	Description
All >= 4 points	Continue as per normal Progress is good
One < 4 points	Identify the area where improvement is needed Focus on this aspect for the next iteration
Two < 4 points	Identify the areas where improvements are required Set these areas in the next sprint as priority (Commit more time if necessary). If we are ahead of time in terms of functionality, we may push back functionality add-ons to the next sprint. Liaise with our client for them to perform an internal usability test at the end of the upcoming sprint.
All < 4 Points	Liaise with our client for an internal usability test at the end of the upcoming sprint and also plan a date within the next two sprints for public usability test. Focus on design aspects of the portal and set aside other tasks. Commit more time if necessary.

The Minutes

May 2010

Minutes - 18 May 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes001.doc)
Minutes - 22 May 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes002.doc)
Minutes - 26 May 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes003.doc)

June 2010

Minutes - 01 June 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes004.doc)
Minutes - 04 June 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes005.doc)
Minutes - 06 June 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes006.doc)
Minutes - 12 June 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes007.doc)
Minutes - 14 June 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes008.doc)
Minutes - 26 June 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes009.doc)
Minutes - 30 June 2010 (Media:Veritaz_SupervisorMeetingMinutes001.doc)

July 2010

Minutes - 6 July 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes010.doc)
Minutes - 13 July 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes011.doc)
Minutes - 25 July 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes012.doc)

August 2010

Minutes - 01 Aug 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes013.doc)
Minutes - 03 Aug 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes014.doc)
Minutes - 05 Aug 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes015.doc)
Minutes - 06 Aug 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes016.doc)
Minutes - 08 Aug 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes017.doc)
Minutes - 11 Aug 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes018.doc)
Minutes - 17 Aug 2010 (Media:Veritaz_MeetingMinutes019.doc)

Project Acceptance PPT

Project Acceptance PPT (Media:FYP Acceptance.ppt)