Project management website

User requirements

The aim of the offline application is to ensure efficient and effective achievement of the research objectives to be carried out by the team. This application serves the users’ desires to share and mainstream information related to the project so as to sustain collaboration throughout the various phases of the project. Decomposition is an important portion of user requirement. Decomposition involves a process whereby project items are communicated with the relevant team in a collaborative way (Kroenke, Bunker & Wilson, 2013). This allows for various aspects of the project which include building of collaboration culture needed by the team so as the project team is brought into the stage of requirements so as to refine the backlog of the research. The other aspect includes timing delays and some projects can experience gaps during definition of requirements and the initiation of the project.  This happens on a regular basis in the project and the larger the time gap between requirement definition and actual project, the more the risks that may arise while carrying out the research project.

The offline application developed through agile methodology is in line with issuer requirements since it ensures there is continuous improvement and quick delivering of value to the users. Such value is driven largely by clarity and quality of user requirements that feed the process of software development. An agile and lean approach to the various requirements of the users as the first step ensures that there is optimization of the process.  For this development, the major requirement for the users include ability to share information in an offline platform and to ensure uploading of project results so that it can accessed by all team members. The aim is to ensure that there is continuous collaboration among the team members and ensuring that all members are able to view the progress of the project. The offline application should also ensure that tasks that have been divided among team members are shared on time to avoid delaying any phase of the research.

 

Work Breakdown structure

The Work Breakdown structure describes the functional division of how research work is going to be carried out by the various students in a team.  A Work Breakdown Structure normally involves a analysis phase, design, development, test and release and such phases produces provisional deliverables and are carried out by a specialist role (Kroenke, Bunker & Wilson, 2013). To achieve maximum project results, the attention paid to functionality delivered for production is done in a collaborative manner instead of interim deliverables associated with functional responsibilities. The various tasks are to be done by specified members in the team and accepting that tasks planning process should be refined with time instead of planning all tasks at the start of the project. The Agile WBS is fresh even when used in offline project management website as compared to online application in places where internet access is not guaranteed.

Starting phase

Definition requirements for information gathering

Analyze the requirements

Creation of requirement documents

Definition of project objectives, research objectives, research deliverables and exclusion to research scope

Approval of initiation phase

Planning phase

Team organization

Development of project plan

Communication plan

Management of resources

Execution phase

Preparation for actual research tasks

A session for brainstorming

Selection of information sources

Solicitation of required information

Closeout phase

Closing out of the research

Reviewing the lessons learnt

Establishment of process for documentation of data

Documentation of the information

The offline application risks

The appropriate definition of an offline platform is seen when a platform is not powered on or when there is no remote connection of any form. Failure to understand such a difference between real offline platforms or application can lead to underrating of the some unrecognized risks that, in case they are noted by some actors, they may lead to interruption of the project. This means that malicious access to the information may lead to complete loss of all the information contained in the data base. Even if the application is offline, it is important to consider whether it is possible for a person to attempt to gain access to it. If it is possible for a person to have access to the application, it means that it can be online suddenly. Mitigating the risks involves a consideration into whether it is possible for restore any data by use of a remote connection without a person having to do something physically. If it is possible to restore such data remotely, it means the back for such data is online or potentially online. An application that is potentially online is the same as an online platform and it means that external intrusion is possible and hence it is possible to lose important data on the project being carried out.

There is also a potential danger that application that are developed for offline internal use and hosted on a website are not usually developed using the same security standard as those websites developed to be exposed outwardly. This means that even if the application is developed with offline capability and hence, no online exposure it may lacks some security measures such as appropriate encryption to ensure the safety of information. However, since this application is designed to be used internally and using an offline platform, it is not likely to face major security risks that online platforms are expose to. A major threat is the likelihood of the framework used for the application may expire quickly.  This calls for measuring the risks and take into account the fact that the offline application will require maintenance, monitoring and even functional modification to ensure that the appropriate resources are put beforehand. Virtual patching by the use of a web application firewall may be necessary in offering protection while changes are being made to security changes. The hypothesis for this testing involves the level of efficiency of the application and how it can affect the outcome of the project for the users using it.

Application usability testing

Usability testing aims at ensuring that there is an understanding of how the actual users will experience the application. The user test will ensure the measuring of the actual performance of the application on the various tasks that are considered critical for the project. Since the target audience for this application is the students, there will be one or more teams that are to use the device. The usability testing will also aim at finding out the strengths of the application and the areas where it can be improved for the sake of the user. In carrying out the usability test, the tasks involve performing specific number of tasks within a given session. These tasks should ensure that there is a representation of the most common goals of the users such storage of the information, sharing of information and recovering any information that may be lost in the process. It is important to establish success criteria that are clear for every task and have the users by-in on these specific criteria and include a specification of how the participants will start the task (Barnum, 2010). This also involves how the starting points and the completion of the tasks can affect the ability of the researcher.

 

Advantages of the application

An offline Kanban application is a good way to go when priority is not given to utilization of a hosting that is not cloud and at the same time retaining all the benefits associated with co-working in a digital application. By being installed in environment that isolated so that even the offline capability is enabled, the application enhances collaboration of team members. The application has various advantages the major one being improved focus on team and process throughout which can be attributed to Work in Progress limits and the benefit of having tasks and process visualized clearly. Another advantage relate to a space that is secure for tasks organization, sharing and storage of data. The software is not exposed to DDos attack since it is not on online platform which improves the capacity to secure the data stored for the whole project.  The security of the application is also improved by the fact that it is totally hosted on offline Web and it also runs on a Web browser. In addition, if the there is a restoration of internet connection the application has an emergency backup for information and data which ensures that the project is carried out with no hitches (Information Resources Management Association. 2016).

References

Barnum, C. M. (2010). Usability testing essentials: ready, set... test!. Elsevier. 10-21

 

Kroenke, D., Bunker, D., & Wilson, D. (2013). Experiencing Mis. Pearson Higher Education AU. 572-575

 

Information Resources Management Association. (2016). Project management: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications. Hershey: Business Science Reference.