Course: CPS 622 Software Project Management

Semster: Spring 2024

Midterm Description
Project Planning Example
Due: Friday 02-18-2024 11:55 PM EST

Description
In place of an exam, you will create a project plan in response to the following Request For Proposal
(RFP). Select one topic area, from the supplied list, to respond to and complete all the requirements
listed under deliverables. Your goal for the assignment is to assume the role of a Software Project
Manager, and create an early stage project plan from a very loosely defined topic. You are not
expected to have a technical grasp on these areas, with the quality of this submission being at the
level of an early drafted work, that would then be shaped by your technical team in the future.
This is a INDIVIDUAL assignment, as this is a midterm assessment of what you have learned
in the course. Extensions past the due date won’t be possible, to keep the assessment fair and
equitable for all. Any form of plagerism, at any level, will be dealt with according to the syllabus.

Deliverables
For this assignment, you will submit the following, in any combination of Word, Excel, and Pow-
erPoint files as you see fit.

1. Prepare a brief review of the subject area, and a description of who are the major competi-
tors in this field (this should take between 1-2 pages single spaced). What is the technical
background and history of the area? What is the current best practices? Keep this overview
high level, and don’t focus on anything too in depth, technically.

2. Create a table of your perspective of the scope triangle. This can be as simple as the basic
tables we created in class and homework. In one sentence for each aspect of the triangle, give
reason and justification to the ranking you selected, for your specific project. List all out all
assumptions you use in the description of the triangle.

3. Create a table that lists all the tasks, and their major subtasks. Then, for each subtask, give
as a 1-2 sentence explanation of the task. Create no less than 3 major tasks, each with at
least 5 subtasks. NOTE: Go into no more detail than just the two highest levels of tasks, i.e.
Task 1.1 or 3.2 are fine, but 2.1.1 is too low level.

4. Graphically show your task list (major tasks and subtasks) in a Gantt chart. Give a sug-
gested due date for the completion of each task and subtask in this Gantt chart. Make sure
all 12 months of the contract are visible easily on the Gantt chart, as this in this case the
chart is only being used for planning, and not monitoring. You don’t need to include things
like task assignments, and level of completion. NOTE: I do not recommend using the default
Excel template, this will cause you to lose points.

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 5. Create a table showing the staff needed on the project and their total hour breakdown and
cost across the whole project. If you are using multiple employees at the same pay rate, like
two Junior Developers, then you can just enumerate their names (Junior Developer 1, Junior
Developer 2).

6. A forecast of the spend breakdown across the project, month by month. Plot this on a
line graph, having months as the independent variable, with the cumulative cost as the
dependent variable. Also plot the budget in this same figure, which will just be a straight
line. Add both axes, a title, and a legend to the figure.

Proposal Definitions
The following are restrictions and definitions of your proposal...

• Your proposal should be between $400,000 and $500,000 in total funds. You may break this
up across as many workers as you want, at any working level listed above.

• The project is limited to 1 total calendar year, starting on January 1st 2024, and ending on
December 31st 2024.

• In your proposal, you will be creating a mock budget over the level of effort required to
complete each deliverable. Use the following rates to serve as expected hourly pay for various
members across your team. The chosen hourly salaries for an employee can come from this
table, or can be taken from sources like salary.com, or feel free to use any other means on the
internet (ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn, Indeed, ChatGPT, etc.). You must just cite WHERE and
HOW you got that new salary, to justify your reasoning.

– Project Manager - $55/hour

– Senior Software Engineer - $75/hour
– Junior Developer - $45/hour
– Subject-Matter Expert - $125/hour
– Data Scientist - $ 70/hour
– QA Tester - $55/hour
– Data Engineer - $65/hour

• For anything in a Word document, use single space, 12 point Times New Roman font, with
1” margins. Tables or charts built in Excel don’t need to be in the Word document, if they
will be too hard to read, and can instead be included in a separately submitted Excel file.

• You may use any pre-existing format for tables, charts, and figures. You do not need to make
the format yourself, just make sure whatever format you chose meets the requirements in the
deliverables section.

Topic Areas
The following are possible topic areas you may select from. Select one area to develop a project
plan. You won’t need a strong technical background in your area, but it is recommended that you
at least pick something you have some technical background with, and/or are interested in.

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• Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence

– A large grocery store wants to create more targeted ads for individual customers, based
off of their shopping habits.
– A security company requires a better algorithm for facial recognition, to help them track
individuals in a building.

• Mobile App Development

– A hospital wants a way for their patients to track their and share their daily symptoms
in between visits.
– A shopping app wants to add a customer service chat feature to their app and website.
– A city wants to give local communities a way to track community events, report public
works issues, and pay their utility bills.

• Traffic Management or Monitoring

– The department of transportation wants to better analyze traffic flow in their city, and
capture real time driving statistics.
– The national weather service wants a tool to help predict the severity of inclement
weather, to help support their weather analysts.
– The department of transportation wants a way for citizens to submit pictures and loca-
tions of potholes in city roads, as well as a tool to help schedule maintenance crews to
then fix these potholes.

• Finance / Banking

– A large bank needs a new way to store customer data across all of their accounts.
– Create a budgeting tool that can take in multiple data formats, to help people track
their spending.
– A financial planner wants better tools to help analyze current market trends for invest-
ments.

• Commerce or Sales

– A startup wants to offer consulting services to any team / business size, where they help
forecast their projected sales, given previous sales data.
– A clothing retailer wants help deciding on how much, and what types of items they
should carry, based on other the trends of online shopping.

• Video Game Development

– A large video game company needs a new physics engine, to incorporate into their
existing games.
– A small indie company wants to make a small story-based single player video game.

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Rubric
This midterm assignment is out of 125 points, and will be weighted according to the syllabus. If
an individual grade for a deliverable falls in between two columns in this rubric, partial points may
be given/taken to offer a fairer assessment.

5 pts. The review is be-

5 pts. The technical back- 5 pts. The summary suites
tween 1-2 pages, is single
ground and history of the the project topic and is at
1. (15 pts.) spaced, and without obvi-
area is clear, and under- the correct level of techni-
ous grammar / spelling er-
standable. cal depth.
rors.
10 pts. Each descrip-
5 pts. Each part of the 5 pts. Each aspect of the tion speaks to the
2. (20 pts.) scope triangle has a 1 sen- triangle is ranked in some THE STUDENT’S project
tence description. order. specifically, not a general
comment.
10 pts. Each subtask has a
3. (25 pts.) 15 pts. All the tasks/subtasks are valid tasks.
1-2 sentence explanation.
10 pts. The Gantt chart 10 pts. Each subtask and 5 pts. Every single task
4. (25 pts.) includes all tasks and sub- task has a realistic start length is visible easily on
tasks. date and due dates. the chart.
5 pts. The estimate 5 pts. The cost estimate
5 pts. The estimate is
5. (15 pts.) is within the time con- is broken down across ev-
within the cost constraints.
straints. ery member.
5 pts. The figure has
months on the x-axis and 5 pts. The monthly plot is 5 pts. The horizontal bud-
6. (15 pts.)
cost on the y-axis, has a ti- cumulative, get line is included.
tle, and a legend.
5 pts. The assignment
was submitted profession-
7. (10 pts.) ally, with little to no 5 pts. All necessary files for grading are included
spelling or grammar mis-
takes.