This will all be based on Lowkey Inc Project plan that is attached.

For this assignment, you will create an implementation project plan, which outlines the steps involved in implementing your project. This document is sometimes called a work-back schedule because you begin with the date that your project needs to go live, and then work back from there to determine what needs to be done when.

You will also conduct a post-mortem on the work you have submitted to date. Post-mortem (from the Latin for “after death,” but referring to it in the context of business) is the analysis of a project’s process and results conducted by key project stakeholders after the project has been moved into production, which means it’s functionally complete. The goal of a post-mortem is to identify what went right and what went wrong post-implementation so that project managers can apply these lessons learned to future projects.

For this three-part assignment, you will:

Construct a work-back schedule that presents the steps involved in implementing your project.

Construct a post-mortem using the template on the work you have submitted to date in this course.

Create updated project documents based on the results of your post-mortem.

Review the

Project Implementation Plan Example

.

Create a project implementation plan for your project based on the example document. You may use Microsoft Word or other software to create your project implementation plan.

Complete the

Post-Mortem

template based on your experiences with completing the course project over the last five weeks.

Update the project documents you have submitted thus far in the course based on your completed post-mortem.

Submit your project implementation plan, post-mortem, and updated project documents.

BSA/425 v1.3

Project Plan Draft

BSA/425 v1.3

Page 2 of 11

Project Plan Draft

Fill out each of the sections below with information relevant to your project. Be sure to include the company name associated with your project.

Lowkey Inc

Network Technology Recommendations

20

Network Technology Selection Criteria

Selection Criteria Name

Selection Criteria Description

Selection Criteria Value (Weighting in Points)

Wide Area Network

This ty0pe of network connects computers within a long distance

10

Accessibility

The system should be easily accessible to users

20

security

The technology’s integrity should not be interfered with by hackers and malicious parties

30

Compatibility

It should be compatible with all the information resources that the firm uses.

20

20

20

Network Technology Recommendation

Recommended Network Technologies

Description

Benefits

Aggregate SelectionCriteria Score

Emails

Promotes communication cross different parties

Facilitates communication with customers

40

Firewalls

This resource safeguards the firm’s network from unauthorized access and disruptions

Prevents fraudulent activities

Artificial Intelligence

Enhances the efficiency of the network

Integrates the services and key procedures, thus improving changes adopted

Internetworking tools

Promotes integrated communication to attain networking goals

Increases the efficiency of communication

Selection Criteria Name

Selection Criteria Description

Selection Criteria Value (Weighting in Points)

20

40

20

20

Network Technology Vendor Selection Criteria
Price	The cost of purchasing the network infrastructures
Quality	The efficiency and effectiveness of the technologies in attaining their goals
Proximity	Physical distance from the firm
After Sales Service	The services provided by the firm following the purchase of the systems

Aggregate SelectionCriteria Score

30

20

Network Technology Recommended Vendors

Vendor Name

Vendor Strengths

Vendor Weaknesses

Products/Services Provided to Project

Cisco

Cost-efficient and responsive customer care

Highly responsive

Encryption can safeguard the network against interceptions

50

Alloys

Fast network connectivity

Network fluctuates

They can offer heavy network

Oracle

Low cost

Highly expensive

Provides a repair and maintenance software

Network Technology Deployment Challenge s
			Deployment Challenge				Deployment Challenge Description
Deployment of physical over logical controls	Physical network appliances are linked using protocols while in logical networks, there is utilization of different traffics that are agnostic to physical
Scalable deployments	The networks should be both automatic and scalable
High costs	High deployment costs is a challenge
Inaccessibility	Insufficient accessibility approach is a major problem

			Technology Adoption Methods
				Method Name					Method Description
			Parallel Approach				The adoption occurs when the new system is introduced while the old one is still in use
			Phased				Gradually replacing small parts of the old system with the new one until it is fully implemented
			Piloting				Using a small group of users to test the new system before it is widely adopted
			Direct Adoption				Implementing a new system radically

Benefits

			Cost/Benefit Considerations
			Costs				Considerations
		Increased efficiency			Personnel			Hiring the most qualified pool of IT professionals
		Flexibility			Organizational expenses			Training employees to adapt to the new technology
		Cost cutting			Cost of tools			Seek the vendors who provide cost-effective and quality hardware and software technologies
		Access and availability			Maintenance costs			Repair and maintenance must be done regularly

Database System Recommendation

Selection Criteria Name

Selection Criteria Description

Selection Criteria Value (Weighting in Points)

30

20

20

20

Database System Selection Criteria
Operational consideration	Ability to manage failure recovery and maintain availability
			Security	The database’s integrity should not be tampered with
Development consideration	The openness of the support options
Commercial consideration	Its potential commercial importance and benefits

Description

Benefits

Aggregate SelectionCriteria Score

40

10

40

10

Database System Recommendation
Recommended Database System
Relational database management system	Comprises multiple tables of data with rows and columns that relate to each other	These databases are more flexible
Hierarchical database systems	This model resembles a tree structure, with pre-defined relationships	Requires users to pass hierarchies to access the required data, hence secure
Network database systems	Supports many to many relationships	Can promote integration of systems
Object-oriented database systems	Information is represented as objects	Supports different forms of programming

Selection Criteria Name

Selection Criteria Description

Selection Criteria Value (Weighting in Points)

30

20

Security

10

40

Database System Vendor Selection Criteria
Usability	User friendliness and ease of use
Visualization and reporting	Ease of visually analyzing and displaying data and results
Ability to be stored securely
Functionality	Ability to meet business requirements

Vendor Name

Vendor Strengths

Vendor Weaknesses

Products/Services Provided to Project

Aggregate SelectionCriteria Score

Oracle

30

30

20

20

Database System Recommended Vendors
Has syntax enhancements and performance improvements	expensive	Multitenancy, database in-memory, and database Sharding
	Microsoft	Ease of use and high availability	Challenges in seamlessly integrating high volumes of corporate data	SQL Server
			IBM	Can accommodate big data	Expensive	IDM DB2
Knack	Provides many tools for online databases	It is highly customized	Knack

Deployment Challenge

Deployment Challenge Description

Database System Deployment Challenges
		Data security	The organization may lack resources for securing its database
Performance	The database may have harsh performance criteria
Resource utilization	The database may not have the best hardware available to run on
High availability	In case the single server goes down, the firm’s operations are paralyzed

Technology Adoption Methods

Method Name

Method Description

Method Name

Method Description

Parallel Approach

The adoption occurs when the new system is introduced while the old one is still in use

Phased

Gradually replacing small parts of the old system with the new one until it is fully implemented

Piloting

Using a small group of users to test the new system before it is widely adopted

Direct Adoption

Implementing a new system radically

Cost/Benefit Considerations

Benefits

Costs

Considerations

Increased efficiency

Personnel

Hiring the most qualified pool of IT professionals

Flexibility

Organizational expenses

Training employees to adapt to the new technology

Cost cutting

Cost of tools

Seek the vendors who provide cost-effective and quality hardware and software technologies

Access and availability

Maintenance costs

Repair and maintenance must be done regularly

Software Application Recommendations

Selection Criteria Name

Selection Criteria Description

Selection Criteria Value (Weighting in Points)

40

20

20

Security

20

Software Application Selection Criteria
Suitability	Ability to provide appropriate set of functions
Accuracy	Ability to provide the right or agreed results
Interoperability	Ability to interact with one or more specified systems
Ability to provide mechanisms to prevent the accidental or deliberate interference with integrity

Description

Benefits

Aggregate SelectionCriteria Score

30

30

20

20

Software Application Recommendation
Recommended Software Application
ERP	Integrated software for managing and coordinating all the business activities	It provides real-time standardization and streamlining of business processes.
Office production software	Producing and compiling information, such as documents and reports	Reduces and heaps of paperwork
CRM	Facilitates interactions with customers	Can be used to analyze customer trends and preferences
MIS	Facilitates gathering, analyzing, and disseminated data for organizational operations	Informs company decision-making

Selection Criteria Name

Selection Criteria Description

Selection Criteria Value (Weighting in Points)

20

20

20

Security

20

Software Application Vendor Selection Criteria
Rates	The vendors should not be too expensive
Main areas of expertise	Relevance of the software to the business functions
Certification	Must have local and international certification
Should have an information security plan

Vendor Name

Vendor Strengths

Vendor Weaknesses

Products/Services Provided to Project

Aggregate SelectionCriteria Score

Microsoft

20

IBM

20

Oracle

30

20

Software Application Recommended Vendors
Can customize to the business’s needs	costly	Microsoft Office
They install and configure them for firms	Scalability and integration challenges	Sterling Order Management
Portability		Expensive	Oracle CRM
SAP	Multiple database support	Very complex to use	SAP ERP

Deployment Challenge

Deployment Challenge Description

Software Application Deployment Challenges
Misaligned expectations	Project teams and stakeholders may differ on the needs and requirements of the software
Data integrity	Lack of an effective strategy for securing data
Insufficient training tools	Employees maybe insufficiently prepared tom operate the software
Testing problems	Lack of a testing and maintenance tool

Technology Adoption Methods

Method Name

Method Description

Parallel Approach

The adoption occurs when the new system is introduced while the old one is still in use

Phased

Gradually replacing small parts of the old system with the new one until it is fully implemented

Piloting

Using a small group of users to test the new system before it is widely adopted

Direct Adoption

Implementing a new system radically

Cost/Benefit Considerations

Benefits

Costs

Considerations

Increased efficiency

Personnel

Hiring the most qualified pool of IT professionals

Flexibility

Organizational expenses

Training employees to adapt to the new technology

Cost cutting

Cost of tools

Seek the vendors who provide cost-effective and quality hardware and software technologies

Access and availability

Maintenance costs

Repair and maintenance must be done regularly

Cloud Services Recommendations

Selection Criteria Name

Selection Criteria Description

Selection Criteria Value (Weighting in Points)

30

40

10

Data security

20

Cloud Services Selection Criteria
Compliance with standards	Compliance with government and professional regulations
Service roadmap	Current goals and objectives of the vendors
Terms of service	If they do not have tough terms and conditions
Ability to secure the data

Description

Benefits

Aggregate SelectionCriteria Score

20

20

IBM

40

20

Cloud Services Recommendation
Recommended Cloud Services
	Amazon		Provides additional services, such as storage and security	Support users to integrate with business
		Google Cloud		Can provide free packages	Supports all organizational functions
	Fast response to customer enquiries	Can provide platform as a service
	Adobe		Ideal for supporting publishing and editing	it is a creative cloud system

Vendor Name

Vendor Strengths

Vendor Weaknesses

Products/Services Provided to Project

Aggregate SelectionCriteria Score

Amazon

Provides additional services, such as storage and security

30

Google Cloud

Can provide free packages

Google Cloud

20

IBM

Fast response to customer enquiries

Expensive

30

Adobe

Ideal for supporting publishing and editing

20

Cloud Services Recommended Vendors
Cannot be customized	Amazon Cloud
Slow responsiveness to customer inquiries
IBM Cloud
Only ideal for media and publishing	Adobe

Deployment Challenge

Deployment Challenge Description

Data security

Cloud Services Deployment Challenges
Increased incidences of hacking of cloud resources
Performance issues	Disruptions from vendors due to maintenance
Availability problems	Lack of availability of services when technical issues emerge
Data safety	Data may be affected when the computer systems are infected by viruses

Technology Adoption Methods

Method Name

Method Description

Parallel Approach

The adoption occurs when the new system is introduced while the old one is still in use

Phased

Gradually replacing small parts of the old system with the new one until it is fully implemented

Piloting

Using a small group of users to test the new system before it is widely adopted

Direct Adoption

Implementing a new system radically

Cost/Benefit Considerations

Benefits

Costs

Considerations

Increase in efficiency	$4000	Installing efficient and state-of-the art hardware and software resources to speed up business transactions
Reduction in costs	$3000	Eliminating heaps of paperwork
Hiring more staff	$10000	Individuals who will operate or control the cloud resources
Purchasing more computer resources	$5000	Devices should be purchased to support the running of the cloud computing system

Copyright 2020 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2020 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.

3

Project Supporting Research

Narek Saribekyan

BSA 425

Professor Stephanie Benoit-Kurtz

3/15/2021

Week 3

Project Supporting Research

Executive Summary

The advancements in information technology have radically transformed business operations and activities. Firms are increasingly embracing such technologies to gain competitive advantage over their rivals. Lowkey Inc, for example, recognizes the need to improve its business processes and operations. Therefore, it is launching a project to introduce information system resources such as database management tools, cloud computing technologies, customer relationship management, and enterprise relationship management.

Purpose of the Project

The purpose of the project is to use information technology as a tool to improve the organization’s business processes. To achieve this objective, the project team members will focus on introducing three key information systems to the firm: customer relationship management systems, cloud-based solutions, and network database. The company will introduce these systems and integrate them to enable it to perform tasks such as gathering, storing, processing, and reporting data from different sources to provide information that is required to manage the process of making informed decisions. The organization has witnessed a surge in its operational costs, delays, and faulty processes. Customers also complain that their orders are taking too long to process and deliver. Therefore, the company hopes to invest in information technologies to improve its operational efficiency by cutting operational costs, speeding up business transactions, and optimizing customer experience.

Industry Background

Lowkey, Inc. is one of the organizations that operates within the gaming industry.This industry can be described as an environment that is characterized by intense competition as more and more players and investors scramble for the market share. Indeed, the global video game sector has grown phenomenally in the last five years, to resemble the competitive and interactive movie industry. The COVID 19 pandemic has, for instance, fueled the sector to generate more profits than movies and the North American sports combined. The revenue is expected to increase by 20 percent to 179 billion dollars by 2021, according to a survey conducted by the IDC data. This pattern makes the sector a major money maker than the global movie and North American sports, which would generate more than 75 billion in 2020. The latter industries suffered from the cruelties of the pandemic, whereas the video game sector is still projected to see a double-digit growth in 2021 after high single-digit growth in the previous two years.

Technology Trends

The advancements in information technologies have revolutionized the industry in which the company operates. For instance, the key players are increasingly embracing cloud technologies to drive market growth. Recent developments of could technology has transformed the idea of gaming into a reality. In it, the servers, where all the games are stored, do all the computation tasks, which include game scene rendering, game logic processing video encoding, as well as video streaming. Many firms, such as Lowkey and Onlive are increasingly recognizing the significance of this computation technology in providing commercial cloud gaming services. Such technologies can support different user devices such as console, tablets, smartphones, as well as personal computers. Moreover, many companies are adopting CRM programs to enable them to better understand customer behavior, simplify marketing and customer engagement, and perform more efficacious customer acquisition and retention. These are enabling them to reduce churn, and offer better customer services.

Project Approach

The project will employ the agile approach to its initiation, design, and implementation. This approach stresses on the relationship and communality of system developers and human role that is reflected in the contracts, as opposed to the institutionalized processes and development tools (Berisha-Shaqiri, 2015). In the current agile practices, this takes the form of close team relationships, and encourages project team members to work in an environment where there is cohesion and collaboration. The purpose of this methodology is to continually turn out the tested working software (Srivastava et al., 2017). This means that the new releases are generated at regular intervals. On some approaches, the developers can release hourly or daily versions, but in most cases it is often bi-monthly. More importantly, this methodology encourages cooperation and collaboration between developers and the clients, thereby meeting their needs.

Selected Vendors

There are various vendors who have been selected to provide and implement the proposed services. They include Oracle, IBM, and Amazon Cloud. Oracle will be selected to provide CRM services for the organization. One benefit of selecting this company for such applications is that they provide additional services such as sales, marketing, and handling of human capital. Additionally, its customer relationship management system has many features, which the company requires such as contact management, tracking interactions, scheduling reminders, email marketing, pipeline monitoring, and reporting or analytics. It also includes a helpdesk, and a system for accommodating mobile access.

IBM and Amazon will provide database and cloud computing services respectively. One benefit of using IBM for database system is that it provides relational database management system, which the organization can utilize to support the storing, analysis, retrieval, and analysis of data. This product is often expended with the support of object-oriented elements and non-relational structures with XML. Amazon, on the other hand, will provide the company with cloud computing services. The vendor’s services have evolved and improved significantly in the last five years. Currently, it offers different cloud solutions, which give businesses of all sizes a flexible IT environment that can further be adjusted to meet their changing needs.

Alternative Approach

The alternative method that will be employed to implement the proposed project is the system development life cycle approach. This approach offers a process-driven model of developing and implementing information technology projects (Arrey, 2019). According to the framework, the process of developing an effective information technology tool should include planning, analysis, design, development, implementation, integration, testing, and system maintenance. This approach is important as it will help to transform the idea of a project uinto0 a functional and completely operational structure.

Impact Analysis

System evaluation is an important step towardsexamining the overall success of a project. In this case,for example, the main evaluationmodelthat will be used is impact assessment. This method assesses the extent to which the outcomes and impacts to the project are in line. It does so by establishing the counterfactuals, which is what would have occurred in the absence of such a project. Thus, the impact assessment will seek to create a valid control group, for which a comparison will be made to examine the project success.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

The feasibility of the project will be determined by undertaking a cost-benefit analysis. This process will be attained by examining whether the benefits or advantages outweigh the project’s disadvantages or limitations. As such, the strengths and weaknesses of the project will be analyzed and a cost-benefit analysis conducted.

Financial Analysis

150000

Activity	Cost ($)
1	Planning and requirements analysis	10000
2	System design	100000
3	System development and identification of vendors		150000
4	Implementation
Total	410,000

Risk Analysis

The risk analysis process will focus on assessing how the project outcomes and objectives may change owing to the impact of a risk event. In this regard, the project risk analysis will undertake by assessing the potential risks and ranking them in terms of their likelihood of occurrence. Hacking and computer fraud are some of the potential risks that might occur. Once the risks are determined, they will be analyzed to ensure that appropriate steps are taken to mitigate them.

References

Arrey, D. A. (2019). Exploring the integration of security into software development life cycle

(SDLC) methodology (Doctoral dissertation, Colorado Technical University).

Berisha-Shaqiri, A. (2015). Management information system and competitive

advantage. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(1), 204.

Srivastava, A., Bhardwaj, S., &Saraswat, S. (2017, May). SCRUM model for agile

methodology. In 2017 International Conference on Computing, Communication and

Automation (ICCCA) (pp. 864-869). IEEE.

2

The Rationale for Adding the Changes

Narek Saribekyan

BSA 425

Professor Stephanie Benoit-Kurtz

3/15/2021

Week 3

The Rationale for Adding the Changes

The three changes that I have incorporated into the project plan primarily focus on the vendor selection criteria for database management systems. These changes include price, quality, and the vendor’s reputation. I believe that price is important because the goal of selecting a vendor should always be to get the optimal value of the product for the lowest price or cost possible. Additionally, it is important to be concerned about vendors who submit estimates that are far below others. In this respect, one may receive less than acceptable quality for the same product. Therefore, it is important to communicate the prospects to the full extent of the company’s needs so as to receive an accurate bid.

Apart from price, I have also considered quality of the vendor’s product. To this end, the price does not matter if the product or service is of poor quality. Whenever necessary, it is important to ask the vendors to see the samples of the database product that they are selling to customers. This means that the vendor should be ready to provide substantial reasons to believe that the product that they are offering is not defective and demonstrate it to the target customers. Moreover, if the vendor fails to explain the basic steps of operating the system, then it is important to rethink the organization’s decisions before selecting them. Finally, the vendor’s integrity and reputation are important for database selection. This is because databases contain classified organizational data, which should only be managed by reputable parties. As such, it is important to conduct a due diligence on their ethical backgrounds and previous lawsuits that might have potentially affected their integrity or reputation. In light of the above, one should undertake a thorough background check, including searching news and complaints related to the vendor in order to identify possible issues that might affect the contract.