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UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI
SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATICS
ONLINE VEGETABLES MARKET PRICE AND TRENDS SYSTEM
SECOND YEAR FINAL PROJECT
COURSE CODE: 227
NAME: MUIGUA STEPHEN GITAU
ADM NO: P15/54335/2012
SUPERVISOR: ERIC AYIENGA DECLARATION
I, Muigua Stephen Gitau, do declare that this project is my own work, and as per my knowledge, it has not been submitted to any other institution of higher learning.

Student’s Name: MUIGUA STEPHEN GITAU
Registration No: P15/54335/2012
Signature: _________________________________________________________
Date: _________________________________________________________

This project has been submitted as a partial fulfillment of requirements for the Diploma in Computer Science of the University of Nairobi with my approval as the University Supervisor.

Supervisor’s Name: Mr. ERIC AYIENGA
Signature: ___________________________________________________________
Date: _______________________________________________________________

ACKNWOLEDGEMENT
I thank almighty God; I thank Nairobi University of Kenya in Conjunction with the School of Computing and Informatics for facilities and resources they availed during execution of this project. I take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor Mr. Ayienga and the entire Faculty of Computer Science for the exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement throughout the course.
Lastly, I thank my parents, for their constant support even as I worked over the night and throughout the week towards school and this project. ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT
Currently in Kenya there has not been any information system developed to tell the prices of products in the market. We took to myself to do this project and develop a system where the farmers saw the prices of goods before they even reached the markets. This way they would know the amount of demand in the market and consequently know how much to supply. Given that there is a problem in the current system, where farmers have to go to the market physically or send someone, we discovered during my research its time consuming for farmers to finding out about prices. Difficulty in knowing the prices and the cost of transporting made the farmers prone to be exploited by intermediaries.
The research of this project was done through the study of several systems in different countries, Interview and questionnaires to the farmers, brokers, vendors and retailers for developing this system. The methodology applied for this system is modified waterfall model.
The Market price information system is the output of the project; it is significant in offering speed and convenience of one-stop availability check, instant price changes and current transportation costs in the farming industry. Additionally, this automated system is aimed at saving time, money and minimizing errors for users, thus resulting to higher profits to the farming industry to the farmers. The Market price information system will incur low costs of maintaining the system and provides an economical way for farmers to keep track of the market.
Contents
DECLARATION - 2 -
1.0 INTRODUCTION - 7 -
1.1 Introduction - 7 -
1.2 Background information - 8 -
1.3 Problem Definition - 9 -
1.3.1 Problem Statements - 9 -
1.3.2 Proposed Solutions: - 9 -
1.3.3 Justification of the system - 9 -
1.4 Aims - 10 -
1.5 Objectives - 10 -
1.6 Research questions - 10 -
1.6 Scope - 10 -
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW - 11 -
2.1 Online Systems - 11 -
2.1.1 Information Systems - 11 -
2.2 Vegetable Market Price in Kenya - 13 -
2.3 ICT Adoption by Vegetable Market Price - 13 -
2.3.1 The proliferation of mobile phones and the internet - 13 -
2.4 Similar Systems - 14 -
The Fruit and Veg City: Food Lovers Market Food Lover's Market in south Africa is an example of the system (http://www.fruitandvegcity.co.za/store-locator/). However, the difference in the two system is that the online market price system intends to be used by farmers and not by customers like the Fruit and Veg City. (fruitandvegcity.com, 2015) - 14 -
2.5 Proposed Architecture - 14 -
3.0 METHODOLOGY - 15 -
4.0 SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN - 17 -
4.1 Requirements - 17 -
4.2 Feasibility Analysis - 18 -
4.2.1 Economic feasibility - 18 -
4.2.2 Technological feasibility - 18 -
4.2.3 Schedule feasibility - 18 -
4.2.4 Technical feasibility - 19 -
4.3Requirements Specifications - 19 -
4.3.1 Technical requirements - 19 -
4.3.2 Performance requirements - 19 -
4.3.3 User requirements - 19 -
4.4 System Modelling - 20 -
User Use Case - 21 -
Administrator Use Case - 22 -
4.5 SYSTEM DESIGN - 22 -
4.5.1 Proposed System - 22 -
Entity Relation Diagram - 23 -
5.0 IMPLEMENTATION AND TESTING - 25 -
5.1 Implementation - 25 -
5.1.1 Resources - 25 -
5.1.2 Choice of Programming Tools, Techniques and Technologies - 25 -
5.1.3 Code Structure & Organization - 27 -
5.1.4 Security Features of the System - 27 -
5.2 Testing - 28 -
DISCUSSION - 30 -
6. USER/ INSTALLATION - 30 -
6.1 USER - 30 -
6.2 INSTALLATION MANUAL - 31 -
Conclusion - 32 -
REFERENCES - 33 -
APPENDICES - 34 -
Appendix B: Code Samples - 35 -
Appendix C: Sample Screenshots of the Tools and Techniques Used - 39 -

1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
This chapter gives a brief description of the whole project, which is the system to be developed and how it was developed. The role of information systems and technologies in the farming industry and daily operations has been widely acknowledged and assessed as positive , because establishing an online presence and adopting e-commerce business models increases farming business competitiveness.
The purposes of developing the Market price information system therefore is mostly to ensure the service delivery is enhanced such as more farm profits in the farming department, knowledge of transportation costs and routines, up to date knowledge on trends . The system is divided into three parts; the first function is developed for pricing that is mainly used by the farmer who wants to identify different prices for different goods in certain locations. The farmer who wants to know the transportation cost of goods from one location to the other also uses the system. The third function is for farmers who intend to see the latest trends in the farming sector. This system is aimed at providing solutions to the current manual system.

1.2 Background information
Famers in the Kenyan market are rarely appreciated for the services that they offer the country. This is the service of offering food, which is very necessary for the growth and development of the nation. It is quite clear that the middlemen in the farming industry stand to gain a lot of money as compared to the individuals who actually do the farming. A good instance is where the farmer’s plant potatoes with great intentions of high profits, however the middlemen stand to gain as much as 40% to 60% of the total sales depending on the growing season. This brings in a great need for change in order for the right individuals to get their due.
It is for this reason that we came up with the thought that if farmers knew the market price to the locations close to where they are growing their produce they can decide on what prices to charge for the produce they sell at the farms. This way they stand to gain a little bit more from their work. Additionally they can also eliminate the middleman by looking at the transportation costs of different goods and choosing to transport the goods to the market themselves. Thus eliminating the middleman. 1.3 Problem Definition
1.3.1 Problem Statements
The problems that affect the creation of this system are as stated below:
1. There are many middlemen who take advantage of the farmers by buying goods cheap from the farms and latter selling them for higher prices in the markets.
2. Farmers do not know the cost of transportation of goods to the markets, hence they refrain from transporting the products since they are afraid it might be costly and they might incur huge costs.
3. Farmers do not know the current trends of farming and how this new trends can make their work easier and increase their profits.
1.3.2 Proposed Solutions:
1. The system will automate the marketing system for easier retrieval of information.
2. The system language that is easily understood by the farmers.
3. The web based system will an up to date system that informs on the changes in the prices of goods and the cost of transporting them.
1.3.3 Justification of the system
1. The implementation of the system will reduce costs incurred due to the manual system
2. It will help in the achievement of both long term and short-term goals by farmers, farmers can be now comfortable planning on how to use the money they get for other purposes.
3. The system will reduce the amount of time spent in obtaining information.
4. The quality of service delivery will increase greatly due to the efficiency of the system
1.4 Aims
To design and implement a system that will offer a solution to the impending physical system.
1.5 Objectives
1) To go through any existing market pricing system for farm products and incorporate into this system to make it more advanced for the market.
2) To analysis the requirements for a farmers information system.
3) To design of the system that addresses up to date methods of farming
4) Develop and test the system so that it complies with what the users require.
1.6 Research questions
The research will provide answers to the following research questions:
a) What are the common features existing in the case studies (in this case online systems studied)?
b) What are the functional differences in the various online information systems studied?
c) What do the users want in the system?
d) What features need to be added to make the system better?
1.6 Scope
The scope of the project is to develop a web-based application that will enable farmers develop a mechanisms of understanding what prices vegetables are fetching in the market. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Online Systems
According to the encyclopedia, an online system is any electronic interactive system that delivers information to users via telephone lines to personal computers (PCs) or via cables to terminals.
Such a service provides information, usually in text form, about news, education, business, entertainment, shopping, and more. Some also provide message services and graphic and audio information. The term video text was formerly applied to electronic interactive systems of this type.
An online database system is a file of specialized information available remotely via a computer. The information is arranged for ease and speed of retrieval.
2.1.1 Information Systems
Information system broadly refers to a computer-based system that provides individuals with the tools to organize evaluate and efficiently understand information.
In order to provide past, present and prediction information, an information system can include:
• Software that helps in decision making,
• Databases that provide data resources ,
• Hardware resources of the system,
• Decision support systems,

2.2 Vegetable Market Price in Kenya
There are a large number of vegetables grown in Kenya. This is highly attributed to the conducive weather conditions in the country. The availability of different favourable locations for growth this vegetable has enabled the prices of these vegetables to vary from one location to the next. Therefore, the price of tomatoes in Nairobi is highly different from the price of tomatoes in Mombasa. The marketing price of the vegetables is highly dependent upon the demand of the product and the current weather conditions. This has enabled a large group of individuals to take advantage of this system and work as middlemen in the market. They play an important role but they at times gain a lot of profit from what they should really be getting. The marketing system is not perfect but in gives a source of income to a large number of individuals.
2.3 ICT Adoption by Vegetable Market Price
2.3.1 The proliferation of mobile phones and the internet
According to the CCK, Kenya has one of the highest internet uptake and mobile devices proliferation in Africa with 75% of Kenyans owning a mobile phone.
“In the Internet/data market segment, the number of subscriptions1 rose by 11.5 percent during the period to reach 9.4 million from 8.5 million recorded during the previous quarter. Compared to the same period of the previous year, there was an increase of 75.1 percent…” (Communication Commission of Kenya 2012)
The manner in which information is processed has undergone a tremendous revolution over the last 10 years. The agricultural sector is now striving to be in the forefront of adopting technology over this period but a large group still lags behind in uptake of technology. Most of them still rely on traditional methods of farming and mouth-to-mouth information passing.
2.4 Similar Systems
Owing to the improved communication and IT, agricultural institutions such as KARI have been able to computerize their operations and achieve significant savings in cost in addition to customer satisfaction and information passing. This encompasses improved access to mobile phones, improved connectivity, satellite communication and e-mail.
The Fruit and Veg City: Food Lovers Market Food Lover's Market in south Africa is an example of the system (http://www.fruitandvegcity.co.za/store-locator/). However, the difference in the two system is that the online market price system intends to be used by farmers and not by customers like the Fruit and Veg City. (fruitandvegcity.com, 2015)

2.5 Proposed Architecture
The proposed architecture for this system is the three-tier architecture. This is because the system will be an online web based system

3.0 METHODOLOGY
The methodology adopted for the undertaking the project is the Modified Waterfall model. The main change from the initial waterfall model is that the phases in modified waterfall model life cycle are permitted to overlap. Because the phases overlap, a lot of flexibility has been introduced in this modified model of software engineering.

The Waterfall model is a systematic approach that begins at the system level and progresses throughout the development of the system. This is a structured methodology appropriate for the analysis and design of systems, which exist in a well-structured environment.

Based on the Waterfall paradigm, the following activities will be carried out at each stage of development:
Requirements elicitation
A specification of the requirements of the new system is made based on data acquired from a detailed requirements elicitation exercise. It aids in the proper understanding of the requirements and scope of the project.
Design
Based on the requirement analysis phase, the functioning of the new system is modeled using various available models such as data-flow diagrams (DFDs) and the entity relationship diagrams (ERDs).
Implementation and Coding
This is the translation of the developed designs into an actual system using suitable programming languages. Languages which could be used in implementing the system include HTML, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript and CSS. The output of this stage is a system, which can be tested for performance in the next stage.

Testing
The developed system is tested to assess whether it satisfies the user requirements. For the individual modules and the entire system, the metrics that will be tested here mainly will include validity, correctness, performance and scalability.
Development of Testing Environments
The development and deployment of this online-based system will require hardware and software resources as listed below.

• WAMP (Windows Apache MySQL PHP) server to host the application
• Integrate Development Environment (IDE) tool – Notepad++ or Sublime
• Operating system (Windows 7)
• CodeIgniter, PHP framework
• Project Gantt chart for Project management.

4.0 SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
System Analysis involves investigating a system, identifying problems, and using the information to recommend improvements to the system. It places emphasis on understanding how things are currently done, if the proposed system would bring benefits and if implementing it would be feasible. System analysis involves the following activities.
• Requirements elicitation
• Feasibility analysis
• Requirements analysis
• System modeling

4.1 Requirements
Requirement elicitation was carried out to obtain information from the target users regarding development of the proposed system. The following data collection methods were used to obtain requirements from the users about the proposed system.

• Interviews – the respondents were interviewed with an aim to obtain information and their views regarding development of the system. They provided information regarding what features they would wish to see implemented in the system and how the system could be designed to provide maximum benefit.
• Discussions– My supervisor and I held constructive discussion to obtain information regarding development of an online market price information system. Information obtained from the discussion was highly taken into consideration when designing and developing the system.
4.2 Feasibility Analysis
A feasibility study was carried out to find out the viability of the system. The feasibility study attempted to check whether implementing the new system would be worthwhile and whether it will be cost effective. The following feasibility studies were carried out.

4.2.1 Economic feasibility
This test involves checking whether the system would be affordable to build and maintain. It also serves to reveal if the system could generate any revenue to meet its cost and sustain itself. The analysis indicated that the system is economic feasible since it would be build using open source software and it had the potential to generate income. The system also would reduce the cost of applicants having to download and print materials since all the processing required is automated.
4.2.2 Technological feasibility
A technological feasibility study revealed that the technology required to develop the system is available and with the increase use of the internet and mobile phones, the system would be able to target a large number of users. The project will provide a web interface, which will allow a large number of users to access the system on their online.
4.2.3 Schedule feasibility
According to the work schedule of completing this project, approximately 8 Weeks have been allocated for the development of the system, which is enough time to design, test and evaluate the system successfully. 4.2.4 Technical feasibility
This study involves checking the availability of hardware, software and personnel for building and running of the system. The proposed system was found to be technically feasible since it would require few staff to operate it and the required hardware and software to design and maintain the system is available.
4.3Requirements Specifications
Requirements elicitation was done to understand the constraints and the procedures of the new system. The following requirements were established:
4.3.1 Technical requirements
• A web server
A web server was required to provide a means for accessing the information and storing the data by the administrator.
4.3.2 Performance requirements
• Response Time:
The feedback knowledge of the current market prices for all the products to be put up in the website.
• Workload:
The system should be able to support large amount of information to enable the users to see the farming trends in the country.
4.3.3 User requirements
Administrator requirements
• A user-friendly interface that will be easy to learn and navigate. The pages will have objective error messages, instructions and directions on how to perform most of the activities e.g. when storing data collected in the field
• Alerts indicating successful update of information
• A platform for adding and deleting information

User requirements
• Day to day checks to see the latest prices for goods
• A platform for checking new farming trends
Control and security requirements
• Since it is an information system, there is no need for logging-in for the user. The only security required is for the administrator.
4.4 System Modelling
For the functional view of the system UML, use case diagrams were used to help in requirement analysis.
The following diagrams therefore model the functional requirements of the system.
User Use Case

Administrator Use Case

4.5 SYSTEM DESIGN
4.5.1 Proposed System
Based on the requirements gathered, the solution to be implemented in the proposed system is modeled in the diagrams below.
The approach chosen to design the system is the Function-oriented (Structured) Design.
Architectural model

The Market Price Information System can be divided into subsystems as below: Entity Relation Diagram Level 0

Level 1 Level 2 for process 1

5.0 IMPLEMENTATION AND TESTING
5.1 Implementation
5.1.1 Resources
The system was build using the following hardware and software resources:
• Hardware -HP 250, Intel Core i7, 2.8 GHz, 4.0 GB.
• Operating System-Windows 7for running design software.
• Documentation Software -Microsoft Office 2010, Edraw Max.
• Project Management - Gantt Project.
• WAMP Server - Apache 2.4.4, PHP 5.4.12, MySQL 5.6.12.
• Integrated Development Environment (IDE)- Notepad++.
• System Design Software - Visual Paradigm
• Version Control / Source code management - Git.
• Backup - Google Drive (Docs).
Programming Languages used for development of the web platform:
• PHP – server side scripting
• JAVA Script - Browser scripting
• HTML5 – web pages
• CSS3 – content management
• Notepad++– Integrated Development Environment for the web platform.
5.1.2 Choice of Programming Tools, Techniques and Technologies
Server Side: PHP 5 (CodeIgniter Framework) & MySQL
The server side of the system is built entirely on pure PHP. Pure PHP was a choice due to its leanness, efficiency and it fully implements PHP 5 Object Oriented Programming (OOP) paradigm. It uses the MVC (Model, View, Controller) design pattern which really made the system to have a clear structure and easily extensible and maintainable. PHP also has inbuilt security feature against common web application attacks like SQL injection and Cross Site Scripting (XSS).
MySQL was a preferred choice for the database because of its robustness and speed. InnoDB engine was chosen over the fast MyISAM engine for MySQL as a tread off between speed and referential integrity that comes with InnoDB. This is because the social graph connections highly need this kind of integrity.
Front End: HTML5, CSS3& JavaScript (jQuery)
The main client side platform for the web application was the Desktop browser, and therefore the technologies of choice were HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. For JavaScript, jQuery framework was used for its speed and the “write less, do more” philosophy. It has very precise and readable code syntax.
Source Code Management & Backup
Git was used as a source code management tool for the project. At the end of every day, all the changes made to the source code and directory structure of the system were managed by Git. This means, that for any errors made, previous stable version could easily be restored. This was coupled together with Google Drive (Docs) for off-site (Cloud) backing up. This ensured security of the system under development, to mitigate any anticipated risk of data-loss. Git commits and backups were done at the end of every day or after any substantive project milestone coverage.

5.1.3 Code Structure & Organization
Use of the Notepad++ PHP IDE
This was made a lot easier because of the IDE used, Eclipse PHP. All the code was well structured and formatted following best practices for coding. Notably, indentation and inline commenting was adequately used making the code very readable (see Appendix C).
The MVC Pattern
Because of the MVC design pattern used, my code was mainly arranged within the models, views and controllers folder as stipulated by the framework. The CSS and JavaScript code is orderly arranged in their respective folders too.
JavaScript Code Modularization
A modular approach was specifically used in writing the JavaScript code so that only code that .js files are only loaded on demand. This specifically led to improved performance in loading of the pages by a factor of 4, from a latency of about 3.0 seconds to that of 0.75 seconds.

5.1.4 Security Features of the System
Inherent Security Feature in Code Igniter Framework
There is an inherent security feature that is inbuilt within the framework used to develop this system. This feature mainly prevents the system against SQL injection and XSS, which are the most common attacks on web applications. Every input in the system goes through a Form Validation class that validates against the attacks. Also at the SQL level, the Database Active Records class cleans the SQL statements first before execution, to prevent SQL injection.
Securing Passwords and Verification Links using Cryptography
The Blowfish cryptography algorithm is used in securing the passwords for the users. The technique used here is double hashing where the passwords are hashed twice in a nested way i.e. first blowfish then MD5 salted hash cryptology is used. This to some extent prevents the system against a dictionary attack.
Deployment of the System
To help in working of some of the features, the system will be deployed on a live-shared hosting server, http://teshteq.com. The main link for the system however will be http://#1farmer.com.
5.2 Testing
Unit Testing
Testing was part of every stage of development as guided by the software development methodology used. Every unit (module) was subjected to a thorough black box and white-box testing while in development and after completion of its development.
Performance Testing
Performance was a major concern while developing this system. Page load speeds were measured and using the Network profiler found in the Google Chrome browser. The results of this testing led to fine tuning and refactoring code so as to improve on the speed of execution.
Integration Testing
When all the modules of the system were developed, they were all tested together through an integration testing. This was to make sure that all the modules coherently work together.
Cross Browser Compatibility Testing
Since the web platform mainly runs on the web browser for its presentation layer. Cross browser compatibility, testing was done and was found to render uniformly on all conventional browsers, i.e. Internet Explorer 10, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera. 6.2. DISCUSSION
Personal Achievements
Working through this project was really a great learning experience with lots of breakthroughs. There are a number of achievements that I made that are worth noting:
• Learning new techniques and tools that I had used before. I really leveraged on the use of JQuery in improving the User Experience (UX) of a web application. I also made good use of the version control system, Git that I had not used before. It was nice doing developing with best practices.
• Worked out a way of representing graph structure (social graph) on a relational database.
• Improved my system design skills since the system needed a fair crafting of the architecture and looked simple from superciliously yet complex and deep.
• Improved my general coding skills and algorithm formation and analysis.
Challenges, Constraints and Recommendations
The major challenge faced during this project was defining of the scope. Initially I had wanted to do almost everything that other similar systems are doing. With the help of the supervisor, I managed to overcome the scope challenge, and clearly cut out what I was to do.

6. USER/ INSTALLATION
6.1 USER
1. Go to www.marketprice.com on the web browser
2. Click on product price on the website to see prices of goods in various markets
3. Click on transport cost on the website to view prices of transportation of goods to different markets
4. Click on farming trends to see new trends that can be used by farmers to make farming of farm products much easier.
6.2 INSTALLATION MANUAL
• Sign up for website hosting, and choose a domain name (www.marketprice.com).
• Create your website.

Conclusion
The new system is expected to give farmers a completely new experience. The system is able to give farmers the prices of the markets way before they reach the markets. It is also expected to give the farmers the prices of transportation of goods from the locations they are form to the markets they want to take their goods. Additionally, the system is expected to offer farmers new farming trends, which they can use for farming. The whole of the project presented a great opportunity for me to develop all-round skills involved in system development including project management. It was a true success. REFERENCES
1. Agmarknet online vegetable market (http://agmarknet.nic.in/) { Acessed 15th December 2014}
2. Kaufman, P. R. (2000). Understanding the dynamics of produce markets: consumption and consolidation grow (No. 758). DIANE Publishing.
3. livechennai.com online market (http://www.livechennai.com/Vegetable_price_chenna) {Accessed 15th December 2014 }
4. mfarm.co (http://www.mfarm.co.ke/) {Accessed on 15th December 2014 }
5. Stevens-Garmon, J., Huang, C. L., & Lin, B. H. (2007). Organic demand: a profile of consumers in the fresh produce market. Choices, 22(2), 109-116.

APPENDICES
Appendix A: Sample Screenshots of the System
Homage

Product Price
Shows the Market price for products Appendix B: Code Samples
Product Price php mysql connection code

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...with any project team is a lack of good communication.This type issue could arrise where team members are scareterd all over the world without face to face communication.The communication through the internet, skype or some of the other communication technologies that are now available are sometimes not reliable and could cause miscommunication. what about one of the team members performing one of the tasks without informing the other team members about it. Overdetermining - project managers sometimes overstates their capabilities of comleting a project on time. That is when a project will take say two months to accomplish they use presure or lack of experience or presure to perform even the other factors that ignores reality for something that is not imporsimble to accomples in the time given. When everyone is not available at the same time to work as a team on the project this could cause a delay to finish and deliver the project on time. The trade offs that is to make a clear policy of communication from the begining of the project that nobody goes off course and that everyone have to work as a team and must be on the sameline with everyone on the team. The project head must make him or herself available at all time to make sure that all the policys are met by everyone in the group. Handster inc. 1. Which projects would you recommend Handstar pursue based on the NPV approach? The spreadsheet bellow summarizes the NPV calculations for the six projects assuming...

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...Project Kick-Off Meeting Dwayne A. Blanchette BUS 611: Project Planning and Management Dr.: Donald McKay April 25, 2016 Recently the project charter for transitioning the Quick Drop 100 (QD100) from New York to Florida received final authorization. I was awarded the project and assigned as project manager (PM) to lead a team of qualified individuals and complete the task of relocating the QD100 program to the state of Florida. The next step in the preparation phase is to hold a project kickoff meeting. This meeting will be used to acclimate team members, clients, and other attendants to ensure everyone understands the key players and their respective roles. As the PM I plan to generate enthusiasm, motivation, and excitement while maintaining a guided discussion regarding the content, schedule, and duration of the project from start to finish. To prepare for the meeting I will accomplish several preliminary tasks. The most important areas to consider during preparation include identifying stakeholders, communication methods, team building, accountability and code of conduct. Once the tone has been set and key points discussed the meeting will conclude by first reiterating member expectations and responsibilities followed by a summary of all pertinent information. The bottom line is this kickoff meeting will be presented as such to ensure all relevant attendants and stakeholders are provided a transparent achievable list of goals. Stakeholders A significant...

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...PROJECT MANAGEMENT COURSE ASSESSMENT 1 The final date for submission of this assessment without penalty is 24th March 2014 Assessment will be accepted for marking 14 days prior to the due date Late Penalty System Please refer to the Student/Programme Handbook This module is being delivered through the Manchester Blackboard virtual learning environment. All assessments must be submitted through Blackboard at: http://online.manchester.ac.uk/ If you have any technical difficulties using blackboard, please visit our support pages at: http://www.studentnet.manchester.ac.uk/blackboard Submitting your Assignment 1. Assignments should be typed, 10 or 11 point font size (Times Roman or similar if possible) double spaced with a 4 cm margin on the right side of the page with the page size specified as UK A4. All pages must be numbered. 2. Assignments should be submitted in either Microsoft Office and/or PDF format (.doc, .docx, .pdf etc.). File names should be kept simple and only contain alphanumeric characters (a-z0-9), spaces and underscores (e.g. Valid_filename_1.doc). Files with other characters such as apostrophes, brackets or commas may not be accessible by markers. 3. Assignments may be uploaded only once; substitutions are not permitted and students should therefore ensure that the version uploaded is their final submission. 4. Please ensure you include your student number and the assignment reference (PM/Student Number/Jan14/1) in all submitted assignments and that assignments...

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...decision to earn a project management certification is a big one, so make sure you choose one that best fits your current expertise and your future career plans. You can apply for any certification that matches your qualifications, and no certification serves as a prerequisite for another. * Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® * Project Management Professional (PMP)® * Program Management Professional (PgMP)® * PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)SM * PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)® * PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)® Already have a PMI certificate PMI Educational Foundation Mission and Vision Join PMI Educational Foundation in Building Better Futures through project Management. PMI Educational Foundation (PMIEF), the philanthropic arm of PMI, announces the Building Better Futures capital campaign to expand its mission to champion project management knowledge and skill for educational and social good globally. Donations to the campaign support sustainable programs that further the very project management principles and practices that project management practitioners, employers and suppliers believe in by developing: * A Better Prepared Project Management Workforce for the Future * A Better Prepared Society for Future Success   * A Better Prepared Response in Future Times of Need Donations to the Building Better Futures campaign demonstrate a clear commitment to bringing the benefits of project management to...

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...The Project manager will put together a human resources team that will be responsible for building a cross-cultural team that will work closely together. Individuals who are bilingual and have worked on a global scale will be given priority. Employees will be selected through a thorough interview process that includes background checks and drug testing. We will only hire qualified individual because they will represent the Acme Company in Mexico and will help us establish a relationship with the community we will be serving An approach is to work with a reputable local employment agency, another one is to hire translators to assist management and local staff. The human resources team will implement current company policies and procedures A marketing and communication team will be responsible for: * promoting Acme products * Supporting project management in achieving the aims and objectives of the project. * Implementation and evolution of the brand guidelines. * Instilling and communicating good marketing and communications practice across Acme * Marketing analysis and environmental scanning (the team will ensure that Acme offers competitive prices than local competitors. * Helping the company communicate with the public. * Creating advertisements, campaigning, offering coupons In order to have an effective marketing strategy, we will work with local marketing companies because they have better understanding on how to market Acme’s products...

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...Research Project Management Key Concepts Dr Robin Henderson robin@myconsultants.net Research Project Management - Key Concepts © My Consultants Ltd 2010 Introduction The successful management of a research project depends upon the researchers ability to plan, coordinate and perform the research. Many researchers do not formally manage their research and whilst this does not necessarily mean that the research will not be completed successfully this approach has impacts on the staff whom are involved in the project. For example an unplanned approach can often lead to stress in members of the research team, crises management when deadlines are not effectively managed and the lack of time within the research to deliver effective outcomes for all the staff involved in the project. This short document outlines some of the key tools which you can utilise within research contracts to lead to more successful outcomes. Clearly understanding what success means for your project. The starting point for managing a project effectively is to have a clear understanding of what you are trying to achieve. A simple model to start to explore this is to distinguish between outputs and outcomes.  Outputs are the physical deliverables of the project  Outcomes are what happens as a result of the outputs For example in a clinical based trial the output could be a paper with the related outcome being the changes in clinical practise. The starting point for a project is to define what the desired outcomes...

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...Strategy & Project Management: Project orientated organisations Finnland 2005 Prof. (FH) Peter J. Mirski Prof.(FH) Mag. Peter J. Mirski Tel.: +43-512-2070-3510 E-Mail: peter.mirski@mci.edu http://www.mci.edu Current Position MCI, University of Applied Sciences: Director of studies „Management & IT“, Head of IT-Services Academical Profile Research projectmangement, knowledgemanagement strategic information management, e-learning Education process, project, information management Publications and articles in journals Practice Profile Management, R&D Project Management, CEO, CIO Consulting & Training Agenda 10:00 – 14:00 Brief project management overview Project orientated organisations Project scorecard Discussion Literature De Marco T., „The Deadline“, Dorset House Publishing Co ,1997 Goldratt E., “The Critical Chain“, North River Press, 1997 Heerkins G., „project management“, briefcase books 2002 PMBOK Guide, „A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge“, PM Institute, 2000 Links •www.p-m-a.at (pm baseline english, german) •www.pmi.com (pm information) project management overview Importance of Project Management • Projects represent change and allow organizations to effectively introduce new products, new processes, new programs • Project management offers a means for dealing with dramatically reduced product cycle times • Projects are becoming globalised, making them more difficult to manage without a formal methodology –...

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...frame: Coalitions composed of varied individuals and interest groups. Conflict and power are key issues Symbolic frame: Symbols and meanings related to events. Culture, language, traditions, and image are all parts of this frame Organization structure: Project organization structure (is hierarchical, but instead of functional managers or vice presidents reporting to the CEO, program managers report to the CEO.) Matrix organization: • represents the middle ground between functional and project structures. Process of Project management: 1. Starts the project 2. Initiate (the planning) 3. Plan 4. Execute 5. Close (end the project) Project management Process Groups: 1 Initiate (start) include defining and authorizing a project or project phase. Initiating processes take place during each phase of a project. 2 Planning (Scope document, schedule management plan, cost mgr plan, and procurement plan) 3 Execute (Implementation phase, acquiring and developing the project team, performing quality assurance, distributing information, managing stakeholder expectations,)building and testing 4 Monitor and control: include regularly measuring and monitoring progress to ensure that the project team...

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...seek a Project Manager in their Washington DC offices. Provides program support to team members as needed related to projects and program activities. Tasks include task tracking, program change management support, administrative support and project and program reporting. Helps with the preparation of project and program schedules and coordinates the necessary internal and external resources to fulfill the project and program activities within the prescribed time frames and funding parameters to ensure project and program objectives and stakeholders expectations are met. Specific responsibilities include: * Coordinates activities within the project life-cycle including initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control phases. * * Helps with the preparation of Project and Program Weekly Status report as necessary and upload to the Project Server in a timely fashion. * Generates various other Project, Program and department related status reports as needed. * Helps prepare responses for anticipated questions during the weekly ITIL meeting (in case of a Red project). * Helps Identify and schedules project deliverables, milestones, and required tasks. * Prepares change management documentation in support of the change management process and supports the Change Management meeting. * Documents all change management decisions according to the change management process * Coordinates selection and assignment of SMEs to the project team...

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...Project Plan Outline 1.0 Goals and Objectives This section presents a general description of the project along with any general or technical constraints and/or considerations. Please include the sub-sections below. 1. Project name 2. Business goals and project goals 3. Scope 4. Time and budget constraints 5. General and technical requirements 6. Training and documentation 7. Installation 2.0 Project Estimates This section presents a set of estimates for the completion of the project, including people, hardware and software. Please include the following sub-sections. 1. People costs a. Historical or researched data used for estimates (Requires annotation listing where you got this information) b. Salary requirements 2. Equipment costs (Requires costs for all hardware and software used. It is assumed that all hardware and software will be new). a. Hardware b. Software 3. Estimation techniques and results a. Process-based (use the format shown in section 1.2.1 of the lecture) b. Second method c. Triangulation results 3.0 Project Schedule This section presents an overview of project tasks and the output of a project scheduling tool. The following sub-sections should be included: 3.1 Project task list The tasks that have been selected for the project are presented in this section. 3.2 Task network Project tasks and their dependencies are noted in this diagrammatic form. 3.3 Timeline chart A project timeline chart (Gantt chart) is presented...

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...The report describes how the IT system plays an important role in the organisation. To be on the move with the world and be effective in the services they provide, Holland Rise decides to implement the IT systems across the trust. The report is all about the tasks that will be involved during the implementation of the project. Task 1- Project Manager Responsibilities • Project manager of the Holland Rise and Social Care Trust is greatly responsible for the overall success. As a project manager he/ she needs to be a creative and self-motivated person. • Efficiency: As a project manager of Care Trust IT system manager should perform honestly and efficiently. In general that can help to deliver a better success rates. • Proposal Writing: Preparing a detailed project management plan and a proposal for this Care Trust project is one of the important issue that must be the considered by the project manager. • Time, Budget and resources: Manager must set a timeframe and budget limit. He/ she should ensure that the project finishes on time within the budget allocated. Proper utilization of resources is one of the vital task of the manager. • Leadership: Project Manager must have the power to be an excellent leader. He/ she has to lead the team to bring out the best. • Work environment: Manager should create an excellent work environment for the employees by dialogue and communicating with the team member. • Problem Solver: As being a leader he/she should solve the problems...

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