Automated Book Kiosks Program Problem Statement You are a Project Manager (PM) that works for Book Supply Depot, Inc. (BSDI), a firm that sells books and magazines. BSDI has decided to start a new project involving book kiosks because printed book sales are slumping, and the firm wants to reach more members in the younger generation and create a modern brand. The goal of the project is to connect book sales in a virtual way at airports and train stations by installing kiosks that can sell virtual copies of books, and some limited number of hard copy editions. BSDI will construct small fully automated kiosks that can deliver books, Kindle versions, or home deliveries at a later time, or a limited number of current best sellers in hard copy editions. BSDI plans to open kiosks in New York (prototype), London, Berlin, Cape Town, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Sao Paulo over the course of the next 2 years. The budget of the program is set by the BSDI Executive Management Team (EMT) to US $10 million, and it is expected to increase revenues by 20% in the next 4 years. As a BSDI PM, you decide to do a hybrid development approach that begins with a Waterfall framework that has a project life cycle of 2 years and are considering using the Agile development methodology for the software development effort to reduce the schedule time. During planning, our goal is to breakdown the work into milestones and sprints to reduce the time to market. So we decide to first separate the work into the following categories and sub-categories: Kiosks o Design o Materials Procurement o Manufacture and Assembly o Wiring o Component Integration and Test (I&T) o Ship. Hardware o Select components and supplies o Purchase prototype components and supplies o Test and modify o Order production components and supplies o Ship to installation site. J.S.Ray 2 20-Feb-20 Software o Define Architecture o Develop GUI Interface o Develop Payments and Transaction Processing Module o Develop Order Processing Module o Conduct Software Qualification Testing o Release Baselined Software Installations (times 10 locations) o Negotiations & permits o Installation of kiosks o Installation of hardware components o Installation of software o Software testing o Stocking of books. Operations and Maintenance. o Marketing and Sales o Customer Service o Supportability and Sparing o Maintenance Actions o Troubleshooting and Repair Actions o Update Software. Each Installation team will be globally situated and consist of the cultural characteristics for the region they are situated in. Background Information BSDI would need to do some market research to develop and specify the brand to be used everywhere. Consider how BSDI should schedule this effort, and how they can link it to other tasks in a way that has the least impact on the projects critical path. BSDI also needs to determine the different regulatory requirements, power sources, and internet bandwidths that can be encountered at the 10 locations. Consider how this initial regulatory investigation task is scheduled and linked to the development effort. Are on-site surveys required? If so, specify what information is needed during each survey. For negotiations and permits, there would need to be one set of tasks for each physical location, and it is likely that the process could vary widely depending on the specific requirements of each country / location. Thus, each location will have a unique set of negotiation tasks that must be researched before the project plan can be finished. BSDI decides to develop a generic negotiation process and then modify it site by site in accordance with the findings of the on-site surveys. With respect to the negotiation task, the question of available resources has to be nailed down before further planning can be conducted. For example, if BSDI only has enough personnel to field one team at J.S.Ray 3 20-Feb-20 a time, then each negotiation task at each location has to be scheduled sequentially in series. If BSDI has enough personnel and it is possible to do all 10 locations concurrently, on the other hand, based upon the availability of resources, then all 10 tasks can be scheduled concurrently and will take one tenth of the time. Program Management Office or matrix functional lab organization would normally be in the position to determine the amount of qualified resources that would be available by considering the other projects being undertaken by the organization. For the purposes of this project, we have discussed this with the functional labs, and we have enough resources to field two concurrent Negotiation teams. Similarly, installation and test of the Kiosks systems at the 10 site locations will be schedule dependent based on the available resources; i.e., the number of concurrent teams that can be sent out concurrently. The BSDI EMT instructed the functional labs to hire enough qualified Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to field three concurrent Installation teams. The BSDI EMT recognizes the importance of a timely completion and took this step to reduce schedule risks. Assumed Project Organization Should the team size include 15 or more students, then the project organizations will consist of the following support managers: (Lead) International Program Manager (IPM) Systems Engineering / Design Engineering (SE / DE) Control Account Manager (CAM) Procurement, Fabrication and Assembly (P, F&A) CAM o Kiosk Vending Machine (KVM) Acquisition and Integration Lead o Component Hardware Acquisition and Integration Lead o Transaction Processing Software Development Lead o Records Database Development Lead System Installation, Integration and Test (I, I&T) CAM System Verification Testing & Qualification (SVT & Q) o Prototype SVT & Q Lead o Enterprise Transaction and Performance Testing Lead Site Surveys and Interfacing (SS & IF) CAM Deployment, Operations and Maintenance (D, O&M) CAM Financial Manager (fills out the Financial Cost Estimation Matrix). Procurement and Materials Manager If the team size is smaller than 15, then the shaded positions will be eliminated as needed. Each team member will assume one of the roles identified above during the team project and prepare the corresponding deliverable products, which will then be presented to the class at an on-line presentation session. Performance Objectives and Other Factors to Consider during the Project Planning Effort The key for BSDI is to identify what is the most critical aspect of the project with respect to the firms strategic objectives: quality, time, cost, brand, etc. Can BSDI assume it is time since a delayed Program J.S.Ray 4 20-Feb-20 would result in less time to meet the sales goal of a 20 % increase in the next 4 years? Or would quality be more important since it would further the development and maintenance of the brand? Other success metrics for the program have to be considered as well, which can set the framework for the project planning effort. From a long-term perspective, the product needs to be safe, secure, easy to use, and leave customers satisfied with an identifiable brand. Customers must want to use it. There is a natural tension between the short term need to increase sales quickly and the long term need to assure the brand quality and customer satisfaction. As a BSDI PM, you inherit this disparity from the business operations of the firm and need to stop and sort it out. As PMs, our default is always long-term quality is desired because of the benefits it provides to the brand. Some research shows a brand is valued at 75% of the yearly revenue. That is a lot to risk by pursuing short term project execution objectives. But it may be possible to produce a product that is not 100% reliable and still maintain the brand; i.e., think about the Microsoft Windows operating system. The time and budget limitations for the program must be considered in detail before planning the project details. The project period of performance, as noted above, would be 24 months, with a target of 20 months, if feasible, being optimal. The project budget has been identified as US$10 million. As noted above, the resource availability for the program is critical. The PM must approach the firm executive management and determine what other Programs and projects are ongoing, their priorities, and the net resources available based on this projects priority ranking. If current resources appear to be inadequate to carry out this program, the group needs to decide if other projects may be paused, or if outside resources may be utilized. There may not be enough detailed knowledge at this level to answer such questions. The BSDI EMT has better insight at their level and determined more staff is needed, but how many new hires are needed? A good rule of thumb in these situations is to assume that 50 to 75% of the project labor can come from the firms functional labs, and that 25 to 50% will have to be hired from outside the firm. Thus, your schedule should have some staffing activities in it for writing personnel requisitions, collecting resumes, interviewing, extending offers and on-boarding activities. Thus, the PM needs to request input on and make a more detailed assessment of the resources needed and compare those to the resources that are available to identify any gaps. Thus, a resource loaded schedule is called for. The PM needs to identify the milestones for the program. Here the group can assist by setting targets for each global location. It may be known that Berliners tend to like to look for reading material at the train station, so that would be the first operational kiosk. This proves out our contention in class that a business level knowledge is important for the PM to have. When defining program milestones, consider how to handle the fact that there are 10 kiosk locations. Thus, there would have to be kiosks, software, hardware, and installations at 10 locations. This is seen as a simple way to breakdown major work activities. Based on Grisham, Thomas. Leading Agile Projects (e-Qook) (Page 17). . Kindle Edition. how many labor hours should Subsystem Designs,User Interface Stand with Display,Physical Book Kiosk,PC-104 Processing Stack (PPS),Site Interface Box (SIB),Component Designs,PPS SB Computer Card,PPS Telecom Card w/ Ethernet, BT, WiFi,PPS Power Supply Card,PPS SS Flash Drive,SIB Case/Power Supply,SIB Connector Panel be assigned to each if total labor hours given are 300 hours and why those labor hours are assigned to them for the above problem statement?