Project Manager
A project manager supervises the planning, design, development, implementation, evaluation and maintenance of a project. In each phase, the project manager must perform specific duties to ensure it terminates successfully (Alvarenga et al., 2019). This section documents the duties a project manager must perform during the development of the Widget Sales Company website. The website development stages include identifying the users’ needs, design, development, implementation, and maintenance.
The first stage in the Widget Sales Company website development project is identification and evaluation of the users’ needs. During this stage, the project manager should interact with all the company’s stakeholders to find out their actual needs. They should use various information-gathering tools such as interviews, questionnaires, and surveys to collect the users’ needs. After the collection of the information, they should analyze it to understand the specific clients’ pain points (Abdul and Anand, 2021). This stage is essential as the project manager understands the actual clients’ needs rather than what they say they need. It also helps the project manager to visualize and establish a suitable solution for their clients (Ngessa et al., 2022). The project manager must conduct the needs identification and recognition stage personally to avoid getting a biased secondary opinion.
Subsequently, the project manager should head the project planning stage by involving all the company’s stakeholders. During this stage, the project manager should explain to their clients what solution should be designed for their organization and the reason for settling on it. They should also explain all the stages required to undertake the project successfully (Alvarenga et al., 2019). After an agreement with the stakeholder to pursue the project, the project manager explains the required resources and time required to complete and implement the proposed solution. Project planning involves an in-depth discussion with the relevant departments such as the research and design, finance, operation, and management. The project manager should engage all the required bodies to ensure they agree and communicate the project’s progress.
After the project plan has been written down and all the stakeholders agree to its implementation, the project manager should head the resource and duties allocation phase. Duties and resources should be allocated according to the type of project and method of project development assumed (Ngessa et al., 2022). In the case of the Widget Sales Company website, the project manager should divide and allocate duties to the design, development, implementation, testing, and maintenance teams. In each phase, the project manager should assign a team leader who is an expert in the particular field.
During project design, the project manager should supervise the development of a prototype that meets all the users’ requirements. They should do so by discussing the users’ needs with the designers and ensuring their fulfillment. After the development of the prototype, the project manager should present it to the clients to get their approval, comments, complaints, or any corrections needed. The project manager should act according to the clients’ feedback to attain their satisfaction before the development of the actual website.
Moreover, the project manager should work closely with the development team to ensure that all the users’ needs are considered and that they work within the set budget and timeline. Supervision of the project development should be delegated to the project developer, who is an expert in the field. However, the project manager should constantly hold meetings with the team to report on their progress (Abdul and Anand, 2021). They should also communicate the progress with the company’s management.
Following successful development is the implementation phase, where a project manager supervises the process according to the specified methodology. The Widget Sales Company website should be implemented using the pilot method. In other terms, the website will be implemented in the US offices first and then installed in the remaining 24 offices after two years. After implementation, the project manager should write the documentation and user manual to present to the management and users respectively. They should also conduct user training to guide them on how to use the website in their operations. The project manager has to oversee the maintenance and control of the website. The duties of the project manager and timeline of the required activities are recorded in Table 1 below.
Project Activities and Timeline
Table 1: Project Activities and Timeline.
Database Analyst
The development and implementation of the Widget Sales Company website must be supported by data. This will ensure that the company makes the right decisions to avoid losses or the development of a project that does not fulfill its needs (Nurabadi et al., 2020). Hence, a database analyst is needed to collect, organize, analyze and interpret the data stored in the company’s database. To begin with, the database analyst should guide the decision on the type of project the company should assume to meet their needs. He should do so by identifying the clients’ and company’s needs through analysis of the stored data.
During the project development phase, they will guide the developers by providing information required for each function. For instance, they will inform them of the type of vacation data that needs to be collected such as the arrival and departure dates, parking fees, taxi fees, meals among other relevant data, and how they will be sorted. They will also be involved in carrying out preliminary processing, clearing errors and repetitions, and organizing the received data.
The database analyst will be beneficial to the company during the resource allocation and the website development phase. The analyst will need to interpret and analyzes the received figures from the project manager (for example, taxes sizes, costs of resources), make a conclusion, and visualize. This will aid the management in deciding on whether the project is worth investing in or not. They will also ensure accountability of the company’s resources. An example of the recorded database values is shown in Table 2 below.
An Overview of the Data That Will Need to Be Captured
Table 2: Widget Sales Company Database Values.
Python Developer
A python developer will head the design and development phase of the Widget Sales Company website. They will work under the project manager whereby they will take specifications of the design from. After the need recognition phase conducted by the project manager, they will share the users’ needs with the python developer to design a suitable solution (Ngessa et al., 2022). The python developer uses the python programming language to design and develop with the company’s website.
Additionally, the python developer will lead a team of programmers which will use codes to develop different aspects of the website. The developer will divide the development work into various sub-tasks and allocate each to a programmer expert in the field. Some of the sub-tasks involved in website development include designing of an interface, development of menus, front-end and back-end development (Ribeiro et al., 2021). The website will have at least 5 pages; the log in, trip location information, employee expenses, billing and signing-off pages. The programmer will then integrate the different parts developed to form the final product. During development, he will in charge of allocating various resources passed to him by the project manager to the programmers. A developer acts as a bridge between the project manager and the project development team. Below are some of the programming functions that the python developer will need to use to develop the Widget Sales Company website.
def employee info and expense allowed :
- Input Enter employee’s name
- Gets amount of allowed expense from the database
def total number of days spent on the trip:
- Inputs departure date and time
- Inputs time of arrival back home
- Subtracts time of arrival back home from time of departure
def parking(days):
- Calculates the maximum allowance for parking fees using MAX_DAILY_FEE * days
- Gets the parking fees from the user
- Adds the parking fees to totalExpenses (a global variable used for keeping track of the total amount spent by the traveler).
- Determines if the parking fees exceed the allowed amount.
- Returns the allowable parking fees
def taxi fees (days):
- Calculates the maximum allowance for taxi fees using MAX_TAXI_FEE * days
- Gets the taxi fees from the user
- Adds the taxi fees to totalExpenses (a global variable used for keeping track of the total amount spent by the traveler).
- Determines if the taxi fees exceed the allowed amount.
- Returns the allowable taxi fees
def Other expenses
- Calculates Round-trip airfare fees
- Calculates conference/ seminar fees
- Calculates car rental fees
- Calculates hotel expenses
- Adds all expense to to totalExpenses (a global variable used for keeping track of the total amount spent by the traveler).
References
Abdul Kadhar, K. M., & Anand, G. (2021). Basics of Python Programming. In Data Science with Raspberry Pi (pp. 13-47). Apress, Berkeley, CA. Web.
Alvarenga, J. C., Branco, R. R., Guedes, A. L. A., Soares, C. A. P., & e Silva, W. D. S. (2019). The project manager’s core competencies to project success. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business. Web.
Ngessa, V., Michael, K. F., Mtei, K. M., & Magesa, M. M. (2022). Website Development: The Case of Agricultural Extension Providers in Tanzania. International Journal of Advances in Scientific Research and Engineering. Web.
Nurabadi, A., Bafadal, I., Gunawan, I., Burham, A. S. I., & Bengen, E. J. (2020). Website development for principals induction program. In 2020 6th International Conference on Education and Technology (ICET) (pp. 205-208). IEEE. Web.
Ribeiro, A., Amaral, A., & Barros, T. (2021). Project manager competencies in the context of industry 4.0. Procedia Computer Science, 181, 803-810. Web.