International Journal Applications Computer -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The International Journal Applications Computer? Answer: Introducation Mobile applications are being increasingly used by the users and business organizations all across the globe. The increase in the use of enterprise mobile applications has allowed the business units to flourish as the mobile apps enable them to reach out to maximum number of customers. The enterprise mobile application is required to be developed for an insurance company. The company provides insurance plans and policies to the customers and there is a wide range of policies that are offered. The sales representatives and sales executives are hired to explain the customers about the details of the insurance policies. With the expansion of the business tasks and activities, it is now required to develop and implement a sales support application for the organization (Li and Steenkamp, 2010). The proposal of the application has already been presented and the same has been appreciated by the stakeholders of the organization. Proposed Solution The solution that has been proposed is in the form of an enterprise mobile application. The insurance company is expanding at a rapid rate. There are new sales personnel and customers that are becoming a part of the company with its expansion. Due to the expansion of the business, it is no longer possible for the sales representative to explain all the details of the insurance plans and policies to the customers. Also, the increased information and data sets are now becoming difficult to manage (Unhelkar and Murugesan, 2010). The proposed solution will allow the organization to list all of its plans and policies on the mobile application for the customers to view the details of the same. The plans selected and preferred by the customers will then be explained to them by the sales representatives and executives. There will be increased transparency that will be set up and managed between the customers and the sales staff. The changes in the policies and plans will also be easy to make. The information will be easily available and there will be no issues associated with replication and modification. In case of absence of any initiatives by the organization in this regard, it will become very difficult to keep a track of all the information and data sets. It will also become difficult to maximize the customer base as the updated information on the insurance policies will not be available to the customers as per their expectation. The enterprise mobile application will overcome all of these problems and issues. Assumptions The project resources will be provided with the tools and equipment that will be necessary for the completion of the project tasks and activities. The project resources will be provided with the environment that will be necessary for the completion of the project tasks and activities. The budget for the project that has been allocated for the completion of the project tasks will be $100,100. There will be five phases that will be present in the project and the project will be completed in a maximum of 115 days. Strategic Alignment with the Organizations Business IT Strategies Alignment Perspective Description Strategic Execution The strategies and objectives of the organization are to make sure that the maximum number of insurance plans and policies are sold and provided to the customers. The goal of the enterprise mobile application falls in line with the organizational strategies as the application will enhance customer engagement and relationship (Gomes and Yasin, 2017). There are various phases and steps that are involved in the project of the development and deployment of the enterprise mobile application. These phases will make it easy to achieve the project and organizational strategies. The management has taken the business decisions to allow the project resources to be provided with adequate tools and equipment for the completion of the project activities. Technological Aspect The enterprise mobile application will be developed in such a manner that it can be used on Android, iOS and other mobile operating systems. The application will be compatible with the rest of the technical tools and equipment that are being used in the organization. The programming language for the application would be PHP and this language will allow the application to be flexible, inter-operatable and adaptable in nature. The application will make use of MySQL and cloud databases for the storage, management and retrieval of information. The information will remain safe and secure on these platforms (Babu, 2017). There will be cloud models that will be used in the application for delivery and deployment. These would include private cloud model and PaaS model. These will provide the required level of security and privacy for the application. Competitive Potential The use of enterprise mobile application will improve the customer relationships and the engagement of the customers with the organization. This would allow the improvement of the organizational reputation in the market. There are many insurance companies that are present in the market. However, with the set up and implementation of the enterprise mobile application, the organization will gain a competitive advantage. Service Level The project will have the resources selected as per their skill sets and knowledge. The allocation of duties and responsibilities will be done in such a manner that there is no overlapping of the resources. The changes that will be launched by the project will have numerous benefits on the employees, that is, the sales staff associated with the company. It is because of the reason that the business activities will be streamlined and there will be increased customer information that will be provided to the sales executives. It will allow them to analyze the information and data sets to understand the preferences and choices of the customers in terms of their desired plan and policy. Value Proposition There will be a number of benefits and advantages that will be provided by the enterprise mobile application for the insurance company. Target Buyer Problem that will be Solved Reasons for the Preference to the Solution Sales Representatives and Executives The updated customer details, their preferences and choices will be available to the sales personnel and staff members. The accessibility of the mobile application is better as compared to the website. The integration of the mobile application is also easier and better than the website. The customer information will be readily available on the mobile application. Customers The customers will be able to view the details of the insurance plans and policies. The engagement and relationship with the organization will also improve. The accessibility of the mobile application is better as compared to the website. The integration of the mobile application is also easier and better than the website. The customer information will be readily available on the mobile application. Business Partners The revenues and profits earned by the organization will improve as the existing performance, quality and operational issues will be resolved. The customer base will also increase along with their trust in the company. The transparency between the customers and sales executives will improve with the implementation of the mobile application for the company. This level of transparency will be difficult to obtain with the setting up of the website. The assessment of the requirements and risks will also be readily done. Project Sponsor The revenues and profits earned by the organization will improve as the existing performance, quality and operational issues will be resolved. The customer base will also increase along with their trust in the company. The transparency between the customers and sales executives will improve with the implementation of the mobile application for the company. This level of transparency will be difficult to obtain with the setting up of the website. The assessment of the requirements and risks will also be readily done. Suppliers and Vendors The increase in the business operations will demand increase need of networking equipment and database requirements for the application. The transparency between the customers and sales executives will improve with the implementation of the mobile application for the company. This level of transparency will be difficult to obtain with the setting up of the website. The assessment of the requirements and risks will also be readily done. Project Costs There are various costs that are associated with the project. These include the cost of resources, development costs, design and testing costs, cost of trainings and cost of support and maintenance. There will also be a one-time cost involved which would include the cost of tools and equipment. The cost has been estimated as per the project activities and the estimation method used has been bottom-up estimation. The resources and the cost associated with the resource have been described in the table below. Role of the Project Resource Type Max. Units Std. Rate Project Manager Work 100% $ 72.00/hr Technical Expert Work 100% $ 58.00/hr Business Advisor Work 100% $ 62.00/hr Senior Mobile Application Developer Work 100% $ 54.00/hr Junior Mobile Application Developer Work 100% $ 45.00/hr Mobile Application Tester Work 100% $ 40.00/hr Network Expert Work 100% $ 48.00/hr Network Analyst Work 100% $ 38.00/hr UI/UX Expert Work 100% $ 60.00/hr Mobile App Designer Work 100% $ 60.00/hr Trainer Work 100% $ 62.00/hr Technical Writer Work 100% $ 55.00/hr Project Management Control There are various management methodologies that have been created which include Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), Projects In Controlled Environment (PRINCE2) and agile methodology. The management methodology that is suitable in the case of enterprise mobile application for the insurance company is PMBOK. It is because of the reason that the project risks, conflicts and issues will be adequately handled by this approach. There are various knowledge areas that come under PMBOK for the management of the cost, schedule, resources, scope, risks and many more (Csbdu, 2014). The methodology will allow the project leadership and management with the ability to handle all of the project tasks and activities in an efficient manner. Management and Overseeing of the Project There will be a Project Manager that will be deployed in the project that will be the primary resource in the project. The resource will be responsible and accountable for the handling and management of the project activities such as planning, control and closure (Pathak, Pateriya and Pal, 2012). Communication and meetings will be managed and facilitated by the Project Manager and will be assisted by the Business Advisor and Technical Expert. There will be communication guidelines and meeting rules that will be followed during the project lifecycle. Information on the Project Progress There will be team meetings that will be organized by the Project Manager on a daily basis. The meeting will be attended by all of the internal project resources. There will be project progress and status that will be discussed in the meeting. The project issues and conflicts will also be discussed in the project. There will also be weekly team meeting that will be organized by the Project Manager with the external stakeholders. The external stakeholders will include Project Sponsor, Business Partners, Suppliers and Vendors along with the end-users. These stakeholders will be provided with the information on the project status and progress (Ucl, 2012). There will also be a reporting structure and format that will be followed during the project timeline to make sure that the latest information on the project progress is provided. The same has been illustrated in the table below. Report Name Report Frequency Report Submitted To Report Submitted By Weekly Status Report Weekly Project Sponsor Project Manager Daily Status Report Daily Project Manager Project Team Members Defect Report Weekly Project Manager and Project Sponsor Mobile Application Tester Closure Report At the end of the project Project Sponsor Project Manager Infrastructure Requirements The enterprise mobile application that will be developed for the insurance company will work on the mobile operating systems as Android, iOS and Windows. These operating systems have been selected as these are the ones that are high on demand in the market. Most mobile devices are either equipped with Android or iOS as the operating platform. Therefore, the availability and accessibility of the application on these platforms will allow maximization of the customer base (Pope-Ruark, 2012). Coding Language and Tools The coding language that will be used in the application for the development of the front end will be PHP. The coding language will provide the qualities such as flexibility, inter-operatibility and adaptability. This will make sure that the application features are incorporated and the application is accessible with ease (Moe, Dingsoyr and Dyba, 2010). Microsoft Visual Studio will be used for the coding purpose, Microsoft Project for the designing of schedule and Gantt chart and the database will be MySQL and cloud databases. There will be testing tools, such as TestLink and Bugzilla that will also be used. Cloud Services There are a number of cloud delivery and deployment models that will be used in the application. The cloud services will be used for the deployment of the application. The private cloud will be used for the purpose of the application deployment. This will provide the desired level of security and privacy to the application. The cloud model will keep the network and information related security risks and attacks aside. There will also be cloud delivery model that will be used. This will be cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) model. The framework or the platform will be provided for the purpose of cloud delivery. Cloud databases will also be used in the application for the storage and retrieval of information and the data sets (Umsl, 2017). Software Methodologies The design of the mobile application shall be based upon the responsive web design principles. There are various design parameters that must be followed and maintained in the application. These shall include the consistency of the application in terms of the layout, color scheme and theme. The application design must adjust and respond as per the user action. The navigation shall be smooth and the application shall have a high degree of usability. The development methodology that must be followed in the application shall be agile methodology for application development. This methodology will allow the application to be flexible and adaptable in nature. There will be sprints that will be associated with the development approach and every sprint will have a subset of the requirements from the product backlog. The sprint will last for two to four weeks and there will be a daily SCRUM meeting that will be organized and facilitated by the Project Manager (Mahnic and Zabkar, 2012). The changes will be handled in an easy and effective manner with the use of the agile development methodology. There may be many changes that may be made in the requirements and technology associated with the application. The level of customer satisfaction will also improve with the use of agile methodology in the application. This is because of the reason that the customers will be informed about the project progress at all times (Kaur and Bansal, 2017). The agile practices are ad-hoc and value based in nature which will ensure that the application is scalable and supportable in nature. Testing is an important activity in the projects and there are testing practices that are necessary to be taken during the project. There are various types of testing that must be performed in the case of mobile application project. Mobile application testing comprising of system and integration testing practices must be followed and carried out during the project. There shall also be security and performance testing practices that shall be carried out to find out the bugs and defects in the application (Azanha et al., 2017). A defect report must be published at the end of every week and shall be submitted to the Project Manager and the Project Sponsor. Internationalization for a Global Market It is necessary to ensure that the application can be used by the users all across the globe. There are certain features that may promote internationalization for a global market. The language options present in the application must be immense so that the users from every part of the globe shall be able to access the application. The application must ask the user for the preferred language option and it shall be added to the customization features. Similarly, the payment options used in the application for the payment of the insurance plans and policies shall be varied. There shall be international currencies that must be accepted and shall be compatible with the application. It is also necessary for the application to make sure that the information security and privacy laws are followed. There are also many of the ethical and professional codes of conduct shall be followed. In this manner, the internationalization for the global market shall be promoted and maintained in the application. Social Media Integration Strategies It is necessary for the application to be integrated with the social media accounts and platforms so that maximum number of customers and users may get associated with the application. For this purpose, the users shall be allowed to log in to the application using social media accounts, such as, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram etc. There shall also be an option in the application to post and share information to the social media networks or to pass on the information to the contacts added in the social media accounts. In this manner, the social media networks and platforms will be integrated in the application. It will also make it easy for the sales executives and personnel to gain the information regarding the customer preferences and choices. The social media integration will also enable the executives to post and share the information regarding the latest offerings and details of the new insurance plans and policies (Modeus, 2013). There will be many advantages that will be offered by the social media platforms and networks in terms of the maximization of the customer base. Risk Management There may be many risks that may be associated with the mobile application and each of these risks may have a certain degree of impact and probability associated with them. The risks along with their impact and likelihood, ranking and description along with the response strategy have been described in the table below. Risk Name Description Risk Likelihood Impact Risk Rating (! Is lowest and 5 is highest) Response Strategy Information Security and Privacy Risks There may be execution and occurrence of the information security and privacy risks with the execution of the attacks such as information breaches, information loss and leakage. High High 4 The risk response mechanism and strategy that will lead to the apt treatment of the risks shall be risk mitigation by making use of technical, administrative and physical controls Database Security Risks The confidentiality and privacy of the information may get impacted with the occurrence of SQL injection and database security attacks Medium- High High 4 The risk response mechanism and strategy that will lead to the apt treatment of the risks shall be risk mitigation by making use of technical, administrative and physical controls Network Security Risks Man in the middle attacks, eavesdropping attacks along with the malware attacks may have an adverse impact of the security of the networks. High Medium-High 4 The risk response mechanism and strategy that will lead to the apt treatment of the risks shall be risk mitigation by making use of technical, administrative and physical controls Ethical Risks There may be insider threats and attacks carried out by the members of the internal staff and there may also be non-adherence to the ethical standards and principles. Low High 5 The risk response mechanism and strategy that will lead to the apt treatment of the risks shall be risk avoidance by providing ethical trainings and methods Schedule and Budget Risks There may be schedule or budget overrun that may be witnessed which may lead to the inability to meet the delivery deadlines (Kumar and Gregory, 2013) Low High 5 The risk response mechanism and strategy that will lead to the apt treatment of the risks shall be risk avoidance by excessive monitoring and control Technical Faults The technical tools and equipment may turn faulty and there may be failures that may take place. Medium Low-Medium 3 The risk response mechanism and strategy that will lead to the apt treatment of the risks shall be risk transfer to the suppliers and vendors (Olson, Birge and Linton, 2014) Quality Risks The quality standards and practices may not be followed and adhered during the project tasks and activities. Low High 5 The risk response mechanism and strategy that will lead to the apt treatment of the risks shall be risk avoidance by providing trainings on the quality standards Operational Errors and Mistakes There may be operational errors and mistakes that may be carried out by the end users Low-Medium Medium 3 The risk response mechanism and strategy that will lead to the apt treatment of the risks shall be risk mitigation Integration and Deployment Strategies The application shall be integrated with the rest of the technical systems and tools by carrying out a compatibility analysis as the first step. The networking tools and connections will be integrated first followed by the database and the other applications being used in the organization. The deployment of the application shall be done by making use of the private cloud as the cloud deployment models. The private cloud will be used for the purpose of the application deployment. This will provide the desired level of security and privacy to the application. The cloud model will keep the network and information related security risks and attacks aside (Machado, Pinheiro and Tamanini, 2014). It is necessary that the integration and deployment of the application is correctly done so that the performance of the application is maintained. There shall also be integration testing that must be done so that the application integration and successful deployment shall be ensured. User Acceptance and Change Management User acceptance testing shall be carried out so that the user experience from the application shall be determined. The testing process and practice must be carried out by the end-users and the test cases shall be provided to the users covering the functional and non-functional aspects of the application. The areas of improvements must be highlighted and the changes shall be made. There shall also be customer feedback and comments that must be collected at the end of each sprint (Cervone, 2011). There will be changes that will be presented by the users and there may also be changes that may be requested by the sponsor and end system users in terms of the technology and functionality. These changes shall be managed and handled by using a defined change management plan. There must be phases present in this plan in terms of the change preparation, management and reinforcement. The changes that are approved by the Project Sponsor in terms of the change requests shall be entertained. There must be change handling objectives and methodologies that shall be followed. In this manner, it will be possible to handle and manage the changes with much ease. Application Maintenance The maintenance of the application shall be done by making use of an automated cycle. In this cycle, the application shall be scanned in terms of its functionality and technology that is used. The maintenance cycles must be carried out in the application by highlighting the areas of improvement in terms of the application codes and methods. The patch management plan and cycle shall be followed to highlight the list of the security patches and updates that need to be installed. The incidents reported by the end users shall also be analyzed during these cycles along with the monitoring and analysis of the system and network activity logs. These will bring out the areas of improvements along with the information on the maintenance objectives and goals. The backup of the data and information sets shall also be taken frequently so that in case of a security risk or occurrence, there is no damage done to the information associated with the application. Future Opportunities and Enhancements Technology is changing at a rapid pace and there are many new improvements that are being done in the area of technology. There are many new developments that are now taking place in the area of mobile application development. For the sales support application that will be designed for the insurance company, there must be enhancements that shall be made in the future. There will be many opportunities that will be available to the application development team for the future. Security must be kept as a top priority for the application. It is because of the reason that the threat landscape is changing with each passing day. There are new forms of mobile security risks that are being created and being launched in the market. Therefore, the updates and inclusion of the latest security tools and protocols shall be made to the application. It shall then be followed by the use of Big Data, Business Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence as the technologies. These technologies shall be used and the application functionality shall be upgraded according to the same. The current set of functionalities will use data analysis and warehousing as some of the Business Intelligence technologies. There is a lot of research and development work that is currently going on in these areas that shall be included in the application. The application must add functionalities in terms of the addition of new insurance plans and policies, their comparison with the other insurance providers in the market, display of market trends to the customers and likewise. Conclusions It is recommended that the authentication and access control is used and implemented in the application. The users shall be allowed to securely login by implementing two-fold authentication in the application along with role based and attribute based access control. The application shall also be integrated with the security controls, such as, anti-malware and anti-denial tools along with intrusion detection and prevention tools. It shall also be ensured that the database security is enhanced. Also, the team members that are allocated for the project shall be done on the basis of their skills and knowledge sets. There shall be an analysis of the skills of the project team members that must be carried out in terms of the latest mobile technologies and design parameters. The enterprise mobile application that will be developed for the insurance company shall be done by making use of agile methodology as the development methodology along with the use of Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) as the management methodology. There shall be involvement of cloud services as cloud based delivery and deployment along with the cloud databases. There are various types of testing practices that must be carried out in terms of the system and integration testing, security and performance testing. The project resources shall be managed by making use of advanced resource management tools and concepts along with the organization of daily team meetings by the Project Manager. An effective communication and reporting structure shall also be followed. References Azanha, A., Argoud, A., Camargo Junior, J. and Antoniolli, P. (2017). Agile project management with Scrum. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 10(1), pp.121-142. Babu, M. (2017). Impact of firms customer orientation on performance: the moderating role of interfunctional coordination and employee commitment. Journal of Strategic Marketing, pp.1-21. Cervone, H. (2011). Understanding agile project management methods using Scrum. 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