Team Contribution ….

Kiranbeer Kaur (30439461)

Khushpreet Kaur (30434815)

Navjot Kaur (30438450)

Assessment 3 – Team Business Case

Work divided-

1. Swot analysis (problems, critique and analysis of objectives and recommendations) by

Khushpreet Kaur

2. Financial analysis, project scope and WBS by Navjot Kaur

3. Cost model and baseline by Kiranbeer Kaur

 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 1

Executive Summary

Heartland Equestrian Centre requires a modern approach to gain back its lost market share and

grow beyond its current service region and the decision has been made to launch a smartphone

app that will include a host of different features. Using agile development approach, this app will

be developed over a period of 5 months and within a budget of $260,000 after which, it will be

launched for public. The company expects that this app will be massive success among existing

customers and will also help in bringing new customers for the company.
 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 2

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3

2.0 Business Case Report for Heartland Equestrian Centre App Project........................................3

2.1 Project Background...............................................................................................................3

2.2 Mission Statement and Project Objectives............................................................................4

2.3 SWOT Analysis.....................................................................................................................5

2.4 Problem / Opportunity Statement..........................................................................................6

2.5 Critical Assumptions and Constraints...................................................................................7

2.6 Analysis of Options and Recommendations..........................................................................8

2.7 Financial Analysis...............................................................................................................10

2.8 Project Scope and WBS.......................................................................................................11

2.9 Cost Model and Baseline.....................................................................................................13

2.10 Schedule, Gantt Chart and Network Diagram...................................................................14

2.11 List of Risks.......................................................................................................................16

3.0 Highlight of Innovation...........................................................................................................18

4.0 Conclusion and Lessons Learnt...............................................................................................20

5.0 References................................................................................................................................22
 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 3

1.0 Introduction

Heartland Pty Ltd is a reputed name in the Australian equestrian industry and has been

providing horse riding, training and other services for a few decades. With time, the company

had developed a basic website for online presence that is still used. However, after a key staff

has left and a new competitor has arisen in the market, Heartland is facing a significant challenge

to grow and gain back its market share using the current resources they have. In order to, address

the challenge, it has been decided that the company will launch a new user app that will include

multiple features.

This report includes a comprehensive business case based on the information provided by

the company and will also include time and budget estimations accordingly.

2.0 Business Case Report for Heartland Equestrian Centre App Project

2.1 Project Background

The project revolves around the development of a mobile app for Heartland Pty Ltd who

has been looking to rejuvenate their web presence with the introduction of application for

smartphones. The company provides horse riding experiences to customers and houses several

trainers and clinicians as well as a large piece of land where the customers can learn to ride

horses. The company also has a basic website that provides basic information of the services and

facilities that are provided. However, the company has been facing some problems in the past

few years. With some important staff leaving, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire skilled

personnel for the job and as a result, many positions are left vacant. Moreover, a new horse

training centre has grown up nearby with large and modern facilities that have been providing
 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 4

strong competition to the company. Among other things, Heartland Pty Ltd has identified the

need to increase the web presence, especially through smartphones in order to reach more

customers and grow business and at the same time, implement new features that would help to

improve their facilities. Hence, developing the mobile app has been given the highest priority for

the company before any other projects will be undertaken. The entire project has been given a

total timeline of 5 months within which, the development must be done.

2.2 Mission Statement and Project Objectives

The mission statement for the company for the project is:

“To provide equestrian enthusiasts with a wide range of services and facilities including

riding training, horse riding and others through a simple application on their smartphones where

they can view, choose and select appointment options in order to receive the services they desire,

all in a very seamless experience”

The objectives of the project are discussed as follows (Layton, Ostermiller & Kynaston,

2020).

 To develop a user friendly and simple mobile application where the customers can

easily view and book services at their convenience

 To enable the users to view all the services that the company provides and select

accordingly without any hassle

 To enhance operational efficiency by streamlined management of scheduling and

bookings

 To develop a job portal within the app where interested trainer and clinician

candidates can apply for jobs if there are any vacancies at the company
 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 5

2.3 SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis for the project is conducted and exhibited in the following table.

Strengths Weaknesses

Heartland Pty Ltd has established reputation The company management has no prior

within the horse riding community and hence, experience of handling mobile apps and its

the company would not have to put too much backend functionalities

effort into reaching customers once the app is

developed.

The company management has no experience

The company provides a wide range of in digital marketing

services in the same property that easily

attracts the target customers.

The company is only able to provide a limited

The company has a huge facility for horse and non-flexible investment for development

riding as well as other facilities like training, and maintenance of the app

clinic and others.

With the application development, the

The company boasts a committed company may need to restructure and

management team, which is willing to provide redevelop the marketing strategies and that

best efforts for the project success. may face resistance from the existing staff

Opportunities Threats

There is a growing demand for digital There is rapidly increasing competition in the

solutions in the equestrian sector as customers market from newly developed companies who
 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 6

are seeking convenience in finding properties are already equipped with high quality digital

and booking appointments. platform.

It will be easier for the company to attract

new staff and workers through job application Introduction of the new application will also

feature of the app. bring in threats of privacy, security and

payment processing and will also attract

With the implementation of the application, regulatory and legal challenges.

there is a potential to reach more customers Continuous improvements and updates will

beyond the current locality. be necessary to keep the app up to date and

free from bugs but it will be challenging with

the limited budget.

Negative feedbacks from customers on the

online platform can threaten reputation of the

company.

2.4 Problem / Opportunity Statement

The company is currently facing a major problem regarding its long term survivability – a

major decline in the business. There are a few reasons that are contributing to the decline. The

first main reason is the departure of a highly respected trainer who had a great reputation among

the customers for his work in the company (Bergmann & Karwowski, 2019). His departure has

left a huge gap within the company and caused a loss of trust and confidence among the
 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 7

customers with the company. Another major reason of the decline is a rise of a strong new

competitor which is equipped with better digital platform and other facilities. These two factors

have played a major role in causing decline of Heartland Pty Ltd and have also raised a serious

question of the company’s long term survivability (Gustavsson, 2016). Using an old website with

limited functionalities is not helping the company either, as the customers are looking for more

advanced and convenient digital platforms for the service.

However, this also presents a significant opportunity for the company to gain back the

lost market share and also expand beyond the current region of target customers. This could be

achieved by the implementation of a modern digital platform like a mobile app with a wide range

of functions and features that will not only attract more customers but will also allow the

company to perform various actions including recruitment and management (Tam et al., 2020).

This new digital platform can potentially help the company to take a strong step forward to

compete against the other companies and ensure long term sustainability.

2.5 Critical Assumptions and Constraints

Some critical assumptions that have been made for the project are discussed as follows

(Al-Saqqa, Sawalha & AbdelNabi, 2020).

 It has been assumed that the market is big enough for expansion and maintaining

existing hold despite competition from other new companies.

 It has been assumed that once the app is ready and launched, the customers will

seamlessly start using the same for booking appointments, viewing services and

contact the company to resolve their queries.

 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 8

 It has been assumed that the development team hired for the project is technically

proficient enough to develop and launch the app as per the requirements.

 It has been assumed that the launching of the app will be financially viable and it

will help the company generate positive return on investment on the project.

Additionally, the main constraints that are associated with the project are as follows

(Barghoth, Salah & Ismail, 2020).

 The budget is a significant constraint for the project as there is no flexibility

available beyond the final decided amount and 10% extra for contingencies.

 Five months time to develop and launch the app can be major constraint as it will

cause rushing and possible quality issues in the project.

 The organisation has limited resources available for creating an app development

environment, which is a major cause of constraint for the project.

 Possible issues related to data privacy and security can be major constraints for

the project that need to be addressed in due course.

2.6 Analysis of Options and Recommendations

Before handing over the project to Equine Development Inc., the company had two

alternatives for consideration. These two alternatives are discussed as follows.

Option 1: In-House Development

With in-house development, the company would have full control over the development

process. This control will allow customization of the features and flexibility in development at

any point of time. Additionally, it would enable direct communication with internal stakeholders
 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 9

that would ensure the project is completely aligned with the organisation’s mission and vision

(Holgeid et al., 2021). Finally, in house development would also have reduced costs due to

involvement of internal staffs and would also help in team cohesion.

On the other hand, there could be some issues arising from in-house development as well.

Lack of sufficient expertise within the staff regarding development will incur even more time

and costs for training or hiring new staff members. Furthermore, limited availability of resources

and development environment will result in significant quality issues as well as major delays,

which will also drain the finances of the company. Finally, ongoing annual maintenance and

system support by in-house staff will incur more costs and less quality output.

Option 2: Development through Third Party Vendor

The other alternative option was development through third party vendor, which also has

several sets of advantages. The main advantage of this option is that the company would be able

to hire specific expertise for the project, which will ensure highest quality of the project

delivered according to the plan (El Bajta & Idri, 2020). Third party vendor with specialized

expertise can also scale the project according to available resources and hence, make it cost

effective and efficient. Using third party vendor also cuts the down the cost of training and

hiring, as they are able to hire readymade team for the development process.

However, relying on the external third party vendor can lead to poor communication

among the team and the management board. Moreover, potential conflict of interest may occur

due to different ideologies and vision as well as communication barrier. There is also concern

regarding control over the project management processes as the third party vendor will manage

the project in a different way that may not align with the organisation’s strategies. Finally, there
 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 10

can be potential security and privacy concerns arising when private data is shared with them for

migration into the server.

Considering the advantages and disadvantages of both the options and also the current

resources available to the company, option 1 i.e. in-house development of the application is not

recommended despite its benefits as discussed. This is mainly because even though it has its own

benefits and advantages, the company simply does not have any technical expertise within the

team that will be able to handle the development process. Hiring new technical staff will not only

take a lot of time but will also consume a lot of resources and time, which will be required for

recruitment and training (Babkin et al., 2021). On the other hand, the second option i.e. third

party vendor seems like the most reasonable and feasible approach. Despite the concerns that

have been discussed, this approach will save a lot of time and resources and also, the expected

output will be of much better quality compared to in house development. However, the company

needs to be aware of the potential issues and should actively take initiatives to avoid those issues.

2.7 Financial Analysis

The financial analysis for the project is shown below:

 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 11

The financial analysis above shows that based on the early estimates, the company can

expect to recover all the invested costs by year 3 and also a return on investment of 28% at the

end of year 3.

2.8 Project Scope and WBS

The scope of the project involves development of a new app for Heartland Equestrian

Centre and will include integration of a wide range of features. Some of the features that will be

included in this application are as follows.

 User registration and login system

 Appointment booking system

 Online payment system

 Multimedia contents

 Newsletter subscriptions

 User feedback system

 Job portal

 Event notifications

 Trail maps

 Horse information

The scope also involves executing the project using the agile methodology and will have

to be completed within 5 months time period.

The work breakdown structure of the project is shown in the following table.

WBS Task Name

0 Development of New App for Heartland Equestrian Centre

 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 12

1 Project Initiation Phase

1.1 Define project scope and objectives

1.2 Identify stakeholders and establish communication channels

1.3 Conduct project kickoff meeting

1.4 Develop project charter and agile project plan

2 Sprint 0 - Pre-Development

2.1 Setup development environment and tools

2.2 Gather initial requirements and user stories

2.3 Conduct sprint planning and backlog grooming

2.4 Define sprint goals and priorities

2.5 Assign roles and responsibilities within the development team

3 Sprint 1

3.1 Develop user registration and login functionality

3.2 Implement basic navigation and user interface

3.3 Setup backend infrastructure for data storage and retrieval

3.4 Conduct unit testing and code reviews

3.5 Deploy initial version of app for testing

4 Sprint 2

4.1 Develop booking and scheduling features for riding lessons

4.2 Implement payment processing functionality

4.3 Design and integrate multimedia content (videos, photos)

4.4 Conduct user acceptance testing (UAT) with selected clients

4.5 Address feedback and make necessary improvements

5 Sprint 3

5.1 Develop horse boarding and re-training booking system

5.2 Implement job portal feature for trainers and clinicians

5.3 Integrate newsletter subscription and event notifications

5.4 Conduct performance testing and optimization

 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 13

5.5 Prepare for app deployment to production environment

6 Sprint 4

6.1 Develop trail ride booking and mapping functionality

6.2 Implement user feedback and rating system

6.3 Conduct final rounds of testing and bug fixes

6.4 Prepare app for submission to app stores (iOS App Store, Google Play Store)

6.5 Develop marketing and promotion materials for app launch

7 Sprint 5 - Post-Launch

7.1 Monitor app performance and user feedback post-launch

7.2 Gather analytics data and conduct user surveys

7.3 Identify areas for further improvement and iteration

7.4 Plan and prioritize future enhancements and updates

7.5 Conduct retrospective meeting to review project and process improvements

2.9 Cost Model and Baseline

For this particular project, the most suitable cost model will be top down estimation as

the total budget has been already finalised. The budget breakdown (baseline) is shown in the

following table.

Cost Element Estimated Cost

Total available budget $260,000

Development costs (including wages and $150,000

salaries)

Resource costs (hardware, software, etc.) $50,000

Other associated costs $20,000

Maintenance (Year 1) $10,000

 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 14

Maintenance (Year 2) $15,000

Maintenance (Year 3) $15,000

2.10 Schedule, Gantt Chart and Network Diagram

The schedule of the project is shown below in the form of a Gantt Chart as follows.

Figure 1: Gantt Chart for the Project

(Source: Created by Author)

ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 15

Figure 2: Network Diagram for the Project

(Source: Created by Author)

 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 16

2.11 List of Risks

Risks are inevitable in any project and it is the same for this project as well. There are

possibly quite a number of risks that can occur at any stage of the project. These risks will have

different degrees of impact on the project, also depending on how they are treated. Some of the

major risks that are associated with the project are discussed as follows.

Technical Complexity and Integration Challenges – The company has proposed the

development of the mobile app with a wide range of features and functionalities like information

display, appointment booking, online payment, job application system and others. Integrating all

features within the application together within the given timeframe presents a major challenge of

technical complexity (Thesing, Feldmann & Burchardt, 2021). It will be significantly difficult to

integrate all the features together in the app and working on compatibility of the app in different

devices will be a complex process.

Resource Constraints and Competing Priorities – One of the main risks that this project

faces is the resource constraint. The company does not have any technically skilled personnel

available and is also offering limited funding for the project without much flexibility. There is

also the issue of competing priorities regarding the operations and other projects of the company

that may hinder this project.

User Adoption and Engagement – Despite the company’s expectations that the

implementation of the new app will help them gain back their business, there is no guarantee that

this app will actually boost any user adoption and engagement (Barghoth, Salah & Ismail, 2020).

In the event that the purpose of the app fails completely, there is a significant risk of further loss
 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 17

in user adoption and engagement, which will also make the investment on this project

completely futile.

Security and Data Privacy Concerns – One of the most important risks that the company

needs to keep track about is security and data privacy. As the project involves development of an

online app, there is always a threat of security and data privacy issues, especially after

confidential data is being migrated to the online server (El Bajta & Idri, 2020). Breach of

security attacks can break into the server and steal such information for misuse that will not only

cause reputational damage to the company but also some other deep lying impacts.

Vendor Reliability and Performance – Choosing any third party vendor for development

without background check can be a major risk for the company. Not all third party vendors are

good developers and they can create major performance related issues of the application that are

not desired from the project.

Market Competition and Changing Trends – One of the main risks that the company

should worry about in the market competition as well as changing trends. Despite deploying new

mobile app and spending a lot of funds on technical projects, there is still a chance that the

company is not able to cope up with the other competitors in the market. The company needs to

analyse changing trends as well as unique selling points of the competitors in order to implement

new systems and move forward themselves.

Legal and Regulatory Compliance – Developing an online application and bringing

customers to enter personal information through the app also attracts the risk of legal and

regulatory compliance. If the company is not able to fulfil those compliance requirements, they

can face major legal troubles that can even shut down their app and the business if necessary.
 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 18

Stakeholder Resistance and Communication Challenges – With the implementation of the

new app, it is expected that there will a major change in the overall internal structure of the

organisation as well, which might be met with resistance from the existing stakeholders of the

company (Al-Saqqa, Sawalha & AbdelNabi, 2020). Furthermore, there will be communication

challenges in the project as the third party vendor will be involved in the development process

whereas the company management will be involved in governance of the project.

Technology Dependencies and Platform Limitations – This project is dependent on high

level technology, which requires strong technical expertise as well as significant amount of

investment, which may not be possible from the company. Additionally, there are various

platform limitations like Android and iOS and hence, without cross-platform support, the project

may fail to a certain extent and may fail to meet expectations of the company.

Scope Creep and Requirement Changes – Implementation of unnecessary changes in the

project can be a major problem creating scope creep and loss of time and resources for the

company. Sudden changes in requirements and implementation of those changes without

evaluating the possible impacts on the project can be a major problem that needs to be avoided at

any cost.

3.0 Highlight of Innovation

In any technological project, innovations play a major role in defining the final outcome

of the project. In this case also, there are certain innovation aspects involved that are discussed as

follows.
 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 19

Integrated Mobile Platform – With the integrated mobile platform, the project carries the

identity of a significant innovation. While most mobile applications only include one or two

features, this application comes with a wide range of features – all within one program on the

mobile smartphone (Barghoth, Salah & Ismail, 2020). While it is certainly a bit of challenge for

implementation, it still indicates good innovation from the part of the company.

User Centric Design – The design of the app is innovative and user centric, which

enables the user to easily use the app without facing much complexity. With easy navigations,

personalised recommendations and ease of booking appointments, the users are expected to be

engaged with the app.

Digital Job Portal – The integration of a digital job portal within the application is

another major innovation in this project. While the application is being developed with focus on

information and appointment booking for the customers, the company also decided to integrate a

section on the app where an interested user can view any job vacancy and apply for the same (El

Bajta & Idri, 2020). This also helps the company to speed up the recruitment process whenever

necessary.

Dynamic Content Sharing – The application will continue to share dynamic content

including real time updates on the information, customer experiences (photos, videos and others)

and other digital contents that are indicators of innovation in this project and will also help

farming customer engagement for the company.

Agile Development Methodology – This project could be executed using the waterfall

methodology but the decision to utilise agile development methodology shows the innovative

idea of the company owner. The use of agile development methodology ensures the final
 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 20

delivery of the project is of the highest quality and also, continuous improvement can be made to

the product throughout the project.

4.0 Conclusion and Lessons Learnt

This project involves development of a mobile app for Heartland Pty Ltd who has been

looking to rejuvenate their web presence with the introduction of application for smartphones.

The company has been facing some problems in the past few years. With some important staff

leaving, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hire skilled personnel for the job and as a result,

many positions are left vacant. Moreover, a new horse training centre has grown up nearby with

large and modern facilities that have been providing strong competition to the company. Now,

regarding the app development, the company considered two options – in house development or

third party vendor development. Considering the advantages and disadvantages of both the

options and also the current resources available to the company, in-house development of the

application is not recommended despite its benefits as discussed. This is mainly because even

though it has its own benefits and advantages, the company simply does not have any technical

expertise within the team that will be able to handle the development process. On the other hand,

the second option i.e. third party vendor seems like the most reasonable and feasible approach

and hence, this has been chosen as the preferred option.

While developing the business case for this project, several lessons have been learned

that are as follows.

 Leveraging multiple options and comparing their benefits and challenges is

important to select the best possible approach for the project.

ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 21

 It is important to establish clear communication channels among the teams and

the management members.

 Agile projects provide efficient ways to improve the quality of the project.

 Risk management is essential for any project.

 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 22

5.0 References

Al-Saqqa, S., Sawalha, S., & AbdelNabi, H. (2020). Agile software development: Methodologies

and trends. International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies, 14(11).

Babkin, A., Safiullin, A., Tronin, V., & Alexandrov, A. (2021, October). Transformation of

Software Project Management in Industry 4.0. In International Scientific Conference on

Innovations in Digital Economy (pp. 159-170). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Barghoth, M. E., Salah, A., & Ismail, M. A. (2020). A comprehensive software project

management framework. Journal of Computer and Communications, 8(03), 86.

Bergmann, T., & Karwowski, W. (2019). Agile project management and project success: A

literature review. In Advances in Human Factors, Business Management and Society:

Proceedings of the AHFE 2018 International Conference on Human Factors, Business

Management and Society, July 21-25, 2018, Loews Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal

Studios, Orlando, Florida, USA 9 (pp. 405-414). Springer International Publishing.

El Bajta, M., & Idri, A. (2020, September). Identifying software cost attributes of software

project management in global software development: An integrative framework.

In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Intelligent Systems: Theories and

Applications (pp. 1-5).

Gustavsson, T. (2016). Benefits of agile project management in a non-software development

context: A literature review. In Fifth International Scientific Conference on Project

Management in the Baltic Countries, April 14-15, 2016, Riga, University of Latvia (pp.

114-124). Latvijas Universitate.

 ITECH 7401 LEADERSHIP IN IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT 23

Holgeid, K. K., Jørgensen, M., Sjøberg, D. I., & Krogstie, J. (2021). Benefits management in

software development: A systematic review of empirical studies. IET Software, 15(1), 1-

24.

Layton, M. C., Ostermiller, S. J., & Kynaston, D. J. (2020). Agile project management for

dummies. John Wiley & Sons.

Tam, C., da Costa Moura, E. J., Oliveira, T., & Varajão, J. (2020). The factors influencing the

success of on-going agile software development projects. International Journal of

Project Management, 38(3), 165-176.

Thesing, T., Feldmann, C., & Burchardt, M. (2021). Agile versus waterfall project management:

decision model for selecting the appropriate approach to a project. Procedia Computer

Science, 181, 746-756.