Project Management within Virtual Universities

Transcription

1 Project Management within Virtual Universities Goran Kimovski Vladimir Trajkovic Danco Davcev Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, Macedonia {trvlado; Abstract Existing Project Management (PM) tools today focus on planning and monitoring particular projects and resources (workers) allocation and usage. Such tools do not provide means for sharing the project knowledge to the project staff on similar projects. On the other hand, the systems that deals with description and distribution of knowledge, like the document management systems or groupware systems, lack the function for organization and structuring of the knowledge in a project-specific way. In this study, a project management and resource sharing system is described. It is used for supporting virtual student teams within Virtual University. We consider a project to be an assignment or a task that professor gives to the online students. Although our main objective is the usage of the system as a support for distance education, the system can be used in enterprise working environments, virtual or traditional. We also provide means for generating a project-specific knowledge base with a projectspecific organization and structure (hierarchy). Finally, we have built a completely webbased interface for the users of the system offering online access from any place and at any time. The first experience in using our PM system was quite positive. 1. Introduction In this study, a project management and resource sharing system is described. It is used for supporting virtual student teams within Virtual University. We consider a project to be an assignment or a task that professor gives to the online students. Although our main objective is the usage of the system as a support for distance education, the system can be used in enterprise working environments, virtual or traditional. Existing Project Management (PM) tools today focus on planning and monitoring particular projects and resources (workers) allocation and usage. They are not designed to develop a knowledge base for the particular projects. Such tools do not provide means for sharing the project knowledge to the project staff on similar projects. On the other hand, the systems that deals with description and distribution of knowledge, like the document management systems or groupware systems, lack the function for organization and structuring of the knowledge in a project-specific way. We thereby, propose a system that will help the project managers, project workers and others involved with a project to plan and monitor the project as well as to prepare for particular tasks within the project. We also provide means for generating a project-specific knowledge base with a project-specific organization and structure (hierarchy). Finally, we have built a completely web-based interface for the users of the system offering online access from any place and at any time.

2 We specifically target our PM system as a tool for supporting projects and project-based learning in an online learning environment. Many of the corporate project management specifics apply to the idea of the project-based learning, where groups of students (undergraduate or postgraduate) appear as project workers while professors appear as project managers. Each professor would like to track the work of his/her students on the projects given to them in order to evaluate their work. Additionally, the project knowledge represented by the files and documents (project resources) created during the project is a potential starting point for some of the following projects. Furthermore, if the project resources are stored along the project structure, e.g. separating the general project resources and specific resources connected to the particular project parts, a more efficient mechanism for later resource retrieval and reuse may be provided. In this way, more structured project knowledge can be produced. Aside the student projects, the PM system may also be used for managing other University projects or cooperative projects including teams both from the University and different companies. The PM system is additionally extended with a connection to the Virtual Laboratory ([1] and [2]), which offers the project team access to distant laboratory resources (equipment). The team may work with the resources connected to the Virtual Laboratory directly from the PM system. This connection becomes very helpful for those projects that require the team to work with some laboratory equipment, providing the team members access to the PM functions and Virtual Laboratory services from the same interface. The following section 2 presents the related work. Section 3 gives the concept of the PM system. Its design is presented in section 4, while the implementation and the first test results are presented in section 5 and 6. Section 7 concludes the paper. 2. Related work As the technology now exists to enable collaborative team work over distance and time, an interesting phenomenon is more recognized in the world, the appearance of the so-called virtual teams. Virtual teams establish it self as building blocks of the so-called virtual working environments. In [3] virtual teams are defined as groups of people working closely together even though they may be separated by many miles, even continents. A more fully definition is found in [4]: a temporary network of independent professionals, separated by geographic, temporal and psychological distance, whose use of telecommunications tools for business communication is independent, to satisfy the business requirement of sharing skills and working to meet a common goal. The interest for the virtual teams in the software development is discussed in [5]. The main topic of the paper is the requirements engineering phase as a crucial phase during a so called virtual software development. However, the effectiveness of such teams in other fields outside the software development and the resource sharing mechanisms among the members of the team are not discussed. Another usage of the virtual teams in the software development process is found in [6]. It surveys existing tools for project coordination and control mechanisms. The research presented throughout this paper finds that the existing project management tools support only traditional project management activities, such as planning, scheduling, resource (team members) allocation and management, etc. It proposes a model for globally distributed software development architecture, which central idea is based on the definition of a common workspace and a coordination and control framework. No explicit resource

3 sharing mechanism between the team members has been discussed. Again, the virtual teams usage is tightened to the software development process only. A different view on the virtual working environments, from the point of Virtual Reality (VR) is presented in [7]. A multi-user VR named networked VR is described. The networked VR is referred as a virtual environment where multiple users connected by a network can share information with each other. In [8], architecture for project memory and management system (PMMS) is introduced. It should provide storing, retrieving and dissemination of knowledge about projects. The PMMS supports resource sharing and knowledge management on a higher level of semantics than the document management systems currently used by some companies for the same purpose. The placement of the architecture in the virtual working environments is not explicitly addressed. We couldn t find a system for project management (including virtual teams) in the literature that is able to provide useful information and knowledge about past related projects to the current one. 3. System Concept Prior to the discussion about the concept of the system, the entities that are involved in a project-based learning and are implemented into the PM system should be described. A project is considered an assignment given to a group of students. The project specification is normally created and delivered to the students by their professor. The group of students that are working on a project together is a team. Each student thus becomes a team member. The professor or some other person, e.g. instructor, which takes the responsibility for controlling the project and coordinating the team, is named a project coordinator. Normally, a project is consisted of smaller parts that get assigned to one member of the team, or a smaller group. Each of these parts of a project is named a task. While working on the project and particular tasks, team members perform some actions in order to get the job done. These actions define activities in the PM system. At the end, while working on the project, many different kinds of files (images, source codes, etc.) and documents are created. PM provides a means for sharing these files and documents among the members of the team and they all have a common name, resources. Not only files and documents can be shared as resources among the team members. The PM system integrates with another system called Resource Manager or Virtual Laboratory ([1] and [2]). This system provides a laboratory resource sharing mechanism and enables access to distant laboratory equipment to the online students. Therefore, it provides the team members working on their project using PM system with access to a wide range of resources during their work. The PM system supports a control and coordination of the team involved in a project. The project coordinator takes over the responsibility for coordinating the team in a project. The system offers the project coordinator facilities for easy tracking of the students, the tasks they re working on and their activities. It also offers a project knowledge base that is consisted from files and documents connected to the project in general or particular task only and stored in the system. This allows easy knowledge distribution to the next similar projects. Furthermore, the project coordinator is provided with a control over the project development or particular task by the means of project milestones and start and end date control of the tasks. On the other hand, the system offers an online working environment for the team working on the same project. The project coordinator assigns them tasks as parts of the project and

4 they are able to view their tasks and log the activities they perform in order to perform the task. The activities a member logs for each task (s)he works on, can be used for project monitoring and control by the project coordinator. They are also treated as task notes and can be considered a task-specific knowledge for the particular project. The team members are also able to share file and documents resources from the project knowledge base with the other members of the team. Finally, the connection of the PM system with the Virtual Laboratory gives the team members access to different laboratory equipment and other distant resources. The following figure (Figure 1) presents a use case diagram of the PM system. View available resources Virtual Laboratory (external) Select a resource Work with the selected resource Project Management Manage team members View/edit personal information Manage project information View Project Information Manage tasks View tasks Team member Log activity View project report View activities View task(s) report Project Coordinator View activities report Work with knowledge base Manage related projects Manage knowledge base Figure 1 Use case diagram of the PM system As it can be seen from the diagram, there are two actors involved in the PM system. The Project Coordinator acts as a manager of the particular project, while the other actor (or actors) is the member of the team, i.e. the student involved in the project.

5 4. System Design We designed the PM system using the object-oriented approach. The goal was to build a modular system that was easy to maintain and extend in the future. Taking the object-oriented design of the system, it was very natural to choose UML diagrams for documenting the system. As a most representative view of the system design we have chosen to present the activity diagram of the PM system, as shown on Figure 2. For the sake of simplicity, the diagram shows the activities that are performed by a team member only, not the project coordinator. Project Management Virtual Laboratory (external) Log in Two types of storage systems are used by the PM system: - project resources (files and documents) are stored in the file system storage Select a project View project summary Work with Virtual Laboratory - project data (project and tasks definitions, activities, etc.) is stored in a database storage List resources Manage personal information View project information View tasks Select resource Manage activities Knowledge base Work with selected resource Log activity View old activities Retreive file/document Store file/document Figure 2 Activity diagram team member activities in the PM system The team member enters the system by providing a valid user name and password to the system. Than, a list of all projects where the particular user is involved is presented, so the PM system requires him/her to choose a project to work with. After selecting a particular project to work with, the user is presented with the project summary, which may be considered as his/her personal working desktop in the PM. The desktop presents an overview on the project, its phases and milestones and tasks the user is assigned to. When working with a particular project, the user is presented with several choices: manage personal information, view project information, view tasks, manage activities, manage files/documents and work with virtual laboratory. The manage personal information function offers the user with an interface for changing his/her personal information. Some of this information is available to other members in the team, e.g. name and . In this way, each team member may know with whom (s)he

6 works and have a possibility to contact the other members either by the virtual university communication facilities or by standard communication interfaces, e.g. . The view project information function can be used by the team member when (s)he would like to read the project specification or information about the project phases and milestone dates. By selecting the view tasks function, the user may view the list of tasks and their details for each of the tasks (s)he is assigned to. Each task has start and end date attributes that define the task durability and inform the member for the deadline at which (s)he is expected to finish the work required by the task. The manage activities function should normally be used most commonly, since the user is required to log each of his/her activities as a part of a particular task. (S)he can do so by using the log activity function. The list of all logged activities can be seen using the view activities function. The activities are one of the central features of the PM system, since they are intended to provide detailed knowledge about the work on the tasks and the project as well to be a part of the project knowledge base. The files and documents in the project knowledge base can be managed by the team member when (s)he selects the knowledge base function. The files in the knowledge base are organized in such a way that some files may be common to the entire project and therefore are considered general and some may be connected to a particular task, thus they are accessed by selecting a particular task first. Either way, the user is able to retrieve a file from the system or store a new file (change an old one) back to the system. The PM system handles two different types of information: file and documents resources and project data (project and tasks definition, activities, etc.). Different storage systems are used for storing different project information, i.e. files and documents resources are stored in the file system storage, while project data is separated and stored in database storage. 5. Implementation The PM system is a web-based application built in Active Server Pages (ASP) and COM components. The data is stored in a database on the server, while the files and documents are stored in the server file system. ASP is used for creating the dynamic web pages, thus building the presentation layer of the system. COM components are part of the business layer and implement objects that encapsulate the different system functions, communication among modules, data and file access, etc. The system is run on Windows 2000 Server operating system, with Internet Information System (IIS) 5 as a web server. The system stores its data in a SQL Server 2000 database. The web-based interface enables the system to be used from anywhere in the world. Furthermore, no software other than a web browser is required by the users in order to work with the system. The next figure (Figure 3) presents two windows from the web-based interface of the PM system: the task editing window and project information window (the milestones view).

7 Figure 3 Web-based interface of the PM system The web form of the task editing window allows the project coordinator to manage the various task attributes, like its description, start and end date control, etc. Similar editing windows exist for managing projects, users, resources, etc. The milestones view of the project information window can be accessed by the team members from the project summary window (their personal desktop). It presents information about the phases and internal project deadlines and deliveries. When a milestone is reached it is automatically removed from the project information window of the team member and is accessible only to the project coordinator in the project report and project editing windows. 6. Evaluation of the Project Management System The latest phase of the work on the PM system consisted of performing tests for its functionality, usability and efficiency as for the team members and the project coordinator. A joint project between the University and a software development company was performed including two project coordinators (one from each side), four students from the University and two professional programmers from the company. Students worked interchangeably from home and University facilities, while the programmers from the

8 software company most of the time worked from the company offices. The goal was to build a University Digital Library (UDL). The work was successfully performed and the system installed. Both sides found the work with the PM system useful. The professional programmers easily accommodated and used the system more efficiently than the students, but the general opinion is that this is due to the fact that the programmers are already accustomed to teamwork and are more disciplined than the students. All members of the teams agree that they had no difficulties to work with the web interface of the system, which is considered as easy and understandable. When project coordinators reviewed the different reports and the project resources, they found that the knowledge gathered from the work on this project can be used for some of the next projects. It was very interesting that the general conclusion from the project coordinators was that they feel that using the project knowledge from the UDL project will help them to better organize and manage the following projects, thus increasing the project efficiency. They also introduced the idea about creating graphical reports alongside the tabular ones. The team members, especially students, recommended that the PM should be extended by some communication interfaces that can be used by them to communicate with the others involved in the team. We have developed Web-based communication tools for our Virtual University (e.g. chat, discussion forum, etc. [9]), that can be integrated within the PM system. The connection to the Virtual Laboratory wasn t required for the work on the UDL project, so no conclusions were drawn for its usefulness. 7. Conclusion In this study, we described a web-based project management and resource sharing system for supporting virtual student teams within Virtual University. The built PM system helps the project managers, project workers and others involved with a project to plan and monitor the project as well as to prepare for particular tasks within the project. It also provides means for generating a project-specific knowledge base with a project-specific organization and structure (hierarchy). Although this paper cover the idea of a PM system in an online learning environment as the Virtual University is, we definitely don t limit its usage to this environment only. The idea is quite general and may apply to many other virtual working environments. A software company with disperse development team is one possible example. It is very difficult to plan and monitor the project development and evaluate the work against the plan at the end. Furthermore, the most difficult is to store the project knowledge in an organized and structural way that can be efficiently used for the next projects of the same type, even with a completely new team. The experimental usage of our PM system proved the above discussion. 8. References [1] G.Kimovski,V.Trajkovic,D.Davcev, Virtual Learning System, In Proc. of the 2001 Information Resources Management Association (IRMA) Int. Conf., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 20-23,2001,pp [2] G.Kimovski,V.Trajkovic,D.Davcev, Resource Manager for Distance Education Systems, In Proc. Of the IEEE Int. Conf. on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT) 2001, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, August 6-8,2001,pp [3] B.Geber, Virtual Teams, Training Magazine, April,1995,pp.36 [4] F.Hartman,C.Guss, Virtual Teams Constrained by Technology or Culture, In. Proc. Of IEMC 96. Managing Virtual Enterprises: A Convergence of Communications, Computing and Energy Technologies, Vancouver, BC, Canada, August 18-20,1996,pp

9 [5] J.Hanisch, Requirements Engineering in Virtual Software Development: Achieving Balance, In Proc. of the 2001 Information Resources Management Association (IRMA) Int. Conf., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 20-23,2001,pp [6] J.M.Kotlarski,J.Hillegersberg,K.Kumar, "Towards an Integrated Architecture for Managing Globally Distributed Software Development", In Proc. of the 2001 Information Resources Management Association (IRMA) Int. Conf., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 20-23,2001,pp [7] Q.Wang,M.Green,C.Shaw, EM An Environment Manager for Building Networked Virtual Environments, In Proc. of the Annual International Symposium Virtual Reality, Research Triangle Part, North Carolina, March 11-15,1995,pp [8] U.Frank,B.Fraunholz,H.Schauer, Multi Layer Architecture for Integrated Project Memory and Management Systems, In Proc. of the 2001 Information Resources Management Association (IRMA) Int. Conf., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 20-23,2001,pp [9] N.Grcevski,V.Trajkovik,D.Davcev, Multimedia Virtual Table as a part of Virtual Classroom, In Proc. Of the IESTED Int. Conf. on Intelligent Systems and Control, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, August 14-16,2000,pp