Australian's Speleological App Project

Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology). The term speleology is also sometimes applied to the recreational activity of exploring caves, but this is more properly known as caving.

Australian Speleological Federation (ASF) Inc. is an environmental organisation, registered by the Department of the Environment and Heritage in Canberra, with the primary objective of protecting the cave and karst environment of Australia. The ASF is also the national body that represents the interests of 28 caving clubs, over 700 members throughout Australia and represents Australia on the International Union of Speleology.

ASF Inc., is managed by director, John Cugley. Cugley believes in hiring highly talented and motivated professional organisations that specialise in virtual team processes. You have been working for Terra Nova Inc. casually for the last three months in their mobile app development department. As a virtual team specialist, your company has applied for a tender to develop an app for ASF. Due to the importance of this project, the CEO of Terra Nova Inc, Nathaniel Taylor, and the Director of Mobile Development Elisabeth Shannon have both made this project a priority.

The initial investment in the project is estimated to be $210,000 in year 0 of the project. Terra Nova Inc. requires a discount rate of 11%. It is anticipated project future cash inflow as follows (Years 0 to 3): $0, $90,000, $120,000, and $120,000. The project will be expected to make at least a 25% ROI, to conform to the Terra Nova Inc, business model.

ASF Inc wants an app that helps cavers to explore Australia's underground cave systems safely and responsibly by promoting effective exchanges of information between cave enthusiasts and other speleologists and maintaining a close liaison with cave diving training bodies. It is hoped features and tools, in the app should help cavers to understand the impact of caving on the fragile environments that exist within cave systems, assisting the Australian Cave Rescue Commission.

The goal of the project is to develop an app, which is optimised for iPhone and Android devices. The app should allow cavers to enrol and pay membership feeds, subscribe to ASF publications, in particular the Caves Australia magazine, receive updates, register for all Australian caving, speleological and related events, expeditions and conferences. Access all survey and mapping information for Australian caves registered in the ASF database. Cavers should be able to access safety and risk management guidelines, as well as basic first aid and rescue training. The app should provide cavers with an overall ranking of caves in terms of attractions, safety aspects, wildlife and environmental issues. Cavers should be able to view comparison between caves. Senior managers believe it will take about six months with a budget of $210,000 for this important project.

Nathaniel Taylor and Elisabeth Shannon have formed a search committee to find the best candidate for managing the ASF App Development Project. After reviewing many strong candidates, they decided to appoint you, to put together the business case for this critical project. Your previous job was with a consultancy firm where you successfully implemented several android application development projects for medium sized enterprises, using virtual teams. Since this is a high priority project that should be completed in six months, they felt it was appropriate to get the best candidate to put together a quality business case and project management plan. They are offering a premium for your contract at $110 p/hr for 2 d/wk, but a lot is at stake, ASF is likely to request further mobile app development projects. Taylor and Shannon propose to be joint project sponsors, and have handpicked Malcolm Wallace, to be the main internal IT liaison and Skye Tate to be the ASF liaison. They will let you as the new project manager form the rest of the project team if the tender bid is successful.

In order to get the app developed in the time frame you propose to use an agile development approach with a team of two programmers and a digital image specialist working on the app. It is anticipated the programmers will spend the equivalent of half a day a week on project management related activities (e.g. completing status reports and attending meetings etc.) and the remaining 4.5 days on development. They will be paid at a rate of $90 p/hr, which is negotiable. You will also need to access to a Speleologist consultant (Mark Reynolds), whose pay rate is negotiable.

You anticipate several challenges if this tender bid is successful. Terra Nova originally focused on developing topography apps, but the CEO, Jim Shannon, has emphasised the need to increase profits by tapping into other niche markets, including the environmental market. The type of people who work on topography projects are often different from people working on the new markets. They often have different educational backgrounds, skill sets, and ideals. Most of the people hired in the past year have been hired to support these new markets. Even though you and the ASF Development project team tried to do a good job managing key stakeholders, there are some difficulties with several employees who disagree with the company's new market strategies.

The plan is to roll out detailed storyboards, a prototype, alpha, beta and final version of the app. The project will be considered a success, if it comes in on time, on budget, within scope and key stakeholders have been pleased with the communication and reporting processes.

Ideally the business case should contain details of the following:

- project background
- project objectives (including link to organisational mission statement)
- description of the current situation (including a SWOT analysis)
- problem/opportunity statement
- critical assumptions and constraints
- analysis of options and recommendations
- financial analysis (npv, roi and payback figures)
- preliminary project requirements (project preliminary scope)
- budget estimate (cost model and baseline)
- schedule estimate (including work breakdown structure level 3)
- potential risks

Templates for the above documents are available from your lecturer/tutor. You can use these as a basis, but you are encouraged to research new and innovative ways of presenting your business case.

A quality team business case will demonstrate a synthesis of plan content, templates and ideas acquired from project management professionals and academic authors with details from the case study provided. Innovation marks may be awarded for evidence of additional deliverables, team participation such as meeting agenda's and minutes, leadership approach etc.