Date of Award

Spring 1-20-2002

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS)

First Advisor

William Figg

Second Advisor

Zehai Zhou

Abstract

Two areas for improvement were identified in the ECS program at the EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls, SD: the lack of an automated daily status report detailing the ECS ingest and distribution statistics and the lack of documentation available for those individuals who were managing a project for the first time. A project management philosophy was followed to create an automated web-based OPS Daily Report as the means to provide document templates and examples for future project managers. A prototyping methodology was used to develop two web pages: an ingest report and a distribution report. Prototypes of each page were developed that were evaluated by the Operations Staff. Instantaneous feedback was received allowing me to make constant changes until the Operations Staff was pleased with the result. The resulting web pages allow the user to see an in-depth look at the ingest and distribution statistics. During the project, the as-is process of creating the daily status report was identified and modeled, interviews with various members of the Operations Staff were conducted, data flow diagrams and entity relationship diagrams of the new OPS Daily Report, a test plan, and a lessons learned document were created. Each of these steps and diagrams has helped my understanding of how to manage a project. Many lessons were learned during the course of this project. The main lesson was the importance of manager buy-in and being dedicated to the project. The most successful projects are those in which the team members are motivated to complete. If the project manager is not committed or if the team members do not make the project a priority, then team members will find it difficult to make time for the project. This is true in all aspects of life. One will always make time for those things that he finds most important.

Comments

dsu-th-005

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