Project Description:
The modern business environment demands an unprecedented level of communication.
Today's dynamic marketplace forces companies to adapt and evolve to continue to 
offer a competitive advantage.  Even commodity products such as carbonated 
beverages are defined not so much by the product but rather by complex marketing
efforts which must stay relevant as well as in sync with the larger cultural 
dynamic.  With many businesses driven by technology, large engineering and 
organizational efforts are commonly a necessity. 

Before the pace of business life accelerated, meetings and telephone 
conversations sufficed to need the business world's need to communicate.  Today 
email has largely replaced traditional communication with a more efficient, but 
less rich and engaging alternative.  Members of a meeting, for instance, are 
much more engaged in their experience than people in an email thread because 
they don't loose the temporal sense of the conversation.  When one reads an 
email, the level of commitment the other participants have put into the thread 
is unknown.  It's quite possible that the majority of the participants have not 
even seem the email yet so it may be questionable how to respond.  Email 
conversations also tend to diverge and stray from the main topic, which is not 
a problem in itself, so much as the fact that the divergence is done without the
proper people knowing about it.  Additionally, email introduces random temporal
displacement in a conversation that prevents true engagement.  

A technology known as instant messaging relives many of these problems while 
still keeping the key advantages of electronic communication over a physical 
meeting.  Participants in an instant messaging conversation know exactly what 
level of awareness the others have because everyone has seen the latest message.
It works more closely to face-to-face conversations than email. There is little 
or no temporal displacement because of the instant nature of the medium.  Most 
instant messaging technology, however, is inadequate for business needs for 
various reasons.  Most notably, IM conversations are not persistently stored in 
a way that's easily accessible.  Some IM solutions offer a history, but it is 
often a far cry from the capabilities of modern email software.  Also, relevant 
content from an IM conversation cannot easily be organized, categorized or 
transferred.  The modern world needs IM solutions that retain the power of 
instant messaging while also adding support for archiving and richly organizing 
the content securely.

The B.I.M. package consists of a Web message board and an integrated instant 
messenger which both have extensive archiving functionality. These products have
been designed from the ground up to tackle the aforementioned problems that 
plague small and large companies alike in the modern business environment. The 
web forum can be used for messages that are traditionally sent by email without 
making people read or view messages they are not interested in, while the 
instant messenger allows for dynamic and instant conversations on topics that 
are of immediate concern. Due to the fact that both systems are tightly 
integrated it is possible to view conversations on the instant messenger in the 
web forum or to send messages to the web forum from the instant messenger. The 
software is modeled after popular software applications and thus the targeted 
audience should understand the user interface metaphors with very little 
difficulty. 

Since most modern relational database management systems support archiving of 
data, it should be noted that archiving should be done once the amount of 
storage space on the host machine is nearing its limits. Also storage media can 
be arrayed together to simulate a giant hard drive to give the illusion of even 
more space. 

Project Schedule:


 

  

  
Task
  
  

  
Aug 28
  
  

  
Sep 4
  
  

  
Sep 11
  
  

  
Sep 18
  
  

  
Sep 25
  
  

  
Oct 2
  
  

  
Oct 9
  
  

  
Oct 16
  
  

  
Oct 23
  
  

  
Oct 30
  
  

  
Nov 6
  
  

  
Nov 13
  
  

  
Nov 20 
  
  

  
Dec 4
  
 
 

  

  
Requirements
  
Elicitation
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
 
 

  

  
Research
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
 
 

  

  
Product Design
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
 
 

  

  
Software development
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
 
 

  

  
Debugging and Testing
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
    
  
 
 

  

  
Module integration
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
 
 

  

  
Customer testing 
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
 
 

  

  
Prototyping 
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
X
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
 
 

  

  
Customer Training
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

 
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
X
  
 
 

  

  
Final Presentation
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
    
  
  

  
X
  
 




The above schedule details activities that will be performed by various team members during the semester.

Description of activities


a.)Requirements Elicitation: 

This is the process of creating and refining a requirements document based on 
discussions with the client. This process should generate a Software 
Requirements Specification as well as a Testing Plan.
 
b.)Research: 

This is where various team members will brush up on aspects of the technology 
that they are not familiar with. Specifically Dare will brush up on C++, ODBC 
and ADO, Sanjay on XSL, Andrew on sockets and networking, while Dmitri reads up 
on various aspects of Windows programming. 

c.)Product Design: 

This is where the flowcharts, object models, state-transition diagrams and other
aspects of the products design will be hashed out. This process should generate 
a Software Design Specification. 

d.)Software development: 

This involves writing code to based on the design specified in the Software 
Design Specification.

e.)Debugging and Testing: 

A software testing is done based on specifications in the Testing Plan and bugs 
are fixed. 

f.)Module Integration: 

The disparate pieces that encompass the entire B.I.M. package are combined as a 
whole in this phase.  

g.)Customer Testing: 

The customer will test the application and give feedback during this process. 

h.)Prototyping: 

An unfinished implementation of the application will be created and presented 
to the customer. 

i.)Customer Training: 

Here the customer will be shown how to use the application to best serve 
the needs of the business. 

j.)Final Presentation: 

The finished product will be demonstrated in class and to the customer. 


Project Roles:

1.)Database Designer and Administrator: 

This individual is responsible for selecting which database software best 
satisfies the needs of the product, creating and maintaining the database during
development, creating APIs that will enable other developers to access the 
database transparently as well as optimize the database for speed. Dare Obasanjo

2.)Web Interface Designer: 

This individual will create the web forums via using current dynamic web content
delivery technologies. Sanjay Bhatia

3.)Network Infrastructure Architect: 

This individual is responsible for the design and implementation of a robust 
communication architecture between the instant messenger and the server where 
the message database will be housed. Dmitri Alpevoritch

4.)Client GUI Developer: 

This individual will develop the Graphical User Interface and the core 
functionality of the instant messenger. Andrew Hilton

5.)Project Leader: 

Responsible for making sure the project is on schedule and keeping the rest of 
the team focused. Dare Obasanjo

6.)Technical Writers: 

Most of the documentation of distinct modules will be done by the developer that
created the module so this task will be performed by everyone.  


Risk Analysis
Customer Risks
1. Customer Backs Out
The customer may back out for a variety of reasons including 

a.) Inability to afford database software and a machine to host the server software. 
b.) Lack of a system administrator capable of managing the software package including database maintenance.
c.) Worries about who will maintain the software once the class is completed. 


2. Software fails
If the software is poorly designed and contains fatal flaws, this will be 
catastrophic to the customer because it means there is a chance that vital 
information may be lost and/or vital communications channels severed at 
inopportune moments during the course of using the software. 

Project Risks
1. Team member leaves
If a team member leaves by dropping the class prior to drop day, it will a 
difficult task to divide the person's work into manageable slices for the other 
team members to work on without compromising the project.

2. Team member falls behind schedule
Due to the loosely integrated nature of the application, it is possible for a 
team member to be late on his aspect of the project and not affect the other 
team members adversely if the delay is not for a considerable amount of time. 

3. Project is too ambitious
It is possible that some aspects of this project will be too complex to be 
completed by the team in the allotted time. For this reason, we have devised a 
system of tiers and will determine certain base functionality must be 
implemented and will then vary the amount of features that will be added in 
each tier up to the highest tier, which will contain features usually described 
as wish list features.