Sample Guide for Writing Website Development Proposal

Sample Guide for Writing Website & Mobile Application Development

Proposal

Prepared By: Patrick Ogbuitepu

MAYBEACH TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED

News Website & Mobile App Development Proposal

Page 1 Maybeach Technology Limited

Table of Contents 1. Our Understanding ............................................................................................................................... 3

2. System Overview................................................................................................................................... 5

User Description ............................................................................................................................ 5

Use Case ........................................................................................................................................ 6

Core Functions / Features ............................................................................................................. 7

2.3.1 Mobile Responsive Design .................................................................................................... 7

2.3.2 Information Dissemination Module ...................................................................................... 7

2.3.3 Photo Gallery ........................................................................................................................ 7

2.3.4 Video Gallery ......................................................................................................................... 8

2.3.5 Branded Social Media Pages ................................................................................................. 8

2.3.6 Search Engine Optimized Content / Website Map ............................................................... 8

2.3.7 Mobile Application Development ......................................................................................... 8

2.3.8 Content Management Module ............................................................................................. 8

2.3.9 Email Newsletter Distribution Module ................................................................................. 9

2.3.1 Analytics / System Monitoring Module ................................................................................ 9

2.3.1 Role Based Access Control .................................................................................................... 9

2.3.2 Audit Trail .............................................................................................................................. 9

Training & Support ........................................................................................................................ 9

2.4.1 Training Approach ................................................................................................................. 9

2.4.2 Support Processes ............................................................................................................... 10

3. Costing ................................................................................................................................................ 12

4. Aim, Objectives, Scope & Execution Methodology............................................................................. 15

3.1 Project Aim .............................................................................................................................. 15

3.2 Project Objectives ................................................................................................................... 15

3.3 Project Scope .......................................................................................................................... 15

3.4 Project Execution Approach .................................................................................................... 15

3.5 Our System Development Methodology ................................................................................ 18

5. Estimated Project Schedule ................................................................................................................ 20

4.1 Fox Chart ................................................................................................................................. 20

4.2 Project Team ........................................................................................................................... 21

6. Choice of Technologies ....................................................................................................................... 23



7. Clients .................................................................................................................................................. 26

8. Notable Projects Executed .................................................................................................................. 26

9. Contact Officers .................................................................................................................................. 26



1. Our Understanding The role of the internet as a news source will continue to grow at a rapid rate as the

technological community continuously strives for high performance cost effective ways of

improving the use of information technology in day-to-day activities.

The internet is now a significant source of information and news for people, and this role will

continue to grow as the availability of broadband internet connections and computing gadgets

increases, thus transforming the internet to the primary source of information and news as

evidenced by the growing use of the internet in daily activities.

The internet’s character as a news source provides unique advantages over traditional news

media, in the sense that it may allow people to filter out information that they would prefer not

to see, while at the same time suggesting information that supports their existing points of view.

XYZ News Agency a mass media company aimed at publicizing news reports to the general

public is desirous of extending its utilization of Information Communication Technology, by

delivering news in digital format over the internet through the development of a website and

mobile application for the sole purpose of information dissemination to a wider audience and at

a reduced cost.

The proposed website design would focus on ease-of-use as this is a vital factor that would

determine whether or not visitors will return to your website after their first visit. Beside an

intuitive and easy-to-use interface the website will facilitate information dissemination inform

of text, images and videos that would be optimized for indexing by search engines. Also the

design will be such that it would react to mobile devices screen widths.

In addition to the website, a mobile application that would help increase XYZ News Agency

accessibility and reinforce her brand presence would be developed and available for download

and installation on android and iOS devices. The mobile application will allow users immediate

access to summaries of news and it would suggest news headlines based on the users

preference and previous activities.

Finally, a central control panel that would allow authorized users easily manage the content of

the website and the mobile application will form the final part of the deliverables.

As part of the technological community, we have positioned ourselves to provide our clients

with the required expertise to help them.

At Maybeach Technologies Limited, we continuously strive for high performance cost effective

ways of improving the use of information technology in all aspects of life. Thus, we have

positioned ourselves to provide our clients with the required expertise to help them set-up /

manage their Information Communication Technology Systems.



Our services cut across helping our clients identify all possible alternatives to an existing

problem, we advise our clients on the pros, cons and cost implication each alternative and

finally move on to design, develop and deploy a solution that effectively addresses the clients’

business challenges.

We employ the use of open source technologies like PHP, JAVASCRIPT, JQUERY, HTML 5, CSS

and MySQL SERVER as the database during development. This is based on the superior

performance, reliability and availability of qualified developers to support the system for the

long run, and its ability to be accessed from any computing device with a web browser.



2. System Overview

User Description Shown below are the broad categories of user groups that would have access to the XYZ website

and mobile application

INCI Production Website / Mobile

Application System Actors

Website VisitorINCI Production

EmployeeMobile Application

User

Figure 1: XYZ News Agency Website / Mobile Application System Actors

Website Visitor: This user is a member of the general public that is responsible for visiting the XYZ

News Agency website to source for news / information.

Mobile Application User: This user is a member of the general public that has successfully

downloaded and installed the XYZ News Agency Mobile Application on his/her mobile device and

has access to news summaries.

XYZ News Agency Employee: This user is an employee of XYZ News Agency that is responsible for

updating / managing the content of the website. He/she will also be responsible for creating other

user accounts, creating roles, assigning roles to users, monitoring application performance, resolving

usability issues, generating reports, performing data back-up and any other function.



Use Case

INCI Production Website / Mobile Application - Use Case

Website Visitor

XYZ News Agency

Employee

Manage Website Content,

Generate Reports,

Send Email Notifications

Create Roles / User Accounts

Monitor System Performance

Perform Back-up

Resolve Usability Issues

Read / Watch News from XYZ News

Agency Website,

Subscribe to XYZ News Agency

Newsletters Service

Mobile Application User

Download Mobile Application,

Read News Summaries,

Set News Preferences

Figure 2: Use Case Diagram of XYZ News Agency Website / Mobile Application



Core Functions / Features The proposed XYZ Website / Mobile Application would consist of the following main

functionalities / features:

o Mobile Responsive Design

o Information Dissemination Module

o Photo Gallery

o Video Gallery

o Branded Social Media Pages

o Search Engine Optimized Content / Website Map

o Mobile Application Development

o Content Management Module

o Email Newsletter Distribution Module

o Analytics / System Monitoring Module o Role Based Access Control

o Audit trail

2.3.1 Mobile Responsive Design

With the rapid increase in smartphones and tablets adoption, responsive web design becomes

the optimum way of providing great user-experience across many devices and screen sizes. This

is an important characteristic, since it is impossible to anticipate all the devices and screen sizes

visitors will use to access your site.

Thus, the proposed website will be designed to work well regardless of device and screen size,

and will provide a better and more consistent user-experience than a separate mobile site that

is designed for a specific device and screen size.

2.3.2 Information Dissemination Module

This feature of the website will be responsible for performing information retrieval,

transformation and display on the website. It will serve as an interface between the data (text,

images, and videos) stored on the webservers and the website user interface.

2.3.3 Photo Gallery

“A picture is worth a thousand words” is a popular saying that emphasizes the importance of

photography in communication, thus a website designed for the sole purpose of news reporting

should consist of an image gallery that would be facilitate the information transmittal process.



2.3.4 Video Gallery

In a similar manner if a picture is actually worth a thousand words then a video is worth trillions

of pictures, thus a video gallery that would enable users with high speed internet connection

watch news highlights will go a long way in improving overall user experience.

2.3.5 Branded Social Media Pages

With social media outfits like Facebook, Google + and Twitter boasting of millions of active

monthly users, the social media has become an effective means of improving brand awareness,

audience reach and influence. Thus, its imperative that XYZ News Agency establish its presence

on these platforms in such a way that reflects her company’s brand.

2.3.6 Search Engine Optimized Content / Website Map

A vital aspect of Search Engine Optimization is making your website easy for both users and

search engine robots to understand. Search Engine Optimization is the most effective means of

building constantly growing traffic on your website that translates into credibility and trust from

visitors. Thus, the website content and structure will be such that it would be easily indexed by

search engine robots / crawlers and as a result influence the webpages ranking in search results.

2.3.7 Mobile Application Development

As the popularity of handheld computing gadgets continues increase, so does the dependence

on them for information also increases, thus emphasizing the need of a mobile application that

would relay news summaries to users. Mobile application will consists of the following activities:

Design of the Mobile Application

Design Implementation / Coding for both android / iOS devices

Quality Assurance

Functional / Non-functional Testing

Deployment of the Mobile Application on Apple App Store / Google Play Store for

subsequent download

2.3.8 Content Management Module

This feature of the website / mobile application will provide authorised users with an easy-to-

use tool to centrally manage the content of the website and the mobile application. With this

feature users would be able to update news articles, images and videos using a GUI (graphical

user interface) tool.



2.3.9 Email Newsletter Distribution Module

This feature of the system will allow visitors subscribe of periodic newsletters by simply

providing their email addresses, it would also consists of a control panel that would be used to

create and send out newsletters by an authorised user.

2.3.1 Analytics / System Monitoring Module

This feature of the system will allow authorised users track and analyse how visitors use /

interact with the website by providing reports on numbers of page views, locations where pages

were viewed, and how each visitor interacted with the website such as mouse clicks.

2.3.1 Role Based Access Control

This feature of the system will allow authorised users create roles that would consist of group of

tasks that can be executed, and these roles would be assigned to Users. Thus, users would only

be able to view and perform tasks that they are privileged to perform.

2.3.2 Audit Trail

This feature of the system will keep track of all actions performed by users and the time and

date such action was performed for audit and reference purposes.

Training & Support

2.4.1 Training Approach

We adopt a 4-step training approach to ensure our clients satisfaction.



Figure 3: Training Approach

Need Analysis: We conduct client-specific needs analysis instead of offering a generic

programme. Meeting client's needs and expectation is paramount in our consideration.

Design: All our courses are designed with the client's needs and audience in mind to ensure

effectiveness.

Delivery: All our trainings and workshops are delivered by professional consultants.

Evaluation and Follow-up: We measure all our workshops to ensure that they meet the clients'

needs and add value to the client’s organization in terms of competency as well as return on

investments.

2.4.2 Support Processes

Our Customer Contact Centre will be the focal point for every type of request relating to the use

and support for the Electronic Property Management System. Additional types of support will

include remote support and on-site support.

Support Plan Features Duration

Remote Support Business days (9am to 5pm Local Time)

Online Resources 24/7

On-site support 24/7

System Backup(Local Storage) 1 day per Month





3. Costing COST SUMMARY

One-off Task Amount (N)

Website Design, Development and Hosting

Mobile Application Development and Deployment

Training

Total One-off Fee

VAT (5%)

Total One-off Fee Including VAT

DETAILED PRICING BREAKDOWN

One-off Task Amount (N)

Website Design, Development and Hosting

Mobile Responsive Design

Information Dissemination Module

Photo Gallery

Video Gallery

Branded Social Media Pages

Search Engine Optimized Content / Website Map

Content Management Module

Email Newsletter Distribution Module

Analytics / System Monitoring Module

Role Based Access Control

Audit trail



Mobile Application Development and Deployment

Design of the Mobile Application

Design Implementation / Coding for both android / iOS devices

Quality Assurance

Functional / Non-functional Testing

Deployment of the Mobile Application on Apple App Store / Google Play Store for subsequent download

Training

User Guides / Training Manual

Training per 2 users

Total One-off Fee

VAT (5%)

Total One-off Fee Including VAT

Presented below is a list of optional recurrent task

Recurrent Task Amount (N)

Support

Remote Support per month

Online Resources

On-site support per month

System Backup(Local Storage) per month

NOTE: 3 months warranty will be provided during this period remote support

would be free



NOTE: Please feel free to request for addition / removal of features.



4. Aim, Objectives, Scope & Execution Methodology

3.1 Project Aim

The main aim of the project is to design, develop and host a website / mobile application for the

purpose of information dissemination.

3.2 Project Objectives

The objective of this project includes the following:

o Needs Assessment

o Requirements Specifications & Analysis

o Design & Development of a fully functional Website / Mobile Application

o Functional, User Acceptance, Performance, Security and Compatibility Testing

o Hosting of fully functional system

o Training / Support

3.3 Project Scope

The project would cover the following areas:

o Project Management

o Requirement Analysis

o Application Design

o Application Development

o Testing

o Hosting and Configuration

o Training / Support

3.4 Project Execution Approach

We believe in a phased approach, allowing us to first evaluate and document the exact needs of

a project in the abstract, and then future phases of implementation.



The requirement analysis phase of the project will focus on gaining a thorough understanding of

the full scope of the project, based on consistent two-way communication (written and

verbal). During this first phase, we will need a great deal of input from the client. The

deliverables for this phase of the project are thorough requirements and technical

specifications, contract agreement and a project plan that details the breakdown of deliverables

in distinct sub phases, timelines and milestones. These deliverables help ensure project success

and help facilitate clear communication by all stakeholders before implementation begins.

Upon approval of this roadmap, we would proceed to implement each sub phase using standard

engineering, design and project management techniques.

Depending on the availability of your internal team members, we feel that we can complete our

initial phase within two weeks and the full project within nine weeks. There are many decisions

to be made during any project that can affect the timeline and hours that are required for the

project. We will advise you of the benefits, and drawbacks for each option and allow you to

make the ultimate decision.

Project Phases Estimated

Duration

Activities Expected Deliverable



Project Initiation 1 week 1. Formal Definition of Project Scope

2. Define High Level Functional

Requirements and Expected

Deliverables

3. Preparation of legal contract

4. Review and Signing of contract

Core System

Specifications, Terms

of Reference and

Contract

Requirement

Analysis

2 weeks 1. Assess human resources

2. Identify Users and user needs

3. Investigate business process

4. Business Process Modelling

5. Specify functional / non-functional

requirements, and system

boundaries and constraints

6. Produce Project Plan

7. Client Review and Evaluation

Project Plan and Full

System Specification

Document

Design 4 weeks 1. Application Design

2. Data Modelling

3. Database Design

4. Interface Design


Application

Architecture /

Blueprint

Development 6 weeks 1. Interface design implementation

2. Coding

3. Testing


Fully Functional

Application, Testing

Protocols and Test

Case

Deployment and

Documentation

4 weeks 1. Set-up and Configuration of Servers

2. Domain registration

3. Hosting of the developed system


5. Preparation of user manual

6. Administrators Training

Accessible System and

user manual

Project

Termination

1 week 1. Complete System Handover

2. Task technical staff to change

authentication information

3. Signing of Project Completion

document

4. Optional signing of support contract



Support Bug fixes and minor

adjustment

Note: depending on the availability of your resources some of these stages of the project can

run concurrently.

3.5 Our System Development Methodology

For each stage of the development process we employ the Adaptive Project Framework (APF)

which is “an iterative and adaptive five-phase approach designed to deliver maximum business

values to clients within the limits of their time and cost constraints”. This method first presented

by Wysocki in his book, Effective Project Management 3rd Edition, explains that treating scope

as a variable is the fundamental concept underlying APF.

With the APF we aim to maximize business value by adjusting the scope at each iteration within

specific time and cost constraints. Planning is done just-in-time with APF to eliminate all the

non-value-added work time that is wasted on planning activities that are never performed. As

more knowledge about the specific business situation is gained, APF continuously adapts to the

new conditions. It is client-focused and client-driven, and is grounded in a set of undisputable

core values. The clients become the central figure during the each iteration, who decides on

what is valued the most and can choose to change the direction of the project based on new

information gained from the previous iterations. Change is embraced and not avoided to

constantly correct the course of the project. The APF core values are as follows:

Client-Focused

Client Driven

Incremental Results Early and Often

Continuous Questioning and Introspection

Change Is Progress to a Better Solution

Don`t Speculate on the Future

Thus we use the Entry-Task-Validation-Exit (ETVX) Model (as shown below) for all the major

development activities.



Entry Criteria

Tasks Exit

Criteria

Validations

Review + Acceptance

Entry

Criteria A checklist of conditions that must be satisfied before the phase commencement of a phase

Tasks A set of activities that need to be carried out for the successful completion of the phase

Verification A list of validation tasks to verify the quality of work items produced by the activity

Exit Criteria A checklist of conditions that must be satisfied before the activity is completed



5. Estimated Project Schedule

4.1 Fox Chart

Show below is a table that is used to track all the project milestones and events. It serves as

a visual representation of when certain tasks and events are to occur or be delivered,

allowing the project to move on successively

Table A: Fox Chart showing Project Milestones and Anticipated Delivery Time in Weeks

Milestone

Timeline (Weeks)

Week

1

Week

2

Week

3

Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week

9

Week

10

Project Kick off Start

&

Finish

Requirements

Gathering

Start Finish

System Design Start Progress Progress Finish

Application

Development

Start Progress Progress Progress Progress Finish

Testing Start Progress Progress Progress Progress Finish

Deployment Start Finish

Post

Implementation

Activities

Start



4.2 Project Team

This project is to have the following standard roles for people involved:

Project Manager (1)

System Analyst (1)

Software Developer (1)

Interface Designer (1)

Quality Assurance Analyst (1)

Table B: Job roles, description and delegated team member

Role Job Description Delegate

Project

Manager

Understand the project triple Constraint - Cost, Time, Scope &

Quality.

Define task, assign task, and set deadlines, as well as to

estimate hours for tasks, all while keeping a careful watch on

the overall impact those decisions will have on the project

schedule and on individual team members' workloads.

`

System

Analyst

Analyse the Clients business process, identify project

stakeholders and define the required system specifications,

boundaries and limitations

Software

Developer

Application design, coding, testing, documentation and

implementation of the solution

Interface

Designer

Users Need Analysis and Interface Design

Quality Assurance Analyst

Ensure that each task is executed in accordance with the best practices, and meets minimum industry requirements

NOTE: Even though this project may appear schedule intensive, adding additional personnel in

order to speed up the process should be avoided. In system development, adding more



personnel can potentially lengthen the project duration as the need for coordination increases

exponentially, implying that developers and designers will spend less time actually working on

the project.



6. Choice of Technologies This solution would be designed using the cloud-computing architecture which is a variation

of the client-server architecture. Cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing and

storage capacity as a service to a heterogeneous community of end users. Application

resources would be transferred via the internet, and cloud clients would include any

terminal such as PC, Tablets or Smart Phones that is connected to the internet and has a

web browser. The Web and Application Server would serve as the cloud provider.

Thus, since the application would be a web application, one of the common tasks of any

web application would be to access and query the database and output the result to the

web server and then to the browser. So on this common scenario, all the programming

language is doing is communicating / interfacing with the database server and web server.

On this common scenario, the speed of the programming language has almost no effect on

this process; the speed of this process relies on the database server, web server, client's

web browser / computer and bandwidth.

Thus when it comes to choosing a database server, the main and common database servers,

MySQL (now owned by Oracle), PostgreSQL, MSSQL and Oracle are all fighting for speed and

performance. MySQL is used by Google, Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo and for the last FIFA

World Cup which received a huge audience around the World. So the capability of the

MySQL database server is no longer questionable thus will be used for this project.

Another common task of any web application would be to access the file system, find an

image and send it to the web server. In this case, it is the Operating System and the file

system that has the burden of communicating with the programming language. Most Linux

/ Unix servers are run very lean without any extra un-needed packages or GUI interfaces

and therefore the OS uses a lot less CPU and RAM which provides more allocation to the

database and web server. While windows servers run clunky and with many un-needed

packages and GUI which will be using much more CPU and RAM.

Since LAMP is open source, there is a vast amount of dedicated and friendly developers

around the world who continuously make improvements and updates, and provide support

for the platform. Additionally, there are more support resources and developers available

for PHP and LAMP Platforms. Open Source developers who contribute to the Open Source

community are doing so not for financial gain. On the other hand ASP.net relies on an

available number of developers at Microsoft for making improvements and updates. There

are less support contributors available to solve ASP.net challenges.

PHP, MySQL server, PostgreSQL server, Apache server, and Linux OS are all free and

upgrades are also free. In addition, there is no additional licensing cost for having another



hot standby server as a backup, or needing to run multiple servers for load balancing or

server clustering.

LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) is also much more popular among hosting

companies, and its popularity results in a lower monthly hosting cost for LAMP hosting

compared to Windows hosting. Whereas ASP.net and IIS are free if you purchase Windows

OS. There is a substantial licensing cost for a Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft SQL

Server and future upgrades. For example, Microsoft Server 2008 R2 Standard - 64-bit cost is

about $1029 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition For Small Business cost

approximately $1038.

The above licensing costs for Microsoft can substantially increase if the site becomes

popular and there is a need to run the site on multiple servers or requires server features

such as load balancing, server clustering or hot standby.

Additionally, PHP is interpreted at the server, so when changing a functionality, no

additional steps are required to see the changes. On the other hand, ASP.net needs to be

compiled each time the code is modified. Again, the development process is more time-

consuming when using ASP.net as opposed to PHP.

The following table lists the top, popular sites and the platform and languages they use.

Site Up Since Server

Platform

Programming

Language

Google.com November

1998

Linux C, Java, C++,

PHP &

MySQL

Facebook.com February

2004

Linux PHP, MySQL

and C++

YouTube.com February

2005

Linux C, Java and

MySQL

Yahoo.com August

1995

Linux C++, C, Java,

PHP &

MySQL

MSN.com (owned

by Microsoft)

August

1995

Windows ASP.net



Live.com (owned

by Microsoft)

August

2008

Windows ASP.net

Wikipedia January

2001

Linux PHP &

MySQL

Amazon.com October

1995

Linux &

Solaris

C++, Java,

J2EE

WordPress.com November

2005

Linux PHP &

MySQL

On a final note, since PHP is platform independent and can run on any platform — Linux,

Unix, Mac OS X, Windows. Obviously, a LAMP platform will have an advantage over the

ASP.net platform because it will have more available resources.



7. Clients

8. Notable Projects Executed Start Date Project Description Direct Client

9. Contact Officers

Patrick XYZ Business Developer +234 805 XXX YYYY

Maybeach Technology Limited

No. 42 Lobito Crescent,

Wuse 2, Abuja.

Sample Guide for Writing Website Development Proposal

Documents