Project Charter

A. General Information
Integra ted Financial Resource Management System IF Project Working Title: Project Sponsor: Prepared By: RMS

Project Title: Project Manager: Project Client:

Muhamm ad Tasadduq Hussain CIIT

CIT C Mehraj Muhammad Muhammad Tasadduq Hussain

B. Project Overview
The Integrated Financial Resource Management System (IFRMS) project will provide COMSATS Institute of Information Technology personnel at all levels and the accompanying business processes with an administrative system with its simplified and efficient processing of financial transactions via a web interface. Initially it will be deployed in CIIT Abbottabad campus. Later on its success, replica of the system will also be deployed in all other campuses of CIIT. Because of its web-based nature, replica of this system from every campus will be integrated with each other, resulting in a foundational piece of the comprehensive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in CIIT. IFRMS has its main objective to enable primary stakeholders (e.g. Rector, Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer, and Accounts Departmental Staff) at the Principal Seat Islamabad and other stakeholders in the rest of campuses to share common University ERP. It will enable the primary stakeholders at the executive level at the principal seat Islamabad with summarized comprehensive financial information at the end of each day from all the campuses financial systems through IFRMS, so that they can set the priorities and device the financial policies for the CIIT accordingly. I. Identification: Acrony m IFRMS ERP PM Principal Seat SA QAM GD SE ation/Definition Integrated Financial Resource Management System Enterprise Resource Planning Project Manager Body that is governing all campuses including Rector, Registrar, Treasurer, Controller Examination etc System Analyst Quality Assurance Manager Graphic Designer Software Engineer Abbrevi

II. Project Background:

There are many financial applications currently available in the market to fulfill business needs, but there is not a single that fulfills all requirements of a particular organization. These are generalized/generic that try to cover every aspect of financial operation that may not be required by every organization. Every organization has is specific needs to handle its financial transactions, every country has its own policies/standards that need to be followed. COMSATS being a group of campuses need a financial solution that may serve each campus as independent financial system and provide an integrated picture to Principal Seat. Currently each campus is using different tools for their financial transactions and reporting. The current financial application as practiced in CIIT Abbottabad is not properly serving the purpose. Todays end users expect nearly continuous and real-time access to university information systems. The principal seat needs to see a single version of truth of all campuses financial status. The current financial applications do not support this.

III. Purpose / Business Need: There are several strategic business drivers for the IFRMS implementation project.

Enterprise System: Each of the different financial resources environments in all campuses of CIIT
grew informally, without the benefit of formal planning or management. Because of their reach across campuses, and because the information contained in those systems is necessary for regulatory reporting, the COMSATS Institute of IT must bring that data together into one system that is appropriately maintained as an enterprise application. The data in one integrated system would contain the master data and would be more reliable. IV. Project Scope: Scope of the project will cover the following:

General Accounting General Ledger Poster, Chart of Accounts, Account Profile, tax systems, reporting, check writer, Bank Reconciliation, scholarships, etc. Payables and Vendor systems documents, vouchers, etc. Purchasing, Central Receiving and Inventory Student Accounting - Departmental scholarships, tuition and fees, loans, centralized receivables Research Accounting sponsor billing and invoicing DEFINE Internals/Workflow, Electronic Office Management, Identity Management, Information Security, etc. University and departmental shadow and supplemental systems and portals. Budget Budget Update Documents (BUD), etc. Payroll Design and development of a web interface for IFRMS. Development of backend infrastructure in preparation for data delivery to the Web Develop interfaces for integration with other systems to enable university administrators to manage financial information, e.g., integration with HRMS, Inventory Management System, COMSIS, etc. User interface for processing scholarship documents Develop faster, clearer, and more reliable Web processes for creators of financial transactions to perform those functions.

V. Project Objectives: 1. Implement one integrated University system of financial resource data that allows for the flexibility to meet specific campuses needs and needs of Principal Seat officials in Islamabad. 2. Provide access to relevant and accurate current, historical, and future data that support business processes and requirements. 3. Simplified, efficient, real-time processing for stakeholders: a) Integrated with other systems, e.g. HRMS, Inventory Management System, COMSIS, and Research Administration etc. b) Streamlined policies and procedures, e.g. automation of previously paper intensive or manual processes; 4. Improved financial data transactional searching and reporting. 5. Provide a system that substantially improves service to the end-users and that supports institutional initiatives taking into account growing service demands. 6. Improve the quality of the institutional and employee related data the CIIT maintains. Increase data integrity, control, and records management. 7. Empower end-users with access to integrated data for analysis to support operational and strategic decision-making. 8. Minimize duplicate and triplicate entry of data and ensure the collection and verification of data is performed at the source, only once (by employee, department, campus, institution) 9. Increase the degree of standardization for policies, practices and service delivery. 10. Implement a flexible system that allows for future development. VI. Sponsorship & Ownership: Sponsorship will be provided by CIIT Abbottabad. Processes, deliverables, documentation and the final product will be the property of the CIIT.

C. Project Approach Section

Because of the complexity of the project, it will be developed in following phases:

The initial phase of the project will focus on development of a comprehensive strategy for the IFRMS project, Development of guiding principles for the project, Identification of problematic areas in the current financial system, Identification and specification of the IFRMS project deliverables, Design and development of the IFRMS technical architecture. The design and development of a user interface for IFRMS, Additionally, documenting existing Inventory procedures, processes, business rules, and policies and plan for future integration of Inventory functions in IFRMS. Finally, enhancements to procurement and other business processes.

I. Project Deliverables: Project output will be two categories of deliverables: Core Deliverables Core deliverables will be a) General ledger

b) c) d) e)

Accounts Payable Accounts Receivable Cash and Revenue Management Fixed asset management f) Loans and Advances g) Budget Non-Core Deliverables Non-Core deliverables will be a) Procurement b) Inventory management.

II. Organization and Responsibilities:

Organization
The project staff will be organized into teams based on functional responsibilities. The functional teams and their primary responsibilities are listed below. Executive Steering Committee Provides overall direction for key project components including reengineered business processes, automation systems and streamlined service delivery Resolves executive level project conflicts/issues Provides project resources Leads and manages the overall project effort Reports progress and issues to Executive Committee

Project Manager System Analyst

System Analyst coordinates with Business Analysts in understand and document project requirements as per agreed modeling and documentation methodologies. System analyst ensures that collected requirements clearly reflects aspirations and needs of the client.
Write Code for the Software Application Device Quality Assurance Plan Ensure Quality of the Processes and the products

Software Engineer Quality Assurance Manager

DBA

Lead Developer

Database Administrator helps design database schema, ensure data consistency and make sure database is optimized to provide efficient output for queries. The DBA will develop migration plans as well backup and recovery solutions Manages the team of software engineers and ensures that project code is developed as per requirement

IV. Dependencies: Successful implementation and realization of the project objectives is dependent upon timely deployment of the resources required, close project monitoring and reporting against key milestones. V. Plans for Support Activities:

 8/5 support training and Bug fixing will be provided. VI. Project Facilities and Resources: Online availability and accessibility of the project via a web interface to all campuses of CIIT.

VII. Risk Management: Risk Dependencies on infrastructure hardware and software that will be required in order for IFRMS projects to be deployed successfully. Project is not staffed appropriately with the right number of people or people who do not have the talents, experience, and skills required for the project. This may lead to impaired or failed deployment. Errors in financial data and related data Risk Mitigation Break project into phases that are designed and planned in detail such that dependent areas have time to prepare to meet the needs of the IFRMS. Before each phase of the project begins, the Executive and Operational Sponsors will receive a resource plan for the phase and appropriate resources should be allocated prior to any work beginning. The design strategy to use existing financial files will mitigate complexity of development/workflow issues. Robust testing program, ability to extend duration and ensure thorough end to end testing Sponsors agree to work in concert with the Project Manager to come to agreement on any issues that need resolution.

Changes in the institutional mission and objectives as a result of economical, political, environmental, etc. factors

VIII. Process Options and Deviations: The project will be approached in small, manageable efforts using an iterative development and deployment methodology. Iterative development refers to a process in which sponsors, technical experts, functional experts and stakeholders are continually refining requirements and output over multiple development efforts, versus trying to determine all requirements up front and implementing on a specific date as is common in application implementation projects. Some of the many reasons for this approach are as follows: Complex development projects have a better track record for success using iterative development. The stakeholders are typically not fully able to articulate requirements until at least one or two iterations are done and there is output to review and react to. Management typically does not make a full commitment to a project until actual results are tangible and obvious. Visible results demonstrating progress can be seen quickly. X. Project Control: Project will be in proper control since iterative development and deployment methodology is used and sponsors, technical experts, functional experts and stakeholders are continually refining requirements and output over multiple development efforts.

XI. Quality Assurance and Control Activities: One of the important roles on the IFRMS project is a Quality Assurance (QA) Coordinator. The QA coordinator and all those who work on the QA team will have responsibility for all quality reviews. After each project milestone (i.e. major project deliverable within a phase), the QA Coordinator will be asked to conduct a final quality review with their team. If the deliverable is acceptable, then the QA Coordinator will sign off that the milestone is complete. The reason for this review is to ensure that each deliverable works as expected and quality software is deployed. The QA Coordinator will be responsible for defining the QA methodology for the project to include incident tracking and response system and processes, test plans and checklists. Quality reviews at project milestones will be accepted based on the following criteria: Software performs as expected Data changed by the software results in accurate updates to the database Integration points between IFRMS and other areas are working properly (to be coordinated with QA specialists in the area IFRMS is integrating with) The file and software design supports efficient processing (load time for the initial screen and subsequent update screens are within user-defined acceptable limits) Feature/functionality being tested has been through stakeholder usability testing, focus group or feedback or in some way has been vetted through the stakeholder of the feature or function.

XII. Project Time: Project will be developed and implemented at CIIT Abbottabad in a time period of 1 Year. XIII. Project Cost Estimate: Estimated cost of the project is 25000/-

D. Approval Section
Dr. Bilal Zaka GM IT ______________ Muhammad Tasadduq Hussain Project Manager _________________________ Muhammad Ismail Director Finance _______________________