COMP3710 Software Project Management

Major Tutorial Exercise – The Farm Cheese Case Study

Goal

To provide students with a realistic example of a multi-organisation collaborative project that requires a networked project management tool.

Background

The Farm Cheese project has been initiated by the Apple Isle Development Commission (AIDC) to assist farmers to convert milk (a high-volume, low-value product) into Farm cheese (a low-volume, high-value product). Australian and international demand for high-quality cheese has been growing exponentially and Farm cheeses (made in a dairy at the farm where the cows are raised) command a premium price.

The key problem is that few farmers have the skills or time to make cheese to a consistently high standard. The AIDC aims to assist these farmers through the widespread use of information technology and communications. The vision is of a system in which there is remote management of each of the farm dairies coupled with expert systems that monitor the complete cheese production process and are able to take corrective, perfective and adaptive action, as required. The principle technology enablers for this system are:

• The internet which will provide communication between SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) RTUs (Remote Terminal Units) at each dairy and a central control system.
• The expert system that enables the skills of expert cheese makers to be made available to many producers of cheese.

The Farm Cheese project is a pilot project to establish the commercial viability of the vision. It will:

1. Establish the dairies at five selected farms across the Apple Isle.
2. Establish internet connection at each of the farms.
3. Install SCADA RTUs in each dairy.
4. Establish the central control system.
5. Establish subsidiary control systems at the premises of some key participants.
6. Develop the expert system for managing the cheese-making process.

The Farm Cheese project is being managed by System Integrators Pty. (SIP), an organisation that specialises in managing ITC projects involving a large number of autonomous collaborating participants.

Principal Participants

1. Dairy farm operators and owners.
2. Apple Isle Cheeses (AIC - the central marketing organisation).
3. Apple Isle Development Commission (AIDC).
4. Apple Isle Department of Agriculture (AIDAG).
5. Apple Isle Government
6. System Integrators Pty. (SIP – provides project management facilities).
7. SCADATec (the supplier of the RTUs and the Central Control System).
8. HCI Systems (the supplier of the graphical display systems and associated software.
9. OODBTec (the supplier of databases).
10. System Cement (the supplier of custom-built software to link system components)
11. Apple Isle Communications (the supplier of fixed and virtual communication systems)
12. AITec (the developer of the expert system).
13. Dairy Science (the developer of the mini-dairy systems to be established at each farm).