XAN Insurance Company Web Project Note:
Xan is a medium-sized insurance company with a worldwide customer base and a strong presence on the internet. Its website has been in operation for fifteen years. It operates from one location - a large, open-plan office in the centre of a city. It is a friendly company with no separate private offices for individual managers. Staff members prefer to wander around the office space and have one-to-one chats rather than use email or have lots of meetings.
The Marketing Director is considering a project to develop a new area on the current web site to sell a new type of insurance directly to the proprietors of coffee bars, insuring them against minor accidents to staff and customers. The targeted coffee bars are privately-owned franchises and are mostly situated in railway stations, airports and shopping centres.
The Marketing Director has not yet decided whether the system will just provide information about insurance policies online and give quotations, the policies then being set up later by normal mailing and telephone contact. Alternatively, it may be possible for the system to provide the complete set-up and sale of an insurance policy online. In this case the system would need to enable the online capture and processing of credit card details and the issue of an insurance policy.
The Finance Director has budgetary control over all projects in the company and is reluctant to release finance for projects where the outcome, timeframe and benefits are not clear.
Because of the uncertainty about the amount of development and the length of time it may take, it is difficult to set a timeframe on this project. The Sales Manager, who reports to the Marketing Director, has insisted that the website extensions needed for this project must be operational within 12 weeks. The Sales Manager has a
You have been brought in to give advice on how an Agile Project Management approach can be used to keep control of this project and to ensure that it delivers something useful to the business within 12 weeks.
After a brief feasibility assessment, conducted by the Sales Manager, the Finance Director has decided to authorise a 12-week project with the objective of producing a prototype system for insurance for coffee bars, with a release at the end of that time. Six selected coffee bars have agreed to complete an insurance application form online, to trial the released website.