Project Plan: Designing AI-based Software Solutions For Ford Motors By BlackBerry QNX Team In Australia

Project Overview and Goals

QNX is one of the commercially launched Unix-like real-time operating system, which is primarily aimed at the underlying embedded systems market. This product was primarily developed in the early 1980s by a Canadian firm named as QNX Software Systems. The software company was acquired by BlackBerry in 2010. The company is in the process of expanding their business operations and bringing in new processes within their business systems. The BlackBerry QNX has majorly empowered QEMs to help in developing scalable, secure and trusted form of software solutions that would be able to enable better future impacts towards autonomous and connected cars.

In the present case study, the primary focus is on discussing about the ways in which the company would expand their business context in the overseas market. One of the major projects that have been achieved within their business prospects is the innovative aspect of connected car. With the innovation that have been brought with the impact of autonomous cars, the company has been able to expand their reach of their business. This project is based on sending a working team comprising of 15 people to the overseas market in order to propagate their business structure and their innovation aspect. The BlackBerry QNX has been approached by Ford Motors, Australia for helping their automobile designing team in bringing an innovative design of cars. The team that would be provided by BlackBerry QNX would be sent to Australia and would stay there for a contractual period of one year.

The concerned team of 15 people would comprise of both experienced and new comers who would also be able to provide a variety of suggestions to their automobile team in designing the technology-enabled car. In the recent market, it has been further been analysed and discussed that automobile designers are being challenged with various kind of regulatory and increasing demands of customers. For Motors are also in the process of bringing an innovative segment with the evolution of connected car technology. However, the automobile and technological experts in the automobile engineering department are lacking in the particular expertise and thus cannot progress with designing the technology for their cars. Hence, the Automobile Design management team has approached BlackBerry QNX to help them in designing the technology for uplifting the business benefits for the company.

BlackBerry QNX is responsible for planning the entire strategy for planning the entire project, which initiates from selecting the proper people who would be able to make certain plans for making design of the technology. The second stage includes sending those people to Australia where they would join the automobile team of Ford Motors and thus discuss about the ways in which they could plan the entire design of the new project. The entire project would be helpful for BlackBerry QNX as this would help the organization in incurring a good name towards the organization and also increase the business revenue.

Importance of Project for the Organization

The BlackBerry QNX is a reputable company in Canada and thus made a great impact in the lives of many people. Different people make use of the controllable systems of QNX in order to serve their various purposes of driving, shopping, watching TV shows and using Internet connected technologies. The ultra-reliable nature of QNX software is considered as the most preferable choice for various kind of critical systems that includes surgical equipment, air traffic control systems and in different nuclear power plants. The organization is dedicated towards designing a particular software solution that would highly be efficient for the business partners in developing their systems.

The overall strategy of BlackBerry QNX is to offer a varied range of comprehensive portfolio based on industrial systems for the purpose of addressing the imminent challenges that are faced with the rising competition. The unique nature of software solutions that are developed by BlackBerry QNX provides highly efficient kind of business solutions. These software systems are highly reliable and thus enables their customers for creating custom solutions with low billing of maintenance costs and development of materials. The robust nature of their partnered ecosystems and innovative practices helps other organizations to speed up their business projects and building out different solutions.  

In this project case study, the main objective of the project is to send a mixed team of 15 people who would go to Australia in order to design an AI based software solution within their automobile technology. In the group of 15 people, it would consist of experienced and new people who would be able to work together and thus serve Ford Motors in designing the innovative software technological systems. In the recent market of newly developing connected car technology, the automobile designers at Ford Motors are facing some kind of challenges in implementing the technology within their cars. They are thus lacking in the sector of software technological expertise that would help the company in understanding the needs of customer and the raising expectations.

The BlackBerry QNX offers a broader portfolio of innovative software solutions based on thinking about the future of the automotive industry. The software solutions that are developed by BlackBerry QNX includes type-1 hypervisor that supports ECU integration, acoustics and ADAS. One of the software product based for the automotive sector is the Over-the-Air (OTA) software update platform. This particular software ensures a secure form of software lifecycle management based on providing an innovative nature to the technical platform. The BlackBerry QNX helps in providing scalable and flexible form of software solutions that would enable the recent vehicular systems to provide the best kind of service to the customers. Thus the futuristic cars would be fully automated and thus serve a wide range of purposes. By providing such kind of highly scalable solutions for Ford Motors, the BlackBerry QNX would be able to prove their high level skills in the highly competitive market and would also open new areas for growth of the business.

Tie of the Project Overview with the Overall Organizational Strategy

The primary goals for the project is to ensure that the concerned team that would be sent to Australia for helping the automobile team at Ford Motors would be able to deliver the best kind of business solutions towards the project. The goals set for BlackBerry QNX is to help the Australian automobile manufacturing company in developing the best form of software solution that would be based on AI, cloud computing and IoT technology. The team involved at BlackBerry QNX is extremely efficient in developing a wide range of software solutions such as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Instrument clusters, telematics and many others. Some kind of improved functionalities with the implementation of the software solutions are enhancement for engine sounds, hands free system, infotainment, rear seat entertainment and many others. These wide cluster of facilities would be highly used by Ford Motors in order to design the new concept of futuristic cars.

The defined activities that would be performed by the team of 15 people aligns with the goals of the project. They would be efficient in understanding the business scenario and thus define proper measures, which would be helpful for improving the context of the business. The project would also open new roadways for the software developers to improvise their technological aspects and skills based on innovating the present software systems. Hence, it can be discussed that the goals set for the project are specific and thus are clearly defined.

The team that would be sent to Australia would consist of a group of experienced and new people who have recently joined the company. With the mix of the group of people, it would be helpful for the team to work together on the project. The experienced people would be able to guide the new people who would be involved within the team.

As per the provided project on sending a team of 15 people to the overseas for a time period of one year, it would be discussed that the following team members would be responsible for doing the work on the project.

1. Team Leader– The team leader would require the soft skills for managing the entire technical aspects of the team. They would focus on individual team members and the tasks that are performed by them. The hard skills such as the designing the plan for the project would be defined within the scope of the team. The primary responsibilities and role of the team lead is to maintain a proper level of team cohesion, facilitation of each members of team and ensuring that the entire team has access to various kind of resources that are required by them. The team leader would also hold responsibility to safeguard the entire team by noticing their concerns and thus take measures to mitigate their concerns. Ensuring a proper care over the team would ensure that the project would achieve the expected success criteria for the concerned project.
2. Project Manager– The project manager would be responsible for handling the entire aspects of the project team concerned with the project. The project manager would understand the requirements of the client and would then convey the entire requirements to the team leader. The team leader would then be responsible for following up with the requirements and then transfer the gained knowledge to the team members involved within the project. The project manager would also handle the entire aspect of managing the task of sending the working team to Australia and then be responsible for ensuring that the project is undergoing successfully.
3. Software Architect– The software architect for the project would be responsible for thinking of a proper plan that would need to be executed during the design phase of the software. They would also look within the entire technical design of the software. The software architect would hold responsibility to determine the appropriate technological stack that could be used. They would also oversee the proper engineering discipline and the proper team members who would be able to perform the technical tasks in a proper manner.
4. Software Engineers or Developers– The software developers are responsible for understanding the requirements set by the team leader and software architect. The developers would then plan accordingly to the structure of the software plan. The team of software developers would thus work to ensure the stability and usability of the product. The software developers would research for the best kind of coding platform that could be used for the development of the software. They should be able to include each of the intrinsic details within the software and should also ensure that proper encryption systems should be embedded within the code.
5. UX Designer– The job role of the UX designer would be based on understanding the current market scenario and the existing problems that are faced by users. The UX designers would be responsible for interviewing the users of automobiles, research over the collected data from the market and then gather those findings for performing additional research over them.
6. UI Designer– The role of the UI designer is to collaborate with the UX designer and thus think of various innovative ways for designing the entire software interface. The interface should be designed in such a way that it would appeal to a wide number of users.
7. Tester – The testing team that would consist of 5 people would hold the responsibility of ensuring the quality assurance of the developed software. After the development team has developed the code, it would be passed on to the testing team for quality assurance check of the developed software. Once a problem such as a software bug has been detected, the code would be returned to the development team for rechecking of the code and mitigate the errors within the code.

There should be a good kind of process for the discovery of proper stakeholders who would be involved within the process of software development. The stakeholders who would be involved within the concerned project might be working within the organization or might not also be directly associated by the organization. The input from the stakeholders who would be involved within the project would be able to discuss about the ways in which the software solution would be developed and be embedded within the automatic connected cars.

Justification of Goals for the Project

The stakeholders who are involved within the project would understand the concerns of the client and would thus provide recommendations for the betterment of the concerned product that is currently been developed. These stakeholders would be responsible for constructing map workflows for understanding the use-case diagrams. The definition of the proper methodology for the software design would be able to guide the UI design of the software. The stakeholder involved within the current project scenario are the CEO of BlackBerry QNX software solution company, the team members involved within the development project, managers and owners for the project.

The stakeholders who would be affected by the project are the CEO, managers and the automobile management team at Ford Motors. These stakeholders are primarily responsible for hiring the group of 15 people and thus providing them with the responsible equipment and software solutions that would help them in developing the new kind of software product. These stakeholders would be overseeing the entire development work of the project and would also point out any kind of faults when detected within the system functions.

The stakeholders are considered as the most important aspect within an organization. Each of the project group has their own kind of list of involved stakeholders who are responsible for providing directions to the entire team. The identification of the proper kind of stakeholders would be helpful for determining the success of the project. A successful project would be able to address the needs of stakeholders within the life cycle of the project. Within the phase of planning for the project, the most important step is to identify the possible stakeholders who would be involved within the team and would bring a positive impact towards the team. The improper mode of planning for the stakeholders would result in risks such as project delays and ultimately lead to cancellation of the concerned project.

Stakeholders also form a major influence over the project. In the concerned project, each of the stakeholders are important for the project. However, there some situations in which stakeholders might form a negative impact over the project. In the present project context, the team members such as the developers might form a negative impact over the project. Improper use of software solutions within the context of the business might lead to negative consequences for the project. The technical software platforms would be provided by different other technical companies. Offering the software solutions within the proper time to the Automobile engineering department at Ford Motors is a matter of grave concern for the company. Delays within the schedule of the project would lead to delay in further progressing of the works over the project. In case the project is delayed due to some concerns, it would result in increase of costs that would be incurred for the project. It would also add to the increase of legal proceedings for the company. In order to mitigate such kind of issues associated with the stakeholders, it would be extremely important to handle such kind of negative impacts from the project and thus deal with them before the initiation of the project. The stakeholders should deliver the materials before time in order to ensure that there would be no such kind of delay in the works of the project.

The stakeholders form a major aspect within every project. Hence, neglecting the need of stakeholders involved within a project can be defined as a risky proposition towards the project. With the unique nature of each software development project, there is a vast need to identify the proper kind of stakeholders who might put an impact over the project. The identification of the proper kind of stakeholders would be able to guide the entire team throughout the work of the project.

The good kind of software development for the described systems is a necessary criteria. Based on the identification of the proper stakeholders, it would be helpful for determining about the success of the project. In the concerned project, the stakeholders would be identified by conducting proper kind of interview sessions. The project manager or the CEO of the organization would take the responsibility of hiring the proper team members would be involved within the development work of the project. Hence, each of the people concerned within the team would be properly chosen by conducting a series of test scenarios. These must be cleared in order to get selected to be sent overseas for delivering a high kind of business solution.

After the proper stakeholders have been selected for the concerned project, they would need to be properly instructed to work according to some predefined conditions. The team leader would define the proper structure of the software that would be designed for Ford Motors. The team members that includes the development team and testing team should properly abide by the provided instructions and then should deliver the proper kind of software solution. Ensuring the proper persons have been put on board, would ultimately result in positive feedbacks after the delivery of software. After the proper stakeholders have been identified for the project, it would ultimately result in positive workflow within the various processes in the automobile manufacturing industry.

The scope of the project is based on defining a software technological solution for Ford Motors. The company is in the process of the implementing a new kind of software systems that would be able to mitigate the existing problems in car technology and also meet with the changing preferences of the customers. The project is based on incurring a team of 15 members for the project who would be responsible for designing a plan for the project. The team would conduct a market research of the preferences of customers and thus map those scenarios in order to gain appropriate results. The scope of the project is also based on identifying the risks within the project and thus thinking of proper measures in order to mitigate the risk approaching towards the project. The team would be involved with the various activities of planning, scheduling, development, testing and deployment of software solutions.  

The deliverables that would be included within the project are:

1. The project would include a proper form of project plan. This plan would be able to deliver the proper deliverables that would be understood by each of the team members involved within the project. This plan would detail the list of activities that would be included within the project. The plan would include the resources that would be responsible for performing the particular tasks, the costs allocated to each resources and the working order of each of the activities within the project.
2. The project also includes a list of involved stakeholders within the project. The concerned activities and roles are fully determined in the stakeholder list.
3. The project also includes the work breakdown structure of each of the aspects of the project. This structure defines the activities that would be performed within the project.
4. The milestones are also included in the list of deliverables concerned within the project. These milestones would be highly needed to be determined as they would be needed to get completed in order to proceed on to the next activity.

The milestones involved within the project are:

1. Completion of Project Initiation Phase
2. Completion of planning phase of software
3. Approval of technical plan by the project designing team
4. Finalising of requirements
5. Completion of planning phase of software
6. Completion of execution of software design phase
7. Completion of quality assurance and control phase
8. Completion of Project Closure Phase

The process breakdown structure for the project includes:

1. Initiation of the Project – The contract for the project would begin in this phase. This would include the deciding over the contract of the project. Under this phase, the entire deliverables of the phase are decided. This phase would also decide on the project charter, which would help in designing the entire plan for the project.
2. Planning phase of the software – During this phase, the plan for the design of the software would begin. The entire list of technical requirements for the project is determined and then the software systems installed at Ford Motors are determined in order to test whether they would be able to meet with the system specifications.

During this phase, the proper technical software would be defined. The coding platforms would also be determined. The technical team that includes the development team and testing team would also be hired in this phase. The entire list of specifications would be designed in this phase. The plan for progressing with the work over the software would be determined. Under this plan, the entire set of discussed and would-be implemented technology would be determined. This would help the technical teams to gain a full idea for developing the software.

1. Execution of Software Design Phase– In this phase, the task of execution of the planned activities would begin. During this phase, the technical team would be responsible for coding and developing the software design. After the code has been developed, the testing team is responsible for testing the entire code in order to detect any bugs if present within the software. If any kind of bugs are detected within the system, the testing team would again report the matter to the development team who would perform their work of removing the bugs from the system.
2. Quality Assurance and Control Phase– The quality assurance team would ensure that the project is completed as per the given criteria by Ford Motors and that it suits the needs of customers. Different forms of quality checks would be performed in this phase.
3. Project Closure Phase– In the final phase, the project would be completed and each of the stakeholders would be paid as per their choice of salary. In this phase, feedback would also be gained from the Ford Motors company, which would prove that BlackBerry QNX has been able to prove their capability of delivering high quality technical solutions.

The duration of the entire project would be 483 days, while the costs incurred for the project is $4,57,774. The payback period for the project is 2.91 years.

The project is based on the designing of a new and advanced mode of software systems by BlackBerry QNX for Ford Motors in Australia. The Canadian firm has already designed their systems based on connected cars. These cars are specially designed and are fitted with an embedded software within them. This functionality thus helps the cars to enable different forms of advanced software features for performing the daily activities that might be required by the customers. The changing needs and preferences of customers have mostly forced Ford Motors to realise the present situation and then perform some kind of activities to implement such kind of activities within the car. Research has been made to develop best kind of software systems for Ford Motors.

The project is based on sending a group of 15 people to Australia where they would be responsible for planning an innovative design software, which would further be implemented within the organization. The new kind of operating system can be discussed as a software product that would meet with the functional safety of the automotive. The new designed product can be thus used as a reliable platform based on ensuring the safety of drivers. In the recent times, it has been seen that there is a growing concern for ensuring the safety of customers. Ford Motors is highly dedicated towards providing the best form of solutions to their problems. Hence, they have made a contract with BlackBerry QNX to bring in the best kind of automotive solutions with the implementation of connected cars. This project discusses about the major aspects that affect during the design of any project. The report thus discusses about the project team, the responsibilities of each of the project team members, stakeholder involved within the project and the responsibilities of each of the stakeholders. With the help of this project, BlackBerry QNX would be able to propagate their technological systems and thus gain a huge share in the worldwide market. They would also be able to provide software solutions to other companies, which would further help them in generating a huge amount of business revenue for the organisation.

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