Software Project Management: ResearchColab- Business Case (Document-3) Presented in 4th year of Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering (BSSE) course at Institute of Information Technology, University of Dhaka (IIT, DU).

1. Business Case
Document
ResearchColab
Team: Reckless 7

2. 1
Contents
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.................................................................................................. 2
1.1. Issue.................................................................................................................................. 2
1.2. Anticipated Outcomes...................................................................................................... 3
1.3. Recommendation.............................................................................................................. 3
1.4. Justification ...................................................................................................................... 3
2. BUSINESS CASE ANALYSIS TEAM............................................................................... 4
3. PROBLEM DEFINITION ................................................................................................... 5
3.1. Problem Statement ........................................................................................................... 5
3.2. Expected Benefits............................................................................................................. 5
4. PROJECT OVERVIEW....................................................................................................... 6
4.1. Project Description........................................................................................................... 6
4.2. Goals and Objectives........................................................................................................ 6
4.3. Project Assumptions......................................................................................................... 7
4.4. Project Constraints ........................................................................................................... 8
4.5. Major Project Milestones ................................................................................................. 8
5. SWOT ANALYSIS.............................................................................................................. 9
6. COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS ........................................................................................... 10
7. ALTERNATIVES ANALYSIS......................................................................................... 11

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1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This business case outlines how the Researchcolab.com project will address current business
concerns, the benefits of the project, and recommendations and justification of the project.
Researchcolab.com project offers a solution towards the research community of Bangladesh in
order to encourage researchers to publish their work in international journals. This project offers
a full range of professional research paper review services to assist researchers towards
publication success and overcome research barriers through this research collaboration and data
collection platform. By creating a new service category and utilizing the first-mover advantage,
Researchcolab.com will position itself for rapid growth and gain a strong opportunity to raise
entry barriers for possible competition.
1.1. Issue
Review plays a significant role in the advancement of scholarly literature. Millions of research
papers are currently published every year, all assessed by expert colleagues to analyze the
authors’ results and conclusions, provide detailed feedback and help shape the research paper.
But writing a successful research paper is not an easy task. Well-structured papers stand a much
greater chance of being accepted by top international journals. Achieving this can be a struggle,
especially for research authors with English as a second language. Successful research paper
review not only requires a high-level of editing but it also demands comprehensive knowledge of
the research subject area. There are also cases when researchers may want to share different
perspective and thoughts about their work. In some researches, data are difficult to find or time
consuming to construct. However, this features are unavailable online to get from one single
platform.
In order to more effectively manage review process, less price, and improve research work, a
web based platform with full range of professional research paper review services to assist
researchers towards publication success is needed as outlined in this business case for the
Researchcolab.com project. By doing so, researchers can submit their draft papers for review by
professional reviewers, discuss some of their research problems and share data through one
common platform.

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1.2. Anticipated Outcomes
Moving to a common web based platform will enable researchers to manage their review process
more flexible and dynamic. At the same time, reviewer will get better chance to work for a
researcher as review price and deadline will be fixed with the consultation of both parties. The
researcher will also benefit from more timely and valuable feedback so that researchers can
revise and improve their papers before publication.
1.3. Recommendation
Various options and alternatives were analyzed to determine the best way to support technology
to improve the business processes and reduce the overhead costs. The approach described here
allows us to meet our business objectives of continuously improving efficiency, reducing costs,
and make the most of technology. The way proposed web based platform will achieve its
desirable results are:
 Generally, a research paper review service is used for researchers when a research paper draft
version is ready and it needs to be reviewed by some other person before a conference
submission to minimize the risk of rejection.
 A researcher can post a review request which will contain work details, payment criteria,
expertise tag and attachment.
 Anyone can response to the open review request by marking it as interested.
 To maintain confidentiality of the research paper, it can only be directed towards a specific
person with payment.
 The payment criteria are set by the researcher.
 Researchers may want to discuss different perspective and problem about their work by
posting ideas.
 In some researches, data are difficult to find or time consuming to construct. Data can be
shared on this platform.
1.4. Justification
Researchers just cannot afford to select a paper reviewing service at random, and cannot trust
every review site available online. How do researchers know they are reading authentic,
unbiased reviews? Unfortunately, not all review sites are created equal or created with the idea

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of helping researchers, which is the major motivating factor for this project. This proposed web-
based platform are going to create a site for reviewing research paper to ensure that researchers
do not end up wasting their time and money when using online paper reviewing services. While
the status quo was analyzed, the Researchcolab Project was selected for proposal in this business
case because it provides the best opportunity to realize benefits in a quicken manner while also
allowing for the greatest improvement in efficiency.
2. BUSINESS CASE ANALYSIS TEAM
The following individuals comprise the Researchcolab.com project team. They are also
responsible for the analysis and creation of the Researchcolab.com Project business case. The
team consists of seven members and will be working for a rea life project for approximately four
months. To reach optimum goal, the whole activities within the project are divided into many
tasks and the members are assigned to that specific task.
The team formation structure with the assigned role for the project is given below-
Name of team member Role in the project
Md. Adiluzzaman Adil (BSSE 0514) Project Manager (PM)
Minhas Kamal (BSSE 0509) System Analyst
Kishan kumar Ganguly (BSSE 0505) Development
Md. Rakib Hossain (BSSE 0516) Quality Assurance
Mostaque Ahmed (BSSE 0530) Business Case Analysis
Documentation
A.H.M. Azimul Haque (BSSE 0519) Communication and Collaboration
Israt Fatema Shantu Business Case Analysis
Documentation

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3. PROBLEM DEFINITION
3.1. Problem Statement
Writing a successful research paper is not an easy task. Well-structured papers stand a much
greater chance of being accepted by top international journals. But achieving this can be a
struggle, especially for research authors with English as a second language. In addition,
successful research paper review not only requires a high-level of editing but it also demands
comprehensive knowledge of the research subject area. There are also cases when researchers
may want to share different perspective and thoughts about their work. In some researches, data
are difficult to find or time consuming to construct. But this features are unavailable online to get
from one single platform.
3.2. Expected Benefits
The Reasearchcolab.com project will impact stakeholders in several ways.
The stakeholders for this project are –
1. The researchers
2. The paper reviewers
3. The project developers
Their respective benefits will be-
1. The researchers-
a. Paper review will be conducted by expert reviewers who have expertise in researcher
field of study and experience reviewing for high-impact international journals.
b. Review process and output will match the standards of the highest ranked journals,
allowing researcher to fix issues with the paper prior to publication.
c. Whether all the findings are appropriately stated and backed by substantial evidence
d. Novelty of research
e. Reduce time and effort compared to months of waiting for peer review by a journal.
f. Researcher will be able to choose and select their reviewer.
g. Get financial benefit by selling data.

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h. Making research data widely available to the research community in a timely and
responsible manner
i. Share and discuss research related ideas.
2. The paper reviewers-
a. Get financial benefit by reviewing papers.
b. Enhance profile with recommendation from researcher
3. The developers –
a. The developers will develop this project commercially. Thus, they are expected to gain
financial benefit from this project.
4. PROJECT OVERVIEW
The Researchcolab.com project overview provides detail for how this project will address
business problem. The overview consists of a project description, goals and objectives for the
Researchcolab.com project performance criteria, project assumptions, constraints, and major
milestones. As the project is approved and moves forward, each of these components will be
expanded to include a greater level of detail in working toward the project plan.
4.1. Project Description
The Researchcolab.com project will be a research collaboration and data collection’s web based
platform. It will perform this features through review management, data sharing, idea discussion
and profiles management. This project will result in greater acceptability of researcher’s work by
performing an extensive manuscript review. Expert reviewer will investigate every research
element of researcher’s paper, such as soundness of study design, reporting of method,
significance to field, ethical soundness, and sufficiency of data analysis. They’ll also provide a
detailed check of journal compatibility to minimize chances of rejection
4.2. Goals and Objectives
The Researchcolab Project directly supports several of the business goals and objectives
established by project team. Our main objective is to build an Open web based platform where

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everybody has equal opportunity to seek, share and generate knowledge, and that empowers
researchers in their daily work.
The following table lists the business goals and objectives that the Researchcolab.com project
supports and how it supports them:
Business Goal/Objective Description
Reviewing the draft papers
This will highly reduce the time and effort required by the
researchers.
Sharing research data
Researchers can share research data for future researches.
They can either distribute the data for free, or sell their
data on a specific price.
Discussing research related ideas
The users can solve each other’s problems and develop
ideas in this manner.
4.3. Project Assumptions
The following assumptions apply to the Researchcolab.com Project. As project planning begins
and more assumptions are identified, they will be added accordingly.
 All developer and project team will have specialized skills and knowledge about new
technology required by the project.
 All project team members will be available during the project timeframe.
 Funding is available for purchasing hardware/software for web-based system.
 Project owner and facilitator will provide necessary support for successful project completion.
 Project has executive-level support and backing.
 Client will test the website.
 Project team will successfully manage to produce deliverables within scope, budget, and
project schedule.

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4.4. Project Constraints
The following constraints apply to the Researchcolab Project. As project planning begins and
more constraints are identified, they will be added accordingly.
 There are limited secondary data available for necessary market analysis of this project. Due
to time constraint, primary data collection is also out of scope of this project.
 There is limited time to complete the project and time limitation for the project can be
changed anytime due to external situation.
 There are limited human resource working on this project. Absence of team member will
hinder project work as there is no backup resources.
 Developers may have technical limitations (platform, coding language).
4.5. Major Project Milestones
The following are the major project milestones identified at this time. As the project planning
moves forward and the schedule is developed, the milestones and their target completion dates
will be modified, adjusted, and finalized as necessary to establish the baseline schedule.
Milestones/Deliverables Target Date
Project Charter 03/10/2016
Project Plan Review and Completion 10/10/2016
Project Initiation 15/10/2016
Planning Complete 30/10/2016
Execution Complete 11/11/2016
Monitoring & Control Complete 17/15/20xx
M6/Project Completion 19/11/2016

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5. SWOT ANALYSIS
Bangladeshi researchers are doing their research in many sectors and number of researcher are
increasing. We foresee our strength and opportunity as the ability to provide review services to
the increased number of researchers. In addition, through aggressive marketing and quality
management we intend to become a well-respected and known entity in our respective industry.
However, we acknowledge our weakness of having less secondary market research data for
market analysis, and the threat of new competition taking aim at our niche. Below are the
summarized strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Positive Negative
Internal
Strengths
 Offer research paper review, share
research idea/problem and data sharing
in one single platform
 Reading authentic, unbiased reviews
with competitive price
 Offer research data to share/sell/buy
 first-mover advantage in the local
market
 Professional reviewers get feedback on
them to enrich their profile.
 More affordable marketing strategies
Weaknesses
 Lack of market research data for
market analysis
 Lack of marketing knowledge
 Limited time to complete the whole
project
 Limited number of resource
External
Opportunities
 Number of researchers are increasing
 build entry barriers for any possible
new competitor.
 Similar services on the market are not
as reliable or are more expensive to get
online with international transaction
 Service could be on the market for ideal
time
Threats
 Competitors have a similar Web
based service for research
manuscript review
 Competitors have launched a new
advertising campaign
 Lack of research fund may mean
researchers will spend less for
review service

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6. COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
The following table captures the cost and savings actions associated with the Researchcolab.com
project.
Action Action Type Description
First year costs (-
indicates anticipated
savings)
Purchase web hosting
and licenses
Cost
Initial investment for the
project
-9,000/= BDT
Project development Cost
Cost for the development
of the project
-74,500/= BDT
Reduce HR and
payroll staff by 5
employees
Savings
An immediate reduction in
the number of developers.
63,000/= BDT
Revenue from review
services
Benefit 888,000/= BDT
Net First Year Benefit 889,500/= BDT
From the table, we can see that the break-even will occur in the first year.
Based on the cost benefit analysis above we see that by developing Researchcolab.com, the
project team will benefit Tk.8,89,500/ in the first year alone. This represents a significant
indication of the benefit this project will have on the project team.

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7. ALTERNATIVES ANALYSIS
The following alternative option has been considered to address the business problem. This
alternative was not selected for a number of reasons which are also explained below.
No Project (Status Quo) Reasons for Not Selecting Alternative
Keep using the existing review
websites
 Fixed number of reviewers
 Deadline is fixed by the system
 Reviewing price is fixed
 Lack of information for researchers
 Payment through only international debit/credit
There are few web sites are presently offering peer review service like ERGO, Enago, Frontier,
Edanz, etc. But these service providers do not support open market review, only restricted to
reviewers hired or listed by them. This process narrows down the researcher’s options by
limiting subject areas with fixed number of reviewers. Most of the cases the reviewers price is
fixed with deadlines and reviewing criteria specifically cannot be mentioned by the requester.
Besides that, diverse data sharing is not supported by the existing web sites for researcher. Many
universities have their own data sharing platform for research purpose. But these are limited to a
few subject areas. Also, premium and free data sharing from all fields in one platform is the
feature none of the websites offer. Another useful feature frequently used by the researchers is
discussion room. Problem and idea discussion is commonly supported by many websites.
Considering these shortcomings, this proposed system offers a web based platform for
researchers from any discipline. In order to encourage researchers to publish their work in
international journals with a minimum rejection rate, it is important to make a web based
platform flexible, dynamic and open for all potential researchers.