Developing an ICT Project for Social Change

 ICT Project Creation Process

An ICT Project for Social Change is only a small part of a scheme of an organization with a common interest. The main purpose of an ICT project in the bigger picture is to offer a facility for easy dissemination of information, a platform for volunteers and the leaders of the organization. Establishing the ICT project is a collaborative effort. It is not only for technical members involved, but also for the management and leaders of the organization that will facilitate the appropriateness of the output in the overall purpose of the project. Because of this, the ICT development team should ensure perfect harmony by considering all stakeholders' requirements and including them in the outcome of the project.

The group should devise a careful and specific plan that will address the objective or goal of the project so that everything needed is included in the project. The complexity of elements to be included should be minimized while keeping in mind the logical arrangement and completeness of functions of the product.

In order to create an ICT project, one must have the knowledge about the process involved in generating the so-called project. The process that an ICT project goes through include the following:

1. Planning Phase - From the word itself, this phase involves conceptualizing the project, determining the goals, and analyzing the information available.

2. Analysis and Requirement Definition Phase - This phase focuses on analyzing the function, project requirements, target users, and impact of proposed project.

3. Design Phase - describes the architectural phase of an ICT project. The desired features and operation in detail, process diagrams, and documentation are contained within this stage.

4. Testing Phase - This phase involves testing the results or the performance of every phase before it.

5. Release and Promotion Phase -  encompasses the actual roll out and release of the project to be used by the users.

6. Maintenance Phase - This phase comprises the correction, modification, and updating for improvement of the project. Responding to user feedback is also a part of this maintenance.

What Should Be Included in the Plan?

There are variety of ways to plan and start your ICT project. Given here are the needs that should be considered as preferences or must-haves of an ICT project.

•Define key individuals and point persons in different categories in the project. This group should include individuals who are involved in decision-making and those that provide direction to the group.

•Summarize the general goals and direction of the organization, and lay out the vision that the group should fulfill. By doing this, the group can have its attention fixed on the purpose of the actions and the goals that the ICT project should accomplish.

•Have a summary of the existing ICT facility. The strengths and weaknesses of the current facility will be reviewed in doing this summary. Problems and deficiencies of the current system will arise and can be used as the bases for improvement in the upcoming project.

•List the concerns and issues on the current situation of the organization. that can be remedied by the upcoming project. This can serve as a guide for the ICT group to include certain functions that will address the said issues.

•Include the capability of the plan to be useful in the near future. To do this, state the purpose of the ICT project in the next few years. This will enable designers to cater to the needs and introduce functions that will still be useful in the future.

•Classify the type of ICT service that the group will develop. The form of application that will be designed should be conceptualized to ensure efficient use of resources. The form may take various types of ICT applications such as social media, Web sites, and blogs. The quality of service will be ensured when the specific direction and the clarity of output are stated.

•Determine the resources needed before starting the project. The plan will be executed properly using different resources. Before starting the project, essential resources must be defined. This will ensure that when the specific resources are needed, they are already available and that people will take less time to prepare them. Some of these resources include hardware, software, network facilities, money, and manpower.

•Include the training and support needed by the development tam in the plan. After defining the type of application that will be developed, the development team should visit the capabilities of each member. When a skill or knowledge of a development tool is insufficient, the team must undergo enhancement trainings to address this insufficiency.

•Prepare procurement documents and lists. The project may require materials or different kinds of equipment for operation or development. The team can prepare a list to plan what items should be purchased. Moreover, suppliers and processes involved can be reviewed or considered.

•Consider the proposed budget and Gantt chart. The project is greatly constrained by time and monetary resources. By preparing the timeline of the project, developers can schedule development activities to ensure the completion of the project in time. Another consideration is monetary aspect of the project. Developers should prepare a budget of the project, dedicating specific amounts to different aspects of the project. This will greatly help the completion of the project while maintaining compliance within the allocated funds.

•Prepare a summary of all initiatives. This contains a "lookup table" of all the activities that should be done. Some groups call this the to-do list. The activities are stated in a list format chronologically. This list dictates the activities that are already done and the activities that should be done next.

•Prepare a summary of activity schedules and budget. Similar to the summary of initiatives, this list should summarize all the activities in a list together with their schedules. Furthermore, the monetary amount dedicated to the said activity is indicated.

•Identify the risks associated with the activities and the contingencies that can be done. With every activity, there are associated problems that may arise. By understanding and knowing the possibilities that may happen, the team can prepare different solutions before these things happen.

•Have a general integration plan. This contains the schedule and processes of combining different parts of the project that are developed in parallel with one another. This is done to save time and expedite the realization of the project. The final part is to integrate all the parts into one application.

Demographics

Demographics is described as factual information that is gathered from users of the ICT application. The information can be categorized into different labels such as age, gender, income, religion, and profession. Demographics is used to learn the characteristics of the target audience and the key features that the designer or publisher of the application can capitalize on to effectively design the application.

Here is one example of a scenario to illustrate the relationship between the key features of an application and the target audience. A student most probably will have no salary; thus, mobile phone companies will offer a cheaper mobile phone to them. People who work for different companies, on the other hand, get a monthly salary, and can thus afford more powerful and expensive mobile phones. Mobile phone companies will then be interested in the demographic information of income.

Psychographics

Psychographic information is described as noncountable information from people such as interests, opinions, and insights. Furthermore, psychographics can describe and capitalize on the interest of the subject by observing certain information. For example, a student is more interested in applications that offer information related to different school subjects. A businessman would likely be interested in applications that are associated with foreign currency exchange rates or stock market prices.

To determine the psychographics of the target group, various activities can be done. First, the behavior of the target community can be observed, such as the topics that they discuss and the images or the posts they share. Another is by conducting interviews. Different questions can be formulated, which may lead to the information that you seek. The feedback of the interviewee can dictate the psychographics of the group. Another method is by using written surveys. Similar to oral surveys, written surveys used organized questions wherein the answers of the respondents are written on paper. However, using written surveys can protect the identity of the respondent; thus, the percentage of the sincerity of the answers is high. Last, focused discussion can be done to solicit the psychographics of a certain group. In a focused discussion, insights and opinions are delivered in a manner that is similar to brainstorming.

Writing a Project Proposal

Part of project planning is writing a project proposal which is a detailed description of the series of activities involved in the project. The following are the essential parts of a project proposal:

1. Project Information / Description - This section is meant to provide an overall picture of the project that can be seen at glance as well as convey important project details. It may include the following:

a. Project Title: (PROJECT TITLE);

b. Type of Project: (education-training/health-medical mission/art exhibit, etc.);

c. Project Proponent/s: (Name of organization/ name of the people involves);

d. Project Beneficiaries: (Urban poor, women, youth, etc.);

c. Date of Implementation/ Duration: (Start date/ number of implementation days);

f. Budget Requirement: (overall amount of budget requirement);

g. Project Contacts: (List of individuals involved with the project.)

2. Project Background - explains what needs/problems you are trying to solve, and why these needs/problems are worth solving. The project's brief history, references, and other supporting documentation may also be provided here.

3. Project Objectives - The goals of the project should already be set from the beginning.

4. Desired Impact and Outcome of the Project - describes the long-term effect of the project and specific measures to sustain it.

5. Risk Management Plan - it includes the risks and factors that may hamper or hinder the successful implementation of the project activities and the achievement of project outputs. This also includes measures to mitigate the effects of project risks encountered.

6. Project organization and Staffing - describes the people involved and their responsibilities in the project. The following table may be used as a template for this part:

7. Work Plan - a detailed project schedule. It is a list of tasks that will be performed for the project. The work plan is a means to expose the project's risks which could be used to make reasonable estimates of the man hours required to complete it. A milestone chart can also be used in this section to monitor work progress at any given time.

8. Budget Requirement - A detailed, line item budget that includes the cost needed for every part of the project. The following table may be used to repeat budget requirement.

9. Other Relevant Information - includes any information that will support a request for funding such as brief enumeration of stakeholders' pledge and lined-up projects to complement the current.

10. Conclusion - a short summary that explains the potential value of the project.

11.Appendix - refers to additional charts, graphs, reports, etc. that we a re cited in the proposal, but were not appropriate to be placed in the main body of the document.

Designing and Copywriting for ICT Projects

Upon the creation of content in an ICT application, there are various process that must be done before it is published or uploaded. The most important process in post-development is quality check and error checking. The process of checking ICT content for errors is called copywriting. To do copywriting and produce error-free outputs, be guided by these tips and pointers.

•Split paragraphs into shorter and fewer sentence. The text content should be concise and direct to the point. This will help ensure that the text will be read by the audience. The purpose of short paragraphs for copywriting is the users' ease in reviewing and reading. For the developer, using fewer words means smaller chances of committing an error.

•Split complex sentences into simpler ones. Similar to having shorter paragraphs and fewer sentences, avoiding complex compound sentences will make the text more readable. Shorter sentences can easily be understood by the readers. For copywriting processes, simple sentences are easier to check for errors.

•Highlight keywords. This can greatly help the audience in browsing and skimming your ICT application. If key words are easily identified, users can save time in finding information that they seek. In copywriting, key words set in bold font can direct the copyreader to the essence of the sentence or paragraph.

•Use subheadings to identify subsections of the application or Web site. Users can easily identify and search for information by skimming subsections and subheadings. For copywriting, the arrangement of ideas can easily be identified by following the subheadings.

Designing and Copywriting for ICT Projects

A number of humanitarian and social applications have been developed in different. aspects of social development. Here are some examples of using ICT for social change:

Philippines Say NO to Drugs - This is a nonprofit organization and an arm of the Dangerous Drugs Board under the Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines. ICT application was used by his organization primarily by setting up information sources under the Web site of the Dangerous Drugs Board. Aside from its Web site, the organization uses social media applications to deliver information to the public. The following campaigns and programs were publicized by this:

• Barkada Kontra Droga (Peer Group against Drugs)

•National Youth Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control

• Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Program

•Kids Against Drugs Program

•Drug Abuse Prevention Program for the Transport Groups

•Nationwide Caravan of Youth Against Drugs

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) - This is a United Nations (UN) member organization dedicated to the issues brought upon by drug trafficking and drug abuse. This organization uses ICT by devising a Web site to fulfill its goals and purpose. Campaigns launched by this agency are the following:

•World Drug Campaign This is the campaign done to save the youth from drug abuse and help them say no to drugs.

•International Anti-Corruption Campaign - This is one of the campaigns of UNODC in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to fight corruption and power abuse around the world.

• Blue Heart Campaign Against Human Trafficking - This is a campaign that aims to involve everyone to condemn human trafficking around the world. Furthermore, the campaign encourages everyone to help victims of human trafficking.

•National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) - This is an election watchdog organization formed to ensure peaceful and truthful elections. This agency conducts its own count of votes. In the national election in 2010, NAMFREL was not credited to conduct campaign "Bantay ng Bayan". ICT was used by NAMFREL through SMS and social media, calling out volunteers to help in guarding the credibility of the election results.

•Philippines Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) - This is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the welfare of animals. PAWS believes that peace in society starts with avoiding cruelty to animals. Furthermore, the Web site of PAWS is used as a facility to disseminate on taking care of pets, as well as the laws that protect the welfare of animals.