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Executive Summary
The main goal of our capstone project is to create a mobile friendly website for all federal
government employees to calculate their retirement earning numbers. Another long term goal is
for this website to become the number one FERS calculator for federal government employees.
We want to create a website that not only calculates your retirement income, but also better
explains how the FERS system works and how you could calculate it yourself.
In order to reach our goals we plan on setting a list of objectives that must be completed.
The website must be fully mobile friendly, easy to use and have a clean layout. The calculator
must be completely accurate and have error checking for the fields entered by the user. The
calculator should not start until all fields are filled and entered correctly. Help buttons must be
provided to explain each field that is required in case a user does not understand how to enter it.
The website must also include easy to follow step by step instructions of how the user can
calculate their retirement themselves. Finally, the website must also include disclaimers that we
are not affiliated with the government.
The purpose of our capstone project is to provide federal government employees with an
accurate and easy to use tool to plan for retirement. There are other attempts that have been
made to create a retirement calculator but all other versions have various issues. Many of them
seem to be out of date and only a couple are mobile friendly. Even the mobile friendly ones do
not seem to be very appealing or easy to use which can be a problem for most users. Our project
should solve all of those issues and give users an accurate description of the FERS plan and a
chance to get an idea of where they stand for retirement planning.
This project will affect all employees of the federal government. Anyone working under
the FERS plan will be able to use this website for retirement planning. Retirement planning is
one of the most important things a person can do and this website will help federal employees
get a rough estimate of when they can retire comfortably. Even someone who is far away from
retirement can use this website to get an idea of the path they need to take in order to retire. If
used properly the calculator on the website should only take minutes to complete something that
would take someone as much as an hour to do by hand. Our website will not be something that
can replace a retirement advisor but will be a tool that any federal employee can use to get an
estimate of what they will receive when they retire.
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Table of Contents
The main goal of our project is to create a website that becomes the go to mobile
retirement planning application of all federal government employees. Our other goal is to create
a website that is reliable and will never crash or have connection issues. We also hope to not
only be known as a calculator website, but a place employees can go to for a better explanation
of the FERS system and how to calculate it yourself. In order to reach our high goals we have
set objectives for our team to complete.
Objective number one is to create a website that is mobile friendly and will work
properly on all mobile browsers. This includes browsers on phones, tablets and laptops. It also
includes the browsers from both Apple and Android devices. Our next objective is to create a
working online calculator that will calculate retirement earnings of federal government
employees. The calculator must be completely accurate and easy to use. The calculator must be
so easy to use that even people who are not familiar with computers will be able to understand
how to use it. The website must also have help buttons available in case users are unsure of how
to enter certain fields.
The calculator must have error checking to make sure the user does not get incorrect
information or cause the calculator to crash. For example, if all fields are not entered when the
user starts the calculator, it must provide a pop up message stating not all fields have been
entered. The calculator should not start until all fields are entered. It should also check to make
sure they are entered correctly, for example, no letters in the fields that should be numbers.
Finally, the website must explain to the user how they could calculate their FERS benefits
themselves. It should include step by step instructions that are easy to understand and follow.
The primary stakeholder for our project is the members of the group. We have the most
to gain in the success of the capstone project. As the final course in the computer science
program it is imperative that we complete this project for our graduation requirements. If we fail
or struggle with the capstone then the graduation timeline might be extended.
California State University Monterey Bay is also a stakeholder in our project. The
mentor for the project is a professor at the university. We are part of the first fully online cohort
of students as such, the future of the online program has a stake in how well we perform. The
more students that complete the program the easier it is will be to entice new students. A high
quality capstone will reflect well on the future of the program. Jonathon Shu is our client\mentor
and has an interest in the final product. He also would like for us to deliver on our plans and
goals.
Federal employees are unknowledgeable stakeholders in the capstone. They do not know
that the project exists, so they do not lose anything if the project is not successful. A fully mobile
friendly calculator will give federal employees a convenient way to get an estimation on their
retirement income.
Project Scope
In order for our project to be completed on time, we have a strict timeline that will need to be
followed. We also will need a few resources and a small budget to make sure the project is
completed smoothly. We have decided to use an agile development process to create our
timeline. We have split our project up into four separate iterations. Each iteration will be two
weeks long. We have completed a full table to show the dates of each iteration and the
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development enables software to come to market faster through adaptability and more client
input (Dyb & Dingsyr, 2008). This development process will enable to get the product to
market the fastest which will suit the needs of this assignment. In order to track our progress
through the milestones we will be using Pivotal Tracker, a tool tracks the progress of iterations.
This web based tool, https://www.pivotaltracker.com/, will help to stay on track even if we miss
a deadline.
Milestones
The milestones below are established to measure progress for the capstone project.
Procure a URL
Initial design planning. What will the look and feel of the site be?
Mobile/Desktop
Wireframe/mockups of website
Resource collection
Testing of product
Finalization
Timeline and Budget
Please use the table below to see all of our iterations and the deliverables for each one. In
order for our project to stay on schedule we must make sure all timelines are met and not pushed
back. Since we only have eight weeks to finish our project, we cannot afford setbacks. We
Date
Deliverables
4/22 - 5/6
5/6 - 5/20
5/20 - 6/3
6/3 - 6/14
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4.) Submit website for approval to Jonathon Shu by
6/12
We will only need a very small budget in order to complete our project. One thing we
will have to budget for is a unique URL. In order for us to obtain a web address like,
www.FERSCalculator.com for example, we will need to pay for a unique URL. The normal cost
for one is about fifteen dollars. The only other thing that might cost money is obtaining a web
hosting site. Most web hosting sites have a monthly fee to keep the website online. We have
decided to use Amazon web hosting services for our project. The Amazon hosting will be a free
service. After the project is launched, if we see a need to improve our web hosting services to a
paid membership, we will.
Ethical Considerations
According to research done by Employment Benefit Research Institute (Helman, 2013)
many Americans are not prepared for retirement. Retirement calculator tools give people more
confidence in their retirement (Adams, 2014). The high use of a retirement calculators online
poses an ethical issue of accuracy. If the information provided by our capstone is incorrect or
misleading we could potentially harm people planning for retirement. With this in mind it is
important to thoroughly test the project to ensure no false information is disseminated.
The capstone will only appeal to those enrolled in the Federal Retirement system. The
website might mislead some to believe that it is sanctioned by the federal government. It will be
important to avoid trademarked or copyrighted properties. The sight must have disclaimers to let
users know they are not using a tool supplied by the United States and FERS.
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Roughly 45% of workers just guess at their retirement (Helman, 2013). The calculators
are easy ways for users to get a free basic guideline of what to expect, they should not however
rely upon this tool as the sole source of advice. There is an ethical obligation as a calculator to
advise users that they should seek guidance from a financial advisor. A financial advisor will be
able to help users far beyond what a calculator can do. In order to keep users from using the tool
for more than what it was intended there will need to be disclaimers for users to seek outside
advice.
Our capstone may unintentionally neglect those that do not have regular access to
computers. This group of people according the Council of Economic Advisers Issue Brief is
more likely to be Hispanic or African American (Mapping the Digital Divide, 2015). In order to
limit this impact we will have to make sure that the site is mobile friendly, making it easier for
those without in home broadband to access.
Legal Considerations
As helpful as our project should be, there is also a big legal consideration that we will
have to be aware of. Our biggest concern is that the F.E.R.S. system is a product of the federal
government and our calculator will use that system, but we will not be affiliated with the
government in any way. If we were to lead the user to believe that we were affiliated with the
government, we would be committing copyright infringement. We need to make sure we include
a noticeable disclaimer on our website that explains we are not affiliated with the federal
government.
We also have to make sure that our website does not contain any government
photos, phrases or logos. If any of those things are found on our website, we would be
Iteration
Phillip Powell
Brian Carlston
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References
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Appendix
2.
3.
Difficult
Would you use this tool again if your salary situation changed?
Yes
No
4.
5.
6.