Introduction

The progress in modern-day science has resulted in the rise of different new features and fields that have remarkably changed the global aspects and our everyday lives. One of these fields or aspect is the digitalization of the information worldwide. The digitalization has not only to have its advantages that make it the most important part of the world globalisation but also have some disadvantages that need immediate consideration. One of these disadvantages is the loss and theft of the data. Recovery and analysis of that data require so much contemplation, that a relatively new field has to be developed. The Digital forensic as the name suggests is the field of computer science that merges the principle of criminal laws in order to examine, analyse and maintain the privacy as well as the integrating of the data breached (Zagar, Delija & Sirovatka, 2018).

Not only that but the process of forensic for the analysis and identification of the digital information requires a large number of tools set of both software and hardware origin (Nanda & Hansen, 2016). The reasons behind the requirement of these huge number of tools are the volatility, high volume, easy and cheap availability of the data storage, malleability and availability of diverse nature of software and hardware platforms to store and manipulate digital data. The requirements of a large number of tool sets make it uneconomic for individuals and organizations having a small budget, to develop their own digital forensic lab. The key purpose of this project is therefore to develop a private digital forensic lab that will provide those individuals and organizations with the solutions to their problems related to the digital forensics.

Unlike other projects, this project does not have specific stakeholders, i.e. the individual or the organization, but is intended to serve any one of them out there facing problems related to the digital forensics. The most important or one of the very first steps in any project management is the production of the project plan. This project plan is therefore all about setting up a private digital forensic lab in UAE.

Client Requirements and Constraints

To start a project or to plan a project the very first thing to be observed, understand or identified is the client requirements and the constraints. Although this project is not designed with specific clients or stakeholders, the requirements and constraints of this project are therefore be based on the general needs of the community the digital forensic lab will be serving. To identify those requirements and constraints the first step is to sit together in a meeting.

Number and Types of Team Meetings

The identification of the needs of the project beneficiary depends on the team meetings and their outcomes. For this project to be a success a total of five meetings are required. The very first meeting will be the local type. It will be about identifying the current situations of digital forensic and the need for a digital forensic lab in UAE. The second meeting will with in between the sponsor and the team lead, i.e. project manager. This meeting will provide the basis for the discussion of the financial matters of the project. The third meeting will again be in between team members. The third meeting will discuss and identify what objects and resources are required for the digital forensic lab. The fourth meeting will be held during the development phase of the project and will identify any problems related to the project progression. The fifth and the last meeting of the project will be at the end of the project and will be about the overall review of the project.

Customer Requirements

Although this project does not have any specific client since the lab is designed to fulfil the needs of individuals and third-party organizations. Therefore, the requirements for this project are from future customers and the team developing and willing to run the lab. A list of some of those requirements and their priority level is given below:

Requirements	Description	Priority
Availability of relevant hardware and software resources	Since the key requirement of the lab is its equipment and for a digital forensic lab, the equipment will be of hardware and software type. The most needed are, hardware, such as computers, external storage drives, data cables and software such as password and data recovery tools, antiviruses and operating systems.	High
Follow international standards throughout the project	Forensic is related to the law, therefore in order to get the results from the lab that are equally acceptable for the law, it is required to follow all the standards throughout the project.	High
In cost and at the time delivery	Two main objectives of a successful project are cost efficiency and time management. The project is only said to be successful if the project is completed within the budget and time proposed.	Moderate
Must have the ability to expand in the future	Since the project is intended to work in the future, and the digital world is expanding and progressing day by day, therefore the need of a lab that can easily be expanded in future is also a key requirement.	Moderate

Stakeholder Perspectives

As the key stakeholder of this project is the team that is willing to develop a private digital forensic lab that can help them in their professional as well as educational background, there are many other stakeholders in this project. The major one of them as individuals and third-party organizations that due to different circumstances are unable to have their own forensic lab setups. Those individuals and third-party organization can find this project the most helpful in terms of economic and efficiency as the rising number of digital instruments along with the bringing out of new tactics in data theft and loss, made it more and more difficult to be handled using simple tools and professionals. The development of the digital forensic lab will also help those individuals and third-party organizations in focusing on their key objectives rather than looking out for the solutions related to data security.

Project Scope

Project scope is the set of the definitions of all the work, including the functions and features of the final service or the product to be delivered by the project (Moustafaev, 2014). Therefore, in a project plan, the project scope is of great importance. The functions and features of this project’s scope are discussed below in detail.

Project Scope Description

The project discussed here will provide a detailed process for setting up a private digital forensic lab that will help individuals and organizations, who are suffering from digital theft and loss and are unable to have sufficient resources of their own to cater with this problem. Digital forensic is not just a straight science but also is one of the most needed services for a digitally globalized world. Since UAE is rapidly growing into the digital world, therefore, the need for the digital forensic lab is a must have. The key purpose of this project is, therefore, providing the digital people of the UAE with services related to their digital forensic problems. The project will also provide its developers with knowledge and financial aid as the digital forensic lab in this project will actually be a standardized working project. This plan will also provide insight and guidance for the newcomers in the field of digital forensics.

Acceptance Criteria

In order to count this project as a success, the key criteria are the building up of a private digital forensic lab that fulfils the requirements of the client as well as of the stakeholders, i.e. digital people and organizations of UAE. Since the basic purpose of digital forensics is to examine the digital environment in order to what had happened and what is going on that the data is lost or missing (Kävrestad, 2017), therefore the success of this project is related to the working ability of the lab that is going to be developed.

Some of the key criterions of this project that defined whether this project is a great success or not and that is based on the aims and objectives of this project are as follows:

• Development of a private digital forensic lab in the premises of UAE.
• Providing the services related to the digital forensic to the individuals and organization of UAE.
• The individuals and the organizations, that will act as the future clients of this lab will be benefited in term of efficiency and effectiveness.
• Providing with knowledge and earnings to the team members and the developers.
• The lab designed and developed during this project can work simultaneously in both the present and in the future.

Project Deliverables

Project deliverables are defined as the verifiable and tangible outcomes, they may be product oriented as well as project oriented. In the case of this project of the digital forensic lab the project deliverables are of both types (Marchewka, 2015). The project deliverables for this project are as follows:

• Providing with a complete project plan or guideline for setting up a private digital forensic lab.
• Providing with the best, relevant and up to date hardware and software tools for the lab.
• Setting up the selection criteria and guideline for the professional human resource for this project.
• The in the budget and in time delivery of the project objectives.

Project Exclusions

The project exclusions clarify what objects and services the project is not deliverables, they are also equally important for understanding the project scope. The following features and functions will therefore not be the part of this project.

• Any type of training and related educational services.
• Any services related to hacking or intentionally data loss.
• Any services and guides related to the property purchase or of developing the lab’s building itself.

Project Constraints

The limitation of these projects is that it is designed to work in the future and not in the present, therefore it will not perform any process or job related to the digital forensic itself. There will be no outcomes of the project in terms of financial benefits at the end of the project. The private digital lab builds as the result of this project will perform as an individual organization that does not have any connection to or with other organization. The services provided by that lab will be related to digital forensics only and may not exceed legal or any other field of related interests.

Project Assumptions

The assumptions that should be considered during this project are as follows:

• The sponsor will be providing all the financial aid related to this project and that aid will be used in purchasing of hardware, software and other tools and equipment of the lab.
• The project has nothing to do with the selection of the physical space or location of the lab.
• The issuing of the licence to work is subjected to the acceptance of the project from the higher relevant authorities of UAE and the project team is not responsible for that in any means.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and WBS dictionary

The work breakdown structure is an important part of any project planning. It provides with the step wise structure of tasks that the project is going to perform (Norman, Brotherton and Fried, 2008). A detailed work breakdown structure of this project about the private digital forensic lab is as follows:

• Start of the Project
  • Identification of the current scenario of digital forensic in the UAE
  • Meeting with team members for reviewing the project feasibility
  • Meeting with the sponsor for discussing the project
  • Preparation of the report for the actual project plan
• Planning of the Project
  • Final review of the project implementations and project plan
  • Team members meeting to distribute their tasks
  • Selection of the hardware and software tools required
  • Market survey for these tools and locating vendors
  • Preparation of risk management plan
• Development Phase of the Project
  • Purchasing of the hardware and software
  • Setting up that hardware and software
  • Perform compatibility checks and standardization
  • Looking out and eradicating any errors and vulnerabilities in the system
• Implementation Phase of the Project
  • Installing network and starting up those tools
  • Performing testing to check the performance of the lab
  • Adjusting any errors, identified in the previous step
• Finalizing of the Project
  • Preparation of guideline for selection of human resources
  • In detail preparation of the report for the stakeholders, i.e. sponsors and team members.
  • Preparation of a final report for further reference
  • Closing up of the project.

WBS Dictionary

Component	Description
Start of the Project	All basic meetings related to the initializing of the projects such as the financial aspects of the project and the feasibility of the project will be performed in this phase. Assigning of the team member’s duty will also be a part of this phase.
Planning of the Project	The actual planning and risk identification, along with the selection of the tools and equipment for the lab will be discussed during this phase.
Development Phase of the Project	Purchasing, setting up and integrating those hardware and software tools will be part of this phase.
Implementation Phase of the Project	The actual running of the lab and finalizing of the product-based work will be performed in the implementation phase. At the end of this phase the lab will be ready to perform.
Finalizing of the Project	Final meetings and winding up of the project will be done in this last step of the project phases.

Time Management

Time is one of the key factors that defines the project success, therefore time management is an integral part of any project planning and management (Spagnulo and Fleeter, 2013). This project is a small one and intended to end up within thirty-eight days. The starting date of this project will be 4^th of March 2019 and the end date will be the 10^th of April 2019. A timeline for milestone and project deliverable is given below:

Milestones and Deliverables
Milestones	Deliverables	Expected Date
Selection of the team members and the distribution of their respective responsibilities.	4th March 2019
Study and review of the different digital forensic labs so that the report on the requirements of the lab will be finalized.	11th March 2019
Final report regarding the requirement and plan for the project.	18th March 2019
Meeting with the sponsors and funds liberation.	20th March 2019
Actual start of the forensic lab, equipment, and resource gathering.	25th March 2019
Trial working of the lab.	4th April 2019
Submission of the final project report.	8th April 2019
Team meeting for project closing.	10th April 2019

Cost Management

Cost, like the time is another criterion of the success and also one of the key parts of any project management (Bouvrie, 2016). The cost for this project depends on the tools and equipment selected and used in the lab. The level of complexity and the services that the lab is willing to provide also affects greatly on the cost of the project. Use of open source software instead of propriety-based will certainly reduce the overall cost of the budget.

Risk Management Plan

The process of identifying and mitigating the risks is required to be done after the selection of the project has done but before the actual proposal of the project is started (Uhlig, 2012). The purpose of this project is to develop a similar private digital forensic laboratory that can fulfil the needs of that third-party individuals and organizations that are unable to perform their own digital forensics. The challenges that the team can face during this project are of a variety of nature. These challenges are from basic nature such as the unavailability of certain project items to the complex nature such as the approval of the respected authorities to start a business like this. In order to cope with these possible challenges, the team member must be fully prepared before the start of the project by identifying possible risks associated with this project. The risks identified for this project along with their mitigation are as follows:

Risk	Level	Severity	Mitigation
Shortage of budget.	High level	7	Perform a detailed pre-market survey and in-depth literature review of the tools and equipment available for the lab and prepare a cost plan.
Lack of proper human resource.	High level	8	Select highly competent team members that have good knowledge regarding digital forensics as well as project management.
Unavailability of the tools	High level	8	Review the market before the selection and have a plan for the pre-selection of alternatives.
Lack of network security	High level	6	Check every connection and installation twice. Perform penetration testing if possible
Increased time for project completion	Medium level	5	Follow the project plan, especially the time management part of the plan to avoid any delay in the project.
After project queries and complains	Low level	1	Provide guidelines and blueprints for the use and identification of the tools installed in the lab so that no future queries need to be entertained.

Reflection or Discussion

The widespread, emerging need of digital dependency in our life can easily be felt in different aspects of our lives (Fenwick & Edwards, 2015). One of these aspects of our daily life is the law. Almost every day, there are cases that are related to digital information. This even caused the transfer of evidence from paper to being digital. Since the process of the analysis of these digital information needs tools (both software and hardware) that are not cheap enough for everyone to buy and use, special laboratories are developed for this purpose. The purpose of this project is to develop a similar private digital forensic laboratory that can fulfil the needs of that third-party individuals and organizations that are unable to perform their own digital forensics. The laboratory will act as the key solution for the stakeholders of the region and will not only provide them with the services regarding the data theft but also help them in recovering the lost data as the procedure of the data forensic also have data recovery as one of its basic function.

In order to make this project successful the team members have to be of great knowledge and well versed in both computer engineering and law. Proper following up of the project plan will also help in completing the project in cost, in time and with all the objectives accomplished, making the project a success.

References

Bouvrie, C. (2016). Cost Management Explained in 4 Steps. [online] Cost Management. Available at: http://www.costmanagement.eu/blog-article/198-cost-management-explained-in-4-steps [Accessed 10 Feb. 2019].

Fenwick, T., & Edwards, R. (2015). Exploring the impact of digital technologies on professional responsibilities and education. European Educational Research Journal, 15(1), 117-131.

Kävrestad, J. (2017). Guide to Digital Forensics. Springer.

Marchewka, J. (2015). Information Technology Project Management. 5th ed. John Wiley & Sons.

Moustafaev, J. (2014). Project scope management. Auerbach Publications.

Nanda, S., & Hansen, R. (2016). Forensics as a Service: Three-Tier Architecture for Cloud Based Forensic Analysis. 2016 15Th International Symposium On Parallel And Distributed Computing (ISPDC), 178-183.

Norman, E., Brotherton, S. and Fried, R. (2008). Work breakdown structures. Hoboken: J. Wiley & Sons.

Spagnulo, M. and Fleeter, R. (2013). Space program management. New York: Springer.

Uhlig, S. (2012). Federal construction contracting made easy. Tysons Corner, Va.: Management Concepts.

Zagar, M., Delija, D., & Sirovatka, G. (2018). Setting up digital forensics laboratory: Experience of Zagreb University of Applied Sciences. 2018 41St International Convention On Information And Communication Technology, Electronics And Microelectronics (MIPRO).