Running head: CIS 517 Week 10 Technical Paper

Technical Term Project Paper

CIS 517

Executive summary:

This plan walks through the Data center migration and Network design project plan that needs to

be undertaken for Fiction Corporation. There is an organized study of the problem and the

approach that can be followed to solve it in a planned comprehensive manner. We’ll start with

the study of the various project goals and then move on to break down our strategic goals into

small term tasks. After careful analysis, we’ll come up with a plan to migrate the Data-center.

Some proposals pertaining to network design change are also made. Our approach keeps in mind

the business needs of Fiction Corporation. We have taken the required uptime and financial

constraints into consideration. The plan includes all the processes and knowledge areas, a

complete implementation plan has been discussed together with the time-line, resource

utilization plan and budget figures. Our team has the credentials to carry out the outlined work.

We have expertise in project management, networking and internetworking. To back this claim,

we have certifications under our belt (PMP). A team of 10 such experts will be allocated to

Fiction Corporation’s project.

Data center Migration project: Goals

As this project deals with a major Data-center problem of Fiction Corporation, it is an ambitious

project with various project goals. Let us look at the major project goals.

Migration of Data center:

Fiction Corporation needs to shift one of its data centers from its current location to the

headquarters (several miles away). The shift has to be a smooth one. It should not affect daily

operational activities of the company. There has to be a duplication of Data storage at the remote

location. And only when the new site is ready for hosting operations, the old site will be

dismantled or made dis-functional. This way, operations won’t get disturbed.

Network and infrastructure upgrade:

Fiction Corporation’s management sees this as an opportunity to upgrade their infrastructure and

network. While making the transition, Wide-IP’s team will also work on analysis of current

network designs and their further improvisation. There has to be a scope for optimized and

quality operations (compared to the current status). New network architecture and technologies

can be deployed as a part of migration.

Cost-effective Implementation:

Fiction Corporation’s management has set an upper limit of migration cost. It is $500,000. The

project cost has to be kept under the boundaries as provided by Fiction Corporation’s executive

committee. Such major projects can only be undertaken if they provide a business return (on

short or long term basis). While designing network, Return on Investment (ROI) has to be kept

in mind.

Project scope:

Data center and network infrastructure of a company touches its business in many ways. There

are limitless tasks that can be associated to a project dealing with Data management and

Networking of a company. It is very important to set limits to any project. We can’t include

every aspect of Network design/infrastructure and Data management. There are priorities to be

fixed and tasks to be defined for a better project management. Let us study the scope of project

that Wide-IP is taking up for Fiction Corporation:

The scope of this project is limited to following deliverables:

1) Fiction Corporation currently possesses network design/infrastructure architecture.

Analysis of current portfolio of Fiction Corporation Network has to be done. This will

help in coming up with an improvised design. Implementation of that newly developed

network design is also to be undertaken.

2) Data storage infrastructure is to be deployed at the new proposed site (headquarters).

This Data center is then to be networked in accordance with the new developed design.

Setting up internetworking of this center with other existing parts (retail stores, call

center etc.)

3) We don’t want to disrupt operations of the company because of this project. It is for this

same reason that necessary testing should be done on the newly deployed internetwork.

The uptime that Fiction claims is pretty high. So, Quality check and testing has to be

done rigorously before using the system in a live environment.

4) Once the new data center site and internetwork is tested, we need to migrate our data

from the old site to the new center. Only when migration of business data is complete we

can host our business from the new center. Thus, Successful migration of Data should be

done to the new site.

5) Wide-IP’s team will be coming with some new network design and technologies. They

will also be deploying them successfully. So, there is a need for post-project support

from wide-IP’s experts. Thus, one of the main deliverables is providing support and

training to Fiction Corporation’s network Managers for few months (till they are ready to

steer it on their own).

NOTE: Post project support and training (point -5) will be provided for not more than 4

months. Further extensions can be provided but only at extra cost. It is the responsibility of

Fiction Corporation to schedule their manager’s tasks in a way that training gets completed in

the stipulated time frame.

Work breakdown:

We know there are 5 processes through which our project should go in order to have a well-

managed plan (Kim Heldman, 2009). Attached below is a table that breaks down our entire

project work (done in OpenProj software (Open Project)):

Our work has been broken down into 5 major process areas – Initiating, Planning, Executing,

Monitoring and controlling, Closing (PMP Certification Exam material). All these process

areas have various tasks associated with them (as can be seen in the table above).

There are some tasks that are done in parallel, while others have interdependency.

We can see that setting up hardware has two tasks under it which can be done in parallel.

Also, configuration process can be done in parallel (Virtual systems and Network devices)

Work breakdown structure:

NOTE: This tree has been reproduced in MS word. The original OpenProj software generated

tree was not well formatted. So, it was not possible to incorporate it here.

Data center Migration and

Network up gradation Project

Initiating the project

Project execution

Understanding requirements

Getting our PMs started

Project PlanningUnderstanding data storage facility

Understanding current network infrastructure

Analyzing current design and state

Coming up with new design

Monitoring and Controlling Setting up SNMP based remote monitoring systems

Testing entire system for loopholes

Closing the projectData migration from old location to new one

Hardware Set-up:Data center hardware (UPS, servers)Network hardware setup (routers, switches)

Configuring devices:Data center (Virtual systems)routers, switches configuration

T1 links, frame relay leasing and configuration

Post Project support

Training/knowledge transferCustomer support

As you can see in the Work Breakdown structure, we have planned all process areas. Therefore

it is in accordance with PMBOK standards (Phillips, 2004).

Also, there is a post project task which has been included in our scope. We’ll be providing

knowledge transfer sessions and customer support to Fiction Corporation. So, that their network

experts have a smooth transition in getting expertise over controlling and monitoring this new

infrastructure. This has been included in the Work breakdown table also. It is after the 30 day

duration of the project.

Work breakdown structure for post project support:

Resource allocation:

We have a team of 10 certified experts in project management. After breaking down the tasks,

we assign each task to a team of project managers. There are some tasks that are taken care of by

multiple teams of project managers. Also, we have a time constraint of 30 days and budget

constraints. These are also a part of our resource portfolio. We have planned to utilize available

resources in the best possible manner to get the job done.

In the above resource sheet, you can see that our resources are – Project managers (10 in

number), Hardware equipment, Software licenses and Miscellaneous. Each resource has a cost

attached to it. One more thing to observe is that all the material resources have “accrue at” field

as “start”. The reason for that is, Fiction Corporation has to pay for all tangible resource

purchase beforehand.

If we try to see the economy of resources:

Project Manager’s work cost = 1600x 10 = $160,000

Hardware cost = $150,000

Software licenses cost = $200,000

(NOTE: Licenses are required for configuring routing protocols, VLANs and other networking

software. Also VM applications will be licensed.)

Miscellaneous cost = $50,000

Therefore, total anticipated expense = $160,000 + $ 150,000 + $200,000 + $50,000 = $560,000

So, you can see our current resource allocation is just going beyond the budget. Therefore, in

order to have budgetary constraints followed, we’ll provide discount on our expert fees. Fiction

Corporation won’t be charged a penny more than $500,000

Project staffing chart – As per each execution task:

We are showing resource allocation only for execution related tasks because, all other tasks

(initiation, planning, etc) are taken care of by all the PMs as a team. All 10 project managers act

as a committee to take care of other tasks. For execution, work is divided. Let us see the breakup

of resource division as per each execution task:

Task no. Task Task

Responsibilit

y

Skills reqd. No. of PMs

reqd.

Estimated

time reqd

1 Data center

Hardware

setup

Managing

Data center

set-up

Project

Management

4 Less than 10

days

2 Network

device

installation

Managing

Network

devices set up

Project

Management

4 Less than 10

days

3 VM

configuration

IT project

management

Project

Management

2 Less than 5

days

4 Network

Device

configuration

IT project

management

Project

Management

2 Less than 5

days

5 T1

links/frame

relay config

IT project

management

Project

Management

2 Less than 3

days

6 SNMP based

monitoring

system

IT project

management

Project

Management

4 Less than 5

days

7 Migration IT project

management

Project

Management

6 Less than 3

days

8 Testing IT project

management

Project

Management

6 Less than 4

days

Covering Knowledge areas: A Discussion

The plan that has been drafted covers all the knowledge areas of Project Management (as per

PMBOK) (Schwalbe, 2009). Let us discuss how it touches each aspect:

1) Project Integration Management: In the execution of this project, several different tasks

were distributed amongst different experts (as can be seen in the project staffing chart).

Now, each of the tasks was independently done by the team of experts which was

deployed on it. Later on, integration of those independent modules was done. In

monitoring and control phase, we do a testing of the entire network. This takes care of all

integration related issues. Therefore, integration management is a part of our project

plan.

2) Project scope management: Our first two phases – initiating and planning are concerned

with understanding the current state of infrastructure and Fiction corporation’s

requirements. Also, we analyze the requirements to list down deliverables that would

fulfill Fiction’s requirements. Therefore, we have a well-defined scope before entering

the execution phase.

3) Project time management: Based on our previous experiences and our experts’

productivity, we have kept feasible deadlines. So that the probability of defaulting is

minimum. Also, as mentioned earlier, we have a damage management/emergency team

deployed. They will act as a helping-buffer to teams that are lagging behind. Therefore,

time management has been done within our own limitations.

4) Project cost management: We have chosen most appropriate technologies for Fiction’s

network. Unnecessary high end solutions are not planned. We will deploy T1- link only

for the call center (for other retail stores and warehouses, frame relay over ISDN will be

leased), this will save a lot on money. Similarly, even for network devices, reasonability

has been kept in view while making selections. Our return on investment analysis is

favorable. For cost management, one should go step by step – Resource planning, Cost

estimation, cost budgeting, cost control. So, the final selections of resources are made

after executing the final step of cost control.

5) Project Quality Management: We are planning on doing thorough testing in the

“monitoring and controlling” phase of project plan. Also, we plan on giving post project

support. This makes certain that quality management is a constituent of our planning.

6) Project Human Resource Management: Project human resource management is a

knowledge area that essentially involves following steps:

- Human Resource Planning

- Acquire Project Team

- Develop Project Team

- Manage Project Team

We have implemented all these steps in managing our experts. As it can be seen in our project

staffing chart, an explicit planning of expert deployment has been done.

7) Project Communication management: We are going to study Fiction’s requirement in

first two phases of project (Initiating and planning). Also, as mentioned earlier, there is a

provision for impromptu weekly suggestions. We want Fiction’s executive committee to

be in touch with our experts during the course of the project. Also, we plan on

communicating/transferring the knowledge to Fiction’s in-house experts. This will help

Fiction Corporation in maintaining the new infrastructure.

8) Project Risk Management: In this project, there are risks like security aspects of

network, scalability issues, and wastage of resources. We have planned a thorough

testing task (in Monitoring and controlling phase). As per PMBOK, risk management

should consist of following steps:

o Risk Management Plan

o Risk Identification

o Quantitative Risk Analysis

o Risk Response Planning

o Risk Monitoring & Control

We have identified and also planned monitoring/ controlling for those risks.

9) Project procurement Management: As you can see, we have planned contracting all the

experts and also have planned purchase of all material resources. Therefore, procurement

management is taken care of.

Project challenges and approaches to handle them:

Project management has many challenges associated to it. Much of the plan depends on

anticipations and simulations. Although, we tend to define our resource utilization and deadlines

in a feasible manner, but there can be uncertainties and disruptions during the execution of

project. Let us discuss some of the challenges that can be encountered by our team:

Uncertain dependencies: Though, we have thought the entire project and established

dependencies. There could be possibility of occurrence of hidden dependencies. To counter this,

we will be reviewing our iterations in every 5 days. So that if any small changes in plans are

required, those can be taken care of.

Consistent Deadline meeting: Our project schedule is very tight. We need to stick to the deadline

for every task. If we default at any small subtask, the effect will show in the overall project

schedule. So, we are going to have an emergency team of experts, who will be our buffer. We

can deploy them at any task in an impromptu way (to make sure the task is complete in time).

Scope changes: We are going to spend 2 days on initiating the project. We'll define its goals,

scope etc. But, from our experience, we have seen that project's scope keeps on changing from

time to time. We would like Fiction Corporation’s executive team to have a close watch on our

task list. If anything pops up at later stages, let us know as soon as possible. So, that new task

can be incorporated in the plan.

Works Cited.

Kim Heldman, V. M. (2009). PMP Project Management Professional Exam Review Guide. John Wiley and Sons.

Open Project. (n.d.). Retrieved from sourceforge.net/projects/openproj/

Phillips, J. (2004). IT project management:. McGraw-Hill Professional.

PMP Certification Exam material. (n.d.). Retrieved from Project Management made easy: aditya369.com/processgroups_ka.aspx

Schwalbe, K. (2009). Information Technology Project Management. Cengage Learning.