Work Break Down Structure (WBS) For Network Upgrade Project

Environment And Present Working System

Project Title

Environment And Present Working System

Aims/Objectives Of The Project

Investors

Advantages Of The Project

Development Team

Results To Be Expected

Work Breakdown Structure

Milestones

Management Of Risks

Quality criteria

Cost estimation

Conclusion

References

A proper network infrastructure is extremely significant due to it being highly reliable as well as tough. The pharmaceutical company has decided to upgrade/modify its present network foundation. As a result of which, there is a need of up gradation of the network structure which will be done by changing the present hardware, new workstations, networks and services. This needs to be done in such a way that it supports both the existing demands and out future expansion plans of the company. In agreement, the plan for the project has been enclosed. It includes all details of the network structure, including the criteria’s of success that is required for the achievement of goals. As an add-on, the plan has been devised in such a way that no disruption of the present network is done while the upgrading of the network is taking place. So, the collaboration has to be done with a set of company resources, which have done work on such projects. While the upgrading is taking place, one important fact should be taken care of – there should be minimum investment from company’s side while the returns should be at a maximum level.

The main goals of the project are as follows-

• The architecture of the network should be improved so that it allows a constant and the incessant flow of information
• Security of data access for the user’s needs to be improved
• Facilitation of day-to-day to operations needs to be made easier
• The integrity of the company data needs to be maintained
• The employees of the company need a boost in their confidence level

The interested parties of the project are-

• Sponsors of the projects
• Hardware retailer
• Human resources
• Foundation retailer

Some of the key benefits that the project will enjoy are –

• Involvement of the customers to be increased
• Network communications to be increased
• Theft of data to be decreased
• All students are allowed fair usage
• The upgrading is aimed at the elimination of all loopholes and errors that are present within the activity system and thus, create an error free system that would help with the goal of expansion.

Industrial team

• Analyst of the network
• Operational engineer
• Network Engineer

Nonindustrial team

• Manager of functionality

• Enrollment to increase
• Introduction towards bigger opportunities
• Introduction towards diversified areas of studies

Preliminary Approximation Of Costs

• Hardware/system – $200
• Network cable/meter – $20
• Software
• Manager of the project – $90/hour
• Analyst of the network – $75/hour
• Implementation Engineer – $70/hour
• Network Engineer – $60/hour
• Functional Manager of Human Resources – $80/hour
• Estimated entire cost of project – $122,800

WBS	Task Name
1	Network Upgrade
1.1	Plan
1.1.1	Prepare project plan
1.1.1.1	Analyze requirements
1.1.1.2	Perform feasibility study
1.1.1.3	Get sign-offs on deliverables
1.1.2	Take backup
1.1.2.1	Identify backup location
1.1.2.2	Perform backup operation
1.2	Analyze & Design
1.2.1	Hardware sizing
1.2.1.1	Market research for best configuration of machines
1.2.1.2	Finalize detailed configuration of network
1.2.1.3	Prepare bill
1.2.1.4	Sign-off
1.2.2	Finalize new furniture
1.2.3	Purchase furniture
1.2.4	Place furniture
1.2.5	Vendor selection
1.2.5.1	Raise tender for workstation procurement
1.2.5.2	Prepare vendor selection criteria
1.2.5.3	Identify vendor for workstation purchase
1.2.5.4	Configuration & Setup
1.3	Purchase & Store
1.3.1	Perform quality test on selected workstations
1.3.2	Store machines in warehouse
1.3.3	Install
1.3.3.1	Identify locations of machine
1.3.3.2	Install the hardware on the identified machines
1.3.3.3	Identify and install network server
1.3.3.4	Locate router
1.3.3.5	Connect machines
1.3.3.6	Configure workstations for internet connectivity
1.3.3.7	Update software on machines
1.3.3.8	Test software updates
1.4	Testing
1.4.1	Test each machine
1.4.2	Get signoffs
1.4.3	Network testing
1.4.3.1	Put the machine in the network and test
1.4.3.2	Get signoffs
1.4.4	Data restore

• Preparation of project plan
• Hardware sizing
• Vendor selection
• Backup
• Raise invoice
• Installation
• Machine test
• Network testing

Name of Risk	Explanation	Level of Risk	Influence	Process of Contingency/Mitigation
Job Description lacking details	Set of skills is quite vague	Low	Medium	Have an expert of the industry to review it
Allocation of resources is insufficient	Minimum limit of resources is not achieved	Low	Medium	Resources of other tasks are to be assigned here
Disapproval of client	Discrepancy between the point of view of client and project	Medium	High	Personal meetings with clients to be arranged
Client Requirements are improperly projected	Discrepancy between the point of view of client and project	Medium	High	Industry expert to review the problem
Network analyst missing	Analyst quit or on leave	Low	High	Another analyst to be hired
Documentation loss	Failure of Hard Disk Drive	Low	High	Data recovery to be done with the help of IT tools
Increase in the license fees of design tools	Discount season has ended	Low	Low	Alternate freeware tools to be sought after
Absence of Implementation engineer	Engineer quit or on leave	Low	High	-Another engineer to be hired -Implementation engineer to be hired on a contract -Other resources to be reassigned
Absence of Network Engineer	Engineer quit or on leave	Low	High	-Another engineer to be hired -Implementation engineer to be hired on a contract -Other resources to be reassigned
Standard configuration of network is lacking	Proper documentation is lacking	Low	Low	Industry expert to review the problem
Software cost is increased	License fees are increased	High	Low	Alternate freeware tools to be sought after
User disapproval	User acceptance testing faces hiccups	High	High	Personal meetings with clients to be arranged
User reviews are facing delays	Reviews are not presented on schedule	Low	High	Notifications are to be sent

A set of measurable values which are associated with quality of the product is typically referred to as product’s quality metrics. Similarly, a software’s or a system’s quality metrics could be used to determine the extent to which the system or the software meets the requirements of the business. The usage of quality metrics raises objectivity of evaluation of the product quality. The human evalution of quality is subjective therefore it’s a possible source of disagreement between the system provider and the users. Thus the measurement of these qualities should not be only prepared at the end of project but more importantly during the project’s execution.

Typically, a system’s metrics are measured in the following terms:

• Reliability: The total amount of time the system is operational. It’s measured in percentage for instance 23 out of 24 hours i.e., 100 x 23/24.
• Recoverability: The total amount of time the system uses to recover from a failure. This could measured in total duration it takes for the system to spring back online for instance 30 minutes to reeinitialize the system.
• User friendliness: The amount of complications involved with the system as a setup, it’s usage and maintenance. It could be simply measured in say, the amount of time a new user takes to get accustom to the system.
• On-Time: Another key system metric is the timed delivery of the entire project. This measurement of the project being on time is particularly important ot the management as well as the stakenholders each day by which the project goes beyond it’s scheduled delivery and funds. A key metric for this is to ensure that the entire prpoject as per terms of project management is meeting it’s initial goal timings.
• Within Budget: All projects in IT cost money to develop, evaluate and deliver. It is therefore critical for the project managers to manage budget metrics by continously monitoring and reviewing the on-going project spending. This simply could be done by keeping a track of the projected expenditure prepared during the drafting of the plan and the actual amount being spend on the project at the given time. This thus will give a quick glance to the project manager whethere the project’s spending is on par, above or below the budget. If it’s on par or under the budget, then chances are everything is going well, however when it goes above the budget, then arrangements for additional funds has to be made. This would then either be secured by way of loans, credit from promoters etc.
• Deliverables Tracking: Another key criteria is deliverable tracking. The main goal of starting a new IT project is to deliver new enhancements or new functionalities to the current environment. Therefore a project management metric within the IT projects is to make sure that the project deliverables would be completed by date and within it’s proposed budget. The key metric here for tracking the deliverables is to review the total progression of the tasks corresponding to delivery milestones and doing the necessary if they do not meet the required expectations.

The time-phased budgeting is the core of the cost estimation. The time-phased budgeting technique does the job of integrating the schedule of the project and also, the budget of the project. This method acts as the stepping-stone towards making the budgetary. There is no relation between budget and schedule of a project until the two are merged together. Once time-phased budgeting is done, the manager of the project gains the added capacity to further point out the time at which the occurrences of certain expenditures take place. The outflow of cash is more accurately depicted which can result in the appropriate planning being undertaken.

Activity	Estimate Date	Cash Inflow	Cash Outflow	Balance
Preparation of project plan	Thu 2/5/15	35000	2160	32840
Hardware sizing	Tue 2/17/15		4560	28280
Vendor selection	Thu 2/19/15		6100	22180
Backup	Fri 2/6/15		600	21580
Raise invoice	Thu 2/19/15		7400	14180
Installation	Mon 8/25/14		2440	11740
Machine test	Thu 9/25/14		3960	7780
Network testing	Fri 10/3/14		920	6860

Conclusion

The principles of PMBoK have been respected while the upgrading of the company’s IT infrastructure is being done and on the basis of this, the manager of the project is able to determine the requirements and exclusions that are needed to be done in the project. At the time of the up gradation, this might affect the functionality of the other departments and thus time, resources and budget are of critical importance.

References

Gulla, J. (2012, Feb). Seven Reasons IT Projects Fail.

Organizing for Project Management. (n.d.).

Duncan, W.R. (n.d) A guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge.

Hamilton, G. (n.d.). Risk management and project management go hand in hand. 

HubPages. (n.d.). Project Management Time & Cost Estimation Techniques: An Overview.