A Evans

 

Scenario

Charles Parker, network administrator at Future Technology (FT),  has been given the responsibility of relocating the large data center to  a new office building. Careful planning is needed because FT operates  in the highly competitive cellular industry. FT is one of four national  software companies that provide an accounting and business management  package for cellular service locations and sales distributors. A few  years ago, FT jumped into the “application service provider” world.  Their large data center provides clients with remote access to FT’s  complete suite of application software systems. Traditionally, one of  FT’s primary competitive advantages has been the company’s trademark IT  reliability. Due to the complexity of this project, Charles will have to  use a parallel method of implementation. Although this will increase  project costs, a parallel approach is essential if reliability is not to  be compromised.
Currently, FT’s data center is located on  the fourth floor of a renovated old school building in downtown Mobile,  Alabama. The company is moving to a new, one-level building located in  the recently developed industrial complex at Mobile International  Airport. On April 15, Charles is formally assigned the task by the Vice  President of Operations, Marion Hassing, with the following guidelines:

·        From start to finish, it is anticipated the entire project will take three to four months to complete.
·        It is essential that FT’s 315 clients suffer no downtime.

Hassing advises Charles to come back to the Executive Committee  on May 1, with a presentation on the scope of the project that includes  costs, “first-cut” timeline, and proposed project team members.

Charles had some preliminary discussions with some of FT’s  subject matter experts, managers, and directors from each of the  functional departments and then arranged for a full-day scope meeting on  April 19 with a few of the managers and technical representatives from  operations, systems, facilities, and applications. The scope team  determined the following:
·        Four to five months is a  feasible project timeline and first-cut cost estimate is  $90,000-$100,000 (this includes the infrastructure upgrade of the new  site).
·        Critical to the “no-downtime” requirement is  the need to completely rely on FT’s remote disaster recovery “hot” site  for full functionality.
·        Charles will serve as  project manager of a team consisting of one team member each from  facilities, operations/systems, operations/telecommunications, systems  & applications, and customer service.

 Develop a Project Charter and a  Statement of Work for the Future Technology Data Center  relocation project.  These documents will be submitted to Marion  Hassing for acceptance.