Hardware Acquisition and Improvement Project Plan

Hardware Acquisition and Improvement Project Plan

Felicia Godley, Chris Proulx, James Slee

CMGT/410

March 13, 2011

Mr. Adam Hawlk

Background and Statement of need

Our company has realized a need to acquire and upgrade our hardware systems to remain competitive within the scope of our industry. Our current systems have become more of a nuisance and have slowed our productivity and response time, in an industry that thrives on speed and accuracy. Our attempts at repeated patch work of these systems has created a massive maintenance problem to our maintenance department as well as a nightmare to software installers and upgrading team as well as our engineers trying to make these patches work. Complete hardware system overhaul is in order instead of trying to piece meal new equipment to old equipment. We will start at the front end of our systems with new keyboards and individual stations and travel to the back end with new servers and software upgrades to be the final step before project is staged to be on line. We will run parallel systems till new hardware is tested and in the operational stage.

Project Objectives

Our project team has come up with a plan that will allow our systems hardware to be upgraded and totally revamped, with very little disruption of our day to day business services and we can still provide services while our new systems are being upgraded, designed and brought on line. We will at project ends have the most sophisticated and upgraded systems which will keep us in the front of our industry as a leader and innovator.

Main objectives of program:

* Replace keyboard and mouse at server stations

* Replace individual station computers

* Replace server station monitors

* Check and or replace wiring to servers

* Perform any maintenance to these areas while they are exposed

* Replace servers with upgraded models

* Replace main frame

* Repair and or replace any mainframe or server area cables while exposed

* Repair and replace any electrical problems while system exposed.

Risks

The risk of this project is minimal due to the fact that we will be running a parallel system that will not be brought on line till the system has been completed and tested. This will provide a more costly system but will allow for no system down time and will be switched on when complete and up and running. In any case of emergency, the old system can be put back on line to prevent any loss of down time or loss of production.

Project Approach

The project will be broken down for management to elect a project manager who will upon acceptance appoint team leaders from the Hardware department, Maintenance department and the Software department. These Team Leaders will pick their team for the duration of this project, since this is such a large project we will leave final team member participation approval to the Project Manager to ensure that the project will have sufficient staffing for getting the system up and running in the amount of time given to complete the project. We have also chosen a project liaison that will interact between the project manager and the executive committee who will have the final say on all project concerns.

Mission and Goals of the Project

The project mission is for the upgrade and maintenance of all our hardware driven systems with minimal inconvenience to our staff and customers. The new system upgrades will stream line our systems and make our time lines for data base searches approximately one-half of previous times. The goals set for the project are as follows:

* Faster recovery time for data at our front end.

* Better storage and handling of data systems.

* Project stays within budget.

* Better response to our customers through faster service.

* System upgrade completed in a timely manner.

* Software upgrades match hardware upgrades in specs.

Project Organization and Responsibility Matrix

The team will consist of the following members who jobs will be defined in the following manner; these are basic guidelines and may be amended at any time by the executive team Members.

Executive Team Members: Function as overall project management team with decision making abilities in all phase and function within the project itself. Responsibilities include budget, time and management aspects of the project.

Project Liaison: Function as the mediator between the Executive committee and the Project manager, it will be their responsibility to interpret and disseminate any and all messages and problems between Executive and Project Manager. It will also be the Liaison's responsibility to speak for the project and be the project stake holder in all decisions and responses.

Project Manager: Defines the scope of the project, responsible for all the day to day decisions of the project and to work on any contingencies of budget, time, and acquisition needs. Has the authority to delegate all aspects of the project for a successful completion and timely completion of the project. Responsibilities include all resources within the scope of the budget, man hours, time constraints, and release of all materials and documents in a timely manner.

Team Leaders: There is one team leader chosen from each of our three divisions: Hardware, Software and Maintenance. Each Team Leader will have the responsibility to lead his own respective team in budget response, man-hour needs, and successful completion of project. Will be able to pick his own team from his staff members but will need Project Manager Approval for correct number of staff members to complete project properly and within budget constraints. This position will answer to the Project Manager only and will confer with other Team Leaders for consultation purposes only

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