Phase 2 - Scope/Timeline/Resources
Running head: PHASE 1 - PROJECT CHARTER 1
PHASE 1 - PROJECT CHARTER 2
Phase 1 - Project Charter
Yusuf M Saed
Project Title and Description
The project title Introduction of Cloud Computing Services and is about introducing cloud computing services as part of the services being offered by Future Link. This move is to increase the competitive advantage of the company as cloud computing is one of the latest technological trends which will supplement the internet services being offered by the company. The company is aiming at being a provider of cloud computing services, and this can be achieved through selecting all the three services in cloud computing, which are platform, infrastructure, and software and partnering with companies that offer the services before introducing them to the clients. The company will be able to cut down on costs with most of the equipment being owned by the partner, and Future Link will have a competitive advantage over their competition by providing cloud services. The changes in the technology industry demand that companies are up to date with technological advancements in order to stay ahead in business.
Project Purpose
Cloud computing is a way of providing IT services as it involves obtaining data and programs over the internet in place of the hard drive (Jagirda, Venkata & Qyser, 2013). The introduction will give the company a competitive edge over its competitors as the company will increase its market share as it gains more clients who are seeking the services. The project will make sure that clients enjoy high speeds, automatic software integration, and unlimited data storage. The project is essential as it will also enable the company not only to cut its costs but offer competitive services in a saturated market. Several laws are governing the cloud computing environment, which includes federal, state laws, and international policies that affect both providers and clients. These laws include the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. These laws and policies are mainly on data protection.
Business Case/Requirement
The project will ensure a quick return on investment for the company. This is because the project will allow the clients to cut down on their costs while enjoying most of the benefits of cloud services. The company will also benefit by offering competitive services to its clients apart from the regular services they have been offering, increasing their brand as the company continues to expand. There are alternatives to cloud computing services, which include providing application hosting services to clients that will allow clients to deploy their applications on the company's servers. The use of virtual machines will allow this to work the same way as to cloud computing, as there will be no need for purchasing physical devices. The business requirements include a world-class data center and security, business-driven configuration, seamless integration, a high performance IT infrastructure, a total cost ownership model, and faster deployment.
Constraints
Three main constraints may interfere with the implementation of the project or the success of the project. Time is a significant constraint in the project as the project requires time before integrating the current infrastructure with the new infrastructure. The staff also needs training and education as part of the implementation of the project, which will eat into the time allocated. The project runs on a budget that has both fixed costs and variable costs. Any changes in the costs will impact the project as most of the figures are estimates made in developing the budget.
Risks
The cost risk will occur due to the escalation of costs due to having wrong estimates of the expenses in the budget. Budgetary cost estimates are derived from historical information, vendors, and other entities and situations where the costs are underestimated. Schedule risk is where the project activities take longer than the estimated time or time allocated. This will result in increased costs that were not assigned to cover the extra time and, in the long run, lose the competitive advantage. Performance risk is another risk in project management, which is the risk if the project is failing due to poor results, which are not consistent with the project specification.
Project Deliverables
At the end of the project period, the project manager and his team will be expected to deliver an IT infrastructure that offers cloud computing services to the clients of Future Link. The support includes hardware and software elements that are needed for the provision of cloud computing services. This will consist of computing power, networking, and storage. There is a virtual infrastructure that mirrors the physical infrastructure with components like servers, network switches, memory, and storage. In addition to the infrastructure, the project team will deliver the necessary training and education that will be required for the staff before the execution of the project. Staff training and education are essential for the success of the whole project as it will not be able to function without the staff. The training will involve all the staff with the emphasis being placed on the technical and marketing team that is in direct contact with the clients. External deliverables will be the provision of cloud services to current and future clients of the company.
Project Milestones
The project definition should be finished by 20th March. This involves agreeing on what will be put on the cloud and what will not. 1st April should complete the selection of a platform. The platform chosen should be fast and easy to deploy and able to support business growth. Grasping of security policies will be done by 7th April. A clear understanding of who is responsible for data security and the various legislations and procedures involved in cloud computing. The selection of a provider and determination of service level agreements should be completed by 7th May. This consists in finding a cloud service provider and ensuring all the items in the service level agreement are taken care of like data security and availability. The definition of owning recovery should be agreed on by 7th May. In the case of outages should be known in advance who will be responsible for improvement. Migration should be completed by 1st September. The migration will be done in phases to prevent interruptions and reduce risks. Training and education should be completed by 1st December. Staff will require preparation and knowledge on how to use the new technology. The execution of the project will be done by 31st December. This is when the project will be completed, and the company will be able to offer new services as a third-party provider of cloud computing services.
Project Manager
The project manager will be responsible for all the planning, procurement, and execution of the current project. He is the current project manager as Future link and will be accountable for; ordering and motivating the project team. Planning for meeting the project deadlines, development of the project budget, and creating cost estimates for the project, ensuring the project is within the budget to avoid budget overruns, evaluation and management of project risks, and managing any documentation and reports while monitoring the progress of the project. Lack of experience and training can be mitigated through assessing the available team members and outsource training. The current project requires skilled expertise in order to implement the project successfully. By hiring the expertise would help mitigate the lack of experience and training.
Project Employees/ roles/ Responsibilities
Project team members usually belong to different groups with different functions, all geared to the successful completion of the project. A project employee has a fixed contract that runs during the duration of the contract. They may hire externally from outside the organization to assist during the duration of the project. Internal project employees are those who work for the organization and are involved in the project. The project manager assigns their duties and responsibilities. And some of these responsibilities include; providing the necessary expertise needed during the project, they work with users to establish and meet business needs, completing individual deliverables, documenting the process, and ensuring that they contribute to the overall objective of the project.
Project Sponsor
The project supporter for the current project is the executive management of Future Link, who includes the CEO, the IT manager, the Finance Manager, the head of marketing, and the COO. They are led by the CEO, which makes most of the decisions regarding the project. The sponsor will be responsible for ensuring the success of the project. And the responsibilities will include; describing the principles of the project's success and how it'll be aligned with the business objectives of the organization. Offering required support for the project, including financial resources, ensuring the project plan is realistic and feasible, and resolving issues that are beyond the project manager. The implementation duties include; evaluating the project progress while providing any necessary feedback to the project manager, solving any problems that may arise, identify any issues that may occur, and revel the accomplishment of milestones.
Jagirdar, Srinivas & Venkata, K & Qyser, Dr. (2013). CLOUD COMPUTING BASICS. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Communication Engineering. 1. 343.
Aaltola, Kirsi. (2017). PROJECT MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK.