Linux Expert

CMIT 391 Additional instructions for Linux Implementation

Proposal Summary: These additional instructions are a cookbook for you to get a very high score on the Implementation Plan writing assignment. Writing for us techies just isn’t fun, but it comes with the territory. As a college student you are expected to be able to write and write well. If this doesn’t suit you, then consider career alternatives. Remember that you’re just dumping the XP machines. 1. What this assignment is: it is an implementation plan that you create. You are

the team lead and you are writing a plan to your corporate staff, the ones who funded this project and told you to get rid of XP. The CMIT 391 Linux Implementation Proposal document is not helpful in telling you how to write this plan. If you follow the Implementation Proposal document as an outline, you will get a failing grade, that is why I’m helping you with this document.

2. How to write this plan. Your academic writing experience will not tell you how to organize a document like this, so I will help you. Each sentence you write is a statement of fact. “This plan describes an implementation procedure for ….” Not, “I am presenting this plan for your approval.” There will never be a sentence with “I” or “we”; it’s “a team has been formed to….”.

3. How to organize this document. This is what your corporate staff wants from you:

a. Executive Summary b. Project Schedule (include a GANTT chart) c. Budget d. Technical Details

i. Hardware ii. Software

e. Risk Management (hmmm, maybe NIST SP800-37 would be a good reference)

f. Security g. Testing and Acceptance Criteria h. Fallback Plan i. Conclusion

4. Audience: there are 2 significant stakeholders that you need to consider for this task:

a. The management: they hired you to solve a problem for their business operations. Show confidence, or conversely raise the red flag that the job has risk, then state the risk and your recommendation. Assume you have a budget; it has not been set for you.

b. The departments: they run their current XP applications, like MS Office and accounting software and maybe graphics and others. Use your imagination, you can even fictionalize the name of the software, just pin it to a department. You are taking away their software to run something

else on linux. Have a little empathy for them. This means that if they are part of the evaluation and selection process…. hint, hint, hint. Ok, I’m telling you to state this right out front, even in the Executive Summary.

5. Structure your proposal like a business document, with an easy to follow organization of topics. Anticipate the needs of the stakeholders. What, when, how difficult, who (as in what technical qualifications are needed for this task), and what risk does this present to the b’ness.

6. The rubric. It’s right there as a pop up window on the same page as this document and the assignment. I grade to this rubric. Key points:

a. The most points are in the coverage of the plan, the hardware and the security measures. You absolutely, cannot accept the minimums that will run the OS and nothing else.

b. You have a budget and approval. You can make up whatever $ you want, just provide a one-sentence justification.

c. For security, make some references to NIST SP800-53 d. Mechanics cited there in the rubric. You know what to do. Read them

one more time; you’ll need in-line citations, properly formatted. 7. Content.

a. Use just one sentence to say that management has funded the replacement of XP. There is no need to ramble on about why; we all get it.

b. Add a GANTT schedule (look it up if you don’t know what this is). c. You have to contribute details about the migration task. This means that

you have to use your own imagination. Do not just echo back the assignment, you will receive a very low score for your proposal if you do this.

d. Consider how you will stage the migration of hardware and data. Staging means creating an installation template and making it reproducible.

e. Consider a fallback plan. Here’s a good idea….. keep a stand-alone XP box in each department that they can sneakernet (look it up) their files.

f. The hardware specs given to you in the Proposal document are misleading. Specify processors, RAM, disks and monitors that will run your applications. Trying to save $$ makes not one bit of sense. Scale your operations for several years out from now. If you echo the minimum specs given to you, you will not receive a passing score. We’re talking RAM, disk, CPU cores, some I/O and decent size monitor with a video card to drive it.

g. Look at the assignment document and include some details (no need to go crazy here) for each mentioned topic. Do not echo back the assignment; contribute your implementation details.

8. Don’t wait until the last minute to submit your paper, if you want a really good grade. This gives me a chance to guide you, if you are missing something.

9. Have some fun, with this, engage, and put your imagination into it.