project management

Running head: POST IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION REPORT 1

POST IMPLEMENTATION EVALUATION REPORT 8

Post Implementation Evaluation Report

Project Sign-Of

The project plan was sufficient with the deliverables, and it was able to identify all the critical areas in the project. The project was complicated as it involved implementing new technology in the company. The plan was able to cover the phases of the project. However, the plan did not include the testing phase of the project. The tasting phase of the cloud computing project came after all the configurations, including core and location-specific, had been done. It involved testing the technology to ensure there will be no downtimes when implemented.

Staffing and Skills

All the requirements of the project were not fully requested for as there were some areas where the team lacked a few resources. The project required specialized skills in the form of technicians who were skilled in cloud computing. The team only had one technician who was overwhelmed with the various requests from the team and still lacked the experience during implementation. In the future, a project of such a magnitude will require several experienced technicians in the required field who will be able to guide the project team in some of the technical requirements. They will be useful in the training of the staff before the implementation and execution of the project.

Project Organizational Structure

The sponsor is the CEO of the company, and the project manager reports to him. Initially, the project manager had planned for 13 employees, including the IT manager and the Marketing manager. Four technicians are reporting to the IT manager who reports to the Project manager. The technicians include a cloud computing specialist who was to guide the current project. The marketing manager has two team members who are tasked with planning and executing marketing campaigns. Future projects will require more specialists and fewer technicians to offer more guidance and assist in implementing and executing the projects.

Project Organizational Structure

CEO

Cloud Computing

Specialist

Technician

Technician

Technician

Marketing Team

Marketing Team

IT Manager

Marketing Manager

Project Manager

Schedule Management

Project Deliverables

· Cloud Service provider for both PaaS and IaaS

· Cloud legal and compliance factors

· Open source and open license tools.

· Security strategy and security risk document.

· Hardware and software requirements should include computing power, networking equipment, and storage. Hosting software provided by the provider.

· Virtual infrastructure to mirror the physical infrastructure with components like servers, network switches, memory, and storage.

· Network accessing devices to ensure the viability of Future Link's network.

· Cloud tools providers for support in the programming environment and virtual machine management.

· Core configuration.

· Location-specific configuration

· Training and education manual.

· Quality control and assessment plans.

· Testing and review plans.

Project milestones

· The design concepts and project definition should be finished by 20th March. This involves agreeing on what will be put on the cloud and what will not.

· The two platforms of PaaS and IaaS had been selected by 1st April.

· The security strategy and security risk strategy were implemented by 7th April.

· A Service provider was selected in May, and all the relevant documentations agreed and signed.

· Configurations were done for both core and location-specific and completed in August.

· Testing was done on 7th August.

· Cloud Migration was started in August and completed in September.

· Training and education were completed by 20th November.

· The project was executed by 15th December.

Cost Management

Servers	100,000
Cooling Hardware	20,000
CPU & Memory	15,000
Data Storage Hardware	60,000
Virtualization Software	19,000
Other Applications	10,000
Maintenance	16,000
Salaries and wages (contract period)	365,000

The salaries of the two managers are not included as they are executives of the company. The costs did exceed the budget at the price of other applications required for the project. It had been estimated at $5,000 for ten applications. This was communicated earlier to management, and more funds were availed for the applications. In the future, the need for more skilled technicians will increase the cost of wages and salaries.

Risk Management

The four risks were management support, budget risk, employees, and technology. In the beginning, several managers were against the change as the new technology would take over some of the old services and, in the long run, would be the dominant service. This was solved by involving the whole management team in the weekly updates, and they eventually got on board after learning how the project would be beneficial to all. This included staff who had to undergo training sessions to understand the benefits of the new technology. The budget risk involved the estimation for the applications that were required. The initial cost was lower than the original price. And this was corrected through early communication with the CEO, who was able to avail of the funds. The downtimes experienced during the implementation face led to delays in the execution of the project. This was handled through the communication of any planned maintenance.

Quality Control

Quality standards were earlier set and mostly revolved around the quality of service and cybersecurity. A quality checklist was then drafted in which the quality of the deliverables was checked after every deliverable. A security strategy and security risk strategy were also developed earlier in the project to cover cybersecurity. Improvements were made during the testing phase on all requirements that did not meet the quality checklist.

Communication Management

Staff meetings were held weekly to check on the progress of the project. During these meetings, any new issues that had arisen were dealt with immediately. And the staff were prepped on their roles and duties. There were frequent meetings with management, to update them on the progress of the project, including the milestones and deliverables. There were also weekly emails to management to confirm the development of the project. And to communicate any issues that had arisen. Customers were notified through the company website, where the marketing team prepared them for the new service that the company would be offering.

Customer Expectation Management

During the project, the team was optimistic but realistic when handling customers. We were always realistic about the solutions the new technology would offer. This helped in managing the customer expectations during the project period as the customers new what they will get after the implementation. The team was honest and transparent from the beginning, and this also increased customer trust.

Lessons Learned

The project was successful even with the few shortcomings during the various project phases. The team was able to work hard and overcome the few shortcomings and deliver the expected project. Future projects for the implementation of technology like this one will require a bigger budget that will be able to cater for additional skilled staff. The current project had a few shortcomings due to the lack of sufficient qualified personnel in the area. The cost for equipment, including software, keeps fluctuating, and the cost will need to be estimated on a higher side to prevent any deficit. Testing is essential to test the quality standards that have been set for the project.

References

Zahir Irani & Peter Love. (2008) Evaluating Information Systems. Public and Private Sector.

Al-Yaseen, Hussein & Al-Jaghoub, Saheer & Al-Shorbaji, Maher & Salim, Maher. (2010). Post-Implementation Evaluation of HealthCare Information Systems in Developing Countries.

Washington Luna Encalada & José Luis Castillo Sequera. (2017). Model to Implement Virtual Computing Labs via Cloud Computing Services