Help with a plan

[cogdev]

Here is my assignment:

You are an IT Manager who has been placed in charge of implementing a DSS.
Lay out a plan for the next 2 years on how you will go about doing this.
Describe how you would work with others in the Organization.
Include a description of the human, technical, and financial resources you would need
Describe anticipated challenges and strategies you would use to overcome these in order to implement the new system.


Can you provide a big picture view of how this plan will look?

 

[BNPMike]

It's a catch question. Since you don't know what you're doing (typical situation) you can't budget or plan. Or at least not more than for the next 2-5 weeks. You need to know who wants the DSS, what they want it to give them (profit, market share, statutory returns...?) and how much therefore it is profitable to spend.

Seriously though, that is the sort of subject that people write 500 page books about. There's no simple answer.

 

[cogdev]

But if we ignore the resource constraints etc, what exactly will be the major milestones/phases? I tried to find a book recommeded on another thread , Adelman's but I could not find it. It is out of stock and has to be ordered.

 

[PDQBach]

This is, presumably, a high school or university assignment question.

So: answer the question by defining your DSS. Once you've said what functionality you will support, everything falls into place. You next (and every succeeding step) is standard project management: define the deliverables (WBS), define the effort, define the tasks, schedule the tasks and predecessor/successor relationships, determine the resources you are going to assign to your project and assign them to the tasks. Fairly straight forward, actually.

Finally, prepare the risk mitigation and communications plans.

Remember, this isn't real life: it's an effort by your teacher to see what you're thinking -- or if you can think at all.

Look at your final mark, look at the marks for this assignment and budget your time and effort accordingly.

 

[cjowsey]

Start by questioning everything you have been told and get it validated. For example, in the real world, I would be very suspicious of being asked to manage a two year (or longer) project without a lot more information on how and why the time frame had been estimated. Potentially long projects should be minimised where possible.

Anything you can't get an unambiguous answer for should be listed in your issues and assumptions log and circulated among the project stakeholders (probably your teacher and maybe the rest of your workgroup) for verification or repudiation.

 

[BNPMike]

As we've said, in the real world this is a nonsense question (although many projects sadly do go like this). For an assignment simply refer back to the coursework preceeding this task and incorporate the taught elements.

In your submission, emphasise to the marker that extensive review of the initiation phase issues (owners, purpose, sucess factors, business case etc etc) is far more important than the majority of the elements that form most structured methodologies (planning, risks/issues, quality etc).

 

[cogdev]

Great advice guys. I presented them with a charter firts, then I went on to discuss the various stages. Systems /business Analysis, Market research,fit-gap, development, testing, deployment....thought it went well actually....

 

[johnherman]

I have a copy of the Adelman and Moss book. Would $200 be too much to ask? Kidding. Amazon has it.

1. Data Warehouse Project Management
by Sid Adelman, Larissa T. Moss (Paperback - December 15, 2000)
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The trouble with doing something right the first time is that noboby appreciates how difficult it was.
- Steven Wright

 

[A0C61ZZ]

To begin with prepare a Word document for collecting knowledge of the existing system.
The document should list
1. Existing system
2. Proposed system (be careful not to turn this in a detailed design document)
3. Brief architecture, interfaces, etc
4. Existing Business Processes
5. Existing Change Management & Quality Processes (and the processes you would propose)
6. Existing development methodology or the dev methodology/plan you would be following.
7. Current or Proposed Development, QA environments.
8. Stakeholders/ Users/Developers
9. Other interfacing/interacting systems
At the end of this document you should would be having a clear picture of what you have in hand and where you are heading?
Rgds,
A0C61ZZ