Project Management Consulting Company

Term Paper: Final Project

This assignment consists of two (2) sections: a written paper and a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). You must submit the two (2) sections as separate files for the completion of this assignment. Label each file name according to the section of the assignment it is written for.

The final term project for this course is based off the background that follows below. Your submission will demonstrate your mastery of project management techniques and tools such as Microsoft Project management in accordance with the PMBOK® knowledge and process areas. You will be graded on the quality, supported assumptions, and the level of detail.

Background

You are a small project management consulting company called Big-Proj that is looking for that big break.  You are one of ten (1 of 10) project managers in your organization. Recently, you made a persuasive and high-level presentation of your company’s approach to managing projects on time and on schedule in accordance with the PMBOK®. Leads are pouring in. It looks like business is about to pick up. Your small but experienced team of ten (10) PMP-certified project managers have managed a wide range of small capital projects, namely wiring closets, wireless, data center moves, network upgrades, and ERP deployments. You have been selected to initiate, plan, execute, monitor, and control and close a data center move in a 30-day period.

Overview

Fiction Corporation is a large national retail chain of 10,000 employees and 500 retail outlets. Fiction is moving its primary data center operation to a new headquarters building several miles away. The company wishes to upgrade its network and correct any security flaws in its infrastructure as part of this move. The Fiction CEO has informed you that the capital budget cannot exceed $500,000 and must not interrupt business operations. What follows is a brief overview that will serve as your foundation in developing the network design.

The data in the center supports remote retail locations, an off-site 100-seat call center and 3 remote warehousing operations 24 hours a day. Any significant downtime to its production systems would impact Fiction Corporation’s operations and profitability. From the data processing viewpoint, the move includes 2 large UPS, 4 RS/6000 AIX application servers, 10 virtualized servers, and 20 PC servers.

The network consists of approximately 500 remote location retail stores connected via frame relay (with ISDN backup) to 10 routers at the data center running a common LAN shared by the entire organization. The retail operations also run WLANs that are on their own subnet. You will have a T1 link and ISDN as its backup. Network managers also need to monitor the status of remote systems. The SNMP management system must be able to detect and report failure of the remote system or its communications link and the status of individual applications.

The company wishes a seamless migration that minimizes impact to its customers and employees. Any gaps in this background will require you to make sound technical and persuasive assumptions that satisfy the customer’s goals that are within the budget guidelines.

You were selected in part due to your detailed analysis and agreement to an implementation cost that will not exceed $500,000. Your network migration plan will be in accordance to the PMBOK® process areas and will use standard project management software to manage the budget and associated tasks. Key to the success of this plan is adherence to the scope, time, and cost baseline.

Technically, the client must ensure the availability of a T1 link between the remote sites to support remote bridging and development of configurations for all the remote routers.

Students may have to create fictitious assumptions and details in support of this assignment.

Section 1: Written paper

Required Format (MS Project File)

1. Write a ten to fifteen (10-15) page paper in which you:

a. Describe how you would initiate the project.

b. Create a project plan for moving the data center, considering the budget and time

constraints.

c. Develop an inclusive plan that incorporates the five (5) process areas and nine (9)

knowledge areas of the PMBOK®.

d. Describe how you will monitor and control the plan.

e. Explain the methods you would use to close the project.

f. Use at least four (4) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar

Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

Section 1 of your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all

sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your

professor for any additional instructions.

• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s

name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in

the required assignment page length.

Section 2: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Required Format (MS Project File)

2. Use Microsoft Project or Open Project (.mpp format) to create the project work breakdown

structure (WBS) and resource sheet.

Section 2 of your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Microsoft Project or its open source alternative in .mpp format.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Describe the knowledge and processes areas of project management in accordance to the

Project Management Institute Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) Guide.

• Evaluate the different cost management factors in an IT project management context.

• Identify how project management improves the success of information technology projects.

• Summarize the tools and techniques in project procurement.

• Use technology and information resources to research issues in IT project management.

• Write clearly and concisely about issues in IT project management using proper writing

mechanics and technical style conventions.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and

language and writing skills, using the following rubric.

Successful Written Paper Criteria

1a) Describe how you would initiate the project

Thoroughly described how you would initiate the project

1b) Create a project plan for moving the data, considering the budget and time constraints.

Thoroughly created a project plan for moving the data center, considering the budget and time constraints.

1c) Develop an inclusive plan that incorporates the five (5) process areas and nine (9) knowledge areas of the PMBOK®.

Thoroughly developed an inclusive plan that incorporates the 5 process areas and 9 knowledge areas of the PMBOK®.

1d. Describe how you will monitor and control the plan

Thoroughly described how you will monitor and control the plan.

1e. Explain the methods you would use to close the project.

Thoroughly explained the methods you would use to close the project.

1f) Need at 4 references

Successful Work Breakdown Structure

2. Use Microsoft Project or Open Project (.mpp format) to create the project work breakdown

structure (WBS) and resource sheet.

Thoroughly incompletely used Microsoft Project or Open Project (.mpp format) to create

the project work breakdown structure (WBS) and resource sheet.

3. Clarity, writing mechanics, and formatting requirements

Thoroughly incompletely used Microsoft Project or Open Project (.mpp format) to create

the project work breakdown structure (WBS) and resource sheet.