Rollout of an Operating System Upgrade - Essay Example

Running head: Rollout of an Operating System Upgrade; A Project Plan Rollout of an Operating System Upgrade; A Project Plan Rollout of an Operating System Upgrade; A Project Plan Introduction The Information Technology (IT) industry is one of the fastest developing sectors in economies across the world. As with all other sectors, the IT industry has its own peculiarities which should be identified before applying the general principles of Project Management to the IT industry. Some of these peculiarities are; the unique risks entailing innovative risk management, extremely short deadlines for the completion of the projects, the short shelf life of the finished products and finally the requirement of periodic upgrades to lengthen the shelf life of the project (Cockburn, Alistair 2001). This report will attempt to integrate these factors into a project report which will be based on a fictional company Tomato Inc and the upgrade to their popular operating System bacOS. Company Profile To gain an accurate perspective of this project management plan, it is essential that the profile of the company be covered in brief. Tomato Inc was one the earliest companies making desktop personal computer established in the now famous Silicon Valley. It has a rich history of product innovation and has successfully expanded its presence in areas like media players and other digital devices which are not traditionally associated with hardware manufacturers. The company follows an aggressive marketing strategy and boasts of the highest brand loyalty from its existing user base in the present IT industry. Though the company has diversified into other areas, its PC business still remains vital to its revenue generation model. The major strength of the company has been product innovation and the stress on the usability ("end user" experience"). This has fetched the company a niche market in the PC industry. The Tomato desktop PCs and the bacOS have a brand loyalty in the PC market which can only be described as fanatic Project Description Tomato Inc follows a vertically integrated business model. The vertically integrated model followed by Tomato Inc has created several compatibility problems with various computer peripherals which have now become an integral part of the personal computer, these compatibility issues are solved by upgrading the bacOS periodically. These upgrades are made available on the website of Tomato Inc which can de downloaded without cost after authentication. This report will attempt to document the project plan of an upgrade to the bacOS to ensure compatibility of the bacOS with the digital camera portfolio manufactured by Bikon Inc. Bikon Inc has a product portfolio of seventy three digital cameras. On entering the US market, Bikon Inc has signed an agreement with Tomato Inc that makes it necessary for upgrading bacOS to support the digital cameras of Bikon Inc. Scope of the Project as an Objective Statement Create and launch an upgrade to the bacOS to ensure the compatibility of the digital camera portfolio of Bikon Inc (as defined in the service contract signed by Bikon Inc and Tomato Inc on 07 Feb 07). The scope of the project includes the design of the hardware connectors required to interface the iBac PC with the Bikon digital cameras. Major Deliverables of the Project The final deliverable for this project is the completed, tested and the launched upgrade to the bacOS which will enable it to support the product portfolio of Bikon Inc (as defined in the service contract signed by Bikon Inc and Tomato Inc on 07 Feb 07). There are two major deliverables for this project which will precede the final deliverable. The first deliverable is the detailed software specification document developed by a combined software development team comprising of the representatives of both Tomato Inc and Bikon Inc), this team has already been constituted by the Bikon Tomato integration taskforce. This specification document will contain the specific details of the various technical processes involved in creating the required OS upgrade. Another important issue to be covered is the relevance of the existing software modules. The second deliverable is the launch of the beta version developed amongst selected users for evaluation and testing. It is important to specify the character of this limited launch. This launch will not be advertised in general publications or non technical websites, will be restricted to the US market and only 70000 downloads will be allowed. The target dates for the release of the final deliverables and the major deliverables will be confirmed only after the completion of the project plan, its optimization and finally validated by the Tomato Bikon Integration task force. The Project Team It is important to formalize the design team working on this project as it involves two organizations. The reporting mechanism and the auditing authority also should be specified to facilitate project management. The auditing authority will be the Tomato Bikon Integration Task force. The project team will provide a weekly progress report to the Task force. Contractual and Resource Requirements This project is a result of a contract between Tomato Inc and Bikon Inc. This contract has several features which have to be taken into consideration while planning the project. Firstly the allotment of work and its scheduling will be at the discretion of the software development team head, who will belong to Tomato Inc. This is essential to preserve the confidentiality of the source code of bacOS. The next contractual feature which is essential to the development of a project management plan is the date of completion of the project as mandated by the contract. This is an important factor has it has a direct significance on all aspects of project management. This project has hardware implications in terms of the design of the connectors which will interface the iBac PC with the Bikon digital camera. The scope of the project also includes the development of this interface. Basic Framework Processes A total of three basic frameworks will be specified at this stage. These will be reviewed and finalized during the optimization and the validation stages. The first framework will be the project file which will be maintained by the project manager and will be archived on a daily basis in the servers of both Tomato Inc and Bikon Inc. The second framework is the use of the standard general issues/actionable issues/ change log format as the basis for recording and reviewing progress of the project. The last issue is the schedule of the review meetings. The software development team will hold its review meetings on Fridays and this meeting will be chaired by the Project Manager. The Tomato Bikon Integration Task Force will hold its review meeting twice a month to review the progress made by the software development team. Risk Analysis The analysis of the various risks possible is integral to the project plan. There are certain pre requisites to effectively carry out risk analysis. They are the project charter, the relevant organizational policies of the companies involved and the work breakdown structure and the network analysis (Friedlein, Ashley 2001). This is an analysis that is best carried out as a team activity by the project management team. (Berkun, Scot 2005) The nature of this specific project also promotes this approach as two different companies are involved with each possessing a different area of expertise. Both these areas of expertise have to be reconciled to create an integrated risk management plan. As a team based approach has been decided, there are two methodologies which have the potential to provide good results (Berkun, Scot 2005). The first is the method of brainstorming; this has been seen to be a particularly effective method to generate the various scenarios which can pose a risk to the proposed project. The second is a Japanese method called Ishikawa or the cause and effect methodology. This has the potential to be used in a variety of applications including risk analysis. This approach also identifies the root causes of the identified risks; this is useful when preparing a risk management plan. In addition this method combines the advantages of brainstorming.After the identification of the risks, the subsequent steps involve their quantification and finally implementing a risk management plan. Some issues involved in the formulation of the risk response strategy are the avoidance, transference, mitigation and acceptance (Berkun, Scot 2005). A discussion on all these issues is outside the scope of this report. Some of the risks which were identified for this project are given below Security risks. The possibility of the OS upgrade creating security vulnerability is very real and has to be factored into the planning phase of the project. The most relevant risk management response is risk transference. This is achieved by outsourcing the security concerns of the project to a third party. System instability. As an upgrade to the OS is involved, there is a real danger to it destabilizing the system. The appropriate risk response strategy is mitigation, this response is best achieved by sticking to well accepted and documented interface like USB or FireWire. This provides the team with a pool of persons already aware of the possible scenarios for system instability. Hardware conflicts. The product portfolio of Bikon Inc is large with more than seventy products; the product portfolio supports more than 23 types of micro processors. This risk of a conflict can be avoided by suitable planning and identifying the areas of conflict. Once identified, the team has suitable expertise to avoid a conflict. Project Monitoring and Control After the development of the project plan, it is imperative to lay down the mechanism for monitoring the project. This should include the various factors that have to be monitored and the periodicity of this monitoring should also be specified. It is useful to specify these issues in a standard format for the status report. This report should contain the progress achieved during the report period under consideration, the problems faced by the team and the approach utilized to solve them, the plan of action for the next reporting period and finally the problems expected to be encountered. It is useful to include the financial state of the project at this stage to give the monitoring team an idea of the expenditure incurred by the project team till the point of review (Berkun, Scot 2005). The key to a responsive approach to project management is the necessity to regularly monitor the project, so as to anticipate problem areas and to formulate response strategies in time. Financial Aspects of Project Management The project manager should be an integral part of the team that analyzes and finalizes the scope of the project (Silbiger, Steven 1999). Due to various considerations, this approach is not always followed, leading to situations where the project manager is presented with a predefined scope, at this stage it is imperative to accurately determine the budget for the project (Project Management Institute 2007). This is usually done by carrying out a cost estimate of the project. This cost estimate will lay down the framework within which the project will be executed. Periodic cost estimates will provide the monitoring agency an accurate idea of the final cost of the project. If the figure arrived at is considerably higher than the initial budget, there is a definite need to cut costs or reduce the scope of the project (Bullock, James and Gerald Weinberg 2001). In normal circumstances the scope of the project is non negotiable. Conclusion This report has attempted to document the project plan of a fictional product of a fictional company. A detailed work breakdown structure and network analysis will be the next logical step. This is vital in order to develop a practical schedule for the product development. This report has quantified the deliverables of this project in terms of the final deliverables and the major deliverables which will precede the final deliverable. However the project deadline has not been quantified as the work breakdown structure and the network analysis are essential to get a realistic deadline. The various risk evaluation mechanisms have been discussed and some response strategies discussed. The importance of the project monitoring mechanism and the various factors which will be included for this project have been specified. The various factors which are essential for financial regulation of the project have also been studied. References Berkun, Scot. (2005): The Art of Project Management. New York. O Reilly Silbiger, Steven. (1999): The Ten-Day MBA. Quill Bullock, James and Gerald Weinberg. (2001). Roundtable on Project Management: A SHAPE Forum Dialog. Dorset House Cockburn, Alistair. (2001). Agile Software Development. Addison Wesley Friedlein, Ashley. (2001). Web Project Management. Morgan Kaufmann Project Management Institute (PMI), Retrieved from www.pmi.org on 24 Feb 07 Read More