Network installation project overview and implementation

Network Project

Project Scope

Discussion of Project Schedule

Risk Analysis

Project Scope

The scope of this project consists of the Heath Robinson Web hosting company using a second floor in a building in East Anglia Industrial Estate and using the space to set up five fully functional web hosting servers plus another computer for sever maintenance and one additional one for development per room. This means that there will be a total of forty servers installed as well as sixteen additional computers. Ten people will be employed in this project, however not will be required to work on the project simultaneously. Therefore this project will as a cross functional project team and the employees will only share responsibilities with their normal business functional units. The project can be thought of in three distinct project phases and milestones.

There will first be the constructional phase which will prepare the site for the serves to be installed and the associated offices will be prepared the server maintenance and development areas. Each room can be prepared one at a time. Though this may decrease efficiencies in construction, this will allow for some overlapping of the project phases since the construction phase is on the project's critical path. This project proposal recommends that a rack server design be implemented to maximize the utilization of the space available. This will allow room for the offices need for the employees to have easy access to the actual hardware itself. The first milestone will be reached when the site preparation is concluded.

The second phase of the project will be to install the recommend hardware components on site. Before this can be accomplished, the task predecessors are the construction phase, hardware planning, purchasing and delivery of the equipment. While this occurring the software planning can be accomplish and should have some slack time available before the software can be installed. After the physical installation of the servers themselves, there must be time allocated to network the servers together. This will require careful planning and mapping of the network beforehand, however this can be completed when the other phases are being executed. The network will be comprised of three separate layers; the core layer, an intermediate layer, and also a user layer. The necessary network switches and routers will be designed and purchased based on these specifications.

The software phase will be comprised of the selection of the platform, purchasing the licenses for the software platform, and finally rigorous testing of the system must be completed before being integrated into the organizations primary business operations. The ideal network type and configuration should be judged against five separate criteria (Moberg, 1999). These criteria can be thought of as different dimensions to the planning process. These dimensions are physical, protocol, management, application, and cultural acceptance. Each dimension plays an important role in the choosing the type of network and also the configuration necessary to achieve the desired results. Each of these dimensions will be discussed in regards to the proposed network that is included in this project proposal.

Project Analysis

Cost Description

Amount

Construction Costs

£30,000.00

Server Costs

£50,000.00

Networking Costs

£4,200.00

Software License

£6,300.00

Payroll

£15,000.00

£105,500.00

The total project budget will consist of £105,500.00 and is broken down into more specific segments in the illustration above. It is estimated that this solution will save the organization five thousand pounds per month because they will no longer need to employ an external vendor to maintain their web servers. With these assumptions the breakeven point for the project benefit will break even slightly after twenty one month's or in roughly 1.75 years. The statement of cash flows below illustrates this estimate:

Period

Project Cash flows

In-house Server Savings

Net Cash flow

1

£105,500.00

£100,500.00

2

£95,500.00

3

£90,500.00

4

£85,500.00

5

£80,500.00

6

£75,500.00

7

£70,500.00

8

£65,500.00

9

£60,500.00

10

£55,500.00

11

£50,500.00

12

£45,500.00

13

£40,500.00

14

£35,500.00

15

£30,500.00

16

£25,500.00

17

£20,500.00

18

£15,500.00

19

£10,500.00

20

£5,500.00

21

£500.00

Furthermore, since the equipment has an expected life of five years it will be saving the organization five thousand pounds per month for sixty months. The net present value for the sum of the future cash flows calculated annual with a ten percent return is £227,447.21. The resulting net benefit for the entire project is £121,947.21 calculated in terms of its present day worth thus making the ROI a favorable investment. This estimate is calculated at a ten percent rate of return which also represents a very conservative effort based the status of the world economy. If the rate was reduced it would act to reduce the present value of the future payments to the external vendor and consequently make the project even more valuable in term of present value.

This project also offers an incredible rate of return when considering the IRR value. The cash flows are presented as annual figures in the chart represented below:

Period

Annual Cash flows

1

-£45,500.00

2

£14,500.00

3

£74,500.00

4

£134,500.00

5

£194,500.00

IRR

Project Analysis

Construction Planning

3d

Thu 4/1/10

Mon 4/5/10

Hardware Planning

5d

Thu 4/1/10

Wed 4/7/10

Software Planning

10d

Thu 4/1/10

Wed 4/14/10

Purchase Materials

2d

Tue 4/6/10

Wed 4/7/10

1

Construction

15d

Thu 4/8/10

Wed 4/28/10

4

Purchase Hardware

5d

Thu 4/8/10

Wed 4/14/10

2

Install Servers

10d

Thu 4/8/10

Wed 4/21/10

4

Network Servers

10d

Thu 4/22/10

Wed 5/5/10

7

7

Install Software

3d

Thu 5/6/10

Mon 5/10/10

8

Test Software

5d

Tue 5/11/10

Mon 5/17/10

9

The lists of all activities are broken down in the activities listed above.

The GANTT chart for these activities listed is illustrated below.

Discussion of Project Schedule

The first activity list is the construction planning segment. This is estimated to take three days to plan all of the construction requirements. Although this number represents a conservative estimate, there will be plenty of time to make the necessary adjustments on the fly as the construction team work. Adequate ventilation, heating and cooling is a must to maintain an appropriate environment for the servers to operate in. Since the proposal utilizes rack servers this is especially important as they are prone to overheating. Another notable and relevant activity is the scheduling allowance for ordering the construction materials. The project allows for two days for the materials to be rounded up. If some materials in the construction phase are not readily acquirable then they can also be delivered while the construction is in progress. There are many various flexibilities that can be rearranged in this phase of the project.

When the construction begins the planning for the hardware and the software will be underway. This will allow adequate slack since this is a very important activity in terms of the project being successful. The estimates for the servers and rack mounting systems for the budget were obtained from Dell's website and therefore during this planning activity it is possible that the hardware team can act to drastically reduce these costs since there may exist lower cost alternatives than using Dell as the hardware manufacture.

Once construction is complete and the hardware that is chosen during the hardware planning activities arrives on site then the hardware installation phase can ensue. This activity is estimate at ten days which equates to roughly four servers per day plus the addition of the peripheral computers. This also is a conservative estimate however if the construction team has to come back for any reason, then this would definitely justify the slightly padded hardware installation phase.

The networking activity may be one of the most logistically demanding physical aspects of the project and requires that a detailed network map be made during the planning section. If the network map is drawn out adequately then it will make this activity run fairly smoothly. Therefore the project manager is recommended to monitor the planning very carefully to ensure that the design is properly prepared. Once all of the hardware and networking is completed then this will represent the projects second major milestone.

The final project stage will be the one most prone to delays by it project historical standards. Since these are standard network servers however the project estimates that these can be installed in a relatively short amount of time. In fact, the budget estimates allowed for the servers to come fully installed with server operating systems directly from the factory. However, the project could potentially be altered in the software planning phase if it was deemed that purchasing the servers' operating systems separately provide any substance advantage.