IT Project Management Plan - Term Paper Example

IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN Name Name of class Tutor Name of school City and state Date Introduction With the improvements in technology, communication systems are becoming more than just computers connected by physical cables. Information technology has evolved to the level of becoming field creativity in transfer and manipulation of information. The interconnected points in a computer network are called stations or the nodes. Computer networking permit users to handle information without the limitations of time and space. This paper is a management paper for information handling systems at KTN Broadcasting. Previously, the organization has been using standalone systems for internal communication, communication between branches have been through support external entities such as public mail provider. The project aims to develop a company wireless network for all branches. Consideration is given to quality assessment frameworks. Project Scope This is a documentation of all quality assurance tasks and practices that will be observed by the site IT project management team to ensure that all objectives and purpose of the intervention to introduce wireless communication systems to KTN is completed successfully. This plan is derived from the contract agreement and thus, should be considered in relation to set guidelines in the agreement. The intervention will apply quality assurance in delivering services to effectively and efficiently satisfy its customer’s needs i.e. public, employees, management and the customers. 1.1 Project quality requirements For the success of the project, the customer, owner and employee requirements are determined critically evaluating the nature of information required by each party. The project quality assessment framework will follow standards applicable to upgrade communication systems. Consideration for quality check will entail: Developing an Asset Inspection System – that ensures each communication channel is systematically and regularly inspected to identify defects and subsequently to confirm that improvements are made, Joint inspection and Joint Assessment – to develop a program of services to be carried out during the upgrade Carrying out inspection in accordance with the asset inspection system to identify any limitation which requires intervention nominated in project specifications 1.2 Quality policy and quality standards The council will implement a communication management process which encompasses; defect identification, repair of those defects according to their urgency and recording and reporting. The project controller will arrange any system design work associated with the contract as per contract requirements. The systems controller arranges to survey for set-out or for alteration. The project manager will do induction and training and his directive team to ensure that all on-site personnel engaged in the project have undergone an appropriate induction program, which ensures they are aware of how the quality system is to be implemented on the project. Standard will be catered for by ensuring that all equipment used for inspection and testing are regularly checked and maintained in good working order to ensure reliable performance and accurate results. If an item falls out of the operation parameters, its integrity will be ascertained through test system runs and repaired for conformity with the expectations. Alternatively, in cases of severe parallel to the system, the implement may have to be discarded. 1.3 Quality management plan Quality planning starts with the identification of what must be achieved by the project using the available process and major project objectives. The plan proceeds to the implementation process and post implementation assessment for quality standards, this project will follow the following steps in quality planning. Determining what to do – the process which leads to the end result required by the customers. Evaluating possibilities of failure and its results on the overall project quality. Defining the process and steps in performing the upgrade to avoid mistakes and failures that may be dangerous to the project. Defining specific elements to check with the system, what properties to assess and how to report the findings. Review of the result and report on the system performance. 2. QUALITY ASSURANCE PROCESSES 2.1 Quality assurance activities The resultant quality of the output depends on all stages of the project, and thus, quality must be assured in all steps. These include handling, storage, packaging, delivery, installation and testing of implements and systems (where appropriate) to ensure that product quality is not impaired during these operations. The system and safety engineer are responsible for the installation of new systems, for provisions accepted by terms of the contract. The following general guidelines will be observed: Storage of small networking systems in secure location and protected from weather damage Store bulk components such as CPUs, monitors, and UPS in rooms with sufficient moving and loading space. Materials that are highly toxic or dangerous should be stored in accordance with industry specifications. Store electronic gadgets under waterproof raised ground shelter. Products that are susceptible to excessive exposure to radiation should be protected by radiation cover Other items can be stored stipulated by the manufacturer. Consideration should be given checking the quality of products that can possibly deteriorate in quality while in storage, deterioration can originate from excessive accumulation of dust (e.g. degradable parts). If the shelf life has expired, the product will not be incorporated in the project. 2.2 Nonconformity of processes to project plan Nonconformity, in this case, refers to the deviation of the processes from the objectives or guidelines set out for the project. In order to realize the project goals with regard to quality, nonconformity must be regularly checked in improvements done (Rogers, 2006). Thus, the following are elaborate avenues that will be used handling of nonconformity issues. a) Immediately isolate the nonconforming service or material. b) Record and detail the limitation or the nonperformance of the component c) Determine whether the component is likely to fail in future after calibration and use as part of the project. d) Evaluate the impact of the nonperformance with reference to the nature of the project. When necessary, the use of the component must is restricted until a suitable correction method has been identified. e) Identify the best corrective approach; this can be a recommendation to replace, repair, redesign or use in the current state with alteration. Record the solution and how it will fit into the overall system. f) In the cases where the nonperformance impairs the terms of the contract or the original project design specifications, a copy of the nonperformance report should be filled with the product manufacturer, project designer, and manager with two days of detecting the problem. g) The resultant system after the upgrade will be tested in accordance with the project expectations and industry standards, a report on the test results should be documented as dictated by the contract. 2.3 Modifications and corrections to the project. The project manager, owner and design engineer will review the changes to ensure that they agree with project objective. Modifications may be derived from the changing project scope, modifications of the contract specifications or opportunities for further improvement of the system. This plan can be updated to reflect modification introduced into the project. The changes are subject to review by the standard industry specialist and documented. 3 Quality Assessment 3.1 Validation of project results and checking conformity with project goals. In assessing the project success, all steps involved in the upgrade will require validation. The assessment will be done based on the project objectives and industry standards that must be observed. Critical consideration will be given to: Procedures used in the project Check whether the services meet project requirements and Inspection of the results to affirm that industry standard have been observed and implemented in the final work In situations that the project shows unusual characteristics upon completion, a review of the entire process will be done and modifications for conformity introduced. The result at completion must meet the health and safety expectation of the industry and conform to operation standards. 3.2 System review and understanding of system failure. There is need to cater for chances of failure in project implementation, for this project, failure will be reviewed at multiple levels, this includes: Monitoring quality subcontractors deliverables Control of substandard services through evaluation, minor defects rectification, nonconformance in services, resolving subcontractor nonconformance. Quality records Quality audits and surveillance i.e. Contract audits, Council’s internal audits, Project Surveillance of contract and Facilities. Document control 3.3 Application of quality assessment tools in project conformity analysis The quality management tools are part of the quality management cycle and include; Plan, Do which is the implementation of the plan to achieve the quality management plan objectives. Analyze-which aids in the realization and identification of failures and their root causes and lastly improve on the faults to come up with the best plan system (Wysocki). 3.4 Continuous performance monitoring and improvement In cases of the failure of nonconformance, a review will be done to ascertain the root causes and the potential for failure in future; this may entail system evaluation, overhaul and post implementation tests. Any complaint regarding observation of standards will be assessed in a similar manner. Project managers and employees are encouraged to recommend improvement opportunities. The user, owner, and consumer feedback will be taken into consideration and action taken. Quality Assessment of Software: Applicable Codes and Standards In order to qualify the project as safe for all the parties involved, certain standards will be observed in checking the quality of the software that will be introduced. The following are applicable standards: 1. IEEE 754: This is a technical standard that documents all the properties applicable in assessing the quality of floating-point computations, such entail arithmetic, rounding rules, communication interchange format and operation of exceptional data formats (Perrin, 2008). Format layering used in this project must satisfy requirements stipulated in this convention. 2. ASCII: This regulate is applicable in assessing the quality when texts are used in communication. Most wireless communication today use this standard (Maylor, 2005). Characters used in the project must be in conformity with these standards. 3. EBCDIC- This standard will be applicable to IBM operating system and uses an 8-bit character encoding standard (Maylor, 2005). EBCDIC will not be applied in assessing the quality of non-IBM communications. Additional manufacturer specification and direction regarding the use of products will be given consideration; the ultimate safety observation will thus be based on manufacturer recommendations and the standards regarding the use of a particular system component. The software will only be considered safe if the coding conforms to the stipulations listed above while hardware safety will be assessed at physical levels. References Wysocki, R. (2004). Project management improvement. Boston: Artech House. Rogers, R. (2006). Syngress IT security management handbook. Rockland, MA: Syngress Publications. Perrin, R. (2008). Real world project management. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. Maylor, H. (2005). Project management. Harlow, England: FT Prentice Hall. Read More