Meridian Social Welfare Agency 1

Peak LAN Project

Christopher Lamar Cooper, Ken Charpkowski, Sasidi Flores

Tracy Buer

October 24, 2011

Tony Sines

Southwestern College Professional Studies

Meridian Social Welfare Agency 2

Peak LAN Project

Introduction/Background

Peak Systems is a small information systems consulting firm located in Meridian,

Louisiana. The company was awarded a contract to design and install a local area network

(LAN) for the city of Meridians Social Welfare Agency. This is a very unique project for Peak

Systems as resources for the project include two interns from the local university.

Peak has a tight project schedule of 30 days to complete installation of the LAN system

with a fixed budget of $90,000. The project requires twenty workstations and twenty laptop

computers, a server with dual core processors, two laser printers, Windows 2008 R2 server

workstation that can run (Vista/Windows 7). Peak System must also provide four hours of

introduction training for the clients and personnel that will be using the system and sixteen hours

of training for client network administrator.

The milestones that has been give to the company is a January 22nd date for hardware,

setting users priority and authorization on January 26th, and an in-house whole network test

completed February 2nd. The final step includes training the staff and administrator with a

completion date of February 16th.

There are some limits and exclusions for this project; the system maintenance and repair

only up to one month after the final inspection and all the warranties for the equipment will be

transferred to the client. Also Peak will be only responsible for installing software designated by

the client two weeks before the start of the project. All other training or installation efforts the

client will be billed separately.

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The technical requirements for the Peak System (expanding from the work statement

listed above) are workstations with 17-inch flat panel monitors, dual-core processors, 2 GB

RAM, 8X DVD+RW, wireless card, Ethernet card, 80 GB hard drive. The laptops with 12-inch

display monitor, dual core processors, 2 GB RAM, 8X DVD+RW, wireless card, Ethernet card,

60 GB hard drive and weigh less than 4 lbs. The system must provide secure external access

for field workers and the system must support Windows Vista/Windows 7 platform.

Peak LAN Risk

An important piece to any project is risk management. Risk management is a proactive rather

than reactive approach which:

Reduces surprises and negative consequences

Prepares the project manager to take advantage of appropriate risks

Provides better control over the future

Improves chances of reaching project performance objectives within budget and on time

The first step of risk identification is to generate a list of possible risks through

brainstorming, problem identification and risk profiling. The initial emphasis should be on

Macro risks, then specific events. (Meredith, 2009)

Technical Risks

Constraints related to the networked sequence in which project activities must

occur

Backup strategies if chosen technology fails and if required Windows platforms

are not available

Assessing whether technical uncertainties can be resolved

Schedule Risks

Imposed duration dates (Hardware 22 Jan Training complete of 16 Feb)

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Compression of project schedules due to a shortened project duration date

Resource Constraints

The absence, shortage, or unique interrelationship and interaction characteristics

of resources that require a particular sequencing of project activities

Manpower availability of two college interns could be affected by between school

session issues. i.e. grades, tuition payments, or personal issues preventing return

for spring semester

Mardi Gras Event runs Jan 16 thru Feb 21 and could impact clients personnels

availability for training

Costs Risks

Time/cost dependency links: costs increase when problems take longer to solve

than expected.

Price protection risks (a rise in input costs) increase if the duration of a project is

increased.

Funding Risks

Changes in the supply of funds for the project can dramatically affect the

likelihood of implementation or successful completion of a project.

Meridian Social Services fall under the state of Louisiana and could be impacted

by state budget reduction.

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Risk Assessment Matrix

RISK EVENT LIKELIHOOD IMPACT DETECTION WHEN

DIFFICULTY

Hardware Delay 4 5 3 Scheduled installation date

After installation users can not

3 4 4
Backup Failures access old system files
Intern schedule conflicts during
Resource Constraints 3 3 3
project installation.
Technical Malfunction of new
2 5 5 Occurs at installation.
Hardware
Unplanned costs or delays create
2 2 4 Budget overrun due to time/cost
Budget Cost Risk
dependency
State Agency has risk of losing
Funding 2 5 5
funding

The above matrix evaluates the risk, severity of the risk and the probability the risk will

occur and how difficult the detection is to discover. The project for Meridian Social Service

Agency included a fixed budget of $90,000 and a tight 30 day schedule. Both risks can be

managed with contingency plans; however they are interdependent upon each other. Simply

stated if delays occur, the more likely the budget could be impacted.

Risks need to be evaluated in terms of likelihood the event will occur and the impact or

consequences of the occurrence. (Meredith, 2009) In terms of the Peak LAN Project, evaluating

the risks proactively proved to be a challenge for the technical risks. Testing the risks could not

be completed prior to installation or deliver of the hardware. The project manager would need to

react to these situations and develop solutions that could result in increased costs as well as

schedule delays. In addition to technical delays, Peak LAN utilized interns could lead to resource

constraints during installation. The project manager could eliminate this risk by obtaining

schedule commitments from the interns so that additional resources could be contracted to

eliminate the shortage of resources.

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Risk Response

RISK EVENT RESPONSE CONTINGENCY PLAN TRIGGER WHO IS RESPONSIBLE

Prepare design and Identify the Critical Path and make the
installation of Local Area Avoid: Review Design necessary changes to prepare for a delay Behind schedule Project Manager
Network(LAN)
Monitors not working
Review Hardware Mitigate: Select reliable and CPUs not loading
vendor Order replacement Two interns
Transfer: Warranty

Correct errors accordingly and work on Project Manager and Peak

System Performance Mitigate: Test System issues until assistance is needed Not solved within 48 professional
Monitoring hours

Mitigate: Review the Peak Project Manager and Peak

User Criticism Systems training methods for Create a troubleshooting logic tree Call from Director Professional
possible tweaks

In a systematic process of project risk management, after risk assessment is

implemented, the risk analysts encounter the phase of assessment and selection of the project risk

response actions (RA) (Seyedhoseini, Noori & Hatefi, 2009). Within the realm of project

management, there are many challenges that will be encountered. The Risk response matrix

assists project managers by, summarizing how the project team plans to manage risks that have

been identified (Larson & Gray, 2011). In assessing the risks associated with this project, the

team will have to address the contingency plan that will be implemented for each risk. The

design stage involves how Peak Systems will install a local area network (LAN) for the Meridian

Social Service Agency. The one trigger that the project manager is concerned about in this stage

is falling behind on schedule. The project manager has determined that to avoid this issue,

identifying the critical paths and making all the necessary changes to prepare for a delay will

ensure that the project moves along smoothly.

The next risk event revolves around the hardware. The contract for this project includes

the delivery of twenty workstations, twenty laptops, one server, and two color laser printers. The
Meridian Social Welfare Agency 7

project manager understands that when this much hardware is involved in any contract the

chance of receiving faulty equipment will increase. In order to mitigate this risk, the two interns

will track the delivery of the hardware from beginning to end. This will allow the team to know

in advance, if any, flaws within the delivery logistics of the hardware is present. If an event of

this nature should occur, the team will immediately arrange for the hardware to be delivered by

another company. The project manager understands that this could possibly cause some delay,

but the team would be able to save half of the delay time depending on how soon the delivery

problem is assessed.

Although it is impossible to eliminate all risk events, some specific risks may be

avoided before you launch the project (Larson & Gray, 2011). The simplest way to avoid certain

risks is to ensure that the team purchases proven technology. In the same respect, the project

manager has to keep a keen eye on the budget allotted. This is where project managers earn their

money, because they understand that some phase of the project has to be compromised to keep

within budget, and the question then becomes, what gets compromised? Within the scope of this

project, the project manager has purchased proven equipment and limited the system

maintenance and repair to one month.

During the system performance monitoring, the in-house whole network testing could be

affected by the system freezing, which could cause a delay. Another issue that the team could

run in to is the inability to provide secure external access to field workers. The project manager

and the peak professional have decided that they will work on any errors that may occur

accordingly, and if they get to the point where they cant figure the problem out, they will bring

in outside assistance. This logic allows the team to troubleshoot the problem, and if they cant

correct it, they know exactly who to contact and what to get a price quote for.
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Throughout this course, we have discussed organizational culture and office politics, and

both can become evident in this project if the team does not properly prepare for it. The final

risk event of this project will involve training. The risk of red tape when setting user priorities

and authorizations is going to be dependent upon the culture of the organization. Even though it

is spelled out in the contract that the client will be responsible for any additional time allotted for

training, the team has decided to create a troubleshooting logic tree as a contingency plan for any

delays within this task. The team will make the training as user friendly as possible to allow for

those employees with a slower learning curve.

Conclusion

Peak Systems, LAN project consisted of a tight schedule and a fixed budget. The team

addressed Risk Matrix and Risk Response in order to help mitigate any issues that may come up

in the project plan. Technical installation project such as this project provide an even bigger

challenges than other projects as many of the risks cannot be identified until the actual software

and hardware are installed.

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References

Larson, E.W., & Gray, C.F. (2011). Project management the managerial process fifth edition.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Meredith J.R., Mantel S.J. (2009) Project Management w/CD 7th Ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
Publishers.

Seyedhoseini, S., Noori, S., & Hatefi, M. (2009). An Integrated Methodology for Assessment and
Selection of the Project Risk Response Actions. Risk Analysis: An International Journal, 29(5),
752-763. doi:10.1111/j.1539-6924.2008.01187.