Makerere University

Faculty of Computing and Information Technology

PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT IN PROJECT AND ORGANIZATION CHANGE

MANAGEMENT

Prepared by

Abdul Nsubuga, PMP

For

Masters Students offering Project and Organizational Change Management Course Unit

February 2010
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Abdul Nsubuga, PMP

Introduction

In their board meeting, which sat end of January 2010, the Makerere University new management
resolved to develop a centralized main Data Center (DC) for Makerere University. Securing for a
piece of land in the university to build this facility is part of the scope of this project. A redundant
data center (RDC) was approved to be installed in the existing FCIT’s new building, which must also
be developed to the same standard as the main data center and should work in mirrored mode.
Several Business Support Systems (BSS) were also approved.
The management team unanimously appointed Abdul Nsubuga, PMP as the project consultant to
advise them on how to go about with this project. The consultant’s first assignment was to present
to management a Project Management Plan within 2 Month. Based on the consultant’s experience
he decided to use Delphi technique to deliver as tasked. Subsequently, he assigned this task to you
and other project managers for action because of your previous knowledge exhibited in project
management.

The following tasks and other specifications are to be considered.

Building Construction Scope of Work

1. Searching and approving for the land to take 30 days from the day the consultant was
assigned.
2. Architectural, structural and electro-mechanical design work is expected to take not more
than 30 days. Management review report of the designs is expected within 5 working days
to enable the architecture to implement the changes within 5 days. The final structural
designs and electro-mechanical design to be ready 10 days and 15 days respectively from
the day the final architectural work is completed. Two days are allowed for management to
approve/sign off the revised designs.
3. Submissions of all designs to local authorities have to be planned. Review and final approval
by KCC is expected to take 60 calendar days from the day of submission as per KCC
guidelines. However, provisional building certificate/permit can be acquired within 15 days
to enable civil works to resume. NEMA (Environmental Impact Assessment – EIA) certificate
is expected to be presented to KCC before a final building certificate is awarded. NEMA
certificate takes 10 days to process upon application; and provisional building permit is a
prerequisite.
4. The four floor building foundation completion is forecasted to be completed maximum 21
days. Completion of ground floor, which is also going to house the power transformer and
main Data Center (DC) should be completed 5 weeks after the foundation completion. First,
second and third floors to take the same time. Roofing of the building to take 15 days.
5. Commercial power application process takes 25 working days to be approved by Umeme.
Because a three phase high voltage connection is required, Umeme takes 10 days to extend
power to the nearest point to the building. Umeme’s scope of work excludes the supply
and installation of the required transformer; however it becomes Umeme’s infrastructure
after connecting it onto their grid. The transformer required is to be procured from South
Africa, management’s preferred supplier. Transformer manufacturing takes 12 days on
order; packaging and shipment by sea to Mombasa shall take 45 days FOB. Custom
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clearance at Mombasa port takes 2 days while road transportation to URA’s warehouse
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takes maximum 3 days. Provided the manufacturer/ supplier had proper documentation

Abdul Nsubuga, PMP

 submitted to URA, 3 days are allowed for clearance at this stage. Supply of main switch
board takes 5 days from local suppliers like Ssebagala & Sons. Installation, testing and
commissioning of the transformer and the main switch board should take 10 days. Because
power source is critical to this project, management has allowed for an installation of a
heavy standby generator set. Generator set order, supply and deliver DDU site takes 30
days. Generator installation, testing, commissioning and synchronizing it with the
commercial power supply requires 5 days. Installations of air conditioners shall take 4 days
per floor allowing only one team to carry out the installations.
6. Electro-mechanical scope of work includes designing and implementation of power
solutions, lifts and air conditioners. Commercial power is the primary power source while
the generator automatically starts should commercial power fails. Start of wiring of each
floor can commence 5 days before the completion of each floor to allow for final coat of
paint to be applied. A heavy goods hoist order, supply and deliver DDU site require 45 days.
Installation completion should be completed 3 days before completion of roofing of the
building.
7. The Preliminary Acceptance Certificate (PAC) for the building scope to be issued after all
snags have been cleared. Snags clearing estimated to be fixed within 10 days after all
building SOW are completed.
8. From the approved designs, the Data Center was located on ground floor. The
implementation of the raised floor of the data center could start as long as the floor is ready
and can take 2 weeks to complete.

Main Data Center Scope of Work / RDC

It involves supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the facility as defined below:

1. Prepare detailed DC specification (hardware and environment) to take 30 Analyst days. DC

design and approval planned to take 10 days. RDC requirements are half that of main DC.
2. Procuring the data center servers and related materials like raised floor planned and on
placing the order the supplier must guaranty delivery to site within three months. However,
partial delivery to include raised floor should be arranged a month before delivery of
servers. The order can be placed as soon as the specifications and BOQs have been agreed
upon.
3. Determine final data center floor layout to commence once the DC design is approved and
will take 3 days.
4. Solicit bids for implementing data center to be performed. Preparing and sending out the
tender documents will take 5 days. The tenders’ response expected maximum 10 days.
5. Tender evaluation process will take 5 days.
6. It is estimated that the electro-mechanical works for the data center will take 5 days to
install power rectifiers and 10 days for installing, testing and commissioning of air
conditioners. Installations of rectifiers and air conditioners depend on completion of the
raised floor, which is likely to take 2 weeks. Installation of CCTV systems to be installed after
commissioning of power installations; 3 days are allowed.
7. Installations, testing and commissioning of main data center planned to take two month.
8. RDC installations to start after main DC commissioning and shall take half the time to install,
testing and commissioning.
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9. Networking and configuring of the two data centers shall take 10 working days and the data
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centers shall go live on commissioning the RDC.

Abdul Nsubuga, PMP

 10. As build documentation (ABD) for the data centers to be submitted to management 5 days
after system going live.

Business Support Systems Scope of Work

Management approved that all BSS be developed by FCIT Innovation team because of the proven
availability of skills. Students’ academic transcript was the first information system to be
implemented in the DC.

1. FCIT’s software innovation team was hired to design, develop and implement the system.
One month was allowed for them to collect user requirements and 2 days for management
to approve them.
2. The innovation team has committed to complete the system two weeks after
commissioning of the main DC. However the system requires 2 months of development
time, 5 days to train users on the test platform and 3 days to implement (including
configuring access rights) in the data center.

Assignment requirement.

In groups of not more than 5 students, study the given information and develop a detailed Project
Management Plan. All assumptions should be well stated.

NOTE: A project management plan is much more than a project schedule plan.

Document the roles played by each team members and % contribution on the assignment specified.
For example:
Team member Role % Contribution
Jane Project Leader 80%
Faridah Project Administrator 75%
John Analyst leader 10%
ETC

Submission of group members: 15 Feb; for any change of members, a formal change request must
be submitted to the consultant. No such changes shall be accepted after 15 March 2010.

Submission date/ Time: Mon 12 April 2010, 9.00 PM

Terms and conditions apply.

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