Background of the project
This project came into existence because of the need of having a system that will enable the company handle large amount of data. It is a data collection and analysis company hence its core business is to handle massive data from the clients. Currently, the company uses standard databases. They are not meeting the demand on the market. Just only in two years, the company has realized huge growth and expansion. Through this, it is projected that it will grow by 20% in terms of data storage needs and requirements.
After rigorous process of search for the data of different companies, it is important to store such research data for future use. Having a large storage device will enable the storage of such information. Additionally, the company is also expanding and acquiring new clients each day. This presented a need for a company to have data storage management technology that will enable it to accomplish its tasks.
Describe and define the scope of the project.
This is a business requirement plan for the data collection and analysis company that has been in operation for two years. There is a need to come up with structures that meet the demands of storing data in a data warehouse. This plan is tasked with coming up with the procedures and policies that will be used in the process of upgrading the systems in the company. This business requirement is aimed at meeting the needs of the stakeholders. It is a document that will guide them on how to come up the information technology infrastructure that will support the entire company. It is a system upgrading process that will enable the upgrade of the new storage devices. The current system devices are flat databases. The company is projected to have an increase in the demand of the storage devices hence the need to have a data warehouse.
The business requirements and needs of the stakeholders will be captured in phases. This means that there each phase must be accepted and verified by the stakeholders before moving to the next stage. This makes sure that all the requirements are captured. It will also reduce the risks of coming up with a whole document that does not reflect or capture the needs of the stakeholders. There is a need to come up with clear procedures that are understood by all involved. The inception phase will be the first one which will seek the commitment of the stakeholders and the sponsors of the project.
This project will only be focusing on coming up with the plan of implementing the new storage system for the company. It is therefore only confirmed to the storage devices and how they will be integrated to the current infrastructure. By the end of this project, it is required that data warehousing process should be in place in order to implement this project.
Project control is a task that requires serious considerations. This means that all involved should be able to agree with the changes in the scope. There will be a team of from the project team to deal with any changes to be made. There will be procedures and policies that will be followed during the process of making changes to the project.
Identify possible risks
There is no project that does not face risks. The most important thing is to identify the risks and know how to deal with them during project implementation or before it commences. Once risks have been identified, they are minimized or their chances of occurring are minimized. To be able to understand the impact of the risks, it is important to look at what will be affected if the risk was to occur. The probability of the risk occurring should also be identified. The impact can be minimal, moderate or high impact effect. Minimum means that if it occurs it will not have a greater impact on part of the entire project. The high impact risks will result into a lot of problems for the project. It results into huge damage that may result into the project not being delivered on time or even cancelled. The company should be able to manage all the risks.
The main advantage of risk identification is that the company will be well prepared to handle the challenges. There will be back-up plans to restore the process back to the way it was supposed to be running. Large risks are transferred to insurance companies. This means that the company will not have huge financial loss in the event that these risks do happen.
This project has risks; the first risk is the problem of interpreting and implementing policies at each stage. This is a risk that results from both the staff and the top management. They may not want to follow each and every policy that is documented. There is also another risk of breach of contract either by the company or the vendors. The company may lose money and other resources if some of the staff does not follow the contract terms and conditions.
It is very challenging to have all the requirements captured in this document at the beginning of the project. This means that the project is likely to suffer from project creep. There will be more requirements added during the implementation of the project. This means that there will be an expansion of the project scope.
This project will need the implementation of high tech tools; it is not always possible to easily get expertise to run this project. This means that there will be delays in the project as they wait for expertises. They may also cost higher because for such experts to work for the project.
There are a lot changes in labour laws and labour rates. The projected finances for human resources may increase with time. Other factors such as hard economic times and increased cost of living will result into high cost compared to the projected rates.
Constraints and assumptions
Project constrains are things that can slow down the project. During the project implementations, they will be encountered. The most important thing is to identify such constrains so that the project team knows how to deal with the challenges. Some of the constraints include; the limited number expertise in the warehousing, large data management and system integration. Time is also another constrain where there is limited time to complete the project. Delays and unforeseen things may not have been captured. There are processes that will require approvals from external firms. They may delay the process of implementing the project.
The following are project assumptions:
- It is assumed that the project will only deal with Database and Data Warehousing, Analytics, Interfaces and Cloud Technology, and Infrastructure and Security should be considered.
- The project requirements and specifications will be accepted and supported by the stakeholders.
- The project requirements will not significantly change to the point of changing the implementation policies and procedures.
Speculate upon potential outsourcing or off shoring needs.
Outsourcing means contracting giving out the process of serving your clients or the firm projects to another company. It means that the company will not need to upgrade the current information systems. The firm that takes up the services will have the capacity to handle large data. I believe the company does not need to outsource its services because implementing its own storage capacity will ensure that it has control to its processes. Data from clients is very sensitive and requires high level of security. This cannot be a guaranteed by outsourcing firms.
References
Dvir, D., Raz, T., & Shenhar, A. J. (2003). An empirical analysis of the relationship between project planning and project success. International Journal of Project Management, 21(2), 89-95.
Golfarelli, M., Rizzi, S., & Cella, I. (2004, November). Beyond data warehousing: what's next in business intelligence? In Proceedings of the 7th ACM international workshop on Data warehousing and OLAP (pp. 1-6). ACM.
