Week 5: Case Study: Project Charter and SOW

Instructions

• CO#3: Deconstruct key element of a project charter and Statement of Work (SOW)
• CO#7: Summarize project success factors and applicable tools, techniques, and successful project metrics

Future Technology Data Center Case Study

Scenario

Charles Parker, network administrator at Future Technology (FT), has been given the responsibility of relocating the large data center to a new office building. Careful planning is needed because FT operates in the highly competitive cellular industry. FT is one of four national software companies that provide an accounting and business management package for cellular service locations and sales distributors. A few years ago, FT jumped into the “application service provider” world. Their large data center provides clients with remote access to FT’s complete suite of application software systems. Traditionally, one of FT’s primary competitive advantages has been the company’s trademark IT reliability. Due to the complexity of this project, Charles will have to use a parallel method of implementation. Although this will increase project costs, a parallel approach is essential if reliability is not to be compromised.
Currently, FT’s data center is located on the fourth floor of a renovated old school building in downtown Mobile, Alabama. The company is moving to a new, one-level building located in the recently developed industrial complex at Mobile International Airport. On April 15, Charles is formally assigned the task by the Vice President of Operations, Marion Hassing, with the following guidelines:

From start to finish, it is anticipated the entire project will take three to four months to complete.
It is essential that FT’s 315 clients suffer no downtime.

Hassing advises Charles to come back to the Executive Committee on May 1, with a presentation on the scope of the project that includes costs, “first-cut” timeline, and proposed project team members.

Charles had some preliminary discussions with some of FT’s subject matter experts, managers, and directors from each of the functional departments and then arranged for a full-day scope meeting on April 19 with a few of the managers and technical representatives from operations, systems, facilities, and applications. The scope team determined the following:
Four to five months is a feasible project timeline and first-cut cost estimate is $90,000-$100,000 (this includes the infrastructure upgrade of the new site).
Critical to the “no-downtime” requirement is the need to completely rely on FT’s remote disaster recovery “hot” site for full functionality.
Charles will serve as project manager of a team consisting of one team member each from facilities, operations/systems, operations/telecommunications, systems & applications, and customer service.

Assignment Guidelines

Develop a Project Charter and a Statement of Work for the Future Technology Data Center relocation project. These documents will be submitted to Marion Hassing for acceptance.