Upgrade of Network of Pharmaceutical Company - Questions

Upgrade of Network of Pharmaceutical
Company
Question-
Q1.Design a work break down structure (WBS) for this project with milestones?
Q2. What are the key risks and how would you manage them?
Q3. What are the key quality criteria which will be relevant here, outline the
area/task, metrics and their measurement?
Q4. The total budget for this is £65,000, of which £30,000 is set aside for the
software. Explain how you will plan to use this money?
Answer-
Table of Content
Project Title
Environment And Present Working System
Aims/Objectives Of The Project
Investors
Advantages Of The Project
Development Team
Results To Be Expected
Work Breakdown Structure
Milestones
Management Of Risks
Quality criteria

Cost estimation
Conclusion
References
Environment And Present Working System
A proper network infrastructure is extremely significant due to it being highly reliable as well as
tough. The pharmaceutical company has decided to upgrade/modify its present network
foundation. As a result of which, there is a need of up gradation of the network structure which
will be done by changing the present hardware, new workstations, networks and services. This
needs to be done in such a way that it supports both the existing demands and out future
expansion plans of the company. In agreement, the plan for the project has been enclosed. It
includes all details of the network structure, including the criteria’s of success that is required for
the achievement of goals. As an add-on, the plan has been devised in such a way that no
disruption of the present network is done while the upgrading of the network is taking place. So,
the collaboration has to be done with a set of company resources, which have done work on such
projects. While the upgrading is taking place, one important fact should be taken care of – there
should be minimum investment from company’s side while the returns should be at a maximum
level.
Aims/Objectives Of The Project
The main goals of the project are as follows-
 The architecture of the network should be improved so that it allows a constant and the
incessant flow of information
 Security of data access for the user’s needs to be improved
 Facilitation of day-to-day to operations needs to be made easier
 The integrity of the company data needs to be maintained
 The employees of the company need a boost in their confidence level
Investors
The interested parties of the project are-
 Sponsors of the projects
 Hardware retailer

 Human resources
 Foundation retailer
Advantages Of The Project
Some of the key benefits that the project will enjoy are -
 Involvement of the customers to be increased
 Network communications to be increased
 Theft of data to be decreased
 All students are allowed fair usage
 The upgrading is aimed at the elimination of all loopholes and errors that are present
within the activity system and thus, create an error free system that would help with the
goal of expansion.
Development Team
Industrial team
 Analyst of the network
 Operational engineer
 Network Engineer
Nonindustrial team
 Manager of functionality
Results To Be Expected
 Enrollment to increase
 Introduction towards bigger opportunities
 Introduction towards diversified areas of studies
Preliminary Approximation Of Costs
 Hardware/system - $200

 Network cable/meter - $20
 Software
 Manager of the project - $90/hour
 Analyst of the network - $75/hour
 Implementation Engineer - $70/hour
 Network Engineer - $60/hour
 Functional Manager of Human Resources - $80/hour
 Estimated entire cost of project - $122,800
Work Breakdown Structure
WBS Task Name
1 Network Upgrade
1.1 Plan
1.1.1 Prepare project plan
1.1.1.1 Analyze requirements
1.1.1.2 Perform feasibility study
1.1.1.3 Get sign-offs on deliverables
1.1.2 Take backup
1.1.2.1 Identify backup location
1.1.2.2 Perform backup operation
1.2 Analyze & Design
1.2.1 Hardware sizing
1.2.1.1 Market research for best configuration of machines
1.2.1.2 Finalize detailed configuration of network
1.2.1.3 Prepare bill
1.2.1.4 Sign-off
1.2.2 Finalize new furniture
1.2.3 Purchase furniture
1.2.4 Place furniture
1.2.5 Vendor selection
1.2.5.1 Raise tender for workstation procurement
1.2.5.2 Prepare vendor selection criteria
1.2.5.3 Identify vendor for workstation purchase
1.2.5.4 Configuration & Setup
1.3 Purchase & Store
1.3.1 Perform quality test on selected workstations
1.3.2 Store machines in warehouse
1.3.3 Install
1.3.3.1 Identify locations of machine
1.3.3.2 Install the hardware on the identified machines

1.3.3.3 Identify and install network server
1.3.3.4 Locate router
1.3.3.5 Connect machines
1.3.3.6 Configure workstations for internet connectivity
1.3.3.7 Update software on machines
1.3.3.8 Test software updates
1.4 Testing
1.4.1 Test each machine
1.4.2 Get signoffs
1.4.3 Network testing
1.4.3.1 Put the machine in the network and test
1.4.3.2 Get signoffs
1.4.4 Data restore
Milestones
 Preparation of project plan
 Hardware sizing
 Vendor selection
 Backup
 Raise invoice
 Installation
 Machine test
 Network testing
Management Of Risks
Name of Risk Explanation Level of Risk Influence Process of
Contingency/Mitigation
Job Description
lacking details
Set of skills is
quite vague Low Medium Have an expert of the
industry to review it
Allocation of
resources is
insufficient
Minimum limit of
resources is not
achieved
Low Medium Resources of other tasks are
to be assigned here
Disapproval of
client
Discrepancy
between the point
of view of client
and project
Medium High Personal meetings with
clients to be arranged
Client
Requirements are
Discrepancy
between the point Medium High Industry expert to review the
problem

improperly
projected
of view of client
and project
Network analyst
missing
Analyst quit or on
leave Low High Another analyst to be hired
Documentation
loss
Failure of Hard
Disk Drive Low High Data recovery to be done
with the help of IT tools
Increase in the
license fees of
design tools
Discount season
has ended Low Low Alternate freeware tools to
be sought after
Absence of
Implementation
engineer
Engineer quit or
on leave Low High
-Another engineer to be
hired
-Implementation engineer to
be hired on a contract
-Other resources to be
reassigned
Absence of
Network Engineer
Engineer quit or
on leave Low High
-Another engineer to be
hired
-Implementation engineer to
be hired on a contract
-Other resources to be
reassigned
Standard
configuration of
network is lacking
Proper
documentation is
lacking
Low Low Industry expert to review the
problem
Software cost is
increased
License fees are
increased High Low Alternate freeware tools to
be sought after
User disapproval
User acceptance
testing faces
hiccups
High High Personal meetings with
clients to be arranged
User reviews are
facing delays
Reviews are not
presented on
schedule
Low High Notifications are to be sent
Quality criteria
A set of measurable values which are associated with quality of the product is typically referred
to as product’s quality metrics. Similarly, a software’s or a system’s quality metrics could be
used to determine the extent to which the system or the software meets the requirements of the
business. The usage of quality metrics raises objectivity of evaluation of the product quality. The

human evalution of quality is subjective therefore it’s a possible source of disagreement between
the system provider and the users. Thus the measurement of these qualities should not be only
prepared at the end of project but more importantly during the project’s execution.
Typically, a system’s metrics are measured in the following terms:
 Reliability: The total amount of time the system is operational. It’s measured in
percentage for instance 23 out of 24 hours i.e., 100 x 23/24.
 Recoverability: The total amount of time the system uses to recover from a failure. This
could measured in total duration it takes for the system to spring back online for instance
30 minutes to reeinitialize the system.
 User friendliness: The amount of complications involved with the system as a setup, it’s
usage and maintenance. It could be simply measured in say, the amount of time a new
user takes to get accustom to the system.
 On-Time: Another key system metric is the timed delivery of the entire project. This
measurement of the project being on time is particularly important ot the management as
well as the stakenholders each day by which the project goes beyond it’s scheduled
delivery and funds. A key metric for this is to ensure that the entire prpoject as per terms
of project management is meeting it’s initial goal timings.
 Within Budget: All projects in IT cost money to develop, evaluate and deliver. It is
therefore critical for the project managers to manage budget metrics by continously
monitoring and reviewing the on-going project spending. This simply could be done by
keeping a track of the projected expenditure prepared during the drafting of the plan and
the actual amount being spend on the project at the given time. This thus will give a quick
glance to the project manager whethere the project’s spending is on par, above or below
the budget. If it’s on par or under the budget, then chances are everything is going well,
however when it goes above the budget, then arrangements for additional funds has to be
made. This would then either be secured by way of loans, credit from promoters etc.
 Deliverables Tracking: Another key criteria is deliverable tracking. The main goal of
starting a new IT project is to deliver new enhancements or new functionalities to the
current environment. Therefore a project management metric within the IT projects is to
make sure that the project deliverables would be completed by date and within it’s
proposed budget. The key metric here for tracking the deliverables is to review the total
progression of the tasks corresponding to delivery milestones and doing the necessary if
they do not meet the required expectations.
Cost estimation
The time-phased budgeting is the core of the cost estimation. The time-phased budgeting
technique does the job of integrating the schedule of the project and also, the budget of the

project. This method acts as the stepping-stone towards making the budgetary. There is no
relation between budget and schedule of a project until the two are merged together. Once time-
phased budgeting is done, the manager of the project gains the added capacity to further point
out the time at which the occurrences of certain expenditures take place. The outflow of cash is
more accurately depicted which can result in the appropriate planning being undertaken.
Activity Estimate Date Cash Inflow Cash Outflow Balance
Preparation of
project plan Thu 2/5/15 35000 2160 32840
Hardware sizing Tue 2/17/15 4560 28280
Vendor selection Thu 2/19/15 6100 22180
Backup Fri 2/6/15 600 21580
Raise invoice Thu 2/19/15 7400 14180
Installation Mon 8/25/14 2440 11740
Machine test Thu 9/25/14 3960 7780
Network testing Fri 10/3/14 920 6860
Conclusion
The principles of PMBoK have been respected while the upgrading of the company’s IT
infrastructure is being done and on the basis of this, the manager of the project is able to
determine the requirements and exclusions that are needed to be done in the project. At the time
of the up gradation, this might affect the functionality of the other departments and thus time,
resources and budget are of critical importance.
References
Gulla, J. (2012, Feb). Seven Reasons IT Projects Fail.
Organizing for Project Management. (n.d.).
Duncan, W.R. (n.d) A guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge.
Hamilton, G. (n.d.). Risk management and project management go hand in hand.
HubPages. (n.d.). Project Management Time & Cost Estimation Techniques: An Overview.