Under Milkwood Gaming: IT Operation Management Report (2024)

This report, prepared for Under Milkwood Gaming, proposes the establishment of Capacity Planning and Configuration Management departments within IT Operations. The report outlines the scope and objectives, detailing the benefits, costs, strategic and tactical implications, staffing needs, and BTOPP analysis for each department. The "For" case emphasizes the advantages of implementing these departments, such as improved relationships with software developers, better resource utilization, and enhanced IT asset management. The "Against" case considers limitations of the current system and potential challenges in implementing the proposed departments. The report also includes detailed cost breakdowns, staff requirements, and strategic implications, with recommendations provided to guide Under Milkwood Gaming in making informed decisions regarding these critical IT operations functions. The report concludes with a call for action, urging management to carefully consider the findings and implement the recommendations to enhance IT operations and achieve organizational goals.

Running head: IT OPERATION MANAGEMENT
IT Operation Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:

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Management Summary
The report is based on initiating two departments of IT Operations Management for Under
Milkwood Gaming Company such as Capacity Planning Department and Configuration
Management Department. The capacity planning department is responsible for aspects of the
business operations and configuration management is responsible to make smart decisions to
perform the service operations. It is based on summarizing the scope, objectives, and proposal on
two departments as well as recommendations. The scope will define materials included into the
report and objective will provide the purpose of this particular report. Each of the IT operations
department will include costs, benefits, strategic and tactical implications, staffs included and
BTOPP analysis. Recommendations are included so that the two departments can make
improvement into their internal operations to meet with the organizational goals and objectives.

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Table of Contents
Management Summary....................................................................................................................1
Scope................................................................................................................................................4
Objectives........................................................................................................................................5
Proposal on capacity planning department......................................................................................5
For case........................................................................................................................................6
Benefits....................................................................................................................................6
Costs (both initial and ongoing)..............................................................................................7
Set up the department (staff and skills)...................................................................................7
Strategic and tactical implications...........................................................................................8
BTOPP analysis.......................................................................................................................8
Against case.................................................................................................................................9
Proposal on configuration management department.......................................................................9
For case......................................................................................................................................10
Benefits..................................................................................................................................10
Costs (both initial and ongoing)............................................................................................11
Set up the department (staff and skills).................................................................................11
Strategic and tactical implications.........................................................................................12
BTOPP analysis.....................................................................................................................12
Against case...............................................................................................................................13

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Recommendations..........................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................17

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Scope
Under Milkwood Gaming has no capacity planning or configuration management
department. They are directing towards set up of two departments such as capacity planning and
configuration management into their business organization so that they can hire staffs. Into the
industry, the games are to be sold throughout the distributors as well as internet. Following are
the scope of the industry such as:
a. The company is providing website for the upgrades and patches for the
customers. They are staying with the customer base for making success into the
company.
b. The configuration management should help the business organization to
maintain its devices. The main aim of this configuration management is tracking
as well as recording the changes into the devices and components.
c. The IT operation management department should perform the IT operations
such as production as well as hardware research and development. It should help
to hire more staffs those have suitable skills as well as knowledge to perform the
operations of the business.
d. The capacity department should control over volume of the project resources
those are required into the IT infrastructure. The management is required to
analyze the project changes so that they are undertaken into the business
company and take decisions regarding types of the project resources required to
control over the IT operation management department.

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e. The contracted staffs for the project work should have enough experience in
their working area so that they can take care of the safety of their work. Some of
the project staffs require training to get knowledge for accomplishing the project
tasks in proposed IT departments.
Objectives
Following are the objectives of this particular project report such as:
 To set up two departments such as capacity planning and configuration management in
the business operations of Under Milkwood Gaming
 To analyze the details like cost, opportunities along with limitations of those two
departments
 To carry out strategic implications while setting up the two departments in Under
Milkwood Gaming
 To hire staffs with highly skilled to get a suitable positions into the proposed It
operations management department
 To recommend outcomes for setting up the two departments in Under Milkwood Gaming
so that it can limit the issues and increase the benefits of departments to get success
Proposal on capacity planning department
This department is being responsible to carry out the aspects of the business operations. It
is set up to meet with the demands of the product matching procedures. This analysis is
performed to get the documented changes into the business operations of Under Milkwood
Gaming. This department supports ability of the company to take proper decisions for right

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number of resources required based on forecasting as well as workload demands (Harris,
Intelligence and Healthcare 2017). The analysis of this department is divided into two cases such
as for and against.
For case
Benefits
 Capacity planning department helps to keep stronger relationships with the
software developers as well as end users. It increases cooperation among the
structural group of team members.
 There is also an improvement over interaction with the suppliers with better usage
of the current facility to make improvement and increase effectiveness of the
entire operational equipments (Yu, Chen and Zhang 2015).
 Outsourcing is performed to reduce the project cost such as security cost,
healthcare cost as well as reimbursement of the workers.
 It improves collaboration with the infrastructure groups with the technical
support, operational departments as well as various network devices (Wang et al.
2015).
 Setting up of the capacity planning department increases strategic planning so that
it should focus on the future plans as well as business requirements rather than
current issues.

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Costs (both initial and ongoing)
The cost for setting up the capacity planning department should include with the IT
operational capabilities. It includes cost estimation for both human as well as physical resources.
Following table shows the total budget for setting up the capacity planning such as:
Description Initial cost for the first year Ongoing cost
Desktop devices $35,000 (Total of 35 desktop
devices each $1000 cost)
$15,000 on the repairs
Capacity planning manager $78000 $78000 per year
Project manager $1,00,000 $1,00,000 per year
Planning project team members $3,50,000 $3,50,000 per year
IT research and development $1,50,000 $1,75,000 per year
Total estimated cost: $7,13,000 in initial year
Set up the department (staff and skills)
In order to set up the capacity planning department, the staffs should require having skills
such as capacity management, knowledge of the system as well as network software,
development skills and decision making skills.
The existing staffs should require providing training so that they can carry out the
configuration management department. The staffs those are require to be hired for setting up the
department such as project manager, project team members, IT research and development,
capacity planning manager and others (White 2016). The IT department should need to

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implement technology for supporting set up the capacity planning department such as computers,
management tools as well as virtualization software.
Strategic and tactical implications
Capacity planning is vital for the project organization as it comes with building of key
resources for the IT infrastructure. It provides an effect on the operational processes so that it
affects a negative influence on the project outcomes. Hiring of the staffs involved with higher
cost. The strategies which are required in this case are primary capacity where it will increase to
meet with the customer’s demands. The other approach is tracking ability which can add
incremental ability over the time to meet with the demands.
BTOPP analysis
Business: Under Milkwood is included capacity planning department so that they can
hire individuals and staffs those are handle the work and estimated cost to set up the department.
It is required to know under estimated budget, how many qualified staffs are required to be hired;
therefore cost is a risk in the business (Djemame et al. 2016).
Technology: The technical tools as well as equipments are required such as desktops,
servers, system as well as network software for setting up the capacity planning department. In
this department, capacity planning tools are required.
Organization: In order to develop the department, the organization is required to hire
skilled and qualified staffs, new technologies and system so that it can handle the setting up of
existing department (Morschett, Schramm-Klein and Zentes 2015). It will increase the
organizational efficiency as well as resource accuracy.

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Process: The capacity planning is considered as long term processes so that there is
future planning plus profits. It is required to conduct a financial analysis as well as monitor the
project results.
People: The organization is required to provide training to the staffs regarding using of
new capacity planning technological tools as well as equipments for setting up the capacity
planning department. The staffs should get knowledge on the department so that it helps to
improve the results (Webster 2018). Training over the staffs should increase business efficiency
for delivering projects as well as services.
Against case
Into the capacity planning department, there are some limitations which are identified so
that on time they are improved. With the current system of the Under Milkwood, the business
organization can complete their task to meet with the satisfaction level of the customers.
Therefore, there is limitation of the operational capacity into the business organization. The
capacity planning is not included to handle the multi-manufacturing as well as other business
processes to make success into the IT business operations. It will make difficulty for the staffs to
predict the forecasts as the staffs are not able to perform multi tasking in addition to handle the
business processes (Cohen 2017). The proposed department should improve operations across
the supply chain so that it determines baseline sales forecasting as well as improve over the
resource usage.
Proposal on configuration management department
The main usage of the configuration management is to make sure that the Under
Milkwood Gaming makes the business move to be smart as well as decisions are to be taken on

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time to operate correctly. It is a system engineering process which can establish as well as
sustain the performance of the products with the business needs. The department should also
maintain functional as well as physical attributes with designing as well as operating information
(Farris et al. 2017). The department will help the business organization when there is down of
server and set down the changes into the server. This department will deal with monitoring the
changes which are occurred into the infrastructure hardware as well as software in the gaming
company.
For case
Benefits
With the setting up of the configuration management department, there is formation of
the single and centralized database where it is referred to as configuration management database.
This database can contain detailed data related to maintenance as well as history of the repair
into the desktop and laptop devices (Odor 2018). Following are the benefits while setting the
department such as:
 There is better control over the tracking software of IT assets.
 The quality of system is enhanced through quick recognition and correction of improper
configurations which could have impact on the system performance as well as reliability.
 It will benefit over the status monitoring as well as auditing methods so that there is
proper setting up of the department (Schwalbe 2015).
 There is improvement over IT asset management throughout capability to use better
preventive measures for measuring the system performance.
 It enhances administration of the complex system as well as IT infrastructures.

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 There is greater agility over the changes into the hardware as well as software, system
documentation and testing processes (Laudon and Laudon 2016).
Costs (both initial and ongoing)
The cost for setting up the configuration management department should include with the
IT operational capabilities. It includes cost estimation for both human as well as physical
resources. Following table shows the total budget for setting up the configuration planning such
as:
Description Initial cost for the first year Ongoing cost
Desktop devices $45,000 (Total of 45 desktop
devices each $1000 cost)
$20,000 on the repairs
Configuration manager $98000 $98000 per year
Database analyst $90,000 $90,000 per year
Configuration analyst $1,00,000 $1,50,000 per year
Requirement analyst $95,000 $1,00,000 per year
Database $20,000 per server $20,000 per server
Total estimated cost: $4,48,000 in the initial year
Set up the department (staff and skills)
In order to set up the configuration management department, the staffs should require
skills such as configuration management skills, team communication skills, knowledge of the