Practical Information Technology Management Group Two Proposal

Project Plan Outline I Context for the Project The IS&T division has met with success in the indoor wireless environment and is now looking to expand wireless availability to outdoors. Teresa Regan, Vice President for Information Services and Technology, communicated to our team the reasons for having an outdoor wireless system. One of the motivations is to provide additional locations where students can gather for social and academic purposes. In addition, IS&T would like to make the wireless connectivity consistent throughout campus. The objective is to implement a pilot program by the end of the summer that provides outdoor wireless in the following three areas: Stratton Student Center, Stata Center, and Killian Court. Considering the scale of this project, there are various uncertainties regarding the technology and environment. Specifically for technology, IS&T would like to understand the future outdoor wireless market and the corresponding technological advances. Environmentally, concerns include durability under weather conditions, structural interference of wireless signal, and ease of construction with aesthetics in mind. IS&T is also uncertain of their vendor preference. II Purpose, Objectives and Approach of the Wireless Team Project Purpose: We plan to provide IS&T with relevant information regarding the future of wireless technology and examples of other current outdoor wireless implementations. This information will help IS&T make more informed decisions for their pilot program. Objective: To address the technology concerns, we will first conduct preliminary research on available outdoor wireless technology. Secondly, we will interview vendor personnel to understand the evolving wireless technology market and how its direction affects our technology choice. With regards to the environmental concerns, we will interview other universities and ISP companies with outdoor wireless internet. From these interviews, we hope to uncover their solutions to implementation problems, their criteria for selecting vendors, and their process of implementing the infrastructure. Finally, if there is enough time, our team would like to collect some qualitative data regarding campus sentiment on the outdoor wireless initiative. IV Uncertainties, Risks and Opportunities, and Planned Responses (Scale 1-3) (Scale 1-3) (Prob * Impact) Risk Statement # Condition Consequence Impact Exposure Mitigation Contingency 2 3 6 Weekly Meetings, Frequent Email Contact, Good Scheduling Practices Unproffesional communication, Confidentiality Issues, Conflict of interest to vendors Too much time together, Stress Team members are overloaded 2 Vendors, ISPs, Colleges are unwilling Lack of information to provide to to share information IS&T 2 3 6 Use personal contacts of IS&T, Use MIT Change our objective to focus on name, Use student government angle information available 3 Team Member Conflicts/Internal Problems 2 2 4 Shorter, more frequent meetings, informal Intervention, team counseling hang out time sessions 2 Update regularly with champion, dynamically adjust project to feedback Team atmosphere/moral degrades, Slow in project development IS&T does not like presentation/report Our impact is minimal 1 2 Triggers Redistribute tasks, Narrow Focus of MIT is difficult, Project scope Project, Redefine Objectives becomes too large 1 4 Poor Project Delivery Probability Create a post mortem for our findings and include recommendations for further research Poor communication between champion and group V Critical Success Factors Success Statement Condition Access to interviews with relevant persons Consequence Relevant and effective information for our project's objectives Team Member Dedication Excellent teamwork, efficient meetings Basic knowledge of underlying technology Better understanding of IS&T's needs Access to IS&T's data on current Better recommendations for integration implementation and their plans for the future Assurance Tenacious, professional, and efficient in our contact methodology Build team moral, Hang out together outside of project, Address personal conflicts immediately All members of team spend time learning the underlying technology Contingency Go through a third party (IS&T, Prof. Gibson) to find personal contacts Divide up the project milestones so that team members can work separately Depend on computer science major to understand and explain technology Meet with IS&T representatives effectively Provide a higher level view of possible project and often to learn about current infrastructure implementations VI Gantt Chart