Lecture 02 Analyzing Business Goals and Constraints

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Lecture 02 Analyzing Business Goals and
Constraints

• Supakorn Kungpisdan, Ph.D.
• supakorn_at_mut.ac.th

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Outline

• IT Project Management Overview
• Analyzing Business Goals
• Analyzing Business Constraints
• Business Goals Checklist

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Information Technology Project Methodology (ITPM)

• Methodology
• A strategic-level plan for managing and
  controlling the project
• Game plan for implementing project and product
  lifecycles
• Recommends phases, deliverables, processes,
  tools, and knowledge areas for supporting an IT
  project
• Must be flexible and include best practices
  learned from experiences over time.

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IT Project Methodology
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Phases

• Phase 1 Conceptualize and Initialize
• A project is undertaken for a specific purpose.
  The purpose must add value to the organization
• Aid defining project scope and guide decision
  throughout PLC
• Phase 2 Develop the Project Charter and Detailed
  Project Plan defined in terms of projects
• scope
• schedule
• budget
• quality objectives

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Phases (cont.)

• Phase 3 Execute and Control the Project using
  approach such as the SDLC.
• PM must ensure that the environment and
  infrastructure to support the project
• Phase 4 Close Project
• Project team prepares for the final report and
  presentation with deliverables (compared to
  project scope)

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Phases (cont.)

• Phase 5 Evaluate Project Success
• Final project review by project manager and team
  of entire project
• Document lessons learned, identify best practices
• Evaluation of team members by project manager
• Outside evaluation of project, project leader,
  and team members
• Evaluate projects organizational value

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Outline

• IT Project Management Overview
• Analyzing Business Goals
• Analyzing Business Constraints
• Business Goals Checklist

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Working with Clients

• Before the first meeting
• Research the clients business before meeting
• Industries, products and services, markets,
  suppliers, competitive advantages, financial
  viability
• You can position technologies and products to
  help strengthen the customers status in the
  customers own industry

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In the first meetingUnderstand organizational
structure

• Ask client to explain the organizational
  structure of the company.
• Departments, lines of business, vendors,
  partners, and field or remote offices
• Your final internetwork design will probably
  reflect the corporate structure

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Meet With the Customer

• Get a copy of the organization chart
• This will show the general structure of the
  organization
• It will suggest users to account for
• It will suggest geographical locations to account
  for

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Meet With the Customer

• Get a copy of the security policy
• How does the policy affect the new design?
• How does the new design affect the policy?
• Is the policy so strict that you (the network
  designer) wont be able to do your job?
• Start cataloging network assets that security
  should protect
• Hardware, software, applications, and data
• Less obvious, but still important, intellectual
  property, trade secrets, and a company's
  reputation

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In the first meeting (cont.)

• Understanding the corporate structure can help
  you
• Locate major user communities and characterize
  traffic flow.
• Understand the corporate culture, which can
  affect the network design.
• A company with a centralized management structure
  might require that products and vendors be chosen
  by headquarters management.
• A decentralized company might let branch offices
  have more say.

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In the first meeting (cont.)

• Understanding the corporate structure can also
  help you recognize the management hierarchy,
  especially the decision maker!!!
• Who will have the authority to accept or reject
  your network design proposal?
• Sometimes, this can be a rather complicated due
  to political issues

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In the first meeting (cont.)Overall goal of the
project

• Ask your customer to state an overall goal of the
  network design project.
• Explain that you want a short, business-oriented
  statement that highlights the business purpose of
  the new network.
• Why is the customer embarking on this new network
  design project?
• For what will the new network be used?
• How will the new network help the customer be
  more successful in the customers business?

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Meet With the Customer

• Try to get
• A concise statement of the goals of the project
• What problem are they trying to solve?
• How will new technology help them be more
  successful in their business?
• What must happen for the project to succeed?

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Meet With the Customer

• Discover any biases
• For example
• Will they only use certain companys products?
• Do they avoid certain technologies?
• Do the data people look down on the voice people
  or vice versa?
• Talk to the technical and management staff

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In the first meeting (cont.)Criteria for success

• What goals must be met for the customer to be
  satisfied?
• Operational savings
• Ability to increase revenue
• Build partnerships with other companies.
• Make sure you know upfront how success is
  defined by executives, managers, end users,
  network engineers, and any other stakeholders.
• Determine whether the customers definition of
  success will change as yearly fiscal goals
  change.

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In the first meeting (cont.)Consequences of
failures

• What will happen if the network design project
  fails or if the network, when installed, does not
  perform to specification?
• How visible is the project to upper-level
  management?
• Will the success (or possible failure) of the
  project be visible to executives?
• To what extent could unforeseen behavior of the
  new network disrupt business operations?

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Meet With the Customer

• What will happen if the project is a failure?
• Is this a critical business function?
• Is this project visible to upper management?
• Whos on your side?

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Remark on the first meeting

• Gather enough information to feel comfortable
  that you understand the extent and visibility of
  the network design project.

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Changes in Enterprise Networks

• Many modern organizations are based on an open,
  collaborative environment that provides access to
  information and services for many parties,
  including customers, vendors, suppliers, and
  employees.
• For cost reduction, JIT manufacturing, easy to
  plan
• A network designer must carefully consider
  requirements for extending the network to outside
  users.
• Full access, limited access, etc.

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Networks Must Make Business Sense

• Network upgrades are made not because some new
  technology sounds interesting to the engineers,
  but because it will help an enterprise increase
  profits, productivity, market share, and cash
  flow.
• Network designers must choose solutions that
  address the business dilemmas faced by business
  managers.
• Network applications have become mission
  critical.
• Combining voice and data network

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Networks Offer a Service

• As a network designer, you might find yourself
  working with IT architects who adhere to the IT
  Service Management (ITSM) discipline.
• ITSM defines frameworks and processes that can
  help an organization match the delivery of IT
  services with the business needs of the
  organization.
• ITSM focuses on processes rather than technology
  and helps an IT organization think of its users
  as valued customers rather than
  problem-generating adversaries.
• Information Technology Infrastructure Library
  (ITIL)

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Governance and Compliance

• Governance refers to a focus on consistent,
  cohesive decisions, policies, and processes that
  protect an organization from mismanagement and
  illegal activities of users of IT services.
• Compliance refers to adherence to regulations
  that protect against fraud and inadvertent
  disclosure of private customer data.
• For example,
• Retail organizations must comply with the Payment
  Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
• Healthcare organizations must comply with the
  Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
  Act (HIPAA).

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Importance of Network Security

• Network security is now among the top of the list
  of business goals at many companies
• Several attacks have occurred insider and
  outsider
• Network cant be available if security breaches
  and viruses are disabling network devices and
  applications.
• Business Continuity Management (BCM)

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Typical Network Design Goals

• Increase revenue and profit
• Increase market share
• Expand into new markets
• Increase competitive advantages over companies in
  the same market
• Reduce costs
• Increase employee productivity
• Shorten product-development cycles
• Use just-in-time manufacturing
• Plan around component shortages
• Offer new customer services
• Offer better customer support
• Open the network to key constituents (prospects,
  investors, customers, business partners,
  suppliers, and employees)
• Avoid business disruption caused by network
  security problems
• Avoid business disruption caused by natural and
  unnatural disasters
• Modernize outdated technologies
• Reduce telecommunications and network costs,
  including overhead associated with separate
  networks for voice, data, and video
• Make data centers more efficient in their usage
  of power, cabling, racks, storage, and WAN
  circuits
• Comply with IT architecture design and governance
  goals

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The Scope of the Design Project

• Is the design for a single network segment, a set
  of LANs, a set of WANs or remote-access networks,
  or the entire enterprise network?
• Is the design for a new network or a modification
  to an existing one?
• Small in scope?
• Allow sales people to access network via a VPN
• Large in scope?
• An entire redesign of an enterprise network

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The Scope of the Design Project (cont.)

• Make sure customers tell everything they can
  about the network and the design project.
• Use the OSI model to clarify the scope
• New financial reporting application versus new
  routing protocol versus new data link (wireless,
  for example)
• Does the scope fit the budget, capabilities of
  staff and consultants, schedule?

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Note

• Designers rarely get a chance to design a network
  from scratch.
• Usually a network design project involves an
  upgrade to an existing network. Some may
  experience designing a new network.
• However, the new network usually has to fit into
  an existing infrastructure

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Example of Project Scope

• Segment A single network with a switch or router
  and based on L1 or L2 such as Fast Ethernet.
• LAN A set of switched segments based on L2 such
  as Fast Ethernet and an inter-switch trunking
  protocol such as the IEEE 802.1Q standard.
• Building network Multiple LANs within a
  building, usually connected to a building-
  backbone network.
• Campus network Multiple buildings within a local
  geographical area (within a few miles), usually
  connected to a campus-backbone network.

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Example of Project Scope (cont.)

• Remote access support individual remote users or
  small remote branch offices accessing the
  network.
• WAN include point-to-point, Frame Relay, ATM,
  and other long-distance connections.
• Wireless network A LAN or WAN that uses the air
  (rather than a cable) for its medium.
• Enterprise network A large and diverse network,
  consisting of campuses, remote-access services,
  and one or more WANs or long-range LANs.

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Gather More Detailed Information

• Applications
• User communities
• Data stores
• Protocols
• Current logical and physical architecture
• Current performance

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Identifying a Customers Network Applications
Name of Application
Type of Application
New Application?
Criticality
Comments
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Name of Applications

• Use the names given by customer,
  industry-standard name e.g. Lotus Notes
• Could be an application name that means something
  only to the customer.
• For new applications, the name might be a code
  name for a software-development project

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Types of Application

• Use any appropriate text that describes the type
  of application
• Classify the application as one of standard
  network applications
• E.g. e-mail, file transfer, database access,
  groupware, web browsing, network game, remote
  terminal, medical imaging, etc.

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Examples of Standard Network Applications

• Email
• File transfer, sharing, and access
• Database access and updating
• Web browsing
• Network game
• Remote terminal
• Calendar
• Medical imaging
• Videoconferencing
• Video on demand (VoD)
• Scheduled multicast video
• Surveillance and security camera video
• Internet or intranet voice (IP telephony)
• Internet or intranet fax
• Sales order entry
• Management reporting
• Sales tracking
• Computer-aided design
• Document imaging

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Examples of System Applications

• User authentication and authorization
• Host naming and name resolution
• Dynamic host addressing
• Remote booting
• Remote configuration download
• Directory services
• Network backup
• Network management
• Software distribution

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Criticality

• Extremely critical
• Somewhat critical
• Not critical
• Gather more specific information about mission
  criticality, including precisely how much
  downtime is acceptable

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Comments

• Add any observations relevant to the network
  design
• For example, include any information you have
  about corporate directions e.g. plans to stop
  using an application in the future

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Outline

• IT Project Management Overview
• Analyzing Business Goals
• Analyzing Business Constraints
• Business Goals Checklist

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Analyzing Business Constraints

• Politics and Policies
• Budgetary and Staffing Constraints

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Politics and Policy

• Two things not to talk about with friends
  politics and religion.
• Avoid these topics that puts your project at
  risk.
• Learn about any hidden agendas, turf wars,
  biases, group relations, or history behind the
  project that could cause it to fail.
• Pay attention to personnel issues that could
  affect the project.
• Champion, supporter, enemy, neutral

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Politics and Policy

• Find out if your project will cause any jobs to
  be eliminated.
• Find out if there is a strategic business or IT
  plan
• Be prepared if the project involves the merging
  of voice and data networks.
• Gain a feeling for the clients business style
  high risk, high return
• Discuss any policies about protocols, standards,
  and vendors.
• Company may have chosen technologies and
  products, and your design must fit into the plans
  

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Remark

• Many brilliant network designs have been rejected
  by a customer because the designer only focused
  on the lower layers of the OSI reference model
  and forgot about company politics and technical
  biases.

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Budgetary and Staffing Constraints

• The budget should include allocations for
  equipment purchases, software licenses,
  maintenance and support agreements, testing,
  training, and staffing. The budget might also
  include consulting fees and outsourcing expenses.
  
• work with your customer to identify requirements
  for new personnel
• Analyze the abilities of the networking staff in
  order to recommend suitable technology

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Budgetary and Staffing Constraints (cont.)

• Determine who controls the network budgetthe
  Information Systems (IS) department, network
  managers, or users departments?
• It is useful to know the areas in which the
  network design can be changed with the least
  effect on performance to meet budget
  requirements.
• Create a business case including TCO and ROI
  analysis

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Project Scheduling

• Review with your customer is the timeframe for
  the network design project.
• When is the final due date and what are the
  intermediate and major milestones?
• If the project needs to replace existing wiring,
  be sure to include circuit disconnect or circuit
  capacity changes

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Outline

• IT Project Management Overview
• Analyzing Business Goals
• Analyzing Business Constraints
• Business Goals Checklist

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Business Goals Checklist

• I have researched the customers industry and
  competition
• I understand the customers corporate structure
• I have compiled a list of the customers business
  goals, starting with one overall business goal
  that explains the primary purpose of the network
  design project
• The customer has identified any mission-critical
  operations

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Business Goals Checklist (cont.)

• I understand the customers criteria for success
  and the ramifications of failure
• I understand the scope of the network design
  project
• I have identified the customers network
  applications
• The customer has explained policies regarding
  approved vendors, protocols, or platforms
• The customer has explained any policies regarding
  distributed authority for network design and
  implementation

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Business Goals Checklist (cont.)

• I know the budget for this project
• I know the schedule for this project, including
  the final due date and major milestones, and I
  believe it is practical
• I have a good understanding of the technical
  expertise of my clients and any relevant internal
  or external staff
• I have discussed a staff-education plan with the
  customer
• I am aware of any office politics that might
  affect the network design

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Summary

• Systematic approach
• Focus first on business requirements and
  constraints, and applications
• Gain an understanding of the customers corporate
  structure
• Gain an understanding of the customers business
  style

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Review Questions

• What are the main phases of network design per
  the top-down network design approach?
• What are the main phases of network design per
  the PDIOO approach?
• Why is it important to understand your customers
  business style?
• What are some typical business goals for
  organizations today?

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Questions?

• Next week
• Analyzing Technical Goals and Tradeoff