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Artifact 1 - Peak Lan Project
Artifact 1 - Peak Lan Project
Artifact 1 - Peak Lan Project
Tracy Buer
Tony Sines
Introduction/Background
Louisiana. The company was awarded a contract to design and install a local area network
(LAN) for the city of Meridians Social Welfare Agency. This is a very unique project for Peak
Systems as resources for the project include two interns from the local university.
Peak has a tight project schedule of 30 days to complete installation of the LAN system
with a fixed budget of $90,000. The project requires twenty workstations and twenty laptop
computers, a server with dual core processors, two laser printers, Windows 2008 R2 server
workstation that can run (Vista/Windows 7). Peak System must also provide four hours of
introduction training for the clients and personnel that will be using the system and sixteen hours
The milestones that has been give to the company is a January 22nd date for hardware,
setting users priority and authorization on January 26th, and an in-house whole network test
completed February 2nd. The final step includes training the staff and administrator with a
There are some limits and exclusions for this project; the system maintenance and repair
only up to one month after the final inspection and all the warranties for the equipment will be
transferred to the client. Also Peak will be only responsible for installing software designated by
the client two weeks before the start of the project. All other training or installation efforts the
The technical requirements for the Peak System (expanding from the work statement
listed above) are workstations with 17-inch flat panel monitors, dual-core processors, 2 GB
RAM, 8X DVD+RW, wireless card, Ethernet card, 80 GB hard drive. The laptops with 12-inch
display monitor, dual core processors, 2 GB RAM, 8X DVD+RW, wireless card, Ethernet card,
60 GB hard drive and weigh less than 4 lbs. The system must provide secure external access
for field workers and the system must support Windows Vista/Windows 7 platform.
Improves chances of reaching project performance objectives within budget and on time
The first step of risk identification is to generate a list of possible risks through
brainstorming, problem identification and risk profiling. The initial emphasis should be on
Technical Risks
occur
Schedule Risks
Resource Constraints
session issues. i.e. grades, tuition payments, or personal issues preventing return
Mardi Gras Event runs Jan 16 thru Feb 21 and could impact clients personnels
Costs Risks
Time/cost dependency links: costs increase when problems take longer to solve
than expected.
Price protection risks (a rise in input costs) increase if the duration of a project is
increased.
Funding Risks
Changes in the supply of funds for the project can dramatically affect the
Meridian Social Services fall under the state of Louisiana and could be impacted
The above matrix evaluates the risk, severity of the risk and the probability the risk will
occur and how difficult the detection is to discover. The project for Meridian Social Service
Agency included a fixed budget of $90,000 and a tight 30 day schedule. Both risks can be
managed with contingency plans; however they are interdependent upon each other. Simply
stated if delays occur, the more likely the budget could be impacted.
Risks need to be evaluated in terms of likelihood the event will occur and the impact or
consequences of the occurrence. (Meredith, 2009) In terms of the Peak LAN Project, evaluating
the risks proactively proved to be a challenge for the technical risks. Testing the risks could not
be completed prior to installation or deliver of the hardware. The project manager would need to
react to these situations and develop solutions that could result in increased costs as well as
schedule delays. In addition to technical delays, Peak LAN utilized interns could lead to resource
constraints during installation. The project manager could eliminate this risk by obtaining
schedule commitments from the interns so that additional resources could be contracted to
Risk Response
Prepare design and Identify the Critical Path and make the
installation of Local Area Avoid: Review Design necessary changes to prepare for a delay Behind schedule Project Manager
Network(LAN)
Monitors not working
Review Hardware Mitigate: Select reliable and CPUs not loading
vendor Order replacement Two interns
Transfer: Warranty
implemented, the risk analysts encounter the phase of assessment and selection of the project risk
response actions (RA) (Seyedhoseini, Noori & Hatefi, 2009). Within the realm of project
management, there are many challenges that will be encountered. The Risk response matrix
assists project managers by, summarizing how the project team plans to manage risks that have
been identified (Larson & Gray, 2011). In assessing the risks associated with this project, the
team will have to address the contingency plan that will be implemented for each risk. The
design stage involves how Peak Systems will install a local area network (LAN) for the Meridian
Social Service Agency. The one trigger that the project manager is concerned about in this stage
is falling behind on schedule. The project manager has determined that to avoid this issue,
identifying the critical paths and making all the necessary changes to prepare for a delay will
The next risk event revolves around the hardware. The contract for this project includes
the delivery of twenty workstations, twenty laptops, one server, and two color laser printers. The
Meridian Social Welfare Agency 7
project manager understands that when this much hardware is involved in any contract the
chance of receiving faulty equipment will increase. In order to mitigate this risk, the two interns
will track the delivery of the hardware from beginning to end. This will allow the team to know
in advance, if any, flaws within the delivery logistics of the hardware is present. If an event of
this nature should occur, the team will immediately arrange for the hardware to be delivered by
another company. The project manager understands that this could possibly cause some delay,
but the team would be able to save half of the delay time depending on how soon the delivery
problem is assessed.
Although it is impossible to eliminate all risk events, some specific risks may be
avoided before you launch the project (Larson & Gray, 2011). The simplest way to avoid certain
risks is to ensure that the team purchases proven technology. In the same respect, the project
manager has to keep a keen eye on the budget allotted. This is where project managers earn their
money, because they understand that some phase of the project has to be compromised to keep
within budget, and the question then becomes, what gets compromised? Within the scope of this
project, the project manager has purchased proven equipment and limited the system
During the system performance monitoring, the in-house whole network testing could be
affected by the system freezing, which could cause a delay. Another issue that the team could
run in to is the inability to provide secure external access to field workers. The project manager
and the peak professional have decided that they will work on any errors that may occur
accordingly, and if they get to the point where they cant figure the problem out, they will bring
in outside assistance. This logic allows the team to troubleshoot the problem, and if they cant
correct it, they know exactly who to contact and what to get a price quote for.
Meridian Social Welfare Agency 8
Throughout this course, we have discussed organizational culture and office politics, and
both can become evident in this project if the team does not properly prepare for it. The final
risk event of this project will involve training. The risk of red tape when setting user priorities
and authorizations is going to be dependent upon the culture of the organization. Even though it
is spelled out in the contract that the client will be responsible for any additional time allotted for
training, the team has decided to create a troubleshooting logic tree as a contingency plan for any
delays within this task. The team will make the training as user friendly as possible to allow for
Conclusion
Peak Systems, LAN project consisted of a tight schedule and a fixed budget. The team
addressed Risk Matrix and Risk Response in order to help mitigate any issues that may come up
in the project plan. Technical installation project such as this project provide an even bigger
challenges than other projects as many of the risks cannot be identified until the actual software
References
Larson, E.W., & Gray, C.F. (2011). Project management the managerial process fifth edition.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Meredith J.R., Mantel S.J. (2009) Project Management w/CD 7th Ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
Publishers.
Seyedhoseini, S., Noori, S., & Hatefi, M. (2009). An Integrated Methodology for Assessment and
Selection of the Project Risk Response Actions. Risk Analysis: An International Journal, 29(5),
752-763. doi:10.1111/j.1539-6924.2008.01187.