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Agenda

Greetings
What is an infrastructure project
Common methodology
Artifacts / Templates
Project Management tools
Lessons learned
Closing

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Greetings

When not at work… walking the dog and conducting home improvement projects usually make up most of my free time.

Worked in project Management for about 20 years and for companies big and small.
Started my career as Network Engineer.

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What is an infrastructure project?

The IT infrastructure consists of all elements that support the management and usability of data and information.

These include the physical hardware and facilities (including data centers), data storage and retrieval, network systems, legacy interfaces, and software to support the business goals of an enterprise

https://www.smartsheet.com/it-infrastructure-management-services-guide

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What is an infrastructure project?

Main differences with Software development project:

More predictable
Easier to plan more of it (all of it?) upfront
Deliverables usually visible as they get done

Examples:

Server Room migration

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What is an infrastructure project?

Example: Server Room Migration

Driver:

Free up the space on the 3^rd floor due to rent increase

Scope:

Move the server room to the 1^st floor without service interruption or noticeable service degradation for the people in the office on 2^nd floor

Future home of the server room

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A special breed of infrastructure: the Cloud

Infrastructure projects get done with infrastructure people (no keystrokes involved in building the deliverable)
Software projects get done with software people (developers)
Cloud is infrastructure done by developers

This is the Cloud

This is the Cloud Infrastructure

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Methodology vs Framework: Waterfall vs agile

Consider this:

The nature of the project (Can I plan everything ahead?)
The stakeholders
Your Team

Remember:

agile is easy to understand but hard to implement

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Main Artifacts

Project Plan / Timeline
Risks and Issues register
Weekly report

(see Annex for examples)

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Toolbox

Pick a tool that works for you more than you have to work for it

Gantt chart: Microsoft Project and several free Tools
Smartsheet
Automation!!

Reporting is what counts. “you can’t improve what you can’t measure”

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Real life lessons learned

Fiber riser for TR (versus buying new gear)
Document decisions, by emailing the statement yourself if necessary
Tell vs Ask
Empathize
Do not answer if there is no question

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Thank you

Claude Ichkhanian

cichkhan@yahoo.com

20XX

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Annex

Project Plan
Risks and Issues Register
Weekly Report

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Project Plan

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Risks and Issues Register

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Weekly Report

Project Health

Main Accomplishment for the week

Met with landlord about extending our presence on 3^rd floor: they are open for discussion – 3/20
Received Delivery of 20% of the gear – 3/22

Next Week

Project Sponsor to meet with landlord to secure a deal
Start configuring the gear already received

Risks/Issues/Blockers

Risk - The bulk of the gear may not arrive on time to meet our expected deadline.

Remediation: Negotiating with landlord

Decision(s)

Sponsor decided to wait on pulling more fiber optic between floors as discussions with the landlord might be favorable