SCHOOL CAMPUS WI-FI PROVISION: PROJECT PROPOSAL 2
Secondary School Campus Wi-Fi Provision: Project Proposal
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Secondary School Campus Wi-Fi Provision: Project Proposal
Project Summary
The proposed project involves Wi-Fi provision in an urban secondary school campus. The Wireless Campus Area Network (WCAN) is designed to ensure a reliable and efficient wireless connection for all Internet users within the area. The network is intended to compliment the existing wired network and improve its efficiency, bandwidth and functionalities to accommodate the increasing demands from the Internet users in the campus. Wi-Fi is a critical element for supporting recent developments in E-learning within the institution. It will also help for better utilization of cloud services for the teachers and other members of staff. Overall, Wi-Fi provision will significantly improve access to the Internet in the secondary school.
The project is due for completion within 12 months after launch, inclusive of one-month maintenance. The proposed budget for the project is $900, 000 with a possible 5% deviation. All development activities will be done within the campus despite outsourcing labor at different levels of the project. There will be 5 full-time employees while all other employees will be contract-based. Other stakeholders in the project include the schools Chief Information Officer (CIO) who is the project owner, students, and school staff. The network upgrade is expected to increase productivity by 10% and increase Internet use by about 5%. The new system is also expected to be in use for the next 10 years. The project owner will be responsible for maintenance and management of the system after the 12-month period. Overall, the project aims at implementing a Wi-Fi- based Campus Area Network (CAN) for better, reliable, secure, and efficient Internet access within the school.
Potential Challenges
There are several potential challenges to successful completion of the project despite a high probability of success. One of the major challenges of the project is the legacy problem. According to Afaqui, Garcia-Villegas, and Lopez-Aguilera (2016), it is common for some stakeholders to reject developments in IT simply because they are already accustomed and proficient in previous systems. Some of the Internet users in the campus prefer to retain the existing Internet connection which might cause biased user feedback and misleading user requirements, thus affecting the success of the project. A potential solution to the challenge is ensuring significant awareness to the relevant stakeholders before initiating the projects. There will be less resistance against the new project if they understand its benefits.
Another significant challenge to the implementation is access to skilled labor. Most of the IT personnel in the school have little or no knowledge on recent Wi-Fi technology. The internal employees have better knowledge of the site and requirements and are, therefore, in the bet position to implement the connectivity changes. However, limited skillset limits their ability to contribute to the project from a technical point of view. One potential solution is to outsource labor and have them work together with the current stuff. Another potential solution is to train existing staff on the current technology.
Another critical challenge to successful implementation of the project is poor network management. The institution is currently facing poor network management that is responsible for the poor Internet speeds as well as the inefficient and insecure network. The school currently runs all network management inhouse with one network manager. A potential solution is to train the network administrator and establish a checklist system for accountability purposes. Also, the school may choose to outsource network management services.
Finally, outside interference might adversely affect the successful implementation of the project. According to Shi and Lee (2017), Wi-Fi is prone to interference from other Radio Frequency (RF) implementations. The interference limits network efficiency resulting in a slower and unstable connection. The school is particularly prone to the challenge since it is located in an urban setting with numerous sources of interference in and around the institution. A potential solution to the challenge is to strategically place the Wi-Fi Access Points in low interference zones as well as using shielded cables where need be. While the challenges might slow down the implementations, implementing the recommended solutions will help ensure project success.
Project Performance Management: EVM
The success of the project largely depends on the management aspect (Larson & Gray, 2018). The project management team will take an Earned Value Management approach to guide the managers towards the best decisions for the success of the project. An important metric to measure project performance for the proposed project is resource utilization. According to Kerzner (2017), the success of any project largely depends on how the participants utilize the available resources throughout the project. The project manager will also make decisions on resource acquisition and budgetary changes based on resource utilization metrics.
Customer satisfaction is also a key performance metric for the proposed metric. The end users are the most important people in the project in that they depend on the Internet connection to fulfil their responsibility and accomplish their tasks. The project team can collect the customer satisfaction metrics by presenting questionnaires to the end users or interviews. Customer satisfaction also contributes to the long-term performance of the project since it determines how well the end users can work with the new implementation. It is, therefore, important to consider the thoughts of the end users in the design and implementation of the project.
Measuring the gross margin will also help assess performance. The project is expected to be within the approved gross margin in the planning phase. The measure will help determine the feasibility of the project and thus, a reliable performance metric.
Project Closure
The first step of the closing process is to conduct project closeout activities. The project closeout will ensure that the project is fully completed. The project manager will ensure that all necessary documentation pertaining to the project is available and approved by the relevant authority. They will then validate completion of all elements in the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), review the contract, and conduct the final project evaluation.
The next step is to conduct a lessons-learned review. The project team will hold meetings to discuss the challenges they faced and the lessons they learned from the project. The aim of the review is to improve the performance of the various project participants for the purpose of self-development and future projects. The step will help ensure that all stakeholders understand any changes or omissions throughout the project.
The third step will be to hand over the project to the project owner. The project manager will hand over to the school’s CIO after sufficient training. The hand over shows the change in project ownership and responsibilities. The phase represents project completion and that the project owner can proceed to launch the new Wi-Fi in the campus.
The final step of the closing process is the product launch. The launch involves the official approval of the new system and marks the beginning of actual use. The project owner will officially launch the product once the relevant stakeholders approve the project and its official use by the relevant end users.
Conclusion
The current project will significantly improve Internet connectivity within the campus. The proposed project is expected to be active for twelve months and is expected to be used for the next ten years. The project budget is & 900,000 and aims at ensuring fast, reliable and efficient Internet connection throughout the campus. Potential project challenges include the legacy problem, limited skilled labor, poor network management, and outside interference. The project team will take an earned value management approach to project performance by measuring resource utilization, customer satisfaction, and gross margin. The closing phase of the project will involve closeout activities, lessons-learned review, project hand-over, and product launch.
References
Afaqui, M. S., Garcia-Villegas, E., & Lopez-Aguilera, E. (2016). IEEE 802.11 ax: Challenges and requirements for future high efficiency WiFi. IEEE Wireless Communications, 24(3), 130-137.
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2018). Project management: the managerial process. McGraw-Hill.
Shi, G., & Li, K. (2017). Signal interference in WiFi and ZigBee networks (pp. 9-27). Springer International Publishing.