Developing a Preliminary Schedule

An implementation schedule is a must-have in any deployment scenario because it forces you to target an implementation date and enables you to determine whether the amount of time allotted is sufficient given the work that is required. As with other deliverables discussed in this section, the level of detail required for your schedule depends on your situation. It can be a high-level schedule where only major milestones are reflected, or a more detailed list of phases and associated tasks. What’s important is that everyone involved with the project understands and commits to the schedule you establish.

During the brainstorming process, the winery team agreed that their Web site should be streaming the first audio and video in time for the summer tourist traffic. They estimate that the process should take approximately eight weeks and break the tasks into three phases: planning, developing, and implementing. The tasks within each of those phases are as follows:

• Planning

  • Prepare request for video editing proposal.

  • Conduct research.

  • Design system architecture.

  • Produce project specification.

  • Evaluate proposal and award contract.

• Developing

  • Procure hardware and software.

  • Install hardware and software.

  • Receive completed content.

  • Configure server and encoder.

  • Conduct pilot test.

• Implementing

  • Complete end-to-end testing.

  • Encode all content and post on server.

  • Go live.

Once their tasks are defined, the team can estimate the amount of time needed for each. Then they use a scheduling tool, such as Microsoft Project, to lay out the tasks on a calendar in order to identify any overlaps or resource allocation problems that will prevent tasks from being completed on time. Figure 5.2 shows the schedule that the winery team produced.

Figure 5.2: Coho Winery streaming media Web site development schedule.

Within each of the tasks listed in this schedule are numerous sub-tasks that will be divided among the winery team members. We’ll discuss each of those tasks in detail in the next chapter.

In this chapter we discussed the importance of envisioning as a step toward implementing a streaming media site on the Internet. We used a fictional scenario to illustrate the steps in the envisioning phase: developing the vision, setting goals, brainstorming, assigning action items, and creating a schedule. In our scenario, team members evaluated their Coho Winery site as it stands today and described how they would expect it to look in the future both from a content perspective and technologically.

In chapter 6, we move into the planning phase where the Coho Winery team members will complete their research, refine their goals, and work together to create an implementation plan.