Form and Charter the POC Group

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Form and Charter the POC Group

Martin brought his project team and stakeholders together. He outlined what was to be done and how it was to be accomplished. The project would deliver on the network login, mail, Web, and only two trading applications. The POC would be deployed only on existing infrastructure and to only one branch of the trading community. All the technology stakeholders would have two representatives involved with the POC. Martin and his immediate team would make the vendor selection based on the goals and success criteria.

Jason met with his manager to review what was to take place. Jason had arranged for some colleagues in the project management office to be part of the POC. It seemed a reasonable choice, as these were the same people who were part of the digital certificate POC. They really didn't mind the password, but would be glad to try out a new technology. Jason's manager informed him that during a senior management meeting, the topic of passwords had come up. It seemed that there was growing user concern over having to remember passwords. In the discussion that followed, it seemed logical that Jason's current biometric replacement for a digital certificate password could be extended to other applications. His manager thought this would a good idea and felt that it should not entail any additional cost. Jason would need to find a biometric system that could replace digital certificate passwords as well as other Windows-based passwords. The same colleagues he had selected earlier would still work, as they had Windows logins. So, the charter was changed to include other Windows-based passwords.


The Methodology

Once all the stakeholders have been identified and invited into the project, and the goals and success criteria for the project have been defined, the POC charter should be created. The charter will define what percentage or part of the overall project goal will be used in the POC, and what other short- term POC goals should be defined. The scope of the POC is defined and agreed to. When setting goals and deciding on scope, the following can help in achieving POC success:

  • Remember that less is quite often better ” When looking at the possible high values that the project can deliver, it is easy to want to increase the scope or be more aggressive in the feature set of the products being considered . It is better to follow the "keep it simple" rule early on, and expand later during the pilot.

  • Leverage existing infrastructures ” When trying to get financial approval for a project, it is better to show the highest possible value from the project with the lowest possible cost. To do this, it is advisable to leverage existing infrastructure. Doing this has some benefits. The first benefit is that the infrastructure is already deployed and being managed. This means that there is no cost to the POC group, and the time that would be required to deploy the infrastructure can be used to do other tasks . Another benefit is that the POC, if not successful, will leave orphaned infrastructure behind to be decommissioned.

  • Hit high-value objectives and goals first ” It is always better to grab the low-hanging fruit first than to go after the brass ring on the first attempt. By doing this, the overall project will scale up through all its phases.

  • Integrate the application that everyone uses, not the orphaned one from three mergers ago! ” If part of the POC is using the biometric system with existing applications, it is best to integrate the application that will be used by the most members of the POC user base. By doing this, the maximum number of users in the group will be using the biometric system the maximum amount of time. This will help generate the feedback that is needed for making decisions at the end of the POC. It will also provide the greatest test of the biometric system.

  • Be less aggressive; don't push the full feature set ” This will allow for a greater probability of success for the POC. The POC needs to prove only that the technology is applicable enough to move on to the pilot phase. In the later stages of the project, more parts of the product's feature set can be used.

  • Build some wins and momentum before venturing into riskier actions ” This goes hand in hand with not pushing the feature set. If the feature set is reduced, wins and momentum can be built quickly. It is better to walk slowly from the starting line than to leave quickly and trip on your shoelaces!

  • Make sure all the groups are equally involved ” It is amazing that in a professional corporate environment, professionals can behave like young children. If one group is feeling neglected or another group is receiving favored attention, this will cause dissention in the project. It is easy to forget that there are other stakeholders for the POC aside from the lead business unit. The other members of the group need to be using the biometric system as well. This is how they will build confidence in the system and provide meaningful feedback. It is better to get feedback from each group as early as possible. If it is negative, it can be dealt with and the POC can be adjusted, or proposed changes can be put forward for the next phases.

When the charter is defined, all parties need to sign off on it, including the executive sponsor. This is the recognition that there has been consensus and all parties are ready to move forward.

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Biometrics for Network Security
Biometrics for Network Security (Prentice Hall Series in Computer Networking and Distributed)
ISBN: 0131015494
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 123
Authors: Paul Reid

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