Chapter 7: Phase 7 - General Availability


If you think you can do a thing or think you can t do a thing, you re right.

”Henry Ford

7.1 General Availability Overview

General Availability is when the project is available to the end user . If the proper due diligence was performed during QA and Beta the project should be relatively bug free. Sustaining costs will be incurred by the project, which may include the cost of Help Desk support, of training, and of scheduled software or hardware upgrades, as well as the cost of the IT personnel needed to maintain the software and hardware the application runs on.

Yearly, the executive management team should review the project fit and maintenance costs. The phase review is used as an after-the-fact tool to measure the effectiveness of the estimates created during the earlier PLC process and to identify if enhancements to the project are needed. If a new project is being released that will eventually make obsolete the current project, a General Availability review should still be performed. It is valuable to take the time to review the acceptance of the project and compare this to predictions . Typically companies are so focused on releasing the next version they don t take the time to review the acceptance of the current project. Yearly reviews are an invaluable tool in understanding how close earlier estimates are to reality. The Phase 7 review gives the company valuable information that can be used to fine-tune and benchmark the process. The role of each project team involved in day-to-day sustaining activities is listed below.

IT

IT is the functional area responsible for managing projects after they are released. Earlier in the process they were the key member responsible for programming, managing, and integrating the project s hardware and software. IT is also responsible for defining, designing, and developing a project, as well as for conducting its initial testing and fixing any errors before it is released. IT is the key member on the project team and needs to be available to provide technical information both written and verbal to all of the members .

Help Desk

Help Desk is responsible for answering user questions after the project is released. Earlier in the process they were responsible for defining, designing, and developing a detailed plan that articulates how the company will support a project after it is released. The Support Plan defines how Help Desk personnel will be trained, how users will access help, how bugs will be tracked and fixed after release, what training will be available to end users, and how updates and fixes will be sent to users.

Training

The training department is responsible for creating and delivering training programs to end users. This may entail classroom training, conference training, or Web-based training.

7.1 in a Nutshell

General Availability is when the project is being used. The following activities take place to ensure that the project runs smoothly and meets end-user needs:

  • Help Desk answers user questions.

  • End-user training is available.

  • Scheduled software or hardware upgrades take place.

  • IT fixes bugs and maintains the software and hardware the application runs on.

The people involved in the day-to-day activities of managing a released project are:

  • IT

  • Support

  • Training




Effective IT Project Management
Effective IT Project Management: Using Teams to Get Projects Completed on Time and Under Budget
ISBN: B000VSMJSW
EAN: N/A
Year: 2004
Pages: 105
Authors: Anita Rosen

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