Commercial Phase: Tasks

Team Formation

Description

The team formation process is modeled after the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) Team Model. This model identifies 6 roles for each project.

The goal of this task is to identify at least one person to be the lead on each role. Individuals may fulfill duties on more than one role. Also, there may be more than one person fulfilling one role.

For reference, a short description of each role is listed below.

Roles

  1. Product Management
    Satisfied Customers: This role is primarily responsible for giving requirements to the developers, prioritizing requirements within the project, and establishing the business case.

  2. Program (Project) Management
    Delivery Within Project Constraints: This role is primarily responsible for making sure the project meets the established goals of the team, making sure it is delivered on time and within budget, allocation resources, facilitating communication, and driving critical decisions.

  3. Development
    Delivery to Product Specifications: This role is primarily responsible for building the product such that it meets the needs of the customer, being a technological consultant, and creating and maintaining estimates.

  4. Testing
    Release After Addressing All Issues: This role is primarily responsible for making sure all issues are known and addressed before release.

  5. User Education
    Enhanced User Performance: This role is primarily responsible for making sure the users can be as productive as possible with the new (or revised) product, providing input on usability, and training the users on the product before and after release. For each project, a representative from DISC will fulfill this role.

  6. Logistics Management
    Smooth Deployment and Ongoing Management: This role is primarily responsible for ensuring that the deployment goes as smoothly as possible and that the product is set up for long-term maintenance.

Resources

TODO

Risk Assessment

Description

Risk Assessment is the process of perceiving, analyzing and preparing for (or dealing with) conditions or events which threaten the success of a project. The amount of effort needed to assess risk is usually proportional to the size and scope of the project. Since life changes as a project moves along, risk assessment must be done in all phases of the project.

During the envisioning phase of a project, most of the risk assessment effort will be directed towards predicting which conditions or events which are the most likely to threaten the success of the project. As such, your goals in risk assessment are:

Goals

  • list as many potential dangers that can be reasonably foreseen

  • determine the probability of occurrence for each danger listed

  • determine the extent of potential loss for each danger listed

Once this is done, re-order the entire list from most dangerous to least dangerous. This will help keep things in perspective as the project wears on. (Remember to re-order the list again when re-assessing the dangers in later phases.)

5 Common Risks to Assess for the Project

  • Are the stakeholders actively involved in their role in the project?

  • Are new features requested after the requirements have been declared complete?

  • Do any features or products utilized violate the provided Information Security Guidelines?

  • Do the requirements affect a change in other products not previously included in this project?

  • Does inadequate testing contribute to a larger number of defects in the deployed product?

Resources

Risk Management