Completion Report

Project Summary:

This project was to make recommendations for

.         A tool that reflects the health of the infrastructure from a service consumers perspective

·         A single tool that aggregates disparate information into one picture representing the health of the infrastructure

·         A “single pane of glass” solution that is configured to the needs of  the recipient which is easy to interpret and which communicates clear messages about service availability

·         A tool that offers an operator the capability to carry out drill down activity during fault finding and problem resolution.

·         A single tool that can help with historic behavior, current behavior and capacity planning.

·         A solution that integrates heterogeneous tools and data to provide powerful management information.

·         A solution that offers a single point of alerting and to targeted audiences

·         A solution that does not necessitate the removal of better suited existing management tools

·         A solution that is scalable where its own management and administration is not a considerable burden.

These have been achieved.

Objectives

A recent survey carried out by the UCISA Infrastructure Groupidentified a number of institutions that have tackled this problem and implemented solutions. The project would contact these institutions and where possible make site visits to evaluate what has been implemented and how well this maps on to our own requirements, wholly or partially. This evaluation would be carried out by experts in the different IT sections from ITI and Applications Division.

From this process the project  produced a recommendation of which solution would be most suitable for Edinburgh University. Should the project not identify a suitable solution, then the project would instead provide a recommendation and costed solution based on what it would take to achieve a satisfactory system that would be developed in-house/procured or a mixture of both.

Once a recommendation was accepted a new project would implement/trial/develop the solution identified.

The preferred outcome was to implement a solution based on an existing successful implementation at another institution as this is likely to be the most cost-effective and quickest to deliver. As it turned out, an incumber tool was selected.

In summary, al objectives achieved.  

Deliverables

(i) site visits (ii) report from each site/combined assessment to go along with the recommendation (iii) a final recommendation by the project team as to how IS should proceed and which solution to implement

These have been achieved.

Benefits and Success Criteria

This project would be deemed successful, if the following criteria are achieved;

·         A recommended solution that has been endorsed by the technical panel who will carry out the assessment

          A recommendation approved by Project Sponsor and IS Directors

These have been achieved.

Analysis of Resource Usage:

Staff Usage Estimate: 60 days

Staff Usage Actual: 59 days

Staff Usage Variance: -2%

Other Resource Estimate: 0 days

Other Resource Actual: 0 days

Other Resource Variance: 0%

Explanation for variance:

n/a

Key Learning Points:

The project helped to form a cross IS team and allowed us to better understand each others requirements and challenges we have in different teams. In particular, the site visits have helped to build a "team spirit" which will be very useful when we move to the next stage of the project - implementing a prototype.

Outstanding issues:

.none