MERIT TS PROJECT METHODOLOGY | |
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Tailor-made Technology Solutions | |
 | The Strategic Scope Phase MERIT TS will compile a strategic scope document that will define the business scope of the project. The Strategic Scope Document will form a basis for the next phases of the project. The User Requirement Phase The first part of this phase entails a full system audit of the environment that we need to investigate. What we wish to achieve with the information gathered in this phase is to be able to correctly size the proposed Solution with relation to: the number of users; used disk capacity; applications to be catered for; file structures; Storage Area - and Local Area network requirements. A detailed investigation will also be made to define the requirements of the proposed Solution. Core requirements will be balanced between essential and nice-to-have. All relevant parties within the the CUSTOMER will be consulted (IT and Business). Aspects that will bear an influence on this phase include application server requirements, file server requirements, infrastructure requirements, system availability requirements, disaster recovery requirements and system back-up requirements. A server classification model, based on down time tolerances as determined by the CUSTOMER, will be defined as part of the user requirement specification. Server classification is necessary to ensure that a balance is maintained between system availability requirements and cost. The information gathered during these consultation sessions will be included in the deliverable for this phase, i.e. the Storage Area Network - and Backup Solution - User Requirement Specification document. The High-level System Design Phase The information gathered during the User Requirement phase will enable MERIT TS to provide a high-level system design. The high-level system design will be done in collaboration with the CUSTOMER's IT staff, ensuring that the existing IT infrastructure is taken into consideration. The involvement and cooperation of the CUSTOMER's IT department is of utmost importance for the duration of the entire project. This is to ensure that the CUSTOMER IT personnel are informed and up-to-date with all aspects of the proposed Solution. The High-level Design must supply a solution that addresses all the immediate and future requirements of the CUSTOMER as agreed by the the CUSTOMER and MERIT TS project teams. As discussed with the CUSTOMER, MERIT TS will leverage all previous technology decisions taken by the CUSTOMER as guideline in deciding on products for solution. Liaison with suppliers will be done in coherence with the CUSTOMER.This phase will include budgetary hardware and software costs for the proposed Solution. During this phase, comparisons will be made between products/solutions and a technical recommendation report will be compiled to illustrate the differences between products and highlight the risks and advantages/disadvantages of the various options. This will result in a short list of best-fit technologies, which will enable the CUSTOMER to decide on a solution that will best suit their requirements. The main deliverable of this phase is a High-level System Design Document. The Procurement Phase After the approval of the Solution, a procurement document will be compiled. This document will contain a list of components needed to make up the entire Storage Area Network - and Backup Solution. A detailed costing of the Storage Area Network - and Backup Solution will be done in this phase. The User Requirement Specification and System Design Documents will be used as guidelines to draw up the Technical Requirement Specification document of the system. The Technical Requirement Specification document combined with Legal- and other related documents would form the Procurement Document (Request For Tender). Once the Vendor responses have been received, an adjudication process will commence. The CUSTOMER will then decide on the final Vendor(s) for the Solution. The Detail Design and Implementation Planning Phase Once the actual products/solutions have been announced, MERIT TS, together with the Vendor(s) can proceed with the Detailed Design of the solution. Server classification will be revisited and confirmed as part of the detail design. An implementation plan will be drawn up in the Detail design phase. Special consideration will be given to the fact that system availability should not be impacted by the installation of the proposed Solution. Also to be considered is a back out for individual servers during the migration process. The migration in itself will be prioritised and done in phases and it is intended that the migration phases be defined as part of this document. The deliverable in this instance will be the Detail Design and Implementation Planning document. The System Implementation and Testing Phase Once the Procurement has been done and the equipment has been delivered, MERIT TS will oversee the system installation by the supplier after which the implementation of the Solution will commence. The implementation will be done according to the Implementation planning document. During the implementation process, the CUSTOMER and MERIT TS will at all times check the system functionality against parameters set out in the user requirement and system design to ensure that the final system actually complies with the user requirement specifications. Finally, a pilot project will be implemented to test and demonstrate all aspects of the design. Policies and Procedures Policies and procedures will be defined and documented of all aspects of the proposed Solution. The deliverable in this instance will be the: Policies and Procedures document Production Take-on Once the pilot project has been successfully implemented, the take-on of the rest of the systems into the new environment can begin. This phase needs to be prioritized, planned and coordinated with all relevant parties at the CUSTOMER. All the CUSTOMER change control rules will apply during the Production Take-on phase. Training and Ongoing Support The CUSTOMER personnel will have to attend formal supplier training, on all aspects of the installed hardware and software components. It is absolutely essential that the CUSTOMER's IT personnel be involved during all phases of the project including implementation and production take-on. Implementation Sign Off There are two distinct implementation sign-off phases:
Ongoing Support MERIT TS will be available to assist with after installation support. The period and terms of the ongoing support, will be discussed and agreed during the final stages of this project. |
MERIT TS Project Methodology
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| MERIT TS Company Overview | MERIT TS Enterprise Backup |
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| MERIT TS Enterprise Server | MERIT TS Enterprise Storage |
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