Enterprise and Conventional Project Management

By Raul Bernardino

Introduction:

Nowadays, the Information Technology Project Management becomes more intense of using the project management knowledge in order to overcome the failures in the Information Technology projects in the past experience as a lesson learned and prepare for the better of the Information Technology projects management planning in the future. 

What is the Project? There are several attributes of the project can define more as follows:

1. A project has a unique purpose or idea whereas it has a clear define the objective of the project.
2. A project is temporary, whereas it has start and end time, e.g. less than two years (one month or two months of the project period).
3. A project is elaborated and developed by using progressive mode, whereas it has to adjust to the need when move along with the project, e.g. at the very beginning it may has more broad definition or objective however when move along the project it might find the tone and has more specifics and clear of the details.
4. A project requires the resources, whereas it has from various resources such as human resources (people), cost, other means like hardware and software, etc.
5. A project has to have sponsor or primary customer, stakeholders etc., for instance the sponsorship has to give a direction to the project manager on how the project output would be.
6. A project involves uncertainly as well, whereas it has uniqueness and it is difficult to predict the life time of the project.

The project manager has to be effective in managing those attributes above including managing a project team and follow the direction or guidance from project sponsor in order to meet the of project goal.

Project Management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements” (Schwalbe, 2010, p. 10)

In order to manage the project to be success, she or he, the project manager has to be dealing with a specific project and focusing on project goals whereas it is short term goals and it is relating to a particular project and not to mix with the other project activities.  It has to be concentrate in the trip constraint of the project.

The triple constrains as follows:

1. Scope:  What activities or works are need to be done in the project, what results that are expected to have, and how those activities are verify the need of customers or sponsor
2. Time: How long the period of the project to be completed, how team delivery tasks in the schedule, and who can approve  changes is if schedule time is not meet
3. Cost: How much the cost for the project to be completed, how cost will be analyzed, who can approve the budget if there is a change; 

The Enterprise Project Management is a systematic approach, in order to achieve the organization goals via the continuation of one basis of the project whereas involving the organizational strategies, transforming business activities, improving the operation to be effective, including the developing a project traditionally.

The Enterprise Project Management is a tool to enable the organizations or companies have better management in managing the resources, like as technology, people and processes and also have an efficient collaboration and consistent of project reporting to the managerial lines in the organization or company.

This tool also helps to have better performance and understanding in the project planning whereas fit with system development life cycle (SDLC).

The traditional project management has four main stage of project life time. They are:

• Concept: in which is coming from system analyst, end user or some one’s idea as a base to develop the system application for instance.
• Development: in which is system analyst, business analyst, designer, coder, and tester have to develop and prototype the application.
• Implementation: in which is the end users will confirm the features and developer doing maintenance for the changing or new version etc., including the project teams are responsible for the implementation starting from prototype, testing mode and production mode.
• Closeout: There are many issues are involving in the closing out of the project. For instance regulation changed, requirement changed, new technology etc.

In conclusion: Lot of agency or companies now is using the enterprise project management to minimize the project cost.

Annexes:

References list:

1. Schwalbe, K. Information Technology Project Management, Revised 6th edition
2. Microsoft Leadership in Enterprise Project Management Microsoft Office EPM Solution Customer Research Report [online]. Available from: http://www.epmsolutions.net/assets/solutions/epm_customer_research.pdf  (Accessed Date: May 6, 2011)
3. Enterprise Project Management [online]. Available from: http://www.scribd.com/doc/35561435/Enterprise-Project-Management-EPM (Accessed Date: May 6, 2011)

Information Technology Project Manger Skill

By Raul Bernardino

Introduction:

The best practice is that the manager has to optimize the organization resources to achieve the goal and objective of the project. He or she can use his or her own experience by dealing with the variety on the projects. Of course he or she has to have basic management background knowledge. For instance Project management Body of Knowledge.

In other part Robert Buttrick suggested the following basic principles on how to manage the projects which are follows:

1.     Be sure that projects are driven by strategy and it is in line with company or organization business strategies

2.     Involving all stakeholders in all phases of the project

3.     Encourage team-work to work as the team, all the time

4.     Communicate clearly all issues (good and bad) to all entities that involve the project

In my own opinion, the project managers are managing the processes that come with projects management. This means that project managers are not work alone. He or she works as a team to make a project successful. He or she has to manage team or people to helping him or her in developing the project, define the clear objectives and goal of the project, mitigate the risk of the project, managing the scope, and work plan. Once the project is lunch project managers have to manage all project activities and control the processes, including have to manage the communication.

Therefore I do suggest the information technology project manager have to have variety skills as follows:

Ø Project management process skills

Ø Communication skills (written and verbal)

Ø Business or technology skills

Ø Problem solving and critical thinking skills

Ø Negotiation, conflict resolution skill

Ø Leadership skills

Ø Strong team builder skills

Ø Strong in the delegation tasks or build trust to the team members skills

Ø Consistent and ethical behavior 

However, not all of the listed skills above are mandatory for project managers to have. Basically project managers have to manage all resources that needed in the project within time line and cost efficiency.

Overall the project managers have to use their skills in every situation because certain skills are use in certain situation only. In other words different situation needs different skills.  

Another example larger project needs a strong leadership, has relevant experiences in the past, has a good team lead and player, has communication skills, has planning skill, and has people skills. For the uncertainty project needs person that has risk management, has expectation management, has people skills, has leadership, and has planning skill.

The leaders have to have a big picture of the project and motivate the team all the time in order to achieve the goal; while the managers have to have a details to meet the specific objectives. Most important is that the project manager has to lead by example.

Conclusion:

Not all skills for the project managers are needed in certain situation of the project management; they are all depends on the nature on the project itself.

The project managers are managing the projects with the leadership and manager role at the same time.

References list:

·        Schwalbe, K. Information Technology Project Management, Revised 6th edition

·        Lecture note, PM_WK1_Lecture_notes University Of Liverpool/ Laureate Online Education (2010), Lecture Notes from Information technology Project Management Module Seminar 1 [Online]. Available from: University of Liverpool/Laureat Online Education VLE (Accessed 7^th May 2011)

·        Besner, C., and Hobb, B. (Feb. 26, 2008) Project Management Practice, generic or contextual: A Realty check [online]. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pmj.20033/abstract  (Accessed Date: May 6, 2011)

·        The 7 most important communication skills an IT leader should have [online]. Available from: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-manager/the-7-most-important-communication-skills-an-it-leader-should-have/622# (Accessed Date: May 6, 2011)

Terminal Services and Remote Administration

By Raul Bernardino

The Overview

By using a terminal service, a client can appear to run Windows Server 2003 locally. All the processing power is done by the server. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 have a feature called “Remote Desktop” which will allow you to connect remotely to the computer and logon as if you are sat at the machine.  Although Windows Server 2003 can be administered remotely by using an MMC or a Web Administration Interface it is still handy and necessary to be able to physically logon to the server to perform specific tasks.

Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 have a feature called “Remote Desktop” which will allow you to connect remotely to the computer and logon as if you are sat at the machine.
Once connected you will see the desktop as it is on the server and you will be able to work as if you were physically located at the machine.

You can disconnect from the session at any time and reconnect to the same session, continuing where you left of.

Using Windows XP’s fast user switching you can easily transfer your desktop to another machine, e.g. to ask for assistance or to show a file on your desktop.

Remote Desktop on Windows Server 2003 will allow two concurrent connections and doesn’t require any special licenses.

Remote desktop can be further extended by enabling terminal services.

By using terminal services, a client can appear to run Windows Server 2003 locally. All the processing power is done by the server.  The server receives keyboard and mouse requests from the clients (terminals) and transmits the display back. Only one copy of Windows Server 2003 is required.

Rather than installing a full version of Windows on every client, a Windows terminal server can be deployed instead.  Clients whose hardware might not be supported by Windows can still take advantage of the Windows Server 2003 features.

Clients can continue to use their old operating system and benefit from the features and applications from Windows Server 2003.  Many different devices can act as terminal clients (called thin clients). E.g. a Windows 3.11 machine can run terminal services client and appear to be running Windows Server 2003.  Although the client terminals can be very low-end machines with no hard-drive and no operating system, the clients will still need client software to run terminal services.  Terminal Services is also a good way to run applications such as Microsoft Office on incompatible clients.  N.B. Once a server is installed with Terminal Services, applications MUST be installed by using Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel.

Remote Administration

Unlike Remote Desktop, Terminal Services requires licenses. However Terminal Services allows a lot more clients to connect and enables the use of application sharing. Terminal Services can only be enabled on a machine running Windows Server 2003.

Terminal Services Overview

Using Terminal Services, users can log in multiple times to the same server using different sessions. This allows users to perform many tasks at once.  Users can easily cut and paste between applications running locally and applications running on the Terminal Server.

Using Remote Control, two users can use the same terminal session, in other words one user can control and view another user’s session. This can be used to train users or diagnose problems.  Printers that are connected locally to the client will continue to work from a terminal session. Terminal Services and Remote Desktop use the RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) v5.2.

A terminal session can be disconnected and reconnected at a later time from another client. The session will effectively remain active until logged off or closed by the server.

The logon process is also encrypted and such things as the number of logon attempts can be controlled through security policies. Data transmitted between the client and server can also be encrypted at four different levels (low, compatible, FIPS compliant or high).

User Accounts created locally on the terminal server or in Active Directory can be used with terminal services.

Terminal Services Requirements

The hardware requirements for a Terminal Server depend upon on how many clients will be connecting and what the clients will be doing once connected.  A Terminal Server requires at least the recommended Windows Server 2003 requirements plus an additional 10Mb RAM for each client connecting.  All though not a requirement, using SCSI disk drives can greatly improve performance. You could also use high-performance bus architecture such as EISA or PCI.  Since many clients will be connecting simultaneously, using a high performance network card will help. You could also install two adapters and dedicate one adapter solely to the RDP protocol.  When running Terminal Services, ensure that only 32-bit applications are used.  In order to run 16-bit applications, Windows uses an emulation service called Windows-on-Windows (WOW), which consumes a lot of system resources. Because 16-bit applications will take up more system resources than 32-bit applications it’s better to use solely 32-bit applications. Terminal Services client runs on a variety of machines. They must support VGA and have at least 4MB of memory. Terminal Services client is available to Windows-based terminals and Intel & Alpha based computers running Windows for Workgroups 3.11, 95, 98, NT 3.51, NT 4.0 2000, XP and 2003. There is also third-party support for Macintosh and UNIX-based computers.

Terminal Services Licenses

Terminal Services have its own licensing method. A Terminal Client must have a valid license when connecting to a Terminal Server.  Either a Windows 2003 Terminal Services Client Access License or a Windows Server 2003 license is required as well as a Client Access License (CAL). Windows 2003 machines that are used as clients already have a Terminal Services Client Access License.  You can use Terminal Services for 90 days before you need to install Terminal Services Licensing and activate them.  N.B. Even after 90 days you will still be able to use Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance connections.

Reference list:

TechNet (N:N) How Terminal Services Works [Online]. Available from:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc755399(v=ws.10).aspx#w2k3tr_ts_how_kqhp (Accessed: 31 October 2014)

Wiki (N:N) Remote Desktop Services [Online]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Desktop_Services (Accessed: 31 October 2014)

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

By Raul Bernardino

Introduction:

All communication occurs on any type of networks and all involved parties must use a common language. In the Information Technology (IT) networks, this is known as a protocol.  There are many different protocols that are available for computer networks. The most common and widely used being TCP/IP.

TCP/IP is the standard protocol that is being used on the internet whereas allows any network to access the internet and therefore you must use the TCP/IP protocol suite. In other hand an Active Directory required CP/IP. For that reason, TCP/IP is developed and as a default protocol starting from Windows XP and server 2003.

Protocols

This protocols reference is often made to the TCP/IP stack. This consists of layers of mini applications which are performing the discrete job of sorting and filtering the data packets picked up by the Network Information Center (NIC) and then passing the packet on to the next layer for further processing. Eventually a coherent message pops out of the top of the stack into the operating system for the user to read. The reverse is also true i.e. converting of the reply into data packets that can be sent over the network media.

The layers in a TCP/IP stack write headers for network messages as well as decoding them.  Each level in the stack adds a portion to the network packet which its counterpart in the receiving computer will understand.  Strictly speaking, the NIC isn’t part of TCP/IP, but protocols are bound to a particular adapter.

At the receiving computer, the headers are stripped off as they pass up through the TCP/IP stack until only the bare payload is presented to the user.

The DOD Four Layer Model

TCP/IP is often referred to as the TCP/IP protocol suite. TCP/IP is in fact a group of protocols/applications working together to provide network communication. TCP/IP was invented by the US Department of Defense (DOD) to allow machines to communicate over a network. It is a simpler model than the 7 layer OSI model.  The different components of TCP/IP all function at different layers. These layers group the different components into four different categories.

The Application Layer

The application layer contains the applications that use TCP/IP such as Internet Explorer, chrome, safari, Netscape, and Outlook.  The application layer also contains Application Programming Interfaces (API) such as Winsock, which enables applications to use TCP/IP.

The Transport Layer

The transport layer is responsible for the transfer of data on the network.  There are two different transport protocols TCP and UDP. Both protocols provide transport but it works in different ways.

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

TCP is a connection-orientated protocol. Both sides (end to end) confirm that the data is being sent and received.

User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

UDP is a connectionless-orientated Protocol. Both computers presume the other side has received the data.  As an example, name resolution uses UDP. If the query fails then a TCP name query is made.

The Internet Layer

To send data the sender must have a method of distinguishing the recipient. This is called an IP address and they take the form of a unique number on the network. The Internet Protocol is responsible for these addresses.  The Internet Control Messaging Protocol (ICMP) is used to test connectivity between machines by sending ICMP messages using the PING command.  The Internet Group Messaging Protocol (IGMP) is used to send data to groups of machines, e.g. Streaming Video. This is known as Multicast.  The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is responsible for changing an IP address into the network card’s physical address. Every network card has a unique physical address hardwired into the card itself which is needed for communication on a network.

The Physical Layer

The physical layer is responsible for the actual physical media and how the data is sent to another machine, e.g. Fibre Optic, ATM.  There are many ways to send data down the cable, the most common technologies for LANs are Token Ring and Ethernet. In order for two machines to communicate they must be using the same technology or be connected via a bridge.

Reference list:

Wiki, (n:n) Network Interface Controller, [On-line]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_interface_controller (Accessed: 20 October 2014)

Multiple Simultaneous Connections

By Raul Bernardino

Introduction:

The HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the web application protocol”, Kurose J. and Ross K., (2010, P.126). With this HTTP as a fundamental for web applications protocol whereas we can browser web sites from anywhere to any single web server or multiple web servers. It is implementing in client and server programs. The HTTP can be defining what sites that client requested and on the web server site HTTP will be transferring the web sites according to the request. In other words the HTTP will be acting as messenger to bring the request from client to the web servers and to bring the responses from web servers to the clients.

Nowadays, web browser can be configuring in order to have concurrent links to the web site. In today web browser default it sets to five to ten concurrent links over Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). For example: The IE6 and EI7 on the HTTP 1.1 can be supporting two concurrent links while IE8 already have six concurrent links in the default setting. These all can be configured via regedit command to edit the windows register, give the value to the register. It depends on needs.

The TCP is end to end links or point to point links whereas it calls also virtual circuit. 

How TCP is working as follows:

1. The TCP is established link or connection: where to set up the two pairs of computers in order to exchange the data.
2. TCP operate in full duplex: where only one can connect to each one at the time.
3. Error checking: The TCP uses checksum techniques to verify packets; either it is valid packets or corrupted packets.
4. Sequencing: All packets are flagged with the numbers in order to identify the sequence order numbers in the destination and it also allows the operating system to define which packet is missing.
5. Acknowledgement:  when it is reached the destination the TCP will be sending acknowledgement (ack) that packets is received. If not the sender will be re-transmitting the missing packets.
6. Flow control:  in some case if the sender is transmitting very quick and receiver can’t receive it, the packet will drop and alert the sender to slow down.
7. Packet recovery services:  There are two way to do. First, sender can re-transmit the packets because the sender is not receiving the acknowledgement from the destination. Second, the destination can request to the sender to re-transmit such packet that need to be completed.

The advantages Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) links as follows:

•  The TCP will be assuring the communication that the data is reaching the destination within the time frame and no duplications in data transmission.
• The operating system will be handling the TCP processes and we just wait for the result.
• The data is transforming in to the packets by TCP before it send out to your end.
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The disadvantages Transmission Control Protocol links as follows:

1. While operating system will handle the processes therefore if  in the system has a bugs then will be having several problems on the browsing or searching and including downloads.
2. The TCP is not broadcast and multicast links.
3. Because it is checking error, making sequences of the packets, making acknowledgment, and etc. it will slowdown the speed.

Reference List:

1. Kurose J.F., Ross K.W., 2010: Computer Networking; A Top-Down Approach: 5^th Edition’; Boston, Addison-Wesley
2. Lecture notes, CPCOMM_week2_lecture
3. DVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF TCP AND UDP, [on-line]. Available from: http://smblog.iiitd.com/2010/09/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-tcp-and.html   (Accessed date: August 12, 2011)
4. TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), [on-line]. Available from:  http://www.linktionary.com/t/tcp.html (Accessed date: August 12, 2011)

Wireless Communication (802.11)

By Raul Bernardino

Introduction:

Nowadays, internet becomes resource or media for the information seeker, and also it is using the internet media to communicate with his or her relatives, at anytime and anywhere. The internet also becomes a place where the business players found themselves to operate on, such as e-commerce, e-businesses, way or media to communicate to the branch offices, and etc.

Almost every nation has the access of the internet and it is very simple connection to communicate with the destination host and browser the information from it over the networks. The internet is a collection of the hosts that connect through the larger networks in the world wide. The communication among hosts can be over dial up using the telephone infrastructure or use the satellite link in which is point to point communication.

The scope of the internet is to let users to interact each other as follows:

• Simple connection through Personal Computer (PC) and with local telecom infrastructure or Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• Email exchange with any that have email account on the internet
• Place where people are posting their information to the public in order to allow global user are able to access and view the information
• Place where people can accessing the multimedia such as video streaming, pictures, sounds, and some graphics
• Place where people can putting in their perspectives from the globe

All activities over internet are governed by protocols. “Protocols are running everywhere in the internet however with the common approach it is about computer networks protocols”, Kurose J.F. and Ross K.W., (2010). Protocols are defining as the way how to exchange the messages from one end to the other end.

The wireless communications are”based on the IEEE 802.11 technology” Kurose J.F. and Ross K.W., (2010).

The 802.11 technology is standard wireless that can be use as:

• Point to point or peer to peer communication and it can be integrated to the wired local area network (WLAN).
• The mobility of the devices that have a proper configuration, can be traveled in the range of the multiple wireless communication
• The wireless may has an overlapping signal from different access points
• The security of the wireless communication in which can use SSID and password or use MAC filtering

In Timor-Leste, we have no regulation yet to regulate wireless communication in the city. Therefore there is lots of overlapping wireless signals in the city.

How do we access the internet from home? I do have an access point in which is pointing back to the office. The access point are operating in 2.4 GHz. This access point is connecting to the wireless router Linksys (IEEE 802.11.g) with 54 Mbps. The cost of this wireless router is $95 USD. With this wireless router, I configured the SSID and password for users to connect mobiles, laptops and others PCs. There are also 3G from telecom operator; however the 3G modem is expensive including the data rate price.

Reference List:

1.     Kurose James, Ross Keith, 2010;’Computer Networking; A Top-Down Approach: 5^th Edition’; Boston, Addison-Wesley

2.     Lecture notes, CPCOMM_week1_lecture

3.     What is the Internet [on-line]. Available from: http://www.centerspan.org/tutorial/net.htm  (Accessed date: August 6, 2011)

4.      Sharma, Raju; Singh, Gurpal; Agnihotri, Rahul, 2010, Comparison of performance analysis of 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g standard: International Journal on Computer Science & Engineering, Vol. 2 Issue 6, [on-line]. Available from: http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0ca1d7c2-1267-4045-ad74-e4abaf8e7559%40sessionmgr115&vid=1&hid=103  (Accessed date: August 6, 2011)