Milestone one need to be attached memo format
Project Overview
One of the more common tasks facing CIS/MIS professionals is the need to migrate from one system (hardware and/or software) to another. This can be a daunting task with each case, more often than not, each being a unique effort with unique problems. Migration of a database system can be a complex problem that requires major considerations to software, hardware, database structure and user requirements to.
The purpose of this assignment is to give you insights into what it would take to plan a database migration effort. This project is a detailed planning project and will not involve an actual migration from one database management system to another. Your project is to develop a detailed implementation plan that would be presented to executive decision-makers and IT staff for approval consideration. This document will be the initial starting point for the project that the implementation team will use and expand upon.
To successfully complete this project, you will need to complete many of the following activities:
- Gain sufficient background knowledge to provide a basis for understanding the requirements for implementing the migration
- Find relevant sources of information on the topic
- Assemble the information
- Present possible alternatives and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each
- Present observations, conclusions or recommendations as appropriate
- Effectively communicate the technical knowledge in written form
Your text will not provide you with any concrete guidelines for the overall accomplishment of this project, therefore, you will need to accomplish additional research and formulate your individual plan. The plan is expected to be suitably detailed in as many areas of interest as possible. At the graduate level, students often discover that it is best to find and assimilate additional background knowledge before choosing a specific solution path. Professional journals and online resources are great sources of topics! This does not mean that you will have to be completely knowledgeable in all of the areas that will need to be addressed but you should be able to address each area at a reasonably detailed level and be as complete in your presentation as possible.
You must be able to understand all of the relevant technical information and be able to critically evaluate the information. You should gain a solid base knowledge of the specific database management systems involved in the migration and should be able to critically evaluate the database management systems with respect to user, data, and information system requirements.
At this stage in your educational career, you are expected to have gained proficiency in written communication. This assignment will require that you demonstrate that proficiency with respect to a technical topic. Your plan should clearly communicate the technical details and critical analysis of the migration problem in an organized and concise manner. At the same time, the plan should be understandable to business managers with little or no background in computer hardware and system software. It is a difficult balancing act!
Milestones and Deadlines
To ensure adequate and timely effort in completing your plan, three milestones will be required before you turn in the final version of your project.
Milestone #1: a formal memo using a standard memo format detailing your approach to the problem, which plan format you will use, your preliminary assumptions going forward, the initial references you have collected on the problem, and any problems you foresee at the beginning of your research. Submit as an attached Word document via the assignment tool. The memo should be two pages with no more than one attachment.
Milestone #2, Detailed document using one of the two templates, showing at least 50 percent completion effort toward the final implementation plan, findings that you will apply to the plan, and references/resources. This will be accomplished using your selected template. Submit as an attached Word document via the assignment tool.
DB Migration Assignment
DB Migration Assignment
Project Overview
One of the more common tasks facing CIS/MIS professionals is the
need to migrate from one system (hardware and/or software) to
another. This can be a daunting task with each case, more often
than not, each being a unique effort with unique problems.
Migration of a database system can be a complex problem that
requires major considerations to software, hardware, database
structure and user requirements to.
The purpose of this assignment is to give you insights into what it
would take to plan a database migration effort. This project is a
detailed planning project and will not involve an actual migration
from one database management system to another. Your project
is to develop a detailed implementation plan that would be
presented to executive decision-makers and IT staff for approval
consideration. This document will be the initial starting point for
the project that the implementation team will use and expand
upon.
To successfully complete this project, you will need to complete
many of the following activities:
Gain sufficient background knowledge to provide a basis for
understanding the requirements for implementing the
migration
Find relevant sources of information on the topic
Assemble the information
Present possible alternatives and weigh the advantages and
disadvantages of each
Present observations, conclusions or recommendations as
appropriate
Effectively communicate the technical knowledge in written
form
Your text will not provide you with any concrete guidelines for the
overall accomplishment of this project, therefore, you will need to
accomplish additional research and formulate your individual
plan. The plan is expected to be suitably detailed in as many
areas of interest as possible. At the graduate level, students often
discover that it is best to find and assimilate additional
background knowledge before choosing a specific solution path.
Professional journals and online resources are great sources of
topics! This does not mean that you will have to be completely
knowledgeable in all of the areas that will need to be addressed
but you should be able to address each area at a reasonably
detailed level and be as complete in your presentation as
possible.
You must be able to understand all of the relevant technical
information and be able to critically evaluate the information. You
should gain a solid base knowledge of the specific database
management systems involved in the migration and should be
able to critically evaluate the database management systems
with respect to user, data, and information system requirements.
At this stage in your educational career, you are expected to have
gained proficiency in written communication. This assignment will
require that you demonstrate that proficiency with respect to a
technical topic. Your plan should clearly communicate the
technical details and critical analysis of the migration problem in
an organized and concise manner. At the same time, the plan
should be understandable to business managers with little or no
background in computer hardware and system software. It is a
difficult balancing act!
Milestones and Deadlines
To ensure adequate and timely effort in completing your plan,
three milestones will be required before you turn in the final
version of your project.
Milestone #1: a formal memo using a standard memo
format detailing your approach to the problem, which plan
format you will use, your preliminary assumptions going forward,
the initial references you have collected on the problem, and any
problems you foresee at the beginning of your research. Submit
as an attached Word document via the assignment tool. The
memo should be two pages with no more than one attachment.
Milestone #2, Detailed document using one of the two templates,
showing at least 50 percent completion effort toward the final
implementation plan, findings that you will apply to the plan, and
references/resources. This will be accomplished using your
selected template. Submit as an attached Word document via the
assignment tool.
Milestone #3, Present To Fellow Students Via the Migration Project
Discussion Board. Post your plan as an attached Word document
to the designated discussion board during the assigned week.
Moderate the discussion of your research.
Final Version of the Plan. Make any desired changes to your
document based on the discussions with your fellow students, and
then submit it as a Word document via the assignment tool to
your instructor.
This plan is not prose or creative writing, it is a technical writing
presentation but spelling, grammar and sentence structure is still
important. Your document must clearly and concisely present all
of the points in your selected template with a level of detail that
indicates that you have considered as many aspects of the
migration problem as possible.
Background and Requirements for Migration Plan
The Northwind Company is a small product shipping company
that has grown to encompass multiple regions and territories. The
company database system was established using Oracle 9e and
was designed and maintained on a single Microsoft Server 2003
server by a contracted system provider. The users of the system
are located at both the home office and at other sites scattered
throughout their established regions/territories. The users
currently access the system remotely through a Virtual Private
Network (VPN). The various users of the system include:
? Home Office which utilizes the system for both employee
tracking as well as customer, orders, product, shippers and
supplier data and reporting and as an operational real-time
database management system.
? Remote Region/Territory users use the system to input live data
and to obtain needed sales and order information as well as using
it as providing reports and information manually in response to
customer, shipper and provider requests.
? Customers, shippers and suppliers currently have no direct
access to the system.
The reports and queries generated from the system are written
using various applications including Visual Basic.NET, Java, Crystal
Reports, C++ and C#. All reports are custom built by the current
provider. All updates, additions and deletions are accomplished by
the Home Office and regional employees.
Database backup and recovery is accomplished through a full
backup run once weekly to a tape system that is maintained
onsite in a corporate vault.
Database security is provided by the current provider and was set
up to meet minimum security needs for a semi-closed system.
There are no restrictions on user roles.
The current provider has decided not to renew their contract with
Northwind and will cut off all support for the system and the
licensed Microsoft SQL Server software at the end of the next six
months.
The company has made some preliminary decisions for migrating
their system.
? A financial and operational decision has been made to port all
data structures and current functionality from an Oracle 9e DBMS
to MSSQLS 2012.
? The current database tables and relationships will remain intact
? The migrated system will be hosted on a Microsoft Server 2008
server
? The migrated system will allow regional employees to access
the system through the web
? The migrated system will restrict all users to roles specific to
their needs and access requirements
? The migrated system will allow customers, shippers and
suppliers to access limited and customized reports
? All current reporting and applications will be migrated
? System backups will be scheduled on a more frequent basis but
should not detract from system availability and performance
? The migrated system which accommodates 200 users must be
scalable in order to accept up to 2,000 users of all types over the
next five years
The following links provide two different ERD views. One is a
Microsoft SQL Server diagram and the other is a Visio diagram of
the system. There is also a .sql script containing the Microsoft SQL
Server DDL that would be used to create and populate the tables
depicted in the ERD. It is suggested that you might want to obtain
Visio from DreamSpark ( Academic Alliance) in order to view the
Visio ERD which also contains information on data types,
constraints and keys in a more viewable format than the DDL file.
There are also a couple of documents that present some
examples of best practices.
instnwnd.sql
MSSQLS_diagram.docx
northwind.vsd
NGS_migration.pdf
softek-best-practices-data-migration.pdf
The following links are provided as starter sites for your research:
http://www.datamigrationpro.com/data-migrationarticles/2008/12/3/data-migration-project-checklist-a-template-formore-effecti.html
http://www.swissql.com/
Templates for the project
The two templates linked below are suggested as the best
templates to follow. Select one., For either plan template you
choose include most if not all of the areas covered in the
template. Some sections may not be applicable and you may
annotate them as N/A but be very careful if you do that because
there are very few items in either template that do not merit at
least some level of consideration.
EPLC_Implementation_Plan_Template.doc
Implementation_Plan.doc
The plan you present should cover in as much detail as possible
the following:
? All assumptions and constraints
? References you used to develop your plan
? System hardware and software component considerations (think
in terms of what the new system will use)
? Possible application component migration requirements such as
migration and testing tools
? System components to be integrated
? How data conversions will be accomplished and how the
table/relationship structures will be migrated
? How the implementation will be validated
? General personnel support
? Impacts of implementation
? Performance monitoring and evaluation
? Any site changes or requirements
? Estimated cost of the migration to include any new software or
hardware you are recommending
? Any risks and problems you foresee in the implementation plan
? System backup and recovery
? System, data, and user security
? Rollback plan ? (I recommend including a section for what to do
if the implementation plan fails, will there be an option to back it
out or roll it back?)
This is an academic project and the details given are purposely
high level and vague. It will be up to you to make general
assumptions about the basic infrastructure used to support the
current system and of greater interest are your proposed best
recommendations for what hardware and software might be
required. I want you to put your plan emphasis on migration
requirements and implementation plan. Assume that any
estimates of costs will be consistent with company budget
constraints for this project.
Again, you are developing a migration plan. While you will need to
be reasonably detailed in your presentation points and should
document your sources of information in developing the plan, you
do not have to provide specific implementation details on setting
up any new software, hardware or actual migration steps.
Remember that you are presenting this to executive and IT staff
and not providing an overall checklist for each step in the
execution of the plan.
Grading
The entire project is will be graded on a 300 point scale, divided
among the milestones and paper as follows:
Milestone #1 will be graded on a 50 point scale. Your clear and
concise submission meeting the given requirements will receive
50 points. Late submissions will receive no points unless advance
arrangements are made.
Milestone #2 will be graded on a 50 point scale. Complete
outlines in required format that demonstrate good progress
toward completing the project will receive 50 points. Those that
are incomplete or that demonstrate lack of progress toward
successful completion of the project will receive something less
down to zero points.
Milestone #3 for your research project will be graded on a 50
point scale and will be the submission of your final draft (90%
complete) of your plan to your fellow students on the Migration
Project discussion form for critique.
Final plan submissions will be graded on a 150 point scale. The
primary grading criteria will be:
1. A clearly detailed plan.
2. Background information on the problem that provides
convincing evidence of your own knowledge of the requirements.
3. Requirements or alternatives that are clearly spelled out for a
business audience.
4. Recommendations or observations that are clearly stated and
defended.
5. Depth, accuracy, clarity, and completeness of the technical
discussion and critical analysis.
6. Proper grammar and spelling.
7. Proper documentation.
8. Was your plan submitted on time? Do you have a working
knowledge of the plan you are presenting?
9. Did your submission address each of the areas of interest
detailed above?
Policy on Plagiarism
You can read in detail the university policies on Academic Honesty
in the Syllabus folder in your course. The following is my course
policy on plagiarism and cheating.
There is a growing problem with assignment submissions that are
copied in part or entirely from other students, students who have
previously taken the course or from other sources. Because of
this problem, I am instituting a no tolerance policy in my courses
regarding this issue.
If I find assignments that are all or in large part copied or copied
with minor alterations from any another source including other
students, I will immediately award an F for the course to the
student or students who are involved. I will take action to have
the offenders removed from the course and the details will be
reported as a student academic integrity violation. No second
chances.
I expect each student to do and submit their own work. If you are
sharing any computer resource with other students you are
expected to secure your assignment and work files and to
preclude access to these files by other students. Do not put
yourself into this situation.
Accomplish and submit your own work for each assignment.