Investing

In Internet or e-business projects
The following section provides some insights into where to invest in a project.

Making the right investments
The preceeding sections established the relationship between Internet projects and the worst-case costs and impacts on the online operation. To help your organization deliver better Internet projects--and, ultimately, online operations--you now need to investigate:

• What exactly can go wrong in a complex online operation?

• How it can be prevented from going wrong?

• What kind of investment is required to prevent it?

Answer these questions at the outset of the project, where at every stage you need to identify where the project risk is, what decisions are critical, which activities require tight control, how scope creep can arise, and what business representation is required and where.

Stage 1: Requirements--How Does the Internet Project Align to the Business?
In the first stage of the project, you should question how the Internet project aligns to the business; articulates the business problem or opportunity; and specifies the solution, its business drivers, and its overall value to the organization. Include the business risks of the Internet, and factor this into the business case (as discussed above) that underpins the expected levels of service. This sets up a go/no-go decision whether to proceed with the project and online operation.

Stage 2: Which Parts of the Infrastructure Need Investments to Make the Business Successful?
In the second stage, ensure that the business view is etched into the functional requirements and design and that the online operation is architected with the appropriate levels of availability to protect it, according to nonfunctional requirements supported by the business case. To do this, the project team must identify critical areas and components in the architecture. This helps create the setting for important granular decisions in the next stage.

Stage 3: What Are the Best Safety Features to Incorporate to Protect the Business?
In the third stage, ensure that the critical areas and components (the ones that would cause the greatest problems if they were unavailable) are protected adequately by selecting from a comprehensive list of availability techniques (software, hardware, and process). Be sure to look at the advantages and disadvantages of high availability, the best circumstances for each technique, and, of course, the costs. This also requires reviewing the challenges involved in integrating the online operation with the back-end systems in the environment, completing functional unit testing, and preparing for nonfunctional testing in the next stage. As the construction nears completion, you need to ensure that esthetic factors do not compromise the nonfunctional requirements.

Stage 4: What Sort of Tests Need to be Planned to Ensure the Business Is Protected?
In the fourth stage, ensure that there is an approved plan for testing the online operation. This requires getting ready to test for the characteristics that are important, planning the level of dynamic testing required, selecting the right kind of tests, and preparing the test environment. Focus on nonfunctional requirements first. Plan to test for one of the following: a new isolated solution, a new solution that is integrated to an existing solution, or a new solution that is replacing an existing solution. You need to understand the risks associated with the online operation, the potential impact to the environment and existing business services, and the operational readiness of the organization for the implementation. The "Berlin Wall" approach to change management, which forces all changes through one or two tightly policed checkpoints, is not feasible in today's highly dynamic business climate.

Stage 5: How Is the Plan Followed to Ensure That Everything Is Tested?
In the fifth stage, ensure that the testing is done according to plan to determine the robustness of the online operation. This requires integrating the online operation into a test environment and, through extensive nonfunctional (and some functional) testing, determining its overall integrity and availability as well as its potential impact to the surrounding service delivery environment. Once all the tests are passed, prepare for "going live" (delivering a fully working and tested solution into the live service delivery environment). The testing stage is a critical part of the project life cycle, as typically this is where any warning signs of a potential pending failure will start to become visible. Allocate adequate time to this activity, and do not compromise. At this point, the business service metrics and measurements have already been set up, and the service-level objectives and agreements have been established and agreed to by all parties. The team's business representation reviews results and signs off on the tests.

Stage 6: Is the Online Operation for the Business Ready to Run?
In the sixth stage, ensure that the organization and processes have been set up to successfully run and deliver the online operation for the business and the service delivery environment. The project does not end as soon as the service is operational; it continues until a proven level of stability is attained. You need to know the impact of the implementation on business services and the risk of remaining live with it. You need to know how to create a support infrastructure, maintain a smooth and stable running operation, and prevent disruptions from faults from occurring or at least minimize them through a quick recovery method to minimize per-minute costs. A rapid and accurate problem management process oriented around a "speed of recovery clock" will get the operation back online as quickly as possible. Be sure to include strategies for early warning systems and automation, eventually leading to self-monitoring, self-healing, and self-balancing systems. These will not only monitor, manage, repair, and maintain the online operation but also improve the required levels of service and availability.

Stage 7: What Sort of Contingency Is Needed?
In the seventh stage, ensure that business continuity is in place to allow recovery of online operations in times of disaster. This requires a "Why-What-How" approach: why disaster recovery is critical, what disaster recovery entails, and how to determine whether you are in a disaster. You need to know what the current business continuity plan is, how the plan will address the incoming implementation, and what the risks are in the plan. You must consider business continuity planning and issues such as application selection, recovery windows, and cost justification. Review alternatives--from hot to cold to online sites--and some of the techniques available through extended mirroring and remote replication.

Conclusion
Successful Internet projects do not happen by accident. To be successful, you need to start with a solid and perceptive business case that visualizes all possibilities. Once the real cost is established, you can then best determine where to make investments by drawing on all the stages and the above points to question and challenge the project.