Any methodology to track the stages of a network project?

Question

For the management of a network project which covers the stages of structured cabling, LAN and WAN from design to installation which is,

• Design of LAN & Cabling
• Design of WAN
• Installation
• Testing

Any methodology to track the status of the process at each stage?

Web pages including case studies will be appreciated.

Answer 1

Critical Path Method, Earned Value and Earned Schedule are three methods to track progress against your schedule. Earned Value is the weakest method as there are flaws in the measurement of schedule variance.

Each requires a well developed Work Breakdown Structure, where scope is decomposed to the level at which you can measure tangible pieces of scope. It requires a logical network path with both vertical and horizontal logic, predecessor / successor established relationships. And it requires a means to validate finish above and beyond someone saying so, i.e., tangible materials.

Answer 2

Netformx has a few products that are meant for this including Design Xpert and MPLS Designer.

You can use these tool to design, quote and create reports for networks. You can also add custom information to devices in the design (then include them in your reports). I suggest you contact the sales department to inquire further on how you can use these products to cover what you need.

Case studies available here.

P.S. I currently work at Netformx (in R&D).

Answer 3

I'm not aware of standard methodologies for that but I could advice to track directly on the Network design schema.

You can color different zone of the schema with 3 colors:

1. Red for risk
2. Green for done
3. Blue for in progress

In this way you have a qualitatively and really intuitive way to track the progress of the project.

You can add more colors as needed.