The information management project methodology framework provides predictable, repeatable processes designed for use when conducting information management projects.

It should include the following key tasks or project management phases:

Business case analysis

The objective of the business case analysis phase is to determine the business case for investing in a data warehouse or business intelligence solution.  It identifies the projected return on investment.

The business owner should conduct a business case analysis phase to identify high-level requirements and provide a high-level estimate (time, cost, and so forth) of the information management project based on the identified assumptions, risks, and alternative solutions. An approved business case should be completed at the end of this phase.

The business owner and IT sponsor should approve the business case before the project moves to the planning and analysis phase.

Planning & analysis

The objectives of the planning and analysis phase are to:

• Complete information systems analysis and identify and secure approval for information management requirements; and
• Complete project planning and project management plans in sufficient detail to commence technical architecture and design.

The planning and analysis phase reduces the risk that a proposed information management project does not meet requirements, and ensures mutual understanding of business requirements.

The data architect should conduct a planning and analysis phase, which will produce the following deliverables:

• Data requirements;
• Project management plan;
• Configuration management plan; and
• Quality assurance plan.
  

The business owner and IT owner should approve the deliverables before the project moves to the architecture & design phase.

Architecture & design

The objective of the architecture and design phase is to define the data warehouse architecture for the entire solution including:

• Database architecture and infrastructure;
• Database sizing and performance expectations;
• Identification of the extract, transform and load process;
• Recommendations for the sizing and configuration of hardware; and
• Access control, backup and recovery guidelines.
  

The data architect should conduct an architecture and design phase, which shall produce an information management architecture document.

The business owner and IT owner should approve the information management architecture document before the project moves to the build and test phase.

Build and test

The objectives of the build and test phase, or software development life cycle, are to deliver:

• Code required to extract data from the source systems and load it into a temporary staging area;
• An automated process that will extract data from source systems;
• Programs that will load the data warehouse with the source data from the staging area including all data base scripts for views, indexes, synonyms and aggregations;
• Processes to clean the data in the staging area and ensure that it is fully consistent with business rules;
• Programs and scripts that ensure backup/recovery, access control and archiving;
• System processes to handle the data warehouse manager;
• A query manager to support business intelligence requirements;
• Pre-developed queries and reports and user access tools to access information;
• A set of repeatable system integration, volume and aggregation tests; and
• A set of repeatable manual reconciliation tasks.
  

The build and test phase reduces the risk of solution defects and high re-work costs.

The IT sponsor and the data architect should approve the build and test phase deliverables before the project moves to the UAT phase.

User acceptance test (UAT)

The objective of the quality assurance testing phase, or software testing life cycle, is to ensure that the information management solution meets agreed requirements.

Release to production

The objective of the transition to production phase,  or change management process,  is to migrate the information management solution into a production environment. The initial data should be pre-loaded and the data warehouse should be tuned for performance, if necessary.

The business owner, IT owner and production support owner should approve the release prior to transition to full production.

What project management framework templates are required?

Project management templates and checkpoint processes are required to support an information management project management framework.




The project management framework should address the following:

Project team management
Project management and leadership
Software project management tools
Project management methodologies
Iterative development, including agile development, agile project management and lean development.
Prototyping methodology
Project management communication
Project risk management plan
Project configuration management plan
Project quality management
Project management scope and requirements management.
Project management documentation and project management templates
Project scope management
Data management project and data management project warehouse method.
Data warehouse lifecycle, data warehouse methodology and data warehouse project.
Data warehouse project management and data warehouse project plan
Effective project management for data warehouse projects.
Extreme project management for rapid project delivery
Information security project management
Data integration management project.
IT professionals e.g. contractor support.
Lean project management
Outsourcing project management
Practical project management
Project communication management
Project cost management
Project human resource management
Project information management
Project management approach
Project management best practices
Project management charter
Project management checklist
Project management consultancy
Project management cost
Project management documentation
Project management lessons learned
Project management life
Project management life cycle
Project management maturity
Project management metrics
Project management scheduling software
Project management skill
Project management staffing
Project management standards
Project management status reporting.
Project management steps.
Project management task list.
Project management tasks (work breakdown structure).
Project management framework templates
Project management time management
Project management toolkits
Project management tracking
Project methodology
Project quality management
Project resource management
Quality in project management
Security project management
Software development life cycle
Software development project management
Software project management plan
Software test tools

Summary...

Information management requires a project methodology with specialized project management phases, processes, checkpoints and deliverable templates that are different from “traditional” software development projects. These should be created as part of the information management framework.