Managing Information Technology

Sending-technology owners (primarily based in Reston)
were responsible for assuring the viability and function-
ality of the pre-move technology area and ensuring that all
necessary activities had taken place for the target (receiv-
ing) technology owner (primarily based in Indianapolis)
effectively to take over the assigned technology.
Each work-plan manager had overall accountability
for a specific area, and managed the tasks that needed to be
done prior to the move, shutting down the application, and
executing the move. This required a detailed understanding
of the infrastructure and business requirements of each move
element.
Move-element leaders helped create the detailed
plans with their work-plan managers and were held techni-
cally accountable for relocating assigned move elements

within the scheduled time frame, with no unplanned appli-

cation outage and minimal customer impact.

As shown in Exhibit 6, move elements were defined

in an early planning phase. Greater detail was then added

to each move plan: Equipment and software were speci-

fied, dependencies defined, and testing plans prescribed.

Templates were provided to improve communication

across work plans, projects, and aggregate planning

activities. Each move was considered complete after the

relocated application had been successfully put into oper-

ation. The post-move execution ended when all unused

infrastructure was disposed of, and the support of the

application had become a responsibility of the regular

operational support team. (See Exhibit 7 for the move-

element project plan.)

Establish team, schedule meetings, initiate activities...

2.1 Create tech environment overview

2.2 Create tech support overview

2.3 Gather existing disaster recovery plans

2.4 Gather any other app-specific documentation

2.5 Define and document move elements

2.6 Determine move groups

3.5 Post-Move Execution

3.4 Move Execution

3.3 Pre-Move Execution

3.2 Detail Planning

3.1 Define and Document

Move Requirements

1.0 Project start up

2.0 Assess environment & define move elements

3.0 thru End...move elements repeated for each element...

4.4 Move Execution

4.3 Pre-Move Execution

4.2 Detail Planning

4.1 Define and Document

Move Requirements

5.5 Post-Move Execution

5.4 Move Execution

5.3 Pre-Move Execution

5.2 Detail Planning

5.1 Define and Document

Move Requirements

MoveElement 1 MoveElement 3

4.5 Post-Move Execution

Move Element 2......

EXHIBIT 7 Move Element Project Plan

Case Study IV-2 • FastTrack IT Integration for the Sallie Mae Merger 621