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Technology Employed In Different Locations Is Not Compatible
Oct 03,2007 00:00
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admin
Technology Employed In Different Locations Is Not Compatible
People in one location
take their technology for granted. Because they are unfamiliar with the systems
and technology in other regions, they assume it must be same. After all,
everyone has computers and cellular telephones, don’t they? This feeling is
sometimes spawned by vendors who tell customers that their technology is in
wider use than it really is.
Impact
With different technology, the project scope tends to grow.
There must be either an effort to establish interfaces or work to implement the
same technology in each location. In one example, there were different and
incompatible e-mail systems. Messages were lost before people became aware of
the problem. Another impact is that the project must now change the
infrastructure or at least address infrastructure issues that were not
envisioned when the schedule and budget were established.
Prevention
A technology assessment must be undertaken at the start of
the project prior to setting the budget and schedule. Interface issues should be
identified and addressed.
Action
If this problem surfaces, it may be necessary to scale back
the technology in use. In one case, most locations used Lotus Notes. However,
because some locations did not have this software, it was decided to resort to
e-mail and to database management systems. Simplification of the technology is
often an essential part of the early work on a project.
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