New Build - Project Plan

[reltihmd]

Long Story Short,

Our BSF build got scrapped at the last minute but we are getting a new build now courtesy of county who found the money

 

we are not having a Managed IT Solution put in place, so the budget is tight for new ICT Kit

 

I have been asked to produce a project plan for the next 12 months, essentially from now until the day we move in, including having the network up and running early enough for the builders to hang their BMS off of it, this must include hardware decisions, procurement, installation of servers/switches/wireless and workstations with time scales...

 

Has anyone here ever produced a project plan for a new build ICT solution that they are willing to share? or does anyone have any advice/pointers besides "install MS Project" (already done)?

 

Thanks in advance

[ICTonto]

Hi relthmd,

 

I think it would help if you tell us where you're based and what you currently have in your present building.

 

Cheers

 

Tonto

[pete]

Has anyone here ever produced a project plan for a new build ICT solution that they are willing to share? or does anyone have any advice/pointers

 

Not on that scale - I've done new blocks and extensions.

 

Best advice? Get hold of the plans early on. Insist on copies of structural and electrical plans and anything else you can get your hands on. Go over them with a fine toothcomb, making sure that what they think they're building is sane and fit for purpose IT-wise.

 

You must get corrections approved and made in the early stages, otherwise the penalty fees (to the school) will be large.

[reltihmd]

Not a problem Tonto

 

I am in the midlands, the school has ~1000 pupils and ~500 workstations, servers are currently on VMWare, we run 2 x DC, Exchange, sharepoint, website hosted onsite, moodle, CMIS, 2 files servers and SCCM amongst others

 

we currently have a very small wireless set up - this will be replaced by managed wireless in the new build, almost everything we have at present is fat client desktops hardwired

 

I have been told to assume that when we walk in almost everything will be a mobile solution (laptops/tablets) and that we need a wireless infrastructure to support this, there will be plenty of hardwired points to support this wireless infrastructure

 

Servers/switches will be purchased for the new site as they need to be up and running before the old site closes...

 

 

 

Thanks for the advice Pete - I have some pretty basic plans currently, I'm waiting on electrical plans and building materials presently ready for the wireless pre survey

Edited May 18, 2012 by reltihmd

[Gibson335]

Top of the head thoughts:

 

You'll probably want to run your data cable during first fix when electricians run theirs; you'll also need to identify as many power sockets as you can unless you want to run additional trunking; specifically try to identify power outlets for your edge cabs, as these will be placed higher than any other trunking they intend to run. I would absolutely love to start from scratch - I'd actually enjoy planning that.

[Pete10141748]

Advice, from someone who just came out the end of 18+ months of new building work / new IT infrastructure

 

1) Get plans of all the buildings, proposed works, timescales etc. and go over them again, and again, and again. Get your own copies that you can scribble on, and plan out what you know the IT should look like. Where would be suitable for data cabinets? Where are cables running to and from? What distances are the cable runs, will this mean you need CAT6, fiber, a mixture of the two? Will there be redundancy or will the comms cabs all be linked in chain? What power supplies will be needed and where?

 

2) Go over these plans with the SLT, the builders/site manager, anyone who will be involved in putting it together and make sure they understand how important it is that this is done right the first time - redoing it will not be an option as it will cost a fortune to put right mistakes that can be avoided by simply planning and communicating with each other properly.

 

3) Discuss with the SLT what their 'vision' is for IT in the school. Do you need an ICT suite, or are you going mobile with laptops? Do you need wireless access throughout the building, or only in certain areas? How is printing going to work, are they going to be wireless/wired, in set locations around the communcal areas, or in classrooms?

 

4) Talk with people about their office setup's. Where they are currently, is there IT connectivity? Does it work properly for them or would movement of network ports assist them? Do they need multiple ports, or can they be covered with wireless alone?

 

5) Lastly, don't be afraid of speaking up. I don't know how long you've worked in the school, but if it's anything more than a few months is highly likely that when it comes to the IT infrastucture you know what is needed better than anyone else, including the so-called "experts" who will come along and try to pursuade you that you need 4 data points in every classroom, a WAP in every room, offices with 3 staff kitted out for 6, and massively expensive extras that you could probably do for half the cost they'll want, if they're even needed.

Edited May 18, 2012 by Pete10141748

[reltihmd]

I've enjoyed specifying what we need so far, up until this point everything has been planned higher up the chain than I so apart from insisting on minimum room sizes etc I haven't had too much input

 

Now suddenly the entire solution is in my hands, and it needs to be up and running as part of the build so I'm suddenly time critical if we are to move in on time, and I don't want to be the link that pushes everything back

 

 

Thanks Pete, although locations for cabs etc is pretty much set in stone already at this point, although data points and power points are still being discussed at the # per room level

Edited May 18, 2012 by reltihmd

[Gibson335]

I've enjoyed specifying what we need so far, up until this point everything has been planned higher up the chain than I so apart from insisting on minimum room sizes etc I haven't had too much input

 

Now suddenly the entire solution is in my hands, and it needs to be up and running as part of the build so I'm suddenly time critical if we are to move in on time, and I don't want to be the link that pushes everything back

 

As Pete says, you need to get in there with the plans and get your people re-thinking...we had a minor new build here, and I had to work hard to make sure our needs were catered for in the planning stage, not after they were all drawn up. An LA IT engineer was trying to plan it on our behalf, and I ended up taking him to task over several issues. Has to be done if you want it right.

[broc]

Did your LA manage to build any schools under BSF including ICT? If so, have they any planning documents they can share with you?

 

I cannot offer you any project plans, but I can warn you of some potential pitfalls.

 

You need to consider how you will image & deploy software updates. You can get network enabled laptop trolleys with internal switches, which is fine in theory but you need someone to plug the network cables in when the laptops are stored. Don't rely on staff or students & make sure the devices you choose are robust enough to handle it; As part of our setup I have a 'fleet' of 300 laptops from a tier 1 supplier, within 4-6 months most of these suffered damage to their network ports due to incorrect handling. A combination of factors involving laptop design, trolley design, & using 'cheap' inflexible patch leads means very few of these system will now retain the RJ45 cable for any length of time.

 

Despite my school being designed for the 2st century, the company responsible for the infrastructure only provided 100mbit connections for the trolleys, not good if you have 30x laptops sharing a single 100mbit port.

 

At the moment we use MDT, WDS, & SCCM to roll out software as this was what we were provided with (We used to use Ghost). My biggest headache with this is not being able to predict when SCCM will get round to deploying all the packages .... you can never be certain when a system is 'ready to go'......

 

Apart from 150 desktops, 100 staff laptops, we have 500+ student laptops. I quietly despair at how we will reimage the student laptops with dodgy network ports, short of paying £XXXXX to get them fixed.

 

It may appear to be obvious, but make sure you decide what sort of interactive whiteboard/projector setup you intend using & share this with the architects/builders early on. Check the throw distances & mounting heights of your IWB solution as new schools tend to have lower ceilings.......above all make sure they install appropriate pattressing & support for these to be mounted ....... I speak from experience, we had many rooms with inadequate support & a couple of rooms with sloping ceilings that were too low for the projector mountings!

 

Inspect plans for every room; try to envisage where equipment will go... laptop trolleys, printers, projectors. Make sure they have the appropriate power points & circuit capacity & data points nearby & they have allowed enough space. We had a number of teaching spaces that had no power, or no data for equipment.

 

Remind them that servers need air conditioning.... & keep on reminding them until you actually see it installed & working!

 

Make sure anything you agree with the architects & builders is documented & circulated to all parties....... follow up casual discussions & verbal agreements with confirmation in writing; builders & architects are busy people, human like the rest of us & they forget things, especially when it is going to cost them money.

 

Good luck.

[mavhc]

Advice, from someone who just came out the end of 18+ months of new building work / new IT infrastructure

 

1) Get plans of all the buildings, proposed works, timescales etc. and go over them again, and again, and again. Get your own copies that you can scribble on, and plan out what you know the IT should look like. Where would be suitable for data cabinets? Where are cables running to and from? What distances are the cable runs, will this mean you need CAT6, fiber, a mixture of the two? Will there be redundancy or will the comms cabs all be linked in chain? What power supplies will be needed and where?

And get your own workroom that's next to the servers, but not in the same room, and aircon for both.

 

3) Discuss with the SLT what their 'vision' is for IT in the school. Do you need an ICT suite, or are you going mobile with laptops? Do you need wireless access throughout the building, or only in certain areas? How is printing going to work, are they going to be wireless/wired, in set locations around the communcal areas, or in classrooms?

And if they say it's all going to be mobile, and you won't need ICT Suites, secretly plan for all that to fail, so you can easily retrofit a room as an ICT suite.

 

5) Lastly, don't be afraid of speaking up. I don't know how long you've worked in the school, but if it's anything more than a few months is highly likely that when it comes to the IT infrastucture you know what is needed better than anyone else, including the so-called "experts" who will come along and try to pursuade you that you need 4 data points in every classroom, a WAP in every room, offices with 3 staff kitted out for 6, and massively expensive extras that you could probably do for half the cost they'll want, if they're even needed.

 

Yeah, you need at least 10 data points in every room, and 2 WAPs in some.

 

Rule 1: You can never have too many data points

Rule 2: You can never have too many power sockets

[reltihmd]

thanks guys - keep em coming

 

and yes we are mobile - although we still have 4 hardwired ICT Suites also

[zag]

Managed wireless from Ruckas

New HP gigabit switches

Well equipped server room

Smoothwall web filter

New BT 100mbit Line

 

I'd love the opportunity to build something new

[Ric_]

As networking goes... my advice is always to double up on wall ports (it is cheaper to put 2 in now than replace one when it gets damaged later). And don't forget to put extra ports in random locations (like in corridors in case of CCTV or signage... or above doors for access control).

 

And also try to get multiple routes to your edge cabs - even if money is too tight to have them live, it is handy for a manual switch over should one route be compromised by a JCB! And documentation... allow plenty of time for your cabling to be tested. You should have proof that every port works! And runs between cabinets should have plenty of spare cores if they are fibre

[CadlaM]

Excellent Guys. We have a new building happening in 1-2 years. So I have saved the longer posts to MS OneNote to refer back to. Hope no one minds. Building is "Performance hall" with 3 classrooms and some offices/resource room. ut up to planning app stage I have not been involved at all. Going to poke a stick in the wheels soon though :-)

[Soulfish]

Well I've just gone through a new build process, so can provide lots of advice/documentation etc if you want . I'm on holiday at the moment, but when I get back in a week or so I can send you some more information.

 

We're a little different to most schools though as IT was at the heart of the build (just ask any of the edugeekers that have visited ) so power/data/comms rooms/server rooms/it offices were all included very early on. Unfortunately for us we still have too few network points, and wireless wasn't factored in at all.

[featured_spectre]

However many power sockets you think you need...add 50% on top

Same for network points, and make them 1GB throughout.

Wireless - manages is clearly best...Meru or Ruckus would be my choice, with Xirrus coming in 3rd.

Make the rooms as linear and symetrical as possible...identical spec equipment throughout.

 

The others have pretty much covered everything else.

[davemoomin]

However many power sockets you think you need...add 50% on top

Same for network points, and make them 1GB throughout.

Wireless - manages is clearly best...Meru or Ruckus would be my choice, with Xirrus coming in 3rd.

Make the rooms as linear and symetrical as possible...identical spec equipment throughout.

 

The others have pretty much covered everything else.

 

i use Xirrus at my school and its really good, we looked at lots of other solutions but none were anywhere near as good.

 

PM me if you want to come and have a look

[jimmy_2k]

I know this might sound like a retrograde step but, does all the ICT funding monies need to be spent at once? The one thing that I have see happen with some new builds is they purchase thousands of pounds worth of equipment/software and don't use it all and wish they had bought somthing else to reflect their teaching etc.

 

In my opinion departments should be allowed to grow into their new building and decide gradually how many new computers/laptops/devices they would like and what software packages they can start using rather than buying a lot of fancy equipment and then wondering what to do with it. The schools should be driving the technology and not being forced to adapt to someone elses specification (This is one of the pitfalls of LEA designed Managed Service rather than a direct agreement with 1 school and the provider). I would concentrate on getting the infrustructure right and then work with each department to see what enhancements you can make and that they require within budget. I could go on about this for ages but I hope this makes sense.

[nicholab]

Have you consider VDI with FAT and Thin clients. TOC is lower and the power bill will be lower as well. You would also have options for delivering applications at home. On a Planning front I would break the 12 months into 4 blocks as the top level then months as the next level.

 

This is how I would define the first ones:

 

1. High level what the system supposed to do. (SMT/ICT team)

2. Technogly investigations (ICT reporting to SMT solutions outline)

3. Planning with vendor delivering solutions. (Vendor and ICT team)

4. Hardware deployment. (Vendor and ICT team)

[alttab]

to be brutally honest, i wouldn't from the start like the idea of such a high density of wireless laptops over fixed pc's. There are charging requirements for all day use with all even the smallest, least powerful netbooks, it then brings up questions whether you'd want to make use of VDI just for ease of management otherwise as others have mentioned, it's a case of networkable charging trolleys and the like for when you need to reimage in bulk.

 

A managed wireless system designed for high density is a must these days, but i would always favour starting out with a traditional model of predominantly desktop pc's all connected via gigabit with a lower requirement of laptop/netbook computers...obviously teaching staff will each need a laptop which adds to the count and may end up outnumbering the total no. of desktop pc's if you count in shared trollers of netbooks and portables,

 

i'd also consider looking at 10% thin client where it makes economic sense, 10% apple for new media type work.

[john]

Currently undergoing a £2M refurb at work, this involves re-doing a lot of rooms and labs and expanding to a 2nd site so been doing this stuff of late, the BETT staff from this year know that well as I had all the plans to look over during the BETT period, its been interesting, never assume is a tip, if the sparky says yes we will do that, get it on paper or better in blood as they often forget, and ensure you get site trained so you can go poking around with them often to check its going correct and point out the mistakes......

[gaz350b]

My tips:

 

Make sure you know the drawings off by heart. If it looks like a point is in the wrong position, get it changed (sounds silly i know but our IT Consultant kept saying drawings were for numbers and the guys installing it would use common sense and spread them out on site). get an understanding of roof heights early on. we had some high level data points put in the most silly places where a room next to each other had different height ceilings.

 

Get access to the new site early on, I had access to ours as foundations were going in, make an effort to get the builders on your side. this will ensure you have better access later on. (progress photos is a great excuse btw) make the effort to look in every room as the building goes up and especially take note of where data and power is going.

 

Builders (all trades) can be thick as 2 short planks and will put their dirty kit on anything. photograph ALL installed machines and fixed furniture as they go in and ofc any damage if it happens (photo evidence rules) don't be naive and think the builders will be gone when its your turn to install your equipment. Install minimal equipment to allow building management to work to minimise RISK.

 

Allocate a room in your existing building (old server room is good if its big enough) for your 3rd party IT Supplier to work in and to pre-stage Server/Core network equipment for the new network and easily test Data migration. again this gives you nice early access to equipment and the engineers that will be building it for you. (allow budget for improved power/security and Insurance cover)

 

If you are indeed working with a 3rd party to install equipment as soon as they start delivering/deploying to site you need to be working on site too. This is a good time for the rest of your team to step up to the plate and run the old network for a bit. get a work area on site with internet access and VPN back to other building.

 

Ensure your current data is ready to be migrated. remove any old users and associated data. Have great backups!

 

Be prepared for worst case scenario of a delayed opening and a 1 week Half term migration its doable with man power but very stressful. (ok ok worst worst case is Xmas break!)

 

Be prepared for some really long hours, Eat good food and drink plenty.

 

we had 4 weeks on site support when we went live, ensure any on site support stick to doing the more technical issues if SLT don't like how they've cabled something up, make sure its at the bottom of the list. you'll have to re-cable stuff anyway and its a waste of their time.

 

And remember you cant be a super hero and do everything! (if your bad at delegating you best learn now!!)

Edited June 16, 2012 by gaz350b

[gaz350b]

Remind them that servers need air conditioning.... & keep on reminding them until you actually see it installed & working!

 

 

oh and get it signed off as complete before installing any equipment to server rooms, some monkey re-programmed our entire site during deployment, server had all equipment installed at this point.

entire site air con turns off at 7.30pm............. cooks server room. Thankfully someone checked the server room as the site was being locked up at 8pm to find it roasting hot! had a couple of Issues on the SAN but that was it.

[Love_Sausage]

We had visions of wireless being the way ahead, and now we've retrofitted 2 classrooms with network points, and 2 more to follow by Christmas. Look at your plans for laptop management, it has the potential to become a massive headache.

[twin--turbo]

Fixed is the way ahead

 

I have 1st hand experinece of Two new Builds with 2 Refits in the last 18 months.

 

Laptops are a nightmare and we have inteligent lockers that are suppsoed to manage them.

VDI is OK, but has it's issues.

 

We had to go through the becta procurement framework as we were spending a LOT of money. Can't say taht I think it's money well spent paying a company so much money to the job, better getting in a few skilled consultants in house for a while .

 

Rob