CaseLabs

Methodology

Step 1: Form Steering Committee and Setup Weekly Team Meetings for Projects in Case Labs

Step 2: Perform Market Research

• Contact vendors provide project related services or products related to designated information technology projects in order to understand each vendor's existing technology, business models and future product direction and to gather baseline information such as a company overview, technical architecture, APIs, and references.

• Create comparison matrices of vendors' attributes for comparison purposes. This comparison was based on a group of short listed vendors created in cooperation with ITS staff.

• Coordinate teleconferences and setting up face-to-face meetings, as appropriate, between short listed vendors and project team.

• Contact peer institutions of higher education and other enterprise customers to understand costing, experiences, and opportunities for collaboration.

  Step 3: Invite Short-listed vendors into Case Labs

• Work with the project managers and short listed vendors  on formal pilot proposals including expectations, deliverables, costs, timeframes, preparing Visio design and architecture diagrams for pilots, preparing total cost of ownership financial analysis for pilots including direct and indirect costs, and preparing project plans for pilots.

  Step 4:  Design, Deployment, and Operation of Lab Environment

• Work with project team to implement lab environment

• Develop an operational infrastructure prototype design that provides pilot users with project related services for a specified duration of time.

  Step 5:  Requirements Analysis

• Develop RFI based on functional and system requirements defined in step 6.

• Complete Request for Information Response Clarification

• Organize team to meet Vendors in Response Defense Meetings

  Step 6: Complete Analysis Matrix and Recommendations and TCO

• Recommend technology selection and develop TCO model for pilot deployment based on results of prototype testing.

• Recommend technology selection and develop TCO model for pilot deployment based on results of prototype testing.

  
  Step 7: Analyze Outcomes

• Analyze outcomes to determine performance results. Also determined usage patterns.

• Develop survey questionnaire to determine system performance, reliability and satisfaction with features. Create a stratified sample that addresses light users as well as heavy users.

• Analyze known system failures and develop recommendations for design of production system.