Network System Management
Network System Management
Most of us experienced on plenty of business or workplace projects, or/and you might think
that you would like to make a career out of “project management”. But what is the job scope,
duty and responsibilities for a project manager? And what skills do you need?
A project manager must be able to lead a team as well as manage them is a trend that shows
no sign of abating., and part of the job is to be able to inspire others, set the vision and lead
actions taken in one knowledge area at a certain time usually affect other knowledge areas
(Hwang and Ng 2013). Managing these interactions often requires making trade-offs among the
project’s scope, time and cost. A project manager may also need to make trade-offs between
other knowledge areas, such as between risk management and opportunity cost.
Before I kick start any project, there are questions come into my mind:
“What is the cost to complete this project? Any hidden or variable cost on top of it?”
Besides that, another dimension that I need to take into consider is political feasibility of
“Do we have sufficiently powerful backers for the project internally who can ensure that it
project needs to be assessed according to different criteria. The first is clearly the economic
justification for the project. Example, when we decide to upgrade and move exclusively to
Ubuntu server platform (Linux OS), I need to think of it might threaten our internal IT guy hired
on the strength of their skills with other platforms. Likewise, at the user level (beginner), most
of employees are comfortable and experienced with a system that has been marked for change.
They may therefore resist change. Moreover, I need to do project analysis on technical
feasibility. I have to take above questions into consideration, and understand the intention and
In order to justify this project has met its goals and when it can be considered to be
complete, I need to set a project scope. Project scope is one of the most vital documents in a
project because it will set a framework to determine whether the project met its goals or failure?
Project scope also sets out employees’ expectation about what the project is meant to deliver in
end result.
A project exists in name only is wasting time and company resources, we can’t kick start a
project without a clear direction and scope which agreed upon by all stakeholders. Another
challenge that I faced when setting a project scope is: different point of view from different
stakeholders. In the unlikely event that such a project ultimately delivers something, many will
most likely consider it a failure because the finished product differs from their expectations. For
example: Ubuntu server platform upgrade project I mentioned earlier, I found that there are
different expectations on the potential ROI of an upgrade. It is hard to find information about
the feasibility of upgrading to a newer version of Ubuntu that is not somehow tainted by
the upgrade. And, collecting information about technical details from product vendor can be
difficult too.
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B) Documentation
Documentation is one of the important pillars in any project management. It records down
the current state of organization’s IT infrastructure and help the project manager in doing
project analysis. Example, the ROI (return-on-investment) and hence the feasibility for
organization’s project to upgrade to a new version of Linux server depends on the existing OS
and hardware. Further explanation, let’s say most computers are still running old-school
Windows XP or Utopic Unicorn, then the ROI is likely to be huge gap because of the significant
gains in functionality, stability and management that Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) has over its
predecessor. Besides that, most devices are already running Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus), then
Document inventory is important to help the project manager deciding on which computer
need to upgrade its software and hardware. For example, do we need to spend money to upgrade
old computer’s OS? In this scenario, it is not advisable, because we can request our vendor to
pre-installed the latest OS in next round hardware acquisition. Some computers within the
company are not compatible with latest OS too. For example, some older computers may have
old graphics cards that are not on the Windows 10 hardware compatibility list. Project manager
routine is to check all existing hardware against the hardware compatibility list to verify their
workability with Windows 10 or Bionic Beaver. If any applications or/and hardware is known
to be incompatible with the latest OS, then the costs of upgrading or replacing this hardware
will need to be taken into account as part of the project’s economic feasibility assessment.
common descriptions:
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1. Business architecture description. While the business architecture is a systems-level
3. Network architecture, including diagrams of the physical layout of the network, various
logical relationships between network devices, addressing schemes and traffic patterns.
5. Description of the SOE and its adaption for various specialist groups.
6. Service-level agreements.
C) Project Planning
After we set the project scope and responsibilities, next is develop a project schedule,
budgeting and staffing plans. The development of the project schedule depends on a detailed
understanding of all the various tasks that will be required to complete the project and their
relationships.
Microsoft Project and Excel is a very useful project management tool for me in developing
a project schedule. Both of them have a Gantt chart display that allows me to identify how
delays in the completion of one task will affect others, how much of a buffer exists before the
slippage of a task and other failures. Each project milestones and deadlines can all be clearly
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Example of a Gantt chart display on IT project milestones
(Source : https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Gantt-chart-for-project-baseline-showing-the-
phases-of-the-life-cycle-the-resources_fig2_237811373 )
represent the project schedules and activities. And Gantt chart is easy to represent tasks, sub-
tasks, and milestones on a graph. Gantt chart has a clear visibility of “Dates” and “Time
Frames” in helping me to see the plans by Day, Week, Month, Quarter and Year.
In additions, Gantt chart also helping me in team management and time management. I can
see all team members and their responsible tasks, and timeline of each task. It is easy to check
the project status by see the completion percentage of each task. Work in Progress (WIP) and
pending task is clearly visible on stacked bars. And it helps managers to easily coordinate with
Project testing and piloting is very important step before moving to the full-scale project.
According to guru99’s article, testing and piloting is defined as a type of software testing that
verifies a component of the system or the entire system under a real-time operating condition,
and it verifies the major functionality of the system before going into mess production or full-
In my workplace, our operation team will get involve in the deployment of a software
application that operates at an infrastructure level. Example, in the process of design and
development for a new software application, our operation team will get involve by doing
internal test. Operation team is part of the user for our in-house software; therefore, they have to
provide the first-round feedback after testing the application, IT manager will collect all
After the improvement and enhancement, operation team will keep on do the internal
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testing until it is ready for external (friendly business partner) do the trial version.
Before we conducting a Pilot Testing, there are 8 major things need to be considered:
A rollout plan for deploying the servers and preparing systems for the pilot
Step 2
Testing scripts for each software application. It consists of checklists of functions to be executed
Step 4
Provide constant feedback to the design and testing teams from users by using emails or websites
Step 5
Set the evaluation criteria for the pilot, like information about the number of users who were dissatisfied, the
Step 6 number of support calls and requests, etc.
Engage a working group of community partners or stakeholders who have invested in your project and will meet
Step 7 regularly to discuss your progress
Developed an evaluation plan and evaluation instruments/tools to capture the necessary information about
Step 8 knowledge, changes in attitudes and behavior of the pilot group.
During the Pilot test, the team gathers and evaluate test data. Based on these data, the
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There are 4 criteria for a good practice for pilot testing are:
1: Schedule the pilot test two days before the usability test.
2: Do not initiate pilot test until all users, customers and project team agree on the criteria for
a successful result.
3: Ask users to mark any issues on their copies of materials, describe their concerns, and offer
E) Risk minimization
Let’s us understand what is “Risk Management” and how to minimize it. According to
GoSkill article, a project risk management is a process to identify, analyze, and minimize
potential problems that could negatively affect the progress of a project (Kashyap 2019). And
the objective is to take care of anything or any cause that might deflect the project from
reaching its goal. This is to avoid our project over budget, delayed, or even brought to a
complete standstill.
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The first step is to evaluate the unique vulnerabilities and threats of the organization as well as the theoretical
effectiveness of existing security measures. Threats can come fron in any form, such as: natural disasters and
1. Identify incompetent employees to lax web browsing policies and limited physical or virtual security.
risk.
Next is to determine the likelihood of their occurrence and then multiply that by their influence on the our
2. Measure company's operations.
risk
Next is to evaluate the risks to determine which risks pose the biggest threat to the operation, and make those
risks a top priority.
3. Rank risk
During this step, we are assess the highest ranked risks and set out a plan to treat or modify these risks to
4. Mitigate achieve acceptable risk levels.
risk
Moniroting and tracking system through comprehensive data to avoid future risks that require impulsive
5. Monitor reactions.
risk
Question 2 (a):
Last August, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) faced a major threat and
disruptions which caused at least 20 flight delays. In these four days of disruptions and delays
including its flight information display system, check-in counters, baggage handling systems,
and Wi-Fi, end-up the airline industry to lose tens of millions of ringgit.
This should be a wake-up call for Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), they need to
understand what is the root cause of this crisis happens? And why MAHB didn’t foresee it? And
is there any precaution action need to take to avoid these crises happen?
There are 5 major problems in this incident, and each problem has its solution and
Problem 1: Using old System. MAHB did not follow the IT upgrade project plan.
It is the first priority to have the latest and the top security system (including hardware,
software and manpower) when we running an airport business. Unfortunately, according to their
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internal IT staff said that MAHB still using old system and they did not get the approval from
A country cannot allow any company to run airport business (either it is domestic or
international) by using old and low security system. This is very important because airport not
only provide flights to carry the passenger, is their duty to protect our country from any terrorist
try to enter. On top of this, airport security system must be able to fight the narcotics. Drugs
trafficking went up very quickly once smugglers started using airplanes. Drug lords like Pablo
Escobar and others made billions using the flying routes to transport drugs. We don’t want this
Apart from drugs, airport security system has been trained to detect different products that
are transported illegally across borders on airplanes. People in the past have tried to carry things
like gold, stolen antiques and in some cases, rare and exotic animals in carry-on bags. That’s the
reason airport must always have the latest version system to runs the business.
MAHB is large enough to have independence IT and finance departments, the respective
managers are responsible for preparing their own budgets, which they submit to finance
department.
The departmental budgets are consolidated by the finance staff to create the budget for the
organization as a whole. The budgeting process often starts with top management providing
guidelines for divisional managers to use, such as assumptions about what the economic
environment will be in the upcoming year. Whether a manager’s budget gets approved or not is
often a function of how closely he follows the given guidelines. If top management is trying to
keep costs down, a manager who proposes a 25 ~ 30 percent expenditure increase for his
benefiting the organization and public. Top management and finance manager should take
MAHB not only using the old school system to run the airport business, they also did not
follow a proper SOP of system routing table or checking time table. Because of this mistake, the
core network switch which is an integrated airport management system used to interface and
integrate the majority of electronic information within the airport for services such as check-in,
baggage, Wi-Fi, flight information display systems, communications systems and several others
breakdown or malfunction.
I think it is time for MAHB to consider ISO 31000 Risk Management to identify, assess
What is ISO 31000 Risk Management? ISO 31000 is an international standard published in
year 2009. It provides principles and guidelines for effective risk management. It outlines a
generic approach to risk management, which can be applied to different types of risks (financial,
safety, project risks) and used by any type of organization. The standard provides a uniform
vocabulary and concepts for discussing risk management (The ISO 31000 Standard. Risk
ISO 31000 Risk management ensures the highest possible level of safety during all airport
activities and requires an in-depth risk analysis and incident analysis, as well as linking the two
ISO 31000 also add value to MAHB and ensure continuous improvements. It improves
The risk management process involves the systematic application of policies, procedures and
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practices to the process of communicating and consulting, establishing the context and
ISO 31000 also provides important information to boards so that they can fulfil their risk
oversight responsibilities.
Risk Management ISO 31000 helps to mitigate the risks and ISO 27001 helps MAHB
ensure the three principles of a mission on critical system are taken care of — confidentiality,
Delivering passengers’ bags from point-A to point-B may sound simple, but we all know
it’s easy for things to go wrong or missing. Passengers also spend a lot of time worrying that
their bags will go astray. It’s no surprise then that baggage management is a leading investment
MAHB did not take action to upgrade its baggage handling system, even though it has been
highlighted several times that the baggage system needs to be upgraded, as it is as old as the
airport, but MAHB management did not do anything to improve it. Even the staff can foresee
According the last interview with MAHB managing director - Datuk Badlisham Ghazali,
he saying that the baggage handling problem occurred because of manpower shortage of the
ground handling services company, AeroDarat Services Sdn Bhd (Online 2017). Anyway,
MAHB still need to take the responsibility to improve it and stop putting the blame on others.
Don’t we agree that the efficiency of an airport’s Baggage Handling System (BHS) has a
direct effect on passenger satisfaction and airport punctuality. From having an easy baggage
drop off point at Check-In, to having an innovative Early Bag Store (EBS) to sort luggage that
may arrive early or late, there is a lot of different ways to manage BHS that can create a more
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effective system.
technologies at Check-In can improve passenger experience and reduce capacity issues,
increasing time spent at retail and F&B outlets in KLIA and KLIA 2.
New efficient technologies are also a benefit at check in, such as: Auto Check-in, self-
service options allowing passengers to check in at their own convenience and Online Check-in,
which enables passengers to check-in prior to arrival at the airport. These are becoming more
and more common in airports, but knowing their impact on BHS and how to fully utilize the
new technologies for great efficiency and improved passenger experience is at the core of our
We all wonder why MAHB still working in “old-school” way when come to decision
making? The problem is that there are just too many committees and layers of decision-making
within MAHB, and combined with over-governance and little empowerment, decision-making
takes far too long and that is why several upgrade projects are still waiting for approval.
The whole process on decision making might take more than weeks, or months. The
division manager should have certain power in making decision within his own department and
responsibility. If there is important and urgent issue to call for meeting, they can use Skype
In today’s competitive marketplace, where the focus tends to be on cost efficiency and
operational excellence, MAHB can ill-afford to continue to waste valuable time and resource on
surplus entities.
companies to create a more simplified and transparent corporate structure which delivers long-
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term time, cost and risk benefits with a short payback period.
terms of security and to keep up with constantly changing regulatory requirements. There are
also often upsides to be gained through tax efficiency, along with reduced operational costs and
professional fees, especially too many “unnecessary director” in MAHB. I think they should
Last August disaster in MAHB take more than four days of fix the disruptions and delays.
It causes the MAHB lose tens of millions of ringgit, and some passengers had also cancelled
Worst, Malaysian Aviation Commission (MavCom) make the decision to sue and fined
MAHB RM1.18mil for not meeting airport service levels for airport users including passengers,
The DRP action from MAHB to react is too slow and possible is too many committees and
DRP for systems must be reviewed and tested annually. A test schedule must be developed
to indicate when each element of the plan is tested. Responsibility should be assigned for
The formal change control process should ensure that updated plans are reinforced
throughout the MAHB. There may be considerable cost associated with testing the disaster
recovery plans.
MAHB should consider current and future risks that may cause non-compliance, disruption
and inefficiency within operations. This is so that MAHB is equipped to face and reduce the
approach to integrate information flows for operations, management and security (MAHB
2019).
Question 2 (b)
First, we need to understand what is Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP), and how it relates to
Business Continuity Plan (BCP). According to tech journal describe that DRP is a business plan
that describes how work can be resumed quickly and effectively after a disaster. Disaster
recovery planning is just part of business continuity planning and applied to aspects of an
Diagram of a Disaster Recovery Plan illustrating the chronology of the Recovery Point
Objective and the Recovery Time Objective with respect to the Major Incident.
So, what are the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) that suit with MAHB? There are 4 Disaster
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Recovery Plan that I would like to suggest to MAHB:
hardware application, and resources will be optimally recovered after disruption and in what
order these elements will be restored to support the business requirements of the organization.
The ITDR plan is a component part of a comprehensive BCP process. The DRP mission is
aligned with the BCP through the business impact analysis. This analysis assigns relative
recovery priority to all business and operational functions, and the business impact analysis
defines the demand for the recovery of IT support for the most critical functions.
There are 2 types measurement for business impact analysis (BIA) to rank the priority of
II: Recovery time for these functions can be unavailable to the airport before there is
The DOGs are regional airport-to-airport voluntary mutual aid compacts that offer
operational assistance during large-scale disasters. The mission of DOGs is to offer an effective
“airport-centric” response during disasters, including specific relief and operational, technical,
and logistic support. DOGs response includes the co-operative provision of services, such as:
Skilled personnel
Relief services
Liaison
Needs assessment
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Specialized tools
Basic needs (food, waters, personal needs, first aid kits, fuels truck, and jet fuel)
Public safety equipment, such as: Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs), and aircraft
Function of DOGs are essentially emergency management cooperative that recognize that
airports may be the entities best equipped to help other airports respond to large-scale regional
crises such as natural disaster (earth quake, hurricanes and flood). DOGs is important pillar for
business continuity role because they provide potential alternative resources to support airport
operational continuity for some activities until the affected airport can recover its own
capacity.
CM consists of methods used to respond to both the reality and perception of a crisis, the
establishment of metrics to define which scenarios constitute a crisis and should therefore
trigger the necessary response mechanisms, and communications that occur within the response
CM is the strategic overlay to how MAHB think about and deal with critical incidents that
can affect elements, such as: airport operations, regulations assurances, financial performances,
organization image and reputations, and legal circumstances. Business Continuity Plan plays a
role as a component of the crisis management strategy, specifically supporting both the
resilience of essential functions during those crises that cause disruptions and the recovery of
will follow:
their destination. The passengers should fulfil this form that consists of the date of
disaster, name, the date of birth, their contact number, the airline use, the flight number,
and the choice. This fulfilment ends with approval from airline and airport officer. It
also represents the acceptance and approval for their alternative journey.
2. Handling passenger
Passengers are the priority in an emergency situation. In the airport, most of the
passengers are located in 3 areas; they are check-in area, waiting room and baggage
claim area. Every passenger in those 3 areas should report himself or herself to the
designated officer to fill in the officer data. The passenger should stay in their location
The last sub-classified of this phase is Flow of Passenger movement for evacuation. This
flow shows the path or flow of passengers and where passengers should go.
Airport is a territory of runways and buildings for the take-off, landing, and
maintenance, repair and overhaul of aircraft, with some facilitations for passengers.
Airport revenue is dedicated to improving the facility to passengers when entering the
situation. Then airport officers in Emergency Operation Control (EOC) who keep
updating the related situation. Next is Gathering Point as a point to gather all casualties
within the airport. And, media play an important role as the medium to transfer
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information quickly. The airport call center handled by customer service officer to
receive the call from all parties that need any information about the updated condition.
terminal and train transportation by KLIA Ekspres. Every movement within the airport
is also regulated by newest internal parking policy to free the parking fee and designated
parking place.
Conclusion, with Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP), MAHB able to minimizing risk of delays,
guaranteeing the reliability of standby systems, and providing a standard for testing the plan.
Besides that, MAHB also able to minimizing decision-making process during a disaster,
reducing potential legal liabilities and also lowering unnecessarily stressful work environment
References
Guru99. 2019. What is Pilot Testing? Definition, Meaning, Examples. Accessed October 23,
2019. https://www.guru99.com/pilot-testing.html.
Hwang, Bon Gang, and Wei Jian Ng. 2013. "International Journal of Project Management."
Project Management Knowledge and Skills for Green Construction : Overcoming
Challenges 272-284.
Kashyap, Vartika. 2019. Risk Management in Project Management: 6 Ways to Mitigate Risk.
Accessed October 25, 2019.
https://www.goskills.com/Project-Management/Articles/Risk-management-in-project-
management.
MAHB. 2019. Malaysia Airports Works To Improve Business Continuity Plans. September 14.
Accessed October 25, 2019.
https://www.malaysiaairports.com.my/media-centre/news/malaysia-airports-works-
improve-business-continuity-plans.
Online, The Star, interview by Datuk Badlisham Ghazali. 2017. Baggage handler shortage
causes delays at KLIA (March 17).
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Team, Mockup & Prototyping Software Review. 2018. MockFlow Reviews, Pricing and
Alternatives. January 21. https://business.softonic.com/it/mockups-prototyping-
software/mockflow.
Techopedia. 2019. Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). Accessed October 26, 2019.
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/1074/disaster-recovery-plan-drp.
2017. "The ISO 31000 Standard. Risk Management: Principles and Guidelines." Risk
Engineering. July 31. Accessed October 25, 2019. https://risk-engineering.org/ISO-
31000-risk-management/.
The Star Online. 2019. MavCom fines MAHB subsidiary Malaysia Airports Sepang RM1.18m.
September 10. Accessed October 25, 2019.
https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2019/09/10/mavcom-fines-mahb-
subsidiary-malaysia-airports-sepang-rm118m.
Wong, Euphemia. 2018. Interactive Design Foundation. September 7. Accessed September 13,
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rules-will-help-you-design-better-interfaces.
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