June 12, 2006

Accomplished this period

• Revisited by Sun/Fatwire team on June 7^th for Questions and answers, and a re-presentation of their sales demo

• Communication and Training Plans Finalized with John Alley

• Sandbox server built, JES installed

• JES configuration underway on sandbox server

Expected Next Period

• Project focus is now on development

o       Iteration planning and test planning

o       Installing and configuring (in the development environment) the base JES environment that will eventually become the McMaster Student Portal

o       Developing IFRAMES (which present existing site content in windows inside the portal)

•  Infrastructure Document to be reviewed this week and signed off this Friday

•  Architecture Document Draft to be delivered this Friday

o       Document will be reviewed and revised over next 2 weeks

o       To be signed off June 30

• Project Plan v3 Created, distributed June 12

June 5th 2006

Accomplished this period:

• Team Room (McMaster Student Portal Command Centre) has been occupied, wired and furnished for the portal team’s use (BSB 242)
• Full development and architecture team has been assembled from McMaster, Sun and Sapient
• Project scope has been divided into two phases – Phase 1, which will deliver the Executable Architecture Release (EAR) as a proof-of-concept for key technical and functional components, and Phase ‘Next’, which will deliver the balance of the portal functionality. Phase 1 is expected to deliver in the fall and go to production by end of 2006. 
• Portal development environment has been installed and configured
• Following deliverables/documents have been reviewed and updated:

• Issue/Risk Log
• Scope document
• Project Plan

• The team gathered to build and revise a prototype, to be used as a starting point for the Executable Architecture Release (proof of concept)
• Skills Assessment/Training Assessment near completion
• Requirements Gathering for Phase ‘Next’ ongoing
• Have started research into an IT Governance Model for the portal and its use across the university; will make broad recommendations to the steering committee in June
• Have started work on an Infrastructure recommendation document (for development, testing and production hardware/software environments) draft already delivered) and an Architecture recommendation document.
• Key outcomes from the steering committee meeting held May 17, 2006 are: support for revised release dates, direction to evaluate governance options, direction to reduce the scope of e-payments, direction to put a high priority on portal ‘stickiness’ – developing an exciting, engaging online experience that students will want to visit regularly
• A recommended approach has been decided for implementing single-sign-on for portal applications/portlets

Planned prospective goals:

• First iterations toward EAR deliverables, including validation of single-sign on, and IFRAME-based portlets
• Initial governance recommendations
• Sun JES technology training for McMaster developers, support and administration staff
• Infrastructure and Architecture document drafts released and signed off
• Fully operational development environment 
• Updated Project Plan, Scope Document
• Implementation of Communication Plan 
• Implementation of standardized weekly project reporting, including issue and risk logs and deliverable tracking