When I was taking project management classes, the instructor mentioned that in real life there are three different Gantt plans - official plan, backup plan, and how the project was executed de facto. He backed this up explaining that many project aspects are unknown at the planning time and for that reason assumptions should be made to minimize risks. He also implied that black belt in assessing scope of work is when the actual number of hours spent on the project is around the number hours initially projected.
As part of my work, I am frequently involved in pre-sales activities. Meeting with clients, learning their challenges, devising solution architecture, and assessing implementation project costs. This is a crucial part since if you go too low you lose financially and if you go too high you might lose the project. I find this part very exciting as it bridges between two different worlds - technology and business.
In 2021 I was working with a client on API Connect Health Check project and later put together a proposal outlining IBM API Connect v2018 to v10 migration scope. Multiple API Connect instances based on hybrid implementation in Openshift and VMWare with multiple gateways and portals. Moving from on-prem to AWS Cloud. Changing the endpoints to support disaster recovery strategy. Migrating all the data and in particular the customer credentials. Now, imagine how challenging it was to put this proposal together. During the last months, I was heads down working on this project.
Long story short, mid of July 2022 the last API Connect environment was successfully cut over to the new v10 instance. It was a long journey with many unknown factors, architecture redesigns, and implementation approach changes, utilizing the Form Factor Migration procedure. Working much more than the usual 8 hours a day, sometimes over weekends, sometimes during the nights. We successfully passed all the different tests including regression, load, performance and the delivery was on time. The client gained a new, stable, modernized, up to date, and best of bread platform to run their core critical business APIs. And for myself, I got to know some great people from the client side, working together to meet the deadlines. Down the road, I think we all deserve a new belt.
Anyone running API Connect make sure you are aware of the end of support (EOS) dates. The API Connect v2018 has announced EOS for April 30, 2023 with no extended support available for purchase.
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