The VCDX is a validation of the ability to lead a project within a large enterprise.
A couple of questions popped up regarding implementation plan details on Slack and I thought it was a perfect subject to delve into a little.
An implementation plan for the VCDX is the opportunity for the candidate to illustrate the knowledge of project methodology, from conceptual to physical.
Depending on the scale and use case there will be specific phases with potentially multiple personnel or teams involved.
In many cases, a technical architect or technical professional will have this aspect created for them by a project or program manager. Sometimes completely, other times the project manager will have a planning meeting to pull out the tasks into a workable process.
My take on this, for the VCDX process is, Imagine you are the technical consultant advising a non-technical project manager to run the project from a business perspective. What would they require to get started and run with it?
Within my documentation set, I created a specific document which outlined;
Overview of project.
Service Description.
Project team & responsibilities
Staffing requirements and training needs.
Project Phases.
Project Schedule & Milestones
Project plan with estimated effort and the dependencies – task view and gantt chart example
This for me was more than just a project plan printed from Microsoft project. It was a way to prove I knew the process of planning a design phase, and the movement to install, validation, and operationalizing the actual solution.
Each of my project phases were described from a business perspective with associated tasks. Additional information added for operational management staffing requirements so a potential project manager could look for additional project resource if required at any time during the project.
From a real-life perspective this process and format is very useful for new projects where multiple project managers are looking for information, but are not completely familiar with the associated technology.
As a architect , even if a project or program manager are maintaining the plans, you are leading the platform from conceptual to physical to go live and day 2 operations.
