What type of project is Asset Management?

Answer 1

An Asset Management type project is a process that is put in place in order to track and manage the equipments (including hardware and software items). They can be quite complicated, especially if the equipments are to be distributed to a number of places and used by a number of people. Some of the unique things that should be considered when putting an Asset Management project in place are:

1. Develop an appropriate architecture up front that has future expansion capabilities that are easy and cheap to implement. Asking for everything to be recalled to update the system is not generally really feasible once you have deployed the system.

2. Have an appropriate computer systems that allows real-time tracking (otherwise your asset could appear in two places and you will not know the real location), allows remote synchronization (changes in the field can be sent back to the back office computer system) and has back-up and change history capability (so you can look at previous records).

3. Unique Codification so each individual items has a serial type identifer and a group type identifier. Make sure that these can be read in the field and can be updated in the field, without having to bring all the assets back to the original manufacturing facility. Remember, in future items will be added and removed so make sure any new items have a new number and try not to use old numbers again (it can cause confusion if some old items are still fielded). If you are involved with software versions, make sure you have two different numbers for the hardware item without software on, and one with the software loaded onto it. People will need to differentiate between the two versions. Have an appropriate configuration management system in-place, because software items often get up-dated with new versions/updates.

4. Think about how you will manage the items once they are deployed. The processes people follow and the electronic systems used to accept items under their control, how they log any problems, how they do returns for damaged items, how they request new or updated items, how you do product recalls, how you manage software licenses, how you send request reminders for them to do things, and how data is regularly synchronized to make sure you have the most up to date picture.

Remember anything with people involved in making changes is liable to introduce errors into the system, so make the system electronic, auditable and self-checkable if possible.