Review of Other Work
The current proposal was based on the idea that multiple infrastructures functioning on the basis of groundbreaking IT solutions were practically unrelated to the growing popularity of cloud and virtual communication. This idea offered the author of the proposal an extended outlook on how and why disaster responses based on IT would be much more effective than their conventional counterparts. After reviewing the evidence provided by FEMA (2020), the author of the existing proposal suggested that there could be a need for organizational strategies allowing for the facilitation of disaster responses and services that an organization could provide to its target audience.
The further simplification of processes was deemed essential because it would empower employees and make them more knowledgeable in the areas of disaster response and technology utilization (Gaire et al., 2020). Eventually, the key idea of the current proposal was that the outcomes of disaster management initiatives could be improved and made less complex with the help of streamlining strategies that would welcome the contributions made by the community and experienced connoisseurs in the area.
The lack of a clear outline in the industry allowed the researcher to redefine the existing expectations and established the mainstay for the government and related organizations intended to simplify further computerization of incident response management. The idea for the organizations engaging in similar practices was that they could gain access to vital real-time information and build commitment among employees (Yu et al., 2018). Emergency services were hypothesized to be provided as a combination of IT services and interpersonal communication between responsible employees. For example, it was stated (in accordance with Akter and Wamba (2019)) that there could be numerous social network venues to collect important information and share it with the most significant stakeholders.
It was also identified that the Internet of Things and similar technologies could be a major contributor to national security and emergency response effectiveness (Wellington & Ramesh, 2017). Therefore, the existing proposal might be seen as a project addressing the key advantages of IT instruments for real-time data collection and processing. It was also essential to highlight the growing awareness related to technological infrastructures worldwide. The core idea of the proposal was to explore technology and the necessity to gain more insight into such investment opportunities as virtualization and cloud computing.
Such background offered the author of the proposal an outlook on the qualitative and quantitative perspectives on disaster prevention and response. It was hypothesized that big data utilization could become the biggest disaster-related advantage, with multiple data sources making it easier for local organizations to identify potential threats and respond to them in the most appropriate manner (Anbarasan et al., 2020). Compared to the common information processing systems, IoT-based instruments tended to reach high data analysis speed and created room for enhanced scalability and performance.
The growing amount of data collected by practically any organization worldwide became another reason for the development of the current proposal, as databases on disaster responses continue to grow, and it would be irrational not to analyze all that data and compile a source intended to facilitate and speed up disaster response operations (Ray et al., 2017). The problem associated with Big Data and IoT usage in disaster management became a crucial delimitation over the last several years. Yet, Wellington and Ramesh (2017) suggested that the contemporary technical environment perfectly responds to the needs of disaster response managers, which was an essential finding among other less positive pieces of evidence from the literature on the subject.
The ultimate issue associated with the research problem that has led the author to develop the proposal and to implement it was the lack of disaster management techniques built on the approaches that included technology. With organizational practices remaining highly contingent on the effectiveness of human resources, it could not be stressed more that the disaster response sector could benefit from the implementation of innovative technologies and digital solutions that could further the development of disaster response facilities as well (Sarker et al., 2020).
Even so, it was also found that digitalized disaster response environments could benefit from improved community preparedness and a higher level of citizen and employee awareness. Settlement and sheltering opportunities are essential, so the key implication for the author of the current proposal was to see how critical decisions made within digitalized environments could boost the effectiveness of operations completed by human resources (Anbarasan et al., 2020). Therefore, it was concluded that the lack of resource allocation techniques and employee efforts could minimize the chances of implementing technology effectively.
Changes to the Project Environment
In order to prepare the project environment for the envisioned changes, it was decided to address the issues characteristic of the states of Colorado, Florida, and Texas to align them against specific standards that could augment their alignment against FEMA and NIST standards (Florida Department of Transportation, 2020). It was also identified that there could be multiple emergency services added to the current list of operations in an attempt to establish a more protective environment and make the best use of respective IT instruments (Akter & Wamba, 2019).
Therefore, the given location was equipped with surveillance options and a data room in order to collect all the required information in real-time and help the system process it in the fastest way possible. The project environment was expected to benefit from the changes proposed above, as there would be additional back-up storage introduced, paired with discrete servers and information management systems (Sarker et al., 2020). The researcher’s findings make it safe to say that the infrastructure could significantly benefit from satellite and microwave systems due to the broader number of alternatives helping the facility to respond to disasters quicker. Yet, the sporadic nature of disasters affects the value of IT-based solutions to this day, making it possible to outsource.
It was also decided to make Virtual Tech International (VTI) a part of the program as well, allowing for improved outsourcing solutions and stronger communication with the government. As a public company, VTI became a vital contributor to how the given facilities improved their risk management and optimization procedures. While collecting and processing all the relevant knowledge from the past, the team was also to identify the core advantage of VTI being the capability of globalizing cloud server access and benefiting from the SaaS architecture (Yu et al., 2018).
No operations would be negatively disrupted by the facility in the case where it would side with a cloud-based solution extended to a public domain, with a strong custom configuration on board. Overall, it gave the facility an upper hand because cloud servers established a digitalized environment where improved forecasting and analytics would provide the team with additional chances of predicting and preventing the majority of negative effects of natural disasters in the areas of Colorado, Texas, and Florida, respectively. From a more or less local to a completely globalized level, cloud technologies supported every operation conducted by the team.
It was found that an updated cloud-based disaster management toolbox could redefine the process of assistance management and make it easier for response teams to collect and process geographic information. The adherence to visual instruments allowed the facility to improve forecasting and even predict specific socioeconomic risks or consequences of given disasters (Sarker et al., 2020). The project environment was also transformed to an extent where the team would receive appropriate training to respond to disaster-related risks and identify them before they affect the local community in an irreversible manner.
Another solution was to implement remote cloud servers to store essential data and pull it from the storage only when necessary instead of exposing the facility to the risk of losing its physical assets to a strong natural disaster (Ray et al., 2017). Colorado, Texas, and Florida were expected to gain access to improved forecasts, and it was found that the environment could eventually become more secure with the help of digitalization. Eventually, it was decided to review possible vulnerabilities and assess the chances of transforming the environment with the help of digitalized emergency support.
Methodology
The author of the current proposal picked ADDIE as the intended solution for the most facilitated project execution. It played a crucial role for the organization because it was expected to improve performance and establish an improved process analysis where the biggest influence would be the need to implement employee training and evaluate its results after a certain period (Molenda, 2015). In addition, ADDIE became the best option for the current proposal because it turned out to be a rather effective approach due to the possibility of addressing both customer and end-user requirements. As an instructional methodology, ADDIE became a revelation for the organization since disaster management required stronger decision-making and an instructional system design.
After the implementation, it was also found that the biggest advantage linked to ADDIE was the high prevalence of digitalization among organizations making the best use of this change methodology (Molenda, 2015). As soon as the researcher picked and implemented ADDIE, it was clear that other government entities could also benefit from this particular methodology because the majority of projects simply cannot be implemented in isolation, just like the disaster management and prevention initiative.
Hence, throughout the analysis stage, the organization was interested in pointing out the biggest flaws related to the existing organizational setting and how VTI could collect vital data and then engage in a fully-fledged analysis. It was found that technology would quickly become the best predictor of disaster-related incidents due to the tons of specific information collected in the form of Big Data. During the design stage, the researcher pointed out the most important interaction between internal systems and external networks.
It was also identified during that stage that use-cases could establish an improved internal network intended to reconnect the majority of system elements and protect the most important interrelations from destruction. When it came to the development stage, VTI was expected to establish the best services that could contribute to disaster management initiatives. It was decided to link the existing operations with IT-based solutions in order to appeal to the target population and facilitate the disaster management process for the organization. The implementation stage included VTI deploying a new cloud-based server intended to protect organizational assets from destruction or dysfunction in the case of an emergency.
The ultimate stage of the ADDIE framework was the evaluation period that required the team to assess existing risks associated with the digitalization of disaster management. In order to complete this stage, it was decided to evaluate the effectiveness based on the ability to predict unexpected incidents in most cases and an employee survey intended to point out the weaker spots of the existing proposal.
Knowing that disaster management is recurrently affected by sporadic risks, it was clear from the beginning that the proposed solution would also have a strong influence on the market due to the evident popularization of digitalization in the case of successful implementation. Overall, it became an outstanding effort for the organization, as it allowed employees to gain more insight into the value of cloud technologies and see how the current operations could be maintained or revised in accordance with the real-time changes with no delays.
Project Goals and Objectives
The first project goal that the organization intended to achieve within the framework of the current proposal was a significant change made to the IT infrastructure in an attempt to reestablish the vector of organizational development. In order to do that, the team explored the probable areas of improvement and identified that the lack of technology-based solutions might have been the most significant challenge for the existing hubs in Colorado, Texas, and Florida. Therefore, it was essential for the team to establish change that would support the idea that cloud-based solutions are beyond useful and would lead the organization to solely positive outcomes.
After exploring the market, the team found that not all disaster management across the United States currently benefit from digitalization and Big Data, so it was decided to make the intended project changes in order to complete a much more meaningful picture of additional possibilities linked to digital management of the organization. After the implementation, the team gained access to both qualitative and quantitative information, suggesting that there could be an opportunity to follow FEMA requirements while also protecting data integrity with the help of technology.
After the budget was set and all the required tools were pointed out, the plan was executed, showing that the team should nonetheless track the progress in order to achieve the best possible outcomes. Therefore, the organizational infrastructure was altered in order to address the need for digitalization as well. The author suggested that some of the proposal elements could be outsourced (such as digital improvements or data analysis). That could have easily become the central finding, as it had been hypothesized previously that quality management could only be possible under the condition where there are relevant scenarios reviewed prior to any implementation initiative.
Based on the results, the organization turned out to become more transparent with technology and improved workflow, creating room for quick-time solutions. Given the current pandemic, an overall digitalization might also consider a positive thing because it establishes a viable alternative for disaster response managers who have been using conventional instruments to this day (The New York Times, 2020). In other words, cloud-based disaster management solutions could become an irreplaceable government asset in the future, which remains in line with all the rules established by the administration.
The ultimate goal established within the framework of the current proposal was to introduce specific changes to the infrastructure that would provide the team with outstanding technical support while also seeing how other organizational forces could affect the agility and response coordination. The first task completed by the team was a detailed server visualization assessment. The existing configuration of the infrastructure was slightly altered to respond to the needs of the organization and help the team gain access to essential instruments that could improve disaster responses in the future (e.g., hurricane predictions). Another idea for the team was to evaluate performance continuously so as to make sure that all the hardware is in perfect shape, and there are no challenges associated with network security whatsoever.
The network capacity was also improved in an attempt to improve security measures and develop an environment where hardware upgrades and a rebuilt infrastructure would not seem unnecessary, ineffective, and out of place. In order to complete that stage, the team upgraded their servers across all three facilities and reconfigured the equipment to support Big Data and the Internet of Things.
Ultimately, the project required the team to establish the key project- and product-related deliverables that would allow them to gain a better understanding of how the initiative actually works out and what could be the potential ways of improving the infrastructure. Some of the most important project-related deliverables included cost analysis, project charter, scope statement, WBS, and the final report. The managers were expected to define the areas of their activity and establish the possible areas of impact of technology on disaster response measures. In addition, the team has to take care of product-related deliverables where the configuration of the local servers had to be reset in order to allow for Big Data and IoT. The proposed virtualization initiatives turned out to work well for the organization, allowing employees and managers to conduct a better analysis of local Colorado, Florida, and Texas infrastructures and possible changes.
Project Timeline
Table 1. A detailed timeline of the project development and deployment.
Unanticipated Requirements
The first project creep that the team had to cope with was the lack of strong communication between employees, which led them to remain unclear on the scope of the project for quite some time. It basically slowed down the development and deployment stages owing to some of the deliverables being out of reach and employees remaining generally unaware of what could be done and how. Due to the scarce time, the team was forced to conduct just one kick-off meeting, and it could have been the key reason why some members of the team could not realize the essential objectives of the project. Also, in relation to the lacking communication, it may be mentioned that the team practically failed to keep the same update pace across all organizational units, making it harder for the team to maintain strong implementation measures and define future opportunities.
The second essential project creep was a multitude of decisions that were made by team members in a vacuum, meaning that some of the employees continued affecting the ultimate outcomes of the project while not remaining in line with the essential scope.
Poor time management forced the team into quite a few missed deadlines, as members of the team could not communicate their ideas swiftly. It took the management quite some time to address these issues and implement the required functionality without putting a strain on the budget. At one point, the project was on the verge of a failure due to the management not communicating with the developers, who were responsible for ensuring that the team works together and makes every step forward after a careful (even if short-term) investigation. Closer to the end of the project, the team was able to stabilize its efforts, but the project creep had already affected the team and impacted the project monetarily.
Conclusions
Based on the results of the current proposal, it may be pointed out that there are both positive and negative outcomes associated with the implementation of cloud-based solutions and a highly digitalized environment. The positive impact related to the increased ability of employees across the given facilities to point out potential threats related to disasters and act proactively when it was required to address certain challenges related to resource allocation and management.
Nevertheless, the problem with the current initiative was that not all employees were ready for the implementation of digitalization instruments, which has ultimately led to a great deal of confusion transpiring across the team over time. The lack of experience with IoT and Big Data also caused the project to slow down a bit, but the team was able to complete the proposal objectives and reach an improved state of resource allocation and management.
On the other hand, the potential future impact of the current project relates to the idea that the existing stakeholders would gain more knowledge in the areas of disaster management and digitalization. Even though the existing state of technology utilization is somewhat troubled, there is no doubt that the upcoming challenges will be resolved with ease, as most employees met the possibility of engaging with IoT and Big Data with great enthusiasm.
It should be crucial to continue investing in research on the topic of digitalization, as natural disasters are not going to disappear in the states of Colorado, Florida, or Texas. The hubs have been improved to a decent extent, but there is even more room for improvement now when the teams became aware of how technology could back up their operations and strengthen the preventive and forecasting abilities of employees. Without Big Data and IoT, it would be rather hard for the team to establish a similar infrastructure within any other facility.
References
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