Introduction

After you ve thoroughly planned your project and circled back once or twice through various areas to develop additional clarity, it s time to begin the project. Whether you re working on the corporate IT security project or one of the individual security area projects, you need to get everyone moving in the same direction and you need to monitor the results as you go. In this chapter, we review these project management steps with a focus on IT security. Security is developed through the planning stages to make sure all bases are covered, but is implemented through the project tasks. It s later maintained through policies and operational procedures. In this chapter, we cover the implementation. In a later chapter, we look at the policies and operational procedures needed to maintain security in your network environment.

Initiating the IT Security Project

The best place to start your Information Technology (IT) security project is to make sure that all of your prior definition and planning tasks have been completed. At this point, you should have the following:

• Problem statement

• Mission statement

• Selected solution

• Project constraints and priorities

• Project requirements (functional, technical, legal)

• Work breakdown structure (WBS) with all tasks and task details defined

• Project risks and mitigation strategies

• Project budget and schedule

• Required competencies identified

• Project team formed

• Project processes defined

After making sure that all of the necessary elements are in place, check in with your project sponsor. Make sure that all systems are still go and that nothing has changed that...