Constraints for an infrastructure security project might come in all shapes and sizes. You may well face budgetary constraints that limit the scope of your project. You might face scope problems because the infrastructure needs a lot of upgrading but your company isn t willing to implement all the changes needed, for a variety of financial, political, and organizational reasons. You might face resistance within the organization because some changes impact users computing behaviors, and this can cause problems. In addition, you may face specific constraints or limits within portions of your project. For a variety of reasons, you might not be able to make changes to application servers or database servers due to other projects under way or other organizational issues. The infrastructure security is core to your network s security, so constraints to the project should be clearly identified and discussed. If the constraints are too great or impede your project too much, you should have a talk with your project sponsor. Although every project has to deal with a variety of constraints, you must decide whether the constraints are reasonable or if they place an undue burden on your project. You are responsible for project success and, ultimately, for the security of the infrastructure, so it s up to you to clear away these obstacles or get your project sponsor involved with removing them so the project can be successful.

Equally important is delineating the assumptions you re working under as you move into the project. For...