COMP 2923.A2 -  Group Project

The goal of the this 2-person Group Assignment is to conduct a Basic Green IT audit of a small company you are familiar with or a department at Acadia University or other large organization.  Focus is on desktops, laptops and associated peripherals (printers, sanners, backup units).  

Marking Scheme:
Contact email(s) to department (10%)
Audit plan and materials (20%)
Power point slides:
- Introduction (5%)
- Approach - overview of audit plan and materials (15%)
- Findings - results of your quantitative and qualitative analysis (30%)
- Recommendations (20%) 

A directory or starting materials can be found HERE
Examples of good quality Audit projects from prior years can be found at HERE

You should following process model:
1. Create two person teams
2. Select a department to audit
3. Contact department about audit and set date
4. Plan audit interview and create materials
5. Conduct audit
6. Analyse data
7. Make recommendations in the form of a PowerPoint presentation

Some detail on each step of the process:

1. Create two person teams.   This is a team effort so marks will be shared,  If you are having problems with your partner I need to know as early as possible prior to the due date so it can be dealt with.  Consider that you need a mix of skills.

2. Select a department to audit.  You are looking for a unit with 10 or more computers, printers, and other peripherals such as Chem, Physics, Math, Psych, English, Business, or Education, or a department like Human Resources or Communications and Marketing [I did have a special request from the Business Office (from the VP Finance, if anyone is interested)].
If you have a connection with a department make use of it. 

The two person teams (from 2011) and their chosen departments (and contact info) are as follows:
1    Jessica, Nader, Sarah – Armour Transport, Kentville, CONTACT NAME, PHONE, EMAIL
2    Fady, Sufi – EAP program, Acadia, Sharon Churchill, Coordinator and Head Instructor, 585-1471, sharon.churchill@acadiau.ca
3    James, Tellis –  MacKay Real Estate, John MacKay, President, 542-5718 ext. 23, JohnM@MackayRealEstate.com
4    Charlie, Eric – Open Acadia, Jeff Banks, Director, 585-1649, jeff.banks@acadiau.ca
5    Amanda, Jordan –  Student Health Services, Acadia, Robin Eaton, Nurse/Health Educator, 585-1238, robin.eaton@acadiau.ca
6    Sky, Jonathan, Taha - Acadia Center for Social & Business Entrepreneurism (ACSBE), Lisa Lowthers, 585-1805, lisa.lowthers@acadiau.ca

3. Contact department about audit.
The unit that you have selected has to be willing to participate.  You should work to eliminate any concerns they may have regarding privacy of information on their computers - you have no interest in system content, just electrical power consumption and consumables.   You may wish to look at the version of the operating system, but that can be done their presence.  Ensure the department that all recommendations will only go back to their unit.  Work with them to establish an interview and data collection date and time for the week of Feb 1.  You will need 2-3 hours, at minimum so ask for access for half a day.

4. Plan audit interview and materials.
a) Pre-audit interview (15-30 minutes) - Understand where equipment is and who to speak with
b) Create inventory of computers and peripherals – laptops, desktops, servers, other. A data collection sheet will be needed
c) Collect data on each piece of equipment on the data collection sheet (See below).
d) Post-audit interview (15-30 minutes) - Clarify / ask questions that may have come up during data collection.
e) Plan a return visit to make presentation.

Inventory Sheet – one row per piece of equipment, containing columns:
Equipment type (laptop, desktop, printer, server, etc)
Location
Major Use
Primary user
Power consumption (Kilowatts)
Age
How many hours each day the unit is used, or must be left on
How many hours each day the unit is left on
Status of energy saving settings (screen, sleep)
Screen brightness
Sleep mode on harddrive enabled
Elimination of unnecessary functions/processes (Bluetooth)
Use of a good (matching) AC adapter
Use of an energy saving power bar
Dual bootable, virtualization considered
Disposable consumption and recycling
Latest anti-virus software installed to eliminate Botnet
Backups regularly done
Plans to upgrade
Other …

5. Conduct Audit.   Be on time, be prepared and look professional.  Be efficient by dividing and conquering - practice collecting the same information in advance so you don't have to do it at the real location.

At the Pre-Audit interview iterate that this is for their department and information will be kept confidential. Ask them what they would like from the audit.  Find out where things are and who to speak with. Create as much of an inventory list as possible so that you can determine your divide and conquer strategy.  You should ask if hey have such a list in advance - it could save you some time.

Collect data from as many computers and peripherals as you can.   In each case ensure that you record the (AC watts for the device that it draws from the wall plug, or the volts and amps).  Example - my laptop charger indicates that it uses 110V and 1.6 amps = 176 watts of energy.    So if it were left on for 10 hours that would translate into 176 watts * 10 hours = 1760 watt hours or 1.76 kilowatt hours or simply 1.76 KWH.  At a price of $0.12 per KWH, the cost to run the computer is $0.2112 per day. And for a whole year (roughly 220 business days) the cost is $46.46.

You may not be able to get everything, but focus on what you can get (at least 10 items). Focus on desktops and laptops, on printers, plotters, external hardrives, etc.    Try to find devices consuming electrical power that are left on, really for no reason.    Do not be critical while you are doing the survey, just ask questions and collect the facts. Keep notes for post-audit interview

During the post-audit interview look to fill in blanks in columns on data sheets. You may be surprised to find that noone knows what a particular computer does (but its is still on!). Clarify / ask questions that may have come up during data collection.  Ask if they would like anything specifically discussed in the recommendations
Plan return visit to make recommendation presentation

6. Analyse Data.  Enter all data into Excel spreadsheet so as to organize it.

Quantitative analysis - Use excel to calculate the number of items of each type, hours of use per day by device and average by device type, the age of equipment by number of pieces of equipment.  From this you can compute informative ratios such as hours device is on / hours device is used and KWH used / KWH needed.   Calculate the energy (Watts) consumption, and power use (KWH) and costs ($) per year for all equipment that you have audited.    Review the rate at which disposables are used such as paper, printer toner, CDs, DVDs,  etc.  Plot this data where it makes sense to analyse.   We will bring the data for all groups together with the goal of calculating the total power consumption per year for all devices audited and the average  "hours device is used/hours device is on" and the average "KWH needed/KWH actually used" ratios. So you must calculate these statistics for you unit.

Qualitative analysis -  Assess the department/units knowledge of computer energy consumption and peripheral consumable consumption.  What are their plans to replace/recycle equipment.  What is their knowledge of computer power management methods.  Do they have the latest anti-virus protection, do they know that virus can cause systems to use more energy. Does the unit enforce regular backups of all computers in offices, labs, reception areas.

7. Make Recommendations in form of a presentation.  Summarize your approach, your findings and make your recommendations in the form of a concise set of PowerPoint slides.  Concise = complete and accurate.  These should be prepared for presentation to your client department / organization.  Focus on the reduction of power (KWH) consumption, the reduction of disposable consumption, and recycling and reuse.  All recommended actions should be measurable - that is the unit should be able to measure cost savings and other improvements.  Suggest how they can measure and monitor their improvements.

Please email the department/company that you audited and let them know that they are welcome to attend your calass presentation.  Please give them the approximate time for your presentation. You should also share your presentation slides and any other material that you feel appropriate with the unit, so that they can act on your recommendations.

Note that poor format, grammar, punctuation and spelling can constitute up to 25% in deductions. So please proof read al material.    Please see the “Homework Info” section of the course website for important info on cheating and plagiarism. 

 *** Please zip up all elements of your project and submit it to acorn.acadiau.ca before the due date/time  ***

Assessment:

The Green IT Audit Projects will be assessed based on the "Project Audit Evaluation Sheet.doc" that is included in the Project folder off the Project webpage.  Please review this evaluation sheet carefully (if you have not done so already) so that your team does well.

Presentation:
All presentations must in PPT or PDF format and contain the content outlined in 7 above.  They will be loaded from your submitted zip file and run on my computer. There will be no time for swapping laptops.