Sustainable Data Centre Transformation Project — University of Hertfordshire

Producing a full governance-rich project plan for repurposing a dormant factory unit into a sustainable data centre at the University of Hertfordshire, against a £100,000,000 budget. Responsible for approximately 50% of the overall planning work, co-producing the Scope Statement, WBS (61 work packages), WBS Dictionary, Microsoft Project schedule, Network Diagram, Critical Path Analysis, Risk Register, Risk Matrix, and Final Report, and coordinating task distribution across the team.

The University of Hertfordshire had a dormant factory unit near its DeHavilland campus representing wasted institutional space and a missed opportunity for sustainable development. Any future digital infrastructure expansion without intervention risked increasing the university's environmental footprint rather than reducing it. There was no existing plan to repurpose the factory, no renewable energy integration strategy, and no structured approach to combining infrastructure renewal with the university's sustainability and digital transformation goals.

The project existed to produce a comprehensive, governance-rich project plan for transforming a dormant factory unit into a sustainable, technologically advanced data centre at the University of Hertfordshire - supporting the university's commitment to environmental responsibility and digital advancement while demonstrating full-lifecycle project management capability across scope, schedule, cost, risk, and communication management against a £100,000,000 budget.

Objectives

• Integrate renewable energy sources and advanced cooling systems to minimise environmental impact
• Ensure compliance with sustainability standards and secure relevant environmental certifications
• Implement robust cybersecurity measures to protect sensitive university data
• Plan and execute a high-profile launch academic festival event on 31 March 2026
• Produce a full project plan covering scope, schedule, cost, risk, and communication management across all phases

• Waterfall lifecycle applied across five sequential phases — initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure
• PMBOK-aligned governance across scope, schedule, cost, risk, and communication management knowledge areas
• Work Breakdown Structure developed with 61 work packages across four main deliverables
• Activity-on-Node network diagram and Critical Path Analysis used to identify task dependencies and zero-slack milestones
• Microsoft Project used to build the full Gantt schedule across all project phases
• Cost baseline developed with phased financial allocation across the £100,000,000 budget
• Risk Register and Risk Matrix produced to identify, score, and mitigate project risks
• Privacy and Cybersecurity Policy developed to cover GDPR compliance, encrypted communications, and data breach response

As one of five team members, being the team lead, I was responsible for approximately 50% of the overall planning work. I co-produced the Scope Statement, Work Breakdown Structure (61 work packages), WBS Dictionary, Activity List, Network Diagram, Microsoft Project schedule and Gantt chart, Critical Path Analysis, Risk Register, Risk Matrix, and Final Report. I coordinated task distribution across the team, reviewed teammates' deliverables for quality and consistency, and influenced key decisions across scheduling, budget allocation, sustainability measures, risk mitigation, and stakeholder communication. I separately completed an individual Change Impact Analysis presentation assessing four live change requests against the original project plan (see on my project page).

• Scope Statement
• Work Breakdown Structure (61 work packages)
• WBS Dictionary
• Activity List
• Network Diagram (Activity-on-Node method)
• Microsoft Project Schedule and Gantt Chart
• Critical Path Analysis (Early Start, Early Finish, Late Start, Late Finish, Total Slack calculated)
• Cost Baseline
• Budget Allocation (£100,000,000 across all priority areas)
• Resource Analysis
• Risk Register and Risk Matrix
• Stakeholder Analysis
• Communication Plan
• Privacy and Cybersecurity Policy
• Final Report
• Individual Change Impact Analysis Presentation (see on my project page)

• Challenge 1 — Balancing a £100,000,000 budget across competing priorities
  Allocating a fixed budget across multiple competing demands — site acquisition, energy infrastructure, cooling systems, IT infrastructure, security, staff training, and a high-profile launch event — required deliberate prioritisation rather than a proportional split. I influenced the budget allocation decisions to protect the largest investment for energy infrastructure and site renovation, the two areas most critical to delivering a genuinely sustainable outcome, while maintaining a contingency reserve and sufficient funding for the launch event.
• Challenge 2 — Identifying the critical path across a complex, multi-phase schedule
  With 61 work packages spanning physical refurbishment, IT integration, sustainability compliance, and event planning, identifying which tasks genuinely controlled the overall timeline required careful analysis. I built the Network Diagram using the Activity-on-Node method and calculated Early Start, Early Finish, Late Start, Late Finish, and Total Slack values for each activity, which allowed me to identify the critical path and focus scheduling attention where it mattered most rather than spreading it evenly across all tasks.
• Challenge 3 — Coordinating planning work across a five-person team
  With five team members each responsible for different knowledge areas, there was a real risk of duplicated effort, inconsistent formatting, and gaps in deliverable coverage if responsibilities were not clearly assigned from the outset. I addressed this by coordinating task distribution across the team based on individual strengths and project needs, reviewed each teammate's deliverables for quality and consistency before they were brought into the final report, and collated the entire final report myself to ensure it read as a single coherent document rather than five disconnected sections.
• Challenge 4 — Responding to four live mid-project change requests
  Separately from the team project plan, I completed an individual Change Impact Analysis assessing four change requests that arose mid-project — including an additional event causing scope creep, an £18,500,000 budget cut, a 90% probability rain risk threatening the launch event, and a cyberattack on the newly contracted security provider. Each was assessed across scope, cost, schedule, risk, and stakeholder communication using PMBOK, ISO 31000, Earned Value Management, and Value Engineering, with a structured mitigation strategy proposed for each. This is documented in full as a separate case study on this portfolio.

• Full project plan produced on time covering all required PMBOK knowledge areas
• 61 work packages structured across four main deliverables with full WBS and WBS Dictionary
• £100,000,000 budget allocated across all priority areas with a built-in contingency reserve
• Critical path calculated with full Early Start, Early Finish, Late Start, Late Finish, and Total Slack values for all activities
• Four live mid-project change requests individually assessed and responded to using PMBOK, ISO 31000, Earned Value Management, and Value Engineering
• All four change requests absorbed with a combined maximum schedule extension of 10 days
• 18.5% budget cut absorbed without compromising core infrastructure and sustainability objectives
• Team project plan received a grade of A

Key artefacts produced on this project. Confidential client material is appropriately withheld.