Project Management: People and Technology
Chapter 1: The Nature of Information Technology Projects
Projects are the planned organizational changes or means for achieving a chosen strategy. IT
projects enable the integration of technology in new products, services, or processes that
can change existing relationships between an organization and its customers or suppliers, as
well as among people within an organization.
A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.
A project manager is the person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team
that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.
Common attributes of projects:
• Time frame: a project is a temporary endeavor, so it must have a definite beginning
and end.
• Purpose: undertaken to accomplish something; must be something unique.
• Ownership: a project can have many stakeholders that have an interest in the
project’s success or failure.
o Sponsor: projects within an organization to support internal customers
o Clients: projects to support external customers
• Resources: time, money, people, facilities and technology. Can be a constraint since
most organizational resources are limited.
• Project roles: all projects require people with skill sets that include technical and
nontechnical skills. Roles are project manager, project sponsor, subject matter
experts and technical experts.
• Risks and assumptions
o Internal risk: may arise from the way the project work is estimated to cost or
the time to be completed.
o External risk: could arise from dependencies on other contractors, teams or
suppliers.
o Assumptions: different form or risk that are introduced to the project as a
result of forecasts or predictions what we use to estimate schedule and
budget.
• Interdependent tasks: often the delay of one task can affect other subsequent,
dependent tasks. Projects can be characterized by progressive elaboration, whereby
the details of a project become clearer as more information becomes available.
• Organizational change: change must be understood and managed because a project
can alter how people work or how they related to one another.
• Organizational environment: projects operate in an environment larger than the
organization itself. Organizational variables influence the selection, funding and
support of a project.
Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project
activities to meet project requirements.
,Organizations often fund more than one project at any given time a project portfolio
comprised of a collection of diverse projects. Organizations should seek to balance their
portfolio with respect to risk, experience, and technology so that the project portfolio is
balanced. It also should align with the strategy and overall plan to achieve competitive
advantage.
Some projects are managed as a program where the projects’ activities are coordinated so
that the benefits of the program are greater than the sum benefits of the individual projects
common outcome or capability. Each project would have its own project manager, team,
budget, schedule, etc. with a shared governance structure in place for resolving issues and
conflicts and to ensure that each project aligns with the overall success of the program.
Today, IT projects support a wide range of organizational activities that range from
maintaining existing system to developing innovative ideas. As a project manager or member
of a project team, you’re involved in projects that are more dynamic, more geographically
dispersed and more ethically/culturally diverse than before. Risks and rewards will be
greater than in the past.
Senior management will make a certain level of funding available for IT projects. Quite often
the total funding required for proposed projects will be greater than the available budget.
The decision to fund or invest in an IT project should be based on the value the completed
project will provide to the organization.
Project failure. Generally, a project doesn’t fail because of one single reason, but because of
a whole host of problems, issues and challenges that build upon each other. Most reasons
can be grouped into four categories:
How can be improve the chances for IT project success and avoid repeating past mistakes?
• A value driven approach: IT projects must provide value to the organization. Success
must be measures in terms of value, not in terms of schedule or budget!
• A socio-technical approach: IT professionals must understand the business and be
actively creative in applying the technology in ways it can bring value. Also, clients
must become stakeholders, which means actively seeking and encouraging their
participation, involvement and vision.
• A project-management approach: many organizations build systems on an ad hoc
basis. Success or failure depends largely on who is, or is not, part of the project team.
Applying project management principles and tools across the organization should be
, part of the methodology.
Other reasons for project management are resources, expectations, competition, and
efficiency and effectiveness.
• A knowledge-management approach: a systematic process for acquiring, creating,
synthesizing, sharing, and using information, insights, and experiences to transform
ideas into business value.
Experience can be a great teacher. Knowledge and experience (lessons learned) can be
documented and made available through applications accessible today, such as blogs, wikis,
etc.
Chapter 2: Project methodologies and processes
A scientific method outlines a series of steps and techniques for testing hypotheses. Project
methodologies provide a systematic way to plan, manage and execute the work to be
completed by prescribing phases, processes, tools and techniques to be followed focuses
on commonality among projects so that a standardized approach can be used.
Methodologies:
• Must be flexible
• Should evolve over time to include best practices
• Provide a common language among the project stakeholders
• Allows management to compare projects more objectively because each projects is
reported the same way
Projects are organized into sequential phases to make the project more manageable and
reduce risks. Phase exists, stage gates or kill points are the phase-end reviews that allow for
evaluation of the project’s performance and to take immediate action to correct problems or
even cancel the project. Fast tracking (starting the next phase before the current phase is
complete) can reduce the schedule, but can be risky and should only be done when the risk
is deemed acceptable.
Common phases:
1. Define project goal: make explicit the project’s envisioned business value, because
projects are organizational investment that require time and resources and involve
risk
2. Plan project: outlines the anticipated or planned progress
o Project objectives: include scope, schedule, budget and quality
o Resources
o Controls: ensuring that the goal and objectives are being met and resources
are used efficiently and effectively\
3. Execute project plan: focuses on the design, development and delivery of the project
4. Close and evaluate plan: ensure that all of the work is completed as agreed to by the
team, sponsor or other stakeholders
Most project seem to share these characteristics:
• Effort (cost and staffing levels) is low at the start, increases as the project work is
being done and decreases as the project is completed
• Risk and uncertainty are highest at the start
, • Ability for stakeholders to influence the product’s features of functionality is highest
at the start, as the cost of changing and correcting errors becomes higher as the
project progresses
The PMBOK guide defines ten knowledge areas for understanding project management:
1. Project integration management: focuses on coordinating the project plan’s
development, execution and control of changes
2. Project scope management: the work to be completed by the team
3. Project time management: identifying the project’s phases and activities and then
estimating, sequencing and assigning resources for each activity
4. Project cost management: develop budget and complete as approved
5. Project quality management: planning, developing and managing a quality
environment
6. Project human resource management: creating and developing the project team and
understanding and responding to the behavioral side of project management
7. Project communication management: communicating timely and accurate
information about the project to the stakeholders
8. Identifying and responding appropriately to risks
9. Project procurement management: makes certain that resources are acquired
properly
10. Project stakeholder management: identifying project stakeholders to understand
their expectations and interest, then developing suitable strategies for
communication and managing potential conflicts
PMBOK defines a process as: a set of interrelated actions and activities performed to achieve
a pre-specified product, result or service integral component of projects. Project
management processes support all activities necessary to plan, create and manage all of the
project activities.
On the other hand, product-oriented processes are tasks or activities to create the project’s
product. There must be a balance between project management processes and product-
oriented processes to deliver a successful project.
The PMBOK guide outlines five process groups:
• Initiating: signals the beginning of the project or a phase
• Planning: supports planning of the entire project and each individual phase. An
iterative process. Should be in line with the seize and complexity of the project
complex projects require greater planning effort.
• Executing: focuses on integrating people and resources to carry out the planned
activities. Majority of the executing processes will take place in the execute and
control phase.
• Monitoring and controlling: managing and measuring progress toward the goal and
cope, schedule, budget and quality objectives. Allow the manager and team to keep
an eye on variances between actual and planned results take corrective measures
of necessary.
• Closing: a set of processes for formally accepting the project’s product, service or
system.
