HPI633 Final Discussion
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HPI633Chapter11.pptxChapter 11 Project Management
Managing and Using Information Systems: A Strategic Approach
by Keri Pearlson & Carol Saunders
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Learning Objectives
List the elements of a good project.
Understand why so many IT projects fail to meet their targeted goals.
Explain the relationship between time, scope, and cost of a project.
Explain why Gantt charts are so popular for planning schedules.
Define RAD and explain how it compares to the SDLC.
Be able to identify when it is time to pull the plug on a project.
Chapter 11.
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Real World Example
Rural Payments Agency (RPA), UK, blamed poor planning and lack of system testing for delays in paying out 1.5billion pounds of EU subsidies.
Only 15% were paid out by the end of 2006.
The RPA had to make substantial changes to the system post implementation.
The system had not been properly managed.
Costs were at 122 million pounds, and were originally estimated at 46.5 million.
Chapter 11.
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Failed IS Projects
Standish Group found that 67 percent of all software projects are challenged
Late, over budget or fail to meet performance criteria.
Managing a business project means managing an information systems project.
Many systems use or integrate the Internet.
Typical adaptation projects include the following elements:
Rightsizing the organization
Reengineering business processes
Adopting more comprehensive, integrative processes
Chapter 11.
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WHAT DEFINES A PROJECT
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Project Definition
“[A] project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. Temporary means that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end. Unique means that the product or service is different in some distinguishing way from all similar products or services.”
-Project Management Institute (1996)
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Chapter 11.
Projects
Companies use projects and operations to generate revenue.
Projects are temporary endeavors that have a fixed start and stop date and time.
Operations are ongoing, repetitive tasks that are performed until they are changed or replaced.
Project managers may break projects into sub-projects depending upon the work.
Figure 11.1 show the differences between operational and project based work.
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Chapter 11.
| Characteristics | Operations | Projects |
| Labor skills Training time Worker autonomy Compensation system Material input requirements Suppler ties Raw Materials inventory Scheduling complexity Quality control Information flows Worker-mgmt communication Duration Product or service | Low Low Low Hourly or weekly wage High certainty Longer duration More formal Large Lower Formal Less important Less important On-going Repetitive | High High High Lump sum for project Uncertain Shorter duration Less formal Small Higher Informal Very important Very important Temporary Unique |
Fig. 11.1 Characteristics of operational and project work
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WHAT IS PROJECT MANAGEMENT
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Chapter 11.
Project Management
Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectation from a project.
Involves continual trade-offs
Manager’s job - manage these trade-offs.
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Chapter 11.
Typical Project Management trade-offs
Scope
Product and project
Time – the time required to complete the project
Cost – all the resources required to carry out the project.
Cost vs. Quality
The quality of a system will normally impact its cost.
Figure 11.2 shows the three sides of the project triangle.
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Chapter 11.
Figure 11.2 Project Triangle
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Chapter 11.
Project Manager’s Role
The project manager will typically be involved in:
Ensuring progress of the project according to defined metrics..
Identifying risks.
Ensuring progress toward deliverables within time and resource constraints.
Running coordination meetings.
Negotiating for resources on behalf of the project.
Business projects are often initiated because of a successful business case.
A successful project begins with a well-written business case (spells out components of the project).
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PROJECT ELEMENTS
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Chapter 11.
Essential Components
There are four components essential for any project. Necessary to assure a high probability of project success.
Common Project Vocabulary: so all team members can communicate effectively (very important as many are new).
Teamwork: to ensure all parts of the project come together effectively and correctly (make sure to clearly define the teams objectives).
Project cycle plan: method and schedule to execute the project (Gantt charts, CPM, and PERT diagrams).
Project management is needed so that it is coordinated and executed appropriately
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Chapter 11.
Project Cycle Plan
The project cycle plan organizes discrete project activities, sequencing them into steps along a time line.
Identifies critical beginning and ending dates and breaks the work spanning these dates into phases
The three most common approaches are:
Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) (Figure 11.3)
Critical Path Method
Gantt chart (Figure 11.4)
Figure 11.5 provides detail on the project cycle template.
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Figure 11.3 PERT Chart
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Figure 11.4 GANTT Chart
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Chapter 11.
| Requirements Definition period | Production Period | Deployment/ Dissemination Period | ||||||||||
| Investigation Task Force | ||||||||||||
| User requirement definition | Research concept definition | Information use specification | Collection planning phase | Collection and analysis phase | Draft report phase | Publication phase | Distribution phase | |||||
| Typical High Tech Commercial Business | ||||||||||||
| Product requirement phase | Product definition phase | Product proposal phase | Product develop-ment phase | Engineer model phase | Internal test phase | Production phase | Manufactur-ing, sales & support phase | |||||
| Generic Project Cycle Template | ||||||||||||
| User require-ment definition phase. | Concept definition phase | System specification phase | Acquisition planning phase | Source selection phase | Development phase | Verification phase | Deployment or production phase Deactivate phase |
Figure 11.5 Project cycle template
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Click to edit Master text styles
Second level
Third level
Fourth level
Fifth level
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Chapter 11.
Elements of Project Management
The following elements can be considered as managerial skills that influence a project’s chance for success.
Identification of requirements
Organizational integration
Team management
Risk and Opportunity management
Project control
Project visibility
Project status
Corrective action
Project leadership
See figure 11.6 in the text for a description of each element
Figure 11.7 reflects the inverse relationship between the players of a project.
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Chapter 11.
Project
Leadership
Project
Management Process
More leadership
Needed
Less leadership
Needed
No PM process
Team is new to PM process
Team does not value process
PM process exists
Team is fully trained in process
Team values process
Figure 11.7 Project leadership vs. project management process
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IT Projects
Chapter 11.
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IT Projects
IT projects are a specific type of business project.
IT projects are difficult to estimate.
Many projects are measured in “man-months”.
How many people will be required to complete the project in a specified time period.
Additional people may speed up the process (but may not).
Chapter 11.
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IT PROJECT DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGIES
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Chapter 11.
Project Development Methodologies
The choice of development methodologies and managerial influences distinguish IT projects from other projects.
There are four main methodologies IT professionals use to manage the technology projects:
Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
Prototyping
Rapid applications development (RAD)
Joint applications development (JAD)
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Chapter 11.
Systems Development Life Cycle
SDLC typically consists of seven phases
Initiation of the project
The requirements definition phase
The functional design phase
The system is actually built
Verification phase
The “cut over” where the new system is put in operation and all links are established
The maintenance and review phase
See Figure 11.8 for more information on each step.
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Chapter 11.
Limitations of SDLC
Traditional SDLC methodology for current IT projects are not always appropriate:
Many systems projects fail to meet objectives because of the difficulty in estimating costs and each project is often so unique that previous experience may not provide the necessary skills
Objectives may reflect a scope that is too broad or two narrow so that the problem the system was designed to solve may still exist, or the opportunity that it was to capitalize upon may not be appropriately leveraged.
If the business environment is very dynamic, there may not be enough time to adequately do each step of the SDLC for each IT project
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Chapter 11.
Prototyping
SDLC may not work for all situations, requires a lot of planning and is difficult to implement quickly.
Prototyping is a type of evolutionary development.
Builds a fast, high-level version of the system at the beginning of the project.
Advantages include:
User involvement and comment early on and throughout the development process.
Disadvantages include:
Documentation may be difficult to write.
Users may not understand the realistic scope of the system.
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Chapter 11.
System Concept
Version “1”
Version “2”
Version “N”
Software Development Process
Figure 11.9 Iterative approach to systems development
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Chapter 11.
RAD and JAD
RAD (Rapid Application Development) is similar to the SDLC but it substantially reduces the time through reduction in steps (4 instead of 7).
RAD, like prototyping, uses iterative development tools to speed up development:
GUI, reusable code, code generation, and programming, language testing and debugging
Goal is to build the system in a much short time frame than normal.
JAD (Joint Application Development) is a technique developed by IBM where users are more integrally involved throughout the development process.
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Chapter 11.
Other Development Methodologies
Agile development methodologies are being developed for those situations where a predictable development process cannot be followed.
Examples include:
XP (Extreme Programming), Crystal, Scrum, Feature-Driven Development and Dynamic System Development (DSDM).
Tend to be people rather than process oriented.
DSDM is an extension of RAD used in the UK.
Object Oriented (OO) development is becoming increasingly popular.
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MANAGERIAL INFLUENCES
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Chapter 11.
Technical Influences
General managers face a broad range of influences during the development of projects.
Four software tools are available to aid in managing the technical issues:
Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) suite of tools
Software development library
Automated audit trail
Software metrics
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Chapter 11.
Key Terms
Below is a list of key terms that a general manager is likely to encounter:
Source lines of code (SLOC) is the number of lines of code in the source file of the software product.
Source statement is the number of statements in the source file
Function points describe the functional requirements of the software product and can be estimated earlier than total lines of code
Inheritance depth is the number of levels through which values must be remembered in a software object
Schedule slip is the current scheduled time divided by the original scheduled time
Percentage complete measures the progress of a software product in terms of days or effort
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Chapter 11.
Managing Organizational and Socioeconomic Influences
Balance goals of stakeholders
project manager
customer
end-user (there’s a difference)
sponsor
Sustain commitment
project
psychological (personal responsibility, biases)
social (rivalry, norms for consistency)
organizational (political support, culture)
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MANAGING PROJECT RISK
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Chapter 11.
Complexity
Factors influencing a project’s complexity include:
How many products will this website sell?
Will this site support global, national, regional, or local sales?
How will this sales process interface with the existing customer fulfillment process?
Does the company possess the technical expertise in-house to build the site?
What other corporate systems and processes does this project impact?
How and when will these other systems be coordinated?
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Chapter 11.
Clarity
Clarity is concerned with the ability to define the requirements of the system.
A project has low clarity if the users cannot easily state their needs or define what they want from the system.
A project with high clarity is one in which the systems requirements can be easily documented and which do not change
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Chapter 11.
Size
Plays a big role in project risk
A project can be considered big if it has:
Large budget relative to other budgets in the organization
Large number of team members (= number of man months)
Large number of organizational units involved in the project
Large number of programs/components
Large number of function points or lines of code
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Chapter 11.
Managing Project Risk Level
Large, highly complex projects that are usually low in clarity are very risky
Small projects that are low in complexity and high in clarity are usually low risk
Everything else is somewhere in between
The level of risk determines how formal the project management system and detailed the planning should be
When it is hard to estimate how long or how much a project will cost because it is so complex/clarity is so low, formal management practices or planning may be inappropriate
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Chapter 11.
Managing the Complexity Aspects of Project Risk
Strategies that may be adopted in dealing with complexity are:
Leveraging the Technical Skills of the Team such as having a leader or team members who have had significant work experience
Relying on Consultants and Vendors – as their work is primarily project based, they usually possess the crucial IT knowledge and skills
Integrating Within the Organization such as having frequent team meetings, documenting, critical project decisions and holding regular technical status reviews
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Chapter 11.
Managing Clarity Aspects of Project Risk
When a project has low clarity, project managers need to rely more heavily upon the users to define system requirements
Managing stakeholders – managers must balance the goals of the various stakeholders, such as customers, performing organizations and sponsors, to achieve desired project outcomes
Sustaining Project Commitment – there are four primary types of determinants of commitment to projects
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Chapter 11.
Pulling the Plug
Often projects in trouble persist long after they should have been abandoned
The amount of money already spent on a project biases managers towards continuing to fund the project even if its prospects for success are questionable
When the penalties for failure within an organization are also high, project teams are often willing to go to great lengths to insure that their project persists
Or if there is an emotional attachment to the project by powerful individuals within the organization
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Chapter 11.
Gauging Success
At the start of the project, the general manager should consider several aspects based on achieving the business goals.
Care is needed to prevent a too narrow or too broad set of goals.
It is important that the goals be measurable so that they can be used throughout the project to provide the project manager with feedback.
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Chapter 11.
Four dimensions of success
Four dimensions of project success:
Resource constraints: does the project meet the time and budget criteria?
Impact on customers: how much benefit does the customer receive from the project?
Business success: how high and long are the profits produced by the project?
Prepare the future: has the project altered the infrastructure of the org. so future business success and customer impact are more likely?
See Figure 11.12 in the text for more information.
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The PMO
Chapter 11.
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The PMO
Project Management Office (PMO) – some companies create to boost efficiency, gather expertise, etc.
Sarbanes-Oxley is a driver to create a PMO
May lead to cost savings in the long run.
PMOs can be expected to function in seven areas:
Project support; Project management process and methodology; Training; Project Manager home base; Internal consulting and mentoring; Project management software tools and support; Portfolio management.
Chapter 11.
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PMO
Responsibilities range widely.
Clearinghouse to full managing projects.
Usually it mirrors the organization, culture and bureaucracy of the CIO’s organization.
Chapter 11.
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: OPEN SOURCING
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Chapter 11.
Open Sourcing
Linux, a version of Unix created by Linus Torvalds, is a world-class OS.
Linux was built using the open-source model.
Open-source software is really free software that can be modified by anyone since the source code is free.
It is premised upon open and unfettered access to the code to modify, update, etc.
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Chapter 11.
Open sourcing = Free Software
Offers four kinds of freedom for the software users:
The freedom to run the program, for any purpose
The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs. Access to the source code is a precondition for this
The freedom to distribute copies so that you can help your neighbor
The freedom to improve and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Access to source code is a precondition for this
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Chapter 11.
Managerial Issues associated with Open Sourcing
Preservation of intellectual property – As its use cannot be restricted how are the contributions of individuals recognized?
Updating and maintaining open source code – Because it is “open”, difficult to achieve these
Competitive advantage – Since the code is available to all, hard to achieve competitive this
Tech support – The code may be free, but technical support usually isn’t
Standards – As standards are open, open sourcing may be unable to charter a viable strategy for selecting and using standards
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Chapter 11.
Summary
General manager fulfills an important role in project management.
Project management involves continual trade-offs.
Four important project elements: Common vocabulary, teamwork, project cycle plan, and project management.
Important to understand the complexity of a project.
SDLC, prototyping, JAD and RAD are used for development of IS systems.
Manage project risk carefully.
The PMO can be very useful.
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Time Cost
QUALITY
Scope
Time
Cost
QUALITY
Scope
