MIS485 1

MIS485: Capstone Project in MIS

2MGT 400 - Project Management

Textbook: Farrell, P. J., (2017). IT Capstone

Project (3rd Edition), Kendall Hunt

Publishing.

3MGT 400 - Project Management

4MGT 400 - Project Management

PROJECT MANAGEMENT HANDOUT- I

Managing the Information Systems Project:

Defining and Planning an information system project

Introduction

• Project management (PM) may be the most important aspect of systems

development.

• Effective PM helps to ensure

• The meeting of customer expectations.

• The satisfying of budget and time constraints.

• The nature of projects has changed from custom development to

implementing packaged software such as ERP and data warehousing.

• PM needs to be able to work well with vendors and diverse user

community.

Pine Valley Application Project

Three computer applications at Pine Valley Furniture: order filling, invoicing,

and payroll (Source: Hoffer, Ramesh, and Topi, Modern Database Management 11th ed. 2013)

Managing the Information Systems Project

• Project • A planned undertaking of related activities to reach an objective that has a

beginning and an end

• Project management • A controlled process of initiating, planning, executing, and closing down a

project

Managing the Information Systems Project (cont.)

• Project manager

• A systems analyst with a diverse set of skills—management, leadership,

technical, conflict management, and customer relationship—who is responsible

for initiating, planning, executing, and closing down a project

• Deliverable

• The end product of an SDLC phase

Deciding on Systems Projects

• System Service Request (SSR) • A standard form for requesting or proposing systems development work within

an organization

• Feasibility study • A study that determines whether a requested system makes economic and

operational sense for an organization

Project Management Activities

A project manager

juggles numerous

activities

Phases of Project Management Process

•Phase 1: Initiation

•Phase 2: Planning

•Phase 3: Execution

•Phase 4: Closedown

PM Phase 1: Project Initiation

• Assess size, scope and complexity, and establish procedures.

• Establish: • Initiation team • Relationship with customer • Project initiation plan • Management procedures • Project management environment and workbook • Project charter

FIGURE 3-6 The project workbook for

the Purchasing

Fulfillment System

project contains nine key

elements

Project workbook An online or hard-copy repository for all

project correspondence, inputs, outputs,

deliverables, procedures, and

standards. Used for performing project

audits, orienting new team members,

communicating with management and

customers, identifying future projects,

and performing post-project reviews.

Project Charter

• A short document prepared for the customer describing project deliverables and outlining the work required to complete the project

• Elements: • Title and authorization date • Project manager name and contact information • Customer name and contact information • Project start and completion dates • Key stakeholders, roles, responsibilities • Project objectives and description • Key assumptions • Signatures of stakeholders

PM Phase 2: Project Planning

1. Describing Project Scope, Alternatives, and Feasibility

2. Dividing the Project into Manageable Tasks

3. Estimating Resources and Creating a Resource Plan

4. Developing a Preliminary Schedule

5. Developing a Communication Plan

6. Determining Project Standards and Procedures

7. Identifying and Assessing Risk

8. Creating a Preliminary Budget

9. Developing a Project Scope Statement

10. Setting a Baseline Project Plan

Define clear, discrete activities and the work needed to complete each activity. Tasks include:

Planning Detail

FIGURE 3-8

Level of project

planning detail should

be high in the short

term, with less detail

as time goes on

Project Scope, Alternatives, and Feasibility

• What problem or opportunity does the project address?

• What are the quantifiable results to be achieved?

• What needs to be done?

• How will success be measured?

• How will we know when we are finished?

Project Scope, Alternatives, and Feasibility

• 50% of the planning problems are reported to be as result of unclear definition of scope and goals.

• Who defines the Project Scope? • The Project Manager, Customer, and important

stakeholders. • Requires approval of owner of the project.

• Purpose of the Scope Statement • To clearly define the deliverable(s) for the end user. • To focus the project on successful completion

of its goals. • To be used by the project owner and participants

as a planning tool and for measuring project success.

Project Scope Checklist

1. Project objective (to meet customer’s need)

2. Deliverables (expected output over the life of the project)

3. Milestones(significant event in a project occurs @ time)

4. Technical requirements (to ensure proper performance)

5. Limits and exclusions (should be defined)

6. Reviews with customer (internal or external)

• You should study these in details from the book.

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• Keep it brief: No more than two pages. • Some contract companies create: Statement of work

(SOW) which is similar. • Some companies use term “Project Charter”, which allows

project manager more Flexibility to budget and use resources as they need fit. • This is specially useful when these resources cannot be predicted.

• Project Creep happens when scope of project gets expanded (usually by project owner) . • Expanding the scope almost always address cost and delays to the

project.

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Few more points about project scope:

23MGT 400 - Project Management

Determine Project Priorities

• Determining priorities of a project helps to measure the success of a project!

• Did we achieve everything? (total success)

• Did we just achieve the important outcomes? (Some success).

• Did we fail to achieve all the important outcomes? (Failure)

• Did we fail to achieve any of the important outcomes? (Disaster!!)

24MGT 400 - Project Management

Determine Project Priorities

• Priority Matrix is a tool used to help agree the priorities in a project for: Time, Performance, and Cost.

• It is allocated one of three categories: • Constrain (Fixed)

• Enhance (try to improve)

• and Accept (If it has to run behind, never mind).

25MGT 400 - Project Management

Determine Project Priorities

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Priority Matrix

MGT 400 - Project Management

Dividing Project into Manageable Tasks

• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) • Division of project into manageable and logically ordered tasks and subtasks.

• Scheduling Diagrams • Gantt chart: horizontal bars represent task durations

• Network diagram: boxes and links represent task dependencies. (not required)

Creating the Work Breakdown Structure.

• What is a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)?

•“…it is an outline of the project with different levels of detail.” (p.108)

•It is breaks the project into:

 Product (Level 1)

• major deliverables (level 2)

• Sub deliverables (level 3) Lowest deliverables (level 4)

Cost accounts (level 5) Work package (Final level)

28MGT 400 - Project Management

Creating Work Breakdowns Structure (WBS)

29MGT 400 - Project Management

Creating the Work Breakdown Structure.

• Work Packages • A work package is the lowest level of the WBS. • Each work output would:

1. Defines work (what).

2. Identifies time to complete a work package (how long).

3. Identifies a time-phased budget to complete a work package (cost).

4. Identifies resources needed to complete a work package (how much).

5. Identifies a person responsible for units of work (who).

6. Identifies monitoring points (milestones) for measuring success.

(p. 111)

30MGT 400 - Project Management

• Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS) depicts how the firm has organized to distribute work responsibilities.

• OBS also indicates: • Who (person or department) is responsible for what.

• Cost control accounts.

• Business tend to like to integrate OBS with WBS.

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Integrating the WBS with the Organization

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Coding the WBS for the Information System

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Coding the WBS for the Information System

MGT 400 - Project Management

 WBS is product oriented but some projects do not have tangible product outcome.

 Process Breakdown Structure (PBS):

• For process-oriented projects in which phases are linked and phases have a specific sequence.

• Example: Creating website:

• Planning, Analysis, Design, Building, testing, implementing, delivery…etc.

• All have to be done in specific sequence.

• Lets look at the book’s example on page 117.

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Coding the WBS for the Information System

MGT 400 - Project Management

 Process Breakdown Structure (PBS):

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Coding the WBS for the Information System

MGT 400 - Project Management

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Responsibility Matrices

MGT 400 - Project Management

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Responsibility Matrices

1 = Responsible 3 = Consult 5 = Approval 2 = Support/assists 4 = Notification

MGT 400 - Project Management

Developing a Preliminary Schedule

Gantt chart showing project tasks, duration times for those tasks, and predecessors (Source: Microsoft Corporation.)

WBS Gantt Chart

What is Gantt Chart?

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– A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule.

– The bar in each row identifies the corresponding task

– The horizontal position of the bar identifies start and end times of the task

– Bar length represents the duration of the task

– Good for allocating resources and re-scheduling

– Task durations can be compared easily.

Estimating Resources, Creating a Resource Plan

• Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO) – an automated software estimation model that uses historical project data and current/future project characteristics to estimate project costs

• People are the most important and expensive resource • Important to have a good balance between specialization and task variety

Developing a Communication Plan

• Who are stakeholders?

• What information does each stakeholder need?

• When should information be produced?

• What are sources of information?

• Who will collect, store and validate info?

• Who will organize and document info?

• Who is the contact person for each stakeholder?

• What is the appropriate/best format for info?

• What communication medium should be used?

Communication Plan

The project communication matrix provides a high-level summary of the communication plan

Determining Project Standards and Procedures

• Type of SDLC methodology

• Documentation styles

• Status updates

• Terminology

MANAGING RISK

Identifying and Assessing Risk

• Sources of risk

• Consequences of risk

• Possible sources: new technology, user resistance, critical resource availability, competitive reactions, regulatory changes, team member experience

Definitions

• What is Risk? • Uncertain or chance events that planning can not overcome or

control.

• What is Risk Management? • A proactive attempt to recognize and manage internal events and

external threats that affect the likelihood of a project’s success.

• What can go wrong (risk event).

• How to minimize the risk event’s impact (consequences).

• What can be done before an event occurs (anticipation).

• What to do when an event occurs (contingency plans).

7–46

The Risk Event Graph

7–47

The Risk Management Process

7–48

FIGURE 7.2

The Risk Breakdown Structure (RBS)

7–49

FIGURE 7.3

Partial Risk Profile for Product Development Project

7–50FIGURE 7.4

Defined Conditions for Impact Scales of a Risk on Major Project Objectives (Examples for negative impacts only)

7–51

FIGURE 7.5

Risk Assessment Form

7–52

FIGURE 7.6

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) Impact × Probability × Detection = Risk Value

Risk Severity Matrix

7–53

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) Impact × Probability × Detection = Risk Value

PM Phase 3: Project Execution

• Plans created in prior phases are put into action.

• Actions • Execute baseline project plan.

• Monitor progress against baseline plan.

• Manage changes in baseline plan.

• Maintain project workbook.

• Communicate project status.

Monitoring Progress with a Gantt Chart

Red bars indicate critical path; lines through bars indicate

percent complete.

FIGURE 3-16

Gantt chart with tasks 3 and 7 completed and task 8 partially completed (Source: Microsoft Corporation.)

Communication Methods

PM Phase 4: Project Closedown

• Bring the project to an end.

• Actions • Close down the project.

• Conduct post-project reviews.

• Close the customer contract.

Representing and Scheduling Project Plans

•Gantt Charts

•Network Diagrams

•PERT Calculations

•Critical Path Scheduling

•Project Management Software

Gantt Charts vs. Network Diagrams

• Gantt charts • Show task durations. • Show time overlap. • Show slack time in duration.

• Network diagrams • Show task dependencies. • Do not show time overlap, but show parallelism. • Show slack time in boxes.