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Chapter. Introduction to Project Management

Introduction

- Until the 1980s, project management primarily focused on providing schedule and
resource data to top management.

- Today’s project management involves much more, and people in every industry and
every country manage projects.

- New technologies have become a significant factor in many businesses. Hardware,

software, network, and the use of interdisciplinary and global work teams have
radically changed the work environment.

- Using project management provides advantage such as

1. Better control of financial, physical, and human resources

2. Shorter development time
3. Lower costs and improved productivity
4. High quality and increased readability
5. Better internal coordination

What is a project?

- A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product,

service, or result.

(eg) - A technician replaces ten laptops for a small department.

- A company develops a new system to increase sales force productivity and
customer relationship management.
- A large group of volunteers from organizations throughout the world
develops standards for environmentally friendly or green IT.

- Project attributes: A project

1. has a unique purpose: a well-defined objective.
2. is temporary: a definite beginning and a definite end.
3. is developed using progress elaboration: often defined broadly when they
begin, and as time passes, the specific details become clear.

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4. requires resources, often from various areas: people, h/w, s/w, and other
assets.
5. should have a primary customer or sponsor: usually provides the direction
and funding for the project.
6. involves uncertainly: time, cost, unplanned time off, a supplier going out of
business.

- The triple constraint

: Every project is constrained in different ways by its scope, time, and cost
goals. To create a successful project, a project manager must consider
scope, time, and cost and balance these three often-competing goals.

1. Instead of discrete target goals, it is often more realistic to set a range

of goals (because of uncertainty and limited resources)
2. Managing the triple constraint involves making trade-offs among them
for a project. You must decide which aspect of the triple constraint is
most important.
3. The project manager should be communicating with the sponsor
throughout the project to make sure the project meets his or her
expectations.

What is project management?

- Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques

to project activities to meet project requirement.

- Key elements of project management framework:

1. Stakeholders: The people involved in or affected by project activities and

include the project sponsor, project team, support staff, customers, users,
suppliers, and even opponents of the project.

2. Project management knowledge areas: 4 core and 4 facilitating areas

Core knowledge areas

A. Scope management- involves defining and managing all the work

required to complete the project successfully.

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Figure. Project management framework

B. Time management- includes estimating how long will it take to complete

the work, developing an acceptable project schedule, and ensuring
timely completion of the project.

C. Cost management- consists of preparing and managing the budget.

D. Quality management- ensures that the project will satisfy the stated
or implied needs for which it was undertaken.

Facilitating knowledge areas (: processes through which the project

objectives are achieved)

E. Human resource management- is concerned with making effective use

of the people involved with the project.

F. Communication management- involves generating, collecting,

disseminating, and storing project information.

G. Risk management- includes identifying, analyzing, and responding to

risks related to the project.

H. Procurement management- involves acquiring or procuring goods and

services for a project from outside the performing organization.

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Program and Project Portfolio Management

- A program is a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to

obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually. It is
often more economical to group projects together to help streamline
management, staffing, purchasing, and other work.

(eg) - Infrastructure: A program for IT infrastructure could include several

projects such as providing more wireless Internet access, updating h/w and
s/w, and developing and maintaining corporate standards for IT.

- Application development: Under this program, there could be several

projects such as updating an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system,
purchasing a new off-the-shelf billing system, or developing a new
capability for a customer relationship management system.

- User support: There could be a project to provide a better e-mail system or

one to develop technical training for users.

- A program manager provides leadership and direction for the project

managers heading the projects within a program. Program managers also
coordinate the efforts of project teams, functional groups, suppliers, and
operations staff supporting the projects to ensure that project products and
processes are implemented to maximize benefits.

- Portfolio management: Organizations group and manage projects and programs

as a portfolio of investments that contribute to the entire enterprise’s success.
Portfolio managers help their organizations make wise investment decision by
helping to select and analyze projects from a strategic perspective.

- Project Management V.S. Portfolio Management

- More specific and short-term - Emphasize long-term goals
for an organization
- Tactical goals - Strategic goals
- Are we carry out project well? - Are we working on the right project?
- Are projects on time and on budget? - Are we investing in the right areas?
- Do project stakeholders know - Do we have right resources to be
what they should be doing? competitive?

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Figure. Sample project portfolio approach

Figure. Sample project portfolio management screen showing project health

History of Project Management

- The modern concept of project management began with the “Manhattan Project”,
which the U.S. military led to develop the atomic bomb in World War II
(1943~1946).

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- The Manhattan Project involved many people with different skill at several
different locations. It also clearly separated the overall management of the
project’s mission, schedule, and budget under military and the technical
management of the project under scientists.

- Project management was recognized as a distinct discipline requiring people with

special skills and, more importantly, the desire to lead project teams.

- In 1917, Henry Gantt developed the famous Gantt chart for schedule work in
factories. A Gantt chart is a standard format for displaying project schedule
information by listing project activities and their corresponding start and
finish dates in a calendar format. Today’s project managers still use the Gantt
chart as the primary tool to communicate project schedule information.

Figure. Sample Gantt chart created with Project 2007

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- Members of the U.S. Navy Polaris missile/submarine project first used network
diagrams in 1958. These diagrams helped managers model the relationship among
project tasks, which allowed them to create schedules that were more
realistic.

Figure. Sample network diagram in Microsoft Project

: PERT (Program Evaluation & Review Technique) chart

(Note) The diagram includes arrows that show which tasks are related and the
sequence in which team members must perform the tasks. This concept allows you
to fine and monitor the critical path-the longest path through a network
diagram that determines the earliest completion a project.

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Chapter. The Project Management and Information Technology Context

- Many of the theories and concepts of project management are not difficult to
understand. What is difficult is implementing them in various environments.
Project managers must consider many different issues when managing project.
Just as each project is unique, so is its environment.

A System View of Project Management

- Even though projects are temporary and to provide a unique product or service,
you cannot run projects in isolation. Therefore, project must operate in a broad
organizational environment, and project managers need to consider projects
within the greater organizational context.

- The term systems approach emerged in the 1950s to describe a holistic and
analytical approach to solve complex problems. System approach uses systems
philosophy, systems analysis, and systems management.

- A system philosophy is an overall model for thinking about things as system.

System are sets of interacting components working within an environment to
fulfill some purpose (e.g. human body= nervous system + skeletal system +
circulatory system + digestive system +…).

- System analysis is a problem-solving approach that requires defining the scope

of system, dividing it into its components, and then identifying and evaluating
its problems, opportunities, constraints, and needs.

- System management addresses the business, technological, and organizational

issues associated with creating, maintaining, and making changes to a system.

- Using a systems approach is critical to successful project management. Top

management and project managers must follow a systems philosophy to
understand how projects related to the whole organization. They must use
systems analysis to address needs with a problem-solving approach. They
must use systems management to identify key business, technological, and
organizational issues related to each project in order to identify and satisfy
key stakeholders and do what are the best for the entire organization.

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Figure. Three-Sphere Model for Systems Management

- Project must address issues in all three spheres of the systems management
model. Although it is easier to focus on the immediate and sometimes narrow
concerns of a particular project, project managers and other staff must keep
in mind the effects of any project on the interests and needs of entire
system or organization.

Project phases and the project life cycle

- A project life cycle is a collection of project phases. The first two traditional
project phase (concept and development) focus on planning and are often
referred to as project feasibility. The last two phases (implementation and
close-out) focus on delivering the actual work and are often referred to as
project acquisition. This project life cycle approach provides better management
control and appropriate links to the ongoing operations of the organization.

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Figure. Phases of the traditional project life cycle

- Many projects, however, do not follow this traditional project life cycle. They
still have general phases with some similar characteristics as the traditional
project life cycle, but they are much more flexible.

- A system development life cycle (SDLC) is a framework for describing the

phases involved in developing information systems.

(1) The waterfall model

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(2) The prototyping model

: uses a mock-up/incomplete system to evaluate requirements early in the
process

(3) The incremental model

: provides for progressive development of operational s/w, with each release
providing added capabilities

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(4) The spiral model (waterfall + prototyping)

(5) RAD (Rapid Application Development) model

: a waterfall model that emphasizes an extremely short development cycle
by using a component-based construction approach. Developers use RAD
tools such as CASE (computer aided software engineering), JRP (joint
requirements planning) and JAD (joint application design).

Recent Trends Affecting Information Technology Project Management

1. Globalization

- Information technology is a key enabler of globalization, and globalization has

significantly affected the field of IT (i.e. Globalization  IT).

- Key issues when working on global projects:

(a) Communication - to address how people will communicate in an efficient and

timely manner

(b) Trust - to start building trust immediately by recognizing and respecting

other’s differences and the value they add to the project

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(c) Common work practices - to align work processes to come up with an agreed-
upon modus operandi with which everyone is
comfortable
(d) Tools

2. Outsourcing

- Outsourcing is when an organization acquires goods and/or sources from an

outside source. The term offshoring is sometimes used to describe outsourcing
from another country.

- IT projects continue to rely more and more on outsourcing, both within and
outside of their country boundaries.

- Organizations remain competitive by using outsourcing to their advantage. For

example, ways to reduce costs by outsourcing.

- Because of the increased use of outsourcing for IT projects, project managers

should become more familiar with negotiating contracts and many other issues,
including working on and managing virtual teams.

3. Virtual Teams

- Increased globalization and outsourcing have increased the need for virtual
teams. A virtual team is a group of individuals who work across time and
space using communication technologies.

- Advantages:
(a) Increasing competitiveness and responsiveness (i.e. available 24/7)
(b) Lowering costs (i.e. do not require office space or support)
(c) Providing more expertise and flexibility
(d) Increasing the work/life balance for team members (i.e. eliminating fixed
office hours and the need to travel to work)

- Disadvantages:
(a) Isolating team members who may not adjust well
(b) Increasing the potential for communications problem

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(c) Reducing the ability for team members to network and transfer
information informally
(d) Increasing the dependence on technology

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