CHAPTER ONE

Introduction to IT Project Management

Why you study IT Project Management?
 Failure of many IT Projects
To see the importance of project management, specifically IT project management let’s have
a look on the following facts. According to some reports the United States Internal Revenue
System was to abandon its tax system modernization program after having spent $4 billion;

The state of California spent $1 billion on its non-functional welfare database system; The

€339 million United Kingdom air traffic control system was reported as being two years
behind schedule;
Though there are such interesting facts and figures that indicate how the field is growing
rapidly, there are large numbers of projects going to failure or terminating prematurely. For
example, there are documents indicating that in 1995 there were 16.2% IT projects which
were successful and 31% failed before completion costing over $81 billion in the US.

Beyond the above facts and figures, famous business authors and consultants are stressing the
importance of project management. That’s why IT project management is includes as basic
contents for the IT curriculum.
1.1. Importance of IT project management

What is a Project?
Organizations perform work. Work generally involves either operations or projects, although
the two may overlap. Operations and projects share many characteristics; for example, they
are:
 Performed by people
 Constrained by limited resources
 Planned, executed, and controlled

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. Projects

are often implemented as a means of achieving an organization’s strategic plan. Operations
and projects differ primarily in that operations are ongoing and repetitive while projects are
temporary and unique.
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 other
products or services. For many organizations, projects are a means to respond to those
requests that cannot be addressed within the organization’s normal operational limits.

Projects are undertaken at all levels of the organization. They may involve a single person or
many thousands. Their duration ranges from a few weeks to more than five years. Projects
may involve a single unit of one organization or may cross organizational boundaries, as in
joint ventures and partnering. Projects are critical to the realization of the performing
organization’s business strategy because projects are a means by which strategy is
implemented. Examples of projects include:
 Developing a new product or service.
 Effecting a change in structure, staffing, or style of an organization.
 Designing a new transportation vehicle.
 Constructing a building or facility.
 Building a water system for a community in a developing country.
 Implementing a new business procedure or process.

Example of IT projects
 A new reservation system developed for airlines
 Development of new software or enhance existing systems to perform many business
functions as projects, etc.
Attributes of a project

a. Unique purpose: Projects involve doing something that has not been done before and
which is, therefore, unique. A product or service may be unique even if the category to
which it belongs is large. The presence of repetitive elements does not change the
fundamental uniqueness of the project work. Every project should have a well-defined
objective.
b. Temporary: means that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end. The
end is reached when the project’s objectives have been achieved, or when it becomes
 clear that the project objectives will not or cannot be met, or the need for the project no
longer exists and the project is terminated. Temporary does not necessarily mean short in
duration; many projects last for several years. In every case, however, the duration of a
project is finite; projects are not ongoing efforts.
Projects are often defined broadly when they begin, and as time passes, the specific details of
the project become clearer. Therefore, projects should be developed in increments. A project
team should develop initial plans and then update them with more detail based on new
information. For example, suppose a few people submitted ideas for the information technology
collaboration project, but they did not clearly address how the ideas would support the business
strategy of improving operations. The project team might decide to prepare a questionnaire for
people to fill in as they submit their ideas to improve the quality of the inputs.

The objectives of projects and operations are fundamentally different. The objective of a
project is to attain the objective and close the project. The objective of an operation is
normally to sustain the business. Projects are fundamentally different because the project
ceases when its declared objectives have been attained, while non-project undertakings
adopt a new set of objectives and continue to work.

The temporary nature of projects may apply to other aspects of the endeavor as well:

 The opportunity or market window is usually temporary—most projects have a limited

time frame in which to produce their product or service.
 The project team, as a team, seldom outlives the project—most projects are performed by
a team created for the sole purpose of performing the project, and the team is disbanded
when the project is complete.
c. A project requires resources, often from various areas: Resources include people,
hardware, software, and other assets. Many projects cross departmental or other
boundaries to achieve their unique purposes. For the information technology
collaboration project, people from information technology, marketing, sales, distribution,
and other areas of the company would need to work together to develop ideas. The
company might also hire outside consultants to provide input. Once the project team has
selected key projects for implementation, they will probably require additional resources.
And to meet new project objectives, people from other companies’ product suppliers and
 consulting companies may be added. Resources are used effectively to meet project and
other corporate goals.
d. A project should have a primary customer or sponsor: Most projects have many
interested parties or stakeholders, but someone must take the primary role of sponsorship.
The project sponsor usually provides the direction and funding for the project. Once
further information technology projects are selected, however, the sponsors for those
projects would be senior managers in charge of the main parts of the company affected
by the projects. For example, if the vice president of sales initiates a project to improve
direct product sales using the Internet, he or she might be the project sponsor.
e. A project involves uncertainty: Because every project is unique, it is sometimes
difficult to define its objectives clearly, estimate how long it will take to complete, or
determine how much it will cost. External factors also cause uncertainty, such as a
supplier going out of business or a project team member needing unplanned time off.
This uncertainty is one of the main reasons project management is so challenging,
especially on projects involving new technologies.

An effective project manager is crucial to a projects success. Project managers work

with the project sponsors, the project team, and the other people involved in a project to
meet project goals.

The Triple Constraint

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

Scope: What work will be done as part of the project?

Time: How long should it take to complete the project?
Cost: What should it cost to complete the project? What is the project s budget?
It is the project manager’s duty to balance these three often competing goals.
Figure 1 the triple constraint

Causes of Project Management Failure

 Bad Communications
 Poor schedule or resource Management (mismanagement)
 Weak requirements definitions (leads to inadequate planning)
 Inadequate planning, assumptions, risks, or resources
 Use of new or unproven technologies/methods
 Ineffective (or nonexistent) quality controls
 Managing multiple projects at once or multi-tasking resources
 Scope creep or poor impact analysis
 Lack of qualified resources
What is Project Management?

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project
activities to meet project requirements. A more tangible description is that project
management is everything you need to make a project happen on time and within budget to
deliver the needed scope and quality. Project management is accomplished through the use of
the processes such as: initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. The project
team manages the work of the projects, and the work typically involves:

 Competing demands for: scope, time, cost, risk, and quality.

 Stakeholders with differing needs and expectations.
 Identified requirements.

It is important to note that many of the processes within project management are iterative in
nature.

The term project management is sometimes used to describe an organizational approach to

the management of ongoing operations. This approach, more properly called management by
projects, treats many aspects of ongoing operations as projects to apply project management
techniques to them.

Using formal project management principles is advantageous for the following reasons:

 Better control of financial, physical, and human resources

 Improved customer relations
 Shorter development times
 Lower costs
 Higher quality and increased reliability
 Higher profit margins
 Improved productivity
 Better internal coordination
 Higher worker morale
1.2. The Stakeholder of a Project

Stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by project activities and include the
project sponsor, project manager, project team, users, suppliers, and even opponents of the
project. These stakeholders often have very different needs and expectations. For example,
building a new house is a well-known example of a project. There are several stakeholders
involved in a home construction project.

 The project sponsors would be the potential new homeowners. They would be the people
paying for the house and could be on a very tight budget, so they would expect the
contractor to provide accurate estimates of the costs involved in building the house. They
would also need a realistic idea of when they could move in and what type of home they
could afford given their budget constraints. The new homeowners would have to make
important decisions to keep the costs of the house within their budget. Can they afford to
finish the basement right away? If they can afford to finish the basement, will it affect the
projected move-in date? In this example, the project sponsors are also the users for the
product, which is the house.
 The project manager in this example would normally be the general contractor
responsible for building the house. He or she needs to work with all the project
stakeholders to meet their needs and expectations.
 The project team for building the house would include several construction workers,
electricians, carpenters, and so on. These stakeholders would need to know exactly what
work they must do and when they need to do it. They would need to know if the required
materials and equipment will be at the construction site or if they are expected to provide
the materials and equipment. Their work would need to be coordinated since there are
many interrelated factors involved. For example, the carpenter cannot put in kitchen
cabinets until the walls are completed.
 Building a house requires many suppliers. The suppliers would provide the wood,
windows, flooring materials, appliances, and so on. Suppliers would expect exact details
on what items they need to provide, where and when to deliver those items, and so on.
 There may or may not be opponents of a project. In this example, there might be a
neighbor who opposes the project because the workers are making so much noise that she
cannot concentrate on her work at home, or the noise might wake her sleeping children.

1.3. Project Management Framework

The following figure shows the tasks and activities done during managing a certain project as
well as the knowledge areas that any project manager needs to carry out his/ her task. The
picture starts from stakeholder needs and expectations. To make these needs and expectations
true there are various knowledge areas, tools and techniques applied for. And it is the whole
sum efforts of these integrated activities that lead the project to be successful.

Figure 2 project management framework

Knowledge areas describe the key competencies that project managers must develop

 4 core knowledge areas lead to specific project objectives (scope, time, cost, and quality)

 4 facilitating knowledge areas are the means through which the project objectives are
achieved (human resources, communication, risk, and procurement management)

 1 knowledge area (project integration management) affects and is affected by all of the
other knowledge areas.

1.4. Software Tools for Project Management

Project management tools and techniques assist project managers and their teams in various
aspects of project management. Some specific ones include

 Project Charter, scope statement and WBS (which assists in managing scope)

 Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analysis, (which assists in managing
time)

 Cost estimates and earned value management (which assists for cost management)