Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition

Note: See the text itself for full citations.

  Describe the systems view of project management
and how it applies to information technology
projects
 Understand organizations, including the four
frames, organizational structures, and
organizational culture
 Explain why stakeholder management and top
management commitment are critical for a
project’s success

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  Understand the concept of a project phase and
the project life cycle and distinguish between
project development and product development
 Discuss the unique attributes and diverse nature
of information technology projects

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  Projects must operate in a broad organizational
environment
 Project manger need to consider projects within
the organization context
 Project managers need to use systems thinking:
◦ A system is a set of interacting components working with
an environment to fulfill some purpose
◦ Taking a holistic view of carrying out projects within the
context of the organization
 Senior managers must make sure that projects
continue to support current business needs
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  Tom Walter – Director of IT dept. in some college
 Tom and his team developed plans to start
requiring students to lease laptops at their college
next year
 In faculty meeting, chairs of other departments
voiced against his idea for different reasons
 Tom was in shock to hear his colleague response,
especially after he and his staff spent a lot of time
for planning

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  Tom worked in isolation with his staff
 Unaware of the effect of the project on college and
people
 Did not identify project stakeholders, especially
opponents
 Did not use systems thinking

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  A systems approach is an analytical approach to
management and problem solving
 Three parts include:
◦ Systems philosophy: an overall model for thinking about
things as systems
◦ Systems analysis: problem-solving approach that requires:
 defining the scope of the system,
 dividing it into components,
 identifying and evaluating its problems,
 examining alternative solutions, and
 identifying a satisfactory solution
◦ Systems management: address business, technological,
and organizational issues before creating or making
changes to systems
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 Systems Approach

Systems philosophy Systems management Systems Analysis

Business organization technology

Political frame HR frame Structural frame Symbol frame

functional project matrix

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 Structural frame: Human resources frame:
Focuses on roles and Focuses on providing
responsibilities, harmony between needs of
coordination and control. the organization and needs
Organization charts help of people.
define this frame.

Political frame: Symbolic frame: Focuses

Assumes organizations on symbols and meanings
are coalitions (alliance) related to events.
composed of varied Organizational culture (how
individuals and interest do people dress? how many
hours do the work? how do
groups. Conflict and
they run meetings?
power are key issues.

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  3 basic organization structures
◦ Functional: functional managers (vice
president) report to the CEO (Chief Executive
Officer)
◦ Project: program managers report to the CEO
◦ Matrix: middle ground between functional and
project structures; personnel often report to
two or more bosses; structure can be weak,
balanced, or strong matrix

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 Project Organizational Structure Type
Characteristics
Functional Matrix Project
Weak Matrix Balanced Strong
Matrix Matrix
Project manager’s Little or none Limited Low to Moderate High to
authority Moderate to high almost total
Percent of Virtually none 0-25% 15-60% 50-95% 85-100%
performing
organization’s
personnel assigned
full-time to project
work
Who controls the Functional Functional Mixed Project Project
project budget manager manager manager manager
Project manager’s Part-time Part-time Full-time Full-time Full-time
role
Common title for Project Project Project Project Project
project manager’s Coordinator/ Coordinator/ Manager/ Manager/ Manager/
role Project Leader Project Project Program Program
Leader Officer Manager Manager
Project management Part-time Part-time Part-time Full-time Full-time
administrative staff
PMBOK Guide, 2000, 19, and PMBOK Guide 2004, 28.
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  Organizational culture is a set of shared
assumptions, values, and behaviors that
characterize the functioning of an organization
 Many experts believe the underlying causes of
many companies’ problems are not the structure
or staff, but the culture

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  Member identity (loyalty)*  Risk tolerance*
 Group emphasis*  Reward criteria*
 People focus  Conflict tolerance*
 Unit integration*  Means-ends
 Control orientation
 Open-systems focus*

*Project work is most successful in an organizational

culture where these items are strong/high and other
items are balanced

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  Member identity: the degree to which employees identify
with the organization rather than with their
job/profession (high)
 Group emphasis: the degree to which work is organized
around groups rather than individuals (high)
 People focus: the degree to which management’s
decisions take into account the effect of outcomes on
people within the organization (balance)
 Unit integration: the degree to which units or
departments within organization are encouraged to
coordinate to each other (high)

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  Control: the degree to which rules are used to
control employee behavior (balance)
 Risk tolerance: the degree to which employees are
encouraged to be innovative and risk seeking (high)
 Reward criteria: the degree to which rewards, such
as promotion and salary increases, are allocated
according to employee performance (high)
 Conflict tolerance: the degree to which employees
are encouraged to discuss conflict and criticism
openly (high)

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  Means-ends orientation: the degree to which
management focuses on outcomes rather than on
techniques used to achieve results (balance)
 Open-system focus: the degree to which the
organization monitors and responds to changes in
external environment (high)

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  Project objective is to satisfy stakeholders
 Project managers must take time to
identify, understand, and manage
relationships with all project stakeholders
 Stakeholders can be internal, external,
involved, affected by the project
 Using the four frames of organizations can
help meet stakeholder needs and
expectations
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  Tom Walters did not use the four frame for
organization
 structural frame
◦ Viewed only part of the structural frame (IT staff) internal
stakeholders
◦ The project has many stakeholders other than IT staff
such as students and senior faculty of the college
 HR frame
◦ Did not identify who would most support or oppose
requiring laptops

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  Political Frame
◦ Did not identify the main interest group that would be
most affected by project outcomes
 Symbol frame
◦ Did not address what moving to laptops environment
really means to the college. Should he did that, he could
have anticipated some of the oppositions

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  People in top management positions are key
stakeholders in projects
 A very important factor in helping project managers
successfully lead projects is the level of commitment
and support they receive from top management
 Without top management commitment, many projects
will fail
 Some projects have a senior manager called a
champion who acts as a key proponent for a project

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  Providing adequate resources (HR, FR)
 Approving unique project needs in a timely manner
(SW, HW needs, financial support as the project run)
 Getting cooperation from other parts of the
organization (encourage functional manager to
cooperate with project managers)
 Mentoring and coaching on leadership issues (give
advices for project managers in leadership and
encourage them to take classes to develop their
leadership skills and assign funds and time to do so)

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  Standards and guidelines help project managers
be more effective
 Senior management can encourage:
◦ The use of standard forms, templates, and software for
project management
◦ The development and use of guidelines for writing project
management plans or providing status information

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  A project life cycle is a collection of project
phases that defines:
◦ What work will be performed in each phase
◦ What deliverables will be produced and when
◦ Who is involved in each phase
◦ How management will control and approve work
produced in each phase
 Project can have different life cycles
 A deliverable is a product or service produced or
provided as part of a project

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  In early phases of a project life cycle:
◦ Resource needs are usually lowest
◦ The level of uncertainty (risk) is highest
◦ Project stakeholders have the greatest opportunity to
influence the project
 In middle phases of a project life cycle:
◦ The certainty of completing a project improves
◦ More resources are needed
 The final phase of a project life cycle focuses on:
◦ Ensuring that project requirements were met
◦ The sponsor approves completion of the project

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  Concept and development phases focus on
planning – project feasibility
 Implementation and close-out phases focus on
delivering the actual work – project acquisition
 A project should successfully complete each
phase before moving to next phase

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  Manager develops a business case, which
describes the need for the project and its basic
concepts
 A preliminary rough cost estimate is developed
 A work breakdown structure (WBS) is created
◦ WBS outlines project work by decomposing the work
tasks into different levels

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 Tom could have created a committee from faculty
and staff to develop a business case that studies:
• need of increasing the use of technology on campus
◦ its alternative ways
◦ its effects on students, faculty, and staff
 Estimate initial cost of establishing laptop
technology on campus
 WBS divides the work into three levels
◦ A competitive analysis for, say, five campuses
◦ Survey for students and staff
◦ Rough assessment for the effect of the project on cost
and enrollment

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  Project team creates more detailed project
management plans
 More accurate cost estimate
 More thorough WBS

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  Project team would have to put a project
management plan
◦ Decide whether student should lease or purchase laptops
◦ What type of SW and HW
◦ How much to charge students
◦ How to handle training
 More accurate cost estimate, if it is too high
compared to the benefits, the project should be
canceled in the development phase before
wasting time and money in the next phases

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  Lowest level in WBS (work package)
 Deliver the required work
 Definitive or very accurate cost estimate
 Provide performance report to stakeholders

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  Obtain the required HW and SW, install network
equipment, deliver the laptops to students,
collecting fees, provide training to students, faculty
and staff
 Other people may be involved in this phase such
as faculty, security, …
 The project team would have to report results
(success/failure) to stakeholders

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  All work is completed
◦ Close-out any activities related to laptops project
 Report customer acceptance
◦ Survey for students, faculty, and staff
 Team work would have to report experience and
lesson learned (learned lesson report)
◦ Share lessons and experience with other college campus

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  Products also have life cycles
 The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is
a framework for describing the phases involved in
developing and maintaining information systems
 Systems development projects can follow
◦ Predictive life cycle: the scope of the project can be
clearly articulated and the schedule and cost can be
predicted
◦ Adaptive Software Development (ASD) life cycle:
requirements cannot be clearly expressed, projects are
mission driven and component based, using time-based
cycles to meet target dates

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  Waterfall model: has well-defined, linear stages
of systems development and support
 Spiral model: shows that software is developed
using an iterative or spiral approach rather than a
linear approach
 Incremental build model: provides for
progressive development of operational software
 Prototyping model: used for developing
prototypes to clarify user requirements
 Rapid Application Development (RAD) model:
used to produce systems quickly without
sacrificing quality

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 Requirements analysis
and specification

Design and specification

Code and module

testing

Integration and
system testing

Delivery and
maintenance

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  A project should successfully pass through each of
the project phases in order to continue on to the
next
 Management reviews, also called phase exits or
kill points, should occur after each phase to
evaluate the project’s progress, likely success,
and continued compatibility with organizational
goals
 Project may be continued, redirected, or
terminated

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  At the end of the concept phase, Tom and his project
team could have
◦ Presented information to faculty, staff, and students that
describe different opinions for increasing the use of
technology on campus
◦ An analysis of what competing colleges were doing
◦ Results of a survey of local stakeholders’ opinion on the
subject
 This presentation is a management review
 Suppose the study reported that 90% of student
opposed the idea, then the college may decide not purse
the project

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  Project nature: IT projects can be very diverse in
terms of size, complexity, products produced,
application area, and resource requirements
 Team Members Characteristics: IT project team
members often have diverse backgrounds and
skill sets
 Technologies: IT projects use diverse technologies
that change rapidly; even within one technology
area, people must be highly specialized

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  IT projects are very diverse
 Small number of people work in a small HW-
oriented project(installing HW and associated SW)
◦ Hardware can be diverse (personal computers,
mainframe, network equipments, small mobile devices
 Network environment could be wireless, phone-based,
cable-based, satellite,…
 Hundreds of people can work in a large software
development project
◦ Type of SW could vary from a simple standalone excel
application to a global e-commerce system

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  people work in IT have different background
◦ Business, mathematics, liberal arts, computer science
 People work in a diversity of jobs
◦ Business analyst, database analyst, HW engineer, SW
engineer, programmer, …
 Java programmer, XML programmer, C/C++ programmer

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  Business analyst uses different technology than
that used by HW specialist
 Database analyst might have hard time
understanding security specialist
 A COBOL programmer can not be of much help in
a Java project
 People use different technologies
 Technologies change very fast

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  Project managers need to take a systems approach
when working on projects
 Organizations have four different frames: structural,
human resources, political, and symbolic
 The structure and culture of an organization have
strong implications for project managers
 Projects should successfully pass through each
phase of the project life cycle
 Project managers need to consider several factors
due to the unique context of information technology
projects

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