Chapter 2:

The Project Management and

Information Technology Context

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Management, Seventh Edition
 Projects Cannot Be Run
In Isolation
 Projects must operate in a broad organizational
environment
 Project managers need to use systems thinking:

◦ taking a holistic view of carrying out projects within the

context of the organization
 Senior managers must make sure projects
continue to support current business needs

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 A Systems View of Project Management
 A systems approach emerged in the 1950s to
describe a more 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
◦ Systems management: address business, technological,
and organizational issues before making changes to
systems

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 Figure 2-1. Three Sphere Model for
Systems Management

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 Stakeholder Management
 Project managers must take time to identify,
understand, and manage relationships with all
project stakeholders
 Senior executives/top management are very

important stakeholders

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 The Importance of Top Management
Commitment
 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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 How Top Management Can Help
Project Managers
 Providing adequate resources
 Approving unique project needs in a timely

manner
 Getting cooperation from other parts of the

organization
 Mentoring and coaching on leadership issues

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 Best Practice
 IT governance addresses the authority and
control for key IT activities in organizations,
including IT infrastructure, IT use, and project
management

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 Need for Organizational Commitment
to Information Technology (IT)
 If the organization has a negative attitude toward
IT, it will be difficult for an IT project to succeed
 Having a Chief Information Officer (CIO) at a high

level in the organization helps IT projects

 Assigning non-IT people to IT projects also

encourage more commitment

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 Need for Organizational Standards
 Standards and guidelines help project managers
be more effective
 Senior management can encourage

◦ the use of standard forms and software for project

management
◦ the development and use of guidelines for writing project
plans or providing status information
◦ the creation of a project management office or center of
excellence

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 Project Phases and the Project Life
Cycle
 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, and
◦ how management will control and approve work
produced in each phase
 A deliverable is a product or service produced or
provided as part of a project

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 More on Project Phases
 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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 Project Life Cycles
 Projects 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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 Predictive Life Cycle Models
 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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 Figure 2-5. Waterfall and Spiral Life
Cycle Models

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 Agile Software Development
 Agile software development has become popular
to describe new approaches that focus on close
collaboration between programming teams and
business experts

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 The Importance of Project Phases and
Management Reviews
 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

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 The Context of IT Projects
 IT projects can be very diverse in terms of size,
complexity, products produced, application area,
and resource requirements
 IT project team members often have diverse

backgrounds and skill sets

 IT projects use diverse technologies that change

rapidly. Even within one technology area, people

must be highly specialized

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 Recent Trends Affecting IT Project
Management
 Globalization:
 is a process of interaction and integration among the people,
companies, and governments of different nations, a process
driven by international trade and investment and aided by
information technology.
 Outsourcing:
 is when an organization acquires goods and/or sources from
an outside source. Offshoring is sometimes used to describe
outsourcing from another country
 Virtual teams:
 is a group of individuals who work across time and space
using communication technologies
 Agile project management

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 Important Issues and Suggestions
Related to Globalization
 Issues
◦ Communications
◦ Trust
◦ Common work practices
◦ Tools
 Suggestions
◦ Employ greater project discipline
◦ Think global but act local
◦ Keep project momentum going
◦ Use newer tools and technology

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 Outsourcing
 Organizations remain competitive by using
outsourcing to their advantage, such as finding
ways to reduce costs
 Their next challenge is to make strategic IT

investments with outsourcing by improving their

enterprise architecture to ensure that IT
infrastructure and business processes are
integrated and standardized
 Project managers should become more familiar with

negotiating contracts and other outsourcing issues

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 Virtual Teams Advantages
 Increasing competiveness and responsiveness
by having a team of workers available 24/7
 Lowering costs because many virtual workers

do not require office space or support beyond

their home offices.
 Providing more expertise and flexibility by

having team members from across the globe

working any time of day or night
 Increasing the work/life balance for team

members by eliminating fixed office hours and

the need to travel to work.
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 Virtual Team Disadvantages
 Isolating team members
 Increasing the potential for communications

problems
 Reducing the ability for team members to network

and transfer information informally

 Increasing the dependence on technology to

accomplish work

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 Agile Project Management
 Agile means being able to move quickly and easily, but
some people feel that project management, as they have
seen it used, does not allow people to work quickly or
easily.
 Early software development projects often used a
waterfall approach, as defined earlier in this chapter. As
technology and businesses became more complex, the
approach was often difficult to use because
requirements were unknown or continuously changing.
 Agile today means using a method based on iterative
and incremental development, in which requirements
and solutions evolve through collaboration.

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 Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP).

 The Project Management Institute (PMI) recognized the

increased interest in Agile, and introduced a new
certification in 2011 called Agile Certified Practitioner
(ACP).
 Project managers understand that they have always had
the option of customizing how they run projects, but that
project management is not easy, even when using Agile.

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