IT Project Management (ITC-311)

Lecture 02
Ms. Sarah Farrukh
Projects in Organization Framework
 Projects must operate in broad organization environment
 Projects managers need to use system thinking:
 Taking holistic view of carrying out projects within the context of the organization.
 Senior managers must make sure projects continue to support current
business needs.
 A systems approach appears in 1950’s to describe a more analytical approach
to management and problem solving
 Three parts include
 Systems philosophy: an overall model for thinking things as systems
 Systems Analysis: Problem solving approach
 Systems Management: address business, technological and organizational issues
before making changes to system
3 Sphere models for System Management
Perspective on Organizations
Project Failures Analysis
 In a paper titled “A Study in Project Failure” two researchers examined the
success and failure of 214 IT projects over an eight year period in several
European countries.
 The researchers found that only one in eight (12.5%) were successful in
meeting scope, time and cost goals.
 The authors said that the culture within many organizations is often to blame.
 Among other things, people often do not discuss important leadership, stakeholder
and risk management issues.
Organizational Structure
 3 basic organizational structures
 Functional: Functional managers report to CEO
 Project: Program managers report to 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.
Matrix Organization Structures
Functional, Project and Matrix Organizational
Structure
Organizational Structure influence on Projects
Organization Culture
 Organization culture is a set of shared assumptions, values and behaviors that
characterize the functioning of organization.
 Many experts believe the underlying causes of many companies problem are not the
structure or staff, but the culture.
Ten Characteristic of Organization Culture
 Member Identity*:the degree to which employees identify with the organization as a
whole rather than with their type of job or field of profession expertise.
 Group emphasis*: the degree to which work activities are organized around groups
rather than individuals
 People focus: the focus is on employee development and well-being.
 Unit integration*: the degree to which units within the organization are
encouraged to operate in a coordinated or interdependent manner
 Control: the degree to which rules, policies, and direct supervision are used to
oversee and control employee behavior
Ten Characteristic of Organization Culture
 Risk tolerance*: the degree of risk or uncertainty that is acceptable to an
organization.
 Reward Criteria*: Service-oriented cultures reward, recognize, and
publicize exceptional service on the part of their employees
 Conflict tolerance*: How people respond to conflict when it does arise
 Means-end Orientation: the degree to which management focuses on outcomes
rather than on techniques and processes used to achieve results.
 Open System Focus*: A system that regularly exchanges feedback with its external
environment. Open systems are systems, of course, so inputs, processes, outputs,
goals, assessment and evaluation, and learning are all important
*Poject work is most successful in an organizational culture where these items are
strong/high and other items are balanced
Stakeholder Management
 Project managers must take time to identify, understand, and manage relationships
with all project stakeholders
 Using the four frames of organizations can help meet stakeholder needs and
expectations Means-end Orientation.
 Senior executives/top management are very important stakeholders
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.
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
Best Practice
 IT governance addresses the authority and control for key IT activities in
organizations, including IT infrastructure, IT use, and project management
 A lack of IT governance can be dangerous, as evidenced by three well-publicized IT
project failures in Australia (Sydney Water's customer relationship management
system, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's academic management system)
Need for Organizational Commitment to Information Technology
(IT)
 If the organization has a negative attitude towards 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.
 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.
Project Phases and The Project Life Cycle
 The 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
 A deliverable is a product or service produced or provided as part of a project
 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.
Project Phases and The Project Life Cycle
 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.
Phases of Traditional Project Life Cycle
Product Life Cycle
 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
Predictive Life Cycle Models
 Waterfall model: has well-defined, linear stages of system 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.
Waterfall and Spiral Models
Agile Software Development
 Agile software development has become popular to describe new
approaches that focus on close collaboration between programming teams
and business experts.
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.
Agile Makes Sense for Some Project but Not All
 Many seasoned experts in project management warn people not to fall for the hype associated
with Agile
 For example, J. Leroy Ward, Executive Vice President at ESI International, said that "Agile will
be seen for what it is and isn't....Project management organizations embracing Agile software
and product development approaches will continue to grow while being faced with the
challenge of demonstrating ROI through Agile adoption."*
Manifesto for Agile Software Development
 In February 2001, a group of 17 people that called itself the Agile Alliance developed and
agreed on the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, as follows:
 "We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:
 Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
 Working software over comprehensive documentation
 Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
 Responding to change over following a plan"*
Scrum
 According to the Scrum Alliance, Scrum is the leading agile development method for
completing projects with a complex, innovative scope of work.
 The term was coined in 1986 in a Harvard Business Review study that compared
highperforming, cross-functional teams to the scrum formation used by rugby teams.
 Scrum Roles
 Product owner
 Scrum Master
 Project Team
 Scrum Meeting
 Team has daily meetings
 Sprint Results create sprint
 Retrospective Meeting
 Documents
 Product List/Backlog Items
 Sprint Items
Scrum Framework
The Importance of Project Phases & 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.
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.
Recent Trends Affecting IT Project Management
 Globalization
 Outsourcing: 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: A virtual team is a group of individuals who work across time and
space using communication technologies.
Globalization
 Issues
 Communication
 Trust
 Common Work Practices
 Tools
 Suggestions
 Employ greater project discipline
 Think Global but act Local
 Keep project momentum going on
 Use newer tools and technology
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.
 Outsourcing also has disadvantages. For example, Apple benefits from manufacturing
products in China, but it had big problems there after its iPhone 4S launch in January
2012 caused fighting between migrant workers who were hired by scalpers to stand in
line to buy the phones.
 When Apple said it would not open its store in Beijing, riots resulted and people attacked
security guards. The Beijing Apple Store has had problems before. In May 2011 , four
people were injured when a crowd waiting to buy the iPad 2 turned ugly.
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, 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.
 Disadvantages
 Isolating team members
 Increasing the potential for communications problems.
 Reducing the ability for team members to network and transfer information informly.
 Increasing the dependence on technology to accomplish work.
Thank You