CHAPTER 12 IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT

IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT IT Project management requires knowledge of system development methodologies: SDLC Prototyping RAD Purchasing life cycle © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 2 Page 421

IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT Project Management Institute (PMI) International society of project workers Certified thousands of professionals since 1984 PM competencies certified by PMI include eight areas: © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 3 Figure 12.1 Eight Project Management Competencies Page 421

IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT Most projects share common characteristics: Risk and uncertainty highest at project start Ability of stakeholders to influence project greatest at project start Cost and staffing levels lower at project start and higher toward end (PMI, 1996) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 4 Page 421

IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT Project: Temporary endeavor to create unique product or service Typically is a one-time initiative Can be divided into multiple tasks Requires coordination and control Has a definite beginning and end © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 5 Page 422

IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT Project: Temporary endeavor to create unique product or service Typically is a one-time initiative Can be divided into multiple tasks Requires coordination and control Has a definite beginning and end Program – a group of projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually (PMI, 1996) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 6 Page 422

IT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT IT Portfolio – set of IT project initiatives currently in progress, as well as requests for IT projects that have not yet been funded © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 7 Page 422

IT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT Project categories to help with prioritization: Absolute must A mandate due to security, legal, regulatory, or end-of-life-cycle IT issues Highly Desired/Business-Critical Includes short-term projects with good financial returns Wanted Valuable, but with longer time periods for ROI (more than 12 months) Nice to Have Projects with good returns, but with lower potential business value (Denis, et al., 2004) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 8 Page 422

PROJECT INITIATION Project charter Scope statement Feasibility analyses Economic Operational Technical © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 9 Page 424

PROJECT INITIATION Economic feasibility Formal cost-benefit analysis usually conducted ROI calculated when benefits can be easily measured Alternatives to ROI: © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 10 Figure 12.3 Alternatives to ROI for Justifying Investments Page 424

PROJECT INITIATION Project manager can be: Project Manager Characteristics Project manager can be: IS manager Business manager Both © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 11 Page 424

PROJECT INITIATION Project Manager Characteristics Page 425 © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 12 Figure 12.4 Nontechnical Skills for Superior Project Management Page 425

PROJECT INITIATION Project Sponsor and Champion Roles Sponsor: Participates in the development of the initial project proposal and the feasibility studies May personally argue for project approval Is usually the business manager who financially “owns” the project © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 13 Page 425

PROJECT INITIATION Has high credibility as organizational spokesperson Project Sponsor and Champion Roles Champion – a business manager who: Has high credibility as organizational spokesperson among user community Is successful communicator of vision and benefits throughout the project © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 14 Page 425

PROJECT PLANNING Three major components: Schedule Budget Staff (project team) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 15 Page 426

PROJECT PLANNING Work breakdown analysis: Scheduling Identifies phases and task sequence to meet project goals Estimates time of completion for each task Results in a project master schedule that identifies date and deliverable milestones © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 16 Page 426

PROJECT PLANNING Scheduling Timeboxing – organizational practice in which a system module is to be delivered to user within a set time limit, such as 6 months Work breakdown – a basic management technique that systematically subdivides blocks of work down to the level of detail at which the project will be controlled © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 17 Page 426

PROJECT PLANNING Two traditional approaches to estimating costs: Budgeting Two traditional approaches to estimating costs: Bottom-up Cost elements are estimated for lowest level of work tasks and then aggregated to give total project cost estimate Top-down (parametric cost estimating) Provides cost estimates for major budget categories based on historical experience © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 18 Page 427

PROJECT PLANNING Inexperienced estimators may: Budgeting Be too optimistic about what is needed to do the job Tend to leave out components Not use a consistent methodology, and have difficulty recreating their rationales © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 19 Page 427

PROJECT PLANNING Project staffing involves: Staffing Identifying IT specialist skill mix needed Selecting personnel who collectively have necessary skills and assigning them to work Preparing personnel for specific team member work Providing incentives to achieve project goals © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 20 Page 427

Counterproductive Characteristics PROJECT PLANNING Staffing Counterproductive Characteristics (Based on productivity study by Hughes Aircraft Company in Roman, 1986) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 21 Figure 12.5 Counterproductive Characteristics of Project Team Environments Page 429

PROJECT PLANNING Planning Documents Two typical planning documents: Statement of Work (SOW) For the customer High-level document that describes what project delivers and when Contract between project manager and executive sponsor Project Plan Used by project manager to guide, monitor, and control execution of project Reviewed by managers or committees that oversee project © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 22 Page 429

PROJECT PLANNING Planning Documents Two typical planning charts: PERT (or CPM) Gantt © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 23 Page 429

PROJECT PLANNING PERT (or CPM) Planning Documents Graphically models sequence of project tasks and interrelationships using a flowchart diagram Depicts a critical path – sequence of activities that will take longest time to complete Helps managers estimate effects of task slippage If used, less likely to have cost and schedule overruns © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 24 Page 429

PROJECT PLANNING Planning Documents Page 430 (Reprinted from Valacich, George, and Hoffer, Essentials of Systems Analysis & Design, Prentice Hall, 2001) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 25 Figure 12.6 PERT Chart Example Page 430

PROJECT PLANNING Gantt Planning Documents Graphically depicts estimated times (and later actual times) for each project task against a horizontal time scale Tasks presented in logical order along with bar graph showing estimated time duration for each task on a calendar Useful for displaying a project schedule and tracking progress of a set of tasks against project plan © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 26 Page 429

Page 431 Figure 12.7 Gantt Chart Example (Reprinted from Valacich, George, and Hoffer, Essentials of Systems Analysis & Design, 1st Edition, Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission of Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 27 Figure 12.7 Gantt Chart Example Page 431

PROJECT EXECUTION AND CONTROL Project plan needs to be refined and reassessed throughout life of project Software project management tools commonly used to help initiate and monitor project tasks Communication among project team members critical for task coordination and integration Communication throughout project to all stakeholders is key to project success © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 28 Page 430

PROJECT EXECUTION AND CONTROL Routine Project Status Reporting (Roman, 1986) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 29 Figure 12.8 Status Reporting Page 431

PROJECT EXECUTION AND CONTROL Managing Project Risks PM Goal: Manage risk of failing to achieve project objectives Causes of Risk: Human error Project scope changes Unanticipated technology changes Internal politics © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 30 Page 432

PROJECT EXECUTION AND CONTROL Managing Project Risks (Bashein, Markus, and Finley, 1997) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 31 Figure 12.9 Ten IT-Related Risks and Potential Consequences Page 432

Managing Project Risks (Adapted from Hamilton, 2000) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 32 Figure 12.11 Risk Controllability and Impact Grid Page 434

Managing Project Risks (Adapted from Frame, 1994) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 33 Figure 12.12 Risk Exposure: Risk versus Stake Page 434

PROJECT EXECUTION AND CONTROL Managing Business Change Change management: Ability to successfully introduce change to individuals and organizational units Key to project success Often involves change to power structures that must be recognized Can be facilitated by using change models, such as Lewin/Schein change model © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 34 Page 433

PROJECT EXECUTION AND CONTROL Managing Business Change Lewin/Schein Change Model © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 35 Figure 12.14 Three Stages of Lewin/Schein Change Model Page 433

PROJECT CLOSING IT project deliverables completed Formal user acceptance obtained or failed project terminated Common questions for team members: What went right on this project? What went wrong on this project? What would you do differently on the next project, based on your experience with this project? © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 36 Page 436

SPECIAL ISSUE: MANAGING COMPLEX IT PROJECTS Three factors critical to success of large, complex IT projects: The business vision an integral part of project A testing approach used at program level (not just individual application level) Used a phased-release approach (rather than single rollout strategy) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 37 Page 437

SPECIAL ISSUE: MANAGING COMPLEX IT PROJECTS (Adapted from Poria, 2004) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 38 Figure 12.15 Complexity Increases with Offsite and Offshore Resources (1 of 2) Page 437

Page 437 Figure 12.15 Complexity Increases with (Adapted from Poria, 2004) © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 39 Figure 12.15 Complexity Increases with Offsite and Offshore Resources (2 of 2) Page 437

SPECIAL ISSUE: POST-MERGER IT INTEGRATION PROJECTS What makes for a successful merger? Well-honed IT project management skills, and a program management structure Retaining IT talent needed for post merger IT integration efforts Quickly offering attractive retention contracts to key personnel © 2005 Pearson Prentice-Hall Chapter 12 - 40 Page 438