1.1 Dr. Honghui Deng Associate Professor MIS Department UNLV MIS 746 IS Project Management

1.2 Ideas for term project A team may choose to interview several project managers (e.g., one interview per team member) to find out how they deal with different subjects covered in this course. For example, as a team, you could prepare multiple questions about: Team formation Team formation – How do you form your teams – Are there guidelines you must follow? Team evaluation Team evaluation

1.3 Ideas for term project Project scope Project scope Project time management Project time management – use of PERT-CPM? – use of MS Project? Project planning Project planning Project risk assessment Project risk assessment – Do you assess project risks? – How do you assess project risks? Project quality assurance Project quality assurance – How do you ensure quality? – What methods or guidelines do you use?

1.4 Ideas for term project Project success Project success – How do you measure success? – Do you have a formal way of doing this? Project cost Project cost – How do you estimate costs? – How often do you overestimate or underestimate project costs? Contingency plan Contingency plan Closure Closure – Formal closure?

1.5 Ideas for term project Once you have gathered your interview data you need to review and synthesize responses to your questions. As you review responses, you want to look for similarities, overlaps, trends, and contradictions. You need to organize all responses for each topic in a separate table or in a way that is easy to follow.

1.6 Ideas for term project You also want to conclude your report with your own remarks and comments. In your conclusion, you want to suggest what you learned from this study. Do your findings correspond with what you learned in the course? If not, why do you think that is? What are the main areas of agreement or disagreement?

1.7 Ideas for term project Another example: Your team could study an on-going or already complete IT project to determine: How the project was developed How the project was developed Whether they followed principles that you learned in this course Whether they followed principles that you learned in this course What methods they used to estimate costs? Form teams? Evaluate team members? or deal with scope creep? What methods they used to estimate costs? Form teams? Evaluate team members? or deal with scope creep?

1.8 Ideas for term project To do this you want to interview those involved with the project development. Ask them: How long did they take to plan for the project vs to develop vs to implement How long did they take to plan for the project vs to develop vs to implement What are specific lessons they learned from this project? What are specific lessons they learned from this project? What are the best and the worst stories they can relate to this project? What are the best and the worst stories they can relate to this project?

1.9 Ideas for term project Did they deal with vendors? How was the experience?Did they deal with vendors? How was the experience? How about the users? How about the users? How about training programs? How about training programs? How about top management support? How about top management support? How do they decide to select a project where there are multiple proposals? Do they have a method of selecting projects? How do they decide to select a project where there are multiple proposals? Do they have a method of selecting projects? Closure? Formal? Informal? Closure? Formal? Informal?

1.10 Ideas for term project Again, you want to review your findings in group and organize your report in a way that is easy to follow and suggests some kind of conclusion. You can draw on your experience while doing this project and write your remarks at the end. It is important that there is a learning in the exercise.

1.11 Ideas for term project Another example: As a team, you may pick one topic that is important to IT project management such as measuring success or evaluating performance. Then, among team members, decide to find information about that topic in two ways: (1) websites, articles, textbooks, and the like and (2) interviews, review of documents for projects, and so on.

1.12 Ideas for term project Thus, your paper will have two main parts to it: one that describes what you found for the theory part and what you found happening in practice. Note: when you interview several people (e.g., project managers) about a topic, you must ask identical questions from all of them so that you can at the end aggregate responses per each question or be able to compare responses for each question, and avoid comparing apples and oranges.

1.13 Project grade It is important that you apply in your project what you learn in this course. For example: use a network diagram to plan and manage your project time use a network diagram to plan and manage your project time provide scope statement for your project provide scope statement for your project use stakeholder analysis for your team use stakeholder analysis for your team keep records or what you do keep records or what you do provide progress report when asked provide progress report when asked communicate, communicate, communicate communicate, communicate, communicate