PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND OUTSOURCING CHAPTER 12 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND OUTSOURCING

PROJECT MANAGEMENT Project Advice It is fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. Good judgment is usually the result of experience. And experience is frequently the result of bad judgment. But to learn from the experience of others requires those who have the experience to share the knowledge with those who follow.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT Project management – the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project Project management offers a strategic framework for coordinating the numerous activities associated with organizational projects Project management software – supports the long-term and day-to-day management and execution of the steps in a project

PROJECT MANAGEMENT Project management interdependent variables

PROJECT MANAGEMENT Cost, time and scope are interdependent variables You cannot change one without changing the others For example, decreasing a project’s timeframe means either increasing the cost of the project or decreasing the scope of the project to meet the new deadline Increasing a project’s scope means either increasing the project’s timeframe or increasing the project’s cost – or both – to meet the increased scope changes Project management is the science of making intelligent trade-offs among time, cost, and scope

PROJECT MANAGEMENT A recent survey concluded that the failure rate of IT projects is much higher in organizations that do not exercise disciplined project management A successful project is typically on time, within budget, meets the business’s requirements, and fulfills the customer’s needs The Hackett Group analyzed its client database and discovered: 3 in 10 projects failed 21 percent of companies state that they cannot adjust rapidly to market changes 1 in 4 validate a business case for an IT project after its completion

PROJECT MANAGEMENT Common reasons why IT projects fall behind schedule or fail

PROJECT MANAGEMENT Expected growth for project management software

PROJECT MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS Project – a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service Project management – the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations

PROJECT MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS Project deliverable – any measurable, tangible, verifiable outcome, result, or item that is produced to complete a project or part of a project Project milestone – represents key dates when a certain group of activities must be performed Project manager – an individual who is an expert in project planning and management, defines and develops the project plan, and tracks the plan to ensure all key project milestones are completed on time

PROJECT MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS Project managers must take all of the activities below and ensure they flow smoothly to develop and deliver a successful project

Choosing Strategic Projects Organizations must determine which projects to pursue Three common techniques for selecting projects Focus on organizational goals Categorize projects Perform a financial analysis

Choosing Strategic Projects Techniques for choosing strategic projects Focus on organizational goals—Managers are finding tremendous value in choosing projects that align with the organization’s goals. Projects that address organizational goals tend to have a higher success rate since they are important to the entire organization. Which technique is the most important when choosing strategic projects? Techniques for Choosing Strategic Projects

Choosing Strategic Projects Categorize projects—There are various categories that an organization can group projects into to determine a project’s priority. One type of categorization includes problem, opportunity, and directives. Problems are undesirable situations that prevent an organization from achieving its goals. Opportunities are chances to improve the organization. Directives are new requirements imposed by management, government, or some other external influence. It is often easier to obtain approval for projects that address problems or directives because the organization must respond to these categories to avoid financial losses. Which technique is the most important when choosing strategic projects? Techniques for Choosing Strategic Projects

Choosing Strategic Projects Perform a financial analysis—A number of different financial analysis techniques can be performed to help determine a project’s priority. A few of these include net present value, return on investment, and payback analysis. These financial analysis techniques help determine the organization’s financial expectations for the project

Setting The Project Scope Project scope – defines the work that must be completed to deliver a product with the specified features and functions, and typically includes: Project product – a description of the characteristics the product or service has undertaken Project objectives – quantifiable criteria that must be met for the project to be considered a success Project deliverables – any measurable, tangible, verifiable outcome, result, or item that is produced to complete a project or part of a project Project exclusions – products, services, or processes that are not specifically a part of the project Define the scope to build a basic calculator The calculator must have numbers between 0 and 9 and be able to add, multiply, divide, and subtract Notice that the scope is the 30,000 foot view – it doesn’t define the style, color, layout, materials, etc.

Setting The Project Scope SMART criteria are useful reminders on how to ensure that the project has created understandable and measurable objectives

Setting The Project Scope What happens when objectives are not SMART If an objective is not specific then it is open to interpretation If an objective is not measurable then there is no way to determine if the project is on track If an objective is not agreed upon then chances are high the project will fail If an objective is not realistic then chances are high that the project will fail If an objective does not include a time frame then there is no way to determine if the project is on track Why is the following not SMART? I will work hard this semester to achieve my goals? Does not state what the goals are Does not state how to measure working hard Might not be realistic depending on the goals Does have a time frame of a semester

Setting The Project Scope Why is the following not SMART? I will work hard this semester to achieve my goals? Does not state what the goals are Does not state how to measure working hard Might not be realistic depending on the goals Does have a time frame of a semester

Managing Resources and Maintaining the Project Plan Project plan – a formal, approved document that manages and controls project execution A project plan should be prepared by the team, rather than by the individual project manager. WHY? A well-defined project plan should be: Easy to understand and read Communicated to all key participants Appropriate to the project’s size, complexity, and criticality Prepared by the team, rather than by the individual project manager

Managing Resources and Maintaining the Project Plan Two primary diagrams used in project planning include PERT and Gantt charts PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) chart – is a graphical network model that depicts a project’s tasks and the relationships between those tasks (Dependencies and Critical paths are found in PERT charts) Gantt chart – a simple bar chart that depicts project tasks against a calendar

Managing Resources and Maintaining the Project Plan Dependency – a logical relationship between the project tasks, or between a project task and a milestone Critical path – a path from the start to the finish that passes through all the tasks that are critical to completing the project in the shortest amount of time Why do you need to create dependencies? Dependencies inform the project manager of tasks associated with or affected by another task

Managing Resources and Maintaining the Project Plan PERT Chart EXPERT – PERT Chart Example

Managing Resources and Maintaining the Project Plan MS Project – Gantt Chart Example

CHANGE MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS Good project managers understand the fundamentals of project management and how to effectively deal with change management and risk management The Only Constant Is Change - Heraclitus

CHANGE MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS Change management – a set of techniques that aid in evolution, composition, and policy management of the design and implementation of a system Change management system – a collection of procedures to document a change request and define the steps necessary to consider the change based on the expected impact of the change Change control board (CCB) – responsible for approving or rejecting all change requests

CHANGE MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS

CHANGE MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS Additional reasons why change occurs A resources quits or becomes ill Company changes strategic direction Leadership changes Technology changes Environment changes Regulations or laws change

Preparing for Change What can you do to anticipate and deal with change? Change control board Monitor change Project plan Three Important Guidelines for Effectively Dealing with Change Management Institute change management polices - Create clearly defined policies and procedures that must be followed each time a request for change is received Anticipate change - View change as an opportunity and embrace it Seek change - Every 6 to 12 months look for changes that may be windows of opportunity. Review successes and failures to determine if there are any opportunities for innovation

RISK MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS Project risk – an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project objective Risk management – the process of proactive and ongoing identification, analysis, and response to risk factors What type of risks effect you? How can you deal with those risks?

RISK MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS

RISK MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS

Mitigating Risk Actions to improve risk management capabilities Promote project leadership skills—Hire individuals with strong project management and project leadership skills as well as business management skills. These individuals can be extremely helpful in advisory and steering committee roles as well as coaching roles. Learn from previous experience—Over many years of collective experiences, organizations have encountered hundreds of large IT projects. Document and revisit development methodologies, software tools, and software development best practices in order to share this vital information across the organization. Share knowledge—Working in team or group environments tends to yield the most successful projects since individuals can share their unique learning experiences. Create a project management culture—Orient people from day one on the importance of project management, change management, and risk management. Be sure to measure and reward project management skills and promote individuals based on successful projects.

Successful Project Management Strategies Define project success criteria. At the beginning of the project, make sure the stakeholders share a common understanding of how they will determine whether the project is successful. Too often, meeting a predetermined schedule is the only apparent success factor, but there are certainly others. Some examples are: increasing market share, reaching a specified sales volume or revenue, achieving specific customer satisfaction measures, retiring a high maintenance legacy system, and achieving a particular transaction processing volume and correctness. Develop a solid project plan. The hard part of developing a plan is the thinking, negotiating, balancing, and communication project managers will have to do to develop a solid and realistic plan. The time they spend analyzing what it will take to solve the business problem will reduce the number of changes later in the project.

Successful Project Management Strategies Divide and conquer. Break all large tasks into multiple small tasks to provide more accurate estimates, reveal hidden work activities, and allow for more accurate, fine-grained status tracking. Plan for change. Things never go precisely as planned on a project; therefore, the budget and schedule should include some contingency buffers at the end of major phases to accommodate change. Manage project risk. Failure to identify and control risks will allow the risks to control the project. Be sure to spend significant time during project planning to brainstorm possible risk factors, evaluate their potential threat, and determine the best way to mitigate or prevent them.

OUTSOURCING Outsourcing – an arrangement by which one organization provides a service or services for another organization that chooses not to perform them in-house This section focuses on businesses’ need to undertake every effort to re-think and re-adopt new processes

OUTSOURCING Story 1: "The Customer is Never Right" We supplied the contract house with everything they needed to get the job done. The first thing they did was tell us how our tools and equipment were out-dated, and besides we were using them incorrectly. (Due to legacy issues and budget restrictions, constant hardware and software upgrades are not a way of life here.) The next thing they did was re-format all of the code on the project, including code outside the scope of their portion, to meet their own formatting preferences. Any request for information was like pulling teeth. They made me and everyone on my team feel like we were imposing anytime we asked them about the project (usually technical questions.) The most appalling thing is that towards the end of the project, they debated us on how a portion of our system worked!!! It was very insulting to have them infer that they understood our system better than we did. They have been blacklisted from our entire corporation.

OUTSOURCING Story 2: "The Underbid" The contract house gave us a very competitive fixed-bid on a project. This raised some concerns, but not enough to rule them out - money talks, and we were trying to spend as little as possible. In retrospect, going with them was a big mistake, but hindsight is always 20-20, right? As they got further into the project, the scope of the project "grew". Why? Because they did not give the project's complexity any credit when they bid. We were not adding features or functionality - they were just beginning to realize the scope of the work. It was clear their sales force had over-committed their engineering staff in a terrible way. Their engineers resented us and their own management, and it showed in their dealings with us. Not even halfway through the project, they admitted they had underbid - now they needed more money to complete the project. (Ironic, since one of the primary factors in choosing them was the attractive pricetag.) The project was completed by our own staff in-house once we decided we'd cut our losses and sever our relationship. I don't know if we would outsource again. I feel like we bought software development services from a used-car salesman.

OUTSOURCING Insourcing (in-house-development) – a common approach using the professional expertise within an organization to develop and maintain the organization's information technology systems Insourcing has been instrumental in creating a viable supply of IT professionals and in fact in creating a better quality workforce combining both technical and business skills

OUTSOURCING In some cases, the entire IT department is outsourced, including planning and business analysis as well as the installation, management, and servicing of the network and workstations This is an interesting clip on outsourcing and tutoring kids in the United States http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4497026 

OUTSOURCING Reasons companies outsource Tom Friedman on the Daily Show http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=70490 (takes a while to load). 

OUTSOURCING Factors driving outsourcing growth include: Core competencies Financial savings Rapid growth Industry changes The Internet Globalization

THE OUTSOURCING PHENOMENON According to research firm IDC, the worldwide IT outsourcing market will reach $230 billion by 2009 According to PricewaterhouseCoopers “Businesses that outsource are growing faster, larger, and more profitable than those that do not” Best Buy is the number one U.S. specialty retailer for consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software, and appliances Best Buy outsourced its enterprise systems to Accenture The results of this outsourcing arrangement included a 20 percent increase in revenue which translated into a $25 million profit

THE OUTSOURCING PHENOMENON Most organizations outsource their noncore business functions, such as payroll and IT

THE OUTSOURCING PHENOMENON Outsourcing growth drivers Globalization – As markets open worldwide, competition increases The Internet – Barriers to entry are reduced by the Internet, such as a bookstore without an actual store (Amazon.com) Growing economy and low unemployment rate – Building a competitive workforce is harder and more expensive Technology – Technology is advancing at such an accelerated rate that companies often lack the resources, workforce, or expertise to keep up Deregulation – As private industries deregulate (telecommunications, energy) markets open and competition increases

Outsourcing Benefits Outsourcing benefits include: Increased quality and efficiency Reduced operating expenses Outsourcing non-core processes allows focus on core competencies Reduced exposure to risk Service providers economies of scale, expertise, and best practices Access to advanced technologies Increased flexibility Avoid costly outlay of capital funds Reduced headcount and associated overhead expense Reduced frustrations and expense related to hiring/retaining employees Reduced time to market for products or services

OUTSOURCING OPTIONS Onshore outsourcing – engaging another company within the same country for services Nearshore outsourcing – contracting an outsourcing arrangement with a company in a nearby country Offshore outsourcing – using organizations from developing countries to write code and develop systems

OUTSOURCING OPTIONS Big selling point for offshore outsourcing “inexpensive good work”

OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING Three categories of outsourcing countries: leaders, up-and-comers, rookies

The Leaders Canada India Ireland Israel Philippines CLASSROOM EXERCISE Outsourcing Issues There are many issues and obstacles to outsourcing such as time zone differences, accents, and business practices Break your students into groups Assign each group a country from the above list Ask the students to research the Internet to find examples of companies that have outsourced to this country Describe the outsourcing arrangement along with the positive and negative experiences outsourcing to this country Ask your students to present their findings to the class when you discuss each country

The Leaders Canada Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Leaders India Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Leaders Ireland Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Leaders Israel Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Leaders Philippines

The Up-and-Comers Brazil China Malaysia Mexico Russia South Africa CLASSROOM EXERCISE Outsourcing Issues There are many issues and obstacles to outsourcing such as time zone differences, accents, and business practices Break your students into groups Assign each group a country from the above list Ask the students to research the Internet to find examples of companies that have outsourced to this country Describe the outsourcing arrangement along with the positive and negative experiences outsourcing to this country Ask your students to present their findings to the class when you discuss each country

The Up-and-Comers Brazil Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Up-and-Comers China Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Up-and-Comers Malaysia Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Up-and-Comers Mexico Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Up-and-Comers Russia Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Up-and-Comers South Africa Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Rookies Argentina Chile Costa Rica New Zealand Thailand Ukraine CLASSROOM EXERCISE Outsourcing Issues There are many issues and obstacles to outsourcing such as time zone differences, accents, and business practices Break your students into groups Assign each group a country from the above list Ask the students to research the Internet to find examples of companies that have outsourced to this country Describe the outsourcing arrangement along with the positive and negative experiences outsourcing to this country Ask your students to present their findings to the class when you discuss each country

The Rookies Argentina Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Rookies Chile Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Rookies Costa Rica Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Rookies New Zealand Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Rookies Thailand Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

The Rookies Ukraine Present student findings from Classroom Exercise

THE CHALLENGES OF OUTSOURCING Outsourcing challenges include Contract length Difficulties in getting out of a contract Problems in foreseeing future needs Problems in reforming an internal IT department after the contract is finished Competitive edge – Effective and innovative use of IT can be lost when using an outsourcing service provider Confidentiality – Confidential information might be breached by an outsourcing service provider, especially one that provides services to competitors Scope definition – Scope creep is a common problem with outsourcing agreements

FUTURE OUTSOURCING TRENDS Outsourcing is becoming less of a cost-saving strategy and more an overall context for business Outsourcing is approaching commodity status Companies should look for value-based pricing rather than the lowest possible price Multisourcing – a combination of professional services, mission-critical support, remote management, and hosting services that are offered to customers How will outsourcing affect your career? Your job could be outsourced Competition for your job will be higher Your salary might decrease because your job could be outsourced and performed for a cheaper rate

OPENING CASE QUESTIONS Change at Toyota How could Toyota benefit from outsourcing? If you had to choose a country to recommend for outsourcing, which country would it be and why? Explain the issues facing Toyota from its internal IT department if it decided to outsource the project management of the development of a new system 9. How could Toyota benefit from outsourcing? Outsourcing is an arrangement by which one organization provides a service or services for another organization that chooses not to perform them in-house. The business benefit of outsourcing is that an organization can focus on its core competencies or core strengths, which allowing an outsourcing provider to take over all noncore competencies. The benefits of outsourcing include: Increased quality and efficiency Reduced operating expenses Outsourcing non-core processes allows businesses to focus on their core competencies Reduced exposure to risk Access to outsourcing service providers economies of scale and expertise and best-in-class practices 10. If you had to choose a country to recommend for outsourcing, which country would it be and why? Student answers to this question will vary. The important part of their answer is the justification for why Toyota should outsource to this country. 11. Explain the issues facing Toyota from its internal IT department if it decided to outsource the project management of the development of a new system. The internal IT department would most likely be unhappy with this decision since it would be threatened by another company performing the work it was supposed to be doing. It is also difficult to have another company project managing your internal work. Toyota should expect its IT employees to be very unhappy with this decision and might even rebel against the project and the company that is project managing the system.

OPENING CASE QUESTIONS Change at Toyota What types of ethical issues might Toyota encounter when considering outsourcing? What types of security issues might Toyota encounter when considering outsourcing? 12. What types of ethical issues might Toyota encounter when considering outsourcing? There are numerous ethical issues surrounding outsourcing including: Stealing of competitive information from the outsourcing company Who owns the system once it is built? Who owns the data contained in the system? What rights do the outsourcing companies have to view the data? Kick-backs, luxuries, or payments to an individual employee if the employee uses a certain outsourcing company Scope creep and feature creep if the outsourcing company did not bid on the job correctly Contract issues not withheld in another country that is impossible to find legal retribution Reselling the same system to other customers 13. What types of security issues might Toyota encounter when considering outsourcing? There are numerous security issues surrounding outsourcing including: Stealing identities of customers by the outsourcing companies Copyright violations in other countries Hacking into the system Viruses from other countries

CLOSING CASE ONE Toronto Transit Describe Gantt charts and explain how TTC could use one to communicate project status Describe PERT charts and explain how TTC could use one to communicate project status How could TTC use its Master Schedule to gain efficiencies in its supply chain? How could TTC use its Master Schedule to identify change management and risk management issues? 1. Describe Gantt charts and explain how TTC could use one to communicate project status A Gantt chart is a simple bar chart that depicts project tasks against a calendar. In a Gantt chart, tasks are listed vertically and the project’s timeframe is listed horizontally. A Gantt chart works well for representing the project schedule. It also shows actual progress of tasks against the planned duration. 2. Describe PERT charts and explain how TTC could use one to communicate project status A PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) chart is a graphical network model that depicts a project’s tasks and the relationships between those tasks. A dependency is a logical relationship that exists between the project tasks, or between a project task and a milestone. Dependencies and Critical paths are found in PERT charts. 3. How could TTC use its Master Schedule to gain efficiencies in its supply chain? TTC could link its Master Schedule directly to its SCM system, enabling it to automatically order inventory required for projects. 4. How could TTC use its Master Schedule to identify change management and risk management issues? Change management is a set of techniques that aid in evolution, composition, and policy management of the design and implementation of a system. TTC can prepare for change by looking for scope creep, feature creep, new requirements, changing business environment, industry changes, technology changes, and management changes. Project risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project objective. Risk management is the process of proactive and ongoing identification, analysis, and response to risk factors. TTC can prepare for risk by looking for changing business circumstances, reluctance to report negative information on a project, significant change management issues, and overengineering technology solutions.

CLOSING CASE TWO Circuit City Explain why anticipating change would have helped Circuit City remain as an industry leader Why are project management, change management, and risk management critical to a global company such as Circuit City? Assess the impact on Circuit City’s business if it failed to implement change management strategies as it revamped its global organization 1. Explain why anticipating change would have helped Circuit City remain as an industry leader. By using environmental scanning and competitive intelligence, Circuit City could have anticipated the changes that Best Buy was making in its stores and copied the changes and remained one of the biggest players in the market. Instead, Circuit City failed to change the way it was doing business and it lost its market share to Best Buy. 2. Why are project management, change management, and risk management critical to a global company such as Circuit City? Project management, change management, and risk management are critical to Circuit City if it wants to operate efficiently and effectively. A company that ignores project management, change management, or risk management is ignoring critical information and process management. 3. Assess the impact on Circuit City’s business if it failed to implement change management strategies as it revamped its global organization. Change management is a set of techniques that aid in evolution, composition, and policy management of the design and implementation of a system. An organization can prepare for change by implementing change management systems and a change control board. Change management systems are a collection of procedures to document a change request and define the steps necessary to consider the change based on the expected impact of the change. A change control board (CCB) is responsible for approving or rejecting all change requests. Without having a process to control change Circuit City would spend a significant amount of time trying to manage all of its change requests.

CLOSING CASE TWO Circuit City What are some of the potential risks facing Circuit City’s new business model? Why would Opportunity, Resource, and Time & Expense applications be of value to a company like Circuit City? Why would Circuit City benefit from implementing good risk management and change management techniques? 4. What are some of the potential risks facing Circuit City’s new business model? Risk factors for Circuit City include: By selling all of its non-core businesses it might offer too limited or narrow a scope of products and turn off customers since it only sells consumer electronics. Changing pay structures for employees is always risky and if its employees do not like or buy into the new structure they could cause significant issues for Circuit City. It is basing a number of its decisions on customer feedback so it must ensure that the feedback is accurate and correct, otherwise it will risk making a bad decision based on bad information. 5. Why would Opportunity, Resource, and Time & Expense applications be of value to a company like Circuit City? Opportunity, resources, and time & expense manager applications are of use to any business that wants to run its project both efficiently and effectively. Circuit City could use this application to track all details of each of its projects ensuring that each project was on-time, under budget, and delivering quality products. 6. Why would Circuit City benefit from implementing good risk management and change management techniques? Risk management is the process of proactive and ongoing identification, analysis, and response to risk factors. Decreasing risk increases an organization’s chance of success. Circuit City has global employees working on global projects. Without managing projects, change, and risk Circuit City would have a difficult time building, developing, and deploying new projects. Change management is a set of techniques that aid in evolution, composition, and policy management of the design and implementation of a system. An organization can prepare for change by implementing change management systems and a change control board. Change management systems are a collection of procedures to document a change request and define the steps necessary to consider the change based on the expected impact of the change. A change control board (CCB) is responsible for approving or rejecting all change requests.