1 IT Project Management, Project Failure and Success  Introduction  Projects operate in a broad organizational environment.  Project managers need to use systems thinking:  Taking a holistic view of a project and understanding how it relates to the larger organization.  Senior managers must make sure projects continue to support current business needs.

PROJECT  Project – a [temporary] sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities having one goal or purpose and that must be completed by specific time, within budget, and according to specification  Project management – the process of scoping, planning, staffing, organizing, directing, and controlling the development of an acceptable system at a minimum cost within a specified time frame. 2

 Poor Expectations Management:  Scope creep – the unexpected and gradual growth of requirements during an information systems project.  Feature creep– the uncontrolled addition of technical features to a system. 3

The art of project management  Technological change  Customer and management expectations  Documentation and communication  Time and resource constraints  Managing people  Organizational change and complexity  Contractors and vendors  Methodologies and tools  Systems development life cycle 4

5 A Systems View of Project Management  The term systems approach emerged in the 1950s to describe a holistic and analytical approach to solving complex problems.  Three parts include:  Systems philosophy: View things as systems, which are interacting components that work within an environment to fulfill some purpose.  Systems analysis: Problem-solving approach.  Systems management: Address business, technological, and organizational issues before making changes to systems.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS  The resulting information system is acceptable to the customer.  The system was delivered ‘on time.’  The system was delivered “within budget.”  The system development process had a minimal impact on ongoing business operations 6

CAUSES OF PROJECT FAILURE  Lack of organization’s commitment to the system development methodology  Failure to establish upper-management commitment to the project  Taking shortcuts through or around the system development methodology  Failure to adapt to business change  Insufficient resources 7

 Poor expectations management  Premature commitment to a fixed budget and schedule  Poor estimating techniques  Over optimism  Inadequate people management skills 8

FUNCTIONS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT  Scoping – setting the boundaries of the project, understand context and complexity of the project  Planning – identifying the tasks required to complete the project Information Technology Project Management, Fourth Edition9

10 PROJECT MANAGEMENT SKILLS:  Management skills  Leadership skills  Technical skills  Conflict management skills  Customer relationship  Risk and change management

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS  Initiating project  Planning project  Executing project  Closing down project The environment is one of the continual change and problem solving. 11

Overcoming project team difficulties  Promote team work  Convey concepts in meetings/ workshops  Use joint problem solving/ brainstorming  Encourage feedback  Identify roles and responsibilities for each team member  Convey common understanding of the project  Master schedules and critical path  Be visible and available as Project Manager 12

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