1. Chapter 2: The Project Management and Information Technology Context
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition
Note: See the text itself for full citations.

2. A Systems View of Project Management
A systems approach is an analytical approach to management and problem solving
Three parts include:
Systems philosophy: an overall model for thinking about things as systems
Systems analysis: problem-solving approach that requires:
defining the scope of the system,
dividing it into components,
identifying and evaluating its problems,
examining alternative solutions, and
identifying a satisfactory solution
Systems management: address business, technological, and organizational issues before creating or making changes to systems
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

3. A systems approach Systems Approach Systems management organization
Systems philosophy
Systems management
Systems Analysis
Business
organization
technology
Political frame
HR frame
Structural frame
Symbol frame
functional
project
matrix
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

4. Three Sphere Model for Systems Management
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

5. Understanding Organizations
Structural frame: Focuses on roles and responsibilities, coordination and control. Organization charts help define this frame.
Human resources frame: Focuses on providing harmony between needs of the organization and needs of people.
Political frame: Assumes organizations are coalitions (alliance) composed of varied individuals and interest groups. Conflict and power are key issues.
Symbolic frame: Focuses on symbols and meanings related to events. Organizational culture (how do people dress? how many hours do the work? how do they run meetings?
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

6. Organizational Structures
3 basic organization structures
Functional: functional managers (vice president) report to the CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
Project: program managers report to the 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
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

7. Functional, Project, and Matrix Organizational Structures
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

8. Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is a set of shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that characterize the functioning of an organization
Many experts believe the underlying causes of many companies’ problems are not the structure or staff, but the culture
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

9. Ten Characteristics of Organizational Culture
Member identity (loyalty)*
Group emphasis*
People focus
Unit integration*
Control
Risk tolerance*
Reward criteria*
Conflict tolerance*
Means-ends orientation
Open-systems focus*
*Project work is most successful in an organizational culture where these items are strong/high and other items are balanced
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

10. Organizational Culture (cont.)
Member identity: the degree to which employees identify with the organization rather than with their job/profession (high)
Group emphasis: the degree to which work is organized around groups rather than individuals (high)
People focus: the degree to which management’s decisions take into account the effect of outcomes on people within the organization (balance)
Unit integration: the degree to which units or departments within organization are encouraged to coordinate to each other (high)
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

11. Organizational Culture (cont.)
Control: the degree to which rules are used to control employee behavior (balance)
Risk tolerance: the degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and risk seeking (high)
Reward criteria: the degree to which rewards, such as promotion and salary increases, are allocated according to employee performance (high)
Conflict tolerance: the degree to which employees are encouraged to discuss conflict and criticism openly (high)
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

12. Organizational Culture (cont.)
Means-ends orientation: the degree to which management focuses on outcomes rather than on techniques used to achieve results (balance)
Open-system focus: the degree to which the organization monitors and responds to changes in external environment (high)
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

13. Stakeholder Management
Project objective is to satisfy stakeholders
Project managers must take time to identify, understand, and manage relationships with all project stakeholders
Stakeholders can be internal, external, involved, affected by the project
Using the four frames of organizations can help meet stakeholder needs and expectations
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

14. The Importance of Top Management Commitment (support)
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
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

15. How Top Management Can Help Project Managers
Providing adequate resources (HR, FR)
Approving unique project needs in a timely manner (SW, HW needs, financial support as the project run)
Getting cooperation from other parts of the organization (encourage functional manager to cooperate with project managers)
Mentoring and coaching on leadership issues (give advices for project managers in leadership and encourage them to take classes to develop their leadership skills and assign funds and time to do so)
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

16. Need for Organizational Standards
Standards and guidelines help project managers be more effective
Senior management can encourage:
The use of standard forms, templates, and software for project management
The development and use of guidelines for writing project management plans or providing status information
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

17. Project Phases and the Project Life Cycle
A 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
Project can have different life cycles
A deliverable is a product or service produced or provided as part of a project
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

18. Phases of the Traditional Project Life Cycle
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

19. Project life Cycle
Concept and development phases focus on planning – project feasibility
Implementation and close-out phases focus on delivering the actual work – project acquisition
A project should successfully complete each phase before moving to next phase
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

20. Concept phase
Manager develops a business case, which describes the need for the project and its basic concepts
A preliminary rough cost estimate is developed
A work breakdown structure (WBS) is created
WBS outlines project work by decomposing the work tasks into different levels
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

21. Development phase
Project team creates more detailed project management plans
More accurate cost estimate
More thorough WBS
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

22. Implementation phase Lowest level in WBS (work package)
Deliver the required work
Definitive or very accurate cost estimate
Provide performance report to stakeholders
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

23. Close-out All work is completed Report customer acceptance
Close-out any activities related to laptops project
Report customer acceptance
Survey for students, faculty, and staff
Team work would have to report experience and lesson learned (learned lesson report)
Share lessons and experience with other college campus
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

24. Product Life Cycles 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
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

25. Predictive Life Cycle Models
Waterfall model: has well-defined, linear stages of systems 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
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

26. Waterfall model for SDLC
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

27. IT project Nature IT projects are very diverse
Small number of people work in a small HW- oriented project(installing HW and associated SW)
Hardware can be diverse (personal computers, mainframe, network equipments, small mobile devices
Network environment could be wireless, phone-based, cable-based, satellite,…
Hundreds of people can work in a large software development project
Type of SW could vary from a simple standalone excel application to a global e-commerce system
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

28. Team members characterstics
people work in IT have different background
Business, mathematics, liberal arts, computer science
People work in a diversity of jobs
Business analyst, database analyst, HW engineer, SW engineer, programmer, …
Java programmer, XML programmer, C/C++ programmer
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

29. Diverse Technologies
Business analyst uses different technology than that used by HW specialist
Database analyst might have hard time understanding security specialist
A COBOL programmer can not be of much help in a Java project
People use different technologies
Technologies change very fast
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition

30. Chapter Summary
Project managers need to take a systems approach when working on projects
Organizations have four different frames: structural, human resources, political, and symbolic
The structure and culture of an organization have strong implications for project managers
Projects should successfully pass through each phase of the project life cycle
Project managers need to consider several factors due to the unique context of information technology projects
Information Technology Project Management, Sixth Edition