IT Project Management

MIS 4133

Software Systems

Outline

Traditional Systems Development Life Cycle

(SDLC)

IT Project Management

IT Portfolio Management

Project Initiation

Project Planning

Project Execution and Control

Project Closing

Traditional SDLC

Planning

Project Identification and Selection

Project Initiation and Planning

Analysis

User Requirements Determining

Possible Solutions Modeling

Design

Logical Design

Physical Design

Implementation

Maintenance

IT Project Management

IT Project management requires knowledge of

system development methodologies:

SDLC

Prototyping

RAD

Agile

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

IT Project 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

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

Project Initiation

Project Manager Characteristics

Project manager can be:

IS manager

Business manager

Both

Project Initiation

Project Manager (Non-Technical) Characteristics

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

Champion – a business manager who:

• Has high credibility as organizational spokesperson

among user community

• Is successful communicator of vision and benefits

throughout the project

Project Initiation

Project charter

Scope statement

Feasibility analyses

Technical

Economic

Legal

Operational

Schedule

Project Planning

Three major components:

Schedule

Budget

Staff (project team)

Project Planning

Scheduling

Work breakdown analysis:

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

Project Planning

Planning Documents

Two typical planning charts:

PERT (or CPM)

Gantt

Project Planning

Planning Documents: PERT

Planning Documents: Gantt

Project Planning

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

Project Planning

Budgeting

Inexperienced estimators may:

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

Project Planning

Staffing

Project staffing involves:

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

Project Planning

Planning Documents

Two typical planning documents:

Statement of Work (SOW)

For the customer

High-level document that describes what the project will

deliver 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

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

Routine Project Status Reporting

Project Execution and Control

Managing Project Risks

Project Manager Goal:

Manage risk of failing to

achieve project

objectives

Causes of Risk:

Human error

Project scope changes

Unanticipated

technology changes

Internal politics

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

Project Execution and Control

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?

Communication Issues in IT

Projects

Semantics

Know IT and business

Sense-making

Of processes and terminology

Power Politics

Battles between users and developers

Project manager performs conflict resolution

Defining User Requirements and IT Solutions

Mutual understanding of needs and deliverables

References

Calisir, F. and Gumussoy, C.A. (2005). “Determinants of budget overruns on IT

projects,” Technovation (25), pp. 631-636.

Gillard, S. (2005). “Managing IT projects: communication pitfalls and bridges,”

Journal of Information Science (31:1), pp. 37-43.

Hoffer, J.A., George, J.F. and Valacich, J.S. (2005). Modern Systems Analysis

and Design, Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Kanter, J. and Walsh, J.J. (2004). “Toward More Successful Project

Management,” Information Systems Management, pp. 16-21.

Levinson, M. (2011). “Project Management: A Simple Way to Identify Problems

with IT Projects,” CIO.com, http://www.cio.com/article/print/689207 [accessed:

16 August 2012].

Martin, E.W., Brown, C.V., DeHayes, D.W., Hoffer, J.A. and Perkins, W.C.

(2005). Managing Information Technology, 5th edition, Pearson Education, Inc.,

Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

McNurlin, B.C. and Sprague, Jr., R.H. (2006). Information Systems

Management in Practice, 7th edition, Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle

River, New Jersey.