chapter 11 project managementbarney.gonzaga.edu/~chen/mbus626/chapters_pres/...– project cycle...

1

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices

Chapter 11Project Management

Jason C. H. Chen, Ph.D.Professor of MIS

School of Business AdministrationGonzaga UniversitySpokane, WA 99258

[email protected]


Learning Objectives• List the elements of a good project.• Understand why so many IT projects fail to meet their

targeted goals.• Explain the relationship between time, scope, and cost

of a project.• Explain why Gantt charts are so popular for planning

schedules.• Define RAD and explain how it compares to the SDLC.• Be able to identify when it is time to pull the plug on a

project.

2


INTRODUCTION

• This chapter provides an overview of what a project is and how to manage one

• It discusses the aspects of IT-intensive projects that make them uniquely challenging

• Finally, it identifies the issues that shape the role of the general manager in such projects and help them to manage risk


Real World Example

• Rural Payments Agency (RPA), UK, blamed poor planning and lack of system testing for delays in paying out 1.5billion pounds of EU subsidies. – Only 15% were paid out by the end of 2006.

• The RPA had to make substantial changes to the system post implementation.– Testing did not take into account the real environment,

leading to unanticipated work to populate the database in the first place.

• The system had not been properly managed.– Costs were at 122 million pounds, and were originally

estimated at 46.5 million.

3


Project Management versus Process Management

“Ultimately, the parallels between process and project management give way to a fundamental difference: process management seeks to __________variability whereas project management must ________ variabilitybecause each project is unique.”

Elton, J. & J. Roe. “Bringing Discipline to Project Management” Harvard Business Review

eliminateaccept


Success vs. Failure

• What is the difference between “Success” and “Failure”?

• “I DO NOT HAVE TIME”

4


Why do Projects Fail?

Studies have shown that the following factors contribute significantly to project failure:

• Improper focus of the project management system

• Wrong level of detail

• Lack of understanding about project management tools; too much reliance on project management software

• Too many people

• Poor communication

• Rewarding the wrong actions


Failed IS Projects• Standish Group found that 67 percent of all

software projects are challenged – Late, over budget or fail to meet performance

criteria.

• Managing a business project means managing an information systems project.

– Many systems use or integrate the Internet.

5


The Need for Project Management

• Critical for companies today: the ability to adapt existing business processes faster than the competition

• Typical adaptation projects include:– “Rightsizing” the organization (what is another

name?)

– Reengineering business processes (BPR)

– Adopting more comprehensive, integrative processes


Successful IS Projects

• To succeed, “a” general manager must be a project manager and must learn how to manage this type of risk.

• Executive management no longer has an option but to consider skilled IT project management as fundamental to business success.

6


• What are the three elements in the “Project Triangle”?

• What is the center in the triangle?


Figure 11.2 Project Triangle(Project Management Trade-offs)

Time Cost

Scope

The objective of the PM is to define project’s scope realistically and ultimately deliver quality of product/service on time, on budget and within scope.

The center of project triangle is

QUALITY

7


Typical Project Management trade-offs

• _________– Product: quality, features, functions– Project: work required to deliver product/service

• _______: the time required to complete the project• ______: all the resources required to carry out the

project.• Cost vs. Quality

– The quality of a system will normally impact its cost.• Figure 11.2 shows the three sides of the project

triangle.

Scope

TimeCost


Project Manager’s Role• The project manager will typically be involved in:

– Ensuring progress of the project according to defined metrics..

– ________________

– Ensuring progress toward deliverables within _______ and

__________________.

– Running coordination meetings.

– Negotiating for resources on behalf of the project.

• Business projects are often initiated because of a successful business case.– A successful project begins with a well-written business case

(i.e., spells out components of the project.)

Identifying risks.time

resource constraints

But, not to determining the best fit of the project in the organizations vision

8


WHAT DEFINES A

PROJECT


What Defines a Project?“[A] project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. Temporary means that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end. Unique means that the product or service is different in some distinguishing way from all similar products or services.”

-Project Management Institute (1996)

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Project

• A project is a well-defined sequence of events with a beginning and an end, directed toward achieving a clear goal, and conducted by people within such established parameters as time, cost, resources, and quality.

• A project is different from what we do every day, because a project goal is a specific, non-routine event.


Projects• Companies use projects and operations to generate

revenue.• Projects are temporary endeavors that have a fixed

start and stop date and time.• Operations are ongoing, repetitive tasks that are

performed until they are changed or replaced.• Project managers may break projects into sub-

projects depending upon the work.• Figure 11.1 show the differences between operational

and project based work.

10


Characteristics Operations ProjectsLabor skills

Training time

Worker autonomy

Compensation system

Material input requirements

Suppler ties

Raw Materials inventory

Scheduling complexity

Quality control

Information flows

Worker-mgmt communication

Duration

Product or service

Low

Low

Low

Hourly or weekly wage

High certainty

Longer duration

More formal

Large

Lower

Formal

Less important

Less important

On-going

Repetitive

High

High

High

Lump sum for project

Uncertain

Shorter duration

Less formal

Small

Higher

Informal

Very important

Very important

Temporary

Unique

Fig. 11.1 Characteristics of operational and project work


MEASURES OF INFORMATION SYSTEM

SUCCESS

1. HIGH LEVELS OF USE

2. USER SATISFACTION

3. FAVORABLE ATTITUDES

4. ACHIEVED OBJECTIVES

5. FINANCIAL PAYOFF

Dr. Chen, Managing IT Reos. Thru Strategic Partnerships; A Portoflio Approach to IT Development TM -20

11


Measuring Success• At the start of the project, the general

manager should consider several aspects based on achieving the business goals.

• Care is needed to prevent a too narrow or too broad set of goals.

• It is important that the goals be measurable so that they can be used throughout the project to provide the project manager with feedback.


The IT component of projects

• Virtually all projects involve an information technology component, including a computer and information flow

• The amount of resources to complete IT-intensive projects is increasing as these have increased in complexity

• Skilled IT project management is fundamental to business success.

12


WHAT ISPROJECT MANAGEMENT?


Project Management

• Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectation from a project.

• Involves continual trade-offs

• Manager’s job - manage these trade-offs.

13


POOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT

• COST OVERRUNS

• TIME SLIPPAGE

• TECHNICAL SHORTFALLS IMPAIR PERFORMANCE

• FAILURE TO OBTAIN ANTICIPATED BENEFITS



Project Development Processes

Gather

Information

Glean relevant

Information

Analyze/Visualize

InformationDrill Down

Information

Report

Generate

Report

Define Task/

Mission

14


Metrics

• Metrics are combined measures and variables that quantify a goal.

• Metric values are the numerical values for metrics.

• Time horizon is the period allowed for achieving the goal or objective.


Project Measurement• Some metrics used for IS projects are the same as

those used for all business projects: on-time, on-budget, and met specifications

• Projects are measured against budgets of cost, schedules of deliverables, and the amount of functionality in the system scope

• However, IT projects are difficult to estimate and most fail to meet their schedules and budgets

• Software systems often involve highly interactive, complex sets of tasks that rely on each other to make a completed system and most projects cannot be made more efficient simply by adding labor

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Typical Project Management trade-offs

• Scope– Product: quality, features, functions– Project: work required to deliver product/service

• Time – the time required to complete the project• Cost – all the resources required to carry out the

project.• Cost vs. Quality

– The quality of a system will normally impact its cost.• Figure 11.2 shows the three sides of the project

triangle.


Figure 11.2 Project Triangle(Project Management Trade-offs)

QUALITY

Time Cost

Scope

The objective of the PM is to define project’s scope realistically and ultimately deliver quality of product/service on time, on budget and within scope.

16


Project Manager’s Role• The project manager will typically be involved in:

– Ensuring progress of the project according to defined metrics..

– Identifying risks.

– Ensuring progress toward deliverables within time and resource constraints.

– Running coordination meetings.

– Negotiating for resources on behalf of the project.

• Business projects are often initiated because of a successful business case.– A successful project begins with a well-written business case

(i.e., spells out components of the project.)


PROJECTELEMENTS

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Essential Components• There are four components essential for any project.

Necessary to assure a high probability of project success.– Common Project Vocabulary: so all team members can

communicate effectively (very important as many are new).– Teamwork: to ensure all parts of the project come together

effectively and correctly (make sure to clearly define the teams objectives).

– Project cycle plan: method and schedule to execute the project (Gantt charts, CPM, and PERT diagrams).

– Project management is needed so that it is coordinated and executed appropriately

The objective of the PM is to define project’s scope realistically and ultimately deliver quality of product/service on time and within the budget.


Project Cycle Plan• The project cycle plan organizes discrete project activities,

sequencing them into steps along a time line.– Therefore, the project delivers according to the requirements of

customers and stakeholders.• Identifies critical beginning and ending dates and breaks the work

spanning these dates into phases• The three most common approaches (and software tools) are:

– Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) (Figure 11.3):• Estimates about the time needed to complete project tasks, calculating the

optimistic, most probable, and pessimistic time requirements for completing each task.

– Critical Path Method (CPM): deterministic task times.• If any activity on critical path delayed, the overall project

time will be increased– Gantt chart: displaying time relationships of project tasks and

monitoring the progress toward project completion (Figure 11.4)• Figure 11.5 provides detail on the project cycle template.

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Figure 11.3 PERT chart

Shows dependencies between tasks


CPM - Node Configuration

1 0 3

3 0 3

Activity number

Activity duration

Earliest start

Latest start

Earliest finish

Latest finish

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1 0 3

3 0 3

2 3 5

2 3 5

3 3 4

1 4 5 5 5 6

1 6 7

4 5 8

3 5 8

6 6 7

1 7 8

7 8 9

1 8 9

Start

Design house and obtain financing

Select pain

Lay foundations

Select carpet

Build house

Finish work

Order and receive materials

Activity of Latest Start and Finish Times

#9, LF =9LS=LF-t=9-1

#2, LF = min(LS followings) = min(5,6) = 5LS = LF-t = 5-2 = 7


1 0 3

3 0 3

2 3 5

2 3 5

3 3 4

1 4 5 5 5 6

1 6 7

4 5 8

3 5 8

6 6 7

1 7 8

7 8 9

1 8 9

Start


Select pain

Lay foundations

Select carpet

Build house

Finish work



#9, LF =9LS=LF-t=9-1


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Figure 11.4 Gantt ChartMilestone

critical vs. non-critical Shows time estimates of tasks


Project Milestone

• A milestone represents an event or condition that marks the completion of a group of related tasks or the completion of a phase of the project.

• It is an interim goal or checkpoint in the project. It is like a task with duration of zero.

• Purpose: Milestones help us organize tasks into logical groups or sequences. They also help us note the progress of the project.

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Requirements

Definition period

Production Period Deployment/

Dissemination Period

Investigation Task ForceUser requirement definition

Research concept definition

Information use specification

Collection planning phase

Collection and analysis phase

Draft report phase

Publication phase

Distribution phase

Typical High Tech Commercial Business

Product

requirement

phase

Product

definition phase

Product proposal phase

Product develop-ment phase

Engineer model phase

Internal test phase

Production phase

Manufactur-ing, sales & support phase

Generic Project Cycle Template

User require-ment definition phase.

Concept definition phase

System specification phase

Acquisition planning phase

Source selection phase

Development phase

Verification phase

Deployment or production phase

Deactivate phase

Figure 11.5 Project cycle template


Elements of Project Management• The following elements can be considered as

managerial skills that influence a project’s chance for success. 1. Identification of requirements2. Organizational integration3. Team management4. Risk and Opportunity management5. Project control6. Project visibility7. Project status8. Corrective action9. Project leadership guide

The major focus of the status element of management is “proactive” as there is a need “strong” of project leaders to help the organization develop project competency to begin with.

See figure 11.6 in the text for a description of each elementFigure 11.7 reflects the inverse relationship between the players of a project.

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Figure 11.7 Project leadership vs. project management process

ProjectLeadership

ProjectManagement Process

More leadershipNeeded

Less leadershipNeeded

No PM processTeam is new to PM processTeam does not value process

PM process existsTeam is fully trained in processTeam values process


IT Projects and its Development Methodology


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IT Projects

• IT projects are a specific type of business project involving significant amount of technology.

• IT projects are difficult to estimate.

• Many projects are measured in “man-months”.– How many people will be required to complete the

project in a specified time period.

– Additional people may speed up the process (but may not).

– “Man-months” is a “poor” metric for IT PM as some projects can’t be sped up with additional people.


Business versus System functionality

• Metrics for functionality are typically divided along lines of business functionality and systemfunctionality – The first set of measures are those derived specifically

from the requirements and business needs that generated the project

• Whether the system meets expectations

– The second are related to the system itself such as how well the individual using the system can and does use it, or system reliability

• e.g., usability and reliability

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IT PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

METHODOLOGIES


Project Development Methodologies

• The choice of development methodologies and managerial influences distinguish IT projects from other projects.

• There are four main methodologies IT professionals use to manage the technology projects: – Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

– Prototyping

– Rapid applications development (RAD)

– Joint applications development (JAD)

25


Systems Development Life CycleSDLC typically consists of seven phases

1. Initiation of the project2. The requirements definition phase3. The functional design phase4. The system is actually built5. Verification phase6. The “cut over” where the new system is put in operation and all links

are established. Possible conversion methodsa) Parallelb) Directc) Phased in/outd) pilot

7. The maintenance and review phase

See Figure 11.8 for more information on each step.

Which one is the best approach?


Systems Development Life Cycle:Another View

Project Identificationand Selection

Project Initiationand Planning

Analysis

Physical Design

Implementation

Maintenance

Logical Design

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Limitations of SDLC • Traditional SDLC methodology for current IT projects

are not always appropriate:– Many systems projects fail to meet objectives because of

the difficulty in estimating costs and each project is often so unique that previous experience may not provide the necessary skills

– Objectives may reflect a scope that is too broad or two narrow so that the problem the system was designed to solve may still exist, or the opportunity that it was to capitalize upon may not be appropriately leveraged.

– If the business environment is very dynamic, there may not be enough time to adequately do each step of the SDLC for each IT project


Prototyping• SDLC may not work for all situations, requires a lot

of planning and is difficult to implement quickly. • Prototyping is a type of evolutionary development.• Builds a fast, high-level version of the system at the

beginning of the project.• Advantages include:

– User involvement and comment early on and throughout the development process.

• Disadvantages include:– Documentation may be difficult to write.– Users may not understand the realistic scope of the system.

27


Prototyping

• Prototpying is one of the most popular rapid application development (RAD) methods.

• It is an iterative process of system development in which requirements are converted to a working system that is continually revised through close work between analysts and users.

A prototyping is a small, but working system that contains only those important (not complete) features.


Figure 11.9 Iterative approach to systems development

System Concept

Version “1”

Version “2”

Version “N”Software

Development Process

28


The prototyping methodology


RAD• RAD (Rapid Application Development) is similar to

the SDLC but it substantially reduces the time through reduction in steps (4 instead of 7).

• RAD, like prototyping, uses iterative development tools to speed up development:– GUI, reusable code, code generation, and programming,

language testing and debugging

• Goal is to build the system in a much short time frame than normal.

• Drawbacks: – basic principles of software development are overlooked in

race to finish the project– requirements are frozen too early due to speedy process

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JAD

• JAD (Joint Application Development) is a technique developed by IBM – a version of RAD or prototyping in which users

are more integrally involved (as a group) throughout the development process.

– Uses a group approach to elicit requirements in a complete manner (saves interviewing and data collection time; but it can be expensive in terms of travel and living expenses)


Other Development Methodologies• Agile development methodologies are being

developed for those situations where a predictable development process cannot be followed.

• Examples include:– XP (Extreme Programming), Crystal, Scrum, Feature-

Driven Development and Dynamic System Development (DSDM).

• Tend to be people rather than process oriented.• DSDM is an extension of RAD used in the UK.• Object Oriented (OO) development is becoming

increasingly popular.

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MANAGERIAL INFLUENCES


Technical Influences • General managers face a broad range of influences

during the development of projects.– GM who are uncomfortable with technology often either

ignore the issues, delegating entirely to the IS organization, or focus inappropriate attention on managing the technology to counter their fear of technology.

• Four software tools are available to aid in managing the technical issues:

– Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) suite of tools

– Software development library – Automated audit trail (track each change made to the code)– Software metrics

31


Key Terms – Software metrics

• Below is a list of key terms that a general manager is likely to encounter:– Source lines of code (SLOC) is the number of lines of code

in the source file of the software product.– Source statement is the number of statements in the source

file– Function points describe the functional requirements of the

software product and can be estimated earlier than total lines of code

– Inheritance depth is the number of levels through which values must be remembered in a software object

– Schedule slip is the current scheduled time divided by the original scheduled time

– Percentage complete measures the progress of a software product in terms of days or effort


Managing Organizational and Socioeconomic (Behavioral) Influences

• The general manager must understand and anticipate the influences of organizational control systems and culture variables (see Fig. 1.8)

• Balance goals of stakeholders– project manager– customer – end-user (there’s a difference)– sponsor

• Sustain commitment– project – psychological (personal responsibility, biases)– social (rivalry, norms for consistency)– organizational (political support, culture)

32


MANAGING PROJECT RISK

• Risk is perceived as the possibility of additional cost or loss due to the choice of alternative.

• Risk can be quantified by assigning a probability of occurrence and a financial consequence to each alternative.

• Risk is to be considered as a function of:

– Complexity– Clarity– Size


ComplexityFactors influencing a project’s complexity include:

1. How many products will this website sell?

2. Will this site support global, national, regional, or local sales?

3. How will this sales process interface with the existing customer fulfillment process?

4. Does the company possess the technical expertise in-house to build the site?

5. What other corporate systems and processes does this project impact?

6. How and when will these other systems be coordinated?

33


Clarity• Clarity is concerned with the ability to

define the requirements of the system.

• A project has low clarity if the users cannot easily state their needs or define what they want from the system.

• A project with high clarity is one in which the systems requirements can be easily documented and which do not change


Size

• Plays a big role in project risk

• A project can be considered big if it has:– Large budget relative to other budgets in the

organization

– Large number of team members (= number of man months)

– Large number of organizational units involved in the project

– Large number of programs/components

– Large number of function points or lines of code

34


Managing Project Risk Level• Large, highly complex projects that are usually

low in clarity are very high risky.• Small projects that are low in complexity and high

in clarity are usually low risk• Everything else is somewhere in between • The level of risk determines how formal the

project management system and detailed the planning should be

• When it is hard to estimate how long or how much a project will cost because it is so complex/clarity is so low, formal management practices or planning may be inappropriate


Assessing Project Risk

Technology

LowCompany-

Large Project

RelativeSmall Project

HighCompany-

Large Project

RelativeTechnology Small Project

Low Structure High StructureLow risk

(very susceptible tomismanagement)

Low risk

Very low risk(very susceptible to

mismanagement)Very low risk

Very high risk Medium risk

High risk Medium-low risk

NManaging IT Reosource Thru Strategic Partnerships; A Portfolio Approach to IT Development

TM -68

35


Managing the Complexity Aspects of Project Risk

Strategies that may be adopted in dealing with complexity are:

• Leveraging the Technical Skills of the Team such as having a leader or team members who have had significant work experience

• Relying on Consultants and Vendors – as theirwork is primarily project based, they usually possess the crucial IT knowledge and skills

• Integrating Within the Organization such as having frequent team meetings, documenting, critical project decisions and holding regular technical status reviews


IT

Efficiencyraise

Risk

increase

IT and its Influences

36


Project Management

• Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectation from a project.

• Involves continual trade-offs

• Manager’s job - manage these trade-offs.


POOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT

• COST OVERRUNS

• TIME SLIPPAGE

• TECHNICAL SHORTFALLS IMPAIR PERFORMANCE

• FAILURE TO OBTAIN ANTICIPATED BENEFITS


37


Project Development Processes

Gather

Information

Glean relevant

Information

Analyze/Visualize

InformationDrill Down

Information

Report

Generate

Report

Define Task/

Mission


PROJECTELEMENTS

38


Project Cycle Plan• The project cycle plan organizes discrete project activities,

sequencing them into steps along a time line.– Therefore, the project delivers according to the requirements of

customers and stakeholders.• Identifies critical beginning and ending dates and breaks the work

spanning these dates into phases• The three most common approaches (and software tools) are:

– Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) (Figure 11.3):• Estimates about the time needed to complete project tasks, calculating the

optimistic, most probable, and pessimistic time requirements for completing each task.

– Critical Path Method (CPM): deterministic task times.• If any activity on critical path delayed, the overall project

time will be increased– Gantt chart: displaying time relationships of project tasks and

monitoring the progress toward project completion (Figure 11.4)• Figure 11.5 provides detail on the project cycle template.


Figure 11.3 PERT chart

Shows dependencies between tasks

39


CPM - Node Configuration

1 0 3

3 0 3

Activity number

Activity duration

Earliest start

Latest start

Earliest finish

Latest finish


1 0 3

3 0 3

2 3 5

2 3 5

3 3 4

1 4 5 5 5 6

1 6 7

4 5 8

3 5 8

6 6 7

1 7 8

7 8 9

1 8 9

Start


Select pain

Lay foundations

Select carpet

Build house

Finish work



#9, LF =9LS=LF-t=9-1


40


Figure 11.4 Gantt ChartMilestone

critical vs. non-critical Shows time estimates of tasks


Project Milestone

• A milestone represents an event or condition that marks the completion of a group of related tasks or the completion of a phase of the project.

• It is an interim goal or checkpoint in the project. It is like a task with duration of zero.

• Purpose: Milestones help us organize tasks into logical groups or sequences. They also help us note the progress of the project.

41


Elements of Project Management• The following elements can be considered as

managerial skills that influence a project’s chance for success. 1. Identification of requirements2. Organizational integration3. Team management4. Risk and Opportunity management5. Project control6. Project visibility7. Project status8. Corrective action9. Project leadership guide

The major focus of the status element of management is “proactive” as there is a need “strong” of project leaders to help the organization develop project competency to begin with.



Project Development Methodologies

• The choice of development methodologies and managerial influences distinguish IT projects from other projects.

• There are four main methodologies IT professionals use to manage the technology projects: – Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

– Prototyping

– Rapid applications development (RAD)

– Joint applications development (JAD)

42


Systems Development Life CycleSDLC typically consists of seven phases

1. Initiation of the project2. The requirements definition phase3. The functional design phase4. The system is actually built5. Verification phase6. The “cut over” where the new system is put in operation and all links

are established. Possible conversion methodsa) _______b) Directc) Phased in/outd) ______

7. The maintenance and review phase

See Figure 11.8 for more information on each step.

Which one is the best approach?


Prototyping

• Prototpying is one of the most popular rapid application development (RAD) methods.

• It is an iterative process of system development in which requirements are converted to a ________ system that is continually revised through close work between analysts and users.

A prototyping is a small, but working system that contains only those important (not complete) features.

43


Prototyping• SDLC may not work for all situations, requires a lot

of planning and is difficult to implement quickly. • Prototyping is a type of evolutionary development.• Builds a fast, high-level version of the system at the

beginning of the project.• Advantages include:

– _______ involvement and comment early on and throughout the development process.

• Disadvantages include:– Documentation may be difficult to write.– Users may not understand the realistic scope of the system.


Managing Clarity Aspects of Project Risk

• When a project has low clarity, project managers need to rely more heavily upon the users to define system requirements– Managing stakeholders – managers must

balance the goals of the various stakeholders, such as customers, performing organizations and sponsors, to achieve desired project outcomes

– Sustaining Project Commitment – there are four primary types of determinants of commitment to projects: project, psychological, social and organizational

44


Pulling the Plug• Various risk management strategies are designed to turn

potentially troubled projects into successful ones. However, often projects in trouble persist long after they should have been abandoned

• The amount of money already spent on a project biases managers towards continuing to fund the project even if its prospects for success are questionable

• When the penalties for failure within an organization are also high, project teams are often willing to go to great lengths to insure that their project persists

• Or if there is an emotional attachment to the project by powerful individuals within the organization


Gauging Success• At the start of the project, the general manager

should consider several aspects based on achieving the business goals.

• Care is needed to prevent a too narrow or too broad set of goals.

• It is important that the goals be measurable so that they can be used throughout the project to provide the project manager with feedback.

45


Gauging Success (cont.)

• Four dimensions of project success:– Resource constraints: does the project meet the time

and budget criteria?– Impact on customers: how much benefit does the

customer receive from the project?– Business success: how high and long are the profits

produced by the project?– Prepare the future: has the project altered the

infrastructure of the organization so future business success and customer impact are more likely?

– See Figure 11.12 in the text for more information.

Four dimensions of success (cf. Shenhar, Dvir and Levy, 1998):


The PMO

46


The PMO• Project Management Office (PMO) – some

companies create to boost efficiency, gather expertise, and improve project delivery.

• Sarbanes-Oxley is a driver to create a PMO

• May lead to cost savings in the long run.

• PMOs can be expected to function in seven areas:– Project support; Project management process and

methodology; Training; Project Manager home base; Internal consulting and mentoring; Project management software tools and support; Portfolio management.


PMO• Responsibilities range widely.

– Clearinghouse to full managing projects.

• Usually it mirrors the organization, culture and bureaucracy of the CIO’s organization.– If the culture is rigid and strictly controlled, then the

PMO will likely have first-hand and significant oversight of the projects.

– If the culture is collaborative and open, then the PMO will likely play a more coordinating role.

47


FOOD FOR THOUGHT: OPEN SOURCING


Open Sourcing

• Linux, a version of Unix created by Linus Torvalds, is a world-class OS.

• Linux was built using the open-source model.

• Open-source software is really free software that can be modified by anyone since the source code is free.

• It is premised upon open and unfettered access to the code to modify, update, etc.

48


Open sourcing = Free Software

Offers four kinds of freedom for the software users:1. The freedom to run the program, for any purpose

2. The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs. Access to the source code is a precondition for this

3. The freedom to distribute copies so that you can help your neighbor

4. The freedom to improve and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Access to source code is a precondition for this


Managerial Issues associated with Open Sourcing

• Preservation of intellectual property – As its use cannot be restricted how are the contributions of individuals recognized?

• Updating and maintaining open source code –Because it is “open”, difficult to achieve these

• Competitive advantage – Since the code is available to all, hard to achieve competitive advantage

• Tech support – The code may be free, but technical support usually isn’t

• Standards – As standards are open, open sourcing may be unable to charter a viable strategy for selecting and using standards

49


Summary• General manager fulfills an important role in project

management.

• Project management involves continual trade-offs.

• Four important project elements: Common vocabulary, teamwork, project cycle plan, and project management.

• Important to understand the complexity of a project.

• SDLC, prototyping, JAD and RAD are used for development of IS systems.

• Manage project risk carefully.

• The PMO can be very useful.

chapter 11 project managementbarney.gonzaga.edu/~chen/mbus626/chapters_pres/...– project cycle...

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