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.