Information Technology Project Management

Outline
Why Information Technology Project Management is Important?
What is a Project?
Project Characteristics
Information Systems Project
Triple Constraint of Project Management
What is Project Management?
Project Management Framework
Project Stakeholders
Project Management Knowledge Areas
Project Management Tools and Techniques

Why Study Information Technology Project Management?

According to a study in 1995 by Standish Group, a consulting firm, to 365
information technology managers in the U.S. who managed over 8,380
different information technology projects, it is found that
The average cost of a project from a large company was over $2.3
million.
It was over $1.3 million for a medium company.
It was over $434,000 for small company.
Only 16% of information technology projects were successful.
Over 31% of information technology projects were cancelled,
costing the U.S. over $81 billion.
Thus, good project management is very important in making effective use of
money, time, technology and people. It also helps to improve quality and
reliability of the system.

What is a Project?
A project can be defined a set of temporary activities conducted by an ad
hoc organization (a group of people) to create a unique product or service.
A project can be any of the following:
Constructing something a road, a dam, a building, an information
system
Organizing something a meeting, an election campaign, a symphony, a
movie
Doing anything the first time
Accomplishing a new, complex activity.

Project Characteristics
A project has several characteristics:
A project has a unique purpose: Every project is designed to accomplish
a well-defined objective (product or service) of an organization. This
product or service is distinguishable in some way from other products or
services of the organization.
A project is temporary: A project has a definite beginning and definite
end, i.e. a project has a lifetime. The end is reached when the projects
objectives have been achieved, or when it becomes clear that the project
objectives will not or cannot be met, or the need of the project is no
longer exists.
A project has a unique set of activities: Every project has a unique set of
activities of its own, which may not be duplicated in another project. If one
activity is late, other activities may be delayed.
A project cuts across organizational line: Projects usually cut across
organizational lines, drawing people from a variety of functional

specialties. Some projects may involve a single person and some others
involve hundreds and thousands of people in many organizational units.
A project requires resources: Resources include people, hardware,
software, and other assets that are necessary to complete the project.
A project should have a primary sponsor or customer: Most projects have
many interested parties or stakeholders, but someone must take the
primary role of sponsorship. The project sponsor usually provides the
direction and funding for the project.
A project involves uncertainty: Because every project is unique, it is
sometimes difficult to clearly define the projects objectives, estimate how
long it will take complete, or how much it will cost. The uncertainty makes
the project management challenging.
Information Systems Project
Information systems projects have many similarities to generic projects.
They consist of activities - each with durations, predecessor relationships,
and resource requirements.
They involve high level of uncertainty and often suffer from time and cost
overruns, while rarely experiencing time and cost underruns.
However, information systems projects are different from other projects in
that it follows a standard methodology of systems development life cycle
(requirements gathering, analysis, design, coding, testing, and installation).

Triple Constraint of Project Management

Every project is constrained in different ways by its scope, time, and cost.
These limitations are sometimes referred to as the triple constraint of
project management.
Scope: What is the project trying to accomplish? What unique product or
service does the customer or sponsor expect from the project?
Time: How long should it take to complete the project? What is the
projects schedule?
Cost: What should it cost to complete the project?
Managing the triple constraint involves making trade-offs between scope,
time and cost goals of a project.
Although the triple constraint describes how the basic elements of a project scope, time, and cost interrelate, other elements can also play significant
roles. Quality is often a key factor in projects, as is customer satisfaction.
Some people, in fact, considers quadruple constraints of project
management as scope, time, cost and quality of a project.
A project team may meet scope, time and cost goals, but fail to meet quality
standards or satisfy their customers. How all of these can be achieved? The
answer is good project management that includes more than triple
constraint.
Scope

Cost

Time

What is 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 expectations from a project.
Project management is accomplished through the use of processes such
as: initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing.
The project team manages the work of the projects, and the work typically
involves:
Competing demands for scope, time, cost, risk, and quality.
Stakeholders with differing need and expectations.
Identified requirements.

Project Management Framework

Project management framework involves three areas:
project stakeholders
project management knowledge areas
project management tools and techniques
Project Stakeholders:
Project stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by project
activities and include the project sponsor, project team, support staff,
customers, users, suppliers, and even opponents to the project.
Peoples needs and expectations are important in the beginning and
throughout the life of the project.

Project Management Knowledge Areas:

The project management knowledge areas describe project management
knowledge and practices in terms of their component processes that a
project manger must follow.
There processes are organized into nine knowledge areas, which can
further be divided into core, facilitating, and integration management areas.
There are four core knowledge areas:
project scope management,
project time management,
project cost management, and
project quality management.
There are four facilitating knowledge areas:
project human resources management,
project communication management,
project risk management, and
project procurement management.
The nine knowledge areas and their associated processes are briefly
described below. They will be discussed throughout the semester in various
chapters.
Project integration management: It describes the processes required to
ensure that the various elements of the project are properly coordinated. It
consists of project plan development, project plan execution, and integrated
change control.
Project scope management: It describes the processes required to ensure
that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to
complete the work successfully. It consists of initiation, scope planning,
scope definition, scope verification, and scope change control.
Project time management: It describes the processes required to ensure
timely completion of the project. It consists of activity definition, activity
sequencing, activity duration estimating, schedule development, and
schedule control

Project cost management: It describes the processes required to ensure that

the project is completed within the approved budget. It consists of resource
planning, cost estimating, cost budgeting, and cost control.
Project quality management: It describes the processes required to ensure
that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. It consists
of quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control.
Project human resources management: It describes the processes required
to make the most effective use of the people involved with the project. It
consists of processes such as organizational planning, staff acquisition, and
team development.
Project communications management: It describes the processes required
to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination,
storage, and ultimately disposition of project information. It consists of
communication planning, information distribution, performance reporting,
and administrative closure.
Project risk management: It describes the processes concerned with
identifying, analyzing, and responding to project risk. It consists of risk
management planning, risk identification, qualitative risk analysis,
quantitative risk analysis, risk response planning, and risk monitoring and
control.
Project procurement management: It describes the processes required to
acquire goods and services from outside of the performing organizations. It
consists of procurement planning, solicitation planning, solicitation, source
selection, contract administration, and contract closeout.
Project Management tools and Techniques:
Project management tools and techniques assist project mangers and their
teams in carrying out scope, time, cost, and quality management. Additional
tools help project managers and teams carry out human resources,
communication, risk, procurement, and integration management.
Popular project management tools include Gantt charts and PERT charts.