ITEC 3505 WEEK 1 - 6

Systems Thinking

Taking a holistic view of carrying out projects within the context of the organization.

Three parts of Systems Thinking

1. Systems philosophy

2. Systems analysis

3. Systems management

Systems philosophy

An overall model for thinking about things as systems

Systems analysis

A problem-solving approach

• Define the scope of the system to be studied

• Divided scope into component parts for identifying and evaluating it’s problems opportunities, constraints, and needs

Systems management

• Address business, technological, and organizational issues before making changes to systems

• Involve creating, maintaining and modifying a system

 Three sphere Model

1. Organizational

2. Business

3. Technology

Organizational Questions

1. Will the tablet project affect all students, just traditional students, or only certain majors?

2. How will the project affect students who already have tablets or laptops?

3. Who will develop special applications or books for the tablets?

4. Who will train students, faculty and staff?

Business Questions

1. What will the tablet project cost the college? 

2. What will it cost students? 

3. What will support costs be? 

4. What will the impact be on enrollments?

Technology questions

1. Should the tablets be based on Apple, Microsoft, Android, or another system? 

2. What applications will be required? 

3. What will the hardware specifications be? 

4. How will the tablets affect various networks and speed?

5. Will more power cords be required in the classroom?

Organizational project management 

Framework in which portfolio, program, and project management are integrated with organizational enablers in order to achieve strategic objectives.

The four frames of organizations 

1. Structural frame

2. Human resources frame

3. Political frame

4. Symbolic frame

Structural frame

Roles and responsibilities, coordination, and control. Organizational charts help describe this frame.

Human resources frame

Providing harmony between needs of the organization and needs of people. 

Political frame

Coalitions composed of varied individuals and interest groups. Conflict and power are key issues.

Symbolic frame

Symbols and meanings related to events. Culture, language, traditions, and image are all parts of this frame.

Three basic organizational structures 

1. Functional

2. Project

3. Matrix

Functional

managers report to the CEO

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

Weak Matrix

The functional manager has more power than the project manager 

Balanced Matrix 

The project manager and functional manager have the same amount of power

Strong Matrix

The project manager has more power than the functional manager  

Organizational culture

is a set of shared assumptions, values and behaviors that characterize the functioning of an organization.

Ten characteristics of organizational culture

1. Member identity 

2. Group emphasis 

3. People Focus

4. Unit integration 

5. Control 

6.  Risk tolerance 

7. Reward criteria

8. Conflict tolerance

9. Means-end orientation 

10. Open systems focus

IT governance

Addresses the authority and control for key It activities in organizations, including IT infrastructure, IT use and project management 

Product 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

Deliverable

Is a product or service produced or provided as part of a project 

4 phases of a generic life cycle 

1. Concept:

   • Starting the project

2. Development:

   • Organizing and preparing 

3. Implementation: 

   • Carrying out the work 

4. Close-out:

   • Finishing the project

Early phase

• Resources needs are usually lowest

• Level uncertainty (risk) is highest

• Project stakeholders have the greatest opportunity to influence the project 

Middle phases

• Certainty of completing a project improves 

• More resources are needed

Final phase

• Ensuring that project requirements were met 

• Sponsor approves completion

Systems development life cycle (SDLC)

Is a framework for describing the phase of developing information systems

Systems development life cycles projects can follow

• Predictive life cycle 

• Iterative life cycle 

• Incremental life cycle

• Adaptive life cycle 

• Hybrid life cycle

Predictive life cycle models

• Waterfall model

• Spiral model

• Prototyping model 

• Rapid Application Development (RAD) model 

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

Prototyping model 

Used for developing prototypes to clarify user requirements

Rapid Application Development (RAD) model

• Used to produce systems quickly without sacrificing quality 

• Looks like the waterfall model

Management reviews

• Also known as phase exits, phase gate reviews, or kill points, should occur after each phase to evaluate the project’s 

  • Progress

  • Likely success

  • Continued compatibility with organizational goals

Project context

Has a critical impact on which product development life cycle will be most effective for a particular software development project.

Globalization

The spread of the flow of financial products, goods, technology, information and jobs across national borders and cultures.

Outsourcing

• Is when an organization acquires goods and/or sources from an outside source

Offshoring

is sometimes used to describe outsourcing from another country

Virtual teams

is a group of individual who work across time and space using communication technologies

Agile project management

•  Is related to the rolling wave planning and scheduling project methodology

  • Uses iterations (“time boxes”) to develop a workable product that satisfies the customer and other key stakeholders

  • Stakeholders and customers review progress and re-evaluate priorities to ensure alignment with customer needs and company goals.

  • Adjustments are made and a different iterative cycle begins that subsumes the work of the previous iterations and adds new capabilities to the evolving product.

Project

Is temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product service, or result

Operations

Is work done to sustain the business 

Term project

Select an IT project in a field or industry sector that you are interested in or familiar with.

Project managers

are people who work with project sponsors, team, and other people involved in a project to achieve project goals.

Triple constraint

• Scope 

• Time 

• Cost

Project management

Is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements

Project stakeholders

are the people involved in or affected by project activities

Stakeholders include

• The project sponsor 

• Bank and other financial institutions

• The project manager

• The project team 

• Support staff

• Customers 

• Users 

• Suppliers 

• Opponents to the project

Project management knowledge areas

Knowledge areas that describe the key competencies project managers must develop.

10 Knowledge Areas

1. Scope 

2. Schedule 

3. Cost 

4. Quality 

5. Resource 

6. Communications 

7. Risk 

8. Procurement 

9. Stakeholder 

10. Project integration management

Project management tools and techniques

Assist project managers and their teams in various aspects of project management

Specific project management tools and techniques

• Scope 

  • Project charter, scope statement, and work breakdown structure (WBS)

• Time 

  • Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analysis, critical chain scheduling.

• Cost

  • Cost estimates and earned value management

Gantt Chart

A standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing project activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in a calendar format

Program

A group of related projects managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually.

Program manager

Provides leadership and direction for the project managers heading the projects within the program

Project portfolio management

Organizations group and manage projects and programs as a portfolio of investments that contribute to the entire enterprise’s success 

Portfolio managers

Help organizations make wise investment decisions by helping to select and analyze projects from a strategic perspective

Examples of Project portfolio management

Strategic goals

• Are we working on the right projects?

• Are we investing in the right areas?

• Do we have the right resources to be competitive?

Examples of Project management

Tactical goals

• Are we carrying out projects well? 

• Are projects on time and on budget?

• Do project stakeholders know what they should be doing?

Best Practice

An optimal way recognized by industry to achieve a state goal or objective

Organizational project management

Framework in which portfolio, program, and project management are integrated with organizational enablers in order to achieve strategic objectives

Talent triangle

• Technical project management skills 

• Strategic and business management skills 

• Leadership skills

Leadership styles

• Transactional 

• Servant leader

• Transformational 

• Charismatic 

• Interactional 

• Laissez-faire

Project management Office

An organizational group responsible for coordinating the project management function throughout an organization.

Project management institute (PMI)

is an international professional society for project managers founded in 1969

Project management professional (PMP)

A person who has documented sufficient project experience, agreed to follow a code of ethics, and passed the PMP exam.

Ethics

A set of principles that guide our decision making based on personal values of what is “right” and “wrong”

Project management software

There are hundreds of different products to assist in performing project management

Three main categories of tools

• Low-end tools: hande single or smaller projects well, cost under $200 per user

• Midrange tools: handle multiple projects and users, cost $200-$1000 per user, Microsoft project is still the most popular 

• High-end tools: Also called enterprise project management software, often licenced on a per-user basis

Five project management process groups

1. Initiating 

2. Planning 

3. Executing 

4. Monitoring and controlling 

5. Closing

Tailoring

These process groups to meet individual project needs increase the chance of success in managing projects.

Initiating process

• Define and authorize a project or project phase 

• Take place during each phase of a project 

Planning process 

• Devise and maintain a workable scheme to ensure that the project addresses the organization’s needs 

• Develop a plan to define the work needed for the project, to schedule activities related to that work, to estimate costs for performing the work, and to decide what resources to procure to accomplish the work.

Executing processes

Coordinate people and other resources to carry out the various plans and create the products, servicers, or results of the project or phase

Monitoring and controlling processes

Regularly measure and monitor progress to ensure that the project team meets the project objectives

Closing processes

Formalize acceptance of the project or project phase and ending it efficiently

Administrative activities

Are often involved, in activities such as archiving project files, documenting lessons learned, and receiving formal acceptance of the delivered work.

Project integration management 

Project Scope Management

Project schedule management

Project cost management

Project quality management 

Project resource management

Project communications management 

Project risk management

Project procurement management

Project stakeholder Management

Methodology

Describes how things should be done

Project management methodologies

• PRojects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2)

• Agile

• Rational Unified process (RUP)

• Six sigma

Standard

Describes what should be done 

PRojects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2)

Released in 1996 as a generic project management methodology by the united kingdom office of government commerce (OGC)

8 PRINCE2 Process Groups

1. Starting up a project 

2. Planning 

3. Initiating a project

4. Directing a project 

5. Controlling a stage 

6. Managing product delivery 

7. Managing stage boundaries

8. Closing a project

Rational Unified Process (RUP)

• An interactive software development process created by IBM 

  • Focus on team productivity 

  • Enable all team members to deliver software best practices to the organization 

  • Provide a software engineering process particularly suited to creating and maintaining component-based software system solutions

  • Several other projects management methodologies are used specifically for software development projects 

    • Joint Application Development (JAD)

    • Rapid Application Development (RAD)

Six Sigma

a set of management techniques intended to improve business processes by greatly reducing the probability that an error or defect will occur.

• DMAIC is used to improve an existing business process 

  • Define, Measure, analyze, improve, and control

• DMADV is used to create new product or process designs to achieve predictable, defect-free performance

  • Define, measure, analyze, design, and verify