Notes for Chapter 2: The Project Management and Information Technology Context

A Systems View of Project Management

  • Projects operate within a broad organizational environment; successful project delivery depends on understanding how the project fits into the larger system.
  • Project managers should use systems thinking: take a holistic view of carrying out projects within the organizational context.

What Is a Systems Approach?

  • Emerged in the 1950s to describe a holistic and analytical approach to management and problem solving.
  • Three parts:
    • Systems philosophy: overall model for thinking about things as systems 33 parts: systems philosophy, systems analysis, systems management.
    • Systems analysis: problem-solving approach.
    • Systems management: address business, technological, and organizational issues before making changes to systems.

The Three-Sphere Model for Systems Management

  • Model conveys an integrated view of systems management across interconnected spheres (technical, organizational, and managerial dimensions).

Advice for Young Professionals

  • Don't focus only on technology; learn the business and organizational context.
    -Make it a priority to understand how the organization works; ask questions about money, customers, priorities, and where to read/observe.
  • Network inside and outside your organization to develop a systems perspective; it accelerates career growth.

Understanding Organizations

  • Systems approach requires viewing projects in the context of the larger organization.
  • Organizational issues are often the most difficult part of managing projects.
  • Develop understanding of people as well as organizations to improve IT project success.

The Four Frames of Organizations

  • Structural, Human Resources, Political, and Symbolic frames describe different lenses for organizing and managing projects.

Focusing on Stakeholder Needs

  • Project managers must identify, understand, and manage relationships with all stakeholders.
  • The four frames help meet stakeholder needs and expectations.
  • Senior executives/top management are important stakeholders.

The Importance of Top Management Commitment (1 of 2)

  • Top management commitment is a key success factor; champions can advocate for projects.
  • Without top management support, many projects fail.

The Importance of Top Management Commitment (2 of 2)

  • How top management helps: provide resources, timely approvals, cross-organizational cooperation, mentoring and coaching on leadership.

Best Practice: IT Governance

  • IT governance defines authority and controls for IT activities (infrastructure, use, and project management).
  • Lack of IT governance can lead to project failures (illustrated by public Australian IT failures: Sydney Water, RMIT, One.Tel).

The Need for Organizational Commitment to IT

  • Negative organizational attitude toward IT hinders project success.
  • Having a Chief Information Officer (CIO) at a high level helps IT projects; involve non-IT people to boost commitment.

The Need for Organizational Standards

  • Standards and guidelines improve project-manager effectiveness.
  • Senior management can promote standard forms, PM guidelines, and a PM Office/Center of Excellence.

Project and Product Life Cycles

  • It is good practice to divide projects into phases due to system interdependencies and uncertainty; same applies to product development.

Project Life Cycle (1 of 2)

  • A project life cycle is a collection of phases that defines:
    • what work is performed in each phase,
    • what deliverables are produced and when,
    • who is involved in each phase, and
    • how management will control/approve phase work.
  • A deliverable is a product or service produced by a project.

Project Life Cycle (2 of 2)

  • Early phases: lowlow resource needs, highhigh uncertainty, stakeholders have greatest influence.
  • Middle phases: higherhigher certainty, more resources.
  • Final phase: ensure requirements met; sponsor approves completion.

Product Life Cycles (1 of 3)

  • Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) describes phases of information system development.
  • Life-cycle types: Predictive, Iterative, Incremental, Adaptive, Hybrid.

Product Life Cycles (2 of 3)

  • Predictive Life Cycle Models:
    • Waterfall: linear, well-defined stages.
    • Spiral: iterative/spiral development.
    • Prototyping: build prototypes to clarify requirements.
    • Rapid Application Development (RAD): rapid delivery with quality.

Product Life Cycles (3 of 3)

  • (Overview of remaining product-life considerations and models is implied in the text.)

The Importance of Project Phases and Management Reviews

  • A project should pass through each phase to proceed to the next.
  • Management reviews (phase exits, phase gates, kill points) after each phase evaluate progress, likelihood of success, and alignment with goals.
  • Do not wait for the end of a phase to obtain management input; conduct regular reviews.

What Went Right?

  • Executive steering committees help keep projects on track.
  • Some projects are terminated earlier to avoid sunk cost (examples include Blizzard’s Titan project).
  • The Standish Group’s insights highlight how governance and early kills affect success.

The Context of Information Technology Projects

  • Project context critically affects which product development life cycle is most effective for a software project.
  • IT-specific issues have a major impact on IT project management.

The Nature of IT Projects

  • IT projects are diverse in size, complexity, outputs, application areas, and resources.
  • Software development is often more diverse than hardware;
  • IT projects span all industries and business functions.

Characteristics of IT Project Team Members

  • Team members come from diverse backgrounds and skill sets.
  • Some projects require many different functions; others require only a few.

Diverse Technologies

  • IT projects use rapidly changing technologies; communication can be challenging.
  • New technologies shorten time-to-market for products/services.

Recent Trends Affecting IT Project Management

  • Globalization, Outsourcing, Virtual teams, and Agile project management.

Globalization

  • Issues: communications, trust, common work practices, tools.
  • Suggestions: greater project discipline, think globally but act locally, prefer collaboration over standardization, maintain momentum, adopt new tools.

Outsourcing

  • Outsourcing helps reduce costs and remain competitive; can be politically sensitive across countries.
  • Project managers should be familiar with global and procurement issues.

Virtual Teams (1 of 2)

  • Advantages: cost savings, access to global expertise, flexibility, around-the-clock work.

Virtual Teams (2 of 2)

  • Disadvantages: isolation, communication problems, reduced informal networking, dependence on technology.
  • Success factors: team processes, trust/relationships, leadership style, team member selection.

Agile (1 of 2)

  • Agile means rapid, collaborative development; traditional waterfall often unsuitable for evolving requirements.
  • IT projects require adaptable approaches as requirements change.

Agile (2 of 2)

  • Agile Manifesto (2001):
    • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
    • Working software over comprehensive documentation
    • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
    • Responding to change over following a plan

Scrum (1 of 4)

  • Scrum is the leading agile development method for complex, innovative projects.
  • Term originated from a 1986 Harvard Business Review study correlating high-performing teams with rugby scrum.

Scrum (2 of 4)

  • (Details covered in subsequent slides.)

Scrum (3 of 4)

  • Kanban is used with Scrum to visualize work flow.
  • Kanban cards show new work, work in progress, and completed work.

Scrum (4 of 4)

  • PMBOK® Guide describes best practices for managing projects; Agile describes how to manage projects.
  • PMI introduced Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) in 2011; experienced PMs customize their approach.

Chapter Summary

  • Systems approach is essential for project management.
  • Organizations have four frames: structural, human resources, political, symbolic.
  • Structure and culture strongly influence project management.
  • Projects should pass through each phase of the life cycle with regular management reviews.
  • IT project context introduces unique considerations and trends, including globalization, outsourcing, virtual teams, and agile methodologies.