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PROJECT MANAGEMENT

MODULE OVERVIEW

This module will teach you strategies, tools, and techniques for project management as applied to
information systems projects. These also provide process-centric survey of key project
management tools and techniques as they apply to systems analysis and design and you will know
that you understand the basics of project management when you can.

MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of the module, the students are expected to:

1. Define the terms project and project management and differentiate between project and
process management.
2. Describe the causes of failed information systems and technology projects.
3. Describe the basic competencies required of project managers.
4. Describe the basic functions of project management.
5. Differentiate between PERT and Gantt charts as project management tools.
6. Describe the role of project management software as it relates to project management tools.
7. Describe eight activities in project management.
8. Define joint project planning and its role in project management
9. Define scope, and write a statement of work to document scope.
10. Use a work breakdown structure to decompose a project into tasks.
11. Estimate tasks' durations and specify intertask dependencies on a PERT chart.
12. Assign resources to a project and produce a project schedule with a Gantt chart.
13. Assign people to tasks and direct the team effort.
14. Use critical path analysis to adjust schedule and resource allocations in response to
schedule and budget deviations.
15. Manage user expectations of a project and adjust project scope.

LEARNING CONTENTS (Project Management)

What is Project Management?

The demand for project managers in the information systems community is strong.
Typically, IS project managers come from the ranks of experienced IS developers such as
systems analysts. While it is unlikely that your first Job responsibilities will include project
management, you should immediately become aware of project management processes, tools,
and techniques. Eventually you will combine this knowledge with development experience plus
your own observation of project managers to form the basis for your own career opportunities in
project management.

Project – a [temporary] sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities having one
goal or purpose and that must be completed by specific time, within budget, and according to
specification.

The keywords are underlined to draw your attention to some key aspects of the definition.
As applied to information system development, we note the following:
A system development process or methodology, such as FAST, defines a sequence of

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activities, mandatory and optional.

Every system development project is unique that is, it is different from every other system
development project that preceded It.
The activities that comprise system development are relatively complex. They require the
skills that you are learning, and they require that you be able to adapt concepts and skills to
changing conditions and unanticipated events.
By now, you’ve already learned that the phases and activities that make up a system
development methodology are generally sequential. While some tasks may overlap, many
tasks are dependent on the completion of other tasks.
The development of an Information system represents a goal. Several objectives may need
to be met to achieve that goal.
Although many information system development projects do not have absolute deadlines or
specified times (there are exceptions), they are notoriously completed later than originally
projected. This is becoming acceptable to upper management given the organization wide
pressures to reduce cycle times for products and business processes.
Few information systems are completed within budget. Again, upper management is
increasingly rejecting this tendency.
Information systems must satisfy the business, user, and management expectations
according to specifications.

Project Manager - the person responsible for supervising a systems project from initiation
to conclusion. Successful project managers possess a wide range of technical, management,
leadership, and communication skills.

Project Management – the process of scoping, planning, staffing, organizing, directing,

and controlling the development of an acceptable system at a minimum cost within a specified
time frame.

Process Management – the activity of documenting, managing, and continually improving

the process of systems development.

MEASURES OF PROJECT SUCCESS

• The resulting information system is acceptable to the customer.

• The system was delivered “on time.”
• The system was delivered “within budget.”
• The system development process had a minimal impact on ongoing business
operations.

THE CAUSES OF FAILED PROJECTS

 Failure to establish upper-management commitment to the project – sometimes

commitment changes during a project.

 Lack of organization’s commitment to the methodology – Many system

development methodologies do little more than collect dust.

 Taking shortcuts through or around the methodology – Project teams often take
shortcuts for one or more of the following reasons.
 The project gets behind schedule, and the team wants to catch up.
 The project is over budget and the team wants to make up costs by skipping
steps.

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 The team is not trained or skilled in some of the methodology’s activities and
requirements, so it skips them.

 Poor expectations management

 Feature creep– uncontrolled addition of technical features to a system under
development without regard to schedule or budget.
 Scope creep – unexpected growth of user expectations and business
requirements for an information system as the project progresses. The
schedule and budget can be adversely affected by such changes.

 Premature commitment to a fixed budget and schedule - You can rarely make
accurate estimates of project costs and schedule before completing detailed problem
analysis or requirements analysis. Premature estimates are inconsistent with the
creeping commitment approach.

 Poor estimating techniques - Many system analyst estimate by making a best

calculated estimate and then doubling that number. This is not a scientific approach.

 Overoptimism – System analysts and project managers tend to be optimists.

 The mythical man-month (Brooks, 1975) - As the project gets behind schedule, project
leaders frequently try to solve the problem by assigning more people to the team. It
doesn't work! There is no linear relationship between time and number of personnel. The
addition of personnel usually creates more communication problems, causing the project
to get even further behind schedule.

 Inadequate people management skills - Managers tend to be thrust: into management

positions and are not prepared for management responsibilities. This problem is easy to
identify. No one seems to be in charge; customers don't know the status of the project;
teams don't meet regularly to discuss and monitor progress; team members aren't
communicating with one another; the project is always said to be “95 percent complete."
 Failure to adapt to business change- lf the project's importance changes during
the project, or if the management or the bush1ess reorganizes, projects should be
reassessed for compatibility with those changes and their importance to the
business.-
 Insufficient resources - This could be due to poor estimating or to other priorities,
or it could be that the staff resources assigned to a project do not posses, the
necessary skills or experience.
 Failure to “manage to the plan” – Various factors may cause the project manager
to become sidetracked form the original plan.

The major cause of project failure is that most project managers were not
educated or trained to be project managers. Just as good programmers don't always go on
to become good systems analysts, good systems analysts don't automatically perform well
as project managers. To be a good project manager, you should be educated and skilled in
the art of project management.

THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

The Project Management Institute was created as a professional society to guide the
development and certification of professional project managers. The institute created the
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) for the education and certification of
professional project managers.

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Project Manager Competencies Good project managers possess a core set of

competencies. In the table below is summarizes these competencies. Some of these
competen-cies can be taught. In courses, books, and professional workshops; however,
some come only with professional experience in the held. There are two basic premises of
project management competencies: First, individuals cannot manage a process they have
never used. Second, managers must have. An understanding of the business and culture
that provides a context for the project.

PROJECT MANAGER COMPETENCIES

COMPETENCY EXPLANATION HOW TO OBTAIN?

Business Achievement Competencies
Business awareness Ties every systems project to Business experience
the mission, vision, and goal, of
the organization.
Business partner Keeps managers and user Business experience
orientation involved throughout a system
project.
Commitment to quality Ensure, that every system Business experience
project contribute to the quality
expectation of the organization
as a whole.
Problem Solving Competencies
Initiative Demonstrates creativity,
calculated risks and persistence Business experience
necessary to get the job done.
Information Gathering Skillfully obtain the factual Business experience
information necessary to
analyze, design, and implement
the information system.
Analytical Thinking Can assess and select Business experience
appropriate system development
process and use project
management tool, to plan,
schedule, and budget for system
development.
Can solve problems through the
analytical approach of
decomposing systems into their
parts and then reassembling the
parts into improved systems.
Conceptual Thinking Understands systems theory Business experience
and applies it to systems
analysis and design of
information systems.
Interpersonal Understands, recognizes, and Can be learned in courses
awareness reacts to interpersonal but requires business
motivations and behaviors. experience
Organizational Understands the politics of the Business experience
awareness organization and how to use
them in a project.
Anticipation of impact Understands implications of Business experience

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project decisions and manages

expectations and risk
Resourceful use of Skillfully obtain cooperation and Business experience
influence consensus of managers, users,
and technologists to solutions.
People Management Competencies
Motivating others Coaches and directs individuals Business experience
to overcome differences and
achieve project goals as a team.
Communication skills Communicates effectively, both Can be learned in courses
orally and in writing, in the but usually requires
context of meetings, business experience
presentations, memos, and
reports.
Developing others Ensures that project team Business experience
members receive sufficient
training, assignments,
supervision, and performance
feedback required to complete
projects.
Monitoring and Develops the project and plan, Tools and Techniques
Controlling schedule, and budget and taught in this module, but
continuously monitors progress requires project experience
and makes adjustments when
necessary.
Self-Management Competencies
Self-Confidence Consistently makes and defends Business experience
decisions with a strong personal
confidence in the process and/or
facts.
Stress Management Works effectively under pressure Business experience
or adversity
Concern for Credibility Consistently and honesty Business experience
delivers on promises and
solutions, Maintains technical or
business currency in the field as
appropriate.
Flexibility Capable of adjusting process, Business experience
management style, or decision
making based on situations and
unanticipated problems.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS

The basic functions of a project manager have been studied and refined by
management theorists for many years. These functions include scoping, planning, staffing,
organizing, scheduling, directing, controlling, and closing:

 Scoping – Scoped defines the boundaries of the project manager must scope project
expectations and constraints in order to plan activities, estimate costs, and manage
expectations.
 Planning – Planning identifies the tasks required to complete the project. This is based on
the manager's understanding of the project scope and the methodology used to achieve the
goal.

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 Estimating - Each task that is required to complete the project must be estimated. How
much time will be required? How many people will be needed? What skills will be needed?
What tasks must be completed before other tasks are started? Can some of the tasks
overlap? How much will it cost? These are all estimating issues. Some of these issues can
be resolved with the project modeling tools.
 Scheduling- Given the project plan, the project manager is responsible for scheduling all
project activities. The project schedule should be developed wid1 an understanding of the
required tasks, task duration, and task prerequisites.
 Organizing – The project manager should make sure that members of the project team
w1derstand their own individual roles and responsibilities as well as their reporting
relationship to the project manager.
 Directing- Once the project has begun, the project manager must direct the team's
activities. Every project manager must demonstrate people management skills to coordinate,
delegate, motivate, advise, appraise, and reward team members.
 Controlling - Perhaps the manager's most difficult and important function Is controlling the
project. Few plans will be executed without problems and delays. 11te project manager must
monitor and report progress against goals, schedule, and costs and make appropriate
adjustments when necessary.
 Closing - Good project managers always assess successes and failures at the conclusion
of a project. They learn from their mistakes and plan for continu-ous Improvement of the
systems development process.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS & TECHNIQUES

Two Types of tools that Support Project Managers

1. PERT – which stands for Project Evaluation and Review Technique, was developed in
the late 195Os to plan and control large weapons development projects for the U.S.
Navy. A PERT chart is a graphical network model that depicts a project's tasks and the
relationships between those tasks.

A PERT CHART

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2. GANTT CHART - The Gantt chart, first conceived by Henry L. Gantt in 1917,
is the most commonly used project scheduling and progress evaluation tool. A Gantt
chart is a simple horizontal bar chart that depicts project tasks against a calendar. Each
bar represents a named project task. The tasks are listed vertically in the left-hand
column. The horizontal axis is a calendar timeline, Gantt charts offer the advantage of
clearly showing overlapping tasks, that is, tasks that can be performed at the same time.
The bars can be shaded to clearly indicate percentage completion and project progress.
The figure demonstrates which phases are ahead of and behind schedule at a glance.
The popularity of Gantt charts sterns from tl1elr simplicity- they are easy to learn, read,
prepare, and use.
Gantt and PERT charts are not mutually exclusive. Gantt d1arts are more effective
when you are seeking to communicate schedule, PERT charts are more effective when
you want to study the relationships between tasks.

A GANTT CHART

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Microsoft Project Gantt Chart

Microsoft Project PERT Chart

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LEARNING CONTENTS (THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT LIFE CYCLE)

A PROJECT MANAGEMENT LIFE CYCLE

The project management process shown in above incorporates a Joint Project Planning
(JPP) technique. Joint project planning (JPP) is a strategy wherein stakeholders in a project
(meaning system owners, users, analysts, designers, and builders) participate in a one- to three-day
project management workshop, the result of which is consensus on project scope, schedule,
resources, and budget. (Subsequent workshops or meetings may be required to adjust scope,
budget, and schedule.) Notice that In JPP, the project team is actively involved In all inputs and
deliverables of all project management activities.

Joint project planning (JPP) - a strategy wherein stakeholders attend an intensive workshop
aimed at reaching consensus on project decisions.

In the following subsections, we will review each of the illustrated project management
activities and discuss how to use appropriate project management tools and techniques.

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ACITIVITY 1 – NEGOTIATE SCOPE

Scope the boundaries of a project – the areas of a business that a project may (or may not)
address.
Perhaps the most important prerequisite to effective project management occurs at the
beginning. All parties must agree to the project scope before any attempt Is made to
Identify and schedule tasks or to assign resources (people) to those tasks. Scope
de-fines the expectations of a project, and expectations ultimately determine satisfaction
and degrees of success. Accordingly, the negotiation of project scope is a necessary
ac-tivity in the project management life cycle. What is scope? Scope defines the
bound-aries of a project-the parts of the business that are to be studied, analyzed,
designed, constructed, implemented, and ultimately improved.
Scope also defines the aspects of a system that are considered outside the project. The
answers to five bask questions influence the negotiation of project scope:

 Product - What do you want?

 Quality - How good do you want It to be?
 Time - When do you want Jt.?
 Cost - How much are you willing to pay for it?
 Resources - What resources are you willing or able to bring to the table?

 Statement of work – a narrative description of the work to be performed as part of a

project. Common synonyms include scope statement, project definition, project overview,
and document of understanding.

The statement of work affirms that the project manager understands who Is really in
charge of the effort, who Is controlling the purse strings, what is the formal and informal
organization within which the project will be developed, who are the “kings and queens" that
have interest, and other similar but mainly nontechnical issues, It establishes a firm business
relationship between the project manager and both the customer and the extended project
team.

STATEMENT OF WORK

I. Purpose
II. Background
A. Problem, opportunity, or directive statement
B. History leading to project request
C. Project goal and objectives Notice the use of information
D. Product description system building blocks
III. Scope
A. Stakeholders
B. Data
C. Processes
D. Locations
IV. Project Approach
A. Route
B. Deliverables
V. Managerial Approach
A. Team building considerations
B. Manager and experience
C. Training requirements
D. Meeting schedules

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E. Reporting methods and frequency

F. Conflict management
G. Scope management
VI. Constraints
A. Start date
B. Deadlines
C. Budget
D. Technology
VII. Ballpark Estimates
A. Schedule
B. Budget
VIII. Conditions of Satisfaction
A. Success criteria
B. Assumptions
C. Risks
IX. Appendices

AN OUTLINE FOR A STATEMENT OF WORK

 ACTIVITY 2-DENTIFY TASKS

 Work breakdown structure (WBS) – a graphical tool used to depict the hierarchical
decomposition of the project into phases, activities, and tasks.

Work breakdown structures can be drawn using top-down hierarchy charts simi-lar to
organization charts. In Microsoft Project, a WBS Is depicted using a simple outline style, Indentation
of activities and tasks on the Gantt chart view" of the project Microsoft Project also offers a military
numbering scheme to represent hierarchical decomposition of a project as follows:

1. Phase 1 of the project

1.1 Activity 1 of Phase 1
1.1.1 Task 1 of Activity 1 in Phase 1
1.1. 2 Task 2 of Activity 1 in Phase 1

1.2 Activity 2 of Phase 1 .. . 2

2. Phase 2 of the project .. .

Milestone – an event signifying the completion of a major project deliverable.

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 ACTIVITY 3-ESTLMATE TASK DURATIONS

In estimating task duration, it is important to understand the concept of elapse time.
Elapsed time takes into consideration the two important factors with respect to people:
• Efficiency - no worker performs at 100% efficiency. Most people coffee
breaks, lunch breaks, restroom breaks, and tie to read their e-mail heck their
calendars, participate in non-project work, and even engage in idle
conversation. Experts differ on Just how productive the average worker is, but
one commonly used figure is 75 percent.
• Interruptions - People experience phone calls, visitors, and other unplanned
Interruptions that increase the time required for project work. This is variable
for different workers. Interruptions can consume as little as 10 percent of a
worker's day or as mud1 as 50 percent
1. Estimate the minimum amount of time it would take to perform the task – the
optimistic duration (OD). The optimistic duration assumes that even the most likely
interruptions or delays, such as occasional employee illnesses, will not happen.

2. Estimate the maximum amount of time it would take to perform the task –
the pessimistic duration (PD). The pessimistic duration assumes that nearly anything

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that can go wrong will go wrong. All possible interruptions or delays, such as Labor
strikes, illnesses, inaccurate specification of requirements, equipment’s delivery
delays, and underestimation of the system’s complexity, are assumed to be
inevitable.

3. Estimate the expected duration (ED) that will be needed to perform the task.
Don’t just take the median of the optimistic and pessimistic durations. Attempt
to identify interruptions or delays that are most likely to occur, such as
occasional employee illnesses, inexperienced perso1mel, and occasional
training.
4. Calculate a weighted average of the most likely duration (D) as follows:

ED

where 1, 4, and l are default weights used to calculate a weighted average of the
three estimates.

Developing OD, PD, and ED estimates can be tricky and require experience. Several
techniques are used in [Link] of the most common techniques are:

Decomposition-a simple technique wherein a project is decomposed into

small, manageable pieces that can be estimated based historical data of past
projects and similarly complex pieces.

CC/COMO (pronounced like "Kokomo") - a model-0ased technique

wherein standard parameters based on prior projects are applied to the new project
to estimate duration of a project and its tasks.

Functions Points - a model-based technique wherein the end product of a

project Is measured based on number and complexity of Inputs, outputs, files, and
queries. The number of function points is then compared to projects that had a
similar number of function points to estimate duration.

 ACTIVITY 4-SPECIFY INTERTASK DEPENDENCIES

Given the duration estimates for all tasks, we can now begin to develop a
project schedule. The project schedule depends not only on task durations but
also on Inter. task dependencies. In other words, the start or completion of
individual tasks may de-pend on the start or completion of other tasks.
There are four types of inter-task dependencies:

• Finish-to-start (FS) - The finish of one task triggers the start of another task.
• Start-to-start (SS) - The start of one task triggers the start of another task.
• Finish-to-finish (FF) - Two tasks must finish at the same time.
• Start-to-finish (SF) - The start of one task signifies the finish of another task.

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ENTERING INTER TASK DEPENDENCIES in MICROSOFT PROJECT

The Two Approaches to Scheduling

1. Forward scheduling establishes a project start date and then schedules forward from that
date. Based on the planned duration of required tasks, their Interdependencies, and the
allocation of resources to complete those tasks, a projected project completion date Is
calculated
2. Reverse scheduling establishes a project deadline and then schedules back-ward from
that date. Tasks, their duration, interdependencies, and resources must be considered to
ensure that the project can be completed by the deadline.

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THE PROJECT SCHEDULE IN CALENDAR VIEW

 ACTIVITY 5 – ASSIGN RESOURCES

We have yet to consider the allocation of resources to the project. Resources include the
following categories:

• People – includes all system owners, users, analysts, designers, builders, external agents,
and clerical help involved in the project in any way.
• Services – includes services such as a quality review that may be charged on a per use
basis.
• Facilities and equipment – includes all rooms and technology that will be needed to
complete the project.
• Supplies and materials – everything from pencils, paper, notebooks to toner cartridges,
and so on.
• Money – includes a translation of all of the above into budgeted dollars!

Predefined roles and resources may be available in the chosen methodology and route
templates.

1. The project manager enters thee names or tides of people (rotes) in the Resource Name
column. Resources may also include specific services, facilities, equipment, supplies,
materials, and so forth.
2. Notice that the Resource Sheet provides a column for establishing what percentage of a
resource will be allocated to the project.
3. Project also allows the project manager to estimate the cost of each resource. These costs

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can be estimated based on company history, consulting contracts, or internal cost

accounting standards. Notice that both standard and overtime costs can be estimated.
These costs are usually based on standards to pro1ect Information about anyone’s actual
salary.
4. Each resource has a calendar that considers the standard work week and holidays, as well
as individual locations and other commitments.

ASSIGNING PROJECT RESOURCES

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Assigning People to Tasks

Recruiting the right team members can make or break a project. The following are guidelines
for selecting and recruiting the team:
 Recruit talented, highly motivated people. Highly skilled and motivated team
members are more likely to overcome project obstacles unaided and are more likely
to meet project deadlines and produce quality work.
 Select the best task for each person. All workers have strengths and weaknesses,
Effective project managers learn to exploit the strengths of team mem-bers and avoid
assigning tasks to team members not skilled in those areas.
 Promote team harmony. Project managers should select team members who will
work well together.
 Plan for the future. Junior personnel with potential to be mentored by protect leaders
must be considered. Although junior personnel might not be as productive as the
seasoned veterans, project managers will need them and ha>'e to rely on them on
future projects.
 Keep the team size small. By limiting the team size, communication overhead and
difficulties will be reduced. A 2-persons team has only I communication path; a 4-
persons team has 6 communication paths; and a 50-persons team has at least 1,200
communication paths. The more communication paths there are, the greater the
probability that there will be increased communication problems, By the same token
the teams should be large enough to provide adequate backup and coverage in key
skills if a team member is lost.

RESOURCE LEVELING – a strategy for correcting resource over-allocations by some combination

of delaying or splitting tasks.

Two techniques for resource leveling:

1. Task Delaying – is based on the concepts of critical path and slack time. When it comes
to the project schedule, some tasks are more sensitive to schedule delays than others.
For this reason, project managers muse become aware of the critical path for a project is
the sequence of dependent tasks that have the biggest sum of most likely durations. The
critical path determines the earliest possible completion date of the project.

• Critical path – the sequence of dependent tasks that determines the earliest possible
completion date of the project.
• Tasks on the critical path cannot be delayed without delaying the entire project.
Critical tasks can only be split.
• Slack time – the amount of delay that can be tolerated between the starting time and
completion time of a task without causing a delay in the completion date of the entire project.
• Tasks that have slack time can be delayed to achieve resource leveling

2. Splitting Tasks - involves breaking a task into multiple tasks to assign alternate
resources to the tasks. Thus, a single task for which a resource was over allocated is
now apportioned to two or more resources that are (presumably) not over allocated. Splitting
tasks requires Identifying and assigning new resources such as analysts, contractors, or
consultants.
Resource leveling will be an ongoing activity because the schedule and resource
assignments are likely to change over the course of a project.

SCHEDULE AND BUDGET - Given a schedule based on levelled resources and given the cost of
each resource (e.g., cost per hour of a systems analyst or database administra-tor) the project
manager can produce a printed (or Web-based) document that communicates the project plan to all
concerned parties. Project management tools will provide multiple views of a project: such as

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calendars, Gantt chart, PERT chart, resource and resource levelling reports, and budget reports. All
that remains is to direct resources to the completion of project tasks and deliverables.

COMMUNICATION - The statement of work, timetable for major deliverables, and over-all project
schedule should be communicated to all parties Involved in the project. This communication must
also include a plan for reporting progress, both orally and in writing, the frequency of such
communications, and a contact person and method for parties to submit feedback and suggestions.
A corporate Intranet can be an effec-tive way to keep everyone informed of project progress and
issues.

ACTIVITY 6- DIRECT THE TEAM EFFORT

• Supervision resources
• The Deadline: A Novel about Project Management
• The People Side of Systems
• The One Minute Manager
• The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey

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10 HINTS FOR PROJECT LEADERSHIP

1. Be Consistent.
2. Provide Support.
3. Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep.
4. Praise in Public; Criticize in Private.
5. Be Aware of Morale Danger Points.
6. Set Realistic Deadlines.
7. Set Perceivable Targets.
8. Explain and Show, Rather Than Do.
9. Don’t Rely on Just Status Reports.
10. Encourage a Good Team Spirit.

 ACTIVITY 7 – MONITOR AND CONTROL PROGRESS

PROGRESS REPORTING - Progress Reporting should be frequent enough to establish

ac-countability and control, but nor so frequent as to become a burden and impediment to real
project progress.
Project progress reports can be verbal or written. Figure below illustrate a template for a
written progress report. Project progress reports (or presentations) should be honest and accurate,
even if the news is Jess than good. Project progress reports should report successes but should
dearly identify problems and concerns such that they can be addressed before they escalate unto
major Issues or catastrophes.

OUTLINE FOR PROGRESS REPORT

I. Cover Page
A. Project name or identification
B. Project manager
C. Date or report
II. Summary of progress
A. Schedule analysis
B. Budget analysis
C. Scope analysis
(changes that may have an impact on future progress)
D. Process analysis
(problems encountered with strategy or methodology)
E. Gantt progress chart(s)
III. Activity analysis
A. Tasks completed since last report
B. Current tasks and deliverables
C. Short term future tasks and deliverables
IV. Previous problems and issues
A. Action item and status
B. New or revised action items
1. Recommendation
2. Assignment of responsibility
3. Deadline
V. New problems and issues
A. Problems
(actual or anticipated)
B. Issues

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(actual or anticipated)
C. Possible solutions
1. Recommendation
2. Assignment of responsibility
3. Deadline
VI. Attachments
(include relevant printouts from project management software)

PROGRESS REPORTING ON A GANTT CHART

CHANGE MANAGEMENT- a formal strategy in which a process is established to facilitate changes

that occur during a project.
It is not uncommon for scope to grow out of control even when a properly completed
statement of work was agreed on early in the planning process. We refer to scope growth as
change." As noted by Keane, INC., "Change is frequently a point of contention between the
customer and the information systems organization, because they disagree on whether a particular
function is a change or a part of the Initial agreement. "The inevitability of scope change
necessitates that we have a formal strategy and process to deal with change ai1d its impact on
schedule and budget.
Change Management is intended to protect the project manager and team from being held
accountable for schedule and budget overruns that were driven by changes in scope.

Changes can be the result of various events and factors including:

• An omission in defining initial scope

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• A misunderstanding of the initial scope

• An external event such as government regulations that create new requirements
• Organizational changes
• Availability of better technology
• Shifts in planned technology that force changes to the business organization, culture, and/or
processes
• Management’s desire to have the system do more
• Reduced funding for project or imposition of an earlier deadline.

A change management system results in a collection of procedures for docu-menting a

change request and defines the steps necessary to consider the change based on the expected
impact of the change. Most change management systems require that a change request form be
initiated by one or more project stakeholders (e.g., system owners, users, analysts, designers, or
builders). Ideally, change requests are considered by a change control board (CCB), which is
responsible for approving or rejecting all change requests the CCB's composition typically includes
members of the project team as well as outsiders who may have an interest or stake in the project.
The CCB's decision should be based on impact analysis.

EXPECTATIONS MANAGEMENT - Experienced project managers often complain that managing

system owners' and users expectations of a project is more difficult than managing cost, schedule,
people, or quality. In this section we introduce a simple tool that we’ll can an expectations
management matrix that can help project manager’s deal with this problem.
Expectation Management a tool used to understand the dynamics and impact of changing
the parameters of a project.

Assign names to the priorities as follows:

 Maximize or Minimize - the measure of success that is determined to be the most

Important for a given project.
 Constrain - the second most important of the three measures of success in a project.
 Accept - the least important of the three measures in a project.

A MANAGEMENT EXPECTATIONS MATRIX

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LUNAR PROJECT EXPECTATIONS MANAGEMENT

TYPICAL, INITIAL EXPECTATIONS FOR A PROJECT

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ADJUSTING EXPECTATIONS

CHANGING PRIORITIES

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SCHEDULE ADJUSTMENTS - CRITICAL PATH ANALYSIS

1. Using intertask dependencies, determine every possible path through the project.
2. For each path, sum the durations of all tasks in the path.
3. The path with the longest total duration is the critical path.
• The critical path is the sequence of tasks with the largest sum of most likely
durations. The critical path determines the earliest completion date of the project.
• The slack time for any non-critical task is the amount of delay that can be tolerated
between starting and completion time of a task without causing a delay in the entire
project.

There are four distinct sequences of tasks in a project

Path 1: ABCDI
Path 2: ABCEI
Path 3: ABCFGl
Path 4: ABCFHl

The total of most likely duration times for ead1 path is calculated as follows:
Path 1: 3 + 2 + 2 + 7 + 5 = 19
Path 2: 3 + 2 + 2 + 6 + 5 = 18
Path 3: 3+2+2+3+2+5= 17
Path 4: 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + I + 5 = 16

In this example, path I is the critical path at 19 days. (Note: You can have multiple critical paths If
they bave the same total duration.)

CRITICAL PATH ANALYSIS

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 ACTIVITY 8 – ASSESS PROJECT RESULTS AND EXPERIENCES

Project managers must learn from their mistakes! They should embrace continuous process
improvement. This final activity Involves soliclth1g feedback from project team members (Including
customers) concerning their project experiences and suggestions aimed at improving the project
and process management of the organi-zation. Project review(s) should be conducted to answer the
following fundamental questions:

• Did the final product meet or exceed user expectations?

• Why or why not?
• Did the project come in on schedule?
• Why or why not?
• Did the project come in under budget?
• Why or why not?

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Individual Assessment Task

Refer to the case scenario:

1. Assume you are a systems analyst and a proud member of a project team that has Just
completed a major project that spanned several years and that touched almost every
business unit in your organization. The project was completed ahead of schedule and well
within budget. Development and implementation went very smoothly with virtually no
disruption of business operations. A post implementation survey indicates that system users
have been able to use the system with minimal training, although there have been some
com-ments from the more vocal users that it wasn't quite what they expected and doesn't do
some of the things they thought it would. Should the project be considered a success?

2. You work in the information technology division of a large law firm with offices throughout the
state. One of the vice presidents of the company has asked you to manage the development
of an automated case-tracking system for your company. The project, which is just
beginning, is the first large project you have been asked to manage. You take your duties
very seriously and want to do an exemplary Job on this project.
a. You are meeting with the vice president of the company to discuss the scope of the
project. In your meeting, what questions need to be an-swered and negotiated in order to
be able to determine the scope of the project?
b. Once you have finished negotiating scope, the vice president has asked you to write a
Statement of Work. What does the Statement of Work repre-sent in tills situation? How
Jong should it is?
c. Write a Statement of work, using the outline of statement in this module as an example.
Assume that the vice president has given you cate blanche (although that will probably
never happen in real life).

3. As part of continuous improvement, it is important for project managers and project teams to
asses, the results and their experiences once a project has been completed. There are
numerous methods and techniques for doing this, Search on the Web for pertinent articles,
using phrases such as project assessment, project post implementation reports, and the like.
a. What articles did you find?
b. Describe the methods and techniques they suggest.
c. Select the ones you feel are the most valuable, and explain why.

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d. Do you think that assessing project results can make a significant difference in the
quality of future projects?

Group Assessment Task

4. Create teams of four and designate one as the project manager. Assign them a challenging
task with a short deadline. It should be doable for the class, but certainly not easy. Midway
through the project, exchange one member per team so that each team has lost one
member and gained one new member. Do not allow the team to converse with the member
that was “hired away."
Have the project manager document how they handled the situation, what problems
arose, and how they would handle a team differently in the future (knowing that they could
lose a teammate at any time and without any notice).

Instructions for document format before submission:

Encode your final answers in MS Word and submit on or before the given deadline. Your answer for
each question should be a maximum of 10 sentences only. Check grammar, spelling errors before
submitting. Place your name, year level and section at the beginning of the page.

SUMMARY

A project is a (temporary) sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities that have one
goal or purpose md that must be completed by a specific time, within budget, and according to
specification. Project management is the process of scoping planning, staffing, organizing, directing,
and controlling the development of an acceptable system at a minimum cost within a specified time
frame.
Process management is an ongoing activity that documents, manages the use of, and improves
an organization's chosen methodology (the “process”) for systems development.
From a project management perspective, a project is considered a success if the resulting
information system is acceptable to the customer, the system is delivered “on time" and” within the
budget; and the system development process had a minimal impact on ongoing business
operations.
The Project Management Institute has created the Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK) for the education and certification of professional project managers. It addresses:
a. Project manager competencies.
b. Project management functions.
c. Tools and techniques such as:
I) PERT charts are graphical network models that depict a project's tasks, and the relationships
between those tasks.
II) Gantt charts simple horizontal bar charts that depict project tasks against a calendar
d. Project management software.
Resource Leveling is a strategy used to correct resource overall locations by some
combination of delaying or splitting tasks, Resource leveling requires knowledge of: (1) The critical
path-that sequence of dependent tasks that have the largest sum of most likely durations. The
critical path determines the earliest possible completion date of the project. 2) Slack time-the
amount of delay that can be tolerated between the starting time and completion time of a task
without causing a den the completion date of the entire project.

REFERENCE

1. Bentley, Lonnie D., Whitten, Jeffrey L., 2007. System Analysis & Design Methods 7th
edition, McGraw-Hill Education.

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