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GOALS: • Describe the systems view of project management and how it applies to information technology (IT) projects • Understand organizations, including the four frames, organizational structures, and organizational culture • Explain why stakeholder management and top management commitment are critical for a project's success • Understand the concept of a project phase and the project life cycle, and distinguish between project development and product development • Discuss the unique attributes and diverse nature of IT projects • Describe recent trends affecting IT project management, including globalization, outsourcing, virtual teams, and agile project management -------------- OPENING CASE Tom Walters recently accepted a new position at his college as the Director of Information Technology. Tom had been a respected faculty member at the college for the past 15 years. The college-a small, private institution in the Southwest-offers a variety of programs in the liberal arts and professional areas. Enrollment includes 1,500 full-time traditional students and about 1,000 working adults attending evening programs. Many instructors supplement their courses with information on the Internet and course Web sites, but they do not offer distance-learning programs. The college's niche is serving students in the region who like the setting of a small liberal arts college. Like other institutions of higher learning, the use of IT at the college has grown tremendously in the past 10 years. Wireless access is available everywhere on campus. Only a few classrooms on campus have computers for the instructors and students, and most other classrooms have only instructor stations and projection systems. Tom knew that several colleges throughout the country require that all students lease laptops or tablets, and that these colleges incorporate technology components into most courses. This idea fascinated him. He and two other members of the IT department visited a local college that had required all students to lease laptops for the past three years, and they were very impressed with what they saw and heard. Because tablets were becoming more popular, they thought it would make more sense to require tablets instead of laptops. Tom had heard how easy it was for faculty members to create interactive course materials that would run on tablets; these materials also could help reduce the cost of textbooks, a concern expressed by many of his students. Tom and his staff developed plans to start requiring students either to lease or purchase tablets at their college the next year. Tom sent an e-mail to all faculty and staff in September, and briefly described his plans. He did not get much response, however, until the February faculty meeting. As he described some of the details of his plan, the chairs of the History, English, Philosophy, and Economics departments all voiced their opposition to the idea. They eloquently stated that the college was not a technical training school, and that they did not have time to write their own course materials to run on tablets. They liked the books they used, and students could already buy books in an electronic format, but most preferred the print versions. Members of the Computer Science department voiced their concern that almost all of their students already had state-of-the art laptops and would not want to pay a mandatory fee to lease less-powerful tablets. The director of the adult education program expressed her concern that many adult-education students would balk at an increase in fees or required technology. Tom was in shock to hear his colleagues' responses, especially after he and his staff had spent a lot of time planning how to implement tablets at their campus. Now what should he do? ----- Many of the theories and concepts of project management are not difficult to understand. What is difficult is implementing them in various environments. Project managers must consider many different issues when managing projects. Just as each project is unique, so is its environment. This section discusses some of the components involved in under standing the project environment, such as using a systems approach, understanding organizations, managing stakeholders, matching product life cycles to the project environment, understanding the context of IT projects, and reviewing recent trends that affect IT project management. A SYSTEMS VIEW OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT Even though projects are temporary and intended to provide a unique product or service, you cannot run projects in isolation. If project managers lead projects in isolation, it is unlikely that they will ever truly serve the needs of the organization. Therefore, projects must operate in a broad organizational environment, and project managers need to consider projects within the greater organizational context. To handle complex situations effectively, project managers need to take a holistic view of a project and understand how it relates to the larger organization. Systems thinking describes this holistic view of carrying out projects within the context of the organization. What Is a Systems Approach? The term systems approach emerged in the 1950s to describe a holistic and analytical approach to solving complex problems that includes using a systems philosophy, systems analysis, and systems management. A systems philosophy is an overall model for thinking about things as systems. Systems are sets of interacting components that work within an environment to fulfill some purpose. For example, the human body is a system composed of many subsystems, including the nervous system, the skeletal system, the circulatory system, and the digestive system. Systems analysis is a problem-solving approach that requires defining the scope of the system, dividing it into components, and then identifying and evaluating its problems, opportunities, constraints, and needs. Once this is completed, the systems analyst then examines alternative solutions for improving the current situation; identifies an optimum, or at least satisfactory, solution or action plan; and examines that plan against the entire system. Systems management addresses the business, technological, and organizational issues associated with creating, maintaining, and modifying a system. Using a systems approach is critical to successful project management. Top management and project managers must follow a systems philosophy to understand how projects relate to the whole organization. They must use systems analysis to address needs with a problem-solving approach. They must use systems management to identify key business, technological, and organizational issues related to each project in order to identify and satisfy key stakeholders and do what is best for the entire organization. In the section's opening case, Tom Walters planned the tablet project without using a systems approach. Members of his IT department did all of the planning. Even though Tom sent an e-mail describing the tablet project to all faculty and staff, he did not address many of the organizational issues involved in such a complex project. Most faculty and staff are very busy at the beginning of the fall term, and many may not have read the entire message. Others may have been too busy to communicate their concerns to the IT department. Tom was unaware of the effects the tablet project would have on other parts of the college. He did not clearly define the business, technological, and organizational issues associated with the project. Tom and the IT department began work on the tablet project in isolation. If they had taken a systems approach, considering other dimensions of the project and involving key stakeholders, they could have identified and addressed many of the issues raised at the February faculty meeting before the meeting. The Three-Sphere Model for Systems Management Many business and IT students understand the concepts of systems and performing a systems analysis. However, they often gloss over the topic of systems management. The simple idea of addressing the three spheres of systems management-business, organization, and technology-can have a huge impact on selecting and managing projects successfully. FIG. 1 provides a sample of business, organizational, and technological issues that could be factors in the tablet project. In this case, technological issues, though not simple by any means, are probably the least difficult to identify and resolve. However, projects must address issues in all three spheres of the systems management model. Although it is easier to focus on the immediate and sometimes narrow concerns of a particular project, project managers and other staff must recognize the effects of any project on the interests and needs of the entire system or organization. The college president and senior administrators, in particular, will focus on whether the tablet project adds value to the college as a whole. -------
Business - Organization - Technology • What will the tablet project cost the college? • What will it cost students? • What will support costs be? • What will the impact be on enrollments? • Will the tablet project affect all students, just traditional students, or only certain majors? • How will the project affect students who already have tablets or laptops? • Who will develop special applications or books for the tablets? • Who will train students, faculty, and staff? • Should the tablets be based on Apple, Microsoft, Android, or another system? • What applications will be required? • What will the hardware specifications be? • How will the tablets affect various networks and speed? • Will more power cords be required in the classroom? ------- Many IT professionals become captivated with the technology and day-to-day problem solving involved in working with information systems. They tend to become frustrated with many of the "people problems" or politics involved in most organizations. In addition, many IT professionals ignore important business questions, such as, "Does it make financial sense to pursue this new technology?" or "Should the company develop this software in-house or purchase it off the shelf?" Using a more holistic approach helps project managers integrate business and organizational issues into their planning. It also helps them look at projects as a series of interrelated phases. When you integrate business and organizational issues into project management planning and look at projects as a series of interrelated phases, you do a better job of ensuring project success. UNDERSTANDING ORGANIZATIONS The systems approach requires that project managers always view their projects in the context of the larger organization. Organizational issues are often the most difficult part of working on and managing projects. For example, many people believe that most projects fail because of company politics. Project managers often do not spend enough time identifying all the stakeholders involved in projects, especially the people opposed to the projects. Also, project managers often do not spend enough time considering the political context of a project or the culture of the organization. To improve the success rate of IT projects, it is important for project managers to develop a better understanding of people as well as organizations. The Four Frames of Organizations As shown in FIG. 2, you can try to understand organizations better by focusing on different perspectives. Organizations can be viewed as having four different frames: structural, human resources, political, and symbolic. =============
Roles and responsibilities, coordination, and control. Organizational charts help describe this frame. Providing harmony between needs of the organization and needs of people. Coalitions composed of varied individuals and interest groups. Conflict and power are key issues. Symbols and meanings related to events. Culture, language, traditions, and image are all parts of this frame. ============= • The structural frame deals with how the organization is structured (usually depicted in an organizational chart) and focuses on different groups' roles and responsibilities to meet the goals and policies set by top management. This frame is very rational and focuses on coordination and control. For example, within the structural frame, a key IT issue is whether a company should centralize the IT personnel in one department or decentralize across several departments. You will learn more about organizational structures in the next section. • The human resources (HR) frame focuses on producing harmony between the needs of the organization and the needs of people. It recognizes that mismatches can occur between the needs of the organization and those of individuals and groups, and works to resolve any potential problems. For example, many projects might be more efficient for the organization if employees worked 80 or more hours a week for several months. However, this work schedule would conflict with the personal lives of many employees. Important IT issues related to the human resources frame are the shortage of skilled IT workers within the organization and unrealistic schedules imposed on many projects. • The political frame addresses organizational and personal politics. Politics in organizations take the form of competition among groups or individuals for power and leadership. The political frame assumes that organizations are coalitions composed of varied individuals and interest groups. Often, important decisions need to be made based on the allocation of scarce resources. Com petition for resources makes conflict a central issue in organizations, and power improves the ability to obtain those resources. Project managers must pay attention to politics and power if they are to be effective. It is important to know who opposes your projects as well as who supports them. Important IT issues related to the political frame are the power shifts from central functions to operating units or from functional managers to project managers. • The symbolic frame focuses on symbols and meanings. In this frame, the most important aspect of any event in an organization is not what actually happened, but what it means. Was it a good sign that the CEO came to a kickoff meeting for a project, or was it a threat? The symbolic frame also relates to the company's culture. How do people dress? How many hours do they work? How do they run meetings? Many IT projects are international and include stakeholders from various cultures. Understanding those cultures is also a crucial part of the symbolic frame. ============ WHAT WENT WRONG? In a paper titled "A Study in Project Failure," two researchers examined the success and failure of 214 IT projects over an eight-year period in several European countries. The researchers found that only one in eight (12.5 percent) were considered successful in terms of meeting scope, time, and cost goals. The authors made the following conclusions about factors that contribute to a project's failure: "Our evidence suggests that the culture within many organizations is often such that leadership, stakeholder and risk management issues are not factored into projects early on and in many instances cannot formally be written down for political reasons and are rarely discussed openly at project board or steering group meetings although they may be discussed at length behind closed doors. … Despite attempts to make software development and project delivery more rigorous, a considerable proportion of delivery effort results in systems that do not meet user expectations and are subsequently can celled. In our view this is attributed to the fact that very few organizations have the infrastructure, education, training, or management discipline to bring projects to successful completion." ============== Project managers must learn to work within all four frames to function well in organizations. Organizational issues are discussed further in Section 9, Project Human Resource Management, Section 10, Project Communications Management, and Section 13, Project Stakeholder Management. The following sections on organizational structures, organizational culture, stakeholder management, and the need for top management commitment provide additional information related to the structural and political frames. Organizational Structures Many discussions of organizations focus on their structure. Three general classifications of organizational structures are functional, project, and matrix. Many companies today use all three structures somewhere in the organization, but using one is most common. FIG. 3 portrays the three organizational structures. A functional organizational structure is the hierarchy most people think of when picturing an organizational chart. Functional managers or vice presidents in specialties such as engineering, manufacturing, IT, and human resources report to the chief executive officer (CEO). Their staffs have specialized skills in their respective disciplines. For example, most colleges and universities have very strong functional organizations. Only faculty members in the business department teach business courses; faculty in the history department teach history; faculty in the art department teach art, and so on.
A project organizational structure also is hierarchical, but instead of functional managers or vice presidents reporting to the CEO, program managers report to the CEO. Their staffs have a variety of skills needed to complete the projects within their programs. An organization that uses this structure earns its revenue primarily from performing projects for other groups under contract. For example, many defense, architectural, engineering, and consulting companies use a project organizational structure. These companies often hire people specifically to work on particular projects. A matrix organizational structure represents the middle ground between functional and project structures. Personnel often report both to a functional manager and one or more project managers. For example, IT personnel at many companies often split their time between two or more projects, but they report to their manager in the IT department. Project managers in matrix organizations have staff from various functional areas working on their projects, as shown in FIG. 3. Matrix organizational structures can be strong, weak, or balanced, based on the amount of control exerted by the project managers. Problems can occur if project team members are assigned to several projects in a matrix structure and the project manager does not have adequate control of their time. Table 1 summarizes how organizational structures influence projects and project man agers, based on information from several versions of the PMBOK Guide. Project managers havethemostauthorityinapureprojectorganizationalstructureandtheleastamountof authority in a pure functional organizational structure. It is important that project managers understand their current organizational structure. For example, if someone in a functional organization is asked to lead a project that requires strong support from several different functional areas, he or she should ask for top management sponsorship. This sponsor should solicit support from all relevant functional managers to ensure that they cooperate on the project and that qualified people are available to work as needed. The project manager might also ask for a separate budget to pay for project-related trips, meetings, and training or to provide financial incentives to the people supporting the project. Even though project managers have the most authority in the project organizational structure, this type of organization is often inefficient for the company as a whole. Assigning staff full-time to the project often creates underutilization and misallocation of staff resources. For example, if a technical writer is assigned full-time to a project, but has no project work on a particular day, the organization is wasting money by paying that person a full-time wage. Project organizations may also miss economies of scale that are available through pooling requests for materials with other projects. Disadvantages such as these illustrate the benefit of using a systems approach to man aging projects. For example, the project manager might suggest hiring an independent contractor to do the technical writing work instead of using a full-time employee. This approach would save the organization money while still meeting the needs of the project. When project managers use a systems approach, they are better able to make decisions that address the needs of the entire organization. Organizational Culture Just as an organization's structure affects its ability to manage projects, so does its culture. Organizational culture is a set of shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that characterize the functioning of an organization. It often includes elements of all four frames described previously. Organizational culture is very powerful, and many people believe the underlying causes of many companies' problems are not in the organizational structure or staff; they are in the culture. It is also important to note that the same organization can have different subcultures. The IT department may have a different organizational culture than the finance department, for example. Some organizational cultures make it easier to manage projects. According to Stephen P. Robbins and Timothy Judge, authors of a popular textbook on organizational behavior, there are 10 characteristics of organizational culture: 1. Member identity: The degree to which employees identify with the organization as a whole rather than with their type of job or profession. For example, project managers or team members might feel more dedicated to their company or project team than to their job or profession, or they might not have any loyalty to a particular company or team. As you can guess, an organizational culture in which employees identify more with the whole organization are more conducive to a good project culture. 2. Group emphasis: The degree to which work activities are organized around groups or teams, rather than individuals. An organizational culture that emphasizes group work is best for managing projects. 3. People focus: The degree to which management's decisions take into account the effect of outcomes on people within the organization. A project manager might assign tasks to certain people without considering their individual needs, or the project manager might know each person very well and focus on individual needs when assigning work or making other decisions. Good project managers often balance the needs of individuals and the organization. 4. Unit integration: The degree to which units or departments within an organization are encouraged to coordinate with each other. Most project managers strive for strong unit integration to deliver a successful product, service, or result. An organizational culture with strong unit integration makes the project manager's job easier. 5. Control: The degree to which rules, policies, and direct supervision are used to oversee and control employee behavior. Experienced project managers know it is often best to balance the degree of control to get good project results. 6. Risk tolerance: The degree to which employees are encouraged to be aggressive, innovative, and risk seeking. An organizational culture with a higher risk tolerance is often best for project management because projects often involve new technologies, ideas, and processes. 7. Reward criteria: The degree to which rewards, such as promotions and salary increases, are allocated according to employee performance rather than seniority, favoritism, or other nonperformance factors. Project managers and their teams often perform best when rewards are based mostly on performance. 8. Conflict tolerance: The degree to which employees are encouraged to air conflicts and criticism openly. It is very important for all project stakeholders to have good communications, so it is best to work in an organization where people feel comfortable discussing conflict openly. 9. Means-ends orientation: The degree to which management focuses on out comes rather than on techniques and processes used to achieve results. An organization with a balanced approach in this area is often best for project work. 10. Open-systems focus: The degree to which the organization monitors and responds to changes in the external environment. As you learned earlier in this section, projects are part of a larger organizational environment, so it is best to have a strong open-systems focus. As you can see, there is a definite relationship between organizational culture and successful project management. Project work is most successful in an organizational culture where employees identify more with the organization, where work activities emphasize groups, and where there is strong unit integration, high risk tolerance, performance-based rewards, high conflict tolerance, an open-systems focus, and a balanced focus on people, control, and means orientation. STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT Recall from Section 1 that project stakeholders are the people involved in project activities or affected by them. Stakeholders can be internal or external to the organization, directly involved in the project, or simply affected by the project. Internal project stake holders generally include the project sponsor, project team, support staff, and internal customers for the project. Other internal stakeholders include top management, other functional managers, and other project managers. Because organizations have limited resources, projects affect top management, other functional managers, and other project managers by using those resources. Thus, while additional internal stakeholders may not be directly involved in the project, they are still stakeholders because the project affects them in some way. External project stakeholders include the project's customers (if they are external to the organization), competitors, suppliers, and other external groups potentially involved in the project or affected by it, such as government officials or concerned citizens. Because the purpose of project management is to meet project requirements and satisfy stakeholders, it is critical that project managers take adequate time to identify, understand, and manage relationships with all project stakeholders. Using the four frames of organizations to think about project stakeholders can help you meet their expectations. See Section 13, Project Stakeholder Management, for more information. Consider again the tablet project from the opening case. Tom Walters seemed to focus on just a few internal project stakeholders. He viewed only part of the structural frame of the college. Because his department would do most of the work in administering the tablet project, he concentrated on those stakeholders. Tom did not even involve the main customers for this project-the students at the college. Even though Tom sent an e-mail to faculty and staff, he did not hold meetings with senior administrators or faculty at the college. Tom's view of the project stakeholders was very limited. During the faculty meeting, it became evident that the tablet project had many stake holders in addition to the IT department and students. If Tom had expanded his view of the structural frame of his organization by reviewing an organizational chart for the entire college, he could have identified other key stakeholders. He would have been able to see that the project would affect academic department heads and members of different administrative areas, especially if he wanted faculty members to develop customized course materials themselves. If Tom had focused on the human resources frame, he would have been able to tap into his knowledge of the school and identify people who would most support or oppose requiring tablets. By using the political frame, Tom could have considered the main interest groups that would be most affected by the project's outcome. Had he used the symbolic frame, Tom could have tried to address what moving to a tablet environment would really mean for the college. He then could have anticipated some of the opposition from people who were not in favor of increasing the use of technology on campus. He also could have solicited a strong endorsement from the college president or dean before talking at the faculty meeting. Tom Walters, like many new project managers, learned the hard way that his technical and analytical skills were not enough to guarantee success in project management. To be more effective, he had to identify and address the needs of different stakeholders and understand how his project related to the entire organization. ============== NOTABLE EXAMPLE: The media have often reported on mismanaged IT projects. A classic example and popular case study is the baggage handling system at Denver International Airport (DIA). The system was supposed to reduce flight delays, shorten waiting times at luggage carousels, and save money, but instead it caused huge problems. The airport was originally scheduled to open with one baggage handling system for all three concourses in October 1993, but it did not open until February 1995, with separate systems for each concourse and varying degrees of automation. One important reason for this famous project disaster was the failure to recognize the project's complexity. The system's original $186 million construction costs grew by $1 million each day during months of modifications and repairs. Only United, DIA's dominant airline, used it for outgoing flights. The automated baggage system never worked as designed, and United abandoned it in 2005. "The system never worked for incoming flights, which have been handled by human hands for years. No other airline tried to use the system at all. Jim Kyte, United's general manager for customer service in Denver, said the pressure to cut costs as the airline struggles to emerge from bankruptcy, along with the sharply rising fuel prices this year, ultimately forced the issue." ============== The Importance of Top Management Commitment People in top management positions, of course, are key stakeholders in projects. A very important factor in helping project managers successfully lead projects is the level of commitment and support they receive from top management. Without this commitment, many projects will fail. Some projects have a senior manager called a champion who acts as a key proponent for a project. The sponsor can serve as the champion, but often another manager can more successfully take on this role. As described earlier, projects are part of the larger organizational environment, and many factors that might affect a project are out of the project manager's control. Several studies cite executive support as one of the key factors associated with virtually all project success. Top management commitment is crucial to project managers for the following reasons: • Project managers need adequate resources. The best way to kill a project is to withhold the required money, human resources, and visibility. If project man agers have top management commitment, they will also have adequate resources and not be distracted by events that do not affect their specific projects. • Project managers often require approval for unique project needs in a timely manner. For example, on large IT projects, top management must understand that unexpected problems may result from the nature of the products being developed and the specific skills of people on the project team. The team might need additional hardware and software halfway through the project for proper testing, or the project manager might need to offer special pay and benefits to attract and retain key project personnel. With top management commitment, project managers can meet these needs. • Project managers must have cooperation from people in other parts of the organization. Because most IT projects cut across functional areas, top management must help project managers deal with the political issues that often arise. If certain functional managers are not responding to project managers' requests for necessary information, top management must step in to encourage the functional managers to cooperate. • Project managers often need someone to mentor and coach them on leader ship issues. Many IT project managers come from technical positions and are inexperienced as managers. Senior managers should take the time to give advice on how to be good leaders. They should encourage new project man agers to take classes to develop leadership skills and allocate the time and funds for managers to do so. IT project managers work best in an environment in which top management values IT. Working in an organization that values good project management and sets standards for its use also helps project managers succeed. ============= BEST PRACTICE A major element of good practice concerns IT governance, which addresses the authority and control for key IT activities in organizations, including IT infrastructure, IT use, and project management. (The term project governance can also be used to describe a uniform method of controlling all types of projects.) The IT Governance Institute (ITGI) was established in 1998 to advance international thinking and standards in directing and controlling an organization's use of technology. Effective IT governance helps ensure that IT supports business goals, maximizes investment in IT, and addresses IT related risks and opportunities. A 2004 book by Peter Weill and Jeanne Ross called IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results6 includes research indicating that firms with superior IT governance systems have 20 percent higher profits than firms with poor governance. (See the ITGI's Web site at itgi.org for more information, including many case studies and best practices in this area.) A lack of IT governance can be dangerous, as evidenced by three well-publicized IT project failures in Australia-Sydney Water's customer relationship management system, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's academic management system, and One-Tel's billing system. Researchers explained how these projects were catastrophic for their organizations, primarily due to a severe lack of IT governance, which the researchers dubbed managerial IT unconsciousness in a subsequent article: "All three projects suffered from poor IT governance. Senior management in all three organizations had not ensured that prudent checks and balances were in place to enable them to monitor either the progress of the projects or the alignment and impact of the new systems on their business. Proper governance, particularly with respect to financial matters, auditing, and contract management, was not evident. Also, project-level planning and control were notably absent or inadequate-with the result that project status reports to management were unrealistic, inaccurate, and misleading." ============= The Need for Organizational Commitment to Information Technology Another factor that affects the success of IT projects is the organization's commitment to IT in general. It is very difficult for an IT project to be successful if the organization itself does not value IT. Many companies have realized that IT is integral to their business and have created a vice president or equivalent position for the head of IT, often called the Chief Information Officer (CIO). Some companies assign people from non-IT areas to work on large projects full-time and increase involvement from end users of the systems. Some CEOs even take a strong leadership role in promoting the use of IT in their organizations. Gartner, Inc., a well-respected IT consulting firm, provides awards to organizations for excellence in applying various technologies. For example, in 2006, Gartner announced the winners of its eighth annual Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Excellence Awards. BNSF Railway received the award in the "Excellence in Enterprise CRM" category, and UnitedHealth Group received the award in the "Excellence in Sales, Marketing or Customer Service" category. (Electronic Arts, an independent producer of electronic games, won the award in 2007.) The 2006 award winners had the following to say: • Elizabeth Obermiller, director of ERM systems for BNSF Railway: "Our success was driven by the ongoing executive commitment and passionate and talented teams, who were able to implement a planned and phased approach with advanced application of analytics to monitor, measure and drive success." • John Reinke, a senior vice president of Uniprise, a UnitedHealth Group: "We are excited to receive this award for our partnership with eLoyalty to implement a new, cutting-edge call center technology application called Behavioral Analytics. This technology allows us to engage in deeper, more personally relevant phone conversations with each consumer who speaks with a customer care professional. Health care consumers often face complex and emotional issues, and this is a great example of how technology can help improve their experience. The Need for Organizational Standards Another problem in most organizations is a lack of standards or guidelines to follow when performing project management. These standards or guidelines might be as simple as pro viding standard forms or templates for common project documents, examples of good project management plans, or guidelines for how project managers should provide status information to top management. The content of a project management plan and instructions for providing status information might seem like common sense to senior managers, but many new IT project managers have never created plans or created a nontechnical status report. Top management must support the development of these standards and guidelines, and encourage or even enforce their use. For example, an organization might require all potential project information to be reported in a standard format to make project portfolio management decisions. If a project manager does not submit a potential project in the proper format, it could be rejected. As you saw in Section 1, some organizations invest heavily in project management by creating a project management office or center of excellence, which assists project managers in achieving project goals and maintaining project governance. Rachel Hollstadt, founder and CEO of a project management consulting firm, suggests that organizations consider adding a new position, a Chief Project Officer (CPO). Some organizations develop career paths for project managers; some require that all project managers have Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and that all employees have some type of project management training. The implementation of such standards demonstrates an organization's commitment to project management. PROJECT PHASES AND THE PROJECT LIFE CYCLE Because projects operate as part of a system and involve uncertainty, it is good practice to divide projects into several phases. A project life cycle is a collection of project phases. Some organizations specify a set of life cycles for use in all of their projects, while others follow common industry practices based on the types of projects involved. In general, project life cycles define what work will be performed in each phase, what deliverables will be produced and when, who is involved in each phase, and how management will control and approve work produced in each phase. A deliverable is a product or service, such as a technical report, a training session, a piece of hardware, or a segment of software code, produced or provided as part of a project. (See Section 5, Project Scope Management, for detailed information on deliverables.) In early phases of a project life cycle, resource needs are usually lowest and the level of uncertainty is highest. Project stakeholders have the greatest opportunity to influence the final characteristics of the project's products, services, or results during the early phases of a project life cycle. It is much more expensive to make major changes to a project during latter phases. During the middle phases of a project life cycle, the certainty of completing the project improves as it continues, and as more information is known about the project requirements and objectives. Also, more resources are usually needed than during the initial or final phase. The final phase of a project focuses on ensuring that project requirements were met and that the project sponsor approves completion of the project. Project phases vary by project or industry, but general phases in traditional project management are often called the concept, development, implementation, and close-out phases. The PMBOK Guide, Fifth Edition calls these phases starting the project, organizing and preparing, carrying out the project work, and finishing the project. These phases should not be confused with the project management process groups of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing, as described in Section 3. The first two traditional project phases (concept and development) focus on planning, and are often referred to as project feasibility. The last two phases (implementation and close-out) focus on delivering the actual work, and are often referred to as project acquisition. A project should successfully complete each phase before moving on to the next. This project life cycle approach provides better management control and appropriate links to the ongoing operations of the organization. Section 4, Project Integration Management, provides more information on project selection. FIG. 4 provides a summary framework for the general phases of the traditional project life cycle. In the concept phase of a project, managers usually develop some type of business case, which describes the need for the project and basic underlying concepts. A preliminary or rough cost estimate is developed in this first phase, and an overview of the required work is created. A work breakdown structure (WBS) outlines project work by decomposing the work activities into different levels of tasks. The WBS is a deliverable oriented document that defines the total scope of the project. (You will learn more about the WBS in Section 5, Project Scope Management.) For example, if Tom Walters had followed the project life cycle in the opening case instead of moving full steam ahead with the tablet project, he could have created a committee of faculty and staff to study the concept of increasing the use of technology on campus. This committee might have developed a business case and plan that included an initial, smaller project to investigate alter native ways of increasing the use of technology. The committee might have estimated that it would take six months and $20,000 to conduct a detailed technology study. The WBS at this phase of the study might have three levels and partition the work to include a competitive analysis of what five similar campuses were doing, a survey of local students, staff, and faculty, and a rough assessment of how using more technology would affect costs and enrollments. At the end of the concept phase, the committee would be able to deliver a report and presentation on its findings. The report and presentation would be examples of deliverables.
After the concept phase is completed, the next project phase-development-begins. In the development phase, the project team creates more detailed project management plans, a more accurate cost estimate, and a more thorough WBS. In the example under discussion, suppose the concept phase report suggested that requiring students to have tablets was one means of increasing the use of technology on campus. The project team could then further expand this idea in the development phase. The team would have to decide if students would purchase or lease the tablets, what type of hardware and software the tablets would require, how much to charge students, how to handle training and maintenance, and how to integrate the use of the new technology with current courses. However, if the concept phase report showed that tablets were not a good idea for the college, then the project team would no longer consider increasing the use of technology by requiring tablets in the development phase and would cancel the project before development. This phased approach minimizes the time and money spent developing inappropriate projects. A project idea must pass the concept phase before evolving into the development phase. The third phase of the traditional project life cycle is implementation. In this phase, the project team creates a definitive or very accurate cost estimate, delivers the required work, and provides performance reports to stakeholders. Suppose Tom Walters' college took the idea of requiring students to have tablets through the development phase. During the implementation phase, the project team would need to obtain the required hardware and software, install the necessary network equipment, deliver the tablets to the students, create a process for collecting fees, and provide training to students, faculty, and staff. Other people on campus would also be involved in the implementation phase. Faculty would need to consider how best to take advantage of the new technology. The recruiting staff would have to update their materials to reflect this new feature of the college. Security would need to address new problems that might result from students carrying around expensive equipment. The project team usually spends the bulk of its efforts and money during the implementation phase of projects. The last phase of the traditional project life cycle is the close-out phase. In it, all of the work is completed, and customers should accept the entire project. The project team should document its experiences on the project in a lessons-learned report. If the tablet idea made it all the way through the implementation phase and all students received tablets, the project team would then complete the project by closing out any related activities. Team members might administer a survey to students, faculty, and staff to gather opinions on how the project fared. They would ensure that any contracts with suppliers were completed and that appropriate payments were made. They would transition future work related to the tablet project to other parts of the organization. The project team could also share its lessons-learned report with other colleges that are considering a similar program. Many projects, however, do not follow this traditional project life cycle. They still have general phases with some similar characteristics, but they are much more flexible. For example, a project might have just three phases-the initial, intermediate, and final phases. Or, there may be multiple intermediate phases. A separate project might be needed just to complete a feasibility study. Regardless of the project life cycle's specific phases, it is good practice to think of projects as having phases that connect the beginning and end of the process. This way, people can measure progress toward achieving project goals during each phase. Just as a project has a life cycle, so does a product. IT projects help develop products and services such as new software, hardware, networks, research reports, and training on new systems. Understanding the product life cycle is just as important to good project management as understanding the phases of the traditional project life cycle. Product Life Cycles Recall from Section 1 that a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result, and a program is a group of projects managed in a coordinated way. A program often refers to the creation of a product, like an automobile or a new operating system. Therefore, developing a product often involves many projects. All products follow some type of life cycle-cars, buildings, even amusement parks. The Walt Disney Company, for example, follows a rigorous process to design, build, and test new products. Disney assigns project managers to oversee the development of all new products, such as rides, parks, and cruise lines. Likewise, major automotive companies follow product life cycles to create new cars, trucks, and other products. Most IT professionals are familiar with the concept of a product life cycle, especially for developing software. Software development projects are one subset of IT projects. Many IT projects involve researching, analyzing, and then purchasing and installing new hardware and software with little or no actual software development required. However, some projects involve minor modifications to enhance existing software or to integrate one application with another. Other projects involve a major amount of software development. Many argue that developing software requires project managers to modify traditional project management methods, depending on a particular product's life cycle. A systems development life cycle (SDLC) is a framework for describing the phases of developing information systems. Some popular models of an SDLC include the waterfall model, the spiral model, the incremental build model, the prototyping model, and the Rapid Application Development (RAD) model. These life cycle models are examples of a predictive life cycle, meaning that the scope of the project can be articulated clearly and the schedule and cost can be predicted accurately. The project team spends a large portion of the project attempting to clarify the requirements of the entire system and then producing a design. Users are often unable to see any tangible results in terms of working software for an extended period. Below are brief descriptions of several predictive SDLC models. • The waterfall life cycle model has well-defined, linear stages of systems analysis, design, construction, testing, and support. This life cycle model assumes that requirements will remain stable after they are defined. The waterfall life cycle model is used when risk must be tightly controlled and when changes must be restricted after the requirements are defined. The waterfall approach is used in many large-scale systems projects where complexity and cost are so high that the more rigid steps of the approach help to ensure careful completion of all deliverables. • The spiral life cycle model was developed based on refinements of the water fall model as applied to large government software projects. It recognizes the fact that most software is developed using an iterative or spiral approach rather than a linear approach. The project team is open to changes and revisions later in the project life cycle, and returns to the requirements phase to more carefully clarify and design the revisions. This approach is suitable for projects in which changes can be incorporated with reasonable cost increases or with acceptable time delays. FIG. 5 illustrates the differences between the waterfall and spiral life cycle models.
• The incremental build life cycle model provides for progressive development of operational software, with each release providing added capabilities. This type of approach is often used by organizations like Microsoft, which issues a specific release of a software package while working on future revisions that will be distributed later in another release with a higher "build" or version number. This approach helps to stage the priorities of the package's features and functions with user priorities or the costs, time, and scope of the system revisions. • The prototyping life cycle model is used for developing software prototypes to clarify user requirements for operational software. It requires heavy user involvement, and developers use a model to generate functional requirements and physical design specifications simultaneously. Developers can throw away or keep prototypes, depending on the project. This approach is often used in systems that involve a great deal of user interface design, such as Web site projects, in systems that automate previously manual functions, or in systems that change the nature of how something is done, such as mobile applications. • The RAD life cycle model uses an approach in which developers work with an evolving prototype. This life cycle model also requires heavy user involvement and helps produce systems quickly without sacrificing quality. Developers use RAD tools such as CASE (computer-aided software engineering), JRP (joint requirements planning), and JAD (joint application design) to facilitate rapid prototyping and code generation. These tools are often used in reporting systems in which programmers enter parameters into software to generate reports for user approval. When approved, the same parameters will generate the final production system without further modification by the programmer. In contrast to the predictive models, the adaptive software development (ASD) life cycle model assumes that software development follows an adaptive approach because the requirements cannot be clearly expressed early in the life cycle. An adaptive approach is also used to provide more freedom than the prescriptive approaches. It allows development using a more free-form approach to create components that provide the functionality specified by the business group. Important attributes of this approach are that the projects are mission driven and component based, using time-based cycles to meet target dates. Requirements are developed using an iterative approach, and development is risk driven and change tolerant to address and incorporate risks rather than mitigate them. More recently, the term agile software development has become popular to describe new approaches that focus on close collaboration between programming teams and business experts. The last section of this section provides more information on agile project management, and Section 3 includes a brief case study of an agile project. (See the companion Web site for Suggested Readings related to agile development and other software development methodologies.) Agile approaches are used in rapid software development and to handle frequent system changes and maintenance to production systems. Because many of these changes might be relatively minor, the more traditional project approaches would take much longer and cost more. Agile techniques have an iterative, short-cycle focus on delivery of working software. These life cycle models are all examples of SDLCs. Many Web sites and introductory management information systems textbooks describe each of the models in detail. The type of software and complexity of the information system in development determines which life cycle model to use. It is important to understand the product life cycle to meet the needs of the project environment. Most large IT products are developed as a series of projects. For example, the systems planning phase for a new information system can include a project to hire an outside consulting firm to help identify and evaluate potential strategies for developing a particular business application, such as a new order processing system or general ledger system. The planning phase can also include a project to develop, administer, and evaluate a survey of users to get their opinions on the current information systems used in the organization. The systems analysis phase might include a project to create process models for certain business functions in the organization. This phase can also include a project to create data models of existing company databases related to the business function and application. The implementation phase might include a project to hire contract programmers to code a part of the system. The close-out phase might include a project to develop and run several training sessions for users of the new application. All of these examples show that large IT projects are usually composed of several smaller projects. It is often good practice to view large projects as a series of smaller, more manageable ones, especially when extensive uncertainty is involved. Successfully completing one small project at a time will help the project team succeed in completing the larger project. Because some aspects of project management need to occur during each phase of the product life cycle, it is critical for IT professionals to understand and practice good project management throughout the product life cycle. Next>> |
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