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The Importance of Project Phases and Management Reviews Due to the complexity and importance of many IT projects and their resulting products, it is important to take time to review the status of a project at each phase. A project should successfully pass through each of the main project or product phases before continuing to the next. Because the organization usually commits more money as a project continues, a management review should occur after each phase to evaluate progress, potential success, and continued compatibility with organizational goals. These management reviews, called phase exits or kill points, are very important for keeping projects on track and determining if they should be continued, redirected, or terminated. Recall that projects are just one part of the entire system of an organization. Changes in other parts of the organization might affect a project's status, and a project's status might like wise affect events in other parts of the organization. By breaking projects into phases, top management can make sure that the projects are still compatible with other needs of the organization. Take another look at the opening case. Suppose Tom Walters' college conducted a study sponsored by the college president on increasing the use of technology. At the end of the concept phase, the project team could have presented information to the faculty, president, and other staff members that described different options for increasing the use of technology, an analysis of what competing colleges were doing, and results of a survey of local stakeholders' opinions on the subject. This presentation at the end of the concept phase would represent one form of a management review. Suppose the study reported that 90 percent of surveyed students, faculty, and staff strongly opposed the idea of requiring all students to have tablets, and that many adult students said they would attend other colleges if they were required to pay for the additional technology. The college would probably decide not to pursue the idea any further. Had Tom taken a phased approach, he and his staff would not have wasted the time and money it took to develop detailed plans. In addition to formal management reviews, it is important to have top management involvement throughout the life cycle of most projects. It is unwise to wait until the end of project or product phases to have management inputs. Many projects are reviewed by management on a regular basis, such as weekly or even daily, to make sure they are progressing well. Everyone wants to be successful in accomplishing goals at work, and having management involvement ensures that a company can accomplish its project and organizational goals. =========== WHAT WENT RIGHT? Having specific deliverables and kill points at the end of project or product phases helps managers make better decisions about whether to proceed, redefine, or kill a project. Improvement in IT project success rates reported by the Standish Group has been due in part to an increased ability to know when to cancel failing projects. Standish Group Chairman Jim Johnson made the following observation: "The real improvement that I saw was in our ability to-in the words of Thomas Edison-know when to stop beating a dead horse. … Edison's key to success was that he failed fairly often; but as he said, he could recognize a dead horse before it started to smell. In information technology we ride dead horses-failing projects-a long time before we give up. But what we are seeing now is that we are able to get off them; able to reduce cost overrun and time overrun. That's where the major impact came on the success rate." Another example of the power of management oversight comes from Huntington Bancshares, Inc. This company, like many others, has an executive steering committee, a group of senior executives from various parts of the organization who regularly review important corporate projects and issues. The Ohio-based, $26 billion bank holding company completed a year-long Web site redesign using XML technology to give its online customers access to real-time account information as well as other banking services. The CIO, Joe Gottron, said there were "four or five very intense moments" when the whole project was almost stopped due to its complexity. The executive steering committee met weekly to review the project's progress and discuss work planned for the following week. Gottron said the meetings ensured that "if we were missing a beat on the project, no matter which company [was responsible], we were on top of it and adding additional resources to make up for it." Managers in the motorcycle industry also understand the importance of overseeing their IT projects. For example, Harley-Davidson Motor Company used to focus only on producing and selling high-quality motorcycles. In 2003, however, management realized that it had to improve its IT operations and control to stay in business and adhere to new government laws, such as the accounting reporting regulations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Harley-Davidson had no standardized processes for user access, change management, or backup and recovery at that time. "Although complying with Sarbanes-Oxley was going to be a challenge, the company took strong action, utilized COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and related Technology) and passed Sarbanes-Oxley year one compliance. One of the major benefits of using COBIT as its overall internal control and compliance model was getting everyone-especially nontechnical motorcycle experts-revved up about control activities and why controls are important." ========== THE CONTEXT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS As you learned earlier, software development projects can follow several different product life cycles based on the project context. Several other issues are related to managing IT projects. This section highlights some issues unique to the IT industry that affect project management, including the nature of projects, the characteristics of project team members, and the diverse nature of technologies involved. The Nature of IT Projects Unlike projects in many other industries, IT projects can be very diverse. Some involve a small number of people installing off-the-shelf hardware and associated software. Others involve hundreds of people analyzing several organizations' business processes and then developing new software in a collaborative effort with users to meet business needs. Even for small hardware-oriented projects, a wide diversity of hardware types could be involved- personal computers, mainframe computers, network equipment, kiosks, laptops, tablets, or smartphones, to name a few. The network equipment might be wireless, phone-based, cable based, or require a satellite connection. The nature of software development projects is even more diverse than hardware-oriented projects. A software development project might include creating a simple, stand-alone Microsoft Excel or Access application, or a sophisticated, global e-commerce system that uses state-of-the-art programming languages and runs on multiple platforms. IT projects also support every possible industry and business function. Managing an IT project for a film company's animation department would require different knowledge and skills by the project manager and team members than a project to improve a federal tax collection system or to install a communication infrastructure in a third-world country. Because of the diversity of IT projects and the newness of the field, it is important to develop and follow best practices in managing these varied projects. That way, IT project managers will have a common starting point and method to follow with every project. Characteristics of IT Project Team Members Because of the nature of IT projects, the people involved come from very diverse back grounds and possess different skills. Most trade schools, colleges, and universities did not start offering degrees in computer technology, computer science, management information systems, or other IT areas until the 1970s. Typical of new professions, the information field has borrowed from other professions as it has developed. Even though the field now has numerous higher-education programs, diverse project teams can provide a significant advantage because they can analyze project requirements from a more robust systems view. Many companies purposely hire graduates with degrees in other fields such as business, mathematics, or the liberal arts to provide different perspectives on IT projects. Even with these different educational backgrounds, however, there are common job titles for people working on most IT projects, such as business analyst, programmer, network specialist, database analyst, quality assurance expert, technical writer, security specialist, hardware engineer, software engineer, and system architect. Within the category of programmer, several other job titles describe the specific technologies used, such as Java programmer, XML programmer, and C/C)) programmer. Some IT projects require the skills of people in just a few of the previously listed job functions, but some require inputs from many or all of them. Occasionally, IT professionals move between these job functions, but more often people become technical experts in one area or they decide to move into a management position. It is also rare for technical specialists or project managers to remain with the same company for a long time; in fact, many IT projects include a large number of contract workers. Working with this "army of free agents," as author Rob Thomsett calls them, creates special challenges. (See the companion Web site for an article on this topic by Thomsett and other suggested readings.) Diverse Technologies Many of the job titles for IT professionals reflect the different technologies required to hold those positions. Unfortunately, hardware specialists might not understand the language of database analysts, and vice versa. Security specialists may have a hard time communicating with business analysts. It is also unfortunate that people within the same IT job function often do not understand each other because they use different technology. For example, someone with the title of programmer can often use several different programming languages. However, if programmers are limited in their ability to work in multiple languages, project managers might find it more difficult to form and lead more versatile project teams. Another problem with diverse technologies is that many of them change rapidly. A project team might be close to finishing a project when it discovers a new technology that can greatly enhance the project and better meet long-term business needs. New technologies have also shortened the time frame many businesses have to develop, produce, and distribute new products and services. This fast-paced environment requires equally fast paced processes to manage and produce IT projects and products. RECENT TRENDS AFFECTING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECT MANAGEMENT Additional challenges and opportunities face IT project managers and their teams in the form of recent trends such as increased globalization, outsourcing, virtual teams, and agile project management. Each of these trends and suggestions for addressing them are pro vided in this section. Globalization In his popular book The World Is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman describes the effects of globalization, which has created a "flat" world where everyone is connected and the "playing field" is level for many more participants. Lower trade and political barriers and the digital revolution have made it possible to interact almost instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet, and for individuals and small companies to compete with large corporations. Friedman also discusses the increase in "uploading," in which people share information through blogging, podcasts, and open-source software. IT is a key enabler of globalization. In 2012, more than 1 billion people were using Facebook, or one in seven people. Other social networks, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, also continue to grow. In 2010, 46 percent of the visits to LinkedIn came from outside the United States, but by early 2012, the number had increased to 62 percent. Globalization has significantly affected the field of IT. Even though major IT companies such as Microsoft and IBM started in the United States, much of their business is global-indeed, companies and individuals throughout the world contribute to the growth of information technologies, and work and collaborate on various IT projects. It is important for project managers to address several key issues when working on global projects: • Communications: Because people work in different time zones, speak different languages, have different cultural backgrounds, and celebrate different holidays, it is important to address how people will communicate in an efficient and timely manner. A communications management plan is vital. For more details, see the plan described in Section 10, Project Communications Management. • Trust: Trust is an important issue for all teams, especially when they are global teams. It is important to start building trust immediately by recognizing and respecting others' differences and the value they add to the project. • Common work practices: It is important to align work processes and develop a modus operandi with which everyone agrees and is comfortable. Project managers must allow time for the team to develop these common work practices. Using special tools, as described next, can facilitate this process. • Tools: IT plays a vital role in globalization, especially in enhancing communications and work practices. Many people use free tools such as Skype, Google Docs, or social media to communicate. Many project management software tools include their own communications and collaboration features in an integrated package. New tools become available quickly. For example, at its Innovate 2011 conference, IBM announced new software offerings called Collaborative Lifecycle Management 3.0, which are built on IBM's Jazz open-development platform. The software supports collaborative interaction among workers throughout the world, making for a more fluid design process. Work groups must investigate options and decide which tools will work best for their projects. After researching over 600 global organizations, KPMG International summarized several suggestions for managing global project teams: • Employ greater project discipline for global projects; otherwise, weaknesses within the traditional project disciplines may be amplified by geographical differences. • Think globally, but act locally to align and integrate stakeholders at all project levels. • Consider collaboration over standardization to help balance the goals and project approach. • Keep momentum going for projects, which will typically have a long duration. • Consider the use of newer, perhaps more innovative, tools and technology. Outsourcing As described in detail in Section 12, Project Procurement Management, outsourcing is an organization's acquisition of goods and services from an outside source. The term offshoring is sometimes used to describe outsourcing from another country. Offshoring is a natural outgrowth of globalization. IT projects continue to rely more and more on out sourcing, both within and outside their country boundaries. Some organizations remain competitive by using outsourcing to their advantage. Many organizations have found ways to reduce costs by outsourcing, even though the practice can be unpopular in their home countries. For example, outsourcing was an important topic in the 2012 U.S. Republican presidential debates, as candidates discussed why Apple hires half a million low-paid workers in the Far East to assemble its products. A New York Times article explained that outsourcing is not just about low costs. "One former executive described how [Apple] relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone's screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight. A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company's dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day. 'The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,' the executive said. 'There's no American plant that can match that.' ========== GLOBAL ISSUES Outsourcing also has disadvantages. For example, Apple benefits from manufacturing products in China, but it had big problems there after its iPhone 4S launch in January 2012 caused fighting between migrant workers who were hired by scalpers to stand in line to buy the phones. When Apple said it would not open its store in Beijing, riots resulted and people attacked security guards. The Beijing Apple Store has had problems before. In May 2011, four people were injured when a crowd waiting to buy the iPad 2 turned ugly. Market analysts blamed Apple for not marketing or distributing its products well in China. ================== Because of the increased use of outsourcing for IT projects, project managers should become more familiar with many global and procurement issues, including working on and managing virtual teams. Virtual Teams Several factors, such as the cost and time required for travel or employee relocation, the ability to communicate and work across vast distances, the advantages of hiring people in locations that have a lower cost of living, and worker preferences for flexible work hours, have contributed to a significant increase in virtual project teams. A virtual team is a group of people who work together despite time and space boundaries using communication technologies. Team members might all work for the same company in the same country, or they might include employees as well as independent consultants, suppliers, or even volunteers providing their expertise from around the globe. The main advantages of virtual teams include: • Lowering costs because many virtual workers do not require office space or support beyond their home offices. • Providing more expertise and flexibility or increasing competitiveness and responsiveness by having team members across the globe working any time of day or night. • Improving the balance between work and life for team members by eliminating fixed office hours and the need to travel to work. Disadvantages of virtual teams include: • Isolating team members who may not adjust well to working in a virtual environment. • Increasing the potential for communications problems because team members cannot use body language or other nonverbal communications to understand each other and build relationships and trust. • Reducing the ability for team members to network and transfer information informally. • Increasing the dependence on technology to accomplish work. Like any team, a virtual team should focus on achieving a common goal. Research on virtual teams reveals a growing list of factors that influence their success: • Team processes: It is important to define how the virtual team will operate. For example, teams must agree on how and when work will be done, what technologies will be used, how decisions will be made, and other important process issues. • Leadership style: The project manager's leadership style affects all teams, especially virtual ones. • Trust and relationships: Many virtual teams fail because of a lack of trust. It is difficult to build relationships and trust from a distance. Some project managers like to have a face-to-face meeting so team members can get to know each other and build trust. If such a meeting is not possible, phone or video conferences can help. • Team member selection and role preferences: Dr. Meredith Belbin defined a team role as "a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way." It is important to select team members carefully and to form a team in which all roles are covered. All virtual team members must also understand their roles on the team. (Visit www.belbin.com for more information on this topic.) • Task-technology fit: IT is more likely to have a positive impact on individual performance if the capabilities of the technologies match the tasks that the user must perform. • Cultural differences: It is important to address cultural differences, including how people with authority are viewed, how decisions are made, how requests or questions are communicated, and how workers prefer to operate (in collaboration or individually). These cultural differences vary from location to location and affect many aspects of the team. • Computer-mediated communication: It is crucial to provide reliable and appropriate computer-mediated communication to virtual team members, including e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, and chat rooms. If you rely on these technologies to bring the virtual team together, you need to ensure that they actually work, or you risk increasing the distance that can exist across virtual boundaries. • Team life cycles: Just as projects and products have life cycles, so do teams. Project managers must address the team life cycle, especially when assigning team members and determining deliverable schedules. • Incentives: Virtual teams may require different types of incentives to accomplish high-quality work on time. They do not have the benefit of physical contact with their project managers or other team members, so it is important to provide frequent positive incentives, such as a thank-you via e-mail or phone, or even a bonus on occasion. Negative incentives, such as payment withholding or fines, can also be effective if virtual team members are not being productive. • Conflict management: Even though they might never meet, virtual teams will still have conflicts. It is important to address conflict management, as described in more detail in Section 9, Project Human Resource Management. Several studies have tried to determine factors that are correlated positively to the effectiveness of virtual teams. Research suggests that team processes, trusting relation ships, leadership style, and team member selection provide the strongest correlations to team performance and team member satisfaction. Agile Project Management The section on product life cycles earlier in this section mentions the agile approach, and increased interest in the topic makes it worthy of more coverage. The term agile has been used for several years in the software development community, and it recently has become a popular term in project management. Agile means being able to move quickly and easily, but some people feel that project management, as they have seen it used, does not allow people to work quickly or easily. Early software development projects often used a waterfall approach, as defined earlier in this section. As technology and businesses became more complex, the approach was often difficult to use because requirements were unknown or continuously changing. Agile today means using a method based on iterative and incremental development, in which requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration. Agile can be used for software development or in any environment in which the requirements are unknown or change quickly. In terms of the triple constraint, an agile approach sets time and cost goals but leaves scope goals flexible so the project sponsors or product owners can prioritize and reprioritize the work they want done. An agile approach makes sense for some projects, but not all of them. Many seasoned experts in project management warn people not to fall for the hype associated with Agile. For example, J. Leroy Ward, Executive Vice President at ESI International, said that "Agile will be seen for what it is … and isn't." According to Ward, "Project management organizations embracing Agile software and product development approaches will continue to grow while being faced with the challenge of demonstrating ROI through Agile adoption. In addition, they will need to disabuse their stakeholders and executives of the expectations set by IT consultants, the media and the vendor community that Agile is the next 'silver bullet.' Organizations that do it right-including selecting the right projects for Agile-will reap significant rewards. The Manifesto for Agile Software Development In the business world, the term agile was first applied to software development projects. In February 2001, a group of 17 people that called itself the Agile Alliance developed and agreed on the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, as follows: We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools • Working software over comprehensive documentation • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation • Responding to change over following a plan The person or organization that implements Agile is responsible for interpreting and applying the preceding values. Some people associate Agile with specific techniques such as Scrum. ==========
1. Product owner creates prioritized wish list or backlog 2. Project team creates sprint backlog 3. Teams have daily Scrum meetings during each 2-4 week sprint 4. Sprint results in a useful product ========== Scrum According to the Scrum Alliance, Scrum is the leading agile development method for completing projects with a complex, innovative scope of work. The term was coined in 1986 in a Harvard Business Review study that compared high-performing, cross-functional teams to the scrum formation used by rugby teams. The basic Scrum framework is summarized in the following list and illustrated in FIG. 6: • A product owner creates a prioritized wish list called a product backlog. • During sprint planning, the team pulls a small chunk from the top of that wish list, a sprint backlog, and decides how to implement those pieces. • The team has a certain amount of time, a sprint, to complete its work-usually two to four weeks-but meets each day to assess its progress (daily Scrum). • Along the way, the ScrumMaster keeps the team focused on its goal. • At the end of the sprint, the work should be potentially shippable, as in ready to hand to a customer, put on a store shelf, or show to a stakeholder. • The sprint ends with a sprint review and retrospective. • As the next sprint begins, the team chooses another chunk of the product backlog and begins working again. The cycle repeats until enough items in the product backlog have been completed, the budget is depleted, or a deadline arrives. Which of these milestones marks the end of the work is entirely specific to the project. No matter which impetus stops work, Scrum ensures that the most valuable work has been completed when the project ends. Scrum was initially applied to software development projects, but today other types of projects use this technique to help focus on teamwork, complete the most important work first, and add business value. See www.scrumalliance.org and the Suggested Readings on the companion Web site for more information on Scrum and Agile. Agile, the PMBOK Guide, and a New Certification The PMBOK Guide describes best practices for what should be done to manage projects. Agile is a methodology that describes how to manage projects. One could view Agile and the Scrum framework as methods that simply break down a big project into several smaller projects, defining the scope for each one. Project teams can have brief meetings each day to decide how to get the most important work done first without calling the meetings "scrums." As stated earlier in this section, several different methods are related to developing information systems and other products. Because projects are unique, someone must decide what processes are needed and how they should be performed. Project teams can follow one specific process, a hybrid of several, or their own customized approach. The Project Management Institute (PMI) recognized the increased interest in Agile, and introduced a new certification in 2011 called Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP). However, PMI was not compelled to write a new standard for agile project management. As stated on the PMI Web site, "The use of agile as an approach to managing projects has been increasing dramatically over the last several years. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2012, agile development methods will be used on 80 percent of all software development projects. PMI's research has shown that the use of agile has tripled from December 2008 to May 2011. Furthermore, research demonstrates the value that agile can have in decreasing product defects, improving team productivity, and increasing delivery of business value. The PMI-ACP is positioned to recognize and validate knowledge of this important approach." Consult PMI's Web site for more information. The increased interest in Agile is based partly on the hope that it will somehow make project management easier. Many books, courses, and consultants are capitalizing on this "new" approach. Seasoned project managers understand that they have always had the option of customizing how they run projects, but that project management is not easy, even when using Agile. Section 3 includes a case study that illustrates an agile approach to project management. As you can see, working as an IT project manager or team member is an exciting and challenging job. It's important to focus on successfully completing projects that will have a positive impact on the organization as a whole. ========== CASE CLOSING After several people voiced concerns about the tablet idea at the faculty meeting, the president of the college directed that a committee be created to formally review the concept of requiring students to have tablets. Because the college was dealing with several important enrollment-related issues, the president named the vice president of enrollment to head the committee. Other people soon volunteered or were assigned to the committee, including Tom Walters as head of Information Technology, the director of the adult education program, the chair of the Computer Science department, and the chair of the History department. The president also insisted that the committee include at least two members of the student body. The president knew everyone was busy, and he questioned whether the tablet idea was a high-priority issue for the college. He directed the committee to present a proposal at next month's faculty meeting, either to recommend creating a formal project team to fully investigate requiring tablets, or to recommend terminating the concept. At the next faculty meeting, few people were surprised to hear the recommendation to terminate the concept. Tom Walters learned that he had to pay much more attention to the needs of the entire college before proceeding with detailed IT plans. ========== Section Summary Projects operate in an environment broader than the project itself. Project managers need to take a systems approach when working on projects; they need to consider projects within the greater organizational context. Organizations have four different frames: structural, human resources, political, and symbolic. Project managers need to understand all of these aspects of organizations to be successful. The structural frame focuses on different groups' roles and responsibilities to meet the goals and policies set by top management. The human resources frame focuses on producing harmony between the needs of the organization and the needs of people. The political frame addresses organizational and personal politics. The symbolic frame focuses on symbols and meanings. The structure of an organization has strong implications for project managers, especially in terms of the amount of authority they have. The three basic organizational structures include functional, matrix, and project. Project managers have the most authority in a pure project organization, an intermediate amount of authority in a matrix organization, and the least amount of authority in a pure functional organization. Organizational culture also affects project management. Projects are more likely to succeed in a culture where employees have a strong identity 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 balance among the dimensions of people focus, control, and means orientation. Project stakeholders are individuals and organizations who are actively involved in the project or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the project's execution or successful completion. Project managers must identify and understand the different needs of all stakeholders on their projects. Top management commitment is crucial for project success. Because projects often affect many areas in an organization, top management must assist project managers if they are to do a good job of project integration. Organizational commitment to IT is also important to the success of IT projects. Development standards and guidelines assist most organizations in managing projects. A project life cycle is a collection of project phases. Traditional project phases include concept, development, implementation, and close-out phases. Projects often develop products, which follow product life cycles. Examples of product life cycles for software development include the waterfall, spiral, incremental build, prototyping, RAD, and adaptive software development models. Project managers must understand the specific life cycles of their products as well as the general project life cycle model. A project should successfully pass through each of the project phases in order to continue to the next phase. A management review should occur at the end of each project phase, and more frequent management inputs are often needed. These management reviews and inputs are important for keeping projects on track and determining if projects should be continued, redirected, or terminated. Project managers need to consider several factors affected by the unique context of IT projects. The diverse nature of these projects and the wide range of business areas and technologies involved make IT projects especially challenging to manage. Leading project team members with a variety of specialized skills and understanding rapidly changing technologies are also important considerations. Several recent trends have affected IT project management. Increased globalization, out sourcing, virtual teams, and agile project management have changed the way many IT projects are staffed and managed. Project managers must stay abreast of these and other trends and discover ways to use them effectively. Quiz 1. Which of the following is not part of the three-sphere model for systems management? a. business b. information c. technology d. organization 2. Which of the four frames of organizations addresses how meetings are run, employee dress codes, and expected work hours? a. structural b. human resources c. political d. symbolic 3. Personnel in a organizational structure often report to two or more bosses. a. functional b. project c. matrix d. hybrid 4. Project work is most successful in an organizational culture where all of the following characteristics are important except . a. member identity b. group emphasis c. risk tolerance d. control 5. A is a product or service, such as a technical report, a training session, or hard ware, produced or provided as part of a project. a. deliverable b. product c. work package d. tangible goal 6. Which of the following statements is false? a. An analysis project life cycle is a collection of project phases. b. A product life cycle is the same as a project life cycle. c. The waterfall approach is an example of a predictive life cycle model. d. Agile is an example of an adaptive life cycle model. 7. Which of the following terms describes a framework of the phases involved in developing information systems? a. systems development life cycle b. rapid application development c. predictive life cycle d. extreme programming 8. The nature of IT projects is different from projects in many other industries because they are very... a. expensive b. technical c. diverse d. challenging 9. What term describes an organization's acquisition of goods and services from an outside source in another country? a. globalization b. offshoring c. exporting d. global sourcing 10. is the leading agile development method. a. Extreme programming b. Sprint c. Six sigma d. Scrum Quiz Answers 1. b; 2. d; 3. c; 4. d; 5. a; 6. b; 7. a; 8. c; 9. b; 10. d Discussion Questions 1. What does it mean to take a systems view of a project? How does taking this view apply to project management? 2. Explain the four frames of organizations. How can they help project managers understand the organizational context for their projects? 3. Briefly explain the differences between functional, matrix, and project organizations. Describe how each structure affects the management of the project. 4. Describe how organizational culture is related to project management. What type of culture promotes a strong project environment? 5. Discuss the importance of top management commitment and the development of standards for successful project management. Provide examples to illustrate the importance of these items based on your experience on any type of project. 6. What are the phases in a traditional project life cycle? How does a project life cycle differ from a product life cycle? Why does a project manager need to understand both? 7. What makes IT projects different from other types of projects? How should project managers adjust to these differences? 8. Define globalization, outsourcing, virtual teams, and agile project management, and describe how these trends are changing IT project management. Exercises 1. Summarize the three-sphere model for systems management in your own words. Then use your own project experience or interview someone who recently completed an IT project, and list several business, technology, and organizational issues addressed during the project. Which issues were most important to the project, and why? Summarize your answers in a short paper or presentation. 2. Apply the four frames of organizations to a possible project that involves the development of a new technology like mobile banking, online retail, or social media. Work with two other class members in a virtual environment on this exercise. Write a short paper or presentation that summarizes your analysis and opinions of how working virtually helped or hindered your results. 3. Search the Internet for two interesting articles about software development life cycles, including agile development. Review the Web site www.agilealliance.org. What do these sources say about project management? Write a summary of your findings and opinions on this topic, and cite your references. Note: For this exercise and others, remember that you can find references cited in this text, suggested readings, and links to general project management Web sites on the companion Web site. 4. Search the Internet and scan IT industry magazines or Web sites to find an example of an IT project that had problems due to organizational issues. Write a short paper summarizing the key stakeholders for the project and how they influenced the outcome. 5. Write a short summary of an article that discusses the importance of top management sup port for successful IT projects. Your summary should include your opinion on this topic. 6. Research the trend of using virtual teams. Review the information on team role theory from belbin.com and other related sources. Write a summary of your findings, and cite at least three references. Also include any personal experience and your opinion on the topic. For example, what role(s) would you prefer to play on a team? Do you like working on virtual teams? If you have not yet worked on one, how do you think it would be different from working on a face-to-face team? 7. Research the agile movement as it applies to software development and other types of projects. See how many books and Web sites are available on the topic. Is there evidence to show that agile projects are more successful than others? What agile principles can be applied to all types of projects? Write a short paper that summarizes your findings, and cite at least three references. Also include any personal experience and your opinion on the topic. Terminology
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