Lecture 1:

Introduction to Project Management

Information Technology Project Management,

Fourth Edition
 Overview
Introduction to Project Management
Integration Management
Scope Management
Time Management
Cost Management
Quality Management
Human Resource Management
Communications Management
Risk Management
Procurement Management

•2
 Introduction to Project
Management
Introduction
What is a project?
The project management process
Project management information
systems

•3
 Objectives
 Define what project is and describe project
management
 Understand the history of project management
 Understand the growing need for better IT/IS
project management
 Discuss key elements of the project
management framework
 Understand the role of the project manager for
information technology projects.

•4
 Motivation for Studying
Information Technology (IT)
Project Management

IT projects have a terrible track record.

A 1995 Standish Group study (CHAOS) found that
only 16.2 percent of IT projects were successful in
meeting scope, time, and cost goals.
Over 31 percent of IT projects were canceled
before completion, costing over $81 billion in the
U.S. alone.*

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 Advantages of Using Formal
Project Management
Better control of financial, physical, and
human resources.
Improved customer relations.
Shorter development times.
Lower costs.
Higher quality and increased reliability.
Higher profit margins.
Improved productivity.
Better internal coordination.
Higher worker morale (less stress).
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 What Is a Project?
 A project is “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create
a unique product, service, or result.”*
 Operations is work done to sustain the business.

 A project ends when its objectives have been reached, or

the project has been terminated.
 Projects can be large or small and take a short or long
time to complete.
 A unique process, consisting of a set of coordinated and
controlled activities with start and finish dates, undertaken
to achieve an objective conforming to specific
requirements including constraints of time, cost and
resources (Lockyer and Gordon, 1996)
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 Project Attributes
 A project:
 A unique process to achieve an objective.
 Is temporary.
 Is developed using progressive elaboration.
 Requires resources, often from various areas.
 Should have a primary customer or sponsor.
 The project sponsor usually provides the direction and
funding for the project.
 Involves uncertainty.
 Coordinated and controlled activities
 Start and finish dates
 Specific requirements
 Constraints of time, cost and resources

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 Project and Program
Managers
Project managers work with project sponsors,
project teams, and other people involved in
projects to meet project goals.
Program: “A group of related projects
managed in a coordinated way to obtain
benefits and control not available from
managing them individually.”*
Program managers oversee programs and often
act as bosses for project managers.

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 The Triple Constraint
Every project is constrained in different ways
by its:

Scope goals: What work will be done?

Time goals: How long should it take to

complete?

Cost goals: What should it cost?

It is the project manager’s duty to balance

these three often-competing goals.
•Information Technology Project Management,
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 Figure 1-1. The Triple Constraint
of Project Management

Successful project
management means
meeting all three
goals (scope, time,
and cost) – and
satisfying the
project’s sponsor!

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What is Project
Management?
Project management is the application of
knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to
project activities in order to meet project
requirements
A project is a temporary endeavor
undertaken to achieve a particular aim.
Project management knowledge and
practices are best described in terms of
their component processes

•12
History of Project
Management
Some people argue that building the
Egyptian pyramids was a project, as was
building the Great Wall of China
Most people consider the Manhattan
Project to be the first project to use
“modern” project management
This three-year, $2 billion (in 1946 dollars)
project had a separate project manager and
a technical manager

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Project Management
Framework
A set of processes, tools and templates,
designed to be used together to manage a
project through its lifecycle

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 Project Stakeholders
Stakeholders are the people involved in or
affected by project activities.
Stakeholders include:
Project sponsor
Project manager
Project team
Support staff
Customers
Users
Suppliers
Opponents to the project

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 Nine Project Management
Knowledge Areas
Knowledge areas describe the key
competencies that project managers must
develop.
Four core knowledge areas lead to specific
project objectives (scope, time, cost, and quality).
Four facilitating knowledge areas are the means
through which the project objectives are achieved
(human resources, communication, risk, and
procurement management).
One knowledge area (project integration
management) affects and is affected by all of the
other knowledge areas.
All knowledge areas are important!
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All Projects Should Have:
Project plan
Time frame
Product specification
Statement of required quality
Budget
Cost plan
Identification of areas of uncertainty
Risk evaluation and responses
 Project Management Tools and
Techniques

Project management tools and techniques assist

project managers and their teams in various
aspects of project management.
Specific tools and techniques include:
Project charters, scope statements, and WBS (scope).
Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path
analyses, critical chain scheduling (time).
Cost estimates and earned value management (cost).
See Table 1-1 for other examples.

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 Project Portfolio Management
Many organizations support an emerging
business strategy of project portfolio
management:

Organizations group and manage projects as

a portfolio of investments that contribute to
the entire enterprise’s success. (For more
information, see Chapter 7, Project Cost
Management.)

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 Improved Project
Performance
 The Standish Group’s CHAOS studies show
improvements in IT projects in the past decade.*

Measure 1994 Data 2002 Data Result

Successful projects 16% 34% Doubled
Failed projects 31% 15% Halved
Money wasted on $140 B out $55 B out of More than
challenged and of $250 B $255 B halved
failed projects

*The Standish Group, “Latest Standish Group CHAOS Report Shows Project Success Rates
Have Improved by 50%” (March 25, 2003).
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 Why the Improvements?
“The reasons for the increase in successful
projects vary. First, the average cost of a
project has been more than cut in half. Better
tools have been created to monitor and control
progress and better skilled project
managers with better management
processes are being used. The fact that there
are processes is significant in itself.”*

*The Standish Group, “CHAOS 2001: A Recipe for Success” (2001).

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 Project Success Factors*
1. Executive support 7. Firm basic
2. User involvement requirements
3. Experienced project 8. Formal methodology
manager 9. Reliable estimates
4. Clear business 10. Other criteria, such
objectives as small milestones,
5. Minimized scope proper planning,
6. Standard software competent staff, and
infrastructure ownership

*The Standish Group, “Extreme CHAOS” (2001).

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 The Role of the Project
Manager
Job descriptions vary, but most include
responsibilities such as planning,
scheduling, coordinating, and working with
people to achieve project goals.

Remember that 97 percent of successful

projects were led by experienced project
managers.

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 Fifteen Project Management Job
Functions*
 Define scope of project.  Evaluate project
requirements.
 Identify stakeholders,
 Identify and evaluate risks.
decision-makers, and
 Prepare contingency plan.
escalation procedures.
 Identify interdependencies.
 Develop detailed task list
 Identify and track critical
(work breakdown
milestones.
structures).
 Participate in project phase
 Estimate time requirements.
review.
 Develop initial project  Secure needed resources.
management flow chart.  Manage the change control
 Identify required resources process.
and budget.  Report project status.
*Northwest Center for Emerging Technologies, “Building a Foundation for Tomorrow: Skills Standards
•Information Technology Project Management,
•24for Information Technology,” Belleview, WA, 1999.
Fourth Edition
 Suggested Skills for Project
Managers
Project managers need a wide variety of skills.

They should:

Be comfortable with change.

Understand the organizations they work in and

with.

Lead teams to accomplish project goals.

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 Suggested Skills for Project
Managers

Project managers need both “hard” and

“soft” skills.

Hard skills include product knowledge and

knowing how to use various project
management tools and techniques.

Soft skills include being able to work with

various types of people.

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 Suggested Skills for Project
Managers
Communication skills: Listens, persuades.
Organizational skills: Plans, sets goals, analyzes.
Team-building skills: Shows empathy, motivates,
promotes esprit de corps.
Leadership skills: Sets examples, provides vision
(big picture), delegates, positive, energetic.
Coping skills: Flexible, creative, patient,
persistent.
Technology skills: Experience, project knowledge.

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 Media Snapshot – Good Project
Management Skills from The
Apprentice

 Leadership and  Be a team player.

professionalism are  Stay organized and don’t
crucial. be overly emotional.
 Know what your  Work on projects and for
sponsor expects from people you believe in.
the project, and learn  Think outside the box.
from your mistakes.  There is some luck
 Trust your team and involved in project
delegate decisions. management, and you
 should always aim high.
Know the business.
 Stand up for yourself.
•Information Technology Project Management,
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 Table 1-4. Most Significant
Characteristics of Effective and
Ineffective Project Managers
Effective Project Managers Ineffective Project Managers
• Leadership by example • Sets bad example
• Visionary • Not self-assured
• Technically competent • Lacks technical expertise
• Decisive • Poor communicator
• Good communicator • Poor motivator
• Good motivator
• Stands up to upper
management when
necessary
• Supports team members
• •Information
Encourages new ideas
Technology Project Management,
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 Importance of Leadership
Skills
Effective project managers provide
leadership by example.
A leader focuses on long-term goals and
big-picture objectives while inspiring people
to reach those goals.
A manager deals with the day-to-day
details of meeting specific goals.
Project managers often take on both leader
and manager roles.

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 Top Ten Most
In-Demand IT Skills

Rank IT Skill/Job Average Annual Salary

1 SQL Database Analyst $80,664
2 Oracle Database Analyst $87,144
3 C/C++ Programmer $95,829
4 Visual Basic Programmer $76,903
5 E-commerce/Java Developer $89,163
6 Windows NT/2000 Expert $80,639
7 Windows/Java Developert $93,785
8 Security Architect $86,881
9 Project Manager $95,719
10 Network Engineer $82,906
Paul Ziv, “The Top 10 IT Skills in Demand,” Global Knowledge Webcast
(www.globalknowledge.com) (11/20/2002).
•Information Technology Project Management,
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 Figure 1-3. Top Information
Technology Skills
70%
60% 58%
60%

50%
Percentage of 42% 41%
40%
Respondents
30%

20%

10%

0%
Application Project management Database Networking
development management

Information Technology (IT) Skill

•Information
Cosgrove, Lorraine, Technology Project
“January 2004 ITManagement,
Staffing Update,” CIO Research Reports (February 3, 2004).
•32 Fourth Edition
 Figure 1-4. Sample Gantt Chart
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The WBS is shown on the left, and each task’s start and finish dates
are shown on the right. First used in 1917, early Gantt charts were
drawn•Information
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by hand. Technology Project Management,
Fourth Edition
 Figure 1-5. Sample Network
Diagram

Each box is a project task from the WBS. Arrows show dependencies
between tasks. The bolded tasks are on the critical path. If any task on
the critical path takes longer to complete than planned, the whole
project will slip unless something is done. Network diagrams were
first used in 1958 on the Navy Polaris project before project
•34management
•Information software was
Technology Project available.
Management,
Fourth Edition
 Project Management Office
(PMO)
 A PMO is an organizational group responsible for
coordinating the project management function
throughout an organization.
 Possible goals include:
Collect, organize, and integrate project data for the
entire organization.
Develop and maintain templates for project documents.
Develop or coordinate training in various project
management topics.
Develop and provide a formal career path for project
managers.
Provide project management consulting services.
Provide a structure to house project managers while
•Information Technology Project Management,
•35 they are acting in those roles or are between projects.
Fourth Edition
 Project Management
Software
Enterprise PM software integrates
information from multiple projects to show
the status of active, approved, and future
projects across an entire organization.
It also provides links to more detailed
information on each project.
Many managers like to see status in color –
red, yellow, and green.

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 The Project Management
Profession
Professional societies such as the Project
Management Institute (PMI) have grown
significantly.
There are specific interest groups in many
areas, such as engineering, financial
services, health care, and IT.
Project management research and
certification programs continue to grow.

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 Project Management
Certification
PMI provides certification as a Project
Management Professional (PMP).
A PMP has documented sufficient project
experience, agreed to follow a code of
ethics, and passed the PMP exam.
The number of people earning PMP
certification is increasing quickly.
PMI and other organizations are offering
new certification programs (see Appendix
B).

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 Figure 1-7. Growth in PMP
Certification, 1993-2003
80,000 76,550

70,000
60,000
52,443
50,000
# PMPs

40,000 40,343

30,000 27,052

20,000 18,184

10,000 6,415
10,086
4,400
1,900 2,800
1,000
0
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

•Information Technology Project Management,

Year
•39 Fourth Edition
Introduction
What is a project?
The project
management process
Project management
information systems
Process Overview
A project is broken down into stages
Each stage in turn will be broken down into
smaller and more manageable tasks
It important to include planning as part of
the project management process
Four Phase Model
Lockyer (1996) describes a four phase
model of the project process
Conception - assess the feasibility of the
project
Development - prepare the project plan
Realisation - carry out the plan
Termination - close the project
Conception Reports On…
The capability of the organisation to
Produce the product in the time required
Support capital outlay
Procure external items or services

Conception
Development
Realisation
Termination
Conception Reports On…
The acceptability of
Geographical requirements on procurement or
ecology specified in the project enquiry
Contract conditions specified in enquiry

Conception
Development
Realisation
Termination
 Conception Reports On…
The final price for the product
The cost involved in development
The project budget
Specification of the product including quality
and reliability requirements

Conception
Development
Realisation
Termination
Conception

Can it be done?

Yes or No?

Conception
Development
Realisation
Termination
Conception ≈ Feasibility
It is possible that we
will reject the
project!

What are the

consequences of:
Too much detail?
Insufficient detail?
 Development
As the organisation is now committed to the
project it must:
Appoint a project manager
Assemble project team
Draw up a detailed plan of work

Conception
Development
Realisation
Termination
 Realisation
A reporting system is required to keep
everyone informed:
Team, top management, customers etc.
A log is also kept of problems and how they
were resolved

Conception
evelopment
Realisation
Termination
 Termination
Uses the project log to evaluate
the project and the process and
indicate:
The success/failure of methods used
How team members performed
How reliable suppliers were

Conception
evelopment
Realisation
Termination
 Termination
Capital equipment that was used for the
project is now likely to be redundant
Termination also involves getting rid of such
equipment as profitably as possible

Conception
evelopment
Realisation
Termination
Observations
Often the phases of the project will overlap
There is often a pause between conception
and the other phases
It is possible that each phase may be
treated as a project in its own right
This might affect continuity of the project
Introduction
What is a project?
The project management
process
Project management
information systems
PM Information Systems
Projects need systems that can collect data
in real time concerning the project progress
and costs
Data analysis and distribution of
information must be carried out as rapidly
as possible
 Ethics in Project Management
Ethics is an important part of all professions.
Project managers often face ethical dilemmas.
In order to earn PMP certification, applicants
must agree to the PMP code of professional
conduct.
Several questions on the PMP exam are
related to professional responsibility, including
ethics.

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 Project Management
Software
There are currently hundreds of different
products to assist in performing project
management.
Three main categories of tools:
Low-end tools: Handle single or smaller projects
well; cost under $200 per user.
Midrange tools: Handle multiple projects and
users; cost $200-500 per user; Project 2003 most
popular (includes an enterprise version).
High-end tools: Also called enterprise project
management software; often licensed on a per-
user basis; VPMi Enterprise Online
(www.vcsonline.com).
•Information Technology Project Management,
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 Chapter Summary
 As the number and complexity of projects continue to
grow, it is becoming even more important to practice
good project management.
 A project has several attributes, such as being unique,
temporary and developed incrementally.
 A framework for project management includes project
stakeholders, the nine knowledge areas, tools and
techniques, and creating project portfolios to ensure
enterprise success.
 Successful project managers must possess and
development many skills and lead their teams by
example.
 The project management profession continues to mature
as•Information
more people become certified and more tools are
Technology Project Management,
•57 created.
Fourth Edition
Questions
What are the defining characteristics of
Software/Information Systems projects that
make them different from other types of
project?
See Sommerville’s “Software Engineering” for
examples
Is the development of an information system a
project?
Explain your answer using information from this
lecture
How does the four phase model compare to the
waterfall model of software development?