Federal TVETI Wolkite Campus

Department of Information Technology

Chapter Three part I
Understanding motivations and concepts
 What is Project?
• A project is defined as a sequence of tasks that must be completed to attain a certain
outcome.

• A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.

• Operations and projects differ primarily in that operations are ongoing and repetitive
while projects are temporary and unique.

• Projects can be large or small and involve one person or thousands of people.

• They can be done in one day or take years to complete.

• Projects may involve a single unit of one organization or many cross-organizational

boundaries, as in joint ventures and partnering.
Cont…

• A project consists of interrelated activities which are to excited in a certain order before
the entire task is completed.

• The activities are interrelated in a logical sequence which is know as precedence

relationship.

• Project is represented in the form of a network for the purpose of analytical treatment
to get solution for scheduling and controlling its activities.

• Before the execution of a project it will pass different phases like planning, scheduling
and controlling step.

• Operations and projects share many characteristics; for example, they are: Performed
by people ;Constrained by limited resources, Planned, executed, and controlled
Project Attributes
• A project has a unique purpose: There must be a purpose to justify the need for a project.

• A project is temporary: A project has a definite beginning and a definite end.

• A project requires resources, often from various areas: Resources for an IT project can
include skilled employees from inside or outside of the company, hardware, software,
and other assets considered as necessary.

• A project should have a primary customer or sponsor: There may be many interested
parties who have a stake in a project, but there is usually only one main sponsor.

• A project involves uncertainty: Every project will face uncertainty. Anything can go wrong.
 The Triple Constraint
• Every project is constrained in different ways by its scope, time, and cost goals.

• Scope: What work will be done as part of the project? What unique product, service, or
result does the customer or sponsor expect from the project?

• Time: How long should it take to complete the project? What is the project’s schedule?
How will the team track actual schedule performance?

• Cost: What should it cost to complete the project? What is the project’s budget?
• We know for every project that:
 Projects must be within cost.
 Projects must be delivered on time.
 Projects must be within scope.
 Projects must meet customer quality requirements
Cont…
• Managing the triple constraint involves making trade-offs between scope, time, and cost
goals for a project.

• For example, you might need to increase the budget for a project to meet scope and time
goals.

• Alternatively, you might have to reduce the scope of a project to meet time and cost
goals.
What is Project Management?

• A project management is a set of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques that, when
applied, helps you produce better results for your project.

• It involves the planning, organization, monitoring, and control of all aspects of a project and
also the management, leadership, and motivation of all involved parties to achieve the

project objectives.

• Project management provides you with a process that you can follow, a series of moves that

will help you address some basic questions before you dive into getting the work done :
• What are you going to produce? What does the customer need? Who is going to do the
work? How long will it take? How much will it cost? What might go wrong? How can you
avoid potential problems?
Project Stakeholders
• Project Leader

• A project leader, also known as project manager, is the head of the project.

• The project leader leads the project team through the project management and team
processes so they can complete the project successfully.
• Project Team Members

• Project team members are the people who produce the output, called deliverables, for
the project.

• They also participate in the project management process.

• A project team member is accountable for ensuring that his or her work contributes to
the overall success of the project.
 Sponsor
• Sponsor is the management person who acts as a liaison between the management team
and the project leader.

• The sponsor makes sure that the project leader has the resources, training, support, and
cooperation he or she needs to get the job done.

• Project Customer

• Project customer is the person or group that will accept the final deliverable(s) that the
project produces. A customer can be internal or external.

• Most projects are done for internal customers, although the final deliverables produced
by the project might eventually be distributed to or purchased by external customers.
Project Management Knowledge Areas
• Project management knowledge areas describe the key competencies that project
managers must develop.

• These competence areas can be categorized as core knowledge areas, facilitating

knowledge areas or project integration management.

• The four core knowledge areas of project management include project scope, time, cost,
and quality management.

• The four facilitating knowledge areas of project management are human resource,
communications, risk, and procurement management.
 Core knowledge areas
• Project scope management involves defining and managing all the work required
to complete the project successfully.

• Project time management includes estimating how long it will take to complete
the work, developing an acceptable project schedule, and ensuring timely
completion of the project.

• Project cost management consists of preparing and managing the budget for the
project.

• Project quality management ensures that the project will satisfy the stated or
implied needs for which it was undertaken.
 Facilitating knowledge areas
• Project human resource management is concerned with making effective use of the
people involved with the project.

• Project communications management involves generating, collecting, disseminating, and

storing project information.

• Project risk management includes identifying, analyzing, and responding to risks related
to the project.

• Project procurement management involves acquiring or procuring goods and services for
a project from outside the performing organization.

Project integration management, the ninth knowledge area, is an overarching function

that affects and is affected by all of the other knowledge areas.
 Project Management Tools and Techniques
• Project management tools and techniques assist project managers and their teams in
carrying out the project.

• For example, some popular time management tools and techniques include Gantt charts,
project network diagrams, and critical path analysis.

• A project is said to be successful when the needs of both the customer and the
organization have been satisfied and when there has been organizational learning as a
result of the project.

• Customers are satisfied when you provide deliverable(s) meeting their needs and exceed
their expectations.
 Cont…
• Two types of success criteria are defined: completion and satisfaction.
 Completion criteria include contract-related items such as cost, time, and scope.

 Satisfaction criteria include utility (fitness for purpose), quality, and operation (ease of use, ease of
learning, ease of maintenance, etc.).

• According to Brandon (2006), the major IT success factors in the area of completion
criteria have been identified as:
 Ability to Perform: Includes having the necessary amount of resources needed and
the correct resources to carry out the project plan.
 Commitment to Perform: Includes both project sponsor and upper management
support.
 Cont…
• Methodology: Involves the selection of specific IT software engineering processes
(requirements analysis, systems analysis, design, development, documentation, testing,
etc.) and how these processes will be organized, utilized, and integrated both amongst
themselves and with the project management processes.

• Technology: Involves the proper selection of applicable technology for use both in the
product and in the process of building the product.

• Project Management: Addresses the use of proper project management skills and
knowledge in dealing with planning, schedule, cost, scope, risk, human resources, and
stakeholders.
Cont…
• In the area of satisfaction criteria, these major success factors have been identified:

• Business Justification: Involves some type of cost-benefit model.

• Validation: Is proof that the customer and end users are satisfied with the system; it
usually results in change orders when the user is not satisfied with an aspect of the
product.

• Workflow and Content: Involves the effective integration of the new product into the
organization and each user’s workflow.

• Standards: Relate to compliance with applicable industry, corporate, and customer

standards in regard to both external (i.e. user interface) and internal issues (i.e. coding
standards).
 Cont…
• Adaptability: Relates to the flexibility of the product to be adapted (successfully
modified) for evolving changes in the environment in which the product is deployed; this
includes both technical changes and business changes.

• Trust and Security: Relates to both the security built into the product and to the security
of the process for building the product.
 IT Project Management
• IT project management (ITPM) is the process of managing the plan, organization, and
accountability to achieve information technology goals.

• An information technology (IT) project is a type of project that deals with IT

infrastructure, information systems or computers.

• Examples of an IT project include web development, software development, mobile app

development, network configuration, software implementation, hardware installation,
database management, and IT emergency recovery.
Program, Project and Portfolio Management
• A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken by a company or organization (such as the
creation of a new product, service, or result)

• For example, assume you have been given a project to set up a call center for a company.
You complete the project, set up the call center, and hand it over to your client. Now your
client can provide a support service to their customers.

• A program is a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits

and control not available from managing them individually.

• As you can imagine, it is often more economical to group projects together to help
streamline management, staffing, purchasing, and other work.

• The following are examples of common programs in the IT field.

 Cont…
• Infrastructure: There could be several projects, such as providing more wireless Internet
access, upgrading hardware and software, and developing and maintaining corporate
standards for IT.

• Applications development: Under this program, there could be several projects, such as
updating an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, purchasing a new off-the-shelf
billing system, or developing a new capability for a customer relationship management
system.

• User support: In addition to the many operational tasks related to user support, many IT
departments have several projects to support users. For example, there could be a

project to provide a better e-mail system or one to develop technical training for users .
 Portfolio

• A portfolio refers to a group of related or unrelated projects or programs. A portfolio can

consist of multiple programs or multiple projects.

• It can have multiple, dissimilar projects because portfolio management deals with two or
more unrelated projects. Conversely, in program management, only related projects are
managed.

• For example, assume you have three projects: the first is to construct a building, the
second project is to conduct research on the impact of motor pollution on the
environment, and the third project is to set up a call center.
• How are you going to manage these projects?
 You will manage them by keeping them under a portfolio because they are neither
related nor similar to each other.
Project, Program and Portfolio

• Program management manages similar projects while portfolio management manages dissimilar
projects or programs.
• The scope of program management is broader than the project scope, and a portfolio has an
organization-wide scope, which changes with the strategic objectives of the organization
Cont…
 Project Phases and the Project Life Cycle
• A project life cycle is the sequence of phases that a project goes through from its initiation
to its closure.

• It is good practice to divide projects into several phases, project life cycle measures the
work that goes into a project from beginning to end.

• The number and sequence of the cycle are determined by the management and various
other factors like needs of the organization involved in the project, the nature of the
project, and its area of application.

• The phases have a definite start, end, and control point and are constrained by time. The
project lifecycle can be defined and modified as per the needs and aspects of the
organization
Cont…
1. The Initiation Phase: Starting of the project
2. The Planning Phase: Organizing and Preparing
3. The Execution Phase: Carrying out the project
4. The Termination Phase: Closing the project
 The Initiation Phase
• The initiation phase aims to define and authorize the project.

• A very high-level or summary plan for the project, which describes the need for the project and
basic underlying concepts, is developed.

• A preliminary or rough cost estimate of the project is developed.

• An overview of the work involved (work breakdown structure (WBS)) is created

• It includes information such as:

o Project’s purpose, vision, and mission

o Measurable objectives and success criteria

o Elaborated project description, conditions, and risks

o Name and authority of the project sponsor

o Concerned stakeholders
 Cont…
• The Planning Phase: The purpose of this phase is to lay down a detailed strategy of how
the project has to be performed and how to make it a success.

• In the planning phase, the project team creates:

 more detailed project plan,

 more accurate cost estimate, and

 more thorough WBS.

• The Execution Phase: In this phase, the decisions and activities defined during the
planning phase are implemented.

• During this phase, the project manager has to supervise the project and prevent any

errors from taking place.

 Cont…
• In this phase, the project team delivers:

 the required work,

 performance reports.

• The Termination Phase: This is the last phase of any project, and it marks the
official closure of the project.

• . In the close-out phase:

 All of the work is completed.

 Consumer acceptance of the entire project is issued.

 The project team documents their experiences on the project in a lessons-

learned report
Product Life Cycle
• The product life cycle is the process a product goes through from when it is first
introduced into the market until it declines or is removed from the market.

• The life cycle has four stages :-

• 1. Introduction :- Once a product has been developed, the first stage is its introduction
stage. In this stage, the product is being released into the market.

• During the introduction stage, marketing and promotion are at a high - and the company
often invests the most in promoting the product and getting it into the hands of
consumers.
Cont…
• 2. Growth:- By the growth stage, consumers are already taking to the product and
increasingly buying it.

• The product concept is proven and is becoming more popular - and sales are increasing.

• Other companies become aware of the product and its space in the market, which is
beginning to draw attention and increasingly pull in revenue.

• If competition for the product is especially high, the company may still heavily invest in
advertising and promotion of the product to beat out competitors.
3. Maturity
• When a product reaches maturity, its sales tend to slow or even stop - signaling a largely
saturated market.

• In this stage, saturation is reached and sales volume is maxed out.

• Companies often begin innovating to maintain or increase their market share, changing
or developing their product to meet with new demographics or developing technologies.

• The maturity stage may last a long time or a short time depending on the product.

• 4. Decline:- Although companies will generally attempt to keep the product alive in the
maturity stage as long as possible, decline for every product is inevitable.

• The company's product loses more and more market share, and competition tends to
cause sales to deteriorate.
 Project Life Cycle Vs Product Life Cycle
• A product life cycle can have single or multiple projects.

• The product life cycle is longer than the project life cycle.

• The project life cycle has a definite end while the product life cycle may not.

• The map for the product life cycle is conceptual and depends on market conditions while
projects have predictive and well-defined roadmaps.

• The product life cycle phases do not overlap while the project phases may overlap.

• Phases generally occur only once in the product life cycle while in the project life cycle phases
may repeat.

• Phases are sequential in the product life cycle, while in the project life cycle phases may or may
not be sequential.
 !!
o u
k Y
a n
T h