Chapter I part II

More On Introduction to
IT PROJECTS (with special
emphasis on system
developments)
Cont…
 Creating and implementing
successful projects require
managing resources, activities, and
tasks needed to complete the
information systems project.
 A project is a planned undertaking

of a series of related activities to

reach an objective that has a
beginning and end.
 The first question you might ask

yourself is "Where do projects

come from?"
Cont…
 "How do I know which projects to
work on?"
 During project identification and

selection the need for a new or

enhanced system is recognized.
 Project identification and selection

is a pre-project step in the life

cycle.
 Organization vary in as to how they

identify potential projects.

Cont..
 There is a variety of forms to be used in
requesting for information systems
development.
 One form is a System Service
Request (SSR) filled by user
departments collaborating with a
system analyst
 This request(SSR) was then evaluated
by the Systems Priority Board.
 The review board selects those
projects that best meet overall
organizational objectives.
Cont…
 In summary, systems development
projects are undertaken for two
primary reasons;
 To take advantage of business
opportunities and
 To solve business problems.
Information System Project
Phase
 Determining the size, scope, and
resource requirements for a project
are just a few of the many activities that
a project manager must involve.
 He/she is a person who is responsible for
initiating, studding, planning,
executing, and closing down a
project.
 The project management process, which
involves four phases:
 Initiating the project
 Planning the project
 Executing the project
 Closing down the project
Information System Project
Phase
 Several activities must be
performed during each of these
four phases.
Initiating a Project
 During project initiation, the project
manager performs several activities that
assess the size, scope, and complexity of
the project.
 The Activities are:
1. Establishing the project initiation team.
 This activity involves organizing an initial
core of project team members.
2. Establishing a relationship with the
customer.
 A thorough understanding of your
customer builds stronger partnership and
higher levels of trust.
Initiating a Project

3. Establishing the project initiation

plan.
 This step defines the activities
required to organize the initiation
team.
 The two core team members of the
project needed to define when and
how they would communicate, define
deliverables and project steps, and set
deadlines.
 These steps eventually led to the
Initiating a Project
4. Establishing management
procedures.
 Successful projects require the
development of effective management
procedures.
 In some org’n, many of the mgt
procedure would be established as
standard operating procedure.
 In establishing procedures, you are
concerned with developing.
 team communication and reporting
procedure,
Initiating a Project

job assignments and roles, project change
procedures, and

Determining how project funding and
billing will be handled.
5. Establishing the project management
environment and project workbook.
 The focus to this activity is to collect and
organize the tools that you will use while
managing the project and to construct the
project workbook.
 The project workbook serves as a
repository for all project correspondence,
inputs, outputs, deliverables, procedures,
and standards established by the project
team.
Planning the Project
 Project planning involves defining clear,
discrete activities and the work needed
to complete each activity within a single
project.
 There is positive relationship between
effective project planning and better
project outcomes.
 In actual fact, you often have to
construct longer-term plans that are
more general in scope and nearer term
plans that are more detailed.
Planning the Project
 Varied and numerous activities will be
performed during project planning.
1. Describing project scope,
alternatives, and feasibility.
 The purpose of this activity is to
understand the content and
complexity of the project.
 The scope answer the following
question
 What problem or opportunity does
the project address?
 What are the quantifiable results to
be achieved?
Planning the Project
 How will success be measured?
 How will we know when we are
finished?
 After defining the scope of the project,
identify and document general
alternative solution for the current
business problem or opportunity.
 You must then assess the feasibility of
each alternative solution and choose
which to consider during subsequent
SDLC phases
 In some instances, off-the-shelf
software can be found.
Planning the Project
 It is also important that any unique
problems, constraints, and
assumptions about the project be
clearly stated.
2. Dividing the project into
manageable tasks.
 Divide the entire project into
manageable tasks and then logically
order them to ensure a smooth
evolution between tasks.
 The definition of tasks and their
sequence is referred to as the work
breakdown structure.
Planning the Project
 Some tasks may be performed in parallel
where as others must follow one another
sequentially.
 Defining tasks in too much detail will
make the management of the project
unnecessarily complex.
 For example, it may be very difficult to
list tasks that require less than one hour
of time to complete in a final work
breakdown structure.
3. Estimating resources and creating
a resource plan.
 Estimate resource requirements for each
project activity and use this information
Planning the Project
 The resource plan helps assemble and
deploy resource in the most effective
manner.
 Estimate resource requirements for each
project activity and use this information
to create a project resource plan.
 The resource plan helps assemble and
deploy resource in the most effective
manner.
 Project time estimates for task
completion and overall system quality
are significantly influenced by the
assignment of people to tasks.
Planning the Project
 One approach to assigning tasks is to
assign a single task type to each worker
for the duration of the project.
4. Developing preliminary
schedule.
 Using the information on tasks and
resource availability assign time
estimates by to creating target starting
and ending dates for the project.
 Target dates can be revised and modified
until a schedule produced is acceptable
to the customer.
Planning the Project
 The schedule may be represented as a
Gantt chart or as a Network diagram
(PERT) chart.
5. Developing a communication
plan.
 Outline the communication procedures
among management, project team
members, and the customer.
 The communication plan includes when
and who written and oral reports will be
provided by the team,
6. Determining project standards
and procedures.
Planning the Project
 You will specify how various deliverables are
produced and tested by you and your
project team.
 For example, the team must decide:
 which tools to use
 how the standard SDLC might be modified,
 which SDLC methods will be used
 documentation styles (e.g., type fonts and
margins for user manuals).
 Setting project standards and procedures
for work acceptance is a way to assure the
development of a high-quality system.
Planning the Project
7. Identifying and assessing
risk.
 It identify sources of project risk and
to estimate the consequences of those
risks.
 Risk might arise:
 from the use of new technology,
 prospective users' resistance to change,
8. Creating a cost benefit
analysis.
 Create a preliminary budget that
outlines the planned expenses and
Planning the Project
 The project justification will
demonstrate that the benefits are
worth these costs.
 This analysis shows net present value
calculations of the project's benefits
and costs as well as a return on
investment and cash flow analysis.
9. Developing a Statement of
Work.
 It is developed primarily for the
customer.
 This document outlines work that will
Planning the Project
 The statement of Work is useful to make
sure that you, the customer, and other
project team members have a clear
understanding of the intended project
outcomes.
10. Setting a Baseline Project Plan.
 Once all of the project planning activities
have been completed, you will be able to
develop a baseline project plan.
 This baseline plan provides an estimate
of the project's tasks and resource
requirements and is used to guide in
next project phase - execution.
Planning the Project
 As new information is acquired
during project executions, the
baseline plan will continue to
update.
Executing the Project
 Project execution puts the Baseline
Project Plan into action.
 project execution occurs primarily
during the analysis, design, and
implementation phase.
 the project manager is responsible
for five key activities during project
execution.
Executing the Project
1. Executing the Baseline Project
Plan.
 you initiate the execution of project
activities, acquire and assign
resources; orient and train new team
members, keep the project on
schedule, and assure the quality of
project deliverables.
 You are responsible for initiating new
team members by providing them
with the resources thy need and
helping them assimilate into the
team.
Executing the Project
 Regular team project status meeting,
team-level reviews of project
deliverables, and other group events to
mold the group into an effective team.
2. Monitoring Project Progress against
the Baseline Project Plan.
 While you execute the Baseline Project
Plan, you should monitor your progress.
 If the project gets ahead of (or behind)
schedule, you may have to adjust
resources, activities, and budgets.
Executing the Project
 Monitoring project activities can
result in modifications to the current
plan.
 Measuring the time and effort
expended on each activity will help
you improve the accuracy of
estimations for future projects.
3. Managing changes to the Baseline
Project Plan.
 You will encounter pressure to make
changes to the baseline plan.
Executing the Project
 You include only approved changes to the
project specification, all changes must be
reflected in the baseline plan and project
workbook.
 A formal change request must be submitted
and approved by the steering committee.
 The request should explain why changes are
desired and describe all possible impacts on
prior and subsequent activities, project
resources, and the overall project schedule.
 In addition to changes occurring through
formal request, changes may also occur from
events outside your control.
Executing the Project
4. Maintaining project workbook
 Maintain complete records of all
project events.
 The workbook provides the
documentation new team members
require to assimilate project tasks
quickly.
 It explains why design decisions
were made and is a primary source
of information for producing all
project reports.
Executing the Project
5. Communicating the project status.
 The project manger is responsible for
keeping all team abreast of the project
status.
 Clear communication is required to
create a shared understanding of the
activities and goals of the project; such
an understanding assures better
coordination of activities.
 Procedures for communication project
activities vary from formal meeting to
informal hallway discussions.
Executing the Project
 The ease with which the project
can be managed is significantly
influenced by the quality of prior
phases.
 If you develop a high-quality
project plan, it is much more likely
that the project will be
successfully executed.
Closing Down the project
 The focus of project closedown is to
bring the project to an end.
 Project can conclude with a natural or
unnatural termination.
 Several events can cause an
unnatural termination to a project.
For example,
 it may be learned that the
assumption used to guide the project
proved to be false or
Closing Down the project
 the performance of the system or
development group was somehow
inadequate.
 the requirements are no longer relevant or
valid in the customer’s business
environment.
 The most likely reasons for the unnatural
termination of a project relate to running
out of time or money, or both
 The performance of the system or
development group was somehow
Closing Down the project
 Regardless of the project termination
outcome, several activities must be
performed.
 Within the context of the SDLC, project
closedown occurs after the implementation
phase.
1. Closing down the project.
 project completion may signify job and
assignment changes for some members.
 Assess each team member and provide an
appraisal for personnel files and salary
determination.
Closing Down the project
 write letters to superiors, praising special
accomplishments of team members, and
send thank-you letters to those who
helped but were not team members.
 notify all interested parties that the
project has been completed.
 finalize all project documentation and
financial records so that a final review of
the project can be conducted.
 You should also celebrate the
accomplishments of the.
Closing Down the project
2. Conducting post project
reviews.
 Final review of the project would be
conducted with management and
customers.
 The objective of these reviews is:
 To determine the strengths and
weaknesses of project deliverables,
 To evaluate the processes used to
create the deliverables, and the
project management process.
Closing Down the project
 It is important that everyone
understands what went right and what
went wrong in order to improve the
process for the next project.
3. Closing the customer contract.
 The focus of this final activity is to
ensure that all contractual terms of the
project have been met.
 you must gain agreement from your
customer that all contractual obligations
have been met.
Closing Down the project
 You must also must agreed that
further work is either their
responsibility or covered under
another System Service Request or
contract.
 A project is not complete until it is
closed, and it is at closedown that
projects are deemed a success or
failure.
End of Chapter I