Project Management

CSC 2202 Systems Analysis and Design 1

 Project Management

•Defining project management

•Project management objectives
•Sources of information system
development projects
•Functions of the project manager
•Project management techniques
•Reasons for project success & failure

CSC 2202 Systems Analysis and Design 2

 Why Project Management?

Project Management is applied

during Systems Analysis, Design
and Implementation. Information
Systems development is almost
always done under the auspices of a
project.

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 Definition of Project
Management
Definition:
Information Systems Project
Management is a process of
directing the development of an
acceptable Information System at a
minimum cost within a specified
time frame.

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 Project Management - Objectives
• Understand the need for effective project
management to ensure project success
• Develop project plans, critical paths and other
estimation instruments to facilitate effective
project planning
• Evaluate and resolve the difficulties of project
management
• Plan and resource projects to produce results
on-time and within budget
• Identify strategies for good project estimation
and management

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 Planning, Scheduling, Control,
Adjustment
Project Management includes the following:
• Planning - determine all tasks involved in a
project
• Scheduling - determine the sequence of
tasks over time
• Control - monitor work progress by
comparing plans with actual progress
• Adjustment - take appropriate corrective
action to keep the project “on track”

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 Process of Project
Management
A project is finite
A project has a well-defined end
A project is non repetitive
Project complexity is made manageable
by subdividing the project phases into
many tasks

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 Sources of Systems
Development Projects
 Systems Development Projects result
from one of three sources: -
A directive or mandate from
some person, such as a
president, vice president, or
senior Manager of an
organization.

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 Sources of Systems
Development Projects
1. An opportunity to exploit. The
opportunity usually results in
increased revenues and/ or profits
reduced costs, or increased or
improved services.
2. A problem to solve. Something
usually isn’t working correctly and
needs fixing.

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 Functions of the Project
Manager
1. Planning Project tasks and
staffing the project team – a good
manager always has a plan. The
manager estimates resource
requirements and formulates a plan
to deliver the target system. Each
task required to complete the
project must be planned.
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 Functions of the Project
Manager
Some of the planning issues include:
How much time will be required?
How many people will be needed?
How much will the task cost?
What tasks must be completed before
other tasks are started?
Can some of the tasks overlap?

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 Functions of the Project Manager

2. Organizing and scheduling the

project effort – members of the
project team should understand
their own individual roles and
responsibilities as well as their
reporting relationship to the project
manager.

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Functions of the Project Manager

The project schedule should be

developed with an understanding of
task time requirements, personnel
assignments, and intertask
dependencies.

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 Functions of the Project Manager

3. Directing and controlling the

project – once the project has begun the
project manager becomes the project
leader. As a leader the project manager
directs the team’s activities and
evaluates progress. The manager must
frequently report progress to superiors.
The manager’s job is to monitor tasks,
schedules, and costs in order to control
those elements.
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 Project Management Techniques

PERT Network and Gantt chart

 There are 2 commonly used Project
Management tools:
Program Evaluation and Review
Techniques (PERT) charts which are
most useful for project planning and
modification.
Gantt charts which are for project
scheduling and progress reporting.

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Project Management Techniques

A PERT network is
A graphical representation of project
tasks laid out in the form of a critical
path network 
A Gantt chart shows
Project tasks and their deviations in a
bar chart format in the planning and
estimating of a project prior to its
inception.

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Project management Techniques

Steps to Create a PERT Chart

Determine the task durations (time)
Assign an identification letter to each
task
Draw the PERT network, number each
node.
Label each task with its task
identification letter.

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Project Management Techniques

Steps to Create a PERT Chart

Connect each node from start to finish
And put each task’s duration on the
network
Determine the need for any dummy tasks
Determine the earliest completion time
for each task node
Verify the PERT network for correctness.

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 Network diagram - example
LEGEND: Task
Task to build roof duration
- also called task
2, 3 3

Roof Paint
1 7

1 Wall Plumb
2 5 Move 6
2 2
4
Elec
3 Dummy
4 0

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 Identify the Critical Path
First draw the network of all tasks
Identify all possible paths through the
network
For each path, add together all task
durations
Path with the longest duration is the
critical path
This longest duration is the time required
to complete the project

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 Critical Path and Slack

Tasks on the critical path are

critical tasks
If the duration of any critical
task increases, then the whole
project duration will increase

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Critical Path and Slack
Tasks not on the critical path
have slack
If the duration of any non
critical task increases
(slightly), then the whole
project duration will not
increase

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 PERT Network
PERT Network Strengths
• It assists determine task
dependencies
• PERT network is continuously
useful to project managers prior
to and during a project.
• PERT network is straightforward
in its concept and is supported
by soft ware.
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PERT network
Pert strengths
4. The PERT network’s graphical
representation of the project’s
critical path and task slack
time allows the project manager
to focus more attention on the
critical aspects of the project-
time, costs, and people..

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PERT network
Pert strengths
5. The project management software
that creates the PERT network
usually provides excellent project
tracking documentation.
6. The use of the PERT network is
applicable in a wide variety of
projects.
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 PERT network

Weaknesses of the PERT network:

• In order for the PERT network to
be useful, project tasks have to be
clearly defined as well as their
relationships to each other.
• The PERT network does not deal
very well with task overlap. PERT
assumes that following tasks after
their preceding tasks end.
CSC 2202 Systems Analysis and Design 26
PERT network
3. The PERT network is only good as the
time estimates that are entered by the
project manager.
4. By design, the project manager will
normally focus more attention on the
critical path tasks than other tasks,
which could be problematic for near-
critical path tasks if overlooked.

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 The Gantt chart
• The Gantt chart is based on a two-
dimensional graph scale.
• Each of the significant project tasks is
listed along the vertical axis of the graph,
and the estimated elapsed calendar time
to complete the entire project is listed
along the horizontal axis.
• An appropriate calendar time interval,
such as days, weeks, or months is
selected for the horizontal axis.
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 The Gantt chart

• The Gantt chart is at its best for

visually showing each of the
project’s task status at any
moment in time simply by
drawing a vertical bar from top to
bottom on the chart at the
calendar time you are interested
in.

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 The Gantt chart

• Once drawn, a visual inspection

of the shading within each of the
bars on the chart gives you an
indication of project task status
for each task.

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 The Gantt chart

It is also useful for showing any

overlapping or parallel tasks. It
does not clearly show task
dependence, even though it does
show task start and stop times,
and you can clearly see that
tasks start after others have
already begun or are already
finished.

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 Gantt
chart
Manual
Gantt
chart
Solid bar
= actual
work
Hollow bar
= planned
work

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 SC
Gantt chart
and
Fig 26
PERT/CPM
for project
implement-
ation phase

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 The Gantt chart

Gantt Chart Strengths

Being able to see overlapping or
parallel tasks.
Being able to see the status of
each project task at any point in
time.

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 The Gantt chart

Gantt Chart Weaknesses

Not being able to definitely tell from
the Gantt chart whether the entire
project is on time, behind time, or
ahead of schedule.
Not showing task dependencies.

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Project Management - manual versus
automated

Difficult to manually manage a large

project
Many project management packages
exist
e.g. Microsoft Project, Mac Project II,
Time Line, Primavera, CA Superproject,
Project Scheduler 6

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MS Project - Gantt chart

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 Keys to Project Success
Successful systems must satisfy
business requirements, meet users’
needs, stay within budget, and be
completed on time
The essential objective is to provide a
solution to a business problem

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 Keys to Project Success
Some reasons for failure
 Unclear requirements, targets, or scope
 Shortcuts or sloppy work
 Poor design choices
 Insufficient testing or test procedures
 Lack of software change control
 Changes in culture, funding, or objectives

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 Keys to Project Success
Some reasons for failure
 Unrealistic cost estimates
 Poor monitoring and control of progress
 Inadequate reaction to early signs of
problems
 Failure to recognize activity dependencies
 Personality conflicts and employee
turnover

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 Systems Development Failures

Some reasons for failure

 Use of undisciplined development
methodologies or approaches.
 Inadequate or not understood or appreciated
Systems Development tools.
 Project Scope was not clearly defined in the
beginning.
 Use of no or poor estimating techniques.

 Schedule delays.

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 Keys to Project Success
When the project manager recognizes a
problem, what options are available?
 Trim the project requirements
 Add to the project resources

 Delay the project deadline

 Improve the quality of project management

Whatever the reason, the project manager

must try to get the project back under control
and keep it under control
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 What constitutes a Systems
Development project failure

The organization completely abandons

the project at some point prior to its
implementation.
The organization must rework a
significant amount of the project, so
much so that they deem it a failure but
do go ahead and initiate the network.

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 What constitutes a Systems
Development project failure

The delivered Information Systems is

okay, but the project was way over time
and budget, therefore, it is defined a
failure.
The delivered Information Systems
doesn’t meet the user requirement or
expectations, therefore; it is deemed a
failure.

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Review Questions
1. Describe and explain the essential
characteristics of effective and
successful project management.
2. Explain the importance of critical path
and critical task estimation.
3. Explain the importance of graphical
output in representing project plans
(network diagrams.)

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