Assignment 1: The Role of Project Managers

Course: IT project Management

Course no: CIS 517
Professor: Dr. James Thomas
Submitted by: Sabbir Imam Jan
30th July 15

Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, motivating, and

controlling resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary
endeavor with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and
often constrained by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique
goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added
value. The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast with business as
usual (or operations), which are repetitive, permanent, or semi-permanent
functional activities to produce products or services. In practice, the
management of these two systems is often quite different, and as such
requires the development of distinct technical skills and management
strategies. (http://www.projectmanagementexplained .com/)
The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the
project goals and objectives while honoring the preconceived constraints.
The primary constraints are scope, time, quality and budget. The secondary
and more ambitious challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary
inputs and integrate them to meet pre-defined objectives.
Approaches
There are a number of approaches to managing project activities including
lean, iterative, incremental, and phased approaches. Regardless of the
methodology employed, careful consideration must be given to the overall
project objectives, timeline, and cost, as well as the roles and responsibilities
of all participants and stakeholders.

The Traditional Approach

A traditional phased approach identifies a sequence of steps to be
completed. In the "traditional approach", five developmental components of
a project can be distinguished (four stages plus control):
Typical development phases of an engineering project
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Initiation
Planning and design
Execution and construction
Monitoring and controlling systems
Completion

Not all projects will have every stage, as projects can be terminated
before they reach completion. Some projects do not follow a structured
planning and/or monitoring process. And some projects will go through steps
2, 3 and 4 multiple times.
Many industries use variations of these project stages. For example, when
working on a brick-and-mortar design and construction, projects will typically
progress through stages like pre-planning, conceptual design, schematic
design, design development, construction drawings (or contract documents),
and construction administration. In software development, this approach is
often known as the waterfall model, i.e., one series of tasks after another in
linear sequence. In software development many organizations have adapted

the Rational Unified Process (RUP) to fit this methodology, although RUP does
not require or explicitly recommend this practice. Waterfall development
works well for small, well-defined projects, but often fails in larger projects of
undefined and ambiguous nature. The Cone of Uncertainty explains some of
this as the planning made on the initial phase of the project suffers from a
high degree of uncertainty. This becomes especially true, as software
development is often the realization of a new or novel product. In projects
where requirements have not been finalized and can change, requirements
management is used to develop an accurate and complete definition of the
behavior of software that can serve as the basis for software development.
While the terms may differ from industry to industry, the actual stages
typically follow common steps to problem solving"defining the problem,
weighing options, choosing a path, implementation and evaluation."( Kezsbom,
et al )

Project management may not be the most exciting job in IT these days,
especially when most of the talk about hot IT jobs pertains to software
developers, information security professionals and business intelligence
analysts. Nevertheless, IT project management remains a stable, lucrative
career with opportunities for growth, according to the latest salary survey
from the Project Management Institute (PMI).
"We're seeing huge demand for IT project and program managers," says
Mark Langley, president and CEO of PMI. "The data in the survey
demonstrates that."

Indeed, the median base salary for an individual working in the field of
project management in the U.S. is $105,000. Such a high median shows that
companies are willing to pay top dollar for project management expertise.
Employers pay even higher salaries to project managers who hold the PMI's
Project Management Professional (PMP) certification: Those who've held a
PMP for five to less than 10 years earn a median base salary of $113,000,
while those who've maintained a PMP for 10 to less than 20 years earn a
median base salary of $120,000, according to the survey. Langley notes that
PMP certified project managers earned 10 percent more than non-certified
project managers last year. This year, they earned 16 percent more.
The industries that pay project managers the best are consulting (median
base salary of $120,000), natural resources (median base salary of
$116,000),

pharmaceuticals

(median

base

salary

of

$113,909),

and

aerospace and engineering (both of which pay median base salaries of

$110,000). The IT industry ranked seventh with a median base salary of
$104,000. The Project Management Institute surveyed more than 30,000
project management professionals in 29 countries. In the U.S. alone, 13,572
project management professionals responded to the survey.
A project manager is the person who has the overall responsibility for the
successful initiation, planning, design, execution, monitoring, controlling and
closure of a project. The job title is used in construction, petrochemical,
architecture, information technology and many different industries that
produce products and services. The project manager must have a

combination of skills including an ability to ask penetrating questions, detect

unstated assumptions and resolve conflicts, as well as more general
management skills. Key among his or her duties is the recognition that risk
directly impacts the likelihood of success and that this risk must be both
formally and informally measured throughout the lifetime of the project.
Risks arise from uncertainty, and the successful project manager is the one
who focuses on this as the main concern. Most of the issues that impact a
project arise in one-way or another from risk. A good project manager can
lessen

risk

significantly,

often

by

adhering

to

policy

of

open

communication, ensuring every significant participant has an opportunity to

express opinions and concerns.
Project managers use project management software, such as Microsoft
Project, to organize their tasks and workforce. These software packages allow
project managers to produce reports and charts in a few minutes, compared
with the several hours it can take if they do it by hand.
Roles and Responsibilities
The role of the project manager encompasses many activities including:
Planning and Defining Scope

Developing a Budget

Activity Planning and Sequencing

Documentation

Resource Planning

Creating Charts and Schedules

Developing Schedules

Risk Analysis

Time Estimating

Managing Risks and Issues

Cost Estimating

Monitoring and Reporting Progress

Team Leadership

Scalability, Interoperability and

Strategic Influencing

Portability Analysis

Business Partnering

Controlling Quality

Working with Vendors

Benefits Realization

Finally, senior management must give a project manager support and

authority if he or she is going to be successful.
The persistence of high failure rates suggests that IT projects are more
complicated and difficult to complete successfully than we generally
recognize. The common view that projects are merely a bundle of
implementation steps does not sufficiently address underlying business,
organizational, and human dimensions essential to success.
Traditional approaches to prevent failure typically rely on systematic
checklists and work flows that describe and govern how a project proceeds
from conception to completion. These methodologies are important to
coordinate members of the project team, ensure consistency, and maintain
efficiency. In other words, they are keep everyone associated with a project
organized and on the same page.
However, while being organized is important, it does not create success or
drive the business value that really matters.
Reference:
1. Project management. Retrieved on 25th July from
http://www.projectmanagementexplained.com/
2. Project management salaries show growth career potential. Retrieved
on 24th July from http://www.cio.com/article/2399822/careersstaffing/project-management-salaries-show-earnings-growth--careerpotential.html
3. The role of Project manager. Retrieved on 24th July from
https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-role-of-the-project-manager.php
4. Deborah Kezsbom, et al., Dynamic Project Management. John Wiley & Sons, 1989.

5. Three truth of IT success. Retrieved on 24th July from

http://www.zdnet.com/article/three-truths-of-it-success/