MIS Project Management at First National Bank During the last five years, First National Bank (FNB) has been one of the fastest- growing banks in the Midwest. The holding company of the bank has been actively involved in purchasing small banks thoughout the state of Ohio. This expansion and the resulting increase of operations had been attended by considerable growth in numbers of employees and in the complexity of the organizational structure. In five years the staff of the bank has increased by 35 percent, and total assets have grown by 70 percent. FNB management is eagerly looking forward to a change in the Ohio banking laws that will allow statewide branch banking, INFORMATION SERVICES DIVISION (ISD) HISTORY Data processing at FNB has grown at a much faster pace than the rest of the bank. ‘The systems and programming staff grew from owelve in 1970 to more than seventy-five during the first part of 1977. Because of several future projects, the staf was expected to increase by 50 percent during the next two years. Prior to 1972, the Information Services Department reported to the executive vice president of the Consumer Banking and Operations Division. As a result, the first banking applications to be computerized were in the demand deposit, sav- ings, and consumer credit banking areas, ‘The computer Was seen as a tool to Priorities Committee 87 Exhibit |. Information Services Division organizational chart speed up the processing of consumer transactions. Little effort was expended to ‘meet the informational requirements of the rest of the bank. This caused a high- level conflict, since each major operating organization of the bank did not have equal access to systems and programming resources, The management of FNB became increasingly aware of the benefits that could accrue from a realignment (of the bank’s organization into one that would be better attuned tothe total infor- mation requirements of the corporation, In 1982 the Information Services Division (ISD) was ereated. ISD was re- ‘moved from the Consumer Banking and Operations Division to become a seps rate division reporting directly to the president. An organizational chart depicting the Information Services Division is shown in Exhibit L PRIORITIES COMMITTEE During 1982 the Priorities Committee was formed. It consists of the chief execs tive officer of each of the major operating organizations whose activities are38 MIS PROJECT MANAGEMENT AT FIRST NATIONAL BANK Exhibit First National Bank organizational chart (= Pere Commit tenon directly affected by the need for new or revised information systems. The Priorities Committee was established to ensure that the resources of systems and programming personnel and computer hardware would be used only on those in- formation systems that can best be cost justified. Divisions represented on the committee are included in Exhibit I. The Priorities Committee meets monthly to relfinm previously set priorities and rank new projec introivced since the last meeting. Bank policy stats thatthe only way to obtain funds for an information development project isto submit a request o the Priorities Commitee and have it approved and ranked in overall priority order forthe bank. Placing potential projects in ranked sequence is done by the senior executives. The primary document usd for Priorities Commitee review is calle the project proposal. THE PROJECT PROPOSAL LIFE CYCLE ‘When a user department determines a need for the development or enhancement of an information system, it is required to prepare a draft containing a statement ‘of the problem from its functional perspective. The problem statement . Is there anything wrong if a PM is a previous eo-worker of some team mem- bers before the team is formed? 7. Who made up the project team? . Was there any resistance to the project by company management? 1. Was there an unnecessary duplication of work? ). Was there an increased resistance to change? | Was the communication process slow or fast? Questions cy v. B. 14, 15. 16. 17. ‘Was there an increased amount of paperwork? ‘What are reasonable recommendations? Does the company have any type of project management methodology? Could the existence of a methodology have alleviated any of the above problems? Did the bank perform strategic planning for project management or did it simply rush into the project? ‘Why do organizations rush into project management without first performing, strategic planning for project management or, at last, some form of bench- ‘marking against other organizations?