Chapter 2:The Project Management and

Information Technology Context

CPIT 435: Need Assessments and Technology Evaluation
Dr. Husam Lahza

Source: Information Technology Project Management, Eighth Edition, Kathy Schwalbe

Learning Objectives

Describe the systems view of project management and how it applies to

information technology (IT) projects
Understand organizations, including the four frames, organizational
structures, and organizational culture
Explain why stakeholder management and top management commitment are
critical for a project’s success
Understand the concept of a project phase and the project life cycle, and
distinguish between project development and product development
Discuss the unique attributes and diverse nature of IT projects
Describe recent trends affecting IT project management, including
globalization, outsourcing, virtual teams, and agile project management
Session 1 Outline

System View of Project management.

Four frames of Organizations.
Organizational Structure.
Organizational culture.
Stakeholder Management.
 Introduction
is It 1
PM sixJ Sometimes, it is difficult to implement project
in management theories in some environment.
ish i Exits As each project is unique, so is its
environment.
To understand project environment it is
sm Ma important to consider the following:
aww 1966 Use system approach,
understand organizations,
WIN
I manage stakeholder,
MI match product life cycles to the project
lifecycle
if a
environment,
041 240 5 understand the context of IT projects,
Review recent trends that affect IT project
management
 Projects Cannot Be Run In Isolation

In E 056.5
antenna
i main
xpa Operate in Projects must operate in a broad organizational environment

taken
Hindley Project managers need to use systems thinking: sets
our Use • taking a holistic view of carrying out projects within the context of the organization

KEI
wipe Make Senior managers must make sure projects continue to support
current business needs.
II
 A Systems View of Project Management

la
FA A systems approach emerged in the 1950s to describe a
IN more analytical approach to management and problem
p solving
path Systems are sets of interacting components that work
to within an environment to fulfill some purpose
sick
em
Three parts include:
Systems philosophy: an overall model for thinking about things as
systems
Systems analysis: problem-solving approach
Systems management: address business, technological, and
organizational issues before making changes to systems
 Figure 2-1. Three Sphere Model for
Systems Management
WES
61351 ti

Business 961mi
Technology 5971mi
Organizations two
y
 Understanding Organizations

The systems approach requires that project managers always view their
IN projects in the context of the larger organization.
a
É Identify all the stakeholders involved in projects, especially the people
opposed to the projects.
W Consider the political context of a project or the culture of the organization.
a
To improve the success rate of IT projects, it is important for project
managers to develop a better understanding of people as well as
organizations.
Organizations can be viewed as having four different frames: structural,
human resources, political, and symbolic.
 Figure 2-2. Perspectives on Organizations

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In a paper titled “A Study in Project Failure,” two
researchers examined the success and failure of 214 IT
projects over an eight-year period in several European
countries. The researchers found that only one in eight
(12.5 percent) were considered successful in terms of
meeting scope, time, and cost goals. The authors made the
following conclusions about factors that contribute to a
project’s failure: “Our evidence suggests that the culture
within many organizations is often such that leadership,
stakeholder and risk management issues are not factored Take 5 minutes
into projects early on and in many instances cannot
formally be written down for political reasons and are to read the
rarely discussed openly at project board or steering group
meetings although they may be discussed at length behind following
closed doors. … Despite attempts to make software
development and project delivery more rigorous, a
considerable proportion of delivery effort results in systems
that do not meet user expectations and are subsequently
cancelled. In our view this is attributed to the fact that
very few organizations have the infrastructure, education,
training, or management discipline to bring projects to
successful completion.”
What Went Wrong?

The researchers found that only one in eight (12.5

percent) were considered successful in terms of meeting
scope, time, and cost goals.
The authors said that the culture within many
organizations is often to blame
Among other things, people often do not discuss important
leadership, stakeholder, and risk management issues
Organizational Structures

Three basic organization structures

Functional: functional managers report to the CEO
Project: program managers report to the CEO
Matrix: middle ground between functional and project
structures; personnel often report to two or more bosses;
H structure can be weak, balanced, or strong matrix

CEO Matrix PM CEO

FM
Figure 2-3: functional project and
matrix organizational structures
Organizational Structure Influences on Projects
031631 we
Project Characteristics Organizational Organizational Organization Organizational Organization
Structure Structure al Structure Structure al Structure
Type: Type: Weak Type: Type: Strong Type:
Functional Matrix Balanced Matrix Project
Matrix

Project manager’s authority Little or non Limited Low to Moderate to High to

moderate high almost total
Percent of organization’s Virtually non 0 to 25 percent 15 to 16 50 to 95 85 to 100
personnel assigned full-time to percent percent percent
project work
Who controls the project Functional Functional Mixed Project Project
budget manager manager manager manager
Project manager’s role Part-time Part-time Full-time Full-time Full-time
Common title for project Project Project Project Project Project
manager’s role coordinator/ coordinator/ manager/ manager/ manager/
project leader project leader project program program
officer manager manager
Project management Part-time Part-time Part-time Full time Full-time
administrative staff
Organizational Culture

2 1863
Organizational culture is a set of shared assumptions,
values, and behaviors that characterize the functioning of
an organization
It often includes elements of all four frames described
previously
Many experts believe the underlying causes of many
companies’ problems are not the structure or staff, but
the culture
Ten Characteristics of Organizational
Culture I if I 1951
IF I
Member identity* two Risk tolerance*
Group emphasis* Reward criteria*
People focus th I n Conflict tolerance*
Unit integration* Means-ends orientation
Control Open-systems focus*

*Project work is most successful in an organizational

culture where these items are strong/high and other
items are balanced.
End of Session 4
Beginning of Session 5
Projects must operate in a broad organizational
environment, and project managers need to use systems
thinking.
Using the system approach require applying systems
philosophy, systems analysis, and systems management.
When applying systems management project managers
need to address organizational, business, and
technological issues.
The systems approach requires that project managers
always view their projects in the context of the larger
organization. Session 4
When looking at organizations, they can be viewed as
having four different frames: structural, human Review
resources, political, and symbolic.
The structural frame deals with how the organization is
structured.
Three different structures; functional, project, and
matrix.
Organizational culture is a set of shared assumptions,
values, and behaviors that characterize the functioning of
an organization
 Project Stakeholder Management.

Top Management Commitment.

Session 5 Organizational Commitment to Information Technology.

Outline Organizational Standards.

Project Phases and the Project Life Cycle.

Product Life Cycles.

 Project managers must take time to
identify, understand, and manage
relationships with all project
stakeholders

Stakeholder Using the four frames of organizations

can help meet stakeholder needs and
Management expectations

Senior executives/top management

are very important stakeholders
 The Importance of Top Management
Commitment
Stakeholders Key TopPositions
People in top management positions are key stakeholders in
projects.
HD A very important factor in helping project managers
A successfully lead projects is the level of commitment and
a
way
i support they receive from top management.
Without top management commitment, many projects will fail.
I Some projects have a senior manager called a champion who
i
int acts as a key proponent for a project.
ta
IT project managers work best in an environment in which top
management values IT.
How Top Management Can Help Project
Managers
HI be
Approving unique
Providing adequate
project needs in a
resources
timely manner

IN
i
E

Getting cooperation Mentoring and

from other parts of coaching on
the organization leadership issues

Mol it list
Take 5 minutes to read the following:
The media have often reported on mismanaged IT projects. One that really stands out was the high profile website
created for U.S. citizens to sign up for healthcare under the Obama administration. When the new site opened on
October 1, 2013, only about 3 in 10 people could successfully log in and even after they logged in, many were kicked
off due to numerous bugs. An article in Forbes put its finger on the source of the problems: “HealthCare.gov Diagnosis:
The Government Broke Every Rule of Project Management.” The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) was in
charge of overseeing the project, which suffered from several classic mistakes: unrealistic requirements, technical
complexity, poor integration, fragmented authority, loose metrics, an aggressive schedule, and not reporting problems
to senior management. The author of the Forbes article suggests that CMS should have let more competent people run
the project from the start.5 What happened soon after the disastrous launch? President Obama asked White House
chief of staff Denis McDonough to determine if the site could be fixed or if it should be totally scrapped. McDonough
asked Jeff Zients, a highly regarded businessman slated to be director of the National Economic Council, and Todd Park,
the White House chief technology officer, to work full-time to fix HealthCare.gov. They assembled a team of elite
technologists from several firms, dubbed the “Obama Trauma Team,” including Gabriel Burt, CTO of Civis Analytics;
Mikey Dickerson, site-reliability engineer at Google; Paul Smith, deputy director of the Democratic National
Committee’s tech operation; Marty Abbott, former CTO of eBay; Jini Kim, former Google employee turned CEO of her
own healthcare data-analytics service; and key engineers from QSSI and CGI (the companies that developed the site).
The team realized there was no dashboard to measure what was really going on with the site, and in only five hours
they coded one. Burt soon recruited Mike Abbot, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers venture capital firm, to
lead the team of technologists. Abbot had successfully led projects at Twitter, Microsoft, and Palm, and people loved
his low-key, results-driven leadership style. Abbot successfully led the new team in fixing the site. They quickly
implemented solutions, like caching key data to speed up the site, and in about two months, the website was
remarkably stable and much faster than before. “In about a tenth of the time that a crew of usual-suspect, Washington
contractors had spent over $300 million building a site that didn’t work, this ad hoc team rescued it and, arguably,
Obama’s chance at a health-reform legacy.”
Media Snapshot summery

One of the many mismanaged IT projects is the disastrous

launch of the website healthcare.gov in October 2013
Some of the project management mistakes include unrealistic
requirements, technical complexity, poor integration,
fragmented authority, loose metrics, an aggressive schedule,
and not reporting problems to senior management.
President Obama formed the “Obama Trauma Team” of star
performers from several organizations to help fix the site.
In this case study, President Obama provided top management
support and commitment to the project which changed the
course of action. As a sponsor of the project, he is considered
the champion.
 Best Practice

Hi
was
IT governance addresses the authority and control for key IT activities in
organizations, including IT infrastructure, IT use, and project
management.
IT governance helps ensure that IT supports business goals, maximizes
investment in IT, and addresses IT-related risks and opportunities.
A lack of IT governance can be dangerous, as evidenced by three well-
publicized IT project failures in Australia (Sydney Water’s customer
relationship management system, the Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology’s academic management system, and One.Tel’s billing system)
Did not monitor either the progress of the projects or the alignment and
impact of the new systems on their business.
Proper governance, particularly with respect to financial matters,
auditing, and contract management, was not evident.
project-level planning and control were notably absent or inadequate.
 Need for Organizational Commitment to
Information Technology (IT)
If the organization has a negative attitude toward IT, it will be
difficult for an IT project to succeed.
Having a Chief Information Officer (CIO) at a high level in the
organization helps IT projects.
Assigning non-IT people to IT projects also encourage more
commitment.
is CEOs sometimes take the leadership to promote the use of IT.
Leadership style of the CIO plays a crucial role in gaining
organizational commitment to IT
“Command-and-control leadership doesn’t suit this digital world,”
Vision and inspiration are typically the most powerful attributes of
digital leaders.
Need for Organizational Standards
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o f
Another problem in most organizations is a lack of office
standards or guidelines to follow when performing
project management.
Standards and guidelines help project managers be
more effective
Senior management can encourage
the use of standard forms and software for project
management
the development and use of guidelines for writing project
plans or providing status information
the creation of a project management office or center of
excellence
 Project Phases and the Project Life Cycle
A project life cycle is a collection of project phases that
defines
what work will be performed in each phase
what deliverables will be produced and when
514Phase D
who is involved in each phase, and
y
d a how management will control and approve work produced in each
phase
A deliverable is a product or service produced or provided as
part of a project
General phases in traditional project management are often
JE called the concept, development, implementation, and close-
ditional out phases.
project
The PMBOK® Guide, Fifth Edition calls these phases starting the
project, organizing and preparing, carrying out the project
work, and finishing the project.
More on Project Phases
In early phases of a project life cycle
resource needs are usually lowest
the level of uncertainty (risk) is highest
project stakeholders have the greatest opportunity to influence
the project
In middle phases of a project life cycle
the certainty of completing a project improves
more resources are needed
The final phase of a project life cycle focuses on
ensuring that project requirements were met
the sponsor approves completion of the project
Figure 2-4. Phases of the Traditional
Project Life Cycle
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End of Session 5
Beginning of Session 6
Session 6 Outline

Product Life Cycles.

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
Predictive life cycle
Adaptive Software Development (ASD)
 Product Life Cycles

Products also have life cycles

Many argue that developing software requires project
managers to modify traditional project management
methods, depending on a particular product’s life cycle.
The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a
framework for describing the phases involved in
developing and maintaining information systems
Systems development projects can follow
III Predictive life cycle: the scope of the project can be clearly
articulated and the schedule and cost can be predicted
to Adaptive Software Development (ASD) life cycle: requirements
63140s cannot be clearly expressed, projects are mission driven and
sus component based, using time-based cycles to meet target dates
EE 21
41
i
Predictive Life Cycle Models
Predictive It ok 0531 11 d I
Waterfall model: has well-defined, linear stages of
systems development and support
Spiral model: shows that software is developed using an
iterative or spiral approach rather than a linear approach
Incremental build model: provides for progressive
development of operational software
Prototyping model: used for developing prototypes to
clarify user requirements
Rapid Application Development (RAD) model: used to
produce systems quickly without sacrificing quality
Figure 2-5. Waterfall and Spiral Life Cycle
Models

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phase S

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it
Adaptive Software Development (ASD)
life cycle T.tw I wbslo

Software developers focus on the rapid creation of working

code.
Instead of planning in detail what the software should do,
developers have a basic idea of user needs and work to create
code that will meet those needs.
ASD grew out of RAD, but RAD allows for a time period when the
software is finished, while ASD does not.
ASD include extreme programming, feature driven development,
dynamic systems development model, and scrum
Today ASD approaches are collectively referred to as agile
software development.
Product, Project, and System
development life cycles.

Source: https://wiki.cac.washington.edu/display/TEGPM/Product%2C+Project%2C+and+System+Development+Lifecycle+Relationships
 The Importance of Project Phases and
Management Reviews

I A project should successfully pass through each of the project

wi I phases in order to continue on to the next
Due to the complexity and importance of many IT projects and
their resulting products, it is important to take time to review
the status of a project at each phase.
Management reviews, also called phase exits or kill points,
should occur after each phase to evaluate the project’s
progress, likely success, and continued compatibility with
I
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organizational goals tables
Delver
SIGN
 What Went Right?
"The real improvement that I saw was in our ability to⎯in the words of
Thomas Edison⎯know when to stop beating a dead horse.…Edison's
key to success was that he failed fairly often; but as he said, he couldsuccess Rate Reduceover
recognize a dead horse before it started to smell...In information Cost
technology we ride dead horses⎯failing projects⎯a long time before Time
we give up. But what we are seeing now is that we are able to get off
them; able to reduce cost overrun and time overrun. That's where
the major impact came on the success rate.”*

I Many organizations, like Huntington Bancshares, Inc., use an

ops executive steering committee to help keep projects on track.
16
owl
ja Some projects still go on a long time before being killed, like
Blizzard’s Titan game project.
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a *Cabanis, Jeannette, "'A Major Impact': The Standish Group's Jim Johnson On
Project Management and IT Project Success," PM Network, PMI, Sep.1998, p. 7
The Context of IT Projects
St
context t
Several issues unique to the IT industry have a critical impact on
managing IT projects.
IT projects can be very diverse in terms of size, complexity,
products produced, application area, and resource requirements
IT project team members often have diverse backgrounds and skill
sets
IT projects use diverse technologies that change rapidly. Even
within one technology area, people must be highly specialized
Recent Trends Affecting IT Project
Management
1751 1485451.5 4

Globalization: the world became a small village.

Outsourcing: Outsourcing is when an organization
acquires goods and/or sources from an outside source.
Offshoring is sometimes used to describe outsourcing
from another country
Virtual teams: A virtual team is a group of individuals
who work across time and space using communication
technologies
Agile project management
 Important Issues and Suggestions Related
to Globalization
Issues
Communications
Trust we
WIN si
11 5 4
Common work practices Wil
Tools
Suggestions
Employ greater project discipline
614105 Think global but act local
1108 Keep project momentum going
i 521 Use newer tools and technology
Tool In
Outsourcing

Organizations remain competitive by using outsourcing

to their advantage, such as finding ways to reduce
costs
sa Ia
Their next challenge is to make strategic IT 25011515,3
BiH 4
investments with outsourcing by improving their
enterprise architecture to ensure that IT infrastructure
and business processes are integrated and standardized
(See Suggested Readings)
Project managers should become more familiar with
negotiating contracts and other outsourcing issues
 Virtual Teams Advantages

In Increasing competiveness and responsiveness by having a

E
team of workers available 24/7
Lowering costs because many virtual workers do not require
office space or support beyond their home offices.
Providing more expertise and flexibility by having team
members from across the globe working any time of day or
night
Increasing the work/life balance for team members by
eliminating fixed office hours and the need to travel to
work.
Virtual Team Disadvantages

Isolating team membersyams

Increasing the potential for communications problems
Reducing the ability for team members to network and
transfer information informally oflat o d tf
Increasing the dependence on technology to accomplish
work wi
seem
See text for a list of factors that help virtual teams
succeed, including team processes, trust/relationships,
leadership style, and team member selection
Agile Project Management

Agile means being able to move quickly and easily, but some
people feel that project management, as they have seen it used,
does not allow people to work quickly or easily.
Early software development projects often used a waterfall
approach, as defined earlier in this chapter. As technology and it
0651si MI
businesses became more complex, the approach was often 2641160 i
difficult to use because requirements were unknown or I limo I
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continuously changing.
Agile today means using a method based on iterative and
incremental development, in which requirements and solutions
evolve through collaboration.
See the Resources tab from www.pmtexts.com for more info
Agile Makes Sense for Some Projects, But
Not All
Many seasoned experts in project management warn
people not to fall for the hype associated with Agile.
For example, J. Leroy Ward, Executive Vice President
at ESI International, said that “Agile will be seen for
what it is … and isn’t….Project management
organizations embracing Agile software and product
development approaches will continue to grow while
being faced with the challenge of demonstrating ROI
through Agile adoption.”*
*J. Leroy Ward, “The Top Ten Project Management Trends for 2011,” projecttimes.com
(January 24, 2011).
 Manifesto for Agile Software Development

In February 2001, a group of 17 people that called itself the

Agile Alliance developed and agreed on the Manifesto for
Agile Software Development, as follows:
“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by
doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have
come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
41 1 Working software over comprehensive documentation
gileJl Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
W Responding to change over following a plan”*

*Agile Manifesto, www.agilemanifesto.org.

 Scrum
Agile day

I According to the Scrum Alliance, Scrum is the leading

plex
agile development method for completing projects with
s
ration a complex, innovative scope of work.
cope
The term was coined in 1986 in a Harvard Business
Review study that compared high-performing, cross-
functional teams to the scrum formation used by rugby
teams.
 Figure 2-6. Scrum Framework
A
ENaC
yo
sprint d
ch
I
scoped
 Kanban
scrumstaff
note a
stick
Technique that can be used in conjunction with scrum
Developed in Japan by Toyota Motor Corporation
Uses visual cues to guide workflow
Kanban cards show new work, work in progress, and
work completed
Agile, the PMBOK® Guide, and a New
Certification
The PMBOK® Guide describes best practices for what should
be done to manage projects.
Agile is a methodology that describes how to manage
projects.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) recognized the
increased interest in Agile, and introduced a new
certification in 2011 called Agile Certified Practitioner
(ACP).
Seasoned project managers understand that they have
always had the option of customizing how they run
projects, but that project management is not easy, even
when using Agile.
Agile, the PMBOK® Guide, and a New
Certification
The PMBOK® Guide describes best practices for what should
be done to manage projects.
Agile is a methodology that describes how to manage
projects.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) recognized the
increased interest in Agile, and introduced a new
certification in 2011 called Agile Certified Practitioner
(ACP).
Seasoned project managers understand that they have
always had the option of customizing how they run
projects, but that project management is not easy, even
when using Agile.
Project managers need to take a systems approach
when working on projects
Organizations have four different frames: structural,
human resources, political, and symbolic
The structure and culture of an organization have
strong implications for project managers
Projects should successfully pass through each phase
Chapter
of the project life cycle
Project managers need to consider several factors due
Summary
to the unique context of information technology
projects
Recent trends affecting IT project management
include globalization, outsourcing, virtual teams, and
Agile
End of Session 6