Chapter 1:

Introduction to Project Management

“It’s not enough to be busy. The question is:

What are you busy about?”
Henry Thoreau
Learning Objectives
 Understanding the growing need for better project
management, especially for IT projects.
 Explain what a project is, provide examples of IT
projects, list various attributes of projects, and describe
the triple constraint of projects.
 Describe project management and discuss key
elements of the project management framework,
including project stakeholders, the project management
knowledge areas, common tools and techniques, and
project success factors.
Learning Objectives (Cont.)
 Discuss the relationship between project, program, and
portfolio management and the contributions they each
make to enterprise success.
 Understand the role of the project manager by
describing what project managers do, what skills they
need, and what the career field is like for IT project
managers.
 Describe the project management profession, including
its history, the importance of ethics, and the
advancement of project management software.
Introduction
 Many organizations today have a new or renewed
interest in project management.
 Computer hardware, software, networks, and the
use of interdisciplinary and global work teams
have radically changed the work environment.
 The U.S. spends $2.3 trillion on projects every
year, or one-quarter its gross domestic product, and
the world as a whole spends nearly $10 trillion of
its $40.7 gross product on projects of all kinds.
Project Management Statistics
 Worldwide IT spending totaled more than $1.8 trillion in
2006, a 6 percent increase from 2005, and spending is
projected to grow 8 percent in 2007 and 4 percent in 2008.
 In 2006, the total compensation for the average senior
project manager was $99,183 per year in the United States,
$94,646 in Australia, and $106,374 in the United Kingdom.
 The number of people earning their Project Management
Professional (PMP) certification increased by more than 70
percent from 2005 to 2006, with more than 200,000 PMPs
worldwide by the end of August, 2007.
Activity: Personal Project Management Issues
Identify what you consider to be the three most significant
issues related to IT Project Management that you personally
face today in your workplace.

1. ________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________
Motivation for Studying IT Project Management
 IT projects have a terrible track record.
 A 2003 Standish Group study (CHAOS) found
that only 16.2 percent of IT projects were
successful in meeting scope, time, and cost
goals.
 Over 31 percent of IT projects were canceled
before completion, costing over $81 billion in
the U.S. alone.
Advantages of Using
Formal Project Management
 Better control of financial, physical, and human resources.
 Improved customer relations.
 Shorter development times.
 Lower costs.
 Higher quality and increased reliability.
 Higher profit margins.
 Improved productivity.
 Better internal coordination.
 Higher worker morale (less stress).
What is a Project?
 A project is “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create
a unique product, service, or result.” –PMBOK
 Attributes of projects
 Unique purpose
 Non-routine tasks are involved
 Temporary
 Planning is required
 Specific objectives are to be met or a specified project is to
be created
 The project has a pre-determined time span
What is a Project? (Cont.)
 More attributes
 Work is carried out for someone other than yourself
 Work require resources, often from various areas or involve
several specializes
 Work is carried out in several phases
 The resources that are available for use on the project are
constrained
 Should have a primary sponsor and/or customer
 Project can be large or small and take a short or long time to
complete
 Involve uncertainty
Activity: Spot the Project
 Read the following list and place a checkmark next to
the items that are IT Projects.
 First-line support of mail-merge product.
 A help desk or technical worker replaces laptops for a
small department.
 A small software development team adds a new feature
to an internal software application .
 The University campus upgrades its technology
infrastructure to provide wireless Internet access across
the whole campus.
Activity: Spot the Project (Cont.)
 A cross-functional task force in a company decides what
VoIP system to purchase and how it will be implemented.
 Update company hardware specification and software
license information.
 Implement a new financial software package and integrate
it with existing systems.
 Creation of a new Web page to support marketing.
 Maintenance of the company reference databases.
 A company develops a new system to increase sales force
productivity and customer relationship management.
Activity: Spot the Project (Cont.)
 The automobile industry develops a Website to streamline
procurement.
 Business application training for new employee.
 A television network develops a system to allow viewers
to vote for contestants and provide other feedback on
programs.
 A large group of volunteers from organizations throughout
the world develop standards for a new communication
technology.
 Note: “IT projects” refers to projects involving
hardware, software, and networks.
Project and Program Managers
 Project managers work with project sponsors,
project teams, and other people involved in
projects to meet project goals.
 Program: “A group of related projects managed in
a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control
not available from managing them individually.”
 Program managers oversee programs and often act
as bosses for project managers.
Reasons for a Project
 Every IT project that you do is for a business reason.
 In order for a project to make sense in a commercial
context, the business must ultimately gain benefit from
the delivery.
 Projects should have a place within the strategic plans of
the organization:
 The corporate business strategy
 The corporate IT strategy
 Projects without clear context can be difficult to
complete successfully.
Activity: The Business Need
Reasons for IT project

Opportunities Problems
The Triple Constraint of Project Management
 Every project is constrained in different ways by its:
 Scope:
 What work will be done as part of the project?
 What unique product, service, or result does the customer or
sponsor expect from the project?
 How will the scope be verified?
 Time:
 How long should it take to complete the project?
 What is the project’s schedule?
 How will the team track actual schedule performance?
 Who can approve changes to the schedule?
The Triple Constraint of Project Management
 Every project is constrained in different ways by its:
 Cost:
 What should it cost to complete the project?
 What is the project’s budget?
 How will costs be tracked?
 Who can authorize changes to the budget?
 It is the project manager’s duty to balance these three
often competing goals.
The Triple Constraint of Project Management

Successful project
management means
meeting all three
goals (scope, time,
and cost) – and
satisfying the
project’s sponsor!
What is Management?
 Management may involve:
 Planning - deciding what is to be done
 Organizing - making arrangement
 Staffing - selecting the right people
 Directing - giving instructions
 Monitoring - checking on progress
 Controlling - taking action to remedy hold-ups
 Innovating - coming up with new solutions
 Representing - liaising with users
Problems with IT Projects
 Manager’s point of view problems:
 Poor estimates and plans
 Lack of quality standards and measures
 Lack of guidance about making organizational
decisions
 Lack of techniques to make progress visible
 Poor role definition – who does what?
 Incorrect success criteria
Problems with IT Projects (Cont.)
 Members of team point of view problems:
 Inadequate specification of work
 Management ignorance of IT
 Lack of knowledge of application area
 Lack of standards
 Lack of up-to-date documentation
 Preceding activities not completed on time – including
late delivery of equipment
 Lack of communication between users and technicians
 Lack of communication leading to duplication of work
Problems with IT Projects (Cont.)
 Members of team point of view problems: (Cont.)
 Lack of commitment – especially when a project is tied to
one person who then moves
 Narrow scope of technical expertise
 Changing statutory requirements
 Changing software environment
 Deadline pressure
 Lack of quality control
 Remote management
 Lack of training
What is Project Management?

 Project management is “the application of

knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to
project activities to meet project requirements.”

(PMI, A Guide to the Project Management Body of

Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), 2004, p. 8)
Traditional Project Processes

Is it worth doing?
How do we do it?
Feasibility study
Do it!
Planning

Project Execution
Activities Covered by Project Management
 Feasibility study - decide if project is worth doing
 Identifies what the project is
 Description of current situation
 Problem description
 Proposed development
 Business and financial aspects
 Technical aspects
 Organizational aspects
Activities Covered by
Project Management (Cont.)
 Feasibility study (Cont.)
 Estimated costs
 Development costs
 Setup Costs
 Operational costs
 Envisaged benefits
 Recommendations
 Planning - how you are going do it?
 Project execution - do it
Project Management Framework
Identify the Project Stakeholders
 Stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by
project activities.
 Key questions:
 Who are the people who make up the business?
 What roles do they play in the organization and in the context
of the project?
 What do these people want from the project?
 Who is the team that will deliver this project?
 Start by identifying the groups that are the project
stakeholders.
Identify the Project Stakeholders (Cont.)
 Project Owners
 Management and buyers
 Engineers and end users
 Business departments —managers
 Business departments—staff
 Marketing and sales
 Finance
 Production and manufacturing
Identify the Project Stakeholders (Cont.)
 Project Participants (Full-time and part-time)
 Project manager
 Project team
 Support staff
 Quality team/configuration team/maintenance team
 MIS help desk/network operations
 Contractors and third parties
 Suppliers
Nine Project Management Knowledge Areas
 Knowledge areas describe the key competencies that project
managers must develop.
 Four core knowledge areas lead to specific project
objectives (scope, time, cost, and quality).
 Four facilitating knowledge areas are the means through
which the project objectives are achieved (human
resources, communication, risk, and procurement
management).
 One knowledge area (project integration management)
affects and is affected by all of the other knowledge areas.
 All knowledge areas are important!
Project Management Tools and Techniques
 Project management tools and techniques assist
project managers and their teams in various aspects
of project management.
 Specific tools and techniques include:
 Project Charters, scope statements, and WBS (scope).
 Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analysis,
(time).
 Cost estimates and earned value management (cost).
Super Tools
 “Super tools” are those tools that have high use and high
potential for improving project success, such as:
 Software for task scheduling (such as project management
software)
 Scope statements
 Requirements analyses
 Lessons-learned reports
 Tools already extensively used that have been found to improve
project importance include:
 Progress reports
 Kick-off meetings
 Gantt charts
 Change requests
Why the Project Performance has been
Improved?
“The reasons for the increase in successful projects
vary. First, the average cost of a project has been more
than cut in half. Better tools have been created to
monitor and control progress and better skilled
project managers with better management
processes are being used. The fact that there are
processes is significant in itself.”*

*The Standish Group, “CHAOS 2003: A Recipe for Success” (2003).

Project Success
 There are several ways to define project success
 The project met scope, time, and cost goals.
 The project satisfied the customer/sponsor.
 The results of the project met its main objective,
such as making or saving a certain amount of
money, providing a good return on investment,
or simply making the sponsors happy.
Project Success Factors
1. Executive support
2. User involvement
3. Experienced project
manager
4. Clear business objectives
5. Minimized scope
6. Standard software
infrastructure
7. Firm basic requirements
8. Formal methodology
9. Reliable estimates
10. Other criteria, such as
small milestones,
proper planning, and
competent staff
Project Portfolio Management
 As part of project portfolio management,
organizations group and manage projects and
programs as a portfolio of investments that
contribute to the entire enterprise’s success.
 Portfolio managers help their organizations
make wise investment decisions by helping to
select and analyze projects from a strategic
perspective.
Project Management Compared to
Project Portfolio Management
The Role of Project Manager
 Job descriptions vary, but most include
responsibilities such as planning, scheduling,
coordinating, and working with people to
achieve project goals.
 Remember that 97 percent of successful
projects were led by experienced project
managers, who can often help influence success
factors.
Suggested Skills for Project Managers
 Project managers need a wide variety of skills.
 They should:
 Be comfortable with change.
 Understand the organizations they work in and
with.
 Lead teams to accomplish project goals.
Suggested Skills for Project Managers (Cont.)

 The Project Management Body of Knowledge

 Application area knowledge, standards, and
regulations
 Project environment knowledge
 General management knowledge and skills
 Soft skills or human relations skills
Ten Most Important Skills and
Competencies for Project Managers
1. People skills
2. Leadership
3. Listening
4. Integrity, ethical behavior, consistent
5. Strong at building trust
6. Verbal communication
7. Strong at building teams
8. Conflict resolution, conflict management
9. Critical thinking, problem solving
10. Understands, balances priorities
Different Skills Needed in Different Situations
 Large projects: leadership, relevant prior experience,
planning, people skills, verbal communication, and
team-building skills are most important.
 High uncertainty projects: risk management,
expectation management, leadership, people skills,
and planning skills are most important.
 Very novel projects: leadership, people skills, having
vision and goals, self-confidence, expectations
management, and listening skills are most important.
Importance of Leadership Skills
 Effective project managers provide leadership
by example.
 A leader focuses on long-term goals and big-
picture objectives while inspiring people to
reach those goals.
 A manager deals with the day-to-day details of
meeting specific goals.
 Project managers often take on the role of both
leader and manager.
History of Project Management
 Some people argue that building the Egyptian
pyramids was a project, as was building the Great
Wall of China
 Most people consider the Manhattan Project to be
the first project to use “modern” project
management
 This three-year, $2 billion (in 1946 dollars)
project had a separate project manager and a
technical manager
 Sample Gantt Chart
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The WBS is shown on the left, and each task’s start and finish dates
are shown on the right. First used in 1917, early Gantt charts were
drawn by hand.
 Sample Network Diagram

Each box is a project task from the WBS. Arrows show dependencies
between tasks. The bolded tasks are on the critical path. If any task on
the critical path takes longer to complete than planned, the whole
project will slip unless something is done. Network diagrams were
first used in 1958 on the Navy Polaris project before project
management software was available.
 Sample Enterprise Project Management Tool

In recent years, organizations have been taking advantage of software to help

manage their projects throughout the enterprise.
Ethics in Project Management

 Ethics is an important part of all professions.

 Project managers often face ethical dilemmas.

You Can Apply Project Management to
Many Areas
 Project management applies to work as well as
personal projects.
 Project management applies to many different
disciplines (IT, construction, finance, sports,
event planning, etc.).
 Project management skills can help in everyday
life.
Summary
 As the number and complexity of projects continue to grow,
it is becoming even more important to practice good project
management.
 A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a
unique product, service, or result.
 A framework for project management includes project
stakeholders, the nine knowledge areas, tools and
techniques, and creating project portfolios to ensure
enterprise success.
 Successful project managers must possess and development
many skills and lead their teams by example.
Questions and Answers