IS Project Management

CSU 08102

Lecture 02:
IS Project Management Context and Processes

1
 IS Projects execution

• Projects must operate in a broad

organizational environment

• Project managers need to take a holistic or

systems view of a project and understand how
it is situated within the larger organization

2
 Systems View of Project Management
• A systems approach emerged in the 1950s to describe a
more analytical approach to management and problem
solving

• Three parts of systems approach include:

– Systems philosophy: View things as systems, interacting
components working within an environment to fulfill some
purpose
– Systems analysis: problem-solving approach
– Systems management: Address business, technological, and
organizational issues before making changes to systems

3
3 Sphere Model for Systems Management

4
Project Phases and the Project Life Cycle

• A project life cycle is a collection of project phases

• Project Life cycle generally define
– What technical work should be done in each phase
– Who should be involved in each phase
• Project phases vary by project or industry, but some
general phases include
– definition and conceptualization
– planning and budgeting
– development and implementation
– termination and closeout

5
Phases of the Project Life Cycle

6
 Product Life Cycles
• Products also have life cycles
• The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is
a framework for describing the phases
involved in developing and maintaining
information systems
• Typical SDLC phases include planning, analysis,
design, implementation, and support

7
Project and Product Life Cycle

8
 1. Conceptualizing and Initializing IS Project
• The first stage/phase of the IS project life cycle focuses
on defining the overall goal of the project. A project is
undertaken for a specific purpose, and that purpose
must be to add tangible value to the organization
(significance).

• Defining the project's goal is the most important step in

the IS project life cycle.

• It will also be used at the end of the project to evaluate

the project's success.

9
• Alternatives that would allow the organization to meet
its goal must be identified. Then, the costs and benefits,
as well as feasibility and risk, of each alternative must
be analyzed.

• Based upon these analyses, a specific alternative is

recommended for funding.

• Finally, the project's goal and the analysis of alternatives

that support the goal are summarized in a deliverable
called the business case (see later).

• Senior management will use the business case during

the selection process to determine whether the
proposed project should be funded.
10
• The focus of the conceptualize and initialize
phase is to determine whether a proposed
project should and can be done.

11
 2 . Develop the Project Charter and
Detailed Project Plan
• The project charter is a key deliverable for the second
phase of the IS project life cycle.

• It defines how the project will be organized and

implemented

• The project charter provides another opportunity to

clarify the project's goal and defines the project's
objectives in terms of
– scope, schedule, budget, and quality standards.

12
The project charter and plan answer the following questions:
• Who is the project manager?
• Who is the project sponsor?
• Who is on the project team?
• What role does everyone associated with the project play?
• What is the scope of the project?
• How much will the project cost?
• How long will it take to complete the project?
• What resources and technology will be required?

13
• What approach, tools, and techniques will be used to
develop the information system?
• What tasks or activities will be required to perform
the project work?
• How long will these tasks or activities take?
• Who will be responsible for performing these tasks or
activities?
• What will the organization receive for the time, money,
and resources invested in this project?

14
 3.Execute and Control the Project
• The third phase of the IS project life cycle,
focuses on execution and control

• It is during this phase that the project team

uses a particular approach and set of systems
analysis and design tools for implementing
the systems development life cycle (SDLC).

15
 4. Close Project
• After the information system has been
developed, tested, and installed, a formal
acceptance should transfer control from the
project team to the client or project sponsor.

• The project team should prepare a final project

report and presentation to document and verify
that all the project deliverables have been
completed as defined in the project's scope.

16
 Evaluate Project Success
• The final phase and should focus on evaluating the
four areas (Project Life Cycle phases)

• Should focus on the entire project and attempt to

assess what went well and what the project team could
have done better.

• The second type of evaluation should take place

between the project manager and the individual
project team members.

17
• an outside third party should review the project, with
the project manager. The focus of this review should
be to answer the following questions:

• What is the likelihood of the project achieving its goal?

• Did the project meet its scope, schedule, budget, and
quality objectives?
• Did the project team deliver everything that was
promised to the sponsor or client?
• Is the project sponsor or client satisfied with the project
work?

18
 Business Case
• A business case provides the first deliverable in the IS
project life cycle.

• It provides an analysis of the organizational value, feasibility,

costs, benefits, and risks of several proposed alternatives or
options.

• A business case is not a budget or the project plan. The

purpose of a business case is to provide senior management
with all the information needed to make an informed
decision as to whether a specific project should be funded
(Schmidt 1999).

• One can also think of a business case as an investment

proposal
19
 Business Case…
Is the Project Worth Doing?
• Why are you starting a project?
• Chances are you’re doing it because you need to solve a problem.
• Usually, the problem is something that gets in the way of achieving
your goals. So it seems a project is about achieving goals and your
goals won’t be realized unless you deal with the problem (or
opportunity or circumstance.)

If a project is worth doing you need to answer 4 simple questions:

1. What is your goal?
2. What’s stopping you from reaching the goal?
3. How much change is needed to overcome the problem?
4. Are you certain this will solve the problem?
• Can you answer these questions quickly? Do you have evidence to
support or refute your assumptions?
• If not, it may not be worth starting a project.

20
 Assignment 1
• Prepare a business case for your project
Submit it during next session……………………….
The W5HH Principle in IS Project Management
W5HH The Question What It Means
This focuses a team on the
Why is the system being
Why? business reasons for
developed?
developing the software.
This is the guiding
principle in determining
What? What will be done?
the tasks that need to be
completed.
This includes important
When will it be
When? milestones and the
completed?
timeline for the project.

21
 This is where you
determine which team
member takes on which
Who is responsible for
Who? responsibilities. You may
each function?
also identify external
stakeholders with a claim
in the project.
This step gives you time
to determine what other
Where are they
Where? stakeholders have a role
organizationally located?
in the project and where
they are found.
In this step, a strategy for
How will the job be done
developing the software
How? technically and
and managing the project
managerially?
is concluded upon.
22
How Much? How much of each The goal of this step is to
resource is needed? figure out the amount of
resources necessary to
complete the project.
IVR-Interactive
Voice Response
 Product Life Cycle
• Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
 Process & Process Model
• System Process
– the set of activities, methods, and practices that
are used in the production and evolution of
system

• System Process Model

– one specific visible form of a system process
architecture

27
 Why Modeling?
• To provide a common understanding
• To locate any inconsistencies, redundancies
and omissions
• To reflect the development goals and provide
early evaluation
• To assist development team to understand any
special situation

28
 Sample SDLC Model/Methodologies
• Waterfall model: has well-defined, linear stages of
systems development and support
• Spiral model: shows that system is developed using an
iterative or spiral approach rather than a linear approach
• Incremental release model: provides for progressive
development of operational system
• Rapid Application Development (RAD) model: used to
produce systems quickly without sacrificing quality
• Prototyping model: used for developing prototypes to
clarify user requirements

29
 Products Produced in SDLC
• Systems investigation - product Feasibility Study
• Systems analysis -
Product( Functional requirements/system must
do)
• Systems design -
Product( Systems Specifications)
• Systems implementation -
Product( Operational System)
• Systems maintenance -
Product( Improved System)
END…
 Exercise
• Describe with examples the Agile SDLC
Methodology
• What are its pros and cons
Characteristics of Traditional SDLC Models
• There are various systems development life
cycle models defined and designed, the
traditional SDLC models include
waterfall, spiral, Agile, rapid prototyping, incremental
e.t.c
 Waterfall Model

Requirement
Analysis

System
Design

Coding

Testing

Maintenance

34
 Waterfall Model (cont’d)
• Was the first Process Model to be introduced, It is also referred to
as a linear-sequential life cycle model.

• It is very simple to understand and use.

•In a waterfall model, each phase must be completed before the

next phase can begin and there is no overlapping in the phases.

•The Waterfall model is the earliest SDLC approach that was used for
software development.

•It illustrates the software development process in a linear

sequential flow.

35
 Waterfall Model (cont’d)
• classical
• one-shot approach
• effective control
• limited scope of iteration
• long cycle time
• not suitable for system of high uncertainty

36
Spiral Model (adapted from Boehm 1987)

37
 Spiral Model (cont’d)
• The spiral model combines the idea of iterative
development with the systematic, controlled
aspects of the waterfall model.

• This Spiral model is a combination of iterative

development process model and the waterfall
model with a very high emphasis on risk analysis.

• It allows incremental releases of the product or

incremental refinement through each iteration
around the spiral.
 Spiral Model (cont’d)
• Evolutionary approach
• Iterative development combined with risk
management
• Risk analysis results in “go, no-go” decision

39
 Prototyping Model

YES
User
Build prototype
satisfaction

NO

User feedback

40
 Prototyping Model
• Goals
– meet users’ requirements in early stage
– reduce risk and uncertainty

41
 Prototyping Model
• The Software Prototyping refers to building software
application prototypes which displays the
functionality of the product under development, but
may not actually hold the exact logic of the original
software.

• It enables to understand customer requirements at

an early stage of development.

• It helps get valuable feedback from the customer

and helps software designers and developers
understand about what exactly is expected from the
product under development.
 Classification of Prototype
• Throw-away
– After users agree the requirements of the system,
the prototype will be discarded.
• Evolutionary
– Modifications are based on the existing prototype.
• Incremental
– Functions will be arranged and built accordingly.

43
 Benefits of Prototyping
• Learning by doing
• Improved communication
• Improved user involvement
• Clarification of partially-known requirements

44
 Prototyping Sequences
• Requirements gathering
• Quick design
• Prototype construction
• Customer evaluation
• Refinement
• Loop back to quick design for fine tuning
• Product engineering

45
 Benefits of Prototyping
• Demonstration of the consistency and
completeness of a specification
• Reduced need for documentation
• Reduced maintenance costs
• Feature restriction
• Production of expected results

46
 Drawbacks of Prototyping
• Users sometimes misunderstand the role of
the prototype
• Lack of project standards possible
• Lack of control
• Additional expense

47
 Incremental Model
• Break system into small components
• Implement and deliver small components in
sequence
• Every delivered component provides extra
functionality to user

48
 Incremental Model (cont’d)

Arrange
Requirements Design and
requirements in
Analysis develop increment
increments

NO

Validate Integrate System

increment increment OK?

YES

49
 Iterative Model
• Deliver full system in the beginning
• Enhance functionality in new releases

50
 Iterative Model (cont’d)

Design system version

n = n+1
n NO

Develop system Validate system System

version n version n complete

YES

51
 Combined Incremental and Iterative
Model
• Every new release includes
– extra functionality
– enhancement of existing functionality

• Popularly used in software industry

52
 Phased Development
• Reduce cycle time
• Two parallel systems:
– operational system (Release n)
– development system (Release n+1)
• Two approaches
– incremental
– iterative

53
 Advantages of Phased Development
• Early feedbacks
• Less possible requirement changes
• Early benefits for users
• Improve cash flow
• Easier control and manage

54
 Advantages of Phased Development
(cont’d)
• Capture early market
• Facilitate early training
• Can be temporarily abandoned
• Increase job satisfaction

55
Disadvantages of Phased Development

• ‘Software breakage’
• Reduced productivity

56
 Take away Quiz
1. What is the difference between Activities and
Phases
2. Write a work breakdown structure for an IS
project.