SHRI VISHNU ENGINEERING COLLEGE FOR WOMEN: :

BHIMAVARAM (AUTONOMOUS)
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
UNIT – I

Introduction to Project Management

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 world as a whole spends nearly $10 trillion of its $40.7 trillion gross product on projects
of all kinds
 More than 16 million people regard project management as their profession

Project Management Statistics:

 The overall information and communications technology market grew by 6 percent to

almost $3 trillion in 2010
 In the U.S. the size of the IT workforce topped 4 million workers in 2008, and the
unemployment rate for IT professionals is half the rate for the overall labor market
 In 2011 the total compensation for the average senior project manager in U.S. dollars was
$105,000 per year in the United States and $160,409 in the Switzerland.
 The number of people earning their Project Management Professional (PMP) certification
continues to increase. 44 percent of employers listed project management as a skill they
looked for in new college grads, behind only communication and technical skills.
 A research report showed that the united states spends $2.3 trillion on projects every year, an
amount equal to 25% of the nations gross domestic product. The world as a whole spends
nearly $10 Trillion of its $40.7 Trillion gross product on projects of all kinds.

Motivation for Studying Information Technology (IT) Project Management:

 IT Projects have a terrible track record, as described in the What Went Wrong?
 A 1995 Standish Group study (CHAOS) found that only 16.2% of IT projects were
successful in meeting scope, time, and cost goals; over 31% of IT projects were canceled
before completion
 A PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that overall half of all projects fail and only 2.5% of
corporations consistently meet their targets for scope, time, and cost goals for all types of
project.

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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

What Is a Project?

 A project is “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or

result” (PMBOK® Guide, Fifth Edition, 2012)

 Operations is work done to sustain the business

 Projects end when their objectives have been reached or the project has been terminated

 Projects can be large or small and take a short or long time to complete

Examples of IT Projects:

 A team of students creates a smartphone application and sells it online

 A company develops a driverless car
 A small software development team adds a new feature to an internal software application
for the finance department
 A college upgrades its technology infrastructure to provide wireless Internet access across
the whole campus.

Top Strategic Technologies for 2012 (Gartner):

 Media tablets and beyond: Gartner does not believe that a single platform or technology
will dominate the market, but that tablet sales will soon surpass laptop sales. Companies
must manage employees who bring their own smart phones and tablet devices to work.

 Mobile-centric applications and interfaces: User interfaces will be mobile-centric,

emphasizing touch, gesture, search, voice, and video. Applications themselves are likely to
shift to become more focused and simple Web apps.

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  Contextual and social user experience: A contextually aware interface anticipates a user’s
needs and provides the most appropriate and customized content, product, or service. The
interfaces for applications will also resemble social networks.

 Internet of things: Internet usage will expand as sensors are added to physical items that
are connected to the Internet. For example, Near Field Communication allows users to make
payments, board airplanes, and perform other tasks by placing their phones in front of a
reader.

 Cloud computing: Enterprises will move from trying to understand the cloud to making
decisions on when to implement cloud services and where they need to build private clouds.
IT will be challenged to bring operations and development groups closer together to
approach the speed and efficiencies of public cloud service providers.

Media Snapshot: Unproductive Apps:

 Gartner predicts that by 2014, there will be more than 70 billion mobile application
downloads every year.
 All of the top iPhone apps in early 2012 (Temple Run, Angry Gran, Zombie Farm, Words
With Friends, Angry Birds, etc.) and most of the top iPad2 apps can be considered
unproductive in most work environments.
 The challenge is to develop useful apps and get workers to focus on them instead of the
many distracting options available.

Project Attributes:
A project
 Has a unique purpose
 Is temporary
 Is developed using progressive elaboration
 Requires resources, often from various areas
 Should have a primary customer or sponsor.
 The project sponsor usually provides the direction and funding for the project.
 Involves uncertainty.

Project Constraints:
 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?

 Time: How long should it take to complete the project? What is the project's schedule? How
will the team track actual schedule performance?

 Cost: What should it cost to complete the project? What is project's budget?

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 Figure: The Triple Constraint of Project Management

What is Project Management?

 Project management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project
activities to meet project requirements” (PMBOK® Guide, Fourth Edition, 2012)
 Project managers strive to meet the triple constraint (project scope, time, and cost goals)
and also facilitate the entire process to meet the needs and expectations of project
stakeholders

Figure: Project Management Framework

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Project Stakeholders:

Stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by project

activities. Stakeholders include
 the project sponsor
 the project manager
 the project team
 support staff
 customers
 users
 suppliers
 opponents to the project

10 Project Management Knowledge Areas:

1. Project scope management involves defining and managing all the work required to
complete the project successfully.

2. Project time management includes estimating how long it will take to complete the work,
developing an acceptable project schedule, and ensuring timely completion of the project.

3. Project cost management consists of preparing and managing the budget for the project.

4. Project quality management ensures that the project will satisfy the stated or implied needs
for which it was undertaken.

5. Project human resource management is concerned with making effective use of the people
involved with the project.

6. Project communications management involves generating, collecting, disseminating, and

storing project information.

7. Project risk management includes identifying, analyzing, and responding to risks related to
the project.

8. Project procurement management involves acquiring or procuring goods and services for a
project from outside the performing organization.

9. Project stakeholder management includes identifying and analyzing stakeholder needs

while managing and controlling their engagement throughout the life of the project.

10. Project integration management is an overarching function that affects and is affected by
all of the other knowledge areas.

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 Project Management Tools and Techniques:

 Thomas Carlyle, a famous historian and author, stated, “Man is a tool-using animal.
 Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.”
 Project management tools and techniques assist project managers and their teams in various
aspects of project management

Knowledge Tools and Techniques

Area/Category
Integration management Project selection methods, project management methodologies,
stakeholder analyses, work requests, project charters, project
management plans, project management software, change
requests, change control boards, project review meetings,
lessons-learned reports
Scope management Scope statements, work breakdown structures, statements of
work, requirements analyses, scope management plans, scope
verification techniques, scope change controls
Time management Gantt charts, project network diagrams, critical path analysis,
crashing, fast tracking, schedule performance measurements
Cost management Project budgets, net present value, return on investment, payback
analysis, earned value management, project portfolio management, cost
estimates, cost management plans, cost baselines
Quality management Quality metrics, checklists, quality control charts, Pareto diagrams,
fishbone diagrams, maturity models, statistical methods,
test plans
Humanresource Motivation techniques, empathic listening, responsibility assignment
management matrices, project organizational charts, resource histograms, team
building exercises
Communications Communications management plans, kick-off meetings,conflict
management management, communications media selection, status and progress
reports, virtual communications, templates, project Web sites
Risk management Risk management plans, risk registers, probability/impact
matrices, risk rankings
Procurement Make-or-buy analyses, contracts, requests for proposals or quotes,
management source selections, supplier evaluation matrices

What Went Right? Improved Project Performance:

The Standish Group’s CHAOS studies show improvements in IT projects in the past decade:
 The number of successful IT projects has more than doubled, from 16 percent in 1994 to 37
percent in 2010
 The number of failed projects decreased from 31 percent in 1994 to 21 percent in 2010
 Success rates were the highest ever in the most recent CHAOS study.

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Why the Improvements?
"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.”*

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

What Helps Projects Succeed?

1. User involvement
2. Executive support
3. Clear business objectives
4. Emotional maturity
5. Optimizing scope
6. Agile process
7. Project management expertise
8. Skilled resources
9. Execution
10. Tools and infrastructure.

Top Three Reasons Why Federal Technology Project Succeed:

 Adequate funding
 Staff expertise
 Engagement from all stakeholders

What the Winners Do…

Recent research findings show that companies that excel in project delivery capability:
 Use an integrated project management toolbox (use standard/advanced PM tools, lots of
templates)
 Grow project leaders, emphasizing business and soft skills
 Develop a streamlined project delivery process
 Measure project health using metrics, like customer satisfaction or return on investment

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 Program and Project Portfolio Management:

 A program is “a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits

and control not available from managing them individually”
 Examples of common programs in the IT field include

1. Infrastructure: An IT department often has a program for IT infrastructure projects. This

program could encompass several projects, such as providing more wireless Internet access,
upgrading hardware and software, and developing and maintaining corporate standards for
IT.

2. Applications development: This program could include several projects, such as updating
an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, purchasing a new off-the-shelf billing
system, or developing a new capability for a customer relationship management system.

3. User support: In addition to the many operational tasks related to user support, many IT
departments have several projects to support users. For example, a project might provide a
better e-mail system or develop technical training for users.

 A program manager provides leadership and direction for the project managers heading the
projects within the program.

Figure: Project Management Compared to Project Portfolio Management

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

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Best Practice:
 A best practice is “an optimal way recognized by industry to achieve a stated goal or
objective”*
 Robert Butrick suggests that organizations need to follow basic principles of project
management, including these two mentioned earlier in this chapter:
1. Make sure your projects are driven by your strategy. Be able to demonstrate how each
project you undertake fits your business strategy, and screen out unwanted projects as
soon as possible
2. Engage your stakeholders. Ignoring stakeholders often leads to project failure. Be sure
to engage stakeholders at all stages of a project, and encourage teamwork and
commitment at all times.

As you can imagine, project portfolio management is not an easy task. Above illustrates one
approach for project portfolio management in which one large portfolio exists for the entire
organization. This allows top management to view and manage all projects at an enterprise level.
For example, a company might have the main portfolio categories shown in the left part of Above
Figure—marketing, materials, IT, and human resources (HR)—and divide each of those categories
further to address its unique concerns. The right part of this figure shows how the IT projects could
be categorized in more detail to assist in their management. In this example, there are three basic IT
project portfolio categories:
 Venture: Projects in this category help transform the business. For example, the large retail
chain described in the opening case might have an IT project to provide kiosks in stores and
similar functionality on the Internet where customers and suppliers could quickly provide
feedback on products or services. This project could help transform the business by
developing closer partnerships with customers and suppliers.

 Growth: Projects in this category would help the company grow in terms of revenues. For
example, a company might have an IT project to provide information on its corporate Web
site in a new language, such as Chinese or Japanese. This capability could help the company
grow its business in those countries.

 Core: Projects in this category

Figure: mustProject
Sample be accomplished to run the business. For example,
Portfolio Approach
an IT project to provide computers for new employees would fall under this category.

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 The Role of the Project Manager:

Project Manager Job Description:

A project manager can have many different job descriptions, which can vary tremendously based on
the organization and the project. For example, Monster.com includes thousands of job listings for
project managers, and even has a job category for project/program managers. Here are a few edited
postings:

Project manager for a consulting firm: Plans, schedules, and controls activities to fulfill
identified objectives applying technical, theoretical, and managerial skills to satisfy project
requirements. Coordinates and integrates team and individual efforts and builds positive
professional relationships with clients and associates.

IT project manager for a financial services firm: Manages, prioritizes, develops, and implements
IT solutions to meet business needs. Prepares and executes project plans using project management
software following a standard methodology. Establishes cross-functional end-user teams defining
and implementing projects on time and within budget. Acts as a liaison between third-party service
providers and end users to develop and implement technology solutions.Participates in vendor
contract development and budget management.Provides post-implementation support.

IT project manager for a nonprofit consulting firm: Responsibilities include business analysis,
requirements gathering, project planning, budget estimating, development, testing, and
implementation. Responsible for working with various resource providers to ensure development is
completed in a timely, high-quality, and cost-effective manner.

Suggested Skills for Project Managers

In an interview with two chief information officers (CIOs), John Oliver of True North
Communications, Inc. and George Nassef of Hotjobs.com, both men agreed that the most important
project management skills seem to depend on the uniqueness of the project and the people
involved.

 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

Importance of people skills and leadership skills

Project management experts from various industries were asked to identify the 10 most important
skills and competencies for effective project managers.

1. People skills

2. Leadership

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3. Listening

4. Integrity, ethical behavior, consistency

5. Strength at building trust

6. Verbal communication

7. Strength at building teams

8. Conflict resolution, conflict management

9. Critical thinking, problem solving

10. Understanding and balancing of priorities.

Respondents were also asked what skills and competencies were most important in various project
situations:

Large projects: Leadership, relevant experience, planning, people skills, verbal communication,
and team-building skills were most important.

High-uncertainty projects: Risk management, expectation management, leadership, people skills,

and planning skills were most important.

Very novel projects: Leadership, people skills, vision and goals, self-confidence, expectations
management, and listening skills were most important.

 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

Careers for IT Project Managers

 In a 2011 survey, IT executives listed the “nine hottest skills” they planned to hire for in
2012
 Project management was second only to programming and application development

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 Skill % of Respondents
Programming and application development 66%
Project management 44%
Help desk/technical support 35%
Networking 35%
Business intelligence 23%
Data center 18%
Web 2.0 18%
Security 17%
Telecommunications 9%

The Project Management Profession:

 The profession of project management is growing at a very rapid pace

 It is helpful to understand the history of the field, the role of professional societies like the
Project Management Institute, and the growth in project management software

History of Project Management

 People have worked on projects for centuries.

 Most people consider the Manhattan Project(US Milatary led to develop atomic Bomb in the
World war-II) 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.

Gantt Chart:

 In 1917, Henry Gantt developed the famous Gantt chart for Scheduling work in Factories.
 It is a standard format for displaying project schedule information by listing Project
activities and their corresponding start and finish dates in calendar form.
 This tool is used for planning and reviewing all the work on early Military projects.

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 Figure: Sample Gantt Chart Created with Project 2010

Network Diagram:

 These diagrams helped managers model the relationships among project tasks.
 The concept of determining relationships among tasks is essestial in helping to improve
project sheduling.
 US Navy Polaris Missile/Submarine project first used network diagrams in 1958.

Figure: Sample Network Diagram Created with Project 2010

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Project Management Offices
 In the 1990s, many companies began creating PMOs to help them handle the increasing
number and complexity of projects
 A Project Management Office (PMO) is an organizational group responsible for
coordinating the project management function throughout an organization

FIGURE : Growth in the number of Project Management

 Project Management Identified 3 key factors that are playing major roles in the growth of
PMO's
1. The growing strategic value of the PMO

2. The increased role of the PMO in training

3. The ever-present challenge of resource management.

 Goals Of a PMO
1. Collect, organize, and integrate project data for the entire organization.

2. Ensure that the organization’s approaches for project management

include accepted and validated best practices.

3. Audit the project documentation and offer feedback to the project

manager’s approaches and compliance with standards.

4. Develop and maintain templates, tools, and standards for project

documents and project methodologies to be used.

5. Develop or coordinate training in various project management topics.

6. Develop and provide a formal career path for project managers.

7. Provide project management consulting services.

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 8. Provide a structure to house project managers while they are acting in
those roles or are between projects.

Global Issues:

Several global dynamics are forcing organizations to rethink their practices:

 Talent development for project and program managers is a top concern
 Good project portfolio management is crucial in tight economic conditions
 Basic project management techniques are core competencies
 Organizations want to use more agile approaches to project management
 Benefits realization of projects is a key metric

The Project Management Institute:

 The Project Management Institute (PMI) is an international professional society for project
managers founded in 1969
 PMI has continued to attract and retain members, reporting more than 380,000 members
worldwide by 2012
 There are communities of practices in many areas, like information systems, financial
services, and health care
 Project management research and certification programs continue to grow
 Students can join PMI at a reduced fee and earn the Certified Associate in Project
Management (CAPM) certification(see www.pmi.org for details)

Project Management Certification:

 PMI provides certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP)

 A PMP has documented sufficient project experience, agreed to follow a code of ethics, and
passed the PMP exam
 The number of people earning PMP certification is increasing quickly
 PMI and other organizations offer additional certification programs (see Appendix B)

Figure: Growth in PMP Certification, 1993-2011

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Ethics in Project Management:

 Ethics, loosely defined, is a set of principles that guide our decision making based on
personal values of what is “right” and “wrong”
 Project managers often face ethical dilemmas
 In order to earn PMP certification, applicants must agree to PMI’s Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct
 Several questions on the PMP exam are related to professional responsibility, including
ethics

Project Management Software:

There are hundreds of different products to assist in performing project management Three main
categories of tools:
 Low-end tools: Handle single or smaller projects well, cost under $200 per user
 Midrange tools: Handle multiple projects and users, cost $200-$1,000 per user, Project
2010 most popular
 High-end tools: Also called enterprise project management software, often licensed on a
per-user basis, like Microsoft Enterprise Project Management solution

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 who is involved in
each phase, and 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.

 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
 Project Phases vary by project or Industry, but general phases in traditional project
management are

1. The Concept.
2. Development.
3. Implementation.
4. Close-out.

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 Figure: Phases of the Traditional Project Life Cycle

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
 Systems development projects can follow
 Predictive life cycle: the scope of the project can be clearly articulated and the schedule and
cost can be predicted
 Adaptive Software Development (ASD) life cycle: requirements cannot be clearly
expressed, projects are mission driven and component based, using time-based cycles to
meet target dates.

Predictive Life Cycle Models:

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.

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 Figure: Waterfall and Spiral Life Cycle

Models Agile Software Development:

 Agile software development has become popular to describe new approaches that focus on
close collaboration between programming teams and business experts

 See the last section of this chapter and Chapter 3 for more information on agile

The Importance of Project Phases and Management Reviews:

 A project should successfully pass through each of the project phases in order to continue on
to the next

 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
organizational goals.

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 could recognize a dead horse before it started to smell...In information
technology we ride dead horses failing projects a long time before 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.”*

 Many organizations, like Huntington Bancshares, Inc., use an executive steering committee
to help keep projects on track.

 Some projects still go on a long time before being killed, like Blizzard’s Titan game project.

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