Chapter 02

Managing The System

Project
 Learning Objectives
• Explain the concept of project management.
• List and describe the skills and activities of a project
manager during project initiation, project planning,
project execution and project closedown.
• Explain what is meant by critical path scheduling and
describe the process of creating Gantt charts and
network diagram (PERT chart)
Project
 Project
• A planned undertaking of related activities
to reach an objective that has a beginning
and end.
• A successful project must be completed
on time, within budget, and deliver a
quality product that satisfies users and
meets requirements.
 Project
Management
 Project Management
• It is a process of directing and coordinating all the steps in the
development of an information system.
• Objective: Ensure a successful completion of a project.
• Effective project management is necessary throughout the
entire systems development life cycle to ensure successful
completion of the project.
• Many stages are involved in a particular project development. A
project manager, therefore, needs to have the necessary skills
and experience to manage the project.
• A controlled process of initiating, planning, executing and
closing down a project.
 Project Management
Project Initiation:
• The first phase of the project management
which several activities are performed to
assess the size, scope, and complexity of the
project and to establish procedures to
support later project activities.
Project Planning:
• The second phase of the project management
process which focuses on defining clear,
discrete activities and the work needed to
complete each activity within a single project.
 Project Management
Project Execution:
• The third phase of the project management process
in which the plans created in the prior phases
(project initiation and planning) are put into action.
Project Close-Down:
• The final phase of the project management process
that focuses on bringing a project to an end.
• A natural termination occurs when the requirements
of the project have been meet, the project has been
completed and is a success.
• An unnatural termination occurs when the project is
stopped before completion.
Reasons of the system project does not meet
business requirements:
– Unidentified or unclear requirements
– Inadequately defined scope and imprecise targets
– Shortcuts or sloppy work during systems analysis
– Insufficient testing or inadequate testing
procedures
– Changes in the organization’s culture and
objectives
– Poor monitoring and control of progress
– Rapid changing of user requirements
– Personality conflicts among the team members
What Does a Project
Manager Do?
 Project Manager
• Responsible for creating high-level
feasibility plans and detailed project plans
as well as staffing project team
• Determining the size, scope, and resource
requirements for a project.
• Required to have interpersonal skills,
leadership skills and technical skills
 Project Manager
Project managers typically perform four activities, or
functions: planning, scheduling, monitoring, and
reporting:
– Project planning: includes identifying all project tasks and
estimating the completion time and cost of each
– Project scheduling: involves the creation of specific
timetable, usually in the form of charts that show task, task
dependencies, and critical tasks that might delay the project.
– Project monitoring: requires guiding, supervising, and
coordinating the project team’s workload. Managers must
monitor the progress, evaluate the results, and take
corrective action when necessary to control the project and
stay on target.
– Project reporting: includes regular progress reports to
management, user and the project team itself. Require
strong communication skills.
 SCHEDULING
PROJECT PLANS
SCHEDULING PROJECT PLANS
• In the process of scheduling works, a
project manager has to ensure that team
members are not allocated more activities
than they are capable of handling.
• There are several graphical planning tools
that can assist a project manager in the
project scheduling process.
• Two popular tools used are Gantt charts
and PERT charts.
1. Gantt Chart
• It is a horizontal bar chart that represents a set of tasks. The
planned starting and ending time of each task, and the length of
the bar indicates its duration.
• On the horizontal axis, time can be shown as elapsed time from
a fixed starting point, or as actual calendar dates.
• A Gantt chart also can simplify a complex project by combining
several activities into a task group that contains subsidiary
tasks.
• This allows a complex project to be viewed as a set of
integrated modules.
• A Gantt chart can show task status by adding a contrasting
color to the horizontal bars.
Scheduling Tools – Gantt Charts
Gantt Chart for System Development Phase
Advantages of Using Gantt chart
• The bar chart presentation is easy to
assimilate and understand.
• The bar chart displays activity progress
very clearly and simply.
• A bar chart can be used to communicate
and disseminate schedule information.
Weaknesses of Gantt chart
• Gantt charts do not indicate activity
dependencies.
• Looking at just a Gantt chart, one cannot
determine the impact on the entire project
caused by a single activity that is behind the
schedule.
• The number of hours required to complete an
activity cannot be deducted from a Gantt
chart.
• It does not indicate the number of people
assigned nor the total person-hours.
2. PERT Chart
• Each view shows the tasks, the timing, the
dependencies, and the critical path.
• PERT is a bottom-up technique, because it
analyzes a large, complex project as a series
of individual tasks.
PERT Chart Format

T (task duration or time): The time the task will take in

hours, weeks, months, etc.
ES (earliest start): The earliest time that this task/activity
can begin.
EF (earliest finish): The earliest time that this task can be
finished /completed.
LF (latest finish): The latest time that this task can finish
without delaying the overall project.
LS (latest start): The latest time that this task can begin
without delaying the overall project.
Scheduling Tools - (PERT) chart
• Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) chart
Task Pattern
Task Pattern
Sample Of PERT Chart
Step 1: Identify all the project tasks and estimate each
task duration
2. Determine logical order in which the tasks must be
performed.
3. Calculate Float & Indicate Critical Path

Critical Path: A – B – D – F – I – K = 155

Determine the float
• Also called a slack
• It is a measurement of surplus time available in
an activity’s scheduling.
• Example - how many working days the activity
can be delayed without affecting the completion
date of project.
• The critical path is defined as the series of
activities which have zero float
• Float = LS – ES or LF - EF
What is Critical Path
• The chain of activities whose times
determine the overall duration of the
project.
• These activities on the critical path are
known as critical activities.
• These activities are critical and cannot be
delayed without delaying the project
Importance of Critical Path to Project
Manager
• Change critical path. Allows manager to
change the deliverables to duration of the
project.
• Close monitoring. Allows manager to closely
monitor critical activities while activities with
float given less attention.
• Allocate resources. It allows manager to
allocate the most experienced team members
to the critical activities.
Project Monitoring and Control
• Setting standards and ensuring that they are
followed.
• Enforce the use of systems development standards
in order to control quality of work done.
• Quality control over work done, enforced through
the use of systems development standards.
• Establishment of feedback procedures to aid the
control and monitoring of the project (timeliness,
keeping to budget, quality control etc).
• Ensure that different members of staff working on
different segments of the project communicate with
each other and with the project manager.
• Keeping track of the activities and progress of team
members by comparing actual progress against the
plan.
 Comparing Gantt Charts and PERT

• One significant advantage of PERT charts

is that all individual tasks dependencies
are shown.
• A PERT chart displays the critical path for
the overall project and the slack time
• A Gantt chart offers a rapid overview---no
detailed information shown here.
 PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
SOFTWARE
 Project Management Software
• Project Management Software can assist user in
project planning, estimating, scheduling, monitoring,
and controlling.
• Powerful project management packages offer many
features, including PERT, Gantt Charts, resources
scheduling(define and arrange the tasks involve,
modify task / resources), project calendars, cost
tracking, and cost benefit analysis.
• Eg. Microsoft Project, a project management program
can be used to prepare Gantt chart.
• Other project management programs are such as
ProWorkFlow, Jira, Ace Project and so on which can
be downloaded from the World Wide Web.
The End