Information Systems Project Management

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Information Systems Project Management

• ISQS 4350
• Zhangxi Lin

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Chapter 1 The Nature of Information Technology
Projects
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Questions

• What is a project?
• What is project management?
• How does project management relate to other
  disciplines?
• What is the career outlook for project managers
  in information technology?

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What Is a Project?

• A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to
  accomplish a unique product or service (Project
  management body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide 2000,
  p. 4)
• Attributes of projects
• unique purpose
• temporary
• require resources, often from various areas
• should have a primary sponsor and/or customer
• involve uncertainty

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Case 1 Calebs Mission Critical Schedule System
(MCSS) for Continental Airlines

• If an airline company has to make up a cancelled
  flight in an emergency, for example, a plane
  crash, it may take it several hours to reschedule
  the relevant flights as well as the crew teams,
  and a couple of days to settle down other legacy
  problems. Caleb has developed a mission critical
  schedule system for airline companies, which can
  find the solution in minutes and solve other
  legacy problems in a few hours.
• Continental Airlines, as a client of Caleb
  Technology (Austin) for years, has carefully
  evaluated the system and decided to adopt the
  application. Delighted by the winning of the
  contract, Caleb is facing the following several
  questions
• EDS is the original application developer and
  will be working with Caleb in the user interface
  as Continental Airlines required. How to
  cooperate with Continental Airlines is the key
  issue.
• MCSS must be integrated into existing enterprise
  information system of Continental Airlines. How
  this will be done?
• How test MCSS in the real environment to
  guarantee its reliability and availability.
• How to switch from old system to the new system
  integrated with MCSS?

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Case 2 Online medical services appointment
system

• Making the appointment with a PCP or specialist
  doctor is normally via phone call. Even though
  e-commerce and many other online services are
  prevailing, such a service in medical area has
  never been done yet. We there were such a system,
  this system would have allowed patents to check
  the availability of a doctor or any other medical
  services from the Internet, making and changing
  the appointment. So, this is a promising system
  in several ways
• It will greatly make the appointment convenient
• It can be connected to other networked medical
  information services, such as medical insurance.
• It will also benefit the medical service
  providers much in saving costs and improving
  service quality.
• There several issues
• Who will initialize the project?
• Who should be involved ?
• Who is to be a target buyer of the system?
• How this system can be co-operated with other
  medical information systems?
• Is this system really beneficial?

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Case 3 Adams Globalization online translation
services development

• Adams Globalization is a leading translation
  service company in Austin, Texas. The company
  provides the translation between English and
  several other languages, such as Spanish, German,
  French, Japanese, and Chinese. The company
  started in 1982. In 1993 it hired 4 employees and
  in 2003 it hired 40 employees and operating a
  translator network with more than 1000 freelance
  translators. The companys revenue in 2002 was
  4,000,000. Adams Globalization has been facing
  more and more pressures to convert its business
  model from traditional translations to an
  Internet-based one
• There is an increasing Internet-based application
  translation demand.
• Intensified Internet usage requests the company
  to change its business processes
• The company is moving towards a global market.
• Therefore, there are several reasons for Adams
  Globalization to adopt e-business. There are
  several issues
• What is the new business model?
• How to develop a web-based business system?
• What is the project scope?

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The Software Crisis
If builders built buildings the way programmers
wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that
came along would destroy civilization. -Gerald
Weinberg
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Status of IT Projects

• 31 IT projects were cancelled before completion
• 53 were completed, but were over-budget,
  over-schedule, and did not meet the original
  requirements.
• The average cost overrun of medium-sized projects
  was 202

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Why Projects Fail CHAOS STUDY
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What is Project Management?

• Project management is the application of
  knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to
  project activities in order to meet project
  requirements (PMI, Project Management Body of
  Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 2000, p. 6)

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is an
international professional society. Their web
site is www.pmi.org.
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Improving the likelihood of success

• Socio-technical Approach
• Cooperation between developers and users
• Project Management Approach
• Depending more on processes and infrastructure
• Resources management
• Delivering the outcomes in a professional way as
  expected
• Coping with greater internal and external
  competition
• Improving efficiency and effectiveness
• Knowledge Management Approach
• lessons learned
• best practices

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The 2001 Standish Group Report Showed Decided
Improvement in Project Success

• Time overruns significantly decreased to 163
  compared to 222
• Cost overruns were down to 145 compared to 189
• Required features and functions were up to 67
  compared to 61
• 78,000 U.S. projects were successful compared to
  28,000
• 28 of IT projects succeeded compared to 16

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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.
• The Standish Group, "CHAOS 2001 A Recipe
  for Success" (2001)

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Factors For Successful Projects

• User involvement
• Executive management support
• Clear statement of requirements
• Proper planning
• Realistic expectations
• Smaller project milestones
• Competent staff ownership
• Clear vision objectives
• Hard-working, focused team

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Chaos Study
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Why do we learn project management?

• It is different from system analysis
• It will allow you to apply all the knowledge you
  have learned in IS, such as programming, data
  management, and system analysis, into the
  practices
• But more management
• Consider you get a programming job. In the first
  week in the company you are asked
• To work with someone to do some Java programming
  but you dont know what it is for
• To join a project group for internal software
  resource sharing project but you dont know who
  are your colleagues before a meeting or
• To look into the latest WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e)
  technology to see the potential application to
  your companys business. You here of it but
  wonder why
• To investigate the search engine market and write
  a proposal it is a task for a programmer?
• What should you do?

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The context of project management
Project Attributes

• Interdependent tasks
• Organizational change
• Operating Environment

• Time Frame
• Purpose
• Ownership
• Resources
• Roles
• Risks Assumptions

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The Triple Constraint of Project Management
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Roles in a project

• Project Manager
• Project Sponsor
• Subject Matter Expert(s) (SME)
• Technical Expert(s) (TE)

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Risks Assumptions

• Internal risk
• From the estimation process or from the fact that
  a key member of the project team could leave in
  the middle of the project
• External risk
• Arises from the dependencies on other contractors
  or vendors
• Assumptions
• What we used to estimate scope, schedule, and
  budget and to assess the risk of the project

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The Project Life Cycle andIT Development
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Definitions

• Project Life Cycle (PLC)
• A collection of logical stages or phases that
  maps the life of a project from its beginning to
  its end for a project
• Deliverable
• A tangible and verifiable product of work
• Phase exits, stage gates, or kill points
• Phase-end review of key deliverables that allow
  the organization to evaluate the projects
  performance and take immediate action to correct
  errors or problems

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Generic Project Life Cycle
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Phases/Stages of PLC

• Define project goal
• Plan project
• Answer questions (What, why, how, who, et al)
• Baseline plan
• Execute project plan
• Close project
• Evaluate project

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Systems Development Life Cycle
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Systems Development Life Cycle

• SDLC sequential phases or stages an information
  system follows throughout its useful life.
• Phases/Stages
• Planning
• Analysis
• Design
• Implementation
• Maintenance and Support

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Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
4. Development, Coding
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Implementing SDLC

• Structured Approaches
• Waterfall Method

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Implementing SDLC

• Rapid Application Development (RAD) Approaches
• Prototyping
• Develop a small test system in a short time and
  improve it.
• Spiral Development
• The project is broken into mini-projects each
  addressing one or more risks until all risks are
  addressed
• Extreme Programming (XP)
• The system is transferred to the users in a
  series of releases. Each release is a working
  system that only includes one or several
  functions.

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The PLC vs the SDLC
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PLC vs. SDLC

• PLC focuses on the processes of managing a
  project
• SDKC focuses on creating and implementing a
  product the information system
• SDLC is part of PLC most of SDLC activities
  occur during the execution phase of PLC.

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Enterprise System Implementation Phases
1. Initiation
2. Planning
5. Transition

• Analysis
• process design

• Realization
• (Fulfill ERP)

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What is PMBOK

• The Project management body of Knowledge (PMBOK)
• A document providing a basis for identifying and
  describing the generally accepted principles and
  practices of project management
• Originally published in 1987
• Available from Project Management Institute (PMI)

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Project Management Framework
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Project Management Knowledge Areas

• Project integration management
• Project scope management
• Project time management
• Project cost management
• Project quality management

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Project Management Knowledge Areas

• Project human resource management
• Project communication management
• Project risk management
• Project procurement management

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Sample Gantt Chart
The WBS is on the left, and each tasks start and
finish date are shown on the right using a
calendar timescale. Early Gantt Charts, first
used in 1917, were drawn by hand.
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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 tasks on
the critical path take longer 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.
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The Project Management Profession

• The job of IT Project Manager is in the list of
  the top ten most in demand IT skills
• Professional societies like the Project
  Management Institute (PMI) have grown
  tremendously
• Project management research and certification
  programs continue to grow

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Top Ten Most in Demand IT Skills
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Project Management Knowledge Continues to Grow
and Mature

• PMI hosted their first research conference in
  June 2000 in Paris, France, and the second one in
  Seattle in July 2002
• The PMBOK Guide 2000 is an ANSI standard
• PMIs certification department earned ISO 9000
  certification
• Hundreds of new books, articles, and
  presentations related to project management have
  been written in recent years

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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 are offering new
  certification programs (see Appendix B)

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Growth in PMP Certification, 1993-2002
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Software outsourcing

• Supplemental material

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Offshore Software Outsourcing

• In next few years, about 2 million IT jobs will
  shift to foreign countries because of
  outsourcing, e.g. to India.
• Companies have to do so because of the tough
  surviving environment.
• This is the trend of globalization as the
  economies in different countries are more
  dependent of each other.
• While Indias position is reasonably secure,
  there is no room for being complacent. Several
  upcoming destinationsArgentina, the Czech
  Republic and China in particular. India scores
  over China in employee costs, primarily due to
  that country importing project managers from Hong
  Kong and Australia. East Europe is home to
  top-notch engineering talent it is quite likely
  that high-end engineering work will flow there.

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Software Industry in Developing Countries

• Many developing countries have adopted the
  development of Software Industry as a long-term
  strategy for economy growth
• As software outsourcing is a global trend for
  developed countries, there are good opportunities
  for developing countries to speed up their
  software industry development
• The suggested two-stage development strategy for
  the software industry in developing countries
• Focus on the domestic market first
• Go to global market once the software companies
  are competitive enough
• Current two patterns of software industries
  reflect the two-stage development strategy
• International market oriented normally
  providing outsourcing market for the developed
  countries, which is the pattern for those early
  birds, e.g. India,
• Domestic market oriented for latecomers, e.g.
  China

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The Pattern of Export-Oriented India

• Comparatively, in 2002-2003, the software
  industry in India was worth US 12 billion, of
  which software export was 9.5 billion with a
  growth rate of 25.3.
• The software industry is expected to account for
  something like 20 of Indias exports for
  2002-03. (http//www.expresscomputeronline.com/200
  30331/softserv.shtml).
• Heeks (1996) indicated that if the software
  exports grows rapidly, the growth of the domestic
  market is prevented.

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The Pattern of Domestic Market Oriented China

• In the past 10 years Chinas software industry
  revenue has been growing at an annual rate
  between 20-40. The revenue of software industry
  in 2002 reached US13.3 billion, a 46.5 increase
  from 2001.
• In the last three years its software export
  almost doubled every year. However, Chinas
  software market is domestic-oriented - nearly 90
  software products were sold domestically.
• In 2002, Chinas application software accounted
  for 64.5 of the total domestic software
  products.
• Foreign software and system integration still
  account for 95.3 of the upper software market

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India Pattern vs. China Pattern

• Comparison of software revenue in 2002
• India 12.5 billion, with 9.5 billion from the
  export
• China 13.3 billion, with 1.5 billion from the
  export
• Indias case is a successful example, while
  Chinas case is more representative for the
  developing countries just started their software
  industry.
• Heeks (1999) outlines some generic approaches to
  a developing countrys software industry
  development. Two dimensions, the target market
  served (Domestic vs. Export) and the types of
  business intended (Service vs. Packages), are
  used in analyzing the strategic positioning for a
  developing country.

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Potentials of Indias software industry

• Several markets that could result in large
  opportunities for Indian.
• Product Data Management (PDM) is one such area,
  covering applications that manage product data
  and product development workflow. The global
  market for PDM is projected to grow to 11
  billion by 2006, according to CIMData.
  Automotive, electronics and telecom, aerospace,
  machinery and process industries are major users
  of PDM.
• Content management is another growth area with
  the thrust being on delivering digital content
  across multiple channels. This market is
  projected to be worth 27 billion by 2006.
  Services account for roughly 90 percent of this
  market.
• Enterprise Application integration (EAI) is a
  potential gold mine for Indian software houses.
  It is projected to be a 43.4 billion market by
  2005 services account for 73 percent of this
  market. Business Intelligence and data
  warehousing will together account for a 29
  billion market by 2005.
• The market for wireless and mobile infrastructure
  consulting, integration and management services
  will be worth 37.4 billion by 2006.
• Straight-through processing (STP) is the complete
  automation of stock trading from order entry to
  final settlement. The global market for STP is
  expected to touch 6.3 billion by 2004. India can
  offer customised application development,
  maintenance and support, consulting and
  transaction processing outsourcing in this
  segment.

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References in offshore outsourcing

• http//news.com.com/2030-1011-5130813.html
• http//www.expresscomputeronline.com/20030331/soft
  serv.shtml
• Heeks, Richard, Software strategies in
  developing countries, Development Informatics
  working paper series, 1999.
• Li, M., and M. Gao, Strategies for Developing
  Chinas Software Industry, Information
  Technology and International Development (2003).