02
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Learning Objectives
- Compare and apply techniques and tools for estimating, scheduling and monitoring a software project
- Explain basic project management concepts (including project planning, scheduling, control)
Week 2: Suggested Reading:
- Information Technology Project Management. Author: Schwalbe K. Chapter 2
Content
- Overview of PRINCE2 organisation
- Project Environment
- Importance of top management commitment
- Organisational standards
PRINCE2
- PRINCE2 is an acronym for PRojects IN Controlled Environments 2.
- PRINCE2 defines a project as:
- “A project is a temporary organisation that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to an agreed business case”.
- Provides a model organisation for undertaking projects.
- The structure of this organisation is based on a customer/supplier environment.
- It is claimed to be suitable for most projects and any size or type of project. ??
Project vs Business as Usual
- Projects are the means by which we introduce change - and while many of the skills required are the same, there are some crucial differences between managing business as usual and managing project work.
- There are a number of characteristics of project work that distinguish it from business as usual:
- Change
- Temporary
- Cross-functional
- Unique
- Uncertainty
Project Business As Usual Start & End Continuous Introduces major change Maintains existing operations Innovative Reactive Minimum size Takes top priority Beyond comfort zone Tried and tested Doing things differently Doing things the same way -
What PRINCE2 doesn’t provide?
- Specialist aspects
- Detailed techniques
- Leadership capability
Project management
What do we wish to control?
- The 6 aspects of project performance
- Cost
- Timescales
- Quality
- Scope
- Risks
- Benefits
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PRINCE2: 7 Principles
- 1. Continued business justification
- 2. Learn from experience
- 3. Defined roles and responsibility
- 4. Manage by stages
- 5. Manage by exception
- 6. Focus on products
- 7. Tailor to suit the project environment
PRINCE2: 7 Themes
- 1. Business case
- 2. Organisation
- 3. Quality
- 4. Plans
- 5. Risk
- 6. Change
- 7. Progress
PRINCE2: 7 processes
- 1. Starting up a project (SU)
- 2. Directing a project (DP)
- 3. Initiating a project (IP)
- 4. Controlling a stage (CS)
- 5. Managing product delivery (PD)
- 6. Managing a stage Boundary (SB)
- 7. Closing a project
The PRINCE2 organisation structure
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The Project Board
- Represents the business, user, supplier interests of the project
- The project board consists of 3 roles
- Executive
- Senior User
- Senior Supplier
The role of Executive
- Ultimately responsible for the project
- Supported by the senior user and senior supplier
- Ensures project is value for money
- Cost sensible approach to project
- Balances demands of business, user & supplier
- Throughout the project the executive ‘owns’ the business case
The role of Senior User
- Ensures what is produced is fit for purpose
- Monitors the solution to make sure it meets the user’s needs within the constraints of business case
- Role represents the interests of all those who will use the final product(s) of the project
The role of Senior Supplier
- This role represents the interests of those
- designing,
- developing,
- facilitating,
- procuring,
- implementing,
- operating and
- maintaining the project products
- Has authority to commit or acquire the required supplier resources
- Has responsibility for the supplier’s business case
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Other roles in the PRINCE2 model organisation
- Project Manager
- Prime responsibility is to ensure the project produces the required products, to the required standard of quality, within specified constraints of time and cost
- Team Manager
- Prime responsibility is to ensure production of these products defined by the project manager to appropriate quality, in a timescale and at a cost acceptable to the project manager
- Project Assurance
- Is the independent monitoring of project progress on behalf of one or more members of the project board
- May be done by board members
- 3 principal areas of assurance are
- Business (business case, risks, expenditure)
- Technical standards and quality
- User (should meet user’s specification)
- Project Support
- Optional set of roles
- Covers project administration
- Support tool expertise (planning, control tools)
- Change control
- Configuration management
The Factors of Project Challenges
Top 10 risks
- 1 Changing project's scope/feature
- =2 Insufficient staffing
- =2 Unclear business objectives
- 3 Unrealistic estimates budget/schedule
- 4 Misunderstanding the project's requirements
- 5 Lack of executive support
- 6 Failure to do testing in early project stages
- 7 No standard technical platform/architecture
- 8 Lack of project management skills
- 9 Failure to minimise scope
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Some Familiar Situations...
Content
- Overview of PRINCE2 organisation
- Project Environment
- Importance of top management commitment
- Organisational standards
Project Environment
- Concept of project management must be applied to different project environments
- Project environment
- Systems approach
- Understanding the organisation
- Managing the stakeholders
- Choosing a systems life cycle
Systems Approach
- Includes concept of using
- systems philosophy
- Overall model for thinking about things as systems
- systems analysis
- Problem solving approach
- systems management
- Consider business, technological & organisational issues before making changes to systems
Systems Management
- The need to address the 3 spheres of systems management
- Business
- Organisation
- Technology
Systems Philosophy
- Systems concept
- Systems have a structure (input, process, output, feedback/control, resources)
- Systems interact with their environment
Systems Analysis
- Problem solving approach
- the scope of the system
- Divide into components
- Identify and evaluate problems/opportunities/constraints/requirements
- May examine alternative solutions
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Organisational Structures
- 3 basic organisation structures
- Functional: functional managers report to the CEO
- Project: program managers report to the CEO
- Matrix: middle ground between functional and project structures; personnel often report to two or more bosses; structure can be weak, balanced, or strong matrix
Organisational Culture
- Organisational culture is a set of shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that characterise the functioning of an organisation
- Many experts believe the underlying causes of many companies’ problems are not the structure or staff, but the culture
10 Characteristics of Organisational Culture
- Member identity*
- Group emphasis*
- People focus
- Unit integration*
- Control
- Risk tolerance*
- Reward criteria*
- Conflict tolerance*
- Means-ends orientation
- Open-systems focus*
- *Project work is most successful in an organisational culture where these items are strong/high and other items are balanced
Stakeholder Management
- Project managers must take time to identify, understand, and manage relationships with all project stakeholders
- Senior executives/top management are very important stakeholders
- Need for Organisational Commitment to Information Technology (IT)
- If the organisation has a negative attitude toward IT, it will be difficult for an IT project to succeed
- Having a Chief Information Officer (CIO) at a high level in the organisation helps IT projects
- Assigning non-IT people to IT projects also encourages more commitment
The Importance of Top Management Commitment
- People in top management positions are key stakeholders in projects
- A very important factor in helping project managers successfully lead projects is the level of commitment and support they receive from top management
- Without top management commitment, many projects will fail.
- Some projects have a senior manager called a champion who acts as a key proponent for a project.
How Top Management Can Help Project Managers
- Providing adequate resources
- Approving unique project needs in a timely manner
- Getting cooperation from other parts of the organisation
- Mentoring and coaching on leadership issues
Best Practice
- IT governance addresses the authority and control for key IT activities in organisations, including IT infrastructure, IT use, and project management
- A lack of IT governance can be dangerous, as evidenced by three well-publicised IT project failures in Australia (Sydney Water’s customer relationship management system, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology’s academic management system, and One.Tel’s billing system)
Need for Organisational Commitment to Information Technology (IT)
- If the organization has a negative attitude toward IT, it will be difficult for an IT project to succeed
- Having a Chief Information Officer (CIO) at a high level in the organization helps IT projects
- Assigning non-IT people to IT projects also encourage more commitment
Need for Organisational Standards
- Standards and guidelines help project managers be more effective
- Senior management can encourage
- the use of standard forms and software for project management
- the development and use of guidelines for writing project plans or providing status information
- the creation of a project management office or center of excellence
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Quick Quiz
- 1. What are the phases of the traditional project life cycle?
- Reveal Answer
- ANSWER: Concept, development, implementation, and close-out
- 2. What type of organizational structure has project team members reporting to at least two bosses?
- Reveal Answer
- ANSWER: Matrix.
- 3. What type of organizational structure gives the least amount of authority to project managers?
- Reveal Answer
- ANSWER: Functional
- 4. Name two characteristics of organizational culture that help project management.
- Reveal Answer
- ANSWER: Any of the following: Project work is most successful in an organizational culture where employees identify more with the organization, where work activities emphasize groups, and where there is strong unit integration, high risk tolerance, performance-based rewards, high conflict tolerance, an open-systems focus, and a balanced focus on people, control, and means-orientation.
- 5. What is the most popular agile methodology?
- Reveal Answer
- ANSWER: Scrum
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Chapter 2 Summary
Understand the basic concept of PRINCE2
- Explain basic project management concepts
- project planning,
- scheduling,
- control and configuration management, and
- techniques for cost estimation
- Project managers need to take a systems approach when working on projects
- Organisations have four different frames: structural, human resources, political, and symbolic
- The structure and culture of an organisation have strong implications for project managers
- Projects should successfully pass through each phase of the project life cycle
- Project managers need to consider several factors due to the unique context of information technology projects
- Recent trends affecting IT project management include globalisation, outsourcing, virtual teams, and Agile
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Key Terms
- deliverable A product or service, such as a technical report, a training session, a piece of hardware, or a segment of software code, produced or provided as part of a project
- executive steering committee A group of senior executives from various parts of the organisation who regularly review important corporate projects and issues
- functional organisational structure An organisational structure that groups people by functional areas such as IT, manufacturing, engineering, and human resources
- human resources (HR) frame A frame that focuses on producing harmony between the needs of the organisation and the needs of people
- IT governance The authority and control for key IT activities in organisations, including IT infrastructure, IT use, and project management
- kill point A management review that should occur after each project phase to determine if projects should be continued, redirected, or terminated; also called a phase exit
- matrix organisational structure An organisational structure in which employees are assigned both to functional and project managers
- organisational culture A set of shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that characterize the functioning of an organisation
- project organisational structure An organisational structure that groups people by major projects
- systems Sets of interacting components working within an environment to fulfill some purpose
- systems analysis A problem-solving approach that requires defining the scope of the system to be studied, and then dividing it into component parts for identifying and evaluating its problems, opportunities, constraints, and needs
- systems approach A holistic and analytical approach to solving complex problems that includes using a systems philosophy, systems analysis, and systems management
- systems management Addressing the business, technological, and organisational issues associated with creating, maintaining, and modifying a system
- systems philosophy An overall model for thinking about things as systems
- systems thinking A holistic view of an organisation to effectively handle complex situations
- virtual team A group of people who work together despite time and space boundaries using communication technologies