Chapter 2:

The Project Management

and Information Technology
Context

Information Technology
Project Management,
Eighth Edition

Note: See the text itself for full citations.

 Projects Cannot Be Run
In Isolation
 Projects must operate in a broad organizational
environment
 Project managers need to use systems thinking:

◦ taking a holistic view of carrying out projects within the

context of the organization
 Senior managers must make sure projects
continue to support current business needs

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 2
 A 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 include:
◦ Systems philosophy: an overall model for thinking about
things as systems
◦ Systems analysis: problem-solving approach
◦ Systems management: address business, technological,
and organizational issues before making changes to
systems

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 3
 Figure 2-1. Three Sphere Model for
Systems Management

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 4
 Figure 2-2. Perspectives on Organizations

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 5
 What Went Wrong?
• In a paper titled “A Study in Project Failure,” two
researchers examined the success and failure of 214 IT
projects over an eight-year period in several European
countries.
• The researchers found that only one in eight (12.5 percent)
were considered successful in terms of meeting scope,
time, and cost goals.
• The authors said that the culture within many organizations
is often to blame
• Among other things, people often do not discuss important
leadership, stakeholder, and risk management issues

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 6
 Organizational Structures
 3 basic organization 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

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 7
 Figure 2-3. Functional, Project, and
Matrix Organizational Structures

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 8
 Table 2-1. Organizational Structure
Influences on Projects

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 9
 Organizational Culture
 Organizational culture is a set of shared
assumptions, values, and behaviors that
characterize the functioning of an organization
 Many experts believe the underlying causes of

many companies’ problems are not the structure

or staff, but the culture

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 10
 Ten Characteristics of Organizational
Culture
 Member identity*  Risk tolerance*
 Group emphasis*  Reward criteria*
 People focus  Conflict tolerance*
 Unit integration*  Means-ends
 Control orientation
 Open-systems focus*

*Project work is most successful in an organizational

culture where these items are strong/high and other
items are balanced.

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 11
 Stakeholder Management
 Project managers must take time to identify,
understand, and manage relationships with all
project stakeholders
 Using the four frames of organizations can help

meet stakeholder needs and expectations

 Senior executives/top management are very

important stakeholders
 See Chapter 13, Project Stakeholder

Management, for more information

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 12
 Media Snapshot
 The media have often reported on mismanaged IT
projects, including the disastrous launch of the
website healthcare.gov in October 2013
 Forbes ran an article on called “Healthcare.gov:

Diagnosis: The Government Broke Every Rule of

Project Management”
 President Obama formed the “Obama Trauma

Team” of star performers from several

organizations to help fix the site

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 13
 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.

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 14
 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

organization
 Mentoring and coaching on leadership issues

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 15
 Best Practice
 IT governance addresses the authority and
control for key IT activities in organizations,
including IT infrastructure, IT use, and project
management
 A lack of IT governance can be dangerous, as

evidenced by three well-publicized 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)
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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 16
 Need for Organizational 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

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 17
 Need for Organizational 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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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 18
 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

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 19
 More on Project Phases
 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

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 20
 Figure 2-4. Phases of the Traditional
Project Life Cycle

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 21
 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

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 22
 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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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 23
 Figure 2-5. Waterfall and Spiral Life
Cycle Models

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 24
 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

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 25
 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

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 26
 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.

*Cabanis, Jeannette, "'A Major Impact': The Standish Group's Jim Johnson On Project
Management and IT Project Success," PM Network, PMI, Sep.1998, p. 7

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 27
 The Context of IT Projects
 IT projects can be very diverse in terms of size,
complexity, products produced, application area,
and resource requirements
 IT project team members often have diverse

backgrounds and skill sets

 IT projects use diverse technologies that change

rapidly. Even within one technology area, people

must be highly specialized

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 28
 Recent Trends Affecting IT Project
Management
 Globalization
 Outsourcing: Outsourcing is when an

organization acquires goods and/or sources from

an outside source. Offshoring is sometimes
used to describe outsourcing from another
country
 Virtual teams: A virtual team is a group of

individuals who work across time and space

using communication technologies
 Agile project management

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 29
 Important Issues and Suggestions
Related to Globalization
 Issues
◦ Communications
◦ Trust
◦ Common work practices
◦ Tools
 Suggestions
◦ Employ greater project discipline
◦ Think global but act local
◦ Keep project momentum going
◦ Use newer tools and technology

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 30
 Outsourcing
 Organizations remain competitive by using
outsourcing to their advantage, such as finding
ways to reduce costs
 Their next challenge is to make strategic IT

investments with outsourcing by improving their

enterprise architecture to ensure that IT
infrastructure and business processes are
integrated and standardized (See Suggested
Readings)
 Project managers should become more familiar with

negotiating contracts and other outsourcing issues

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 31
 Global Issues
 Outsourcing also has disadvantages. For example,
Apple benefits from manufacturing products in China,
but it had big problems there after its iPhone 4S launch
in January 2012 caused fighting between migrant
workers who were hired by scalpers to stand in line to
buy the phones.
 When Apple said it would not open its store in Beijing,
riots resulted and people attacked security guards. The
Beijing Apple Store has had problems before. In May
2011, four people were injured when a crowd waiting to
buy the iPad 2 turned ugly.

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 32
 Virtual Teams Advantages
 Increasing competiveness and responsiveness
by having a team of workers available 24/7
 Lowering costs because many virtual workers

do not require office space or support beyond

their home offices.
 Providing more expertise and flexibility by

having team members from across the globe

working any time of day or night
 Increasing the work/life balance for team

members by eliminating fixed office hours and

the need to travel to work.
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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 33
 Virtual Team Disadvantages
 Isolating team members
 Increasing the potential for communications

problems
 Reducing the ability for team members to network

and transfer information informally

 Increasing the dependence on technology to

accomplish work
 See text for a list of factors that help virtual teams

succeed, including team processes,

trust/relationships, leadership style, and team
member selection
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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 34
 Agile Project Management
 Agile means being able to move quickly and easily, but some
people feel that project management, as they have seen it
used, does not allow people to work quickly or easily.
 Early software development projects often used a waterfall
approach, as defined earlier in this chapter. As technology
and businesses became more complex, the approach was
often difficult to use because requirements were unknown or
continuously changing.
 Agile today means using a method based on iterative and
incremental development, in which requirements and
solutions evolve through collaboration.
 See the Resources tab from www.pmtexts.com for more info

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 35
 Agile Makes Sense for Some
Projects, But Not All
 Many seasoned experts in project management warn
people not to fall for the hype associated with Agile.
 For example, J. Leroy Ward, Executive Vice President

at ESI International, said that “Agile will be seen for

what it is … and isn’t….Project management
organizations embracing Agile software and product
development approaches will continue to grow while
being faced with the challenge of demonstrating ROI
through Agile adoption.”*
*J. Leroy Ward, “The Top Ten Project Management Trends for 2011,” projecttimes.com
(January 24, 2011).

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 36
 Manifesto for Agile Software
Development
 In February 2001, a group of 17 people that called
itself the Agile Alliance developed and agreed on the
Manifesto for Agile Software Development, as follows:
 “We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it. Through

this work we have come to value:
 Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
 Working software over comprehensive documentation
 Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
 Responding to change over following a plan”*

*Agile Manifesto, www.agilemanifesto.org.

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 37
 Scrum
 According to the Scrum Alliance, Scrum is the
leading agile development method for completing
projects with a complex, innovative scope of work.
 The term was coined in 1986 in a Harvard

Business Review study that compared high-

performing, cross-functional teams to the scrum
formation used by rugby teams.

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 38
 Figure 2-6. Scrum Framework

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 39
 Kanban
 Technique that can be used in conjunction with
scrum
 Developed in Japan by Toyota Motor Corporation
 Uses visual cues to guide workflow
 Kanban cards show new work, work in progress,

and work completed

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 40
 Agile, the PMBOK® Guide, and a New
Certification
 The PMBOK® Guide describes best practices for what
should be done to manage projects.
 Agile is a methodology that describes how to manage
projects.
 The Project Management Institute (PMI) recognized the
increased interest in Agile, and introduced a new
certification in 2011 called Agile Certified Practitioner
(ACP).
 Seasoned project managers understand that they have
always had the option of customizing how they run
projects, but that project management is not easy, even
when using Agile.
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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 41
 Chapter Summary
 Project managers need to take a systems approach
when working on projects
 Organizations have four different frames: structural,
human resources, political, and symbolic
 The structure and culture of an organization 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
globalization, outsourcing, virtual teams, and Agile

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Management, Eighth Edition Copyright 2016 42