IT Project Management, Project
Failure and Success
 Introduction
 Projects operate in a broad organizational
environment.
 Project managers need to use systems
thinking:
 Taking a holistic view of a project and
understanding how it relates to the larger
organization.
 Senior managers must make sure projects
continue to support current business needs.
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PROJECT
 Project – a [temporary] sequence of unique,
complex, and connected activities having one goal
or purpose and that must be completed by specific
time, within budget, and according to specification
 Project management – the process of scoping,
planning, staffing, organizing, directing, and
controlling the development of an acceptable system
at a minimum cost within a specified time frame.
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Poor Expectations Management:
Scope creep – the unexpected and gradual
growth of requirements during an information
systems project.
Feature creep– the uncontrolled addition of
technical features to a system.
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The art of project management
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Technological change
Customer and management expectations
Documentation and communication
Time and resource constraints
Managing people
Organizational change and complexity
Contractors and vendors
Methodologies and tools
Systems development life cycle
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A Systems View of Project
Management
 The term systems approach emerged in the 1950s to
describe a holistic and analytical approach to solving
complex problems.
 Three parts include:
 Systems philosophy: View things as systems,
which are interacting components that work within
an environment to fulfill some purpose.
 Systems analysis: Problem-solving approach.
 Systems management: Address business,
technological, and organizational issues before
making changes to systems.
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MEASURES OF SUCCESS
 The resulting information system is
acceptable to the customer.
 The system was delivered ‘on time.’
 The system was delivered “within
budget.”
 The system development process had a
minimal impact on ongoing business
operations
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CAUSES OF PROJECT
FAILURE
 Lack of organization’s commitment to
the system development methodology
 Failure to establish upper-management
commitment to the project
 Taking shortcuts through or around the
system development methodology
 Failure to adapt to business change
 Insufficient resources
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 Poor expectations management
 Premature commitment to a fixed
budget and schedule
 Poor estimating techniques
 Over optimism
 Inadequate
skills
people
management
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FUNCTIONS OF PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
 Scoping – setting the boundaries of
the project, understand context and
complexity of the project
 Planning – identifying the tasks
required to complete the project
Information Technology Project Management, Fourth Edition
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
SKILLS:
 Management skills
 Leadership skills
 Technical skills
 Conflict management skills
 Customer relationship
 Risk and change management
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
PROCESS
 Initiating project
 Planning project
 Executing project
 Closing down project
The environment is one of the
continual change and problem
solving.
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Overcoming project team difficulties
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Promote team work
Convey concepts in meetings/ workshops
Use joint problem solving/ brainstorming
Encourage feedback
Identify roles and responsibilities for each team
member
 Convey common understanding of the project
 Master schedules and critical path
 Be visible and available as Project Manager
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