Chapter 2

The Project management and

Information Technology Context

Text book: Information Technology Project Management 8th edition

Dr. Deema ALShoaibi
Outlines
• A Systems View of Project Management
• Understanding Organizations
• Focusing on Stakeholder Needs
• Project Phases and the Project Life Cycle
• The Context of Information Technology Projects
• Recent Trends Affecting Information Technology Project Management
1.A System View of Project Management
• Opening Case:
• Tom has recently accepted to be the director of Information Technology Institute at a small college.
• The college had different departments: History, English, Philosophy, Economics and Computer Science.
• Students: 1500 full time, 1000 working adults for evening classes.
• The college’s niche is serving students in the region.
• The basic infrastructure for the Wi-Fi and Internet is already developed.
• Tom development plan: As many schools around the country, students can lease lap-tops or tablets to
incorporate technology into all courses.
• September  sent email for his proposal to the faculty. ( no sufficient responses)
• February  meeting
1.A System View of Project Management
• Opening Case:
• Meeting results:
History English Philosophy Economics
Not a technical training schools
They did not have time to convert the courses materials to run on tablets
Computer Science
All their students already had state-of-the art laptops

The project failed!

Why?
1.A System View of Project Management
• Many of the theories and concepts of project management are not difficult to
understand. What is difficult is implementing them in various environments.
• Project managers must consider many different issues when managing projects.
• Just as each project is unique, so is its environment.
• This chapter discusses concepts for understanding the project environment.
1.A Systems View Of Project Management
• Projects cannot run in isolation.
• Isolating the project might not serve the needs of the organization.
• Consider the greater organizational context.
• Project managers need to take a holistic view of a project and
understand how it relates to the larger organization.
• Systems thinking describes this holistic view of carrying out projects
within the context of the organization.
System Approach
• The term systems approach emerged in the 1950s to describe a holistic and analytical approach
to solving complex problems that includes using a systems philosophy, systems analysis, and
systems management.
• Systems philosophy is an overall model for thinking about things as systems.
• Systems analysis is a problem-solving approach that requires defining the scope of the system,
dividing it into components, and then identifying and evaluating its problems, opportunities,
constraints, and needs.
• Systems management addresses the business, technological, and organizational issues associated
with creating, maintaining, and modifying
a system.
• System approach is important to understand how the project is related to other projects and to
serve the organization.
System Approach
• Opening Case:
The project failed!
Why?
• No system approach.
• Email sent in the busiest time of the academic year.
• No clear definition of the business, technological and organizational issues.
• Tom and the IT department began work on the tablet project in isolation.
The Three-Sphere Model for Systems Management

• Addressing the three spheres of systems management: business,

organization, and technology can have a huge impact on selecting and Business
managing projects successfully.
• Ask business question to help in understanding the system.

Organization Technology
• Business questions examples:
• Does it make financial sense to pursue this new technology?
• Should the company develop this soft- ware in-house or purchase it off the
shelf?

• When you integrate business and organizational issues into project

management planning and look at projects as a series of interrelated
phases, you do a better job of ensuring project success.
The Three-Sphere Model for Systems Management

• Opening Case:
2.Understanding Organizations
• The systems approach requires that project managers always view their projects in the context of
the larger organization.
• Organizational issues are often the most difficult part of working on and managing projects.
• Project managers often do not spend enough time identifying all the stakeholders involved in
projects, especially the people opposed to the projects.
• Project managers often do not spend enough time considering the culture of the organization.
• It is important for project managers to develop a better understanding of people as well as
organizations.
2.Understanding Organizations
• Four frames of organizations:
1. The structural frame deals with how the organization
is structured and focuses on different groups’ roles and
responsibilities to meet the goals and policies set by top
management.
2. The human resources (HR) frame focuses on
producing harmony between the needs of the
organization and the needs of people. It recognizes that
mismatches can occur between the needs of the
organization and those
of individuals and groups, and works to resolve any
potential problems.
2.Understanding Organizations
• Four frames of organizations:
3. The political frame addresses organizational and
personal politics. Politics in organizations take the
form of competition among groups or individuals for
power, resources, and leadership.
4. The symbolic frame focuses on symbols and
meanings. In this frame, the most important aspect of
any event in an organization is not what actually
happened, but what it means.

• Project managers must learn to work within all four frames to

function well in organizations.
2.Understanding
Organizations
• Organizational Structures:
• Many discussions of organizations focus
on their structure.
• Three general classifications of
organizational structures are functional,
project, and matrix.
 2.Understanding Organizations
* chief executive officer (CEO)

• Organizational Structures:
Functional Project Matrix

Structure hierarchical hierarchical Between the functional and the project

structures.
How it is As the organizational chart. Based on programs and projects.
structured?
Managers Functional management. Manager for Program managers report to the CEO*. 2 types of managers, functional and project
each specialist.
Report to the CEO*.
Staff Staff have specialized skills in their Staff have a variety of skills needed to Staff often report both to a functional manager
respective disciplines. complete the projects. and one or more project managers.
Report to one manager. Split their time between two positions.

Example Universities Organizations ern revenue by performing IT personal: works on a project and at the IT
projects. Example: architectural, engineering, department.
and consulting
2.Understanding Organizations
• Organizational Culture:
• Organizational culture is a set of shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that characterize the
functioning of an organization.
• It includes elements of all four frames.
• Many people believe the underlying causes of many companies’ problems are in the culture.
• Same organization can have different subcultures. (depends on departments)
• Organizational culture characteristics: (10)

• Member Identity • Conflict tolerance

• Group emphasis • Means-ends orientation
• People focus • Open-systems focus
• Unit integration
• Control
• Risk tolerance
• Reward criteria
3.Focusing on Stakeholders needs
• Stakeholders needs:
• Stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by project activities.
• Stakeholders can be internal or external to the organization, directly in- volved in the project, or simply
affected by the project.
• Internal project stakeholders include the project sponsor, project team, support staff, and internal customers
of the project.
• Because the purpose of project management is to meet project requirements and satisfy stakeholders, it is
critical that project managers take adequate time to identify, understand, and manage relationships with all
project stakeholders.
• Use the 4 frames to identify and understand the project stakeholders.

• Opening Case:
• Tom focused on how to conduct the project without understanding stakeholders.
3.Focusing on Stakeholders needs
• The Importance of Top Management Commitment :
• A very important factor in helping project managers successfully lead projects is the level of
commitment and support they receive from top management.
• Without this commitment, many projects will fail.
• Some projects have a senior manager called a champion who acts as a key advocate for a
project.
• The sponsor can serve as the champion, but often another manager can more successfully take
on this role.
• The importance of top management commitment:
• Project managers need adequate resources.
• Project managers often require approval for unique project needs in a timely manner.
• Project managers must have cooperation from people in other parts of the organization.
• Project managers often need someone to mentor and coach them on leadership issues.
4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
• Because projects operate as part of a system and involve uncertainty, it is good practice to divide
projects into several phases.
• Project phases vary by project or industry.
• Goal of phases: break projects down into smaller, more manageable pieces, which will reduce
uncertainty.
• Project life cycles define 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, 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.
• In early phases of a project life cycle, resource needs are usually lowest and the level of
uncertainty is highest
• Project stakeholders have the greatest opportunity to influence the final characteristics of the
project’s products, services, or results during the early phases of a project life cycle.
4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
• It is much more expensive to make major changes to a project during later phases.
• During the middle phases of a project life cycle, the certainty of completing the project improves as it
continues and as more information is known about the project requirements and objectives.
• More resources are usually needed than during the initial or final phase.
• The final phase of a project focuses on ensuring that project requirements were met and that the project
sponsor approves completion of the project.

• Traditional project phases:

Concept Development Implementation Close-out

4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
Concept Development Implementation Close-out

• Initial phases: concept and development focuses on planning.

• Project feasibility is studied in the initial phases.
• Last two phases: implementation and close- out focus on delivering the actual work.
• Referred to as project acquisition.
• Each phase of a project should be successfully completed before the team moves on to the next phase.
• This project life cycle approach provides better management control and appropriate links to the ongoing
operations of the organization.
4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
• Product life cycle:
• Creating a product like a new automobile or a new operating system is a complicated endeavor.
• Companies often use a program—a coordinated group of projects—to develop products and bring them to
market.
• IT projects are used to develop products and services such as new software, hardware, networks, research
reports, and training on new systems.
• Most IT professionals are familiar with the concept of a product life cycle, especially for developing
software.
• IT projects:
• Software development projects are one subset of IT projects.
• Many IT projects involve researching, analyzing, and then purchasing and installing new hardware and software with little or no
actual software development required. Other projects involve minor modifications to enhance existing software or to integrate one
application with another.
•
4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
• IT project life cycle:
• A systems development life cycle (SDLC) is a framework for describing the phases of developing
information systems
• Popular models of an SDLC: waterfall model spiral model incremental build model
prototyping model Rapid application development (RAD) model.
• These life cycle models are examples of a predictive life cycle, meaning that the scope of the project can be
articulated clearly and the schedule and cost can be predicted accurately.
• The project team spends a large portion of the project attempting to clarify the requirements of the entire
system and then producing a design.
• Users are often unable to see any tangible results in terms of working software for an extended period.
4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
• Waterfall model:
• The waterfall life cycle model has well-defined,
linear stages of systems analysis, design,
construction, testing, and support.
• This life cycle model assumes that requirements will
remain stable after they are defined.
• The waterfall life cycle model is used when risk must
be tightly controlled and when changes must be
restricted after the requirements are defined.
• The waterfall approach is used in many large-scale
systems projects where complexity and cost are so
high that the more rigid steps of the approach help to
ensure careful completion of all deliverables.
4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
• Spiral model:
• The spiral life cycle model was developed based on
refinements of the waterfall model as applied to large
government software projects.
• It recognizes the fact that most software is developed
using an iterative or spiral approach rather than a
linear approach.
• The project team is open to changes and revisions
later in the project life cycle, and returns to the
requirements phase to more carefully clarify and
design the revisions.
• This approach is suitable for projects in which
changes can be incorporated with reasonable cost
increases or with acceptable time delays
4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
• Incremental model:
• The incremental build life cycle model provides for progressive development of operational software, with
each release providing added capabilities.
• This type of approach is often used by organizations like Microsoft, which issues a specific release of a
software package while working on future revisions that will be distributed later in another release with a
higher “build” or version number.
• This approach helps to stage the priorities of the features and functions with user priorities or the costs, time,
and scope of the revisions.
4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
• Prototyping model:
• The prototyping life cycle model is used for developing software prototypes to clarify user requirements for
operational software.
• It requires heavy user involvement, and developers use a model to generate functional requirements and
physical design specifications simultaneously.
• Developers can throw away or keep prototypes, depending on the project.
• This approach is often used in systems that involve a great deal of user interface design, such as website
projects, in systems that automate previously manual functions, or in systems that change the nature of how
something is done, such as mobile applications.
4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
• Rapid application development (RAD) model
• Uses an approach in which developers work with an evolving prototype.
• This life cycle model also requires heavy user involvement and helps produce systems quickly without
sacrificing quality.
• Developers use RAD tools such as computer-aided software engineering (CASE), joint requirements planning
(JRP), and joint application design (JAD) to facilitate rapid prototyping and code generation.
• These tools are often used in reporting systems in which programmers enter parameters into software to
generate reports for user approval.
• When approved, the same parameters will generate the final production system without further modification
by the programmer.
4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
• Adaptive software development (ASD) models
• Adaptive models assumes that software requirements cannot be clearly expressed early in the life cycle, so
software is developed using a less structured, flexible approach.
• Software developers focus on the rapid creation of working code and an evolution of the entire software
system.
• Instead of planning in detail what the software should do, developers have a basic idea of user needs and
work to create code that will meet those needs.
• If some of the code needs to change, a developer changes it.
• The difference between ASD and RAD:
• ASD grew out of RAD, but RAD allows for a time period when the software is finished, while ASD does not.

• Agile software development is an example of ASD.

4.Phases And The Project Life Cycle
• Which SDLC to use?
• The type of software and complexity of the information system in development determines
which life cycle models to use.
• Most important, to meet the needs of the project environment, the project manager needs to
understand the product life cycle.
5. The Context Of Information Technology
Projects
• The project context has a critical impact on which product development life cycle will be most effective for a
particular software development project.
• Likewise, several issues unique to the IT industry have a critical impact on managing IT projects.
• These include the nature of projects, the characteristics of project team members, and the diverse nature of
technologies involved.
5. The Context Of Information Technology
Projects
• The Nature of IT Projects:
• IT projects are diverse: Size , number of members, different technologies.
• IT projects also support every possible industry and business function.
• Characteristics of IT Project Team Members
• People involved come from diverse backgrounds and possess different skills.
• The resulting diverse project teams provide a significant advantage.
• Some IT projects require the skills of people in just a few job functions, but some require inputs from
many or all of them.
• Diverse Technologies (What are the challenges associated with diverse technologies?)
• Differences in technical knowledge can make communication between professionals challenging.
• Hardware specialists might not understand the language of database analysts, and vice versa.
• Security specialists may have a hard time communicating with business analysts.
• Technologies change rapidly.
6. Recent Trends Affecting Information
Technology Project Management
• Globalization:
• Interact billions of other people across the planet.
• IT is a key enabler of globalization.
• It is important for project managers to address several key issues when working on global projects:
• Communications Trust Common work practices Tools

• Outsourcing:
• Outsourcing is an organization’s acquisition of goods and services from an outside source.
• IT projects continue to rely more and more on outsourcing, both within and outside their country boundaries.
• Some organizations remain competitive by using outsourcing to their advantage.
• Many organizations have found ways to reduce costs by outsourcing .
6. Recent Trends Affecting Information
Technology Project Management
• Virtual teams:
• Advantages:
• Lowering costs because many virtual workers do not require office space or support beyond their
home offices.
• Providing more expertise and flexibility or increasing competitiveness and responsiveness by
having team members across the globe working any time of day or night.
• Improving the balance between work and life for team members by eliminating fixed office hours
and the need to travel to work.
• Disadvantages:
• Isolating team members who may not adjust well to working in a virtual environment.
• Increasing the potential for communications problems because team mem- bers cannot use body
language or other nonverbal communications to under- stand each other and build relationships and
trust.
• Reducing the ability for team members to network and transfer information informally.
• Increasing the dependence on technology to accomplish work.
6. Recent Trends Affecting Information
Technology Project Management
• Agile project management
• Agile is an iterative approach to the development of any service or product which is also repeatable.
• Instead of slowly working on different pieces of a service or product, then finishing and compiling everything
at the end of the project.
• How it works?
• First, the team sits down and lists the features or pieces that they would like to see in the product or service. In the
software development world, each item on this list is called a user story. These ‘user stories’ are the to-do list.
• Second, each item on the list is analyzed and compared to the others. The team works together to estimate how long
each feature could take to develop. Third, the team prioritizes the list. They decide what is the most important feature
to develop. This goes first and the least important goes last. Fourth, the team gets to work. They build, iterate, and get
feedback along the way.

• More information in this link.

6. Recent Trends Affecting Information
Technology Project Management
• Scrum:
• Scrum is the leading agile development method
for completing projects with a complex,
innovative scope of work.
• How it works?
• A product owner creates a prioritized wish list called a
product backlog.
• During sprint planning, the team pulls a small chunk from
the top of that wish list, a sprint backlog, and decides how
to implement those pieces.
• The team has a certain amount of time, a sprint, to
complete its work usually two to four weeks—but meets
each day to assess its progress (daily Scrum).
• Along the way, the ScrumMaster keeps the team focused
on its goal.
• At the end of the sprint, the work should be potentially
shippable, as in ready to hand to a customer, put on a
store shelf, or show to a stakeholder.
• The sprint ends with a sprint review and retrospective.
• As the next sprint begins, the team chooses another
chunk of the product backlog and begins working again.
End of chapter notes
• We will have a hand in activity to be submitted to the blackboard.
• Also we will have our first quiz after submitting the activity.
Questions?