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Managing IT Projects - Gonzaga...
Transcript of Managing IT Projects - Gonzaga...
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Chapter 11
Managing IT Projects
Jason C. H. Chen, Ph.D.
Professor of MIS
School of Business Administration
Gonzaga University
Spokane, WA 99258
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Learning Objectives
• List the elements of a good project.
• Understand why many IT projects fail to meet their targeted goals.
• Explain the relationship between time, scope, and cost of a project.
• Explain why Gantt charts are popular for planning schedules.
• Define RAD and explain how it compares to the SDLC.
• Be able to identify when it is time to pull the plug on a project.
• Two critical management areas for project success: risk management and change management
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Opening Case - Rural Payments Agency Case
• Rural Payments Agency (RPA), UK, blamed poor
planning and lack of system testing for delays in
paying out 1.5billion pounds of EU subsidies.
– Only 15% were paid out by the end of 2006.
• The RPA had to make substantial changes to the
system post implementation.
– Testing did not take into account the real environment,
leading to unanticipated work to populate the database in
the first place.
• The system had not been properly managed.
– Costs were at 122 million pounds, and were originally
estimated at 46.5 million.3
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Three Types of People with PM
• What are the three types of people should
be always involved for a successful PM ?
– 1. Specialist (e.g., IT or marketing etc.)
– 2. Management (top or middle why?)
– 3. Users (why?)
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Failed IS Projects
• Standish Group found that ____ percent of all
software projects are challenged
– Late,
– over budget or
– fail to meet performance criteria.
• Even one failure could endanger a firm!
• Managing a business project means managing
an information systems project.
– Why?
– Many systems use or integrate the Internet.
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Successful IS Projects
• To succeed, “a” general manager must be a
project manager and must learn how to
manage this type of risk.
• Executive management no longer has an
option but to consider skilled IT project
management as fundamental to business
success.
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
WHAT DEFINES
A
PROJECT
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
What Defines a Project?
• Organizations combine two types of work—projects
and operations (Figure 10.1).
• Both types are performed by people and require a flow
of limited resources.
• Both are planned, executed, and controlled.
• Figure 10.1 compares characteristics of both project
and operational work.
• “[A] project is a _________ endeavor undertaken to create a
________ product or service. Temporary means that every
project has a definite beginning and a definite end. Unique
means that the product or service is different in some
distinguishing way from all similar products or services.”
• -Project Management Institute (1996)
temporary
unique
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Project vs Operations
Characteristics Operations Projects
Purpose Sustain the firm Reach a goal
When to change When operations no
longer serve the goals
When a goal is
reached
Quality control Formal Informal
Tasks Repetitive Unique
Duration Ongoing Temporary
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Figure 11.1 Characteristics of operational and project work
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Project Stakeholders
• Anyone (or any firm)
– Involved
– With affected interests
• Obvious players:
– Project manager, project team
– Project sponsor (general manager funding it)
– Customers (huge variety)
– Employees
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Programs vs Projects
• A program is a set of related projects that
accomplish a strategic objective
• Examples: TQM; workplace safety
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• What are the three elements
in the “Project Triangle”?
• What is the center in the
triangle?
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Figure 11.2 Project Triangle
(Project Management Trade-offs)
Time Cost
Scope
The objective of the PM is to define project’s scope realistically and ultimately
deliver quality of product/service on time, on budget and within scope.
The center of
project triangle is
QUALITY
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If pick any two!
(trade-offs)
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Picking any two
• Fast and cheap: It won’t be good!
– Slapped together or using interns
• Fast and good: It won’t be cheap!
– Purchase solution/hire “rock star” skilled team
• Cheap and good: It won’t be fast!
– This option is possible if you would wait for
open source solution or use
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
What is Project Management?
• Project management:– Applying knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project
activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and
expectations.
– Involves continual trade-offs managed by the project manager.
• Trade-offs can be subsumed in the project triangle (Fig. 11.2).
– 1) Scope may be divided into:
• Product scope: the detailed description of the product’s
quality, features, and functions.
• Project scope: the work required to deliver a product or
service with the intended product scope.
– 2) Time refers to the time required to complete the project.
– 3) Cost encompasses all the resources required to carry out the project.
• Cost vs. Quality
– The quality of a system will normally impact its cost.15
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Project Management versus Process Management
“Ultimately, the parallels between process and project management give way to a fundamental difference: process management seeks to _________ variability whereas project management must _______ variability because each project is unique.”
Elton, J. & J. Roe. “Bringing Discipline to Project
Management” Harvard Business Review
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eliminateaccept
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Why do Projects Fail?
Studies have shown that the following factors
contribute significantly to project failure:
• Improper focus of the project management system
• Fixation on first estimates
• Wrong level of detail
• Lack of understanding about project management tools;
too much reliance on project management software
• Too many people
• Poor communication
• Rewarding the wrong actions
17John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
The Need for Project Management
• Critical for companies today – the ability to adapt
existing business processes and system to change
and to produce innovative ideas faster than the
competition.
• Typical adaptation projects include the following:
– ___________ the organization
– _______________ business processes
– _________ more comprehensive, integrative processes
– ____________ new information technologies.
Rightsizing
Re-engineering
Adopting
Incorporating
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Project Management Software
• Top five PM systems
– Microsoft Project
– Atlassian Jira
– Podio
– Smartsheet
– Basecamp
19John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Project Management Office
• Project support
• Project management process and methods
• Training
• Project management home base
• Internal consulting and mentoring
• Project management software tools and support
• Portfolio management (managing multiple
projects)
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
PROJECT
ELEMENTS
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Essential Project Elements
• There are four components essential for any project and
necessary to assure a high probability of project
success:1. Project ___________
– A project sponsor and a project manager are needed so that project can be
coordinated and executed appropriately
2. A project _______.– to ensure all parts of the project come together effectively and correctly
(make sure to clearly define the teams objectives).
3. A project cycle plan.– The methodology and schedule to execute the project (Gantt charts,
CPM, and PERT diagrams).
– The sequential steps of organizing and tracking the work of the team.
– Method and schedule
4. A common project ___________.– so all team members can communicate effectively (very important as
many are new
management.
team
vocabulary
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Element 1: Project Management - Key
Players
• The project __________– liaises between the project team and other stakeholders.
– is a project champion providing leadership.
– is a senior C-level executive with influence with the key
stakeholders and C-level team.
– provides the financial resources for the project.
• The project _________:– Requires a range of management skills to make the project
successful.
sponsor:
manager
23John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
The Project Manager Skills
• A Project Manager’s skills include:1. Identifying requirements of the systems to be delivered.
2. Providing organizational integration by defining the team’s
structure.
3. Assigning team members to work on the project (team mgt.)
4. Managing risks and leveraging opportunities.
5. Measuring the project’s status, outcomes, and exception to
provide project control.
6. Making the project visible to general management and other
stakeholders (visibility)
7. Measuring project status against the plan,
often using project management software.
8. Taking corrective action when necessary
to get the project back on track.
9. Project ________.leadership
The major focus of the status element of
management is “proactive” as there is a need
“strong” of project leaders to help the
organization develop project competency to
begin with.
guide
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Require
planning
Require
taking
action
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Project Manager’s Role
• The project manager will typically be involved in:
– Ensuring progress of the project according to defined metrics..
– _____________
– Ensuring progress toward deliverables within _____ and
_________________
– Running coordination meetings.
– Negotiating for resources on behalf of the project.
• Business projects are often initiated because of a
successful business case.
– A successful project begins with a well-written business case
(i.e., spells out components of the project.)
Identifying risks.
time
resource constraints
But, not to determining the best fit of the project in the organizations vision
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Project leadership
• Lack of leadership can result in unmotivated or
confused people.
• Strong project leaders skillfully manage team
composition, reward systems, and other techniques to
focus, align, and motivate team members.
• Figure 11.3 shows strong processes trade off against
strong leadership.
• Factors influencing the project managers and team’s
performance:– Organizational culture (team composition)
– Socioeconomic influences (reward systems)
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Figure 11.3 Project leadership vs. project management (PM) process.
(need less leadership)(need more leadership) 27
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Element 2: Project Team
• A project team consists of those people who work
together to complete the project.
• Teamwork should:– Clearly define the team’s objectives.
– Define each member’s role in achieving these objectives.
– Have norms about conduct, shared rewards, a shared
understanding of roles, and team spirit.
• Project managers should leverage team member– skills,
– knowledge,
– experiences, and
– capabilities.
• Team members should share information about (and
represent) their departments.28
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Element 3: Project Cycle Plan• The project cycle plan organizes discrete project activities,
sequencing them into steps along a time line.
– Therefore, the project delivers according to the requirements of customers and stakeholders.
• Identifies critical beginning and ending dates and breaks the work spanning these dates into phases
• The three most common approaches (and software tools) are:
– Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) (Figure 11.4):
• Estimates about the time needed to complete project tasks, calculating the optimistic, most probable, and pessimistic time requirements for completing each task.
– Critical Path Method (CPM): deterministic task times.• If any activity on critical path _______, the overall project time
will be _________.
– Gantt chart: displaying time relationships of project tasks and monitoring the progress toward project completion (Figure 11.5)
delayedincreased
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
PROJECT
CYCLE PLAN (cont.)
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Project Cycle Plan Software
• PERT:– Identifies the tasks, orders the tasks in a time sequence,
identifies their interdependencies, and estimates the time
required to complete the task.
• Critical tasks - must be performed individually; together
they account for the total elapsed time of the project.
• Non-critical tasks - can be built into the schedules without
affecting the duration of the entire project.
• CPM:– A tool that is similar to PERT.
– Incorporates a capability for identifying relationships
between costs and the completion date of a project as well as
the amount and value of resources that must be applied in
alternative situations.
31John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Figure 11.4 PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) chart
Shows dependencies
between tasks
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
CPM - Node Configuration
1 0 3
3 0 3
Activity number
Activity duration
Earliest start
Latest start
Earliest finish
Latest finish
33John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
1 0 3
3 0 3
2 3 5
2 3 5
3 3 4
1 4 5 5 5 6
1 6 7
4 5 8
3 5 8
6 6 7
1 7 8
7 8 9
1 8 9
Start
Design house
and obtain
financing
Select pain
Lay foundations
Select carpet
Build house
Finish work
Order and receive
materials
Activity of Latest Start and Finish Times
#9, LF =9LS=LF-t=9-1
#2, LF = min(LS followings) = min(5,6) = 5LS = LF-t = 5-2 = 7
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
1 0 3
3 0 3
2 3 5
2 3 5
3 3 4
1 4 5 5 5 6
1 6 7
4 5 8
3 5 8
6 6 7
1 7 8
7 8 9
1 8 9
Start
Design house
and obtain
financing
Select pain
Lay foundations
Select carpet
Build house
Finish work
Order and receive
materials
CRITICAL PATH
Earliest finish
Latest finish
35John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Figure 11.5 Gantt Chart
Milestone
critical vs. non-critical Shows time estimates of tasks
A milestone represents an event or condition that marks the
completion of a group of related tasks or the completion of
a phase of the project.
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Project Milestone
• A milestone represents an event or condition that
marks the completion of a group of related tasks or
the completion of a phase of the project.
• It is an interim goal or checkpoint in the project. It
is like a task with duration of zero.
• Purpose: Milestones help us organize tasks into
logical groups or sequences. They also help us note
the progress of the project.
37John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Element 4: Common Project Vocabulary
• Make sure everyone knows what the following
mean (accountant vs. others):
– “End of year”
– “Divestment” vs “sale”
– “Acquisition” vs “purchase”
– “Customer” vs “user”
• Good management of the common project
vocabulary as well as project management, project
team, and project life cycle are all essential to
project success
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
IT Projects and Difficulties
• IT projects are a specific type of business project.
– The more complex the IT aspect of the project, the higher
the risk of failure of the project.
• IT projects are difficult to estimate and most fail to meet their schedules and budgets– Highly interactive, complex sets of tasks
– Closely interrelated with each other (coupled)
• Most projects cannot be made more efficient simply by adding labor:
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Requires more communication
and coordination
Some are actually slowed down
(Brooks’ Law)
Adding more people
creates diseconomies of
scale (Brooks’ Law) “Adding more people to
a late project makes the
project later.”
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
IT PROJECT
DEVELOPMENT
METHODOLOGIES
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
IT Project Development Methodologies
and Approaches
• The choice of development methodologies and
managerial influences distinguish IT projects from
other projects.
• The systems development life cycle (SDLC) - a
traditional tool for developing IS or implementing
software developed by an outsourcing provider or
software developer.
• Other development approaches:
– Agile development
– Prototyping
– Rapid applications development (RAD)
– Joint applications development (JAD)41
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Systems Development Life Cycle
(Waterfall)
• Systems Development: a set of activities used to create
an IS.
• Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC): the process
of designing and delivering the entire system.
• The SDLC generally is used in one of two distinct ways: as a general project ____ of all activities required for the
entire system to operate.
• Plan includes the analysis and feasibility study, the
development or acquisition of components, the
implementation activities, the maintenance activities,
and the retirement activities.
as a process to design and _______ system software.
• Process is highly structured, disciplined, and formal.
plan
develop
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Systems Development Life Cycle
SDLC typically consists of seven phases
1. Initiation of the project
2. The requirements definition phase
3. The functional design phase
4. The system is actually built
5. Verification phase
6. The “cut over” where the new system is put in operation and all links are established. Possible conversion methods
a) _________
b) Direct (plunge)
c) Phased in/out
d) ________
7. The maintenance and review phase
See Figure 11.7 for more information on each step.
Which one is the best
approach?
Parallel
Pilot
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2. Design
1. Analysis
3. Im
plem
enta
tion
4. Maintenance
4P’s
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices44
System Conversion Approaches (4Ps)
1. _______ • Complete new and old systems run simultaneously
• Very safe, but expensive
2. ________
• Implement entire system in limited portion of business
• Advantage: limits exposure to business if system fails
3. _______ • System is installed in phases or modules.
• Each piece is installed and tested.
4. ________ (or direct) • High risk if new system fails, no old system to fall back on
• Only used if new system is not vital to company operation
Pilot
Phased
Parallel
Plunge
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Installation Conversion Methods: 4 Ps
Old System New System
Old System
New System
Old System New System
Old System New System
Parallel
Pilot
Phased
Plunge/
Direct
Cut-over time
45John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Limitations of SDLC
• Traditional SDLC methodology for current IT projects
are not always appropriate:– Sometimes costs are difficult to estimate
– Sometimes uniqueness makes previous experience hard or
impossible to find
– Objectives may reflect a scope that is
Too broad (can’t solve it), or
Too narrow (not ambitious enough)
– Might take too long when the business environment is very
dynamic
– Newer methodologies designed to address these concerns
use an iterative approach (Figure 11.8).
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
• Iterative approaches enable evolutionary development
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Figure 11.8 Iterative approach to systems
development - alternative Approaches for speed
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Prototyping
• SDLC may not work for all situations, requires a lot of planning and is difficult to implement quickly.
• Definition: A prototyping is a small, but working system that contains only those important (not complete) features.
• Prototyping is a type of evolutionary development.
• Builds a fast, high-level version of the system at the beginning of the project.
• Advantages include:– User involvement and comment early on and throughout
the development process.
• Disadvantages include:– Documentation may be difficult to write.
– Users may not understand the realistic scope of the system.The final prototype may not be scalable to an operational version.
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Prototyping
• Prototpying is one of the most
popular rapid application
development (RAD) methods.
• It is an iterative process of
system development in which
requirements are converted to
a working system that is
continually revised through
close work between analysts
and users.
A prototyping is a
small, but working
system that contains
only those important
(not complete) features.
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Other Approaches
• Prototyping
– Build a high-level version of the system very quickly and get feedback
– Advantages:
• User involvement early and throughout the development process
– Disadvantages:
• Documentation may be difficult to write
• Users may not have a realistic scope of the system while making decisions
• RAD (Rapid Application Development) prototyping + 4-step SDLC– Like prototyping, RAD uses iterative development tools to
speed up development:• GUI, reusable code, code generation, databases, testing, debugging
– Goal is much faster building of the system
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Other Approaches (continued)
• JAD (Joint Application Development) – IBM
– Users are involved throughout the process
• “Agile” approaches speed things up
– XP (Extreme Programming), Scrum, etc.
51John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Other Approaches (continued)
User-centered design
• Focuses on usability but uses many of the tools of RAD, JAD,
Agile, prototyping
• Users participate and continuously evaluate usability
• Usability.gov provides 209 guidelines
• Technology is advancing so they are dated (e.g., touchscreen
tablets are not included)
• “How or why” for touch PC O/S not yet settled
• Requires multidisciplinary approach: psychology, graphic art,
Internet technologies, business needs, etc.
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Other Approaches (continued)
Open source approach• Software is open source software (OSS) if it is
released under a license approved by the Open Source
Initiative (OSI).
• Uses crowdsourcing
• Code is available for all to see and improve
• Linux: the basis for – Android
– Some Garmin GPS
– Some Sony TVs
• OS/X is based on BSD
• BSD and Linux come from Unix
53John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Figure 11.9 Comparison of IT development methodologies
Methodology Advantages Disadvantages (Limitation)
SDLC Structured approach
Phase milestones and approvals
Uses system approach
Focuses on goals and trade-offs
Emphasizes documentation
Requires user sign-offs
Systems often fail to meet objectives
Needed skills are often difficult to obtain
Costs are difficult to estimate
Scope may be defined too broadly or too
narrowly
Very time consuming
Agile
Development
(Iterative
Process)
Good for adapting to changing
requirements
Works well when user requirements
change continuously
Allows face-to-face communication
and continuous inputs from users
Speeds up development process
Users like it
Hard to estimate system deliverables at
start of project
Under-emphasizes designing and
documentation
Easy to get project off-track if user goals
are unclear
Prototyping Improved user communications
Users like it
Speeds up development process
Good for eliciting system
requirements
Provides a tangible model to serve as
basis for production version
Often under-documented
Not designed to be an operational version
Often creates unrealistic expectations
Difficult-to-manage development process
Integration often difficult
Design flaws more prevalent than in SDLC
Often hard to maintain
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
IT
Efficiency/
_________raise
_____
increase
IT and its Influences
Productivity
Risk
55
(need Risk Management)
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
What Makes a Project Risky?
• IT projects are often distinguished from many non-IT projects on the basis of their high levels of risk.
• Risk Framework (a function of the following):
– ___________
• Many parts? Impacts on rest of system? Global? Unfamiliar
hardware/software/databases? Changing requirements?
– ________
• Hard to define the purpose, input, and output?
– ______
• Cost, staff, duration, team, departments affected, lines of code
• They are geometric, not linear (additive):
– Having all three of these would be much more than three times as bad as one of these.
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Complexity
Clarity
Size
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Assessing Project Risk
Technology
LowCompany-
Large Project
RelativeSmall Project
HighCompany-
Large Project
RelativeTechnology Small Project
Low Structure High StructureLow risk
(very susceptible tomismanagement)
Low risk
Very low risk(very susceptible to
mismanagement)Very low risk
Very high risk Medium risk
High risk Medium-low risk
NManaging IT Reosource Thru Strategic Partnerships; A Portfolio Approach to IT Development
TM -57
Clarity
57John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Managing Risk from Complexity
• Strategies to deal with complexity:
– Leverage the Technical Skills of the Team such as
having a leader or team members who have had
significant experience
– Rely on Consultants and Vendors – for additional
expertise
– Integrate Within the Organization such as
• Having frequent team meetings
– Extensive documentation
– Regular technical status reviews
58
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Managing Risk from Clarity
• Strategies to deal with low clarity
– Rely more heavily upon the users to define
system requirements
– Manage stakeholders by balancing the disparate
goals
– Sustain Project Commitment
59John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Figure 11.10 Project Commitment –
Important for project success
Determinant Description ExamplesMore likely for
commitment if:
Project Objective attributes
of the project
Cost, benefits, expected
difficulty, and duration
There is a large potential
payoff.
Psychological Factors managers
use to convince
themselves things
are not so bad
Previous experience, personal
responsibility for outcome,
and biases.
There is a previous history
of success.
Social Elements of the
various groups
involved in the
process
Rivalry, norms for
consistency, and need for
external validation
External stakeholders have
been publicly led to believe
the project will be
successful.
Organizational Structural
attributes of the
organization
Political support, and
alignment with values and
goals
There is strong political
support from executive
levels.
Cultural Cultural attributes Appreciation for teamwork or
a focus on technical issues
There is a culture of
teamwork.
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Pulling the Plug
• Often projects in trouble persist long after they
should have been abandoned - Pull the plug!
– Many projects are 99% complete for 50% of the
project!
• People can go to great lengths to sustain a
doomed project when there are
– Sunk costs
– High penalties for failure
– Emotional attachment to the project by powerful
individuals
61John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Gauging Success - Four dimensions of success
• At the start of the project, the general manager should: – consider several aspects based on achieving the business goals
(should be measurable)
– Assess the metrics (derived from requirements) if the system meets
the specifications and project requirements laid out in the project
scope.
• Shenhar, Dvir and Levy’s (1998) four dimensions of
success:– Resource constraints: does the project meet the time and budget
criteria?
– Impact on customers: how much benefit does the customer
receive from the project?
– Business success: how high and long are the profits produced by
the project?
– Prepare for the future: has the project enabled future success?
Future impact?62
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Figure 11.11 Success dimensions for various project types
63John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
POOR PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
• ________ OVERRUNS
• _______ SLIPPAGE
• TECHNICAL SHORTFALLS IMPAIR
PERFORMANCE
• FAILURE TO OBTAIN ANTICIPATED
BENEFITS
Dr. Chen, Managing IT Reos. Thru Strategic Partnerships; A Portoflio Approach to IT Development TM -64
COST
TIME
64
John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
Summary
• General manager fulfills an important role in project
management.
• Project management involves continual trade-offs.
• Four important project elements: Common vocabulary,
teamwork, project cycle plan, and project management.
• Important to understand the complexity of a project.
• SDLC, prototyping, JAD and RAD are used for
development of IS systems.
• Manage project risk carefully.
• The PMO can be very useful.
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John Wiley & Sons, Inc. & Dr. Chen, Information Systems – Theory and Practices
END OF CHAPTER 11
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