An Overview of IT Project Management

Definitions
- Project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
- Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.
Overview

Normally, IT projects are organizational investments that require time, money, and other resources such as, people, technology, facilities, etc. The organizations expect to return their investment in some type. Situation of IT project is worse when the successfully building and implementing a system that provides little or no value to the organization. The larger projects have the lowest success rate and appear be more risky than medium and smaller projects.

In general, IT projects are showing higher success rates due to better project management tools and processes, smaller projects, improved communication among stakeholders, and more skillful IT project managers. But there is still ample opportunity for improvement.

Improving the likelihood of success

-- Value-Driven Approach --> Plain and simple: IT projects must provide value to the organization.

-- Socio-Technical Approach --> It's not just about the technology or building a better mouse trap.

-- Project Management Approach --> processes and infrastructure (Methodology), resources, expectations, competition, efficiency and effectiveness

-- Knowledge Management Approach - lessons learned, best practices and shared knowledge.

Manging a project includes

- Identifying requirements

- Establishing clear and achievable objectives

- Balancing the competing demands for quality, scope, time, and cost

- Adapting the specifications, plans, and approaches to the different concerns and expectations of the various stakeholders.

NOTE:: Projects are divided into phases to increase manageability and reduce risk

-> Phase exits, stage gates, or kill points are decision points at the end of each phase to evaluate performance or the correct problems or cancel the project.

-> Fast tracking is the overlapping of phases to reduce the project's schedule

==> Both of them can be RISKY.

Project Attributes of Project Management

- Time Frame

- Purpose (to provide value)

- Ownership

- Resources (the triple constraint)

- Roles such as project manager, project sponsor, SME (domain & technical), etc.

- Risk and Assumptions

- Interdependent Tasks (progressive elaboration - steps & increments)

- Planned Organizational Change

- Operate in Environments Larger than the Project itself

Project Life Cycle (PLC) and Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

- Project Life Cycle (PLC) is a collection of logical stages or phases that maps the life of project from its beginning to its end in order to define, bulid, and deliver the product of the project i.e., the information system

- System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is the process of creating or altering systems, and the models and methologies that people use to develop these systems. These methodologies form the framework for planning and controlling the creation of an information system.

Structured Apprpach to System Development -> Waterfall Method

Iterative Development -> Repid Applications Development (RAD), Prototyping, Spiral Development, and Extreame Programming.

NOTE:: Extreme Project Management (XPM) is a new approach and philosophy to project management that is becoming increasingly popular. The XPM embraces the fact that projects are often chaotic and unpredictable. It focuses on flexibility, adaptability, and innovation.

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For More Information: Information Technology Project Management (Third Edition) by Jack T. Marchewka, Northern Illinois University