Project Management for IT-Related Projects: 3rd edition
162
Project Management for IT-Related Projects: 3rd edition
162eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781780174860 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT |
| Publication date: | 08/30/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 162 |
| File size: | 7 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
PROJECTS AND PROJECT WORK
LEARNING OUTCOMES
When you have completed this chapter you should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the following:
• the definition of a project;
• the purpose of project planning and control;
• the typical activities in a system development life cycle;
• system and project life cycles;
• variations on the conventional project life cycle;
• implementation strategies;
• the purpose and content of the business case;
• types of planning documents;
• post-implementation reviews.
1.1 PROJECTS
A project may be defined as a group of related activities carried out to achieve a specific objective. Examples of projects include building a bridge, making a film and re-organising a company. We will be focusing on projects that implement new information technology (IT) applications within organisations. These are technical but also involve changing the organisation in some way.
Before a project starts, one or more people will have an idea about a desirable product or change. Before this idea can become the subject of a project, a business case will need to be made showing that the value of the benefits of completing the project will be greater than the costs of implementing and operating the new (or revised) system that the project would create. This will not only need to consider business concerns, but also the technical difficulties of the project. This is underlined by the alternative name of feasibility study for the business case.
COMPLEMENTARY READING
Exploiting IT for Business Benefit, Bob Hughes, BCS
If the proposal is accepted by the organisation, the project that emerges should have the following attributes:
• A defined start point, which is when:
* the exploration of the idea is converted into an organised undertaking;
* the idea obtains business backing and a project sponsor – an individual or group within the organisation who will take ownership of the project and ensure that it has the appropriate financial resources;
* a commitment is made to provide the necessary resources; responsibilities are defined;
* Initial plans are produced.
• A set of objectives, which:
* drive the actions of the project team towards achieving a common goal;
* should be stated and understood at the start of the project;
* should be clear and unambiguous.
• A set of outputs or deliverables, which allow the objectives to be satisfied.
• A date by which the objectives should be met and a budget setting the maximum allowable cost of the project.
• A unique purpose – routine activities are not projects.
• Benefits for the organisation which justify carrying out the project, and which are:
* ideally, measurable;
* greater than the costs.
In some cases, the cost of the project might be greater than the immediate benefits, but completion of the project may enable other projects to be implemented which will reap the benefits – this is often the case with IT infrastructure projects.
1.2 SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS
To be successful, a project should:
• enable the stated objectives to be achieved;
• be delivered on time and within budget;
• deliver a system that performs to agreed specifications, including those relating to quality;
• satisfy the project sponsor and other interested parties. The term stakeholder refers to anyone who has an interest in the project: their role is discussed further in Section 8.3.
These are project objectives. The IT functions that are delivered, including both hardware and software, should enable the organisation to meet its business objectives. For example, the development of a new website could enable an organisation to sell its products online to a wider market. However, while the project objective of delivering the new website might be achieved, the business objective of selling more products might be denied because of external factors such as a general downturn in the market.
Objectives are often called success criteria. If they are satisfied then the project can be deemed a success. They should focus on the desired state of affairs that should exist when the project is completed, rather than on the details of how the project is to be done.
There is a mnemonic to help recall the characteristics of good success criteria. They should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Resource-constrained and Time-constrained). The success criteria should be specific and measurable – for example, 'increasing market share' is too vague: this could be the outcome of lots of different activities and the amount of increase expected is not defined. 'Creating an online booking system that will be used by at least 30 per cent of customers in its first year' is more specific. As well as being specific and measurable, success criteria must be clearly achievable. If it is clear that they are not, people are likely to ignore them. Finally, part of the statement of objectives will always define a deadline and an overall target cost.
In summary, this means developing the project at a specified cost, within a specified time, to meet a specified business requirement. These three specifications are closely linked and any change to one will affect the others. The project objectives which relate to cost, time and the degree to which requirements are satisfied ('scope') are often called the 'iron triangle'.
The sponsor and users typically want a system with a broad scope – capable of a multitude of functions – to be delivered immediately and at low cost. As a general rule, not all of this can be delivered, and so the agreed project objectives will be a compromise between the three corners of the iron triangle of cost, time and scope.
If the scope of requirements strays outside this area of compromise, it will increase cost or delivery time and the project could cease to be viable. The costs of the project could as a result exceed the value of the benefits of the project. Generally an increase or decrease in any of the three factors of the triangle will affect the others. Thus if the deadline for project completion has to be brought forward, either the scope would have to be reduced or more staff could be employed to work in parallel on the project, which would increase costs – and some project risks. There may be exceptional circumstances in which a project can, with the sponsor's agreement, fail to meet one or more of these success criteria and yet still be considered a success, usually because the business objectives can still be met.
While this book-keeping element of successful project management is important, note that the perceived value of the benefits of a project may be quite subjective. The final judges of the success or failure of a project will be the project sponsor and the users of the delivered IT applications. Being sensitive to their needs will be as important as sticking to the letter of a contract.
CANAL DREAMS BOOKING SYSTEM PROJECT SCENARIO
Canal Dreams is a major holiday company that specialises in canal holidays. The present organisation is the result of the acquisition of six regional canal boat leasing operators, as Canal Dreams has expanded over a number of years. Currently there is a central call centre that deals with holiday bookings using an in-house computer-based booking application, which is now some years old.
Business development analysts have identified the need for an enhancement of the system so that customers can book boating holidays directly over the internet. One advantage of this is a possible increase in bookings by overseas customers.
The current IT system was developed by an external software development company some time ago, and currently there are two software developers who maintain the current system and implement relatively minor enhancements. However, the management of Canal Dreams does not believe that it has sufficient in-house resources to develop the new functionality, particularly as they see the required extension to the system as an urgent business need. The intention is therefore to contract out the system design and building of the system to an external company.
This Canal Dreams project scenario will provide examples throughout the text. The main objective in this scenario is the enhancement of the Canal Dreams holiday booking system to allow potential customers to book holidays over the web. This will have business benefits for Canal Dreams. With the new system, potential customers can browse an online brochure of boats and start and finish locations, check if there is one available where and when they wish to go on holiday and, if available, make the booking – all via the internet. The new system will thus make booking possible 24 hours a day and seven days a week, and this improved accessibility, it is hoped, will increase sales. An automated online system should eventually allow staff reductions as the internet becomes the preferred medium for bookings.
In order to meet these business objectives, the proposed system will need certain functionalities. For instance, it should allow the potential customer to check the availability of a boat at a particular boatyard in a particular week. These functional requirements will include not just those of the organisation but also legal requirements, such as those relating to distance selling.
COMPLEMENTARY READING
A Manager's Guide to IT Law, Jeremy Holt and Jeremy Newton, BCS
There will also be quality requirements: for example, the time it takes the computer to respond to a user query on boat availability needs to be quick so that frustrated potential customers do not abandon their queries and try a competitor's website.
If the system were to exceed the cost requirement, the potential additional income through extra bookings and staff savings might not be enough to meet the cost of implementing the system. Canal holidays are a seasonal business and so implementation of system enhancement will need to be at a quiet time of the year before the bookings for the next season start to come in. This implies a certain deadline for system implementation.
1.3 PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Having established and agreed objectives, how do we then achieve them? The first step is good planning. Having produced good plans, monitoring and effective control of the project is needed to fulfil the plans and achieve the agreed objectives. Someone has to take responsibility for controlling the work in accordance with the plans. This is the role of the project manager.
A successful project cannot be guaranteed, but certain things will contribute to success, such as:
• Clearly defined responsibilities: it is essential that project roles and responsibilities be clearly defined, documented and agreed.
• Clear objectives and scope: any manager who embarks upon a project without clearly establishing the scope of the expected deliverables, together with cost, time and quality objectives, is creating problems for the future. These should be laid down in terms of reference or some other document that defines the scope of the project objectives.
• Control: despite their individual differences, all projects can be controlled. It is important to establish at the outset how best to control the work and how to exercise that control.
• Change procedures: ideally the project manager would like to work in a world where there is no change or uncertainty. Unfortunately it has to be recognised that there is uncertainty and that change will happen. Appropriate change procedures are needed to deal with it.
• Reporting and communication: clear reporting of project progress and any problems allows action to be taken quickly to resolve problems. Effective communication with all stakeholders can help avoid conflicts.
A project management method is a set of processes used to run a project in a controlled and, therefore, predictable fashion. The design and development procedures by which the objectives of the project are satisfied – for example, the use of object-oriented analysis – constitute the development methods.
There are various project management methods which complement the development methods that can be used – a well-known one in the UK is PRINCE2. In general, project management methods are applicable to a range of project types, whereas development methods tend to be specific to projects with particular types of deliverables or objectives. This is because the development tasks will vary according to the objectives of the project. Organising an office move, developing a software application and providing disaster recovery facilities are all projects in their own right. Each has a different method of development but all are controllable using the same project management processes. Following a method does not guarantee that a project will be successful. If applied carefully, however, it will provide management with the means to be successful.
ACTIVITY 1.1
Assume that you are a manager of an office department that is going to be relocated to a building five miles away. Day-to-day management of the move will be delegated to one of your staff. What would be the main sequence of activities needed to plan and carry out the move? You want to leave as much of the detailed work as possible to your subordinates, but at which key points would you need to be involved to check progress?
Solution pointers for the activities can be found at the end of the chapter.
1.4 SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE
Dividing a development method into a number of processes is a widely accepted practice. This allows systems to be designed and implemented using a methodical and logical approach. The number and names of these processes will vary from organisation to organisation. In some cases, stages will be combined or split. Generally speaking, the following processes belong to the system development life cycle (SDLC) that applies to IT projects:
• initiation;
• identification of the business case;
• project set-up;
• requirements elicitation and analysis;
• design;
• construction;
• acceptance testing;
• implementation/installation;
• review and maintenance.
This suggests a particular sequence of processes. However, different parts of an application under development could be at different stages. For example, one component could be still being designed while another is being coded. The key point is that all these technical processes have to be dealt with somewhere within the project.
Each process creates one or more tangible products or deliverables. Delivery of the products of each process can act as a milestone at which we can judge the progress and continuing viability of the project.
One variation of this model is where software and/or hardware components are to be acquired off the shelf. Because the components already exist, the design and construction processes are not carried out. Instead, a selection process is devised consisting of methods of evaluating the suitability of candidate products. The products to be used are then selected. Some element of customisation may be needed to modify the product for use in the organisation. An acceptance test could be carried out.
ADVANCED TOPIC Build versus buy
The question of whether in fact new software has to be written must always be asked. Existing software bought off the shelf has the following advantages:
• It already exists, so it can be installed more quickly.
• It can be seen in action, so users can get a good idea of its quality.
• Existing users will have effectively tested it by reporting any defects, which will then have been removed by the supplier, so the software is likely to be more reliable.
• As there are many different organisations using the software, development costs will be shared and the cost of the software should be cheaper than if you had built it yourself.
• You do not have to employ software developers to build the new system, who may then become surplus to requirements.
• The vendor should supply updates to deal with statutory changes so maintenance of the installed system will not be a responsibility of the host organisation.
However, there are disadvantages in buying off-the-shelf software, which may encourage the building of new software:
• Off-the-shelf software may not meet all the particular requirements of the host organisation.
• The organisation may have to change its business processes to fit in with the way in which the off-the-shelf application works.
• If you adopt an off-the-shelf application, you can be as good as your competitors – who may have the same system – but you cannot be better than them.
• Once you have adopted a particular off-the-shelf package, it may be difficult to change. Off-the-shelf software is often leased on an annual licence and if the vendor increases the licence fee, you may be trapped into having to pay it.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Project Management for IT-Related Projects"
by .
Copyright © 2012 BCS Learning & Development Ltd.
Excerpted by permission of BCS The Chartered Institute for IT.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
1. Projects and Project Work2. Project Planning
3. Monitoring and Control
4. Change Control and Configuration Management
5. Quality
6. Estimating
7. Risk
8. Project Organisation