Project Planning / Project Management

CIS 103

Objectives

Learn about Project Planning (40 min)

Try it! – Prep for your own Project Plan (40 min)

Present to class (40 min)

Questions

What is a project?

What is project management?

How does project management relate to other disciplines?

What is the career outlook for project managers in information technology?

Career Outlook

“In fact, there is a growing shortage of project talent as organizations have begun to recognize that project managers can improve business performance in any industry. According to a study published in October 2008 by the Anderson Economic Group, an average of 1.2 million project management positions will need to be filled each year through 2016. “ (Project Management Institute: http://www.pmi.org/Professional-Development/Career-Employment-Outlook.aspx)

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Why do we learn project management? Applies all the knowledge you have learned in IT, such as

programming data management system analysis Networking

But more – management Consider you get a programming job. In the first week in

the company you are asked: To join a project group for internal software resource

sharing project but you don’t know who are your colleagues before a meeting; or

To look into the latest WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) technology to see the potential application to your company’s business.

To investigate the search engine market and write a proposal – it is a task for a programmer?

What should you do?

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What Is a Project?

A project is “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.”*

A project ends when its objectives have been reached, or the project has been terminated.

Projects can be large or small and take a short or long time to complete.

What is project management ?

The management of projects (Well, Duh!) A more academic, if not more useful,

definition: The application of knowledge,

tools, skill, and techniques to project activities in order to meet project requirements

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Status of IT Projects

31% IT projects were cancelled before completion

53% were completed, but were over-budget, over-schedule, and did not meet the original requirements.

The average cost overrun of medium-sized projects was 202%

What Went Wrong? Philip A. Pell, PMP, commented on how the

U.S. IRS needed to improve its project management process. “Pure and simple, good, methodology-centric, predictable, and repeatable project management is the SINGLE greatest factor in the success (or in this case failure) of any project…

In 2006, the IRS lost over $320 million due to a botched fraud-detection system project

More examples: http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/IT-Management/Projects-Gone-Wrong-234902/

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*Comments posted on CIO Magazine Web site on article “For the IRS, There’s No EZ Fix,” (April 1, 2004).

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What the Winners Do* Recent research findings show that companies

that excel in project delivery capability:

Use an integrated project management toolbox that includes standard and advanced tools and lots of templates.

Grow project leaders, emphasizing business and soft skills.

*Milosevic, Dragan and And Ozbay, “Delivering Projects: What the Winners Do,” Proceedingsof the Project Management Institute Annual Seminars & Symposium (November 2001).

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Top Information Technology Skills

60% 58%

42% 41%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Applicationdevelopment

Project management Databasemanagement

Networking

Cosgrove, Lorraine, “January 2004 IT Staffing Update,” CIO Research Reports (February 3, 2004).

Information Technology (IT) Skill

Percentage ofRespondents

Top IT Skills

More: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/career/top-it-skills-wanted-for-2012/3503

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Large Project: Online medical services appointment system

Making the appointment with a PCP or specialist doctor is normally via phone call. Even though e-commerce and many other online services are prevailing, such a service in medical area is not common. Such a system, this system would allow patients to check the availability of a doctor or any other medical services from the Internet, making and changing the appointment. This is a promising system in several ways: It will greatly make the appointment convenient It can be connected to other networked medical information

services, such as medical insurance. It will also benefit the medical service providers much in saving

costs and improving service quality. There are several issues :

Who will initialize the project? Who should be involved ? Who is to be a target buyer of the system? How this system can be co-operated with other medical

information systems? Is this system really beneficial?

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Other Examples of IT Projects

A help desk or technical worker replaces laptops for a small department.

A small software development team adds a new feature to an internal software application.

A college campus upgrades its technology infrastructure to provide wireless Internet access.

A department moves its classrooms and labs to a different location.

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Examples of IT Projects

A cross-functional task force in a company decides what software to purchase and how it will be implemented.

A television network develops a system to allow viewers to vote for contestants and provide other feedback on programs.

A government group develops a system to track child immunizations.

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Factors For Successful Projects

Clear statement of requirements

Proper planning

Realistic expectations

Smaller project milestones

Clear vision & objectives

Hard-working, focused team

What else do you suggest?

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The Triple Constraint

Every project is constrained in different ways by its:

Scope goals: What work will be done?

Time goals: How long should it take to complete?

Cost goals: What should it cost?

It is the project manager’s duty to balance these three often-competing goals.

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The Triple Constraint of Project Management

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Risks & Assumptions

Internal risk From the estimation process or from the fact

that a key member of the project team could leave in the middle of the project

External risk Arises from the dependencies on other

contractors or vendors

Assumptions What we used to estimate scope, schedule,

and budget and to assess the risk of the project

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Examples of “Risk”

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Project Stakeholders

Stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by project activities.

Stakeholders include: Project sponsor Project manager Project team Support staff Customers Users Suppliers Opponents to the project

Who are your stakeholders?

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Phases/Stages of Project Planning

Define project goal Plan project

Answer questions (What, why, how, who, et al) Baseline plan

Execute and Monitor project plan Adjust the plan – ALWAYS

Close project Evaluate project

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Communication is KEY

What are methods used to communicate? Advantages? Disadvantages Newly added team members? Knowledge “capture” Perfect documentation is not a goal - "perfect"

communication is a goal

Building a Gantt Chart

• Dependencies: Show dependencies between activities with arrows– E.g., activity 2 cannot start until activity 1 is complete

Activity 1

Activity 2

Milestone

Time Frame: day 1 day 2 day3… day 23

Dependencies

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Sample Gantt Chart

• The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is on the left• Each task’s start and finish date are shown on the right

using a calendar timescale.

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Sample Network Diagram

Each box is a project task from the WBS. Arrows show dependenciesbetween tasks. The bolded tasks are on the critical path. If any tasks on thecritical path take longer than planned, the whole project will slip unless something is done. Network diagrams were first used in 1958 on the Navy Polaris project, before project management software was available.

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What is PMBOK ?

The Project management body of Knowledge (PMBOK) A document providing a basis for

identifying and describing the generally accepted principles and practices of project management

Originally published in 1987 Available from Project Management

Institute (PMI) http://www.pmi.org/PMBOK-Guide-and-

Standards.aspx

Developing Your Project Plan

Scope Management Plan1. define and set main objectives for the project

Staffing Management Plan1. define and assign roles for all persons or groups involved in

the project

Schedule Management Plan1. create a task list

2. determine the approximate duration of each task

3. assign a person or group to the task (this is you for summer internship)

Developing Your Project Plan (cont)

Communication Management Plan1. create a contact list of team members and other people with

a stake in your project

2. determine the best method of communication

Quality Management Plan1. set up meeting times to discuss challenges, difficulties,

suggestions, and progress of the project

Risk Management Plan1. discuss potential risks in the project

2. discuss response methods to address problems when they occur

Etc…

Use Project Planning for Capstone and Course projects (requirement?)

Your efforts are PM "in the small“ Always work towards documentation and

communication

Questions?

Your turn!

We will divide into groups (you have the option to work individually)

We will assign each group a project

You: Plan project, well as possible, apply the Project Management Guide to your project (see assignment in Blackboard) Make assumptions as necessary Discuss…keep moving through the plan Identify critical concerns for your project Identify risk

Upload your plan to Blackboard Present your plan to the class

Team Assignments

Team Project

1 A help desk or technical worker replaces laptops for a small department.

2 A college campus upgrades its technology infrastructure to provide wireless Internet access.

3 A cross-functional task force in a company decides what software to purchase and how it will be implemented.

4 A government group develops a system to track child immunizations.

Alternative Project A computer information systems/computer science department needs to move its classrooms and lab to a different building.