PSIS 4145-IS SP2013 Lecture 2 Project Initiation and Management 20130112

PSIS 4145-IS SP2013 Lecture 2 Project Initiation and Management - Stewart, McDonald.ppt 1

© 2005-2013 M.R. Stewart, E.G. Carayannis, K. Schwalbe Project Initiation and Management LECTURE 2 12-Jan-13 1

Project Initiation

and Management

McDonald R. StewartAssistant Professorial Lecturer

Spring 2013

PSIS 4145Software Systems Development Processes



Project Management Overview

• PM involves complex systems of systems– There is no one right answer or approach

– There are lots of possibly right answers and approaches

– There are infinitely many wrong answers and approaches

• Scale and Scope– Impact the combinations and permutations of the solution set

• The cycle of problem avoidance– Planning

– Measuring

– Evaluating

– Controlling

Plan the work and work the plan-------------------------------

The plan is a living document that will be revised as reality unfolds



A Menu of Challenges

• Identifying needs

• Defining requirements

• Forecasting costs

• Scheduling

• Allocating resources

• Navigating politics

– Who are the stakeholders, and what does each want?• Can everyone always get exactly what they want or need?

– How and by whom are needs and wants “definitized”?[Definitized is contract jargon meaning “worked out in detail and agreed upon”]

– How are trade-offs negotiated and prioritized?

– Just what is stakeholder mapping, and how does it work?

Opportunity Costs:Everything involves a trade-off

-------------------------------Not all cost/benefit decisions are

based on “the bottom line”



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

• Stakeholders include:– The project sponsor

– The project manager

– The project team

– Support staff

– Customers

– Users

– Suppliers

– Opponents to the project

Project Stakeholders

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Apparent Project

CustomerOrganization

MissionGoals

ObjectivesStake

Project

SponsoringOrganization

MissionGoals

ObjectivesStake

Project

Manager &Team Members

Career GoalsTechnical AbilityPersonal Stake

Project

FunctionalDepartment

MissionGoals

ObjectivesStake

Technical Ability

Project Stakeholder / Customer Map

Project Goals, Objectives, Scope& Technical Nature must be

consistent for all ProjectStakeholders if the project is tobe successful in meeting all of

their expectations and avoidingscope creep.

Invisible Project

CustomerOrganization

MissionGoals

ObjectivesStake ©

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Project Planning

• Planning can be a tortuous challenge

– An iterative process yielding better plans from not-so-good plans

– This improvement process can happen in fits and starts

– The planning process may be described formally,

but it does not necessarily occur formally

• Plans map "the path from idea to accomplishment”

– Must have sufficient detail to determine what must be done, step

by step

– But be simple enough that workers are not lost in a welter of

minutiae

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. –Peter Drucker



Project Planning Approaches

• Top-Down– Senior management models new project plans

• Based on high-level heuristics (rules of thumb)

• Often dictate the scope and specifications of technical approach

• Estimate the magnitude of time and cost requirements for categorical project tasks

• Bottom-Up– Analysts develop a thorough Work Breakdown Structure

• Apply detailed figures for cost (labor, materials & overhead)

• Forecast every identifiable task component

• Try to evaluate all possible technical configurations

• Middle-Out (or Middle-Up-Down)– Mid-level managers temper the two with practical field experience

• Stakeholder mapping toward convergence of objectives

• Facilitate and expedite bottom-up analysis with experienced selectivity

• Thoroughly dissect the top-down dictates and respond with substantiated options

• Forecast feasibility and cost-benefit of 3 to 5 significant alternatives

A badly planned project will take three times longer than expected—a well planned project only twice as long as expected. –Project Management Proverb



Middle-up-down Knowledge-creation Process

• The success of a project may owe a lot to the very wide gap between the ideal and the actual

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Project Controlling

• Two fundamental objectives of control:

– Regulation of results

– Stewardship of organizational assets

(physical, human, financial)

• Monitoring: Collecting, recording, and

reporting project performance information

— distinct from evaluation or control

• Evaluation: Information collected about system performance is compared

with the desired (planned) level, and differences are identified and quantified

• Control: Action taken if actual and desired performance differ enough that

the manager wishes to decrease the difference

– Control is the act of reducing the difference between the plan and reality

• The costs of dealing with some non-problems are usually minor when

compared to the costs of dealing with real problems too late

Furious activity is no substitute for understanding. –H.H. Williams



Project Management Fundamentals

Planning + Monitoring + Evaluation + Control » Management

• Metrics and measurement must be:

– Consistent

– Efficient

– In a clear, common language for all stakeholders

• Project Management is more an art than a science

– The Management of Ambiguity

– To the left side of the top equation, add:

Analysis + Reporting + Negotiation + Compromise + Accountability

– What other terms of Project Management art should be included?

• Targeting a relatively small “sweet-spot” in a multi-dimensional

space/time of constraints

– That satisfies the (often conflicting) agendas of many stakeholders

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. –Albert Einstein



Inventory of PM Tools

• WBS – Work Breakdown Structure

• Gantt Charts (Bar Charts)

• CPM – Critical Path Method

• PERT – Program Evaluation

& Review Technique

• EVM – Earned Value Management



It doesn't matter how many resources you have; if you don't know how to use them they will never be enough.

–Author and artist unknown



The Triple Constraint

• Cost

– How much is the predicted project cost? (budget)

– How much is the real cost? (expense)

– What is the acceptable difference? (change order)

– What is the unplanned difference? (overrun)

• Time

– What is the predicted timeline to completion? (schedule)

– What cushions are built in to and between tasks? (slack)

• Scope

– What are the technical deliverables? (specifications)

– How do the stakeholders interpret these? (expectations)



The Relationship of Cost, Time & Scope

• Cheap and fast

compromises technical

performance

• Challenging technical

scope on the cheap takes

forever

• Challenging technical

scope done fast costs a

fortune

A Three-Dimensional Challenge

• Financial performance

– Budgetary compliance

– Profitability

• Schedule performance

– Timeliness

• Technical performance

– Scope

– Specifications



Successful project management means meeting all three goals (scope, time, and cost) – and satisfying the project’s sponsor!

The Triple Constraint of

Project Management (Schwalbe, Fig. 1-1)

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0

20

40

60

80

Co

st

Weeks Months Years t =>Trivial Scope

More Difficult

Most Challenging

The 3-D Relationship of Cost, Time & Scope

Uncontrolled projects will violate one or more constraint — leading to partial or total failure.



Or is it a Quintuple Constraint?

• Cost, Time, Scope

• Quality

• Reliability

Short TermProject Mid Term Long Term

}The implications of Scope post-delivery

and the reality of life-cycle Cost

The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of making the due date is forgotten. –Project Management Proverb



Project Slack

• “Extra Time” forecast for project tasks

– Within task estimates (in node)

– Between task schedulings (between node)

• Suboptimization of resource allocation

– Want as little as possible, but as much as needed

• Project forecasts are imperfect and contingent

– Tangibles vs. Intangibles

– Risk vs. Uncertainty

– Comparable Experience vs. Educated Guesswork

– Expectations vs. Reality

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion. –Parkinson's law



Productivity vs. Slack

• Productivity (a measure of value)

– Efficiency

• Output

Input

– Effectiveness• Performance to standards

(The quintuple constraint)

• On time

• Under budget

• To specification

• With quality

• And reliability

• Productivity is the yield from

resources input to the system

– Drivers of Productivity• Competitiveness

• Human Capital

• Financial Capital

• Social Capital

• Intellectual Capital

• Management

• Technology

• Slack is like system entropy

• Like the energy that’s lost when

converting coal to electricity

• Productivity is the traction

• Slack is the slippage



The Irony of Progress

• Systems development is a discipline of deploying information and communications technologies (ICT) to bring mechanical structure and order to messy human business processes

– Sometimes people and organizational cultures resist this discipline

• To work with and around human resistance, the systems developer (or IS manager) must revise the imposition of order into an insinuation of order

– As systems intelligence (“user friendliness”) evolves, the machine-based structure and order becomes more organic

• User-friendliness is a coevolutionary strategy to insinuate human messiness into mechanistic structure and order!



An Ideological Proposition

• As systems intelligence (“user friendliness”) evolves, technology options become more fluid, dynamic, and interchangeable

– But the only guarantee that technology can always make is this:

• At some point it will fail

• Cultural influences are pervasive and least responsive to change

– At all levels, from national, societal and regulatory, down to office politics and policies

• People are therefore the pivotal determinant of system success or failure

– Whatever the proposition or venue:

• Systems development, IS management, or IT project management

– Professionalism is a set of behaviors that have evolved to compensate for the inevitability of human failures.

CP

T

The “Mickey Mouse” Venn diagram

of People, Culture and Technology

© 2001-2011, E.G. Carayannis

Unaffiliated with actual Mickey

Mouse, © Walt Disney Corporation



TechnophobiaDystechnia

Some People Perspectives

• Never underestimate the human element

– Technology embodies the cumulative sum of human learning

– But without the human context technology is merely an artifact

• People who purchase technology often discount this simple principle

– Or flatly deny it

– Or simply don’t know what’s really available

– Or don’t know what they want or really need

• Systems analysts and designers don’t always interpret the buyers’ or users’ requirements correctly or effectively, either

• People are optimistic and imaginative, and like to be served

– Which is why science fiction is so popular, especially where machines make life easier

• Technology acquisitions too frequently suffer under a delusion of panacea

– Which accordingly too often becomes Pandora’s box



More People Perspectives

• What users want to buy can not always be supported by the state of existing technology

– “Phantasmagoria”

• Likewise, what vendors want to sell can not always be supported by the state of existing technology

– “Vaporware”

• Science fiction or technology fact?

– What ever became of

• Artificial Intelligence?

• The “paperless” office?

• Picturephones?

• Bubble memory?

• Teracubes?

• Technological realities often do not dovetail with people’s expectations



People on the Outside• Stakeholders are always people!

– Even stakeholders that are organizations are populated by individual people

• Managing systems development projects demands much patience and education

– The developer must be educated and patient enough:

• To learn what the users’ real requirements are

• To conceptualize and propose a feasible solution

• To educate the sponsor and buyer (not just the users, but the decision makers)

– After the decision makers are educated enough to commit to the project, then all of the users must also be educated in how to use the technology

• Post-implementation customer service will always be a requirement – Whether customers are internal or external

• And always demands a continuing customer education or re-training component – “Customer support hot line”

• Managing systems development projects demands prudence and savvy– To manage expectations

– And to balance expectations against reality

• Managing systems development projects demands ongoing developer education and training

– To stay abreast of technological and environmental developments

• The Manager must stay on top of tools, resources, technology change

• And evolving Stakeholder interests, needs, and capabilities



Outside People Drive Life-Cycle Costs

• All of those outside people

– Along with their various agendas

– And the constraints and impediments that also come with

• Very much influence the life-cycle cost of systems

development

– And aggravate risk and uncertainty

– As suggested under the concept of quintuple constraint

Short TermProject Mid Term Long Term



• The IS Manager has the most control over people involved on his/her own project– Develop a human resource plan:

• Identify and document project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships

– Acquire the project team:

• Get the needed personnel

• Embrace diversity

• Be excruciatingly selective– The worst mistake is a hiring error!

– Develop team capacity and capabilities:

• Build individual and group skills to enhance project performance

– Manage the project by managing the team:

• Track team member performance, motivate team members, provide timely feedback, resolve issues and conflicts, and coordinate changes to enhance project performance

People on the Inside



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Sample Org Chart for Large IS Project



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Work Definition and Assignment Process



A Schematic WBS for an IS ProjectPROGRAM

XYZ

1.0

SYSTEM DESIGN REVIEW

1.2.1

SYSTEM REQ. REVIEW

1.1.1

PRELIMINARY DESIGN

1.3.1

DETAILED DESIGN

1.3.2

SOFTWARE INTEGRATION

1.3.4

CODING

1.3.3

DESIGN

1.3.1.1

DESIGN REVIEW

1.3.1.2

CODING MILESTONES

1.3.3.1

CODING ROUTINES

1.3.3.2

DEVELOP TEST

1.3.4.1

VALIDATION TEST

1.3.4.2

CODING

1.3.3.2.1

IN-HOUSE TEST

1.3.4.2.1

CUSTOMER TEST

1.3.4.2.2

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

1.3Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

DESIGN

1.3.2.1

DESIGN REVIEW

1.3.2.2

Level 0

SYSTEM CONCEPT

1.1

SYSTEM DEFINITION

1.2



A Tabular WBS (for same IS Project)1.0 Program XYZ Level 0

1.1 System Concept Level 1

1.1.1 System Requirements Review Level 2

1.2 System Definition Level 1

1.2.1 System Design Review Level 2

1.3 System Development Level 1

1.3.1 Preliminary Design Level 2

1.3.1.1 Design Level 3

1.3.1.2 Design Review Level 3

1.3.2 Detailed Design Level 2

1.3.2.1 Design Level 3

1.3.2.2 Design Review Level 3

1.3.3 Coding Level 2

1.3.3.1 Coding Milestones Level 3

1.3.3.2 Coding Routines Level 3

1.3.3.2.1 Coding Level 4

1.3.4 Software Integration Level 2

1.3.4.1 Develop Test Level 3

1.3.4.2 Validation Test Level 3

1.3.4.2.1 In-House Test Level 4

1.3.4.2.2 Customer Test Level 4



Work Package Example



Building Upward from the WBS

• WBS serves as the basis for managerial and technical planning, including assigning responsibilities – From the WBS, the PM can construct:

• Linear Responsibility Chart or a Responsibility Assignment Matrix

• Master Production Schedule (MPS)

• WBS defines the molecular building blocks of the entire project– These components are assembled, integrated, and monitored

using estimating and scheduling tools

• MRP – Materials Requirements Planning

• Gantt Charts (Bar Charts)

• CPM – Critical Path Method

• PERT – Program Evaluation & Review Technique



Using the WBS to Forecast Costs

Labor = (Hours + Slack)*Wage Rates

+ Benefits, Taxes, Insurances

Burdened Labor Cost

+ Other Direct Costs (ODCs = Equipment + Supplies)

Total Direct Costs

+ General & Administrative Expenses (G&A)

Total Project Costs

+ Profit or Fee

TOTAL PRICE

Refer also to accompanying

Excel file



Gantt Charts

• Developed around 1917 by Henry L. Gantt, a pioneer in scientific management– Depicts planned and actual progress of a project

• Any number of tasks

• Horizontal time scale

– Easy to read method

• Comparing current against predicted

• Keeping track of what’s done

– Helpful in expediting, sequencing, reallocating resources

• Symbolically highlights items of special concern

NOTE: PMBOK and now many PM software products refer to Gantt Charts as simply “Bar Charts”. This is their weakness, and not a weakness of the method.



From WBS to Master Schedule

• First steps were:

– Work Breakdown Structure (hierarchical lists)

– Linear responsibility charts

– Work package identification

• Now build a table for the Project Master Schedule

– Down the left side:

• WBS subprojects

• Major tasks

• Responsibilities assignments

– Across the top:

• Linear calendar grid

– Resolution of each should be fairly coarse for the Master Schedule

• The Gantt Chart is for the finer detail



Master Schedule – Shell

Subproject Task

Responsible

Depts.

Dependent

Depts. J F M A M J J A S O N D

Determine

specifications

A

1

Widget Industrial

Engineering

A

2

Gizmo Project

Engineering

Industrial

Engineering

Solicit quotations

and source

vendors

B

1

Issue RFPs P.E.,

Contract Mgt.

Finance, I.E.,

Purchasing

B

2

Evaluate bids I.E., Purchasing Contract Mgt.,

P.E., P.M.

Installation and

startup

C

1

Screen & hire

staff

H.R. P.M.

C

2

Award sub-

contracts

Purchasing,

Contract Mgt.

P.M.

C

3

Equipment

installation

P.E., Program Plant

C

4

Training H.R., P.E., P.M. Plant, Q.C.



Legend of Symbols

[ Scheduled Start

] Scheduled Finish

Actual Progress

Unavailable

Current Date

Milestone Scheduled

Milestone Achieved

Miller Time

Customization is limited only by the P.M.’s creativity and imagination (or software)



Master Schedule – Example

Subproject Task

Responsible

Depts.

Dependent

Depts. J F M A M J J A S O N D

Determine

specifications

A

1

Widget Industrial

Engineering

A

2

Gizmo Project

Engineering

Industrial

Engineering

Solicit quotations

and select

vendors

B

1

Issue RFPs P.E.,

Contract Mgt.

Finance, I.E.,

Purchasing

B

2

Evaluate bids I.E., Purchasing Contract Mgt.,

P.E., P.M.

Installation and

startup

C

1

Screen & hire

staff

H.R. P.M.

C

2

Award sub-

contracts

Purchasing,

Contract Mgt.

P.M.

C

3

Equipment

installation

P.E., Program Plant

C

4

Training H.R., P.E., P.M. Plant, Q.C.



Master Schedule to Gantt Chart

• The Gantt Chart magnifies the Master Schedule detail– Rows are inserted to subdivide tasks into activities and work

packages

– Columns are inserted to subdivide months into weeks and days

– Columns can also be inserted to enlarge the detail in the left end task/activity descriptors

• Start Date, End Date, and Duration

• Dependency path linkages (predecessor relationships)

• All of the foregoing can be done manually– And has been, for nearly a century



Gantt Chart – Example

Task Code Duration Start Date Predecessors M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M

D1 D1.1.a 2 days 05/01/06 C2

D1.1.b 3 days 05/03/06 D1.1.a

D1.1.c 0 days 05/03/06 D1.1.b

D1.2.a 4 days 5/08/06 D1.1.c

D1.2.b 0 days 05/12/06 D1.2.a

D2 D2.1 3 days 05/08/06 D1.1.c

D2.2.a 1 day 05/11/06 D2.1

D2.2.b 5 days 05/12/06 D2.2.a

D2.3 8 days 05/11/06 D2.1

Apr 30, 2006 May 7, 2006 14…



Intro to PDM/CPM and ADM/PERT

• Both techniques developed in the 1950s

– CPM created by M.R. Walker of DuPont Inc. in 1957 for construction of chemical plants

– PERT created by Booz-Allen Hamilton and LockheedCorp. in 1958 to guide development of the Polarissubmarine-launched ballistic missile

• Key concept for both techniques is precedence

– Denotes which activities must be completed (predecessors) before another task can be completed

– Note that in some cases, the later task can be initiated before the predecessors are complete

• Both techniques renamed in 2005

– CPM → Precedence Diagram Method (PDM)

– PERT → Arrow Diagram Method (ADM)



Use of Networks in Diagramming

• A project diagram is constructed as a network where activities are connected based on their dependencies

– Objective is to provide a temporal diagram to denote the exact order of activities

• Diagram can use activity-on-node (AON) or activity-on-arrow (AOA) format

– PDM/CPM uses AON—node denotes activity and completion, while arrow denotes order of events

– ADM/PERT uses AOA—arrow denotes the activity itself, while node denotes completion of the activity

– Difference is mostly stylistic



Sample Project: Gantt View



PDM/CPM Network Diagram

in PM Software• Sample report output from MS Project software (MSP)



Critical Path Method (CPM)

• CPM focuses on scheduling– First used to plan maintenance shutdown

of a plant—reduced downtime from125 hours to 93 hours

– Primarily used today in the construction industry

• Addresses issue of determining which tasks/activities are critical versus ancillary

• Based on a single time estimate for each activity



Why PDM/CPM?

• Two key objectives of CPM usage– Determine the minimum time required to complete a

project

– Determine what activities are the primary source of delays, so that resource allocation can be prioritized

• CPM helps us to focus on those tasks which are of utmost importance to project completion– Superior to Gantt charts by reducing complexity

– Tracks relationships among activities in both time and cost



Time Estimates in PDM/CPM

• Analyze each activity in isolation

– Identify “start” activities (those with no predecessors)

– Calculate minimum time to complete

• Determine required order of activities

– Determine earliest start (ES) based on which predecessors

must be completed before start

– ES + completion time = Earliest finish (EF)

• Critical path is the sequence of activities with the latest EFs

which lead to the activity that ends the project

– The longest timeline through the task network



Slack or Float in CPM

• Slack (aka float) in an activity is theamount of time that the activity can be delayed without delaying project completion

• Slack is determined by estimating the difference between ES and “latest start” (LS)

– LS can be found by identifying the latest finish (LF) date for the activity which does not affect the critical path, and subtracting the time-to-completion

– Note: CP activities by definition have zero slack

• Slack provides an estimate of the “safety cushion” in completing a given task, which assists in resource allocation



Program Evaluation &

Review Technique (PERT)

• ADM/PERT differs from CPMby introducing probabilityinto time estimates

• PERT was developed for projectswith a high degree of uncertaintyand complexity, to assist in budgeting and scheduling

• Commonly used today in research & development projects and similar high-risk areas



Why ADM/PERT?

• Use of probabilistic estimates instead of

deterministic estimates is more realistic

• ADM/PERT provides a bounded range for

project costs and scheduling, rather than a

single number

• PERT gives a better view of resources that can

be diverted from one activity to the critical path

without affecting the completion date



In-Class Exercise• Prepare a PERT chart for the following worksheet:

• Determine:

• The successors

• The Expected Completion Time

• The Latest Expected Completion Time

• The Slack Time

• Whether the Task is on the Critical Path

• Draw the PERT Chart

• Distinguish the Critical Path on your PERT Chart

Task Pred Succ TE TL TE Slack C-Path

1 Requirements Collection 2,3 5 5 5

2 Screen Design 1 4 11 11 6

3 Report Design 1 4 11 11 6

4 Database Design 2,3 5,6 13 13 2

5 User Documentation 4 8 18.5 21 5.5

6 Programming 4 7 18 18 5

7 Testing 6 8 21 21 3

8 Installation 5,7 22 22 1

Documents

PSIS 4145-IS SP2013 Lecture 2 Project Initiation and Management 20130112