Chapter 2:

The Project Management and

Information Technology
Context
Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition

Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition. © 2019 Cengage. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except
for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Learning Objectives (1 of 2)

• Define the systems view of project management and how it

applies to information technology (IT) projects
• Summarize organizations, including the four frames,
organizational structures, and organizational culture
• Explain why stakeholder management and top management
commitment are critical for a project’s success

Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition. © 2019 Cengage. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except
for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Learning Objectives (2 of 2)

• Distinguish between project and product life cycles

• Discuss the unique attributes and diverse nature of IT projects
• Summarize recent trends affecting IT project management,
including globalization, outsourcing, virtual teams, and agile
project management

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
A Systems View of Project Management

• Projects must operate in a broad organizational environment

• Project managers need to use systems thinking:
• Taking a holistic view of carrying out projects within the context of the
organization

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What Is a Systems Approach?

• A systems approach emerged in the 1950s to describe a holistic

and analytical approach to management and problem solving
• Three parts include:
• Systems philosophy: an overall model for thinking about things as
systems
• Systems analysis: problem-solving approach
• Systems management: address business, technological, and
organizational issues before making changes to systems

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The Three-Sphere Model for Systems Management

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Advice for Young Professionals

• It’s difficult enough trying to understand the various technologies

an organization uses. How can you begin to understand the
business and organizational aspects?
• Make it a priority. Don’t just focus on the technology, no matter how
exciting it seems to you. Even if you take just a few minutes each day
learning about other aspects of the organization, that’s a start.
• Tell your boss or other people you work with that you want to understand
how the entire organization works. Ask important questions like how the
company makes money, who key customers are, what the priorities are
for the year, what meetings you can attend or documents you can read
to gain more knowledge, etc.
• Network, network, network! Find out which people inside or outside of
your organization can help you in developing a systems approach. You
might be surprised how quickly you can move up in your career once
you understand the big picture.

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Understanding Organizations

• Systems approach requires that project managers always view

their projects in the context of the larger organization
• Organizational issues are often the most difficult part of working
on and managing projects
• Important for project managers to develop a better understanding
of people as well as organizations
• To improve the success rate of IT projects

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
The Four Frames of Organizations

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What Went Wrong?

• In a paper titled “A Study in Project Failure,” two researchers

examined the success and failure of 214 IT projects over an
eight-year period in several European countries
• The researchers found that only one in eight (12.5 percent) were
considered successful in terms of meeting scope, time, and cost
goals
• The authors said that the culture within many organizations is
often to blame
• Among other things, people often do not discuss important
leadership, stakeholder, and risk management issues

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Organizational Structures (1 of 2)

• Three basic organizational structures

• Functional: functional managers report to the CEO
• Project: program managers report to the CEO
• Matrix: middle ground between functional and project structures;
personnel often report to two or more bosses; structure can be weak,
balanced, or strong matrix

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Organizational Structures (2 of 2)

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Organizational Culture (1 of 2)

• Organizational culture is a set of shared assumptions, values,

and behaviors that characterize the functioning of an organization
• Many experts believe the underlying causes of many companies’
problems are not the structure or staff, but the culture

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Organizational Culture (2 of 2)

• Ten characteristics of organizational culture:

• Member identity*
• Group emphasis*
• People focus
• Unit integration*
• Control
• Risk tolerance*
• Reward criteria*
• Conflict tolerance*
• Means-ends orientation
• Open-systems focus*

• *Project work is most successful in an organizational culture

where these items are strong/high and other items are balanced.

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Focusing on Stakeholder Needs

• Project managers must take time to identify, understand, and

manage relationships with all project stakeholders
• Using the four frames of organizations can help meet stakeholder
needs and expectations
• Senior executives/top management are very important
stakeholders
• See Chapter 13, Project Stakeholder Management, for more
information

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Media Snapshot

• Prior to the 2014 football season, Microsoft paid the NFL $400
million as part of a five-year deal to use their Surface as “the
official tablet of the NFL”
• All 32 NFL teams were involved, and the deal was renewed for a
sixth year in 2017
• Smooth transition?
• During week one of the season at least two television announcers
mistakenly referred to the tablets as iPads, giving Apple unexpected
exposure
• Microsoft also had to defend the use of tablets after the New England
Patriots stopped using them

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The Importance of Top Management Commitment (1
of 2)

• People in top management positions are key stakeholders in

projects
• A very important factor in helping project managers successfully
lead projects is the level of commitment and support they receive
from top management
• Without top management commitment, many projects will fail.
• Some projects have a senior manager called a champion who
acts as a key proponent for a project.

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
The Importance of Top Management Commitment (2
of 2)

• How top management can help project managers

• Providing adequate resources
• Approving unique project needs in a timely manner
• Getting cooperation from other parts of the organization
• Mentoring and coaching on leadership issues

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Best Practice

• IT governance addresses the authority and control for key IT

activities in organizations, including IT infrastructure, IT use, and
project management
• A lack of IT governance can be dangerous, as evidenced by
three well-publicized IT project failures in Australia
• Sydney Water’s customer relationship management system
• The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology’s academic management
system
• One.Tel’s billing system

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
The Need for Organizational Commitment to
Information Technology

• If the organization has a negative attitude toward IT, it will be

difficult for an IT project to succeed
• Having a Chief Information Officer (CIO) at a high level in the
organization helps IT projects
• Assigning non-IT people to IT projects also encourage more
commitment

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
The Need for Organizational Standards

• Standards and guidelines help project managers be more

effective
• Senior management can encourage
• the use of standard forms and software for project management
• the development and use of guidelines for writing project plans or
providing status information
• the creation of a project management office or center of excellence

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Project and Product Life Cycles

• It is good practice to divide projects into several phases

• Because projects operate as part of a system and involve uncertainty
• The same can be said for developing products

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Project Life Cycle (1 of 2)

• A project life cycle is a collection of project phases that defines

• what work will be performed in each phase
• what deliverables will be produced and when
• who is involved in each phase, and
• how management will control and approve work produced in each phase
• A deliverable is a product or service produced or provided as part
of a project

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Project Life Cycle (2 of 2)

• In early phases of a project life cycle

• resource needs are usually lowest
• the level of uncertainty (risk) is highest
• project stakeholders have the greatest opportunity to influence the
project
• In middle phases of a project life cycle
• the certainty of completing a project improves
• more resources are needed
• The final phase of a project life cycle focuses on
• ensuring that project requirements were met
• the sponsor approves completion of the project

Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition. © 2019 Cengage. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except
for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Product Life Cycles (1 of 3)

• Products also have life cycles

• The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a framework for
describing the phases of developing information systems
• Systems development projects can follow
• Predictive life cycle
• Iterative life cycle
• Incremental life cycle
• Adaptive life cycle
• Hybrid life cycle

Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition. © 2019 Cengage. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except
for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Product Life Cycles (2 of 3)

• Predictive Life Cycle Models

• Waterfall model: has well-defined, linear stages of systems development
and support
• Spiral model: shows that software is developed using an iterative or
spiral approach rather than a linear approach
• Prototyping model: used for developing prototypes to clarify user
requirements
• Rapid Application Development (RAD) model: used to produce systems
quickly without sacrificing quality

Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition. © 2019 Cengage. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except
for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Product Life Cycles (3 of 3)

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
The Importance of Project Phases and Management
Reviews

• A project should successfully pass through each of the project

phases in order to continue on to the next
• Management reviews, also called phase exits, phase gate
reviews, or kill points, should occur after each phase to evaluate
the project’s progress, likely success, and continued compatibility
with organizational goals
• It is unwise to wait until the end of project or product phases to
have management inputs
• Many projects are reviewed by management on a regular basis

Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition. © 2019 Cengage. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except
for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
What Went Right?

• "The real improvement that I saw was in our ability toin the words of
Thomas Edisonknow when to stop beating a dead horse.…Edison's
key to success was that he failed fairly often; but as he said, he could
recognize a dead horse before it started to smell...In information
technology we ride dead horsesfailing projectsa long time before
we give up. But what we are seeing now is that we are able to get off
them; able to reduce cost overrun and time overrun. That's where the
major impact came on the success rate.”*
• Many organizations, like Huntington Bancshares, Inc., use an executive
steering committee to help keep projects on track.
• Some projects still go on a long time before being killed, like Blizzard’s
Titan game project.

• *Cabanis, Jeannette, "'A Major Impact': The Standish Group's Jim

Johnson On Project Management and IT Project Success," PM
Network, PMI, Sep.1998, p. 7
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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
The Context of Information Technology Projects

• Project context
• Has a critical impact on which product development life cycle will be
most effective for a particular software development project
• Several issues unique to the IT industry have a critical impact on
managing IT projects

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
The Nature of IT Projects

• IT projects can be very diverse in terms of size, complexity,

products produced, application area, and resource requirements
• The nature of software development projects is even more
diverse than hardware-oriented projects
• IT projects also support every possible industry and business
function

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Characteristics of IT Project Team Members

• IT project team members often have diverse backgrounds and

skill sets
• Many companies purposely hire graduates with degrees in other
fields such as business, mathematics, or the liberal arts to
provide different perspectives on IT projects
• Some IT projects require the skills of people in just a few job
functions
• But some require inputs from many or all of them

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Diverse Technologies

• IT projects use diverse technologies that change rapidly

• Differences in technical knowledge can make communication
between professionals challenging
• New technologies have also shortened the time frame many
businesses have to develop, produce, and distribute new
products and services

Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition. © 2019 Cengage. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except
for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Recent Trends Affecting Information Technology
Project Management

• Globalization
• Outsourcing: Outsourcing is when an organization acquires
goods and/or sources from an outside source. Offshoring is
sometimes used to describe outsourcing from another country
• Virtual teams: A virtual team is a group of individuals who work
across time and space using communication technologies
• Agile project management

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Globalization

• Issues
• Communications
• Trust
• Common work practices
• Tools
• Suggestions
• Employ greater project discipline
• Think globally but act locally
• Consider collaboration over standardization
• Keep project momentum going
• Use newer tools and technology

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Outsourcing

• Organizations remain competitive by using outsourcing to their

advantage, such as finding ways to reduce costs
• Practice can be unpopular on some countries
• Project managers should become more familiar with many global
and procurement issues

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Virtual Teams (1 of 2)

• Advantages
• Lowering costs because many virtual workers do not require office space
or support beyond their home offices
• Providing more expertise and flexibility or increasing competitiveness
and responsiveness by having team members from across the globe
working any time of day or night
• Improving the work/life balance for team members by eliminating fixed
office hours and the need to travel to work

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Virtual Teams (2 of 2)

• Disadvantages
• Isolating team members
• Increasing the potential for communications problems
• Reducing the ability for team members to network and transfer
information informally
• Increasing the dependence on technology to accomplish work
• See text for a list of factors that help virtual teams succeed,
including team processes, trust/relationships, leadership style,
and team member selection

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Agile (1 of 2)

• Agile means being able to move quickly and easily, but some
people feel that project management, as they have seen it used,
does not allow people to work quickly or easily
• Early software development projects often used a waterfall
approach
• As technology and businesses became more complex, the approach
was often difficult to use because requirements were unknown or
continuously changing
• Agile today means using an approach where requirements and
solutions evolve through collaboration

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Agile (2 of 2)

• Manifesto for Agile Software Development

• In February 2001, a group of 17 people that called itself the Agile
Alliance developed and agreed on the Manifesto for Agile Software
Development, as follows:
• “We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and
helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan”*

• *Agile Manifesto.
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Scrum (1 of 4)

• According to the Scrum Alliance, Scrum is the leading agile

development method for completing projects with a complex,
innovative scope of work.
• The term was coined in 1986 in a Harvard Business Review
study that compared high-performing, cross-functional teams to
the scrum formation used by rugby teams.

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Scrum (2 of 4)

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Scrum (3 of 4)

• Kanban
• Technique that can be used in conjunction with Scrum
• Developed in Japan by Toyota Motor Corporation
• Uses visual cues to guide workflow
• Kanban cards show new work, work in progress, and work completed

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for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Scrum (4 of 4)

• The PMBOK® Guide describes best practices for what should be

done to manage projects.
• Agile is a methodology that describes how to manage projects.
• The Project Management Institute (PMI) recognized the
increased interest in Agile, and introduced a new certification in
2011 called Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP).
• Seasoned project managers understand that they have always
had the option of customizing how they run projects, but that
project management is not easy, even when using Agile.

Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition. © 2019 Cengage. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except
for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Chapter Summary

• Project managers need to take a systems approach when

working on projects
• Organizations have four different frames: structural, human
resources, political, and symbolic
• The structure and culture of an organization have strong
implications for project managers
• Projects should successfully pass through each phase of the
project life cycle
• Project managers need to consider several factors due to the
unique context of information technology projects
• Recent trends affecting IT project management include
globalization, outsourcing, virtual teams, and agile project
management
Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition. © 2019 Cengage. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except
for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.