Lecture 2

Chapter 2:
The Project Management and
Information Technology Context

Information Technology
Project Management,
Fifth Edition

Learning Objectives
 Describe the systems view of project
management and how it applies to information
technology projects
 Understand 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

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Information Technology Project Management, Fifth Edition, Copyright 2007

Learning Objectives (continued)
Understand the concept of a project phase and
the project life cycle and distinguish between
project development and product development
Discuss the unique attributes and diverse nature
of information technology projects

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Projects Cannot Be Run in Isolation
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
Senior managers must make sure projects
continue to support current business needs

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A Systems View of Project
Management
A systems approach emerged in the 1950s to
describe a more 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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Media Snapshot
The Press Association Ltd, the largest news agency
in the United Kingdom, hired a consulting firm to help
turn things around after management noticed its
profit margins were sliding
The consultants suggested using a holistic view and
a top-down strategy to make sure projects supported
key business goals
They also suggested releasing short-term results to
accrue benefits on an incremental basis and
reviewing projects on a regular basis to ensure
strategic alignment
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Figure 2-1: Three Sphere Model for
Systems Management

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Understanding Organizations
Structural frame: Human resources frame:
Focuses on roles and Focuses on providing
responsibilities, harmony between needs of
coordination and control. the organization and needs
Organization charts help of people.
define this frame.

Political frame: Symbolic frame: Focuses
Assumes organizations on symbols and meanings
are coalitions composed related to events. Culture
of varied individuals and is important.
interest groups. Conflict
and power are key issues.

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What Went Wrong?
Many enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects fail due to
organizational issues, not technical issues. For example, Sobey’s
Canadian grocery store chain abandoned its two-year, $90 million
ERP system due to organizational problems.
As Dalhousie University Associate Professor Sunny Marche states,
“The problem of building an integrated system that can
accommodate different people is a very serious challenge. You
can’t divorce technology from the sociocultural issues. They have
an equal role.” Sobey’s ERP system shut down for five days and
employees were scrambling to stock potentially empty shelves in
several stores for weeks. The system failure cost Sobey’s more
than $90 million and caused shareholders to take an 82-cent after-
tax hit per share.*
*Hoare, Eva. “Software hardships,” The Herald, Halifax, Nova Scotia (2001).

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Organizational Structures
Three basic organization 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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Figure 2-2: Functional, Project, and
Matrix Organizational Structures

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Table 2-1: Organizational Structure
Influences on Projects
Project Organizational Structure Type
Characteristics
Functional Matrix Project
Weak Matrix Balanced Strong
Matrix Matrix
Project manager’s Little or none Limited Low to Moderate High to
authority Moderate to high almost total
Percent of Virtually none 0-25% 15-60% 50-95% 85-100%
performing
organization’s
personnel assigned
full-time to project
work
Who controls the Functional Functional Mixed Project Project
project budget manager manager manager manager
Project manager’s Part-time Part-time Full-time Full-time Full-time
role
Common title for Project Project Project Project Project
project manager’s Coordinator/ Coordinator/ Manager/ Manager/ Manager/
role Project Leader Project Project Program Program
Leader Officer Manager Manager
Project management Part-time Part-time Part-time Full-time Full-time
administrative staff
PMBOK® Guide, 2000, 19, and PMBOK® Guide 2004, 28.
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Organizational Culture
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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Ten Characteristics of
Organizational Culture
Member identity* Risk tolerance*
Group emphasis* Reward criteria*
People focus Conflict tolerance*
Unit integration* Means-ends
Control 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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Stakeholder Management
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

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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, and One.Tel’s billing
system)
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Need for Organizational Commitment to
Information Technology (IT)
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
encourages more commitment

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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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Project Phases and the Project Life
Cycle
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
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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More on Project Phases
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

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Figure 2-3: Phases of the Traditional
Project Life Cycle

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Product Life Cycles
Products also have life cycles
The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a
framework for describing the phases involved in
developing and maintaining information systems
Systems development projects can follow:
Predictive life cycle: the scope of the project can be
clearly articulated and the schedule and cost can be
predicted
Adaptive Software Development (ASD) life cycle:
requirements cannot be clearly expressed, projects are
mission driven and component based, using time-based
cycles to meet target dates
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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
Incremental build model: provides for progressive
development of operational software
Prototyping model: used for developing
prototypes to clarify user requirements
Rapid Application Development (RAD) model:
used to produce systems quickly without
sacrificing quality
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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 or
kill points, should occur after each phase to
evaluate the project’s progress, likely success,
and continued compatibility with organizational
goals

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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.

*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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The Context of IT Projects
IT projects can be very diverse in terms of size,
complexity, products produced, application area,
and resource requirements
IT project team members often have diverse
backgrounds and skill sets
IT projects use diverse technologies that change
rapidly; even within one technology area, people
must be highly specialized

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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
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