Learning Information Systems Project Management

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Rationale

Learning Objectives and Outcomes

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Learner Support

 

Recommended Text

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Assignments, Assessments

 

Learning Centres

 

Introduction to Information Systems Project Management

Rationale

A Project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service.

 

 

It can also comprise an ambitious plan to define and constrain a future by limiting it to set goals and parameters. The planning, execution and monitoring of major projects sometimes involves setting up a special temporary organization, consisting of a project team and one or more work teams. A project usually needs resources.

 

Information System Engineering

 

The word project comes from the Latin word projectum from projicere, "to throw something forwards" which in turn comes from pro-, which denotes something that precedes the action of the next part of the word in time (paralleling the Greek πρό) and jacere, "to throw". The word "project" thus actually originally meant "something that comes before anything else is done". When the word was initially adopted, it referred to a plan of something, not to the act of actually carrying this plan out. Something performed in accordance with a project was called an object. This use of "project" changed in the 1950s when several techniques for project management were introduced: with this advent the word slightly changed meaning to cover both projects and objects. However in certain projects there may still exist so called objects and object leaders, reflecting the older use of the words.

One may also think in terms of platonism, where ideas from the realm of ideals are projected onto the physical world. (See: Plato's allegory of the cave.)

Particularly liked by Western business, projects can subdivide into sub-projects and spawn an industrial sub-culture of project planning and project management, all oblivious to more holistic developments.

Some feel this habit of short-termism has permeated economic planning and personal growth to the detriment of cyclical and multi-cultural world views. Alternatives to project-centric planning include trend-oriented goal-setting and directional planning.

However, this view is contentious, and indeed industrial program management and portfolio management represent ways of administering a range of projects to fulfil an over-arching strategy.

Notable projects include:

 

See also

 

 

Learning Objectives and Outcomes

This is a non-taught unit designed for self-directed study by those intending to enhance their professional or managerial competence, knowledge, understanding, and skills in business finance.

Knowledge

After completing the course, students will understand:

1. the common issues that arise in projects;

2. how to avoid some of the common problems and risks that arise in project management

 

Skills

After completing the course, students will be able to

1. apply project management tools and techniques;

2. make project management decisions;

3. participate in project planning and implementation

 

 

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Introduction

Tutorials

 

Readings

Project Management is the discipline of organizing and managing resources in such a way that these resources deliver all the work required to complete a project within defined scope, time, and cost constraints. A project is a temporary and one-time endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service. This property of being a temporary and a one-time undertaking contrasts with processes, or operations, which are permanent or semi-permanent ongoing functional work to create the same product or service over-and-over again. The management of these two systems is often very different and requires varying technical skills and philosophy, hence requiring the development of project management.

 

Project plan for website

The first challenge of project management is ensuring that a project is delivered within the defined constraints. The second, more ambitious, challenge is the optimized allocation and integration of the inputs needed to meet those pre-defined objectives. The project, therefore, is a carefully selected set of activities chosen to use resources (time, money, people, materials, energy, space, provisions, communication, quality, risk, etc.) to meet the pre-defined objectives.

 

See also

 

External links

 

 

Human Aspects of Information Systems Projects

Tutorials

 

Readings

A Project Manager is the person who has the overall responsibility for the successful planning and execution of any project. This title is used in the construction industry, architecture and many different occupations that are based on production of a product or service.

The Project Manager must possess a combination of skills including an ability to ask penetrating questions, detect unstated assumptions and resolve interpersonal conflicts as well as more systematic management skills.

 

Project management life-cycle

 

Key amongst his/her duties is the recognition that risk directly impacts the likelihood of success and that this risk must be both formally and informally measured throughout the lifetime of the project.

Risk arises primarily from uncertainty and the successful Project Manager is the one who focuses upon this as the main concern. Most of the issues that impact a project arise in one way or another from risk. A good Project Manager can reduce risk significantly, often by adhering to a policy of open communication, ensuring that every significant participant has an opportunity to express opinions and concerns.

It follows from the above that a Project Manager is one who is responsible for making decisions both small and large, in such a way that risk is controlled and uncertainty minimized. Every decision taken by the Project Manager should be taken in such a way that it directly benefits the project.

Project Managers often use project management software to organize their tasks and workforce and to create reports and charts.

 

 

See also

The Basic Project Management Process

 

A Project Team is a team used for grouping people based on a common function. Members of a team usually belong to different groups, but are assigned to activities for the same project, thereby allowing them to be viewed as one team. Therefore, the team feature facilitates the creation, tracking and assignment of a group of people based on the project they have been assigned to. A team can be divided into sub-teams according to need. When a team is only used for a defined period of time it is often called a project team.

 

Project Team Development for Org Charts

 

External links

 

Project Adoption

Tutorials

 

Readings

Needs assessment is a process for determining and addressing needs, or "gaps" between current conditions and desired conditions, often used for improvement in individuals, education/training, organizations, or communities. The need can be a desire to improve current performance or to correct a deficiency. The idea of needs assessment, as part of the planning process, has been used under different names for a long time. In the past 50 years, it has been an essential element of educational planning.[1] Over the past four decades, there has been a proliferation of models for needs assessment with dozens of models to choose from.[2]

 

Introduction project management tools

 

External links

IT Strategic/Investment Plan

 

Planning

Tutorials

 

Readings

Project Planning is part of project management theory, which relates to use of schedules such as gantt charts to plan and subsequently report progress within the project environment.[1]

 

Using Gantt Charts to Provide Information

 

Initially, the project scope is defined and the appropriate methodology for completing the project determined. From this, durations for the tasks necessary to complete the work are listed and grouped into a work breakdown structure. The logical dependencies between tasks are defined giving a project network, which enables the critical path and hence float to be calculated using project management software[2]. The necessary resources can be estimated and subsequently, costs for each activity can be attributed to each resource, giving the total project cost. At this stage, the project plan is optimized to achieve the appropriate balance between resource usage and project duration to comply with the project objectives. Once established and agreed the plan becomes what is known as the baseline. This is what the project will be measured against throughout its life span. Analysing this information is known as earned value management.

See also

 

External links

 

The Logical Framework Approach (LFA) is a management tool mainly used in the design, monitoring and evaluation of international development projects. It is also widely known as Goal Oriented Project Planning (GOPP) or Objectives Oriented Project Planning (OOPP).

 

External links

 

Logical Framework

 

Logical Framework

 

Case Study

 

Introduction project management tools

 

 

Scheduling

Tutorials

 

Readings

In project management, a Schedule consists of a list of a project's terminal elements with intended start and finish dates.

A Gantt chart can provide a graphical representation of a project schedule.

 

Gantt Charts - Tutorial and How to Create

 

 

What is Critical Chain Method in Project Scheduling?

 

Critical Chain project management warns that terminal-element start dates and finish dates function as random variables, and suggests managing a project not by its traditional schedule but rather by using buffer management and a relay race mentality.

 

See also

 

External links

 

Duration of a project's terminal element is the number of calendar periods it takes from the time the execution of element starts to the moment it is completed.

 

Free project planning and resourcing on Ms Excel

 

Do not confuse duration with work. E.g. it takes three days for a snail-mail letter to arrive from point A to point B, whereas the work put into mailing it may be 0.5 hours.

Strictly speaking, the phrase Duration of terminal element X is 5 days is incomplete. It fails to specify the following:

 

So the improved statement could read:

I, Marek Kowalczyk, as of 27 March 2005 strongly believe that if I fully applied myself to competing terminal element X and worked 8 hours a day every day, including holidays, and had all the materials at hand, then I would have completed it in 5 calendar days.' See metamodel.

It may seem unwieldy to use such complicated statements, but lack of detail often leads to misunderstanding.

 

 

Implementation

Tutorials

 

Readings

Project Implementation

Project Management tries to gain Control over variables such as risk:

Risk 

 

 
Potential points of failure. Most negative risks (or potential failures) can be overcome or resolved, given enough planning capabilities, time, and resources. According to some definitions (including PMBOK Third Edition) risk can also be categorized as "positive--" meaning that there is a potential opportunity, e.g., complete the project faster than expected.
 

 

Construction Project Risk Assessment

 

Customers (either internal or external project sponsors), external organizations (such as government agencies and regulators) can dictate the extent of three variables: time, cost, and scope. The remaining variable (risk) is managed by the project team, ideally based on solid estimation and response planning techniques. Through a negotiation process among project stakeholders, an agreement defines the final objectives, in terms of time, cost, scope, and risk, usually in the form of a charter or contract.

To properly control these variables a good project manager has a depth of knowledge and experience in these four areas (time, cost, scope, and risk), and in six other areas as well: integration, communication, human resources, quality assurance, schedule development, and procurement.

 

 

Project implementation process

 

 

Recommended Texts

 

Introduction to Information Systems Project Management

Introduction to Information Systems Project Management, 2/e
David L Olson, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

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Software System Development- A Gentle Introduction Software System Development- A Gentle Introduction

Carol Britton & Jill Doake

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Resources

 

Business Continuity and Information Security Management

 

 

 

 

Case Studies

 

Open Strandards

 

An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was designed (e.g. open process). There is no single definition and interpretations do vary with usage.

The terms "open" and "standard" have a wide range of meanings associated with their usage. There are number of definitions of open standards which emphasize different aspects of openness, including of the resulting specification, the openness of the drafting process, and the ownership of rights in the standard. The term "standard" is sometimes restricted to technologies approved by formalized committees that are open to participation by all interested parties and operate on a consensus basis.

The definitions of the term "open standard" used by academics, the European Union and some of its member governments or parliaments such as Denmark, France, and Spain preclude open standards requiring fees for use, as do the New Zealand, South African and the Venezuelan governments. On the standard organisation side, the W3C ensures that its specifications can be implemented on a Royalty-Free (RF) basis.

Many definitions of the term "standard" permit patent holders to impose "reasonable and non-discriminatory" royalty fees and other licensing terms on implementers and/or users of the standard. For example, the rules for standards published by the major internationally recognized standards bodies such as the IETF, ISO, IEC, and ITU-T permit their standards to contain specifications whose implementation will require payment of patent licensing fees. Among these organizations, only the IETF and ITU-T explicitly refer to their standards as "open standards", while the others refer only to producing "standards". The IETF and ITU-T use definitions of "open standard" that allow "reasonable and non-discriminatory" patent licensing fee requirements.

The term "open standard" is sometimes coupled with "open source" with the idea that a standard is not truly open if it does not have a complete free/open source reference implementation available. [1]

Open standards which specify formats are sometimes referred to as open formats.

Many specifications that are sometimes referred to as standards are proprietary and only available under restrictive contract terms (if they can be obtained at all) from the organization that owns the copyright on the specification. As such these specifications are not considered to be fully Open.

 

See also

 

External links

 

EuropeAid Co-operation Offce

 

EC's project cycle has 5 main phases