Overview
• The Nature of Information Technology Projects provides an
introduction to what a project is and why projects must be viewed
as organizational investments that must align with a chosen
business strategy. In addition, this chapter discusses how the
disciplines of information technology and project management
have evolved together and have led to how we manage projects
today.
Objectives
• After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
• Understand why information technology (IT) projects are organizational
investments
• Understand why projects are planned organizational change and why
they must align with an organization’s business strategy
• Define what a project is and describe the attributes of a project
• Define the discipline called project management
• Understand the relationship among project portfolios, programs, and
projects
• Understand how the disciplines of information technology and project
management have evolved together and have led to how we manage
projects today
• Understand the current state of IT project management
• Understand why some projects fail and how to improve the likelihood of
success
Contents
• Introduction
• What Is a Project?
• What Is Project Management?
• The State of IT Project Management
Introduction
• IT projects = organizational investments?
• Project expectation
• time, money, resources
• value of in return.
• Like a investor expectation
• Project play an important role in organizations and can have a
major impacts.
What Is a Project?
Project VS Project Manager
Project Attributes
Time Frame Purpose Ownership
Risk &
Resources Project Roles
Assumptions
Interdependent Organizational Organizational
Task Change Enviroment
Project Attributes
• Project Roles – all projects require people with skill sets that
include both technical and nontechnical (soft) skills.
Project
Manager or
Leader
Technical Project
A project Sponsor
Experts
Subject Matter
Experts
What Is Project Management?
• Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools,
and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.
Projects, Programs, and Portfolios
• A project is undertaken to create something new or unique, as
well as to enhance an existing product, service, or system.
• Organizations should have a project portofolio
• comprised of a collection of diverse projects
• Seek to balance to risk, experience, technology
• A portfolio of projects should be managed collectively so as to
align with the organization’s strategy and overall plan to achieve
competitive advantage.
• Some projects within portfolio may be independent and not
directly related to one another.
• Some projects are managed as a program
• projects are part of program or not?
Project Management and
Information Technology
• Today, Project Management is viewed as a discipline that
addresses a wide variety of organizational opportunities and
Challenges
• A Project manager or team will be: (and why?)
• Dynamic
• Geographically dispersed
• Ethnically
• Culturally
The State Of IT Project
Management
• Although IT is becoming more reliable, faster, and less expensive,
the costs, complexity, and risks of managing IT projects continues
to be a challenge for many organizations.
• Project success is defined as a project being completed on time,
within budget, and including all of the features or requirements
envisioned. A challenged projects is defined as a project that is
late, over budget, and having fewer features and functionality than
envisioned, while a failed project is a project that was canceled
before completion.
Why Many Projects Fail
People Process
Technology Organization
Example of Why Project Fail
People Processes Technology Organization
• Lack of Top • Poorly defined • Obsolete • Lack of direction
Management goals & • Unproven • Changing
support objectives • incompatible priorities
• Ineffective user • Poor planning • Lack of funding
• Lack of skills • Lack of controls • Competition for
• Lack of • Poorly defined funding
experience requirement • Organizational
• Poor • Changing politics
communication requirement • Bureaucracy
• Poorly defined • Inadequate • Lack of oversight
roles and testing • Poor change
responsibilities • Project management
• Lack of management &
accountability product
• Unrealistic development
expectations processes not
• Conflicting existent or not
stakeholder goals followed
• Poor decisions • Poor execution
Improving the Likehood of Success
• A Value-Driven Approach – Plain and simple
• A Socio-Technical Approach – In the past
• A Project-Management Approach – Success or failure
• A Knowledge-Management Approach – A socio-technical
approach and a commitment
Improving the Likehood of Success
Resources – When developing or purchasing an information system, all IT
projects are capital projects that require cash and other organizational
resources.
Expectations – Today, organizational clients expect IT professionals to
deliver quality products and services in a proffesional manner.
Competition – Internal and external competition has never been greater.
Efficiency and Effectiveness – Peter Drucker defined efficiency as doing
the thing right and effectiveness as doing the right thing.
Unit Summary
• You should now be able to:
• Understand why information technology (IT) projects are organizational
investments
• Understand why projects are planned organizational change and why
they must align with an organization’s business strategy
• Define what a project is and describe the attributes of a project
• Define the discipline called project management
• Understand the relationship among project portfolios, programs, and
projects
• Understand how the disciplines of information technology and project
management have evolved together and have led to how we manage
projects today
• Understand the current state of IT project management
• Understand why some projects fail and how to improve the likelihood of
success
