Information Security Project

Management

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this chapter, you

should be able to:

Understand basic project management

Apply project management principles to an
information security program
Evaluate available project management
tools

Introduction

Information security is a process, not a project

However, each element of an information security

program must be managed as a project, even if it is
an ongoing one
Information security is a continuous series, or chain,
of projects

Some aspects of information security are not

project based; rather, they are managed
processes (operations)
Employers are seeking individuals that couple
their information security focus and skills with
strong project management skills

The Information Security

Program Chain

Project Management

Guide to the Project Management Body of

Knowledge defines project management as:

Application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques

to project activities to meet project requirements
Project management is accomplished through use of
processes such as: initiating, planning, executing,
controlling, and closing

Project management involves temporary

assemblage resources to complete a project
Some projects are iterative, and occur regularly

Project Management

Benefits for organizations that make project

management skills a priority include:

Implementation of a methodology
Improved planning
Less ambiguity about roles
Simplify project monitoring
Early identification of deviations in quality, time, or budget

Generally, project is deemed a success when:

Completed on time or early as compared to the baseline project

plan
Comes in at or below planned expenditures for baseline budget
Meets all specifications as outlined in approved project
definition
Deliverables are accepted by end user and/or assigning entity

Applying Project Management

to Security

In order to apply project management to

information security, you must first
identify an established project
management methodology
While other project management
approaches exist, the PMBoK is considered
industry best practice

Table 12-1
PMBoK Knowledge Areas

Table 12-1 (2)

PMBoK Knowledge Areas

Project Integration
Management

Project integration management includes the

processes required to ensure that effective
coordination occurs within and between
projects many components, including personnel
Major elements of project management effort
that require integration include:

Development of initial project plan

Monitoring of progress as the project plan is executed
Control of revisions to project plan
Control of changes made to resource allocations as
measured performance causes adjustments to project
plan

Project Plan Development

Project plan development

Process of integrating all project elements into

cohesive plan with goal of completing project within
allotted work time using no more than allotted
project resources

Work time, resources, and project deliverables

are core components used in creation of project
plan

Changing any one element usually affects accuracy

and reliability of estimates of other two and likely
means that project plan must be revised

Project Plan Inputs

Project Plan Development

When integrating disparate elements of a

complex information security project,
complications are likely to arise:

Conflicts among communities of interest

Far-reaching impact
New technology

Project Scope Management

Project scope management ensures that project

plan includes only those activities necessary to
complete it
Scope is the quantity or quality of project
deliverables expanding from original plan
Includes:

Initiation
Scope planning
Scope definition
Scope verification
Scope change control

Project Time Management

Project time management ensures that project is

finished by identified completion date while meeting
objectives
Failure to meet project deadlines is among most
frequently cited failures in project management
Many missed deadlines are rooted in poor planning
Includes following processes:

Activity definition
Activity sequencing
Activity duration estimating
Schedule development
Schedule control

Project Cost Management

Project cost management ensures that a project

is completed within resource constraints
Some projects are planned using only a
financial budget from which all resources must
be procured
Includes following processes:

Resource planning
Cost estimating
Cost budgeting
Cost control

Project Quality Management

Project quality management ensures that

project adequately meets project specifications
If project deliverables meet requirements
specified in project plan, project has met its
quality objective
Good plan defines project deliverables in
unambiguous terms against which actual results
are easily compared
Includes:

Quality planning
Quality assurance
Quality control

Project Human Resource

Management

Project human resource management ensures

personnel assigned to project are effectively employed
Staffing project requires careful estimates of required
effort
In information security projects, human resource
management has unique complexities, including:

Extended clearances
Deploying technology new to organization

Includes:

Organizational planning
Staff acquisition
Team development

Project Communications
Management

Project communications conveys details of

activities associated with project to all involved
Includes creation, distribution, classification,
storage, and ultimately destruction of
documents, messages, and other associated
project information
Includes:

Communications planning
Information distribution
Performance reporting
Administrative closure

Project Risk Management

Project risk management assesses, mitigates,

manages, and reduces impact of adverse
occurrences on the project
Information security projects do face risks that
may be different from other types of projects
Includes:

Risk
Risk
Risk
Risk

identification
quantification
response development
response control

Project Procurement
Management

Project procurement acquires needed resources to

complete the project
Depending on common practices of organization,
project managers may simply requisition resources from
organization, or they may have to purchase
Includes:

Procurement planning
Solicitation planning
Solicitation
Source selection
Contract administration
Contract closeout

Additional Project Planning

Considerations

Financial

Priority

Regardless of information security needs, effort

expended depends on available funds

In general, most important information security

controls in project plan should be scheduled first

Time and Scheduling

Staffing

Lack of qualified, trained, and available personnel

also constrains project plan

Additional Project Planning

Considerations (Continued)

Scope

Procurement

Interrelated conflicts between installation of

information security controls and daily operations of
organization
Number of constraints on selection process of
equipment and services in most organizations,
specifically in selection of certain service vendors or
products from manufacturers and suppliers

Organizational Feasibility

Ability of organization to adapt to change

Additional Project Planning

Considerations (Continued)

Training and Indoctrination

Size of organization and normal conduct of business

may preclude a single large training program
covering new security procedures or technologies

Technology Governance and Change Control

Technology governance is complex process that

organizations use to manage affects and costs of
technology implementation, innovation, and
obsolescence

Additional Project Planning

Considerations (Continued)

By managing process of change, organization can:

Improve communication about change across the organization

Enhance coordination among groups within the organization as
change is scheduled and completed
Reduce unintended consequences by having a process to
resolve potential conflicts and disruptions that uncoordinated
change can introduce
Improve quality of service as potential failures are eliminated
and groups work together
Assure management that all groups are complying with the
organizations policies regarding technology governance,
procurement, accounting, and information security

Controlling the Project

Once a project plan has been defined and

all of the preparatory actions are
complete, project gets underway
Supervising Implementation

Optimal approach is usually to designate a

suitable person from the information security
community of interest focus is on
information security needs of the
organization

Executing the Plan

Once a project is underway, managed using

negative feedback loop or cybernetic loop

Ensures that progress is measured periodically

Corrective action is required in two basic

situations

Estimate is flawed

Plan should be corrected

Downstream tasks updated to reflect change

Performance has lagged

Add resources
Lengthen schedule
Reduce quality/quantity of deliverable

Negative Feedback Loop

Executing the Plan

Often a project manager can adjust one

of the three following planning
parameters for the task being corrected:

Effort and money allocated

Elapsed time or scheduling impact
Quality or quantity of the deliverable

Wrap-Up

Project wrap-up is usually a procedural task

assigned to a mid-level IT or information
security manager
These managers collect documentation, finalize
status reports, and deliver a final report and
presentation at wrap-up meeting
Goal of wrap-up: resolve any pending issues,
critique overall effort, and draw conclusions
about how to improve process in future projects

Conversion Strategies

Direct changeover, also known as going cold turkey

Phased implementation: most common approach

Rolling out a piece of the system across entire organization

Pilot implementation

Stopping old method and beginning new

Implementing all security improvements in a single office,

department, or division
Resolving issues within that group before expanding to the rest
of the organization

Parallel operation

Running new methods alongside old methods

To Outsource or Not

Just as some organizations outsource part of or all of IT

operations, so too can organizations outsource part of
or all of their information security programs, especially
developmental projects
Expense and time it takes to develop effective
information security project management skills may be
beyond the reachas well as needsof some
organizations

In best interest to hire competent professional services

Because of complex nature of outsourcing,

organizations should hire best available specialists

Obtain capable legal counsel to negotiate and verify legal and

technical intricacies of contract

Dealing with Change

Prospect of change can cause employees to be

unconsciously or consciously resistant
By understanding and applying change
management, you can lower resistance to
change and even build resilience for change
One of oldest models of change management is
the Lewin change model, which consists of:

Unfreezing: thawing of hard and fast habits and

established procedures
Moving: transition between old and new ways
Refreezing: integration of new methods into
organizational culture

Unfreezing Phases

Disconfirmation
Induction of survival guilt or survival
anxiety
Creation of psychological safety or
overcoming learning anxiety

Moving Phases

Cognitive redefinition
Imitation and positive or defensive
identification with a role model
Scanning (also called insight, or trial-anderror learning)

Refreezing

Personal refreezing occurs when each

individual employee comes to an
understanding that new way of doing
things is best way
Relational refreezing occurs when a group
comes to a similar decision

Considerations for
Organizational Change

Steps can be taken to make an organization

more amenable to change
Reducing resistance to change from the start:

Communication: first and most crucial step

Updates should also educate employees on exactly
how proposed changes will affect them, both
individually and across the organization
Involvement means getting key representatives from
user groups to serve as members of the process

Developing a Culture that

Supports Change

An ideal organization fosters resilience to

change

Organization accepts that change is a necessary part

of the culture
Embracing change is more productive than fighting it

To develop such a culture, organization must

successfully accomplish many projects that
require change
Resilient culture can be either cultivated or
undermined by managements approach

Project Management Tools

Most project managers combine software tools

that implement one or more of dominant
modeling approaches
Most successful project managers gain
sufficient skill and experience to earn a
certificate in project management
Project Management Institute (PMI) is project
managements leading global professional
association,

Sponsors two certificate programs:

The Project Management Professional (PMP)

Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)

Project Management Tools

(Continued)

Most project managers engaged in nontrivial project

plans use tools to facilitate scheduling and execution of
project
Using complex project management tools often results
in a complication called projectitis:

Occurs when project manager spends more time documenting

project tasks, collecting performance measurements, recording
project task information, and updating project completion
forecasts than accomplishing meaningful project work

Development of an overly elegant, microscopically

detailed plan before gaining consensus for the work and
related coordinated activities may be a precursor to
projectitis

Work Breakdown Structure

Project plan can be created using a very

simple planning tool, such as the work
breakdown structure (WBS)

Project plan is first broken down into a few

major tasks
Each of these major tasks is placed on the
WBS task list

Work Breakdown Structure

(Continued)

Minimum attributes that should be

determined for each task are:

Work to be accomplished (activities and

deliverables)
Estimated amount of effort required for
completion in hours or workdays
Common or specialty skills needed to perform
task
Task interdependencies

Work Breakdown Structure

(Continued)

As project plan develops, additional attributes can be

added, including:

Estimated capital expenses for the task

Estimated non capital expenses for the task
Task assignment according to specific skills
Start and end dates
Work To Be Accomplished
Amount of Effort
Skill Sets/Human Resources
Task Dependencies
Estimated Capital Expenses
Estimated Non capital Expenses
Start and End Dates

Work Phase

Once project manager has completed

WBS by breaking tasks into subtasks,
estimating effort, and forecasting
necessary resources, work phaseduring
which the project deliverables are
preparedmay begin

Example (1) Early Draft WBS

Example (2) Later WBS Part

Example (3) Later WBS Part

Example (3) Later WBS Part

Task-Sequencing Approaches

Once a project reaches even a relatively

modest size, say a few dozen tasks, there
can be almost innumerable possibilities for
task assignment and scheduling
A number of approaches are available to
assist the project manager in this
sequencing effort

Network Scheduling

One method for sequencing tasks and

subtasks in a project plan is known as
network scheduling
Network refers to the web of possible
pathways to project completion from
beginning task to ending task

Simple Network Dependency

Complex Network Dependency

PERT

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

Most popular of networking dependency diagramming

techniques
Originally developed in late 1950s to meet needs of rapidly
expanding government-driven engineering projects

About the same time, Critical Path Method was also

being developed
Possible to take a very complex operation and diagram
it in PERT if you can answer three key questions about
each activity:

How long will this activity take?

What activity occurs immediately before this activity can take
place?
What activity occurs immediately after this activity?

PERT (Continued)

As each possible path through project is

analyzed, difference in time between critical
path and any other path is slack time:

Indication of how much time is available for starting

a non critical task without delaying the project as a
whole

Should a delay be introduced, whether due to

poor estimation of time, unexpected events, or
need to reassign resources to other paths such
as critical path, tasks with slack time are logical
candidates for delay

PERT Advantages

Several advantages to PERT method:

Makes planning large projects easier by facilitating

identification of pre- and post- activities
Allows planning to determine probability of meeting
requirements
Anticipates impact of changes on system
Presents information in a straightforward format that
both technical and non-technical managers can
understand and refer to in planning discussions
Requires no formal training

PERT Advantages

Several advantages to PERT method:

Makes planning large projects easier by facilitating

identification of pre- and post- activities
Allows planning to determine probability of meeting
requirements
Anticipates impact of changes on system
Presents information in a straightforward format that
both technical and non-technical managers can
understand and refer to in planning discussions
Requires no formal training

PERT Disadvantages

Disadvantages of PERT method include:

Diagrams can become awkward and cumbersome,

especially in very large projects
Diagrams can become expensive to develop and
maintain, due to the complexities of some project
development processes
Can be difficult to place an accurate time to
complete on some tasks, especially in the initial
construction of a project

Inaccurate estimates invalidate any close critical path

calculations

Program Evaluation and

Review Technique

Gantt Chart

Another popular project management tool is

bar or Gantt chart, named for Henry Gantt,
who developed this method in early 1900s
Like network diagrams, Gantt charts are easy
to read and understand easy to present to
management

Even easier to design and implement than PERT

diagrams
Yield much of the same information
Lists activities on vertical axis of a bar chart and
provides a simple time line on the horizontal axis

MS Project Gantt Chart

Automated Project Tools

Microsoft Project: widely used project

management tool
If considering automated project management
tool, keep following in mind:

Software program cannot take the place of a skilled

and experienced project manager who understands
how to define tasks, allocate scarce resources, and
manage the resources that are assigned
Software tool can get in the way of the work
Choose a tool that you can use effectively