Professional & Enterprise

Development
CE00315-2

Project Management

Level 2

Prepared by: RHR First Prepared on: September 10, 2006 Last Modified on:
Quality checked by: MOH
Copyright 2004 Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology
 Structure of the lesson

• Project managers – personal skills

• Project Management – techniques

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 Learning Outcomes

• Describe common features of projects

• List the main tasks involved in project management

• Describe the range of skills required for successful

project management

• Explain the need for structured project management

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 Key Terms you must be able to use

If you have mastered this topic, you should be able to use

the following terms correctly in your assignments and
exams:

• Project Management
• Team work
•Technology
•Customer
•Team

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 What is a project

• Any task which has a beginning and an end

• Analogy : Getting married is a project - staying married

isn’t !

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 What is a project (cont’d)

Examples of non-IT projects :

1. Organising a holiday
2. Bidding for the 2006 World Cup
3. Building the new National Museum

Examples of IT projects :
1. Design and installation of HUKM Ambulance call out
system
2. Design and installation Tesco’s electronic POS machines
3. Design and implement the Taxation Office payments
system
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 Why do IT projects need to be managed?

In the past IT projects have been criticised for being:

• LATE !
• OVER - BUDGET !
• NOT WHAT WAS WANTED !

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 Why do projects fail?

• Users don’t know what they want?

• Complexity of task?
• Number of people involved?
• Difficulty of task?
• New technology – untried, untested?
• Bad planning?

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 The aim of successful project management

DO THE RIGHT THING

    DO IT ON TIME
    WITHIN BUDGET
    TO QUALITY

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 Skills of a Project Manager

The project Manager has to deal with all aspects of a

project:
Technology

Customer Team

• What major skills would a PM need for each ‘circle’?

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 Prioritise these skills

• Programming skills • Problem Solving skills

• Motivating other people
• • Patience
Selling
• Record keeping and • Confidence
administrative skills • Communication skills
• Organisational skills • Intelligence
• Ruthlessness
• Previous experience of • Qualifications
similar projects • Diplomacy

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 The Project Management triangle
• All projects have 3 elements that need controlling:
– Time , Quality & Cost 
• These three are often shown as the Project Management
triangle :
T

Q C
• Different projects have different priorities. From the triangle
above, decide on the priorities for the following projects :
1. Providing food for famine relief
2. A drug administering system for a hospital
3. A school buying new computers for a classroom

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 Question

Do you need the same ‘project manager’ for all projects?

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 All projects share certain CHARACTERISTICS :

• GOAL(S) - What the project hopes to achieve

• OBJECTIVES- Specific outcomes or deliverables’

• LEADER -The manager, planner, monitor, controller

• TEAM - A group of people with allocated tasks

• DEADLINE-A date by which the project should be completed

• BUDGET - An amount of money available to finance the project

• PROBLEMS - Unforeseen circumstances that require action to solve or

overcome problems.

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 What is involved in Project Management?

1.PLANNING
2.ESTIMATING
3.RESOURCE ALLOCATION
4.SCHEDULING
5.MONITORING PROGRESS
6.TAKING CORRECTIVE ACTION
7.REPORTING TO PROJECT ‘OWNERS’

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 1. PLANNING

• A major part of any project. Plans include deciding what

the project is going to do, how it will be done, who will
be involved, how much will the project cost, and when it
must be completed.

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 2. ESTIMATING

• Estimates must be made of time and cost for each

stage of the project.
• Estimating is not easy!

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 3. RESOURCE ALLOCATION

• Resources include people, equipment, money,

accommodation etc. These must be booked for each
stage of the project.

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 4. SCHEDULING

• Tasks must be carried out in a logical sequence. Some

tasks cannot begin until another task has been
completed. These are called critical tasks.

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 5. MONITORING PROGRESS

• A good project manager measures performance

throughout the project. This helps to identify problems
early.

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 6. TAKING CORRECTIVE ACTIONS

• Every problem requires a different solution.

Sometimes this might be changing the tasks allocated to
people, getting extra resources, or changing equipment.

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 7. REPORTING TO PROJECT OWNERS

• Customers paying for a new system will want regular

feedback on project progress and milestones.

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 Exercise

• Define a project (2 marks)

• Identify the 3 important elements that need controlling in
a project (3 marks)
• Do you need the same ‘project manager’ for all projects?
Explain. (3 marks)
• “Users don’t know what they want” is seen as one of the
reasons why a project would fail. As project manager
how can you avoid this? (5 marks)

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 Project Risk Assessment

• Projects DO FAIL
• Lots of research into reasons
• Allows us to assess RISKS
• PMs need to plan to minimise known risks.

One well known author is Barry Boehm – books include:

Software Risk Management, IEEE Computer Society
Press, 1989.

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 Boehm – Top 10 Risk Factors

1. Personnel shortfalls
2. Unrealistic Schedules and Budgets
3. Developing Wrong Functions
4. Developing Wrong User Interface
5. Gold Plating
6. Continuing Requirement changes
7. External components
8. Externally performed tasks
9. Performance shortfalls
10. Straining computer science capabilities
Ask yourself – is emphasis on people or technology?

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 Three common strand

• Government Issues
– Accountability
– Publicity
– Politics
• Technology Issues
– Complexity
– Technology
– Oversight
• Project Issues
– Project Management
– Suppliers

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 Project planning

Once the objectives are clear, the project manager can

carry on with the next tasks:

• Analyse the logical SEQUENCE of tasks to be

done   (SCHEDULING)
• ESTIMATE the time effort and cost involved in each
stage
• Examine the RISKS and make allowances to cover
uncertainties
• CALCULATE the total time and cost for the project

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 Project Scheduling

• Path Analysis
• Is all about putting tasks into a common sense
sequence, and identifying task dependencies
• Two common techniques used are Gantt charts and
Network Diagrams

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 Example 1 - Task list

Task Duration Depends on

A 4 DAYS NOTHING
B 2 DAYS NOTHING
C 5 DAYS Task A
D 3 days Task B
E 5 days Tasks C,D

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 Gantt Chart
A

2 4 6 8 10 12 14

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 How does this help?

• Shortest route
• Alternatives
• Can add more detail – resources etc.

• Alternative….

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 A

2 4 6 8 10 12 14

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 How does project scheduling help?

• Easy way to see project as whole

• Determines ‘Critical Path’
• Allows PM to examine alternatives
• Helps set milestones
• Identifies ‘Float’ time
• Helps to identify ‘slippage’

NOTE !
• Need to be re-visited – corrective action etc.

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 Project – Brewing Up

• Add milk / sugar 1. First - sequence

• Put teabag in pot 2. Ensure dependencies
• Boil kettle identified
• Wash pot 3. Estimate time and
• Wash cup resources required
• Pour water into pot 4. Evaluate alternatives
• Allow tea to brew
• Pour tea into cup

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 Task Description Time Dependant on

A Boil kettle 250 -

B Wash cup 30 -
C Wash pot 30 -
D Teabag in pot 5 C
E water into pot 10 A+D
F Leave to Brew 60 E
G Pour into cup 5 B+F
H Add Milk/sugar 5 G
I Stir 10 H
Drink!
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 Killer Robot Chapters 1 and 2

Review for information

• Project Managers
• Project Management
• Issues

• Prepare for next tutorial

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 Question and Answer Session

Q&A

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 Next Session

Topic and Structure of next session

Professional Issues

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