Summery of the first six chapters in PMIT

Chapter 1:

Introduction to Project Management in IT

Summary:

Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. It is often closely related to and sometimes conflated with program management.

A project is a temporary endeavor, having a defined beginning and end (usually constrained by time, but can be by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet particular goals and objectives, usually to bring about beneficial change or added value. The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast to business as usual (or operations), which are repetitive, permanent or semi-permanent functional work to produce products or services. In practice, the management of these two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical skills and the adoption of separate management.

The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honoring the preconceived project constraints. Typical constraints are scope, time, and budget. The secondary challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives.The project manager's role is the overall responsibility for the successful planning, execution, monitoring, control and closure of a project.

Chapter 2:

The Project Management and Information Technology Context

Summary:

Project manager need to consider projects within the greater organizational context. Organizations have four different frames: structural, human resources, political and symbolic. Project manager need to understand this aspect to be successful.

Organizational structure can affect project management. A culture where an employer has a strong identity in the organization and where work activities are emphasized in groups. Running a successful project requires a high degree of stakeholder management. So who are stakeholders? A stakeholder is anyone who has an interest in your project or will be affected by its deliverables or output. It is important to understand the values and issues that stakeholders have in order to address them and keep everyone on board for the duration of the project. A project should successfully pass through each of the project phases in order to continue to the next phase. Leading project team members with a wide variety of specialized skills and understanding rapidly changing technologies are also important consideration.

Chapter 3:

The project management process

Summary:

This chapter speaks about project management processes. Project management is often a number of interlinked processes. In this chapter we see that project management processes are grouped into five: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. Normally the executing process requires most resources and time, followed by the planning process.

Some organizations develop their own information technology project management methodologies.

The JWD consulting case study demonstrates how one organization managed an information technology project from it initiation through its closure. The case study provides several simple of output produced for initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing.

Chapter 4:

Project integration management

Summary:

Project integration management is usually the most important project management knowledge area, since it ties together all the other areas of the project management. A project manager’s primary focus should be on project integration management.

Project integration management includes the following process:

- Developing the project charter involves working with stakeholders to create document that formally authorize a project.

- Developing the preliminary project scope statement involves further work with stakeholder, especially users of the project’s products, services, or results, to develop the high-level scope requirements.

- Developing the project management plain involves coordinating all planning efforts to create a consistent, coherent document-the project management plan.

- Directing and managing project execution involves caring out the project plan by performing the activities included in it.

- There are several types of software products available to assist in project integration management.

Chapter 5:

Project scope management

Summary:

Project scope management includes the processes required to ensure that the project addresses all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully. The main processes of this scope are: scope planning, scope definition, create the WBS, scope verification and scope control. If these five concepts of the scope are well managed the scope will function well and the project will succeed.

Chapter 6:

Project time management

Summary:

Project time management is often cited as the main source of conflict on projects, and most IT projects exceed time estimates. The main factor in this set of activity is to meet the following requirements: Activity definition, activity sequencing, activity resource estimating, activity duration estimating, schedule development, schedule control. A manager has to know and have adequate knowledge about these activities in order to produce a good output in the time required by the project.

Assignment 1- corrected

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

INFO 3501: PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN IT

Section 1

Assignment 1

Submitted to: Masita Abdul Rahman

BY:

Mahmoud Mohamed A. Mohdhar

Matric No. 0719073

Semester 1, 2009/2010

1. In one paragraph of not less than 50 words, summarize the three-sphere model of systems Management in your own words. (5 marks)

In trying to explain the three-sphere model we must first understand what the model stands for. As the name three spheres goes, we come to see that the model represents three over-lapping spheres, where each sphere represents an entity of systems management. The entities are:-

· Business- This entity should explain what the business objectives of a certain project are, interns of what the costs will be, how the project will affect the various stake-holders and potential or future clients financially and whether it will yield a better income.

· Organization- This entity should explain how and who the project will affect and in what ways, i.e. will the project implementation require training? And who is to be trained? And how?

· Technology- this entity should explain what are the technological aspects of the project will be and should also prove that the aspects will out do the already existing technology in terms of performance, specifications and profit generation.

2. Search the internet and scan information technology industry magazines or websites to find ONE successful IT project. Describe the project. List TWO each of the business, technology and organizational issues that you think can be addressed for the project.

Telehealth networks.

Description- The project served providers and residents in two rural counties on the Olympic Peninsula. The network consisted of 11 sites representing community mental health centers, health care providers, and other health, education, and social services agencies. Each consortium member agency supported the delivery of behavior health and other health care services.

Services offered- Telehealth services focused on health provider education, mental health and substance abuse services, and primary health care services. Health provider education ranged from weekly scheduled grant rounds from Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle to special topic presentations that were downlinked from satellite transmissions and then distributed via the videoconferencing network. In addition, sites with particular staff expertise provided occasional training on topics ranging from psychopharmacology to dealing effectively with resistant clients.

Mental health and substance abuse services included psychiatric and psychological evaluations, medication monitoring, substance abuse assessments, and individual counseling and therapy. The project also organized clinical and administrative meetings among mental health providers who were members of the network. Primary and specialty health care included patient consultations, and specialty assessment and treatment for physical and speech therapy.

Results- The telehealth network succeeded in expanding access to mental health services for rural residents in the project service area. The network connected rural communities to services that would otherwise not be available in a convenient and timely manner. It successfully increased the coordination of care and communication between mental health service providers and other stakeholders. The project also succeeded in recruiting and retaining providers by creating opportunities for them to interact with their peers and to access educational programs.

In terms of network utilization, the telehealth network was used approximately 20 hours a week, which met the project's utilization goals. Clients and providers gave the network high scores on consumer satisfaction surveys. The project also created an ongoing business plan to sustain the network via cost avoidance and usage rates for non-network members.

The two issues the Project addresses in:-

· Business are

I. Increased access and availability of specialty care providers who otherwise may be unavailable or unaffordable.

II. Overall reduced costs associated with all of the above advantages.

III. The project also created an ongoing business plan to sustain the network via cost avoidance and usage rates for non-network members.

· Organization are

I. Improved linkages between health care providers

II. Improved coordination of care and collaboration among multiple service providers, consumers, families, and other stakeholders

· Technology are

I. improved access to Government resources

II. Primary and specialty health care included patient consultations, and specialty assessment and treatment for physical and speech therapy.

3. Which of the issues that you have defined above do you think is the MOST important to the project and why?

The issues that I think are the most important to the project are that the telehealth network succeeded in expanding access to mental health services for rural residents and that it Increased access and availability of specialty care providers who otherwise may have been unavailable or unaffordable.

4. Search the internet and scan information technology industry magazines or websites to find an IT project that failed or have problems due to any ONE of business, technology or organizational issues. Describe the project. Describe the issue that made the project failed.

The recent failure, or partial failure, of the DART mission by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is just the latest example of a significant technology project with a less-than-ideal outcome. In addition to DART, which was a leftover of the Orbital Space Plane project, we can count the DC-X, the X-33, the Orbital Space Plane itself, and the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) among the higher profile projects that failed. NASA’s history in the last couple of decades has been littered with projects that have failed or were terminated before even reaching the testing stage. Other government agencies and private industry are no different in having strings of projects terminated or failed. That begs the question, “Why?”

No technology project of any significant size has an absolute guarantee of success. When projects large or small fail, the reasons usually fall into a narrow set of categories that includes insufficient funding, insufficient commitment, incompetent staff, overambitious goals, and poor management. These reasons can in many cases be traced to a project that is not aligned with the organization’s vision or with an organization has no clear vision. The first sign of trouble from my point of view is that DART started in the canceled Orbital Space Plane project. Even though autonomous rendezvous and docking technology will be necessary for many future space missions, it lost part of its immediate purpose and importance with the cancellation of the OSP. That meant that if it looked like it would need more money to succeed, it wasn’t likely to get it. Any project needs a driving force behind it with access to reasonable additional discretionary funds if needed. As an orphan of the OSP project it wasn’t likely to have access to anything beyond its original budget. Any R&D project has unknowns in it, which is why they are called R&D projects. Even if a project starts with the ideal staff it is still possible that a problem will arise that they cannot overcome. The perfect example is Albert Einstein’s attempt to unify the basic forces of the universe into one set of equations. He failed even though he had accomplishments in physics possibly only rivaled by Isaac Newton. It didn’t help that he ignored the burgeoning new field of quantum mechanics. Any individual or team should attempt projects they are confident they have a reasonable chance of succeeding with, but should never be so arrogant as to think that failure is impossible. Fear of failure and its consequences can be a great motivator to put in the extra effort that is sometime required.

NOTE: the resons as to why the project failed is Technology.

The DART project’s biggest problem is that it only had one shot to test the technology. Complex hardware and software can fail from just one mistake, flaw, or overlooked factor in millions of actions or components. Simulation is useful in testing a complex system; it is not a perfect method to find every flaw in a design. Thinking it can is to assume that the simulation is perfect. That is why only one real-life test of a new technology is not realistic for developing a complex system.

5. Think of a real or an imaginary organization that you are interested in. Draw a graphical illustration of each of the different organizational structures (i.e. functional, project, matrix) for the organization that you have selected.

FUNCTIONAL CHART

PROJECT CHART

MATRIX CHART

6. Discuss the importance of top management commitment for successful project management. Provide examples to illustrate the importance based on an already implemented project that you are aware of, or based on an imaginary/proposed project to be done in future.

Once the decision to implement a certain project has been taken, or even before it, there needs to be senior management commitment to the process. The commitment of top management is essential for the implementation to succeed - without this it stands a good chance of failing. Once this is in place, appropriate resources must be assigned to the project for its duration.

As part of this process, a security organization must be defined. As a minimum, there must be someone in the organization who is responsible and accountable for implementing, monitoring and managing information security in the organization. Depending on the size of the organization, this person may be supported by a number of other staff. Top management commitment is the factor that determines the tipping point between potential success and failure when developing and implementing business continuity management projects and systems. This article is based on our consulting experience with various organizations worldwide. In almost all of the cases where we were able to successfully develop, implement and validate a business continuity management system, the topmost contributor to the success was the keen interest exhibited by top management.

The ten things that indicate existence of management support are:

· Top management was the driver behind the initiation of the business continuity project

· Top management was the initiator of the project charter

· Attendance by top management at the project kick-off meeting

· Validation of recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs)

· Selection of business continuity and backup state

· Active participation by top management during emergency procedure drills

· Observer during disaster recovery exercises at the alternate site.

· Attendance at local business continuity forums, symposiums, conferences and training events

· The ability to give an elevator speech on business continuity management

· Succession planning exercise