Information Technology Project Management
Question 1
A project is defined as an endeavor that is temporary and creates a unique product or service. Project management is defined as the appropriate application and integration of project management processes, knowledge, skills, and tools to the project activities so that the project requirements are met, which typically include identifying and managing requirements and stakeholder requirements as well as ensuring that the project deliverables are created. It also includes managing the triple constraint (Figure 1) the scope, the schedule, and the budget. The budget, scope, and schedule are so constrained that they must remain in equilibrium. So, if the scope is increased, the other two (budget and schedule) must increase accordingly. If the schedule is fixed, then costs can be contained only by containing scope.
Figure 1: The Project triple constraint.
Source:
Project management (PM) processes are a set of interrelated activities that are performed to create a specific product. They have specific inputs, tools and techniques, organizational assets that can be applied to produce those products. Each organization specifies constraints on how these processes, inputs, tools and techniques, and organizational assets are used. The advantage of using these PM processes are:
They are standardized and apply across the industry, globally. Hence, common standards of managing, planning and reporting can be applied to all project thereby providing efficiency
As the processes are standardized, tools are available and can be used resulting in cost containment. The project management becomes more predictable as the PM processes are standardized
Using PM processes ensures that a better fit of the solution is achieved the first time due to the better planning that a methodology ensures so that the team and the sponsor agree on major deliverables beforehand
Since quality management is a part of the PM processes, the quality can be proactively managed
Though the PM processes are beneficial, the cost of attaining and maintaining them may not be practical. PMs should evaluate all the PM processes, their inputs and outputs, and determine the processes that are applicable to the project and adopt only those processes. This process is known as tailoring. These processes are interrelated and often affect each other. A PM should actively manage these interactions if the project has to be successful.
Question 2
Question 3
Traditional Waterfall Model. The traditional waterfall model is a linear, sequential software lifecycle model from requirements analysis phase to maintenance phase, and is the oldest model being used (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Comparison between Traditional Waterfall model and Iterative Spiral Model
The model emphasizes on planning at the early stages, it strives to ensure that there are no design flaws. This model divides the project into sequential phases with some overlap. The planning, budgeting, scheduling, milestones, and implementation are decided up front. Tight control is maintained using extensive documentation and formal reviews and sign-offs happening between phases.
Pros: The advantage of this model is that each stage has well-defined deliverable or milestone, is document driven with known standards such as PSS-05. It is a very simple process to understand and use and hence widely used. Since it uses define-before-design and design-before-code principles, it reinforces good habits. Suits projects that have well-defined requirements, maturity due to prior experience in handling similar projects, and when teams have mastery in domain knowledge.
Cons: Modifications are not possible if requirements are not clear at the beginning. Small errors in the earlier phases can snowball by the time the project is implemented. Until the final stage is completed, the user cannot see the software product. There is a significant administrative overhead due to which it is not suitable for small projects.
Iterative Spiral Model. The Spiral model uses both the prototype-in-stages and design processes with emphasis on risk assessment. It has four phases: determining objectives, identify and resolve risks, develop and test, and plan the next iteration. A project repeatedly passes through these phases in iterations or spirals with each subsequent building on the baseline spiral. A prototype is produced at the end of each risk assessment phase and software is produced after the development phase. The user evaluates the product during testing. The next iteration is started with identifying the win conditions for the stakeholders and ended with review and commitment before the project continuous to the next spiral.
Pros: It does a high amount of risk analysis by breaking the project into smaller segments and hence is good for mission critical projects. The software is produced early in the SDLC and customer involvement is high. Productivity is high as reuse is possible and proper control over cost and schedule.
Cons: This model requires risk identification and management, which is not easy. Estimating cost and time is difficult. Not suitable for small projects as the cost of risk management is high.
Question 4
Question 5
Bottom-up cost estimation: This estimation methodology, also known as activity-based costing, involves estimating the cost of each individual work item or activity and then rolling up the cost to get the total project cost. The accuracy of the estimation is dependent on the size of the individual work item (or activity) and the expertise of the estimators. When a detailed WBS is available, then the resources required for each activity can be estimated by the person allocated to the activity. The cost of these resources can be obtained from the finance department and the cost is thus calculated or software packages are used to do this calculation. These estimates are usually time-intensive.
Parametric cost estimation: Project characteristics such as the lines of code, experience levels of the programmers, the complexity of the program, the programming language used, and so on are used in a mathematical model to arrive at the estimates. The mathematical or the parametric model is derived by using historical data, and hence the accuracy of the estimates depend on the quality of the historical data.
Question 6
A project is an uncertain event or condition that can have a positive or negative effect on the objectives of the project if it occurs.
Figure 3: IT project Risk Management Processes
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The Risk planning, Risk identification (both threats and opportunities), Risk assessment, Risk strategies, Risk monitoring and control, Risk response, and Risk evaluation processes are used as part of the Risk management process. Risk identification can be done by anybody as a risk can affect the project objectives and any stakeholder who is affected by the risk can contribute by identifying the risk. Using the WBS, the team can proactively try to find all the risks or as many as possible. For each risk found, at the end of the risk management process, a response plan, the owner of the risk, and the activities for implementing the risk strategy are finalized. The risk identification process is revisited as often as possible to ensure that the risks and their assessments are still valid. Since this risk management approach ensures that most risks are identified and response plans put in place, the effect of the event occurring can be minimized. Due to the repeated iterations of the risk identification and the risk assessment process, the risks are identified before they can escalate to an unmanageable stage. This is the way the risk management approach acts as an early warning signal for the impending problem.
References
Brandon, D. (2006). Project management for modern information systems. London: Idea Group Inc.
Govardhan, N. M. (2010, September). A comparison between five models of software engineering. International Journal of Computer Science, 7(5), 94-101.
Haughey, D. (2011, December 19). Understanding the project management triple constraint. Retrieved from projectsmart.co.uk: https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/understanding-the-project-management-triple-constraint.php
Marchewka, J. T. (2006). Information technology project management: providing measurable organizational value (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
PMI. (2013). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK® guide). Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute, Inc.
Schwalbe, K. (2011). Information Technology Project Management (Revised 6th ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology, Cengage Learning.
Shikha maheshwari, D. C. (2012). A comparative analysis of different types of models in software development life cycle. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, 2(5), 285-290.
