Chpt 1 IT Project Mgmt

Stakeholders

Any individuals, groups, or communities that have a vested interest in the outcome of the project.

Standards

Are optional and don't necessarily have to be followed by the project manager.

Constrained Optimization Models

Decision models that use complex principles of statistics and other mathematical concepts to assess a proposed project.

Justification

Describes the benefits to the organization for undertaking the project. Benefits can be tangible or intangible and should include reasons for bringing about the project. "Justification" can be a section within the business case or a separate document.

Quality Assurance

Doing the project work correctly the first time

Decision Model

Formal method of project selection that helps managers make decisions regarding the use of limited budgets and human resources. A decision model uses a fixed set of criteria agreed on by the project selection committee to evaluate the project requests. By using the same model to evaluate each project request, the selection committee has a common ground on which to compare the projects and make the most objective decision. Two Primary categories of decision models: 1. Benefit Measurement Methods 2. Constrained-Optimization Models

Requirements

Government regulations are never optional

Scoring Model

One of the benefit measurement methods used for project selection. It contains a predefined list of criteria against which each project is ranked. Each criterion has a scoring range and a weighting factor. A scoring model can also be used as a tool to select from among competing vendors.

Performing Organization

Organization that completes the project work.

Benefit measurement methods

Provide a means to compare the benefits obtained from project requests by evaluating them using the same criteria. Benefit measurement methods are the most commonly used of the two categories of decision models. Four common benefit measurement methods are cost-benefit analysis, scoring model, payback period, and economic model.

High-level Risks

Risks can have a positive or negative effect on the project. Negative risks are often what project managers focus on, but positive risks can be demonstrated through cost savings, time savings, or new opportunities for income.

Alignment to the strategic plan

Should describe how the project and its outcomes will align to the organization's overall strategic plan...if project doesn't support strategic plan there is no reason to undertake the project.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals

Specific You to know what the specific requirements and deliverables are for your project. Measurable It's a good idea to avoid vague terms like fast, good, and happy. You need measurable metrics for the project requirements. Achievable The goals of the project should be achievable considering the resources, cost, and time required versus what's available in the organization. Management and customers that ask for a long list of requirements without providing a balance of time and monies are setting themselves up for disappointment. Relevant The goal of the project shouldn't be for someone's private agenda. The goals of the project should support the primary business need of the organization, provide an opportunity for the company, or solve a problem. Basically, all projects should either increase revenue or cut costs. Time-bound Requirements that are dreamy, are open-ended, and don't provide an easy link to conclusion aren't good requirements to accurately plan and create.

Identifying and Analyzing Stakeholders

Stakeholders are anyone with a vested interest in the project: Can be individual or organizations.

Vision, in project management terms,

The ability to clearly see the intangible and recognize the actions required to get there. Cannot have a clear vision of the project if the project needs are never clearly established.

Project Management

The ability to manage a temporary endeavor to create a unique product or service on time, within budget. The ability to administer a series of chronological tasks resulting in a desired goal. Project management brings together a set of tools and techniques—performed by people—to describe, organize, and monitor the work of project activities.

Functional Organization

The classic organizational structure. The staff is organized along departmental lines, such as IT, marketing, sales, network, public relations, customer support, and legal. Each department is managed independently with a limited span of control. This organizational type is hierarchical in nature, with each staff member reporting to one supervisor, who in turn reports to one supervisor, and so on up the chain. The functional organization is the most common organizational structure and has endured for centuries. The advantages of a functional organization include the following: - Growth potential and a career path for employees - The opportunity for those with unique skills to flourish - A clear chain of command (each staff member has one supervisor) The typical disadvantages of a functional organization include the following: the project managers have limited authority, multiple projects compete for the same limited resources, resources are generally committed part-time to projects rather than full-time, issue resolution must follow the department chain of command, and project team members are loyal to the functional manager.

Payback Period

The length of time it takes a company to recover the initial cost of producing the product or service of the project.

project management knowledge areas

The nine project management groupings, or Knowledge Areas, that bring together common or related processes. They are Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Human Resource, Communications, Risk, and Procurement.

Project Charter

The official document that authorizes the project manager and the project to exist within the organization.

Operations

The ongoing core business of an organization, the day-to-day tasks, business focus, and purpose of an organization.

Quality Control

The project manager and the project team inspecting the project work to confirm that it's done correctly before the stakeholders look at what you've created. Quality control is all about you keeping mistakes out of the customers' hands. This is actually a great example of how project execution and monitoring and controlling work together. Quality control is about proving that the work was done correctly—and if it is not, then the team does corrective actions to fix the errors.

The stakeholder register

The stakeholder register defines: Stakeholder identification information Includes each stakeholder's contact information, role in the project, and organizational position. Assessment information Includes each stakeholder's specific requirements, project expectations, and project influence, along with the specific phases and deliverables each stakeholder is most interested in. Stakeholder classification Stakeholders that are for your project are considered positive stakeholders. Stakeholders that oppose your project are considered negative stakeholders or project resistors. Neutral stakeholders are indifferent to your project. This part of the stakeholder information may also include information on the stakeholder role in the company, such as internal employee, customer, or vendor. Stakeholder management strategy This may be included in the stakeholder register, though it's often a separate document. The stakeholder management strategy defines how the project manager will increase support for the project among the stakeholders and how interruptions and objections to the project can be minimized. The strategy considers which stakeholders wield power and influence over the project, interest level for the project, and strategies to overcome stakeholder objections.

Strong matrix

The strong matrix organization emphasizes project work over functional duties. The project manager has the majority of power in this type of organization.

Weak matrix

The weak matrix organization emphasizes functional work over project work and operates more like a functional hierarchy. The functional mangers have the majority of power in this type of organization.

Soft Skills

These are skills any good manager uses on a daily basis to manage resources, solve problems, meet goals, and more. Examples: Leadership: A project manager must also be a good leader. Leaders understand how to rally people around a vision and motivate them to achieve amazing results. They set strategic goals, establish direction, and inspire and motivate others. Strong leaders also know how to align and encourage diverse groups of people with varying backgrounds and experience to work together to accomplish the goals of the project. Communicating: Most project managers will tell you they spend the majority of their day communicating. PMI suggests that project managers should spend up to 90 percent of their time in the act of communicating. It is by far the number-one key to project success. And of all the communication skills in your tool bag, listening is the most important. Project managers must develop a communication strategy for the project that includes the following critical components: (1) What you want to communicate, (2) How often you'll communicate, (3) The audience receiving the communication, (4) The medium used for communicating, (5) Monitoring the outcome of the communication Listening Organization Time management Planning Problem solving: There is no such thing as a project that doesn't have problems. Early recognition of the warning signs of trouble will simplify the process of successfully resolving problems with minimal impact. Many times, warning signs come about during communications with your stakeholders, team members, vendors, and others. Pay close attention not only to what your team members are saying but also to how they're saying it. Body language plays a bigger part in communication than words do. Learn to read the real meaning behind what your team member is saying and when to ask clarifying questions to get the heart of the issue on the table. Consensus building Resolving conflict Negotiating: Negotiation is the process of obtaining mutually acceptable agreements with individuals or groups. Like communication and problem-solving skills, this skill is used throughout the life of the project. Depending on the type of organizational structure you work in, you may start the project by negotiating with functional managers for resources. If you will be procuring goods or services from an outside vendor, you will likely be involved in negotiating a contract or other form of procurement document. Project team members may negotiate specific job assignments. Project stakeholders may change the project objectives, which drives negotiations regarding the schedule, the budget, or both. As you execute the project, change requests often involve complex negotiations as various stakeholders propose conflicting requests. Team building

Portfolio Review Board

This board consists of upper management and organization's decision makers. They'll evaluate the worth of the project, its return on investment, and other factors to determine if the company should invest in the project or not. This is where "go/no-go decisions" originate.

Project Based Organization

This organizational structure is far less common than the other two we've discussed. In this environment, the focus of the organization is projects, rather than functional work units.

Matrix Organization

Typically are organized along departmental lines, like a functional organization, but resources assigned to a project are accountable to the project manager for all work associated with the project. The project manager is often a peer of the functional staff managers. The team members working on the project often have two or more supervisors—their functional manager and the project manager(s) they are reporting to. The following are the typical characteristics of a matrix organization: - Low to moderate authority for the project manager - A mix of full-time and part-time project resources - Better interdepartmental communication Three Types of Matrix: - Strong Matrix - Weak Matrix - Balanced Matrix

Project Management Office (PMO)

Used to centralize ad coordinate the management of projects within an organization, line of business, or department. PMOs are responsible for maintaining standards, processes, and procedures related to the management of projects. They are responsible for identifying the various projects across the organization and including them within a program, where appropriate, to capitalize on the collective benefits of all the projects within the program. Managing a project involves many skills, including dealing with competing needs for your resources, obtaining adequate budget dollars, identifying risks, managing to the project requirements, interacting with stakeholders, staying on schedule, and ensuring a quality product.

Active observation (aka visible observation.)

Where the observer interacts with the users, stops their work to ask questions, and can even get involved in the actual work to experience the users' processes.

Passive observation (aka invisible observation.)

Where the observer simply observes and documents the work and does not interact with stakeholders at all.

Project Stakeholders

all the people and organizations that are affected by the existence of the project and the project's outcome.

Scope Verification

an inspection-driven process that leads to acceptance decisions for the project. Performed in the Monitoring and Controlling phase of project management

Project Life Cycle

describes the unique phases of a project that's specific to the discipline and nature of the project.

Delphi Technique

often used in risk management, but it can be applied to any consensus-gathering activity. The participants and their comments are anonymous. The participants are allowed to freely comment on the technology, their concerns, and their desires for the requirements. All of the comments are then shared with all of the participants, and they can agree with or discount them according to their opinions and experience. Because the process is anonymous, there is no fear of retribution or backlash, or of offending other participants. After several rounds of discussion, a consensus is formed on what is needed. An intranet site can automate the method and keep users anonymous.

Project Process Group

responsible for creating the project charter and identifying the projects stakeholders.

Project Manager

the people responsible for applying tools to the various project activities. Their primary purpose is to integrate all the components of the project and bring it to a successful conclusion. Managing a project involves many skills, including dealing with competing needs for your resources, obtaining adequate budget dollars, identifying risks, managing to the project requirements, interacting with stakeholders, staying on schedule, and ensuring a quality product.

Project Management Life Cycle

universal to all projects and consists of the five process groups: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. 1. Initiating: Official launch of the project....based on the identified business needs that justify the expense, risk, and allotment of resources for the project to exist. Project Process group created; project team?. 2. Planning: An iterative activity.... An iterative project process group that communicates the intent of the project manager.It shows which processes will be used in the project, how the project work will be executed, how you'll control the project work, and finally, how you'll close down phases and the project at its end. Planning requires time, resources, and often a budget for testing, experimenting, and learning. 3. Executing: getting the work done. Presented with your approved project, your project team goes about the business of getting the project work done and creating key results. Project execution is unique to each discipline and is led and directed by the project manager. This is also the area of the project where members of your project team will spend the bulk of their time and effort and where the project will spend the bulk of your budget. It's the heart of the project's mission: to create the product or service the stakeholders are expecting.; Quality assurance process; acquire, develop, and manage project team; Procurement process. 4. Monitoring & Controlling: This set of processes ensures that the project work your team is doing is being completed accurately and according to plan. If there are problems, issues, or risks, then the project shifts back to project planning to figure the stuff out before moving back into execution. Monitoring and controlling the project is based on your project plans, the work of the project team, and shifting conditions within the project. 5. Closing: it's important to address project closing at the beginning of the project. Because projects are temporary, the project manager, project team, and other key stakeholders all need to be in agreement as to where the project is going. You'll need to define indicators that signal the project is complete. Because technology can change so quickly and frequently, it is vital to define what constitutes the project closure. You don't want a project that drones on and on because of loosely defined requirements.

Balanced matrix

A balanced matrix organization shares equal emphasis between projects and functional work. Both the project manager and the functional manager share power in this type of structure.

Focus Groups

A collection of users your project will affect.

Cost-benefit analysis

A commonly used benefit measurement method that calculates the cost of producing the product, service, or result of the project and compares this to the financial gain the project is expected to generate.

Feasibility Study

A formal endeavor that is undertaken to determine whether there is a compelling reason to perform the proposed project. Not all business cases include feasibility study...ususally conducted when proposed project is highly complex, has a high potential for risk , or is a new type of project the organization has never undertaken before. Feasibility studies may be conducted as separate projects, sub-projects, pre-projects.

Program

A group of related projects that are managed together using coordinated processes and techniques. The collective management of a group of projects can bring about benefits that wouldn't be achievable if the projects were managed separately.

Projects

A project, technically, is a temporary endeavor to create a unique product or service. Projects are an undertaking outside of the normal operations of an entity. For example, you might roll out a new application, install new monitors, create a new portion of a web site, or establish a new call center for application support. Consider a company that creates custom applications for other organizations. Their operation is an ongoing series of projects.

Expert Judgment

A technique used in project selection, determining estimates, and determining other related project information that relies on the knowledge of those with expertise on the requested subject matter. Expert judgment can come from stakeholders, other departments, consultants, team members, vendors, or industry groups.

Economic model

A type of benefit measurement method. It is a series of financial calculations that provide data on the overall financials of the project and is generally used as a project selection technique. Common terms in Economic Model: Discounted Cash Flow, Net present Value, Internal Rate of Return.

Business Case

A written document or report that helps executive management and key stakeholders determine the benefits and rewards of the project. It documents the business need or justification for the project and will often include high-level details regarding estimated budgets and timelines for completing the project.

Moderator

An impartial person who leads the conversation of the focus group to help gather project requirements.

Company that does Management by Projects

An organization whose main income is generated by completing projects for others