Capstone: Chapter 4 - ITPM
Organizational Process Assets (OPA)
include formal and informal plans, policies, procedures, guidelines, information systems, financial systems, management systems, lessons learned, and historical information that can influence a project's success
SWOT Analysis
Analyzing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. One tool used in strategic planning.
Discount Rate/Capitalization Rate/Opportunity cost of capital
interest rate used to discount cash flows. Greater uncertainty of future cash flows, higher the discount rate.
Configuration management
ensures that the descriptions of the project's products are correct and complete - Involves identifying and controlling the functional and physical design characteristics of products and their support documentation
Project Integration Management
involves coordinating all of the other project management knowledge areas throughout a project's life cycle. Ensures the elements of a project come together at the right times to complete a project successfully
5. Balanced Score Card
strategic planning and management system that helps organizations align business activities to strategy, improve communications, and monitor performance against strategic goals.
Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
the discount rate that makes the NPV of an investment zero
Good project execution requires a supportive organizational culture
true
Many people consider project integration management the key to overall project success
true
IT projects should support the organization's overall business strategy **
True
Important outputs of monitoring and controlling project work include change requests and work performance reports
True
In project integration management, project planning and execution are intertwined and inseparable activities
True
It is best if project team members document lessons learned throughout the life of the project.
True
It is good practice to follow the organization's standards or guidelines for developing project management plans to facilitate their execution. The organization can work more efficiently if all project management plans follow a similar format - Companies that excel in PM develop and deploy standardized project delivery systems
True
Iterative and agile approaches promote the engagement of team members as local domain experts in integration management. The team members determine how plans and components should integrate
True
Knowledge management should be done before, during and after projects are completed
True
Monitoring project work includes collecting, measuring and disseminating performance information.
True
On very large projects, the PM MUST understand the business and application area of the project
True
One of the main outputs of managing project knowledge is a lessons-learned register
True
Project Integration Management is usually the most important project management knowledge area, because it ties together all the other areas of project management **
True
Project integration management must occur within the context of the whole organization, not just within a particular project.
True
Project management plan describes overall scope, schedule and cost baselines for the project.
True
Project managers using ANY product life cycle should focus on creating a collaborative decision-making environment and providing opportunities for team members to develop additional skills.
True
Stakeholders often focus on the most important output of execution from their perspective: Deliverables
True
The expectations of the project manager as noted in the Key Concepts for Integration Management do not change in an adaptive environment, but control of the detailed product planning and delivery is delegated to the team
True
The main purpose of project plans is to facilitate action
True
The majority of time spent on a project and money spent on a project is on execution
True
The project management plan provides the baseline for identifying and controlling project changes.
True
Problems
Undesirable situations that prevent an organization from achieving its goals
Project Management Plan
a document used to coordinate all project planning documents and help guide a project's execution and control - plans created in other knowledge areas are considered subsidiary parts of the overall project management plan - should be dynamic, flexible, subject to change when the environment or project changes - Should greatly assist the project manager in leading the project team and assessing project status
Change Control System
a formal, documented process that describes when and how official project documents may be changed
Opportunities
chances to improve the organization
5 Useful inputs to developing a project charter
1. Business Case 2. Benefits Management Plan 3. Agreements 4. Enterprise environmental factors 5. Organizational process assets
3 Tools and Techniques for Change Management
1. Change Control Board 2. Configuration Management 3. Good Communication
5 Common Techniques for Selecting Projects: ***
1. Broad Organizational needs 2. Categorizing projects 3. Performing financial analysis 4. developing weighted scoring models 5. using balanced score cards
Payback Analysis
- Amount of time it will take to recoup the total dollars invested in a project, in terms of net cash inflows - Determines how much time will elapse before accrued benefits overtake accrued and continuing costs
2. Categorizing IT Projects
- Method for selecting Projects - Can be categorized by impetus, Time Window and General Priority
1. Focusing on Broad Organizational Needs
- Method for selecting projects Projects that address broad organizational needs are much more likely to be successful because they will be important to the organization. One method for selecting projects based on broad organizational needs is to determine whether they first meeting 3 important criteria: Need, Funding, Will. Ex: Improve Safety, Increase Morale
4. Weighted Scoring Method
- a tool that provides a systematic process for selecting projects based on many criteria - Come up with a list of criteria, a weight assigned to the criteria and then assign a number of how well the project fits the weight, then determine overall weighted score
Return on Investment (ROI)
- result of subtracting the project costs from the benefits and then dividing by the costs. - ROI = (Total discounted benefits - Total discounted Costs)/Discounted Costs - Always a %, can be + or - - Higher ROI, the better
Cost of Capital
- return available from investing the capital elsewhere - rate of return that could have been earned by putting the same money into a different investment with equal risk
Project Integration Management includes the following processes: ***
1. Developing the project Charter - Creating an assumption log 2. Developing the project management plan 3. Directing and managing project work 4. Managing project knowledge 5. Monitoring and controlling project work 6. Performing integrated change control 7. Closing the project or phase
6-7 Main processes involved in Project Integration Management
1. Developing the project charter 2. Developing the project management plan 3. Directing and managing project work 4. Managing project knowledge 5. Monitoring and Controlling Project Work 6. Performing integrated change control 7. Closing the project or phase
5 Main Tools and Techniques for Developing a project charter
1. Expert Judgement 2. Data Gathering 3. Interpersonal skills 4. team skills 5. meetings
3 Project Execution Tools and Techniques
1. Expert Judgement 2. Meetings 3. Project Management Information Systems
2 Types of Project Knowledge
1. Explicit Knowledge - Easily explained using words, pictures, or numbers and is easy to communicate, store and distribute. Ex: Info in textbooks, Project documents and plans 2. Tacit Knowledge: (Informal Knowledge), difficult to express and is highly personal. Ex: Beliefs, insights, experience.
5 Common Techniques for Selecting Projects
1. Focusing on broad organizational needs 2. Categorizing IT Projects 3. Performing net present value or other financial analyses 4. Using a weighted scoring model 5. Implementing a balanced scorecard
4 Step Planning process for IT Projects
1. IT Strategic Planning 2. Business Area Analysis 3. Project Planning 4. Resource Allocation
Agile Manifesto
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools 2. Working software over comprehensive documentation 3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation 4. Responding to change over following a plan
3 Main Objectives of integrated change control:
1. Influencing the factors that create changes to ensure that changes are beneficial 2. Determining that a change has occurred 3. Managing actual changes as they occur
5 Common elements to most project management plans
1. Introduction/overview of project 2. project organization 2. Management and technical processes 3. Work to be performed (scope) 4. Schedule and budget information 5. references to other project planning documents
3. 3 primary methods of Performing Financial Analysis
1. Net Present Value 2. Return on Investment 3. Payback analysis
2 Outputs of the process to develop a project charter
1. Project Charter 2. Assumption Log
4 Outputs of closing projects:
1. Project document update 2. Final Product 3. Final Report 4. Organizational Process Asset updates
8 Suggestions for performing integrated change control
1. View project management as a process of constant communication and negotiation 2. Plan for change 3. Establish a formal change control system, including a change control board (CCB) and IT steering committee 4. Use effective configuration management 5. Define procedures for making timely decisions about smaller changes 6. Use written and oral performance reports to help identify and manage change 7. Use project management software and other software to help manage and communicate changes 8. Focus on leading the project team and meeting overall project goals and expectations
Change Control Board (CCB)
A formal group of people responsible for approving or rejecting changes on a project. - primary functions: Provide guidelines for preparing change requests, evaluating change requests, and managing implementation of approved changes - Drawback: Takes time to make a decision on proposed changes
Net Present Value (NPV)
A method of calculating the expected net monetary gain or loss from a project by calculating the value of all expected future cash inflows and outflows at the present time. - Consider projects with only positive NPV, meaning it exceeds the cost of capital - Projects with higher NPV are preferred to projects with lower NPVs, if all other factors are equal
Project Charter
Document that formally recognizes the existence of a project and provides direction on the project's objectives and management. - Authorizes the project manager to use organizational resources to complete the project - Ideally the PM plays a major role in developing the project charter - Key output of the initiation process
Interface Management
Identifying and managing the points of interaction between various elements of a project - Primary tools = Communication and Relationships
Even in a supportive organizational culture, project managers may sometimes find it necessary to break the rules to produce project results in a timely manner
True
Experts from the inside and outside should be consulted when creating a project charter
True
Strategic Planning
Involves determining long-term objectives by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of an organization, studying opportunities and threats in the business environment, predicting future trends, and projecting the need for new products and services. Provides important information to help organizations identify and then select potential projects
Required Rate of Return
Minimum acceptable rate of return on an investment for an organization to select a project
Baseline
Starting point, measurement or an observation that is documented so that it can be used for future comparison
Many organizations perform SWOT analysis to help identify potential projects based on their S W O T **
TRUE
Mind Mapping
Technique that uses branches radiating from a core idea to structure thoughts and ideas.
Closing Projects or Phases
The last process in project integration management is closing the project or phase, which requires that you finalize all activities and transfer the completed or cancelled work to the appropriate people
A Project Manager's primary focus should be on project integration management**
True
A critical factor in change control is communication
True
Aligning IT projects with business strategy is at the heart of selecting IT projects
True
All projects can benefit from using some type of project management information system to coordinate and communicate project information
True
Because all project plans should help guide the completion of the particular project, they should be tailored as needed for each project
True
Common sense approach to improving the coordination between project plan development and execution is to follow this simple rule: Those who will do the work, should plan the work
True
Integrated Change Control
involves identifying, evaluating, and managing changes throughout the project life cycle
Directives
new requirements imposed by management, government, or some external influence