IT Project Management Introduction

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Из курса от партнера Indian School of Business

IT Project Management

203 оценки

Indian School of Business

IT Project Management

203 оценки

Курс 4 из 6 — Specialization Business Technology Management

The concepts and use of project management tools, techniques and methodologies are becoming all pervasive. This course addresses project management in the context of IT projects, including software projects. Using the framework of project life cycle, the course covers various aspects pertaining to (i) project initiation, (ii) project planning and scheduling, (iii) project monitoring and control, and (iv) project termination. For planning and scheduling of projects, the use of project network and estimation of time and cost are covered in detail. Scheduling of projects with resource limitations is covered next. Risk assessment methods including simulation and risk reduction approaches are also be covered. The students will be required to use the software @risk to simulate project completion times. The use of Earned Value Analysis for Project Monitoring and Control is emphasized. For Software Project Management, the Waterfall Model and Agile Project Management are covered in detail.

Из урока

Introduction and Real Options

The first topic in this module is Introduction and Overview of the course. We first define what a project is and give some examples of IT projects. The three parameters or metrics for project management are presented. The importance of project management is then discussed. The concept of project life cycle and the four phases of project life cycle are presented. The topics to be covered in the four different modules are also given.The second topic in this module is on the Organization Structure for projects. Three different forms of Organization structure and their implications for project management including the project manager are discussed in detail. Communication plan and its importance for project management are then presented.The next topic in this module is about the use of real options for project selection. The material in this topic is well developed for valuation of financial assets but its use for project selection is a relatively new development. We define what options are and give a taxonomy of real options. In future, ‘Options Thinking” and valuation of real options are expected to play an important role in project selection. Next, we discuss six case studies where options thinking played a dominant role in accepting / modifying the projects. Valuation of real options is in its infancy and for the for valuation of real options is easily understand and we present a simple example to illustrate the approach.Towards the end of the module, we present some practical aspects pertaining to the concepts covered. This is done through a Q & A format with Mr. Prashun Dutta, Advisor - Gaiga Smart Cities

IT Project Management Introduction10:28

Organisation Structure of Projects10:28

Communication Plan3:28

Real Options Introduction and Taxonomy13:04

Applications for Real Options for IT Projects7:08

Valuation of Real Options _Decision Trees12:48

(Optional Learning) Interview with Prashun Dutta, Gaiga Smart Cities35:12

Познакомьтесь с преподавателями

M Rammohan Rao
Professor Emeritus
Operations Management

[MUSIC]

Hi, welcome to the course, IT Project Management.

My name is M Rammohan Rao.

I am a former Dean and Professor Emeritus at the Indian School of Business,

Hyderabad, where I teach a course on project management.

My teaching and research interests are in the area of operations management.

This course is about information technology, or IT for

short, project management.

The duration of this course is four weeks, with each week consisting of several

modules, with a total of about one hour of presentation for each week.

Each module will have a presentation for a maximum of about 12 to 15 minutes.

This is the first module of the first week,

and it consists of an introduction and outline of the course.

There is no universally accepted definition of a project.

But generally a project is considered

as a temporary endeavour with specified start and end.

For example, building the Taj Mahal was a project.

Discovering a queue portfolio started as a project.

Putting a man on the moon and bringing him or her alive is also a project.

An IT project is a project related to IT.

These project includes software development,

including system software such as Windows 10.

Development of a new laptop, hardware installations,

network upgrades, implementation of business analytics that require

the management of large databases etc.

IT projects are the subsets of all projects.

IT project management involves managing IT projects using project management tools,

techniques and methodologies.

There are typically three parameters, or three metrics, that one looks at for

project management to evaluate how well the project has been done.

The three metrics are time, cost and

performance, which is sometimes referred to as scope.

Project scope is a statement of work.

It includes all elements of a project plan, such as project objectives,

deliverables, milestones, schedules for

major segments of work, an estimate of cost, time and resources required.

Technical requirements for

performance of the output of the project are also defined.

The boundaries for the project, including the limits and exclusions are spelled out.

Project scope should be reviewed with all the stakeholders before it is finalized.

A major issue, especially in software projects in the frequent changes in scope,

referred to as scope creep.

This arises essentially because before the start of the project the customer is

unable to articulate all the requirements for the output of the project.

Another important functions of the project manager or

project management is to maintain a delicate balance between scope creep and

the rejection of the additional functionality that the customer decides

for the product which is outcome of the project.

A project is not routine work.

It involves a unique set of activities,

with some precedential relationships among the activities.

There is some activities can be done only after some others have been completed.

The idea is to complete the project within the specific time, and

within the budget and meeting the performance characteristics.

Why are projects important?

If you look at a business organization, the current processes and

products produced are as a result of projects undertaken earlier.

As far as the future is concerned,

it is through projects that the organization grows.

The existing assets are the result of projects that have been undertaken earlier

are currently in progress.

Future assets that enable the organization to grow

are acquired through projects that are to be implemented in the future.

The value of a firm is dependent not only the assets that the organization currently

has, but also on the assets that the organization is likely to acquire,

through projects currently in progress, and

the projects likely to be undertaken in the future.

It is not enough to have ideas on projects, but

they need to be implemented well.

In India, some companies that execute projects well are Reliance and L&D.

In 2008 CIO.com cited a Dynamic Markets survey of 800

IT managers that showed 62% of IT projects fail to meet their schedules.

49% suffered budget overruns, 47% had higher than expected maintenance costs,

and 41% failed to deliver the expected business value and ROI.

During the period since the last survey,

I'm sure that there has been some improvements in meeting the time and

budget deadlines, and perhaps in delivering the expected business value.

Nevertheless, there's a need for substantial improvement.

An important aspect to keep in mind is that, if the success of a project is

measured only by the performance matrix that we talked about, namely time,

cost, and scope, we may have the situation where the project is a success, but

the product fails.

As doctors may say, the operation was successful, but the patient died.

In the above cited survey,

41% of IT projects failed to deliver the expected business value.

But there is no mention of how many of those 41% IT projects were considered to

be a success in terms of project performance metrics which are time,

cost and scope.

It's also possible that the project is a failure in terms of time and cost but

the end result is so outstanding that one forgets the time and cost overruns.

Some notable examples of this phenomena, although not IT projects,

are The Sydney Opera House project and the Vidhana Soudha project in Bengaluru.

Duration of a project life cycle is a time interval between the start of the project

and the completion of the project.

There are four phases to the project management life cycle,

which differs from the product life cycle, which is the time interval between

the time the product is conceptualized and the product is withdrawn from the market.

Typically, a project life cycle is a subset of the product life cycle.

Project life cycle has four phases.

Although we'll be talking about the four phases as sequential in nature,

there's considerable overlap among the different phases.

The first phase is the so called defining or initiation [INAUDIBLE].

The second phase is the planning phase.

Similarly, the third phase which is that implementation or

execution phase can start before planning is completed.

The final phase is the closure or termination of the project.

Each phase will have it's own set of activities.

In the defining phase, you have to specify the goals,

classifications, task and responsibilities.

Project charters is a deliverable from this phase.

The recent development and

IT project management is the consideration of the value of flexibility and

real options thinking for evaluation and implementation of IT projects.

And the overview of this approach will be covered in the second

module during the first week.

The different forms of the organization structure and

communication plans are also discussed as part of the defining phase.

In the third and the fourth modules respectively, on the first week.

The planning phase will be covered in details during the second week.

The deliverables for this phase are project scope,

network diagram, estimation of time, cost and resources required.

First assuming that required resources are available,

we show how one can arrive at a schedule of the activities.

In this module,

we'll show how to calculate the so-called earliest completion time of the project.

We then define the critical part in the network, and

show how the set of critical activities can be identified.

The activities in the project require various types of resources.

We then have to overlay the resources onto the project activities and

the schedule may get affected because some of the resources may be in short supply.

Two types of problems, namely resource labeling and

resource limitation problems are covered.

Risk management,

which is part of the planning process, will be covered during the third week.

As part of risk management, three estimates for each activity duration, and

the use of simulation in program evaluation and

review technique, or PERT for short, will be recovered.

The execution phase is where you monitor the implementation of the plans, and

make changes if necessary in the plan,

including the schedule of the activities that are in progress, or not yet started.

It is important to note that a plan for the activities yet

to be started is not binding and maybe changed if necessary.

So, every time an ongoing project is reviewed, the revised,

if it's necessary, budget and project completion time are calculated.

Consequently, one should be clear whether the budget overrun and delay in completion

of the project are stated with respect to that original budget and

date of completion, or if difference, the revised budget and date of completion.

The use of tracking Gantt chart and earned value analysis for project monitoring and

control will be covered during the third week of this course.

A primary reason for delays in the completion of the software projects,

is what is referred to as scope creep.

This arises because typically, the client is not able to articulate all the desired

requirements for the software to deliver.

As a result, the so called agile project management in sometimes preferred over

a traditional waterfall model for software project management.

This will be covered during the last week of this course.

Now final phase is the closure or termination of the project.

As part of this phase, a performance audit is needed, and

the learnings from the project should be recorded.

The various aspects pertaining to project audit and

closure will be covered during the last week.

[MUSIC]

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