IT Project Management
Q&A Study Guide

A systems approach emerged in the 1950s as a holistic and analytical method for solving complex problems. It requires project managers to take a broad view of a project and understand how it relates to the larger organization. Its three core parts are:

• Systems Philosophy – viewing things as interacting components working within an environment to fulfill a purpose.
• Systems Analysis – a structured problem-solving approach.
• Systems Management – addressing business, technological, and organizational issues before making changes to systems.

The three spheres are Business, Organization, and Technology, and they overlap to reflect the interconnected nature of project concerns.

• Business – "What will the laptop project cost the college, and what will the impact be on enrollments?"
• Organization – "Will the laptop project affect all students, or only certain majors? Who will train students, faculty, and staff?"
• Technology – "Should the laptops use Windows or Macintosh? What hardware specifications will be required?"

Every IT project should be evaluated across all three spheres before and during execution.

Multiple studies identify top management commitment as a critical success factor because senior managers can help project managers in four important ways:

• Secure adequate resources for the project.
• Obtain timely approval for unique project needs.
• Gain cooperation from people throughout the organization.
• Develop project managers' own leadership skills.

Without this commitment, even well-planned IT projects are likely to struggle or fail.

A Project Life Cycle is a collection of project phases that collectively defines:

• What work will be performed in each phase.
• What deliverables will be produced and when.
• Who is involved in each phase.
• How management will control and approve work produced in each phase.

A deliverable is defined as any product or service produced or provided as part of a project.

The traditional project life cycle consists of two macro stages (Project Feasibility and Project Acquisition) broken into four phases:

• Concept – Sample deliverables: Management plan, Preliminary cost estimate, 3-level WBS.
• Development – Sample deliverables: Project plan, Budgetary cost estimate, 6+-level WBS.
• Implementation – Sample deliverables: Last work package, Definitive cost estimate, Performance reports.
• Close-out – Sample deliverables: Completed work, Lessons learned, Customer acceptance.

Management reviews — also called phase exits or kill points — are formal evaluations conducted at the end of each project phase. They are important because they:

• Assess the project's progress and likely success.
• Verify continued compatibility with organizational goals.
• Provide a formal checkpoint to decide whether to proceed, modify, or terminate the project.

A project must successfully pass through each phase before advancing to the next. This prevents wasted resources on projects that are no longer aligned with business strategy.

According to the PMBOK® Guide, the five Project Management Process Groups are:

• Initiating Processes – formally starting and authorizing the project.
• Planning Processes – defining and refining objectives and planning how to achieve them.
• Executing Processes – carrying out the project management plan.
• Monitoring and Controlling Processes – tracking, reviewing, and regulating project progress.
• Closing Processes – finalizing all activities and formally closing the project.

These groups overlap and interact throughout the project lifecycle.

All initiating activities fall under the Project Integration Management knowledge area. The two key outputs produced during the Initiating process group are:

• Develop Project Charter – the document that formally authorizes the project.
• Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement – a high-level description of the project's scope.

This is consistent with the PMBOK® Guide 2004 framework used in the course.

Risk and stakeholder influence follow an inverse pattern as the project progresses:

• Early phases – Risk (uncertainty) is at its highest, resource needs are lowest, and stakeholders have the greatest opportunity to influence the project outcomes.
• Middle phases – Certainty of completing the project increases and more resources are consumed.
• Final phase – Focus shifts to verifying that all requirements were met and obtaining sponsor approval for completion.

This means decisions made early have the greatest leverage; late changes are costly.

Agile processes are characterized by three major attributes (Alleman, 2002):

• Incremental and Evolutionary – allows adaptation to both internal and external events as the project progresses.
• Modular and Lean – components of the process can be added or removed depending on stakeholder and participant needs.
• Time Based – built on iterative and concurrent work cycles that include feedback loops and progress checkpoints.

The five core values of Agile PM are:

• Communication – constant information flow within and outside the project; "going dark" is not allowed.
• Simplicity – every activity must contribute measurable value; the simplest solution is often the best.
• Feedback – continuous feedback is the primary tool for defining and sustaining agility ("optimism is an occupational hazard; feedback is the cure" — Kent Beck).
• Courage – important decisions and change of direction must be made decisively; dealing with change requires courage.
• Humility – the best project managers acknowledge they don't know everything; all participants are treated with equal respect.

These two terms are not interchangeable, though often confused:

• Lightweight refers to the weightiness of the process and its artifacts — specifically, reducing the number of non-value-added artifacts a process produces.
• Agile describes the behavior of participants — their ability to move and adjust in new or unforeseen situations.

A process can be lightweight without being agile, and vice versa. Simply removing activities from a process to make it "lighter" without careful consideration can actually increase the risk of project failure.

Under the Planning process group, Project Time Management includes the following activities:

• Activity Definition
• Activity Sequencing
• Activity Resource Estimating
• Activity Duration Estimating
• Schedule Development

During the Monitoring and Controlling group, the key time management activity is Schedule Control. Note that Project Time Management has no activities in the Initiating, Executing, or Closing groups.

If an organization holds a negative attitude toward IT, even a technically sound IT project will struggle to succeed due to lack of cooperation and resources. Key structural factors that support organizational commitment include:

• Having a Chief Information Officer (CIO) positioned at a high level in the organizational hierarchy, giving IT a strategic voice.
• Assigning non-IT personnel to IT projects — this broadens organizational buy-in and encourages greater commitment across departments.
• Establishing organizational standards such as standard forms, software, project management guidelines, and a Project Management Office (PMO).

Two deployment obstacles:

• The legacy project management processes must be displaced to make room for the new agile approach.
• The gaps left by the legacy process must be filled by the new process, while still maintaining the integrity the legacy process provided.

Four practical recommendations (Alleman):

• Make incremental change to requirements, the project plan, and resulting artifacts.
• Strive for rapid feedback to ensure the project meets the needs of all participants and stakeholders.
• Manage with a purpose — only perform tasks that add value to the supported business process.
• Travel light — discard processes and artifacts that don't add enduring value to the final product.