What is the Project?
A project is a [temporary] sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities having one goal or purpose and that must be completed by a specific time, within budget, and according to specification.
What is the Project Management?
Project management is the process of scoping, planning, staffing, organizing, directing, and controlling the development of an acceptable system at a minimum cost within a specified time frame.
Measures of Project Success
- The resulting information system is acceptable to the customer.
- The system was delivered “on time.”
- The system was delivered “within budget.”
- The system development process had a minimal impact on ongoing business operations.
Causes of Project Failure
- Failure to establish an upper-management commitment to the project
- Lack of organization’s commitment to the system development methodology
- Taking shortcuts through or around the system development methodology
- Poor expectations management
- Premature commitment to a fixed budget and schedule
- Poor estimating techniques
- Overoptimism
- The mythical man-month
- Inadequate people management skills
- Failure to adapt to business change
- Insufficient resources
- Failure to “manage to the plan”
Project Management Tools & Techniques
A PERT chart is a graphical network model that depicts a project’s tasks and the relationships between those tasks.
A Gantt chart is a simple horizontal bar chart that depicts project tasks against a calendar. Each bar represents a named project task. The tasks are listed vertically in the left-hand column. The horizontal axis is a calendar timeline.
Project Management Functions
- Scoping
- Planning
- Estimating
- Scheduling
- Organizing
- Directing
- Controlling
- Closing
