CHAPTER 12

1. CHAPTER 12 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND OUTSOURCING

2. PROJECT MANAGEMENT • Project Advice • It is fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. • Good judgment is usually the result of experience. And experience is frequently the result of bad judgment. But to learn from the experience of others requires those who have the experience to share the knowledge with those who follow.

3. PROJECT MANAGEMENT • Project management – the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project • Project management offers a strategic framework for coordinating the numerous activities associated with organizational projects • Project management software – supports the long-term and day-to-day management and execution of the steps in a project

4. PROJECT MANAGEMENT • Project management interdependent variables

5. PROJECT MANAGEMENT • Cost, time and scope are interdependent variables • You cannot change one without changing the others • For example, decreasing a project’s timeframe means either increasing the cost of the project or decreasing the scope of the project to meet the new deadline • Increasing a project’s scope means either increasing the project’s timeframe or increasing the project’s cost – or both – to meet the increased scope changes • Project management is the science of making intelligent trade-offs among time, cost, and scope

6. PROJECT MANAGEMENT • A recent survey concluded that the failure rate of IT projects is much higher in organizations that do not exercise disciplined project management • A successful project is typically on time, within budget, meets the business’s requirements, and fulfills the customer’s needs • The Hackett Group analyzed its client database and discovered: • 3 in 10 projects failed • 21 percent of companies state that they cannot adjust rapidly to market changes • 1 in 4 validate a business case for an IT project after its completion

7. PROJECT MANAGEMENT • Common reasons why IT projects fall behind schedule or fail

8. PROJECT MANAGEMENT • Expected growth for project management software

9. PROJECT MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS • Project – a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service • Project management – the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations

10. PROJECT MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS • Projectdeliverable – any measurable, tangible, verifiable outcome, result, or item that is produced to complete a project or part of a project • Project milestone – represents key dates when a certain group of activities must be performed • Project manager – an individual who is an expert in project planning and management, defines and develops the project plan, and tracks the plan to ensure all key project milestones are completed on time

11. PROJECT MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS • Project managers must take all of the activities below and ensure they flow smoothly to develop and deliver a successful project

12. Choosing Strategic Projects • Organizations must determine which projects to pursue • Three common techniques for selecting projects • Focus on organizational goals • Categorize projects • Perform a financial analysis

13. Choosing Strategic Projects • Techniques for choosing strategic projects • Focus on organizational goals—Managers are finding tremendous value in choosing projects that align with the organization’s goals. Projects that address organizational goals tend to have a higher success rate since they are important to the entire organization.

14. Choosing Strategic Projects • Categorize projects—There are various categories that an organization can group projects into to determine a project’s priority. • One type of categorization includes problem, opportunity, and directives. • Problems are undesirable situations that prevent an organization from achieving its goals. • Opportunities are chances to improve the organization. • Directives are new requirements imposed by management, government, or some other external influence. • It is often easier to obtain approval for projects that address problems or directives because the organization must respond to these categories to avoid financial losses.

15. Choosing Strategic Projects • Perform a financial analysis—A number of different financial analysis techniques can be performed to help determine a project’s priority. • A few of these include net present value, return on investment, and payback analysis. • These financial analysis techniques help determine the organization’s financial expectations for the project

16. Setting The Project Scope • Project scope – defines the work that must be completed to deliver a product with the specified features and functions, and typically includes: • Project product – a description of the characteristics the product or service has undertaken • Project objectives– quantifiable criteria that must be met for the project to be considered a success • Project deliverables – any measurable, tangible, verifiable outcome, result, or item that is produced to complete a project or part of a project • Project exclusions– products, services, or processes that are not specifically a part of the project • Define the scope to build a basic calculator • The calculator must have numbers between 0 and 9 and be able to add, multiply, divide, and subtract • Notice that the scope is the 30,000 foot view – it doesn’t define the style, color, layout, materials, etc.

17. Setting The Project Scope • SMART criteria are useful reminders on how to ensure that the project has created understandable and measurable objectives

18. Setting The Project Scope • What happens when objectives are not SMART • If an objective is not specific then it is open to interpretation • If an objective is not measurable then there is no way to determine if the project is on track • If an objective is not agreed upon then chances are high the project will fail • If an objective is not realistic then chances are high that the project will fail • If an objective does not include a time frame then there is no way to determine if the project is on track • Why is the following not SMART? • I will work hard this semester to achieve my goals? • Does not state what the goals are • Does not state how to measure working hard • Might not be realistic depending on the goals • Does have a time frame of a semester

19. Setting The Project Scope • Why is the following not SMART? • I will work hard this semester to achieve my goals? • Does not state what the goals are • Does not state how to measure working hard • Might not be realistic depending on the goals • Does have a time frame of a semester

20. Managing Resources and Maintaining the Project Plan • Project plan – a formal, approved document that manages and controls project execution • A project plan should be prepared by the team, rather than by the individual project manager. WHY? • A well-defined project plan should be: • Easy to understand and read • Communicated to all key participants • Appropriate to the project’s size, complexity, and criticality • Prepared by the team, rather than by the individual project manager

21. Managing Resources and Maintaining the Project Plan • Two primary diagrams used in project planning include PERT and Gantt charts • PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) chart – is a graphical network model that depicts a project’s tasks and the relationships between those tasks (Dependencies and Critical paths are found in PERT charts) • Gantt chart – a simple bar chart that depicts project tasks against a calendar

22. Managing Resources and Maintaining the Project Plan • Dependency – a logical relationship between the project tasks, or between a project task and a milestone • Critical path – a path from the start to the finish that passes through all the tasks that are critical to completing the project in the shortest amount of time • Why do you need to create dependencies? • Dependencies inform the project manager of tasks associated with or affected by another task

23. Managing Resources and Maintaining the Project Plan • PERT Chart EXPERT – PERT Chart Example

24. Managing Resources and Maintaining the Project Plan • MS Project – Gantt Chart Example

25. CHANGE MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS • Good project managers understand the fundamentals of project management and how to effectively deal with change management and risk management • The Only Constant Is Change - Heraclitus

26. CHANGE MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS • Change management – a set of techniques that aid in evolution, composition, and policy management of the design and implementation of a system • Change management system – a collection of procedures to document a change request and define the steps necessary to consider the change based on the expected impact of the change • Change control board (CCB) – responsible for approving or rejecting all change requests

27. CHANGE MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS

28. CHANGE MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS • Additional reasons why change occurs • A resources quits or becomes ill • Company changes strategic direction • Leadership changes • Technology changes • Environment changes • Regulations or laws change

29. Preparing for Change • What can you do to anticipate and deal with change? • Change control board • Monitor change • Project plan • Three Important Guidelines for Effectively Dealing with Change Management • Institute change management polices - Create clearly defined policies and procedures that must be followed each time a request for change is received • Anticipate change - View change as an opportunity and embrace it • Seek change - Every 6 to 12 months look for changes that may be windows of opportunity. Review successes and failures to determine if there are any opportunities for innovation

30. RISK MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS • Project risk – an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project objective • Risk management – the process of proactive and ongoing identification, analysis, and response to risk factors • What type of risks effect you? How can you deal with those risks?

31. RISK MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS

32. RISK MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS

33. Mitigating Risk • Actions to improve risk management capabilities • Promote project leadership skills—Hire individuals with strong project management and project leadership skills as well as business management skills. These individuals can be extremely helpful in advisory and steering committee roles as well as coaching roles. • Learn from previous experience—Over many years of collective experiences, organizations have encountered hundreds of large IT projects. Document and revisit development methodologies, software tools, and software development best practices in order to share this vital information across the organization. • Share knowledge—Working in team or group environments tends to yield the most successful projects since individuals can share their unique learning experiences. • Create a project management culture—Orient people from day one on the importance of project management, change management, and risk management. Be sure to measure and reward project management skills and promote individuals based on successful projects.

34. Successful Project Management Strategies • Define project success criteria. • At the beginning of the project, make sure the stakeholders share a common understanding of how they will determine whether the project is successful. • Too often, meeting a predetermined schedule is the only apparent success factor, but there are certainly others. Some examples are: • increasing market share, reaching a specified sales volume or revenue, achieving specific customer satisfaction measures, retiring a high maintenance legacy system, and achieving a particular transaction processing volume and correctness. • Develop a solid project plan. • The hard part of developing a plan is the thinking, negotiating, balancing, and communication project managers will have to do to develop a solid and realistic plan. • The time they spend analyzing what it will take to solve the business problem will reduce the number of changes later in the project.

35. Successful Project Management Strategies • Divide and conquer. Break all large tasks into multiple small tasks to provide more accurate estimates, reveal hidden work activities, and allow for more accurate, fine-grained status tracking. • Plan for change. Things never go precisely as planned on a project; therefore, the budget and schedule should include some contingency buffers at the end of major phases to accommodate change. • Manage project risk. Failure to identify and control risks will allow the risks to control the project. Be sure to spend significant time during project planning to brainstorm possible risk factors, evaluate their potential threat, and determine the best way to mitigate or prevent them.

36. OUTSOURCING • Outsourcing – an arrangement by which one organization provides a service or services for another organization that chooses not to perform them in-house • This section focuses on businesses’ need to undertake every effort to re-think and re-adopt new processes

37. OUTSOURCING Story 1: "The Customer is Never Right" • We supplied the contract house with everything they needed to get the job done. The first thing they did was tell us how our tools and equipment were out-dated, and besides we were using them incorrectly. (Due to legacy issues and budget restrictions, constant hardware and software upgrades are not a way of life here.) The next thing they did was re-format all of the code on the project, including code outside the scope of their portion, to meet their own formatting preferences. Any request for information was like pulling teeth. They made me and everyone on my team feel like we were imposing anytime we asked them about the project (usually technical questions.) • The most appalling thing is that towards the end of the project, they debated us on how a portion of our system worked!!! It was very insulting to have them infer that they understood our system better than we did. They have been blacklisted from our entire corporation.

38. OUTSOURCING Story 2: "The Underbid" • The contract house gave us a very competitive fixed-bid on a project. This raised some concerns, but not enough to rule them out - money talks, and we were trying to spend as little as possible. In retrospect, going with them was a big mistake, but hindsight is always 20-20, right? As they got further into the project, the scope of the project "grew". Why? Because they did not give the project's complexity any credit when they bid. We were not adding features or functionality - they were just beginning to realize the scope of the work. • It was clear their sales force had over-committed their engineering staff in a terrible way. Their engineers resented us and their own management, and it showed in their dealings with us. Not even halfway through the project, they admitted they had underbid - now they needed more money to complete the project. (Ironic, since one of the primary factors in choosing them was the attractive pricetag.) The project was completed by our own staff in-house once we decided we'd cut our losses and sever our relationship. • I don't know if we would outsource again. I feel like we bought software development services from a used-car salesman.

39. OUTSOURCING • Insourcing (in-house-development) – a common approach using the professional expertise within an organization to develop and maintain the organization's information technology systems • Insourcing has been instrumental in creating a viable supply of IT professionals and in fact in creating a better quality workforce combining both technical and business skills

40. OUTSOURCING

41. OUTSOURCING • Reasons companies outsource

42. OUTSOURCING • Factors driving outsourcing growth include: • Core competencies • Financial savings • Rapid growth • Industry changes • The Internet • Globalization

43. THE OUTSOURCING PHENOMENON • According to research firm IDC, the worldwide IT outsourcing market will reach $230 billion by 2009 • According to PricewaterhouseCoopers “Businesses that outsource are growing faster, larger, and more profitable than those that do not” • Best Buy is the number one U.S. specialty retailer for consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software, and appliances • Best Buy outsourced its enterprise systems to Accenture • The results of this outsourcing arrangement included a 20 percent increase in revenue which translated into a $25 million profit

44. THE OUTSOURCING PHENOMENON • Most organizations outsource their noncore business functions, such as payroll and IT

45. THE OUTSOURCING PHENOMENON • Outsourcing growth drivers • Globalization – As markets open worldwide, competition increases • The Internet – Barriers to entry are reduced by the Internet, such as a bookstore without an actual store (Amazon.com) • Growing economy and low unemployment rate – Building a competitive workforce is harder and more expensive • Technology – Technology is advancing at such an accelerated rate that companies often lack the resources, workforce, or expertise to keep up • Deregulation – As private industries deregulate (telecommunications, energy) markets open and competition increases

46. Outsourcing Benefits • Outsourcing benefits include: • Increased quality and efficiency • Reduced operating expenses • Outsourcing non-core processes allows focus on core competencies • Reduced exposure to risk • Service providers economies of scale, expertise, and best practices • Access to advanced technologies • Increased flexibility • Avoid costly outlay of capital funds • Reduced headcount and associated overhead expense • Reduced frustrations and expense related to hiring/retaining employees • Reduced time to market for products or services

47. OUTSOURCING OPTIONS • Onshore outsourcing –engaging another company within the same country for services • Nearshore outsourcing – contracting an outsourcing arrangement with a company in a nearby country • Offshore outsourcing –using organizations from developing countries to write code and develop systems

48. OUTSOURCING OPTIONS • Big selling point for offshore outsourcing “inexpensive good work”

49. OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING • Three categories of outsourcing countries: leaders, up-and-comers, rookies

50. The Leaders • Canada • India • Ireland • Israel • Philippines