Unity University Chapter Two

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Chapter Two
Managing Information Systems Project

In chapter one: we introduced the four phase of the system development life cycle (SDLC) and explained
how an information system project moves through those four phases. In this chapter, we focus on the
systems analyst role as a project manager of information system projects. Throughout the SDLC, the
project manager is responsible for initiating, planning, executing, and closing down the systems dev
elopement project. Figure 1 illustrates these four functions.

Project Initiation

System Planning &

Selection
Project Close down

Project Planning
System Implementation System Analysis
& Operation
SDLC

Systems Design

Project Execution

Figure 1 project management occurs through out the systems development life cycle (SDLC).

Managing the Information System

Project management is an important aspect of the development of information systems and a critical
skill for a system analyst. The focus of project management is to assure that system development
projects meet customer expectations and are delivered within budget and time constraints.

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Department of Computer Science
Unity University Chapter Two
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The Project Manager

Is a system analyst with divers set of skills – management, leadership, technical, conflict management,
and customer relationship – who is responsible for initiating, planning, executing, and closing down the
project.

Project: a planned undertaking of related activities to reach an objective that has a beginning and an end.
To successfully orchestrate the construction of a complex information system, a project manager must
have interpersonal, leadership, and technical skills. Table 1 lists the project manager’s common skills
and activities.

Activity Description Skill

Leadership Influencing the activities of others toward Communication, liaison between management,
the attainment of a common goal through users, and developers, assessing activities;
the use of intelligence, personality and monitoring progress.
abilities.

Management Getting projects completed through the Defining and sequencing activities,
effective utilization of resources. communicating expectations, assigning
resources to activities, monitoring outcomes.

Customer Relation Working closely with customers to assure Interpreting system requests and specifications,
project deliverables meet expectations. site preparation and user training, contact point
for customer.

Technical Problem Designing and sequencing activities to Interpreting system requests and specifications,
Solving attain project goals. defining activities and their sequence,
making trade-offs between alternative
solutions, designing solutions to problems.

Conflict Management Managing conflict with in a project team Problem solving: smoothing out personality
to assure that conflict is not too high or too differences, compromising, and goal setting.
low.

Team Management Managing the project team for effective Communication within and between
team performance. teams, peer evaluations, conflict resolution,
team building, self-management.

Risk and Change Identifying, assessing, and managing the Environmental scanning, risk and opportunities
Management risks and day-to-day changes that occur identification and assessment, forecasting,
during a project. resource redeployment.

Table 1 common activities and skills of a project manager.

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Department of Computer Science
Unity University Chapter Two
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The Project Management Process

The project management process involves four phases.
1. Initiating the project
2. Planning the Project
3. Executing the Project
4. Closing down the Project

Initiating the Project

During project initiation, the project manager performs several activities that asses, the size, scope and
complexity of the project and establishes procedures to support subsequent activities. Depending on the
project, some initiation activities may be unnecessary and some may be very involved. The following
are the types of activities that you will perform when initiating the project.

1. Establishing the project initiation team. This activity involves organizing an initial core of project
team members to assist in accomplishing the project initiation activities.
2. Establishing a relationship with the customer. A thorough understanding of your customer builds
stronger partner ships and a higher level of trust.
3. Establishing the project initiation plan. This step defines the activities required to organize the
initiation team while it is working to define the scope of the project. This step eventually will lead to
the creation of the System Service Request (SSR) form.
System Service Request: is a standard form used for requesting systems development work.
4. Establishing management procedure. Successful projects require the development of effective
management procedure. When establishing procedures, you are concerned with developing team
communication and reporting procedure, job assignments and determining how project funding and
billing will be handled.
5. Establishing the project management environment and project workbook. The focus of this activity
is to collect and organize the tools that you will use while managing the project and to construct the
workbook.
Project Workbook: an online or hard copy repository for all project correspondence, inputs, outputs,
deliverables, procedures and standards, that is used for performing project audits, orienting new team
members, communicating with management and customers, identifying future projects, and performing
post project reviews.

Planning the Project

The second phase of the project management process, which focuses on defining clear, discrete activities
and the work needed to complete each activity within a single project. It often requires you to make
numerous assumptions about the availability of resources such as hardware, software, and personnel. As
with the project initiation process, varied and numerous activities must be performed during project
planning.

1. Describing project scope, alternatives, and feasibility. The purpose of this activity is to understand
the content and complexity of the project.
2. Dividing the project into manageable tasks. This is a critical activity during the project planning
process. Here you must divide the entire project into manageable tasks and then logically order them

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Department of Computer Science
Unity University Chapter Two
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to ensure a smooth evaluation between tasks. The definition of tasks and their sequence is referred to
as the work break down structure.
3. Estimating resources and creating a resource plan. The goal of this activity is to estimate resource
requirements for each project activity and use this information to create a project resource plan. This
resource plan helps assemble and deploy resources in the most effective manner.
4. Developing preliminary schedule. During this activity, you use the information on tasks and resource
availability to assign time estimates to each activity in the work break down structure. The schedule
may be represented as a Gantt chart or as a Network Diagram.

Gantt chart: is a graphical representation of a project that shows each task as a horizontal bar whose
length is proportional to its time for completion.
Network Diagram: is a diagram that depicts project tasks and their interrelationship.

5. Developing a communication plans. The goal of this activity is to outline the communication
procedures among management, project team members, and the customer.
6. Determining project standards and procedures. During this activity, you specify how various
deliverables are produced and tested by you and your project team.
7. Identifying and assessing risks. The goal of this activity is to identify sources of project risk and to
estimate the consequences of those risks.
8. Creating a preliminary budget. During this phase, you need to create a preliminary budget that
outlines the planned expenses and revenues associated with your project.
9. Developing a statement of work. An important activity that occurs near the end of the project-
planning phase is the development of the statement of work. This document outlines the work that
will be done and clearly describes what the project will deliver.
10. Setting a base line project plan. Once all the prior project-planning activities have been completed,
you will be able to develop a baseline project plan. This baseline plan provides an estimate of the
project tasks and resource requirements and is used to guide the next project phase – execution.

Executing the Project

The third phase of the project management process, in which the plans created in the prior phase (project
initiation and planning) are put into action. Within the context of the SDLC, project execution occurs
primarily during the analysis, design, and implementation phase. The following are list of activities
performed during project execution.

1. Executing the baseline project plan. As project manager, you oversee the execution of the baseline
plan. This means that you initiate the execution of project activities, acquire and assign resources;
orient and train new team members, keep the project on schedule, and assure the quality of project
deliverables.
2. Monitoring the baseline project plan. While you execute the baseline project plan, you should
monitor your progress. If the project gets ahead of (or behind) schedule, you may have to adjust
resources, activities, and budgets.
3. Managing changes to the baseline project plan. You will encounter pressure to make changes to the
baseline plan. In addition to changes occurring through formal request, changes may also occur from
events outside your control.

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Department of Computer Science
Unity University Chapter Two
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4. Maintaining the project workbook. As in all project phases, maintaining complete records of all
project events is necessary. The workbook provides the documentation, new team members require
to assimilate project tasks quickly.
5. Communicating the project status. The project manager is responsible for keeping all team members
– system developers, managers, and customers – a breast of the project status.

Closing down the Project

The final phase of the project management process which focuses on bringing a project to an end.
Project can conclude with a natural or unnatural termination. A natural termination occurs when the
requirements of the project have been met – the project has been completed and is success. An
unnatural termination occurs when the project is stopped before completion. The following are the
activities performed during project close down.

1. Close down the project. During close down, you perform several diverse activities. For example, if
you have several team members working with you, project completion may signify job and
assignment changes for some members.
2. Conducting post project reviews. Once you closed down the project, final reviews of the project
should be conducted with management and customers. The objective this reviews is to determine the
strengths and weaknesses of project deliverables, the processes used to create them and the project
management process.
3. Close the customer contract. The focus of this final activity is to insure that all contractual terms of
the project have been met.

Close down is a very important activity. A project is not complete until it is closed, and it is at close
down that projects are deemed a success or failure.

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Department of Computer Science