Chapter 1:

Introduction to Project
Management
Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition
Assoc. Prof. Nabeel Alsohybe
Alsohybe@[Link]

Information Technology Project Management, Ninth Edition. © 2019 Cengage. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except
for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Learning Objectives (1 of 2)

• Articulate the growing need for better project

management, especially for information technology (IT)
projects
• Explain what a project is, provide examples of IT
projects, list various attributes of projects, and describe
constraints of project management
• Define project management and discuss key elements of
the project management framework, including project
stakeholders, the project management knowledge areas,
common tools and techniques, and project success
Learning Objectives (2 of 2)

• Discuss the relationship between project, program, and

portfolio management and the contributions each makes
to enterprise success
• Summarize the role of project managers by describing
what they do, what skills they need, the talent triangle,
and career opportunities for IT project managers
• Recall key aspects of the project management
profession, including important components of its
history, the role of professional organizations like the
Project Management Institute (PMI), the importance of
certification and ethics, and the advancement of project
management software
Introduction (1 of 3)

• Many people and organizations today have a new or

renewed interest in project management
• Worldwide IT spending was $3.5 trillion in 2017, a 2.4
percent increase from 2016 spending
• The Project Management Institute reported that the
number of jobs reached almost 66 million in 2017. By
2027, employers will need 87.7 million individuals
working in project management–oriented roles
Introduction (2 of 3)

• In 2017, the average annual salary (without bonuses) for

someone in the project management profession was
$112,000 in the U.S. and $130,866 in Switzerland
• The top skills employers look for in new college
graduates are all related to project management: team-
work, problem-solving, and verbal communications
• Organizations waste $97 million for every $1 billion
spent on projects, according to PMI’s Pulse of the
Profession® report
Introduction (3 of 3)

• Advantages of Using Formal Project Management:

• Better control of financial, physical, and human resources
• Improved customer relations
• Shorter development times
• Lower costs and improved productivity
• Higher quality and increased reliability
• Higher profit margins
• Better internal coordination
• Positive impact on meeting strategic goals
• Higher worker morale
What Went Wrong?

• IT Projects have a terrible track record, as described in

the What Went Wrong?
• A 1995 Standish Group study (CHAOS) found that only
16.2% of IT projects were successful in meeting scope,
time, and cost goals; over 31% of IT projects were
canceled before completion
• A PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that over half of
all projects fail and only 2.5% of corporations
consistently meet their targets for scope, time, and cost
goals for all types of project
What Is a Project?

• A project is “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create

a unique product, service, or result” (PMBOK® Guide,
Sixth Edition, 2017)
• Operations is work done to sustain the business
• Projects end when their objectives have been reached or
the project has been terminated
Examples of IT Projects (1 of 2)

• A team of students creates a smartphone application and

sells it online
• A company develops a driverless car
• A government group develops a system to track child
immunizations
• A global bank acquires other financial institutions and
needs to consolidate systems and procedures
Examples of IT Projects (2 of 2)

• Top Strategic Technologies for 2018 (Gartner)

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) Foundation
• Intelligent Things
• Cloud to the Edge
• Immersive Experience
Media Snapshot

• Gartner predicted that by 2014, there would be more

than 70 billion mobile application downloads every year,
but it was almost double
• Facebook is by far the most downloaded app, and the
most popular category of all apps continues to be games
• As of March 2017, Android users could download 2.8
million different apps, and Apple users could download
2.2 million
Project Attributes

• A project
• has a unique purpose
• is temporary
• drives change and enable value creation
• is developed using progressive elaboration
• requires resources, often from various areas
• should have a primary customer or sponsor
• The project sponsor usually provides the direction and funding for the
project
• involves uncertainty
• Project managers work with project sponsors, team, and
other people involved in a project to achieve project
goals
Project Constraints
What is Project Management? (1 of 2)

• Project management is “the application of knowledge,

skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet
project requirements” (PMBOK® Guide, Sixth Edition,
2017)
• Project managers strive to meet the triple constraint
(project scope, time, and cost goals) and also facilitate
the entire process to meet the needs and expectations of
project stakeholders
What is Project Management? (2 of 2)
Project Stakeholders

• Stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by

project activities
• Stakeholders include
• the project sponsor
• banks and other financial institutions
• the project manager
• the project team
• support staff
• suppliers
• opponents to the project
Project Management Knowledge Areas

• Knowledge areas describe the key competencies that

project managers must develop
• Project managers must have knowledge and skills in all
10 knowledge areas (scope, schedule, cost, quality,
resource, communications, risk, procurement,
stakeholder, and project integration management)
• This text includes an entire chapter on each knowledge
area
Project Management Tools and Techniques (1 of
2)

• Project management tools and techniques assist project

managers and their teams in various aspects of project
management
• Some specific ones include
• Project charter, scope statement, and WBS (scope)
• Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analysis, critical
chain scheduling (time)
• Cost estimates and earned value management (cost)
• See Table 1-1 for many more
Project Management Tools and Techniques (2 of
2)

• PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition lists tools and techniques

based on their purpose:
• Data gathering
• Data analysis
• Data representation
• Decision making
• Communication
• Interpersonal and team skills
• Ungrouped
Project Success (1 of 4)

• There are several ways to define project success:

• The project met scope, time, and cost goals
• The project satisfied the customer/sponsor
• The results of the project met its main objective, such as
making or saving a certain amount of money, providing a good
return on investment, or simply making the sponsors happy
Project Success (2 of 4)

Factors of Success Points

Executive sponsorship 15

Emotional maturity 15

User involvement 15

Optimization 15

Skilled resources 10

Agile processes 7

Modest execution 6

Project management expertise 5

Clear business objectives 4

Source: The Standish Group, CHAOS Manifesto 2015 (2015)

Table 1-2 What Helps Projects
Succeed?
Project Success (3 of 4)

• Top three reasons why federal technology projects

succeed
• Adequate funding
• Staff expertise
• Engagement from all stakeholders
Program and Project Portfolio Management

• About one-quarter of the world’s gross domestic product

is spent on projects
• Two important concepts that help projects meet
enterprise goals:
• Use of programs
• Project portfolio management
Programs

• A program is “a group of related projects managed in a

coordinated manner to obtain benefits and control not
available from managing them individually” (PMBOK®
Guide — Sixth Edition, 2017)
• Examples of common programs in the IT field include
infrastructure, applications development, and user
support
• A program manager provides leadership and direction for
the project managers heading the projects within the
program
Project Portfolio Management (1 of 2)

• As part of project portfolio management, organizations

group and manage projects and programs as a portfolio
of investments that contribute to the entire enterprise’s
success
• Portfolio managers help their organizations make wise
investment decisions by helping to select and analyze
projects from a strategic perspective
Project Portfolio Management (2 of 2)
The Role of the Project Manager

• Project managers must work closely with the other

stakeholders on a project, especially the sponsor and
project team
• They are also more effective if they are familiar with the
10 project management knowledge areas
• And the various tools and techniques related to project
management
Project Manager Job Description

• Job descriptions vary, but most include responsibilities

like planning, scheduling, coordinating, and working with
people to achieve project goals
• Project management is a skill needed in every major IT
field, from database administrator to network specialist
to technical writer
Suggested Skills for Project Managers (1 of 2)

• The Project Management Body of Knowledge

• Application area knowledge, standards, and regulations
• Project environment knowledge
• General management knowledge and skills
• Soft skills or human relations skills
Suggested Skills for Project Managers (2 of 2)

• Six traits of highly effective project managers as follows:

• Be a strategic business partner
• Encourage and recognize valuable contributions
• Respect and motivate stakeholders
• Be fully vested in success
• Stress integrity and accountability
• Work in the gray/Be able to deal with ambiguity
PMI Talent Triangle® and the Importance of
Leadership Skills*

• The talent triangle includes:

• Technical project management skills
• Strategic and business management skills
• Leadership skills
• Leadership styles include:
• Laissez-faire (hands-off approach)
• Transactional (“You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”)
• Servant leader (“My needs are secondary to yours”)
• Transformational (based around encouraging, inspiring, and
motivating employees to transform themselves)
• Charismatic (uses his or her communication skills,
persuasiveness, and charm to influence others)
• Interactional (Is a hybrid of transformational and transactional
leaders, yet with even more charisma)
Careers for IT Project Managers (1 of 2)

• In a 2017 survey, IT executives listed the “ten hot tech

skills” they planned to hire for in 2017
• Project management was second only to full-stack
software development
• Even if you choose to stay in a technical role, you still
need project management knowledge and skills to help
your team and organization
Careers for IT Project Managers (2 of 2)

1. Full-stack software development

2. Project management

3. Cyber-security

4. Networking

5. User experience/user interface (UX/UI) design

6. Quality assurance (QA)/testing

7. Cloud engineering

8. Big data

9. Machine learning/artificial intelligence

10. DevOps

Source: Sharon Florentine, “10 IT skills that employers need in 2017,” CIO from
IDG (February 1, 2017).
Table 1-4 Ten hot tech skills for
2017
The Project Management Profession

• The profession of project management is growing at a

very rapid pace
• It is helpful to understand the history of the field, the
role of professional societies like the Project
Management Institute, and the growth in project
management software
History of Project Management (1 of 4)

• Some people argue that building the Egyptian pyramids

was a project, as was building the Great Wall of China
• Most people consider the Manhattan Project to be the
first project to use “modern” project management
• This three-year, $2 billion (in 1946 dollars) project had a
separate project manager and a technical manager
History of Project Management (2 of 4)
History of Project Management (3 of 4)

• In the 1990s, many companies began creating PMOs to

help them handle the increasing number and complexity
of projects
• A Project Management Office (PMO) is an organizational
group responsible for coordinating the project
management function throughout an organization
History of Project Management (4 of 4)
The Project Management Institute

• The Project Management Institute (PMI) is an

international professional society for project managers
founded in 1969
• PMI has continued to attract and retain members,
reporting more than 500,000 members worldwide by late
2017
• There are communities of practices in many areas, like
information systems, financial services, and health care
• Project management research and certification programs
continue to grow
PMI Student Membership

• Students can join PMI at a reduced fee and earn the

Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)
certification(see PMI for details)
Project Management Certification (1 of 2)

• PMI provides certification as a Project Management

Professional (PMP®)
• A PMP® has documented sufficient project experience,
agreed to follow a code of ethics, and passed the PMP®
exam
• The number of people earning PMP® certification is
increasing quickly
Project Management Certification (2 of 2)
Ethics in Project Management

• Ethics, loosely defined, is a set of principles that guide

our decision making based on personal values of what is
“right” and “wrong”
• Project managers often face ethical dilemmas
• In order to earn PMP® certification, applicants must
agree to PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
• Several questions on the PMP® exam are related to
professional responsibility, including ethics
Project Management Software*

• There are hundreds of different products to assist in

performing project management
• Three main categories of tools:
• Low-end tools: Handle single or smaller projects well, cost
under $200 per user
• Midrange tools: Handle multiple projects and users, cost $200-
$1,000 per user, Microsoft Project is still the most popular
• High-end tools: Also called enterprise project management
software, often licensed on a per-user basis
• Several free or open-source tools are also available