CHAPTER 14 REVIEW: MANAGING PROJECTS
There is a very high
failure rate
among information systems projects. In nearly every organization, information systems projects take
much more time
and money to implement than originally anticipated or the completed system does not work properly. The development
of a new system must be carefully managed and orchestrated, and the way a project is executed is likely to be the most
important factor
influencing its outcome. That’s why
it’s essential to have
some knowledge about
managing information systems
projects and the reasons why they
succeed or fail.
A project is a planned series of related activities for achieving a specific business objective. Information systems projects include the
development of new information systems, enhancement of existing systems, or upgrade or replacement of
the firm’s information technology
(IT) infrastructure. Project management refers to the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to achieve specific targets within specified
budget and time constraints. Project management activities include planning the work, assessing risk, estimating resources required to accomplish the work, organizing the work, acquiring human and material resources, assigning tasks, etc.
As in other areas of business, project management for information systems must deal with five major
variables: scope,
time, cost, quality, and risk.
Scope : defines what work
is or is not included in
a project.
- Time : the
amount of time required to complete the
project.
- Cost : based on the time to complete a
project multiplied by the cost of human resources
required to complete the
project.
- Quality : an indicator of how
well
the
end result of a project satisfies the objectives specified by management.
- Risk : potential problems that would threaten the success of a project.
Management Control of System Projects : Each level of management in the hierarchy is responsible
for specific aspects of systems project and this structure helps give priority
to the most important systems projects for the organizations.
Organizations need to develop an
information systems plan that supports their overall
business plan and in which
strategic systems are incorporated into
top-level planning. The plan contains a statement
of corporate goals and specifies how
informa- tion technology will support the attainment of those goals.
To develop an effective information systems plan, the organization must have
a clear understanding
of both its long- and short-term information requirements. The
strategic analysis, or critical success factors, approach argues that an organization’s information requirements
are determined by
a small number of
critical success factors (CSFs) of managers.
Once strategic analyses have determined the overall direction of systems devel-
opment, portfolio
analysis
can be
used to evaluate alternative system projects. Portfolio analysis
inventories all of the organization’s information systems projects and assets, including infrastructure, outsourcing contracts, and licenses.
A scoring model is useful for selecting projects
where many criteria must be
considered. It
assigns
weights to various features
of a system and then calculates the weighted totals
Tangible benefits can be quantified and assigned a monetary value. Intangible benefits, such
as more efficient
customer service or enhanced decision making, cannot be immediately quantified but may
lead to quantifi- able gains in the
long run. Transaction and clerical systems that displace labor and save
space
always produce more measurable,
tangible benefits than management information systems, decision-support systems, and
computer- supported collaborative work systems.
Capital budgeting models are one of several
techniques used to measure the value of investing in long-term capital
investment projects. Capital budgeting methods rely on measures of cash
flows into and
out of the firm; capital projects generate those cash flows.
Tags:
assignments
campuslife
0 comments