1. Project Management Cross lifecycle Activity
Lecture 9 5/10/15
Project Management
Cross lifecycle Activity

2. Learning Objective Consider factors affecting Project Failure
Appreciate Project Management Tools and Techniques
Investigate four main stages of Project Management
Understand what is meant by Cross Lifecycle Activities
Define Project Feasibility and identify the characteristics of IS Project Feasibility

3. Project Management Tasks and Activities
Project Phases
Project Initiation
Project Planning
Project Execution
Project Closedown

4. Project Initiation
First phase of project management, involves assessment of project scope, size, and complexity and establishment of project procedures

6. Project initiation does not include detailed plans for entire project

7. The Project Workbook
An online or hardcopy repository of all project correspondence, inputs, outputs, deliverables, procedures, and standards
Used as a primary communications medium for the project team

8. Project workbook grows and evolves during project activities

9. Project Planning
Second phase of project management, focusing on defining clear, discrete activities and the work needed to complete each activity within a single project

11. The Baseline Project Plan (BPP)
The major deliverable from the project initiation and planning phases, this document contains estimates of scope, benefits, schedules, costs, risks, and resource requirements
BPP is updated throughout project execution and closedown

12. Two Project Scheduling Diagrams in Microsoft Project
Gantt:
Focus is on time.
Network:
Focus is on dependencies.
These diagrams are important components of the BPP.

13. Cost-benefit analysis is a key component of the BPP

14. Project Execution
Third phase of project management, involving putting the plans created in the previous phases into action, and monitoring actual progress against the BPP

17. Recap
Describe effective project management skills through all phases of the systems development process.
Describe OOSAD.
Understand critical path scheduling, Gantt charts, and Network diagrams.
Work with commercial project management software products.

18. What are the alternative approaches to Information System development?
Is the IS development project feasible?
How do we gather the requirements to inform system design?
What should/does the system do?
What are the alternative approaches to Information System development?
How should the system be designed to serve the needs of the user (s)?
How do we manage an IS development project efficiently and effectively?
Does the system measure up?
Are the users satisfied?
Does the system do what it is supposed to do?

19. Systems Development Life Cycle – Cross Life-Cycle Activities
How the phases organized into pragmatic stages
size of steps (deliverables) and activities executed
order of the stages
Different methodologies might be associated with (recommend) the same (type of) SDLC – some have their own dedicated SDLC

20. Cross Life Cycle Activities
Cross life cycle activities are activities that overlap many or all phases of the methodology – in fact, they are normally performed in conjunction with several phases of the methodology.
Cross life cycle activities include:
fact finding
documentation and presentation
estimation and measurement
feasibility analysis
project management
process management. 99
No additional notes provided

21. 99
Figure 3.9 Cross Life Cycle Activities (and Overlap of the other Development Phases)

22. Cross Life Cycle Activities
Fact Finding
Fact finding – also called information gathering or data collection -- is the formal process of using research, interviews, meetings, questionnaires, sampling, and other techniques to collect information about systems, requirements, and preferences.
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Fact finding is most crucial to the survey, study, and definition phases of a FAST project. It is during these phases that the project team learns about a business's and system's vocabulary, problems, opportunities, constraints, requirements, and priorities.
Fact finding is also used during the configuration, design and construction phases, but to a lesser extent. For instance, in systems design, fact finding becomes technical as the project team attempts to learn more about the technology selected for the new system.

23. Cross Life Cycle Activities
Documentation and Presentations
Communication skills are essential to the successful completion of a project.
Two forms of communication that are common to systems development projects are documentation and presentation.
Documentation is the activity of recording facts and specifications for a system.
Presentation is the related activity of formally packaging documentation for review by interested users and managers. Presentations may be either written or verbal.
100
Documentation for a project is built during various phases and activities. Over time, a sizable base of documentation for various systems and applications is compiled. Many businesses try to get control over such documentation so that it is kept and maintained for future use.

24. Cross Life Cycle Activities
Documentation and Presentations
Version control over documentation has become a critical success factor; it involves keeping and tracking multiple versions of a system's documentation.
Most information systems shops want to keep documentation for all of the following versions:
One or more previous versions of the system.
The current production version of the system.
Any version of the system going through the build and test activity.
Any version going through the life cycle to create a new version.
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No additional notes provided

25. Cross Life Cycle Activities
Estimation and Measurement
Information systems are significant capital investments. For this reason, estimation and measurement activities are commonly performed to address the quality and productivity of systems.
Estimation is the activity of approximating the time, effort, costs, and benefits of developing systems. The term guesstimation (as in ``make a guess'') is used to describe the same activity in the absence of reliable data.
Measurement is the activity of measuring and analyzing developer productivity and quality (and sometimes costs).
Estimating is an extremely important activity because information systems, as noted earlier in the chapter, are capital investments. You don't want to spend $25,000 of time and effort to solve a problem that is costing your organization $2,000 per year. The payback would take more than a decade.

26. Cross Life Cycle Activities
Estimation and Measurement
There are two common approaches to estimation.
First, some analysts avoid estimation out of fear, uncertainty, or lack of confidence.
The analyst may resort to what are jokingly called ``guesstimates.''
Better analysts draw on experience and data (both their own and the collective experience of others) from previous projects to continually improve their estimates.
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Estimating can be a difficult and frustrating activity, because it is difficult to translate an abstract problem statement into a precise estimate of the time, effort, and costs needed to solve that problem.