Managing IT Project Delivery Key Learning Objectives for Chapter 8: Understand possible sources of IT project risk and how these can be managed Recognize different approaches to project execution and understand their relatives merits Understand the value of both consistency and agility in project management

Many IT service delivery arrangements, whether they involve internally or externally provided services, begin with a project. But despite 40 years of accumulated experience in managing such projects, major disasters still occur. 南山人壽導入失敗（2017） 隨便 google 還有一堆 This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Managing Sources of Implementation Risk Managing Project Execution Portfolio Risk Managing Project Execution Process Consistency and Agility in Project Management This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Managing Sources of Implementation Risk Risk is an essential characteristic of projects that promise benefits Three important project dimensions influence inherent implementation risk: Project size in terms of budget, staffing levels, duration, and number of departments affected Project size across departments and companies is relative Experience with the technology Hiring consultants with expertise can reduce risks Requirements volatility This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Effects of Additional Risk Factors (Large Size, High Technology, High Requirements Volatility) on Project Risk

Managing the "Dip" during Project Implementation “Dip” most often happens at "cutover," when the new system goes live experience a feeling of everything going bad or everything suddenly being broken at cutover This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Managing the "Dip" during Project Implementation “Dip” most often happens at "cutover," when the new system goes live Users and managers asked for recovery back to old systems Problems must be tackled one at a time, in order of importance. IT managers must work hard to educate senior business managers about the inevitability of the dip and the likelihood of upturn, and also to enlist business managers in helping to set priorities for solving problems This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Portfolio Risk In addition to determining relative risk for single projects, a company should develop a profile of aggregate implementation risk for its portfolio of systems projects should include projects executed by outside systems integrators as well as those of the internal systems development group For example in an industry where IT is strategic, managers should be concerned if there are no high-risk projects in the project portfolio. In companies where IT plays a critical support role, heavy investment in high-risk projects may not be appropriate. This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Portfolio Risk Figure 8.3 depicts a way of thinking about a portfolio of projects in terms of aggregate risk Projects may be distributed around the diagonal, spread out evenly, or clumped at the upper at the upper-left or lower-right How they should be distributed depends on the firm's business strategy. If a company includes "aggressive use of technology to maintain competitive advantage" in its strategy statements but has IT projects clumped at the bottom right in this picture, managers ought to contemplate whether this makes sense Obviously, it is important to avoid off-diagonal projects in the upper-right which provide little benefit but generate high risk. This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Project Benefits

Managing Project Execution The trend in the last decade has been toward projects with more volatile requirements. Business requirements for many systems are not well-defined in advance and also involve new technologies. Large investments (in general, hardware..) must be spent up-front. Traditional planning methodologies do not work well in the presence of so much outcome uncertainty An emerging response to these conditions is adaptive methods approaches to design, deployment, implementation, and investment This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Development Methodologies A sequence of phases: Analysis and design Construction Implementation Operation and maintenance This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Adaptive Methodologies Adaptive and prototyping-intensive methodologies call for quickly building a rough preliminary version of the system without going through a lengthy or formal requirement definition or design phase Share five basic characteristics: They are iterative They rely on fast cycles and require frequent delivery of value so that incremental implementation does not slow down a project They emphasize early delivery to end users of functionality, however limited, so that feedback can be incorporated into learning and improvement cycles They require skilled project staff capable of learning and making midcourse adjustments in the middle of deployment They complicate the use of return on investment (ROI) and other similar tools for investment decision making This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Adaptive Methods and Change Management Adaptive method achieve change management in part by intensely involving users in evaluating the outcome of each development iteration and deciding on the next enhancement to be introduced into the system The essence of sound change management is to strictly control the migration of system features from development, thru testing, into production with a clean understanding of the benefits and the potential for unanticipated problems at each stage. This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Process Consistency and Agility in Project Management In practice, project management always involves balancing a tension between process consistency and process agility Project managers need to ensure …  all requirements arc met adequately At the same time, however, companies need to retain an ability to change direction, in the middle of a project if necessary, when business conditions require it The companies that have been most successful in balancing discipline and agility have neither eschewed process formalization altogether nor let process formalization efforts overwhelm them. They have developed simple process management tools based on the idea that the best balance is one that includes the minimum formal specification critical to the success of a project This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Process Consistency and Agility in Project Management These simple tools fall into three categories: Flow: People working on projects need to understand the overall process "flow.”  Simple schedules and flowcharts work well here Completeness: People working on projects need to be sure that no ball is being dropped Simple checklists work well here This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.

Process Consistency and Agility in Project Management These simple tools fall into three categories: Visibility: People working on projects need to be able to review processes, while they are being executed, to get status information some of the best solutions are computerized status-report systems (available to all depts) or simple wall charts that allow status to be tracked in a way that everyone (in one physical location, anyway) can see In some contexts, another category of tools must be added: tools to ensure that project activities are auditable This case examines the causes and consequences of a three-day network outage at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, one of the world’s top hospitals and an acclaimed leader in the use of IT in the health care industry. The company’s experiences demonstrate how vital IT has become in modern organizations. Difficulties arose because of a series of incremental changes to the institution’s computing infrastructure, none of them individually harmful, each a reasonable change to fix a pressing problem; the accumulated changes, however, led to a serious collapse. The case prompts discussion of the challenges that derive from infrastructure complexity and the importance of strong IT leadership in a crisis.