PRJ566 : Project Planning and Management Project Initiation Document: Scope, Constraints, Legal, Moral and Ethical Issues, Risk Management

What is a project?  temporary—specific timeframe  a goal: a product/service/result (scope)  activities (scope, plan)  resources (scope, plan)  Budget (CBA)  specifications (scope)

A project has:  Scope Includes the goal of the project Describes the project perimeter (what deliverables the project includes)  A plan Includes activities/tasks, resources (who does what), milestones, deadlines, quality assurance  A budget For human resources and other costs  Risks

Project Challenges  Common Problems and Causes Scope too big (“scope creep”) or not well defined Tasks take longer than planned (“effort creep”)— usually due to poor estimating, planning and management Developers add “gold plating” (“feature creep”)  E.g. very flashy user interfaces

Top Reasons for project failure…  Poor specifications  Poor planning/estimating  Poor risk management of “use of new technology” risk  Poor project management This includes poor communication  Poor risk management of “lack of skills” risk

In PRJ566 and PRJ666…  Poor specifications  Poor planning/estimating  Poor risk management of “use of new technology” risk  Poor project management This includes poor communication  Poor risk management of “lack of skills” risk

Examples  Ontario’s Welfare Computer System “riddled with errors” Incorrect actions and data (threatening letters sent to innocent clients) Very high down time Workers developed new and creative ways to “work around” the computer system in order to get cheques mailed on time Source: Toronto Star, July 10 & 13/2004

Examples cont’d  Ontario’s Welfare Computer System Cost of down time?  $2M in lost productivity (16 working days) Cost of errors?  $10M to Accenture PLUS cost to clients, workers to fix error that did not allow increases Source: Toronto Star, July 10 & 13/2004

Examples cont’d  Ontario’s Welfare Computer System The total cost for this system to date--$500M What it could have been built for--$5M  (as per Robert Bernecky, Snake Island Research)  Real cost is100 x what it should have cost and far over budget. Source: Toronto Star, July 10 & 13/2004

The Project Life Cycle ScopePlan Execute Control Close

The Project Life Cycle  Scope Create a baseline “SCOPE” by gathering requirements, doing analysis Manage changes to SCOPE  Create a project plan Carry it out and manage it making changes as required  Finish the project Lessons learned?

You need to manage  Scope  Time  Budget  Quality  COMMUNICATION  People  Risks  …and so on

The Pain Curve Pain Time Good Scope/Plan Poor Scope/Plan

Project Initiation Document

Constraints  Constraint is a limitation imposed on motion or action

Risk Management  A risk is some future happening that results in a change, either positive or negative, to a project  Risk is usually associated with a loss which can be estimated  Estimation is a combination of two factors: The probability that the event will occur The severity of the loss if the event occurs

Risk Management  As a project manager, need to mitigate (lessen) the risk and reduce the loss that could occur  Need to identify the risks, identify the probability they will occur and determine how the losses can be reduced or eliminated  Goes on throughout the whole life cycle of the project.

Risk Management Plan Estimate InitiateClose (Re)Schedule Carry out tasks Monitor, adjust Execute For each phase of system development life cycle (SDLC) Risk Management

Identifying Risks  Lack of user involvement  Lack of management support  Poor definition of Scope  Lack of proper planning  Unrealistic expectations

Identifying Risks  Too much new technology  Lack of required skills  Poor communication  Poor estimating  Poor project management

Risk Symptoms  You know you are in trouble when: Scope starts creeping... Time starts to slip…critical path! “This isn’t what I asked for!” (client) “I’m really busy…can we meet later?” (client) “By the way…I can’t afford all that stuff you said you needed...” (client)

Risk Response Control  What do you do?

Risk Symptoms  You know you are in trouble when: “I don’t want to work with HIM/HER…” (team) “Oops…this isn’t quite how I thought this technology would work…” “I’m too busy to attend the project management meeting….” I’m too busy to update the wbs, create the meeting minutes, update the project status…”

Risk Response Control  What do you do?

Risk Response Control  Risk tracking - part of project status

Risk Response Control  Risk tracking - part of project status

Risk Management  Types of Projects: Implementing a new POS system in a national retailer Implementing a new online trading system for a financial institution

Moral/Ethical/Legal Issues  Moral concerned with the distinction between right and wrong  Ethics treating of moral questions science of human behaviour  Legal Recognized by law

Moral/Ethical/Legal Issues  Ethics many professions have a code of ethics, e.g. doctor’s, investment dealers, lawyers, accountants CIPS standards: Ethics and software development: ary/may06/pollice/index.html ary/may06/pollice/index.html

Moral/Ethical/Legal Issues

 Types of Projects: Online Clinic Implementing a new student records processing system. (Move mainframe-based data to pc servers available online) Implementing a new online trading system for a financial institution