Apdcomp3lecture2_proj_mgnt_tools

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS PROJECT MANAGEMENT – process of defining, planning, organizing, leading and controlling the development of an information system. PURPOSE: To deliver an information systems that is acceptable to users and is developed on time and within budget. HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL? The acceptability, deadline, and budget criteria all must be met. To meet those requirements, you must manage the project carefully and effectively. PROJECT MANAGER/LEADER – a senior systems analyst or an IT department manager if the project is large. PROJECT COORDINATOR – handles administrative responsibilities for the development team and negotiates with users who might have conflicting requirements or want changes that would require additional time or expense. MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS: P L Planning

Includes identifying and planning project task and estimating completion times and costs.

Leading

Directing, includes guiding, supervising, and coordinating the team’s workload.

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C

Organizing

Controlling

Staffing, includes selecting the project team and assigning specific tasks to team members. Requires structuring and

Includes monitoring the progress of the project, evaluating results, and taking corrective action when necessary to stay on target.

PROJECT PLAN – provides an overall framework for managing costs and schedules. The activity, project planning, usually takes place at the beginning and end of each SDLC phase to develop a plan and schedule for the phases that follow. ACTIVITY/TASK – is any work that has a beginning and an end, and requires the use of company resources including people, time, and/or money.

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is the basic unit of work that the project manager plans, monitors and tracks, so tasks should be relatively small and manageable.

EVENT/MILESTONE – is a reference point that marks a major occurrence. - is used to monitor progress and manage the project. Two Events of Activity: a. Beginning b. End Characteristics of an Event: o Recognizable o Obtains User Approval o Completes User Training o Completes the tabulation of returned questionnaires DEVELOPING TIME AND COST ESTIMATES PROJECT SIZE AND SCOPE Information Systems Characteristics: o Relationships with other systems o Boundaries o Specialized Business Needs o Size of the company o Time required to complete each project phase IT RESOURCES o Web-based system PRIOR EXPERIENCE o PILOT SYSTEM – is a small system that is developed as a basis for understanding a new environment. CONSTRAINTS o It is a condition, restriction, or requirement that the system must satisfy. The project manager must define the system requirements that can be achieved realistically within the required constraints. In the absence of constraints, the project manager calculates the resources needed. If constraints are present, the project manager either must adjust other resources or change the scope of the project.

PROJECT SCHEDULING – duration of each activity, the order in which the activities will be performed, the start and end times for each activity, and who will be assigned to each specific task. DEPENDENT ACTIVITY – cannot be started until one or more other tasks are completed. Example, you cannot tabulate questionnaires until they have been developed, tested, approved, distributed and returned. SCHEDULING TOOLS:

GANTT CHARTS – developed by Henry L. Gantt as a production control technique. It is a horizontal bar chart that illustrates a schedule. The horizontal position of the bar shows the start and end of the activity, and the length of the bar indicates its duration. •

ACTIVITY GROUPS – each activity represents several tasks. A master chart displays the major activity groups and is followed by individual Gantt charts that show the tasks assigned to team members.

PERT/CPM(Program Evaluation Review Technique/Critical Path Method) – shows a project as a network diagram. The activities are shown as vectors, and the events are displayed graphically as nodes. Dummy activity is shown by a dashed vector line. It indicates an event dependency, but does not require any resources or completion time. • •

DEPENDENT/SERIAL ACTIVITIES – when tasks must be completed in sequence. CONCURRENT/PARALLEL – when activities can be completed at the same time.

PROJECT REPORTING o Project Status Meetings o Project Status Reports SOFTWARE CHANGE CONTROL – process of managing and controlling changes requested after the system requirements document has been submitted and accepted. It can be a real problem because the development process involves many compromises, and users are never entirely satisfied with the results. FOUR(4) STEPS IN REQUEST FOR CHANGE: 1. Complete a change request form 2. Take initial action on the request 3. Analyze the impact of the requested change

4. Determine the disposition of the requested change