Chapter 1:

Introduction to Project
Management

Information Technology Project

Management, Seventh Edition

Note: See the text itself for full citations.

 Learning Objectives
 Understand the growing need for better project
management, especially for information technology (IT)
projects
 Explain what a project is, provide examples of IT projects,
list various attributes of projects, and describe the triple
constraint of project management
 Describe project management and discuss key elements of
the project management framework, including project
stakeholders, the project management knowledge areas,
common tools and techniques, and project success

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 2
 Learning Objectives
 Discuss the relationship between project, program, and
portfolio management and the contributions each
makes to enterprise success
 Understand the role of project managers by describing
what they do, what skills they need, and career
opportunities for IT project managers
 Describe the project management profession, including
its history, the role of professional organizations like
the Project Management Institute (PMI), the
importance of certification and ethics, and the
advancement of project management software

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 3
 Introduction
 Many organizations today have a new or renewed
interest in project management
 Computer hardware, software, networks, and the
use of interdisciplinary and global work teams have
radically changed the work environment
 The world as a whole spends nearly $10 trillion of

its $40.7 trillion gross product on projects of all

kinds
 More than 16 million people regard project

management as their profession

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 4
 Project Management Statistics
 The overall information and communications technology
market grew by 6 percent to almost $3 trillion in 2010
 In the U.S. the size of the IT workforce topped 4 million
workers in 2008, and the unemployment rate for IT
professionals is half the rate for the overall labor market
 In 2011 the total compensation for the average senior
project manager in U.S. dollars was $105,000 per year in
the United States and $160,409 in the Switzerland.
 44 percent of employers listed project management as a
skill they looked for in new college grads, behind only
communication and technical skills

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 Motivation for Studying Information
Technology (IT) Project Management
 IT Projects have a terrible track record, as described in the
What Went Wrong?
 A 1995 Standish Group study (CHAOS) found that only
16.2% of IT projects were successful in meeting scope,
time, and cost goals; over 31% of IT projects were
canceled before completion
 A PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that overall half of
all projects fail and only 2.5% of corporations consistently
meet their targets for scope, time, and cost goals for all
types of project.

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 6
 Advantages of Using Formal
Project Management
 Better control of financial, physical, and human
resources
 Improved customer relations
 Shorter development times
 Lower costs
 Higher quality and increased reliability
 Higher profit margins
 Improved productivity
 Better internal coordination
 Higher worker morale

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 7
 What Is a Project?
 A project is “a temporary endeavor undertaken
to create a unique product, service, or result”
(PMBOK® Guide, Fifth Edition, 2012)
 Operations is work done to sustain the business
 Projects end when their objectives have been
reached or the project has been terminated
 Projects can be large or small and take a short
or long time to complete

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 8
 Examples of IT Projects
 A team of students creates a smartphone
application and sells it online
 A company develops a driverless car
 A small software development team adds a new

feature to an internal software application for the

finance department
 A college upgrades its technology infrastructure to

provide wireless Internet access across the whole

campus

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 Top Strategic Technologies for 2012
(Gartner)
 Media tablets and beyond
 Mobile-centric applications and interfaces
 Contextual and social user experience
 Internet of things
 Cloud computing

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 Media Snapshot: Unproductive Apps
 Gartner predicts that by 2014, there will be more than
70 billion mobile application downloads every year
 All of the top iPhone apps in early 2012 (Temple Run,

Angry Gran, Zombie Farm, Words With Friends,

Angry Birds, etc.) and most of the top iPad2 apps can
be considered unproductive in most work
environments
 The challenge is to develop useful apps and get

workers to focus on them instead of the many

distracting options available

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 Project Attributes
 A project
◦ has a unique purpose
◦ is temporary
◦ is developed using progressive elaboration
◦ requires resources, often from various areas
◦ should have a primary customer or sponsor
 The project sponsor usually provides the direction and
funding for the project
◦ involves uncertainty

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 Project and Program Managers
 Project managers work with project sponsors,
project team, and other people involved in a
project to meet project goals
 Program: group of related projects managed in a
coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not
available from managing them individually
(PMBOK® Guide, Fifth Edition, 2012)
 Program managers oversee programs; often act
as bosses for project managers

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 Figure 1-1 The Triple Constraint of
Project Management

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 What is Project Management?
 Project management is “the application of
knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project
activities to meet project requirements”
(PMBOK® Guide, Fourth Edition, 2012)
 Project managers strive to meet the triple

constraint (project scope, time, and cost goals)

and also facilitate the entire process to meet the
needs and expectations of project stakeholders

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 Figure 1-2 Project Management
Framework

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 Project Stakeholders
 Stakeholders are the people involved in or
affected by project activities
 Stakeholders include
◦ the project sponsor
◦ the project manager
◦ the project team
◦ support staff
◦ customers
◦ users
◦ suppliers
◦ opponents to the project

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 10 Project Management Knowledge
Areas
 Knowledge areas describe the key competencies
that project managers must develop
 Project managers must have knowledge and skills

in all 10 knowledge areas (project integration,

scope, time, cost, quality, human resource,
communications, risk, procurement, and
stakeholder management)
 This text includes an entire chapter on each

knowledge area

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 Project Management Tools and
Techniques
 Project management tools and techniques assist
project managers and their teams in various
aspects of project management
 Some specific ones include

◦ Project charter, scope statement, and WBS (scope)

◦ Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analysis,
critical chain scheduling (time)
◦ Cost estimates and earned value management (cost)
◦ See Table 1-1 for many more

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 Super Tools
 “Super tools” are those tools that have high use and
high potential for improving project success, such as:
◦ Software for task scheduling (such as project management
software)
◦ Scope statements
◦ Requirements analyses
◦ Lessons-learned reports
 Tools already extensively used that have been found to
improve project importance include:
◦ Progress reports
◦ Kick-off meetings
◦ Gantt charts
◦ Change requests
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 What Went Right? Improved
Project Performance
The Standish Group’s CHAOS studies show
improvements in IT projects in the past decade:
 The number of successful IT projects has more than
doubled, from 16 percent in 1994 to 37 percent in 2010
 The number of failed projects decreased from 31
percent in 1994 to 21 percent in 2010
 Success rates were the highest ever in the most recent
CHAOS study

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 Why the Improvements?
"The reasons for the increase in successful projects
vary. First, the average cost of a project has been
more than cut in half. Better tools have been
created to monitor and control progress and better
skilled project managers with better
management processes are being used. The fact
that there are processes is significant in itself.”*

*Standish Group, "CHAOS 2001: A Recipe for Success" (2001).

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 Project Success
 There are several ways to define project success:
◦ The project met scope, time, and cost goals
◦ The project satisfied the customer/sponsor
◦ The results of the project met its main objective, such as
making or saving a certain amount of money, providing a
good return on investment, or simply making the
sponsors happy

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Table 1-2: What Helps Projects Succeed?*
1. User involvement
2. Executive support
3. Clear business objectives
4. Emotional maturity
5. Optimizing scope
6. Agile process
7. Project management expertise
8. Skilled resources
9. Execution
10. Tools and infrastructure
*The Standish Group, “CHAOS Activity News” (August 2011).

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 Top Three Reasons Why Federal
Technology Project Succeed
 Adequate funding
 Staff expertise
 Engagement from all stakeholders

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 Program and Project Portfolio
Management
 A program is “a group of related projects managed
in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control
not available from managing them individually”
(PMBOK® Guide, Fifth Edition, 2012)
 A program manager provides leadership and
direction for the project managers heading the
projects within the program
 Examples of common programs in the IT field include
infrastructure, applications development, and user
support
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 The Role of the Project Manager
 Job descriptions vary, but most include
responsibilities like planning, scheduling,
coordinating, and working with people to achieve
project goals
 Remember that 97% of successful projects were
led by experienced project managers, who can
often help influence success factors

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 27
 Suggested Skills for Project
Managers
 The Project Management Body of Knowledge
 Application area knowledge, standards, and

regulations
 Project environment knowledge
 General management knowledge and skills
 Soft skills or human relations skills

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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 28
 Table 1-3 Ten Most Important Skills and
Competencies for Project Managers
1. People skills
2. Leadership
3. Listening
4. Integrity, ethical behavior, consistent
5. Strong at building trust
6. Verbal communication
7. Strong at building teams
8. Conflict resolution, conflict management
9. Critical thinking, problem solving
10. Understands, balances priorities

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 Importance of Leadership Skills
 Effective project managers provide leadership by
example
 A leader focuses on long-term goals and big-
picture objectives while inspiring people to reach
those goals
 A manager deals with the day-to-day details of
meeting specific goals
 Project managers often take on the role of both
leader and manager

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 Table 1-4. Nine Hottest Skills*
Skill Percentage of
Respondents
Programming and application development 60%
Project management 44%
Help desk/technical support 35%
Networking 35%
Business intelligence 23%
Data center 18%
Web 2.0 18%
Security 17%
Telecommunications 9%

*Source: Rick Saia, “9 Hot IT Skills for 2012,”

Computerworld, September 26, 2011.
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 History of Project Management
 Some people argue that building the Egyptian
pyramids was a project, as was building the Great
Wall of China
 Most people consider the Manhattan Project to
be the first project to use “modern” project
management
 This three-year, $2 billion (in 1946 dollars) project
had a separate project manager and a technical
manager

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 Figure 1-6. Sample Gantt Chart
Created with Project 2010

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 Figure 1-7. Sample Network Diagram
Created with Project 2010

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 Figure 1-8. Growth in the Number of
Project Management Offices

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 Ethics in Project Management
 Ethics, loosely defined, is a set of principles that
guide our decision making based on personal values
of what is “right” and “wrong”
 Project managers often face ethical dilemmas
 In order to earn PMP certification, applicants must
agree to PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional
Conduct
 Several questions on the PMP exam are related to
professional responsibility, including ethics
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 Project Management Software
 There are hundreds of different products to assist in
performing project management
 Three main categories of tools:
◦ Low-end tools: Handle single or smaller projects well, cost
under $200 per user
◦ Midrange tools: Handle multiple projects and users, cost
$200-$1,000 per user, Project 2010 most popular
◦ High-end tools: Also called enterprise project management
software, often licensed on a per-user basis, like Microsoft
Enterprise Project Management solution

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 Chapter Summary
 A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a
unique product, service, or result
 Project management is the application of knowledge, skills,
tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project
requirements
 A program is a group of related projects managed in a
coordinated way
 Project portfolio management involves organizing and
managing projects and programs as a portfolio of investments
 Project managers play a key role in helping projects and
organizations succeed
 The project management profession continues to grow and
mature

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