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
Information Technology Project
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
Information Technology Project
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
Information Technology Project
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
Information Technology Project
Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 5
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 9
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 10
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 11
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 12
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 13
Figure 1-1 The Triple Constraint of
Project Management
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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 14
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 15
Figure 1-2 Project Management
Framework
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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 16
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 17
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 18
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 19
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 20
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 21
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 22
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 23
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 24
Top Three Reasons Why Federal
Technology Project Succeed
Adequate funding
Staff expertise
Engagement from all stakeholders
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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 25
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 26
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 29
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 30
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 31
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 32
Figure 1-6. Sample Gantt Chart
Created with Project 2010
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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 33
Figure 1-7. Sample Network Diagram
Created with Project 2010
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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 34
Figure 1-8. Growth in the Number of
Project Management Offices
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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 35
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
Information Technology Project
Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 36
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
Information Technology Project
Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 37
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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Management, Seventh Edition Copyright 2014 38
