Learning Objectives

• Describe the systems view of project management and how it applies to information technology (IT) projects
• Understand organizations, including the four frames(框架), organizational structures, and organizational culture
• Explain why stakeholder management and top management commitment(保证，承诺) are critical for a project’s success
• Understand the concept of a project phase and the project life cycle, and distinguish between project development and product development
• Discuss the unique attributes and diverse nature of IT projects
• Describe recent trends affecting IT project management, including globalization, outsourcing(外包业务）, virtual teams, and agile project management

Projects Cannot Be Run In Isolation(隔离)

• Projects must operate in a broad organizational environment
• Project managers need to use systems thinking:
  • Taking a holistic（整体的） view of carrying out projects within the context of the organization
• Senior managers(高级管理人员) must make sure projects continue to support current business needs

A Systems View of Project Management

• A systems approach emerged(首次出现) in the 1950s to describe a more analytical approach to management and problem solving
• Three parts include:
  1. Systems philosophy（哲学）: an overall model for thinking about things as systems
  2. Systems analysis: problem-solving approach
  3. Systems management: address business, technological, and organizational issues before making changes to systems

Perspectives on Organizations

Organizational Structures

• 3 basic organization structures
  • Functional: functional managers report to the CEO
  • Project: program managers report to the CEO
  • Matrix: middle ground between functional and project structures; personnel often report to two or more bosses; structure can be weak, balanced, or strong matrix

Functional, Project, and Matrix Organizational Structures

Functional

Projectized

Matrix (Weak)

Matrix (Balanced)

Matrix (Strong)

Organizational Culture

• Organizational culture(组织文化) is a set of shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that characterize the functioning of an organization
• Many experts believe the underlying causes（根本原因） of many companies’ problems are not the structure or staff, but the culture

Ten Characteristics of Organizational Culture

Google Culture

• Heart of small company
• Hand’s on contribution to the products by each employee
• Flat hierarchy
• Each employee having several responsibly in different departments
• Hiring policy
  • Non Discriminatory
  • Preference of ability over experience
• Multilingual company environment
• Multi-domestic culture
• Recreation along with work
• Common café for all employees

Google Philosophies (哲学)

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It is best to do one thing really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy(民主) on the web works.
5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There’s always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all boarders.
9. You can be serious without a suit(西装).
10. Great just isn’t good enough.

Stakeholder Management

• Project managers must take time to identify, understand, and manage relationships with all project stakeholders
• Using the four frames of organizations can help meet stakeholder needs and expectations
• Senior executives/top management are very important stakeholders

The Importance of Top Management Commitment（保证、承诺）

• People in top management(高层管理) positions are key stakeholders in projects
• A very important factor in helping project managers successfully lead projects is the level of commitment and support they receive from top management
• Without top management commitment, many projects will fail.
• Some projects have a senior manager called a champion who acts as a key proponent（支持者） for a project.

How Top Management Can Help Project Managers

• Providing adequate resources
• Approving unique project needs in a timely manner
• Getting cooperation from other parts of the organization
• Mentoring and coaching on leadership issues

Project Phases and the Project Life Cycle

• A project life cycle(项目生命周期) is a collection of project phases that defines
  • what work will be performed in each phase
  • what deliverables（交付物） will be produced and when
  • who is involved in each phase, and
  • how management will control and approve work produced in each phase
• A deliverable is a product or service produced or provided as part of a project

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More on Project Phases

• In early phases(早期阶段) of a project life cycle
  • resource needs are usually lowest
  • the level of uncertainty (risk) is highest
  • project stakeholders have the greatest opportunity to influence the project
• In middle phases(中间阶段) of a project life cycle
  • the certainty of completing a project improves
  • more resources are needed
• The final phase(最后阶段) of a project life cycle focuses on
  • ensuring that project requirements were met
  • the sponsor approves completion of the project

Product Life Cycles

• Products also have life cycles
• The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a framework for describing the phases involved in developing and maintaining information systems
• Systems development projects can follow
  • Predictive life cycle: the scope of the project can be clearly articulated（清楚说明的） and the schedule and cost can be predicted
  • Adaptive（适应性的） Software Development (ASD) life cycle: requirements cannot be clearly expressed, projects are mission driven and component based, using time-based cycles to meet target dates

Predictive Life Cycle Models

• Waterfall model(瀑布模型): has well-defined, linear stages of systems development and support
• Spiral model(螺旋模型): shows that software is developed using an iterative（迭代） or spiral（螺旋） approach rather than a linear approach
• Incremental build model: provides for progressive（渐进的） development of operational software
• Prototyping model(原型模型): used for developing prototypes to clarify user requirements
• Rapid Application Development (RAD) 快速应用开发 model: used to produce systems quickly without sacrificing quality

Waterfall and Spiral Life Cycle Models

Incremental build model

Prototyping model

Rapid Application Development (RAD) 快速应用开发 model

Agile Software Development（敏捷开发）

• Agile software development(敏捷软件开发) has become popular to describe new approaches that focus on close collaboration between programming teams and business experts

Agile Software Development

The Importance of Project Phases and Management Reviews

• A project should successfully pass through each of the project phases in order to continue on to the next
• Management reviews(管理评审), also called phase exits or kill points, should occur after each phase to evaluate the project’s progress, likely success, and continued compatibility（并存） with organizational goals

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Recent Trends Affecting IT Project Management

• Globalization(全球化)
• Outsourcing(外包) is when an organization acquires goods and/or sources from an outside source. Offshoring(离岸外包) is sometimes used to describe outsourcing from another country
• Virtual teams: A virtual team(虚拟团队) is a group of individuals who work across time and space using communication technologies
• Agile project management

Important Issues and Suggestions Related to Globalization

• Issues
  • Communications
  • Trust
  • Common work practices
  • Tools
• Suggestions
  • Employ greater project discipline
  • Think global but act local
  • Keep project momentum（动力） going
  • Use newer tools and technology

Outsourcing

• Organizations remain competitive by using outsourcing to their advantage, such as finding ways to reduce costs
• Their next challenge is to make strategic IT investments with outsourcing by improving their enterprise architecture to ensure that IT infrastructure and business processes are integrated and standardized.
• Project managers should become more familiar with negotiating contracts and other outsourcing issues

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Virtual Teams Advantages

• Increasing competiveness and responsiveness by having a team of workers available 24/7
• Lowering costs because many virtual workers do not require office space or support beyond their home offices.
• Providing more expertise and flexibility by having team members from across the globe working any time of day or night
• Increasing the work/life balance for team members by eliminating fixed office hours and the need to travel to work.

Virtual Team Disadvantages

• Isolating team members
• Increasing the potential for communications problems
• Reducing the ability for team members to network and transfer information informally
• Increasing the dependence on technology to accomplish work

Agile Project Management

• Agile means being able to move quickly and easily, but some people feel that project management, as they have seen it used, does not allow people to work quickly or easily.
• Early software development projects often used a waterfall approach, as defined earlier in this chapter. As technology and businesses became more complex, the approach was often difficult to use because requirements were unknown or continuously changing.
• Agile today means using a method based on iterative and incremental development, in which requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration.

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Scrum

• According to the Scrum Alliance, Scrum is the leading agile development method for completing projects with a complex, innovative scope of work.
• The term was coined（创造） in 1986 in a Harvard Business Review study that compared high-performing, cross-functional teams to the scrum formation used by rugby teams.

Scrum Framework

Scrum Framework

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Chapter Summary

• Project managers need to take a systems approach when working on projects
• Organizations have four different frames: structural, human resources, political, and symbolic
• The structure and culture of an organization have strong implications for project managers
• Projects should successfully pass through each phase of the project life cycle
• Project managers need to consider several factors due to the unique context of information technology projects
• Recent trends affecting IT project management include globalization, outsourcing, virtual teams, and Agile