Lecture Business management information system - Lecture 28: Management issues in systems development

Lecture 28 - Management issues in systems development. The topics discussed in this chapter are: Project management, what is project management, the job of a project manager, change management, risk management, tips for good IT project management.

Management Issues in Systems Development

Lecture 28

Today’s Lecture

n Project Management

¨ What is Project Management

¨ The Job of a Project Manager

¨ Change Management

¨ Risk Management

¨ Tips for Good IT Project Management

¨. Leads to compromises because the three

have conflicting agendas

Introduction cont

n IS departments can be viewed as being in the same

three businesses:

1. Operations are infrastructure management

2. The help desk is the customer relationship

business

3. System development is product innovation

Introduction cont.

n Infrastructure management:

¨ Goal = reducing costs

n Providing infrastructure involves high fixed costs

¨Battle = build scale

Introduction cont.

n Customer relationship:

¨ Goal = provide service

¨ PC support & help desks often outsourced

n Especially in Europe & Asia (multilingual needs)

¨ Outsourcing offshore = increasing dramatically

n Product innovation:

¨ Goal = speed

n Provides nimbleness

Introduction cont.

¨ Key to success = talent

n In IT, developers are “king” so they are given the coolest tools

¨ There are a number of management issues

surrounding system development:

n “Staffing, staffing, staffing”,

n As well as speed & nimbleness

increasingly valuable skill

Project Management What is Project Management?

n Project Management is simply the management of a

n In reality IT project management is not that much different from other forms e.g

construction

Project Management What is Project Management? cont.

n A project is a collection of related tasks and activities

undertaken to achieve a specific goal All Projects (IT

¨ 10% technical, 90% common sense

¨ Management styles vary as do backgrounds

¨ Key = keeping in mind, and under control the

numerous interdependencies

¨ GET THE JOB DONE!

Project Management What is Project Management? cont.

n Project Management Institute

¨ Project Management encompasses five

Project Management What is Project Management? cont.

– To become a certified PMP = must pass tests

covering nine knowledge areas:

Project Management The Job of a Project Manager

n Responsible for the following tasks:

1. Setting Up the Project

n Why

¨ A brief background of the project, and

¨ The business objectives to be achieved

n What

¨ Key outputs to be produced

¨ Benefits

Project Management The Job of a Project Manager

n When

¨ List of milestones and expected timing

§ High level project plan

Project Management The Job of a Project Manager cont.

n Responsible for the following tasks cont.:

2. Managing the Schedule

n Schedule / project plan = heart of the project and main

communication tool

n High level first – then break down as you proceed

n Baseline and track

n Use automated tools

n Recommendations:

Project Management The Job of a Project Manager cont.

1. Focus on the date that tasks are/ will be

completed rather than on the % of overall project completed

2. Review progress at least monthly, preferably more often

3. Focus on tasks to be completed Vs those

finished

4. Reforecast when new evidence comes to light

Project Management The Job of a Project Manager cont.

n Responsible for the following tasks cont.:

3. Managing the Finances

n Financial plan, who is accountable, benefits etc.

n Baseline costs and track

¨ They will change!

n Need to know how much has been spent and how

much money is left

Project Management The Job of a Project Manager cont.

4. Managing the Benefits

n Difficult to estimate but must try

n Base on same assumptions as costs

n Look at timings

n Track

n Why are we doing this????

¨ Should we still be doing it?

Project Management The Job of a Project Manager cont.

n Responsible for the following tasks cont.:

5. Managing Risks, Opportunities and Threats

n Risk mitigation and risk management

n Usually poorly done

n Risk logs

n Issue management

7. Soliciting Independent Reviews

n Health checks (of the project)

¨ By someone independent (could be external)

Project Management Change Management

n IS often assume a technically elegant system is a

successful system (IT’S NOT!!!)

n Many technically sound systems have turned into

implementation failures because the people side of the system was not handled correctly

n System is only a success if it meets the users’

requirements and they are happy with it and with using it

Project Management Change Management

n Information technology is all about managing change

n New systems require changing how work is done

n Focusing only on the technical aspects is only half the job – the other job is change management

Project Management Change Management cont.

n Changing management = process assisting people to make change in their working environment

¨ Change – caused by the introduction of a new

computer system

n People resist change, especially technological

change, when they view it as a crisis ‘Resistance’

includes:

¨ Deny the change

¨ Distort information they hear about the change

¨ Convince themselves and others the new system will not change status quo

Project Management Change Management cont.

n ODR (among others) offers a methodology to help

companies manage technological change

n Type of people involved in a change project

¨ Sponsor: the person or group that legitimizes the

change

¨ Change agent: the person or group who causes

the change to happen

¨ Target: the person or group who is being expected

to change and at whom the change is aimed

Project Management Change Management cont.

Methodology to manage technological change

n Conduct surveys with all three groups to determine:

¨ Whether the scope of the project is do-able, or

whether the organization is trying to change too much at one time

¨ Whether the sponsors are committed enough to

push the change through, or whether they are sitting back expecting the organization to change

on its own

¨ Whether the change agents have the skills to

implement the change, or whether e.g they are not adept at rallying support

¨ Which groups are receptive to the change and

which are resistant

THE BOC GROUP Case Example – Change Management

n Industrial gas manufacturer – operates in 60 countries

n Industry= mature & highly competitive

n Competition = price & service

n $35million to improve position – reengineering BOC’s core processes:

¨ 9 reengineering projects over 2 ½ years

¨ All team members guaranteed a job after project in

same or equivalent work

¨ Teams co-led by Business and Information

Management (IM) process leader, as IT major

component of project

THE BOC GROUP Case Example – Change Management cont.

n Each team member studied everything, not just a selected area:

¨ Existing processes

¨ How implementation should be handled

¨ Input into the training plan

¨ Devise the customer communication plan

n Garnering True Executive Sponsorship

THE BOC GROUP Case Example – Change Management cont.

¨ President = Executive Sponsor for all teams – not

intimately involved with project

¨ Vice presidents & directors = true executive sponsors

n ODR teach sponsorship to the nine sponsors over 2

days

¨ Sponsors reluctant to go off site – they see no

relevance to program as they could not see any

problems

THE BOC GROUP Case Example – Change Management cont.

n The workshop allowed sponsors to deal with issues of the company’s ability to assimilate change, obstacles and so on

Realization:

¨ Teams can only put the tools in place; the organization had to make the change happen

¨ Sponsors need to drive change through the

organization – planning their own strategies and

examining possible consequences

THE BOC GROUP Case Example – Change Management cont.

One Change Project

n Process of paperwork for delivering gas products and invoicing customers

¨ Handwritten – into – Point of Delivery handheld

Device (PODD)

¨ PODD:

n Schedules downloaded overnight = pack truck

in night

THE BOC GROUP Case Example – Change Management cont.

n PODD accept signature of customer – print a receipt

n Billing data automatically transmitted to headquarters

n Team members absorb each others’ knowledge and

become one entity rather than two

THE BOC GROUP Case Example – Change Management cont.

Involving Middle Management

n Advisory council:

¨ Upward job – provide feedback on recommended

changes and implementation issues

¨ Downward job – describe recommendations to

employees & get their buy-in

THE BOC GROUP Case Example – Change Management cont.

Training the Drivers

n Created a six-hour training course

¨ “A Day in a Driver’s Life”

§ Perfect day with PODD (handheld device)

§ Harder scenarios

n Success – PODD team assessed its people aspects at the outset & mitigated the identified risks by:

¨ Holding the sponsorship event

¨ Involving middle management via the advisory council

¨ Thoroughly informing and training the truck drivers

Project ManagementRisk Management

n Not all IT-based projects succeed

¨ Many fail, especially the really large ones e.g ERP, CRM

¨ Sub-performance, scope creep making it too complex

¨ Can’t always be predicted but they can be contained

Project Management Risk Management

n Business risks

¨ Business does not change properly to use the new systems

¨ Are not as easily righted

n Need to:

1 Assess the risk

2 Mitigate the risk

3 Adjust the project management approach

Project Management Risk Management cont

n Step 1: Assess the Risks

¨ Three predominant risk factors:

1. Leadership of the business change

2. Employees’ perspective of the change

3. Scope and urgency of the change

• Decision tree (Figure 10-1)

n Project leader = executive(s) responsible for the

change

– Must be a business executive

n. It is the business, not IT that is required to

change

Project Management Risk Management cont

• Contributes to success/failure? – 6 questions:

1. Are they committed to the business case?

2. Do they understand the extent of change in

work behaviour required for the project to succeed?

3. Are they formally motivated to pull off the

change?

4. Are they at the appropriate org level with the

formal power… ?

5. Do they have experience with a project of

similar scope, urgency and people impact?

6. Do they have informal power, such as

credibility and respect?

Project Management Risk Management cont

n

n Step 2: Mitigate the Risks

¨ Project management styles

Project Management Risk Management cont

DOW CORNING Case Example: Project Management

n Successful ERP implementation from 1995 to 1999

n Each project phase had different business risks

¨ Realizing this the project executive took a different project management approach in each phase

n Phase 0: Get Ready

¨ Leadership = High Risk

¨ Employee Perception = High Risk

¨ Scope and Urgency = High Risk

DOW CORNING Case Example: Project Management

n Phase 1: Understand the New System

¨ Use the Improvisation approach of participative

management and flexible deadlines

n Concerned employee reticence in the later phases

so focus = on building commitment

n Phase 2: Redesign the Work Processes

¨ Use the Guided Evolution approach of participative management with fixed deadlines

n Phase 1 = got them committed but did little to get the work processes redesigned

n Continued through the pilot – cutover to SAP at newly acquired European sub

DOW CORNING Case Example: Project Management cont.

n Phase 3: Implement the ERP Worldwide

¨ Use Top-down coordination with an authoritative

management style and flexible timelines

n Pilot’s success demonstrated management’s determination and shifted employee perception to the positive

n Scope shifted to negative because it was ‘company wide’

DOW CORNING Case Example: Project Management cont.

n Phase 4: Complete Implementation

¨ Use the Big Bang approach of authoritative

management and firm deadlines

n By the end of 1998, most of the sites had implemented so all the risk factors had turned positive

n Initially conversion took 18 months These later sites = 4

Tips for Good IT Project Management

n the Ground Rules

¨ Open systems, industry standards, web-enabled etc

n Foster Discipline, Planning, Documentation and

Management

¨ If the process is not controlled properly, anything can happen or, more realistically, potentially nothing will happen

n Obtain and Document the ‘Final’ User Requirements

¨ Don’t get too technical

Tips for Good IT Project Management

n Obtain Tenders from All Appropriate Potential Vendors

n Include Suppliers in Decision Making

n Convert Existing Data

¨ Task might appear quite simple but often causes the biggest headaches

n Follow Through After Implementation

¨ Cross the t’s and dot the i’s in terms of

documentation, future maintenance processes etc

Reasons for Success

nProper Planning

nAppropriate User Involvement

nStrong Visible Management Support

nProject Manager(s) with Power and Time

nGood Change Management

nWorking As A Team

nProper Project Monitoring and Control

nProper Project Closure

We covered Today,

n Project Management

¨ What is Project Management

¨ The Job of a Project Manager

¨ Change Management

¨ Risk Management

¨ Tips for Good IT Project Management

n DOW CORNING

Case Example: Project Management

n THE BOC GROUP

Case Example – Change Management