A System to Manage the Postgraduate Computing Projects - Literature review Example

?A SYSTEM TO MANAGE THE POSTGRADUATE COMPUTING PROJECTS Literature Review Table of Contents Literature Review In recent research, PRINCE2 project management methodology has been given considerable importance. The main reasons are its support for controlled and organized management and the potential to get combined with other methodologies in order to provide agility and flexibility in development as well. Some recent research works have been presented below that express that extensive use of PRINCE2 for the management of software projects: In his research, Ahmad Luqman (2006), has emphasized the importance of configuration management of assets that may be considered as an asset or product control and is of vital importance because it also plays a major role in quality control. In order to perform configuration management, this research indicates that Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) version 1.1, and the Project IN Controlled Environment (PRINCE) version 2 calls attention to the proper execution of Configuration control activities because of their criticality for the successful operation of the product in the deployment environment. Focusing on the similarities and correlation between these two initiatives, author has mapped PRINCE 2 Configuration Management Component to the CM process in continuous representation. To achieve good transformation results there is a need to apply appropriate software metrics on each and every sub process and sub practice. According to the author’s idea, mapping between two initiatives is never so easy because it requires the specification of suitable granularity level of maps between models. On high level it may be hard to get sufficient understanding of commonalities and variations while on a low level it may result in a large number of connections, make it hard to achieve the appropriate mapping. The mapping performed according to the proposed approach shows that PRINCE 2 and CMMI 1.1 continuous representation deal with the project management by following an improved process management approach. Principally the configuration management activities in aforementioned standards are normally correlated to each other at higher granularity level. It is nearly impractical to achieve one to one mapping between these two and low granularity level because of differences in process improvement approach adopted by CMMI at optimizing level (Luqman, 2006). (Dr. Asim ur rehman et al., 2007), highlight the importance of the understanding of mangers about the strategies being adopted for the management of different aspects of the project. According to their views, Managers while managing a project, tend to show the preference for a specific project management strategy. They find it difficult to manage another project if a dissimilar project management is adopted. Because they usually are in short of knowledge about how much commonality exists between the preferred and the new required project management methodology. This research is basically focused towards that enhancement of understanding of managers by providing highlighting different aspects of different project management frameworks. Results can be useful by intelligently combining powerful features of different methodologies. To perform the analysis five major project management methodologies, including PRINCE2, have been compared with PMBOK. Prince2 methodology has certain shortcomings when compared with other methodologies. PRINCE2 is not designed to promise proficient results in short period of time. It requires deep concentration from the managers to get the promised results and also it is insufficient if the project requires higher degree of contract and people management. This research also highlights certain commonalities between PMBOK and PRINCE2 such as the documentation must provide sufficient information to suit the occasion. Usually it does not provide information about how to perform a specific task or use any of the tools described. They are intended to provide a brief sketch of processes involved, their interconnection and the methods that can be called. Managers must scale the application of both these frameworks with the size and requirement of the project to access their feasibility (Rehman, 2007). In order to find out and compare the relative level of project management practices in an organization, with other organizations, (Jing-wu & Xian, 2010) have presented a PRINCE2 based project management maturity model. This model facilitates the provision of methodical and controlled process to achieve higher level of project management maturity for the organization. Organizations, following the PRINCE2 based maturity model are expected to add in continuous project learning because this model tends to renovate functionally driven organizations practices to project driven organization. According to the proposed approach, The PRINCE2 Based Project Management Maturity Model works by dividing the project management related processes and procedures into eight project management processes and eight project management components. The main focus of these project management processes and procedures is to enable an organization to find out the positive and negative sides of adopted project management strategies. It further provides recommendations and remedies to strengthen the weak project management practices to attain a higher degree of project management maturity. Fundamentally, the maturity model is based on PRINCE2 as each maturity level in the model specifies project management focus areas, these focus areas further comprise key Project management components defined in PRINCE2. The research proposes that Prince2 based maturity model is really useful for the organizations as it will allow them to continuously improve their project management strategies. Also, it can be beneficial for the managers who need to estimate the total cost for improving the project management practices being adopted in their organization (Jing-wu & Xian, 2010). (Al-Zoabi, 2008) has focused on the issue that even after gaining so much popularity, agile methods for software development and project management are still in short of disciplined planning. To provide a remedy, authors have proposed to use modified XP, a well known agile method combined with the effect of PRINCE2, a well known project management methodology. The aim of the research is to try to combine the best features of XP and PRINCE2 which will cause the generation of a hybrid methodology that provide the management with the best features of XP such as flexibility and adaptability while side by side taking the advantage of PRINCE2 main value such as control. To prove its validity, the proposed approach have been applied to a software for a new tax system that was involving constant changes, in Syria as a part of the EU-funded, Modernization of Ministry of Finance (MMoF) project. The results of the case study show that the combination of XP and PRINCE2 in this way is capable to reduce disorder and chaos that current projects a facing because of lack of control, adaptability and flexibility (Al-Zoabi, 2008). In their research, (Nawrocki et al., 2006) presented an idea to use XPRINCE project management methodology. Like aforementioned research this research is also focused on using the combination of different project management methodologies such as XP, PRINCE2 and RUP, in order to maintain a balance between agility and discipline in the projects. Authors have raised the issue that the combination of PRINCE2 and XP is not so easy to achieve because the roles in PRINCE2 are different from those in XP. In PRINCE2, project is directed based on three roles including executive, senior user and senior supplier and also project manager is involved in looking after the overall project. But while developing a project using XP, team is not particularly structured. To provide a combined methodology for project management, the proposed approach, XPRINCE, has suggested combining the best features of XP, PRINCE2 and RUP in the phases including, planning the team structure and project life cycle. Authors have also developed the tool to support the applicability of their proposed idea (Nawrocki et al., 2006). (Tayebi et al., 2009) have proposed that focusing on software project management by keeping in view, the architecture of software can be very helpful in managing and developing successful projects. The research suggests using PRINCE2 project management methodology in order to manage the projects based or Model Driven Architecture (MDA). The main objective of this research is to benefit from the strong points of both combining MDA and PRINCE2 in order to minimize the times, efforts and the expenses of IT projects management. MDA is intended to focus on the technical issues such as analysis, designing, implementation, deployment, maintenance, evaluation, integration and the whole software architecture. While On the other side, PRINCE2 will cope with non technical aspects of the projects such as controlled and structured initiation and closing of the project. The research further proposes to develop the presented method on the basis of enterprise architecture and to model each part of the framework (Tayebi et al., 2009). (Venning, 2007) has made an extensive research on a method to combine MSP and PRINCE2 within framework that is portfolio- driven and includes the best features of methodologies. The main objective is to enable the strategic alignment and good management of portfolio - the collection of programs, projects and task that delivers both the strategic intent and operational transformation of the organization. In order to achieve the objective, the author combined MSP and PRINCE2 in a complex demanding environment at Barclays for over three years in the role of Head of Change Governance (Venning, 2007). (Pincemaille, 2008) explores the use of PRINCE2 project management methodology for a controlled planning, scheduling, reporting, control, quality management, and risk management of a project. According to the author’s ideas, despite of having a defined process, with clearly defined inputs, outputs and goals, PRINCE2 methodology is prone to certain shortcomings. It can be really difficult for Prince 2 to adapt to very small projects. Furthermore, in a lot of projects, PRINCE2 is mostly being used as PINO (Prince In Name Only), means these project are not applying PRINCE2 core concepts, resulting in an ineffective project management. In addition, Prince 2 is highly document-centric, so it just provides the layout of different processes without going into technical details. Finally, Prince 2 doesn't provide explicit requirement analysis, as it is an implementation methodology. Author has claimed that PRINCE2 is defined rather generically, so it may be difficult for it to adapt to the need of a particular project, than specific methodologies for software development processes (Pincemaille, 2008). (DSDM Consortium, 2000) presented the idea to combine the best features of DSDM and PRINCE2 in order to achieve dynamic and controlled management of software projects. But when combining these two project methodologies care is needed, because certain aspects of DSDM and PRINCE2 overlap with each other that may lead to duplication and conflict. To attain the maximum advantage while combining DSDM and PRINCE2, it is important to avoid duplication of effort by merging products and roles where appropriate. The fundamental rule is to use each method to deal with the areas that it alone defines. While combining these two methodologies, the research proposes to use the features of PRINCE2 for project management activities and to use the processes of DSDM for development phase (DSDM Consortium, 2000). Conclusion PRINCE2 is a software project management methodology that is specially adopted to facilitate a controlled management of the project. In order to attain the maximum advantage, PRINCE2 is increasingly used with other project management methodologies such as PMBOK and development methodologies such as XP, RUP and DSDM. The objective is to use the best features of these project management and development methodologies, providing controlled and organized management while at the same time providing agility, flexibility and responsiveness to the change. In addition, PRINCE2 is also being used to evaluate the maturity level of the management processes of an organization by using the processes defined in PRINCE2 as a standard to develop a maturity model. Bibliography Al-Zoabi, Z., 2008. Introducing Discipline to XP: Applying PRINCE2 on XP Projects. In ICTTA 2008. 3rd International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies: From Theory to Applications, 2008. Damascus, 2008. IEEE. DSDM Consortium, 2000. Using DSDM with PRINCE2. [Online] Available at: http://metalab.uniten.edu.my/~yunus/articles/01b01_usign%20dsdm_with_prince2.pdf [Accessed 14 January 2011]. Jing-wu, C. & Xian, Z., 2010. PRINCE2 Based Project Management Maturity Model. In 2010 International Conference on Management and Service Science (MASS). Wuhan, 2010. IEEE. Luqman, A., 2006. Comparison of Configuration Management Activities Between Prince 2 & CMMI 1.1. In ICET '06, International Conference on Emerging Technologies. Peshawar , 2006. IEEE. Nawrocki, J. et al., 2006. Balancing Agility and Discipline with XPrince. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 3943/2006, pp.266-77. Pincemaille, C., 2008. Prince 2: a methodology of project management. [Online] Available at: http://www.pincemaille.net/rsc/swEng_PrincePaper.pdf [Accessed 15 January 2011]. Rehman, A., 2007. Software Project Management Methodologies/Frameworks Dynamics "A Comparative Approach". In ICIET 2007. International Conference on Information and Emerging Technologies, 2007. Karachi, 2007. IEEE. Tayebi, S.R.M., Ostadzadeh, S.S. & Mazaheri, S., 2009. Employing MDA in PRINCE2 Framework. In FITME '09. Second International Conference on Future Information Technology and Management Engineering, 2009. Sanya, 2009. IEEE. Venning, C., 2007. Managing portfolios of change with MSP for programmes and PRINCE2 for projects: Integrating MSP and PRINCE2. Stationery Office. Read More