Project Conception Problems and Management - Assignment Example

Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Executive Summary 3 Introduction 3 Some Definitions 4 Problem Situation 4 Project Conception problems and management 5 Project Planning 5 Time scale management 6 IT system size definition 7 System design 7 Organizational impact 8 Project Commissioning problems and management 8 Technology Risk 8 Programming 9 IT System Development Strategies 9 Testing 10 Quality Assurance 11 Conclusion 12 References 12 Executive Summary This paper covers the detailed analysis of the management of large IT project. The management of large and complex IT projects is a challenging task. This challenge becomes difficult to achieve due to various reasons, some of them are: the complex nature of such projects, work being carried out on several sites, the large number of staff involved and the range of technologies employed. This research provides a deep insight into the general problems and difficulties that may be encountered when managing a large complex IT project and how they can be avoided or managed. This research will evaluate and cover the life of the project from conception to commissioning. Introduction The IT system has turned out to be a significant asset for every organization, for the accomplishment of various business activities. The Information technology projects influence straightforwardly on the productivity of a business. Even though there has been considerable development in IT system developments methods. There are also some of the vital problems like development delay, financial plan overruns, inferior performance or yet total breakdown still happen often in IT development projects. Implementation of the high technical qualities is significant on the other hand elevated excellence management is as well vital in handling by means of the huge difficulty as well as range of nowadays information technology development. Project managers have to be capable to recognize difficulties in the entire parts of the development as well as take actions punctually to resolve them (Chu & Bannister, 1992). This research is aimed at providing a deep insight into to the overall development, handling, and management of the large IT projects. This research will outline the main problems and difficulties regarding the handling of the different areas of IT project development lifecycle. Before we go towards the actual topic we should know few definitions. Some Definitions Project: A project can be defined as a temporary activity with a starting date, definite aims and objectives and conditions, defined activities, a budget, a planning, a set completion date and several parties engaged (SoftwareProjects, 2007). Project Management: Project management is a collection of activities consist of planning, scheduling, and then managing the activities throughout the system development life cycle (Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat, 2005). Project Manager: Person, who supervises all allocated project tasks and allocates resources, chooses teams, and carries out performance appraisals (Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat, 2005). Problem Situation This section is about the elaboration of the main problem situations can happen for the handling, development, and management of the large and complex IT development projects. Running big IT and software projects would be fairly hard beneath the most excellent of situation. Unluckily, persons having imperfect or no practice frequently depend on endurance tips from additional knowledgeable associates as well as further persons in-the-know (ExecutiveBrief, 2009). As a project manager of large IT project, they try to hold numerous parallel projects. The consequence of this condition would be fairly infuriating to a user, for the reason that from their viewpoint, the user needs it entire at the similar time. Often, main IT development project assets are requested to provide 10 to 20 % to one or additional other IT a software development projects. This condition is able to consequence in a failure of time management, common "rapid problems as well as "minute favors" (ExecutiveBrief, 2009). Here it is accessed that the “project manager’s accountability to be responsive of project resource allocation, time management, resource management and resource bleeding as well as to defend main resource accessibility for the IT development project" (ExecutiveBrief, 2009). Project Conception problems and management This part of the project research is about the conception management. This area of the project management is about the project planning stage. In this section I will present the possible working areas and difficulties associated to these areas for the effective handling and management of the IT projects. Project Planning First phase of the project management is project planning. In the phase we plan the IT resources and scheduling for the project working areas (Kerzner, 2006). In the period of project planning we have to face the problems regarding the unprecedented financial sources, technological and political confusion, the extended the project survives over time, the superior the likelihood that the development will have to hold outside necessities transformations, technology transformations as well as inner adjustments like that staff abrasion and turnover. In another point of view extreme condition for extended growth time-scales necessitates huge projects to hold an elevated rate of transformation primary to an additional growth of the timescale (Thomsett, 2000). Time scale management Time is a manager’s precious resources. Project managers should be talented to budget their time intelligently and rapidly amend their priorities. They have to balance their interactions as a result no one feels disregarded (Gray & Larson, 2006). In large projects the IT project working and development is divided into small sub-workable parts. Each section is allocated resources (human, cost, and time). In this process of the division and splitting resources we need an extensive time and effort. In this scenario the overall problems for the system developments augments and handling turn out to be hard. In this way of large project handling the divided sub-projects would be planned as well as employed comparatively separately as a consequence the progress time-scale is normally spread out over a longer time period. This type of IT development for the large project (staggered development) delays overall schedule project (Thomsett, 2000). The preliminary and the majority significant, phase in all related to IT development project is significance of the capacity of the IT project. At this stage, we have to explain the main goals we need to accomplish through organizing IT project. For the effective management of the project we have to define the main objectives of the project. Similarly significant is the defining what is not incorporated in the range of our project. If boss does not provide enough explanation then elucidate the scope manually and drive it reverse upstairs for confirmation (Reh, 2009). IT system size definition The size of system matters in each project development. In the areas of the conception management we must define the size of the project. This is normally done through the LOC or lines of code. The inappropriate definition of the size of the system makes its hard for the better estimation of the IT project definition and resource planning. In most of project the project manger estimates the LOC and assigns and developers and system designer for the system development. Mostly this estimate goes wrong and develops designers and other project staff has to suffer. To resolve these issues we need to assess the nature of the system. The definitions of the system size can be done through three ways (Thomsett, 2000): and (Pressman, 2001) Lines of source code IBM’s Function Point Output, input and file volumes Now it’s responsibility of the project manger to use these ways of the project estimation for the better resource planning and management of the project. System design As we talk about the key issues encountered in the course of action of the system design. The system design generally influenced through the client and designer relation. If the client and designer have a deep interaction then system will be designed in an enhanced way. In case less interactive working environment the system design lacks most of the requirements, so the development of the effective system design we need to develop an inactive system design and try to mange the all requirements established by the user (F. John Reh, 2009). Organizational impact Sometimes organizational environment influences the development of IT projects (Laudon & Laudon, 1999). Like some organizational are not willing to provide the sample business data or other special business figures. This makes the project working and requirements analyses harder. This criterion for large IT and software related larger projects of IT would be the influenced through the organization’s policy and strategic policies for the development path as well as the necessary processing elements in the business (Thomsett, 2000). For the better IT project management, handling and development we need to establish a growth of higher intensity of intra business coordination (F. John Reh, 2009). Project Commissioning problems and management This section is about the detailed analysis of the project commissioning that related to the project Implementation Stage. In this section I will outline the main problems and difficulties regarding the larger and complex IT system development and its management. This part will also present the solutions for the neutralization of these problems of larger IT system development. Technology Risk Technology risk is the most important risk in any IT system development. Especially in the development of larger IT technology based system that spanned on more than one year duration. In such system development the change of technology availability of the support and assistance is really essential. Like an organization wants to develop a system that requires three years of development, during this development period the change in the development technology, online availability of support or hardware transforms can effect the system development (Thomsett, 2000). The utilization of most recent and leading edge technology as well as utilization of steady technology to the bound of its processing potential is a different characteristic of big projects can minimize the system frailer and project breakdown risk (Thomsett, 2000). The capability of organizations to assess and deal with software-related risk needs a baseline from which to work (Scoy, 1992). Programming The phase of programming in the IT projects engrosses a great concentration from the system developers. In this point of view we need to pay a deep attention towards the system requirements implementation and confirmation of the necessary system features. Sometimes the developer team overlooks the system aspects those require extensive programming effort. Later those are turned out to be loop holes for the system working and security. This can cause huge damage to business information and data. The skill of the system coders also matters regarding the system implementation and development. A non-skilled coder can make the system hard to implement and makes the overall programming task harder and time consuming (Chu & Bannister, 1992). For the effective management of this phase of the IT project management the managers should recruit quality and skilled human resources. For the better system development we also need to include the outside consultation and help facility. IT System Development Strategies An Information Technology system development strategy plays a vital role in the system development, implementation, and working. Sometime during the system development project manger selects a development strategy that does not confirm all the areas and provides less support for the system modules. In this scenario the system development mismatches the development process (Thomsett, 2000). For instance, for the rapid system development we have selected the Spiral model for development, though it provides rapid prototypes for the customer satisfaction but sometime it takes more time as compared to Rapid application development strategy for the development, so we can say that the decision for the development strategy is a vital area for the success of the system. We need to select the development strategy by seeing the available resource of time, human power and cost (Reh, 2009). Testing Testing is an essential component of development and implementation. The classic technique to testing is to go from the individual parts to the system as a whole (Norton, 2001). The individual program components or programs are incorporated and tested as a whole system to make certain that the software requirements have been implemented correctly (Sommerville, 2004). For an IT system development the aim of the testing phase is to outline the main system bugs and errors. This testing in large and complex IT system involves extensive resources such as time, cost, and human resource. In a huge IT based system testing the process of testing is cut down to fulfill the time and cost constraints. In this way lot of system bugs are unchecked and pointed out at implementation and operational time. This type of behavior can lead to a displeased customer or breakdown of the system (Chu & Bannister, 1992). For the enhanced system testing we have to allocate substantial resources to the project and provide a better facility regarding the handling of the system bugs and errors. Here we also need to incorporate the user response regarding the system test and also provide him the opportunity to resolve the user interface related issues (Chu & Bannister, 1992). Quality Assurance Quality assurance is the course of action of confirming or determining whether products or services are according to the customer expectations or not (Kietzman, 2009). For the IT system development and implementation point of view, quality assurance is a very important factor. We need to assess the systems quality and fulfillment of all necessary parameters of the user needs. In most of the IT system development and implementation the factor of quality is overlooked that results is lower quality products. The established quality parameters are overlooked due to low budget and resources deficiency. This also happens due to the less time (Thomsett, 2000). For the better, large IT project development we need to implement proper quality assurance procedures. These can be Audits Technical Reviews Quality Assurance Groups Walkthroughs Quality assurance is required in huge IT projects. The level of handling of issue has a considerable influence in the region of flaws in huge projects. The implementation of the effective quality assurance parameters presented above can resolve the issues regarding the management of the quality of the IT systems development (Thomsett, 2000). Conclusion In this research I have presented a detailed analysis of the management of large IT project. In this research I have outlined the potential problems in the IT or software system development and their possible resolution. This research will provide a deep insight into the overall concept of the information system development and issues resolving. References Chu, C., & Bannister, B. J. (1992). Managing information technology projects: CHART(II) development in a large Hong Kong company. International Journal of Information Management, Volume 12, Issue 2 , pp. 142-157. ExecutiveBrief. (2009). Managing Large Projects with Ease: 9 Pressure Reducers That Work. Retrieved 08 25, 2009, from Exective Brief: http://www.executivebrief.com/article/managing-large-projects-with-ease-9-pressure-reducers-that-work/ F. John Reh. (2009). Project Management. Retrieved 08 25, 2009, from Part 1: Basic Project Management Outline: http://management.about.com/cs/projectmanagement/a/PM101.htm Gray, C., & Larson, E. (2006). Project Management, The Managerial Process. . New York: McGraw-Hill. Kerzner, H. (2006). Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Kietzman, S. (2009). What is Quality Assurance? Retrieved August 23, 2009, from WiseGeek: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-quality-assurance.htm Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (1999). Management Information Systems, Sixth Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall . Norton, P. (2001). Introduction to Computers, Fourth Edition. Singapore: McGraw-Hill. Pressman, R. S. (2001). Software Engineering: A Practicioners Approach, 5th Edition. London: McGraw Hill. Reh, F. J. (2009). How To Manage A Project. Retrieved 08 25, 2009, from About.com: http://management.about.com/od/projectmanagement/ht/ProjMgtSteps.htm Scoy, R. L. (1992). Software Development Risk:Opportunity, Not Problem. Retrieved August 22, 2009, from SEI.Edu: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/92.reports/pdf/tr30.92.pdf Shelly, Cashman, & Vermaat. (2005). Discovering Computers 2005. Boston: Thomson Course Technology. SoftwareProjects. (2007). Project Definition. Retrieved August 24, 2009, from Software Projects: http://www.softwareprojects.org/project_intake_reasons22.htm Sommerville, I. (2004). Software Engineering, 7th Edition,. New York: Pearson Education (Addison Wesley). TenStep. (2009). Determine Project Size and Lifecycle Model. Retrieved August 24, 2009, from TenStep: http://www.lifecyclestep.com/open/406.0HomeProjSize.htm Thomsett. (2000). Managing large projects: a special case. Retrieved 08 25, 2009, from http://www.thomsettinternational.com/main/articles/largeprojects/managing_large_projects.pdf Read More