BCO6656 IT Project Management- The Information System

Project management is the strategy which is applied by the organisation before initiating any change in the workplace. It is the process which helps in developing a support system for the organisation with the effect of which risk of uncertainties gets reduced and work is processed in a smooth way. Hence, a report is developed which will include critical review information system project management in which relevant set of aspects related to the project will be discussed. This will help the project manager in managing the quality of the project and will help in evaluating the controlling techniques required to be applied in the workplace. Importance of project closeout will also be provided in the project report which will help the target user users in managing the information system project in an effective way.

Quality is one of the most important aspects attached with project management. For an organisation initiating a project it is required that the quality of the same should be managed in a proper way (Hazzan, & Dubinsky, 2009). It is being reviewed that a project manager should work upon developing a proper quality management plan which could help in managing every single aspect of the project in a proper way. A quality management plan provides a set direction to the project manager working on which assurance of the project completion in near future is made. This also helps in enhancing the goodwill of the project management company in the market (Iland, 2013).

According to PMBOK quality matrix helps the project manager in evaluating every single aspect of the project and provides an assurance that the quality of the project could be managed. All the quality control measures will be applied in the workplace which will be evaluated with the help of quality matrix. Quality matrix will provide a direction with the help of which quality control practices will be performed, also an assurance of the quality performance will be made.

In the project in case if any change will be requested due to any requirement or emergency then an integrated change control will be performed by the quality management team. Then the change will be approved and after approval of the change request, execution of the change will be done which will be synchronized with the project deliverables. This synchronization will help in managing the change as well as in maintaining the quality of the project initiated by the project manager (Kaczmarska, & Gierulski, 2015). Hence, it could be evaluated that applying this quality management plan in the IS project will help the project manager in maintaining the quality of the project as well as a change in near future with the effect of which assurance to the success of the project will be made.

According to Pareto Chart it could be analyzed that the 80% of the problems are often caused due to 20% of the causes. Analysing all the aspects it could be evaluated that a project manager should use an 80-20 rule and apply the same on the project. In the IS project, it is being observed that approximately 80% of the issues are caused due to 20% of the reasons. Therefore, it is important that a project manager should work on these 20% causes so as to reduce the problems which could affect the quality of the project and its authenticity in the market.

Project management is a critical task as there are many of the aspects which are attached with project management some of the aspects are cultural aspects, training, and legal issues. To develop a project people from different diversity comes. In this case, they fail in coordinating with each due to which clashes between then occur. Therefore manage should indulge in training aspects and help the team members in remaining motivated and understand the effectiveness of working together rather than working individually (Kerzner, 2013).

According to the above data, it could be analyzed that there are various overruns which have a huge impact on an Information System project. Several factors are analyzed due to which these overruns incur in the project these factors are missing focus, content issues, skill issues, execution issues and unexplained causes. Do these factors cost overruns of 45% incurred in the project. 7% of the schedule overruns and -56% of the benefits shortfalls incurs in the Information System Project (JIE, 2017). 

Hence, these were the aspects which were important to be focused upon by the project manager working on the information system project so as to ensure that the project could successfully get completed within the required deadlines and budget. It is also required that a project manager should ensure to develop a project which should help in maintaining the growth of the society as well as the economy (Loureiro, & Curran, 2007). The project should be based on all the ethics and should not harm any of the individual attached to it.

Project management is the aspect which includes a various set of legal aspects; it is necessary that a project manager should work on all the legal aspects and ensure to maintain the internal decorum of the project (Levin, 2007).

According to (Mosavi, 2014), It requires that the project initiated by the project management company should include the entire legal license. It is required that a proper blueprint for the technicalities should be developed and approval should be taken. It is also required that the software used to develop the project should be authenticated and licensed. It is also important that a project manager should ensure that any kind of piracy should not take place while working on the project.

According to (O'Sullivan, & Dooley, 2009) for a project manager, it is important that he should work towards to maintain confidentiality at the workplace. Information related to the team working on the project as well as customer attached with it should be kept confidential. This will help the project manager in maintaining confidentiality and reducing the risk of revealing the information to any unauthenticated person.

According to (Hazzan, & Dubinsky, 2009), it is required that all the safety measures like fire extinguishers, proper infrastructure, and system firewalls should be applied by the project manager while performing on the project. This will help the project team in remaining safe and secure. System Firewalls will reduce a risk of threats and uncertainties and will have a huge impact on the progress of the project.

Integrated project lifecycle includes a various set of aspects in which it is required that a project manager should develop an effective team of skilled team members.

The project manager should have the knowledge of managing human resource working on a project so that any kind of clash or cultural issue could get resolved and work could be processed in a proper way.

The project initiation and planning should be done in which proper plans related with the project progress should be developed. Project initiation planning phase includes a various set of aspects like project organizing means keeping all the aspects of the project in place, developing a work breakdown structure which should include proper bifurcation of every single activity. Project scheduling in which appropriate time to every single activity should be allotted so that work could get completed within the required time frames and deadlines (Lock, 2013).

Execution and control are the next steps attached with project management which includes project monitoring in which monitoring of all the risk factors should be done and evaluation of appropriate strategies should be done so as to mitigate those risk factors. Control meetings should be organized on a weekly basis so that all the aspects related to the project could get controlled and assurance of smooth processing of the work could be made (Kaczmarska, & Gierulski, 2015).

The closeout of the project is done. It is the phase in which project is developed and all the requirements are fulfilled. This is the end phase of the project in which it is necessary that all the contracts and agreements should be terminated after completion of the project. 

Comparing software development paradigm it could be evaluated that a project manager should focus on the quality of the project, stakeholder value, return on investment and time/ schedule.

After completion of the project, it is necessary that the project manager should ensure to keep an eye on a change management and risk management aspects. This will help the project manager in managing the future aspects of the project (Kerzner, 2013).

Contract and customer relationship management is the last aspect which is required to be focused upon by the project manager while performing a project. It is necessary that the project manager should work towards to all the control aspects and should fulfill all the requirements of the agreement developed at the beginning of the project (Liu, 2012).

Project management is the aspect in which it is required that the technology and methods should be used in a proper way. Using techniques and methodologies will provide a set direction to the project manager in managing the project and will help in enhancing the quality of the project (Mainga, 2017).

It could be suggested that a project manager should apply agile methodology on the project so as to ensure that the technical project could be developed in a proper way. The agile methodology provides a proper flow of planned processes working upon which a project manager will ensure to develop an effective information system (Loureiro, & Curran, 2007). 

Comparing IT project success rate paradigm it could be evaluated that applying the agile methodology in the IT project will help in managing the project. (Mavridis, Gross-Amblard, and Miklós, 2016). Applying Agile Methodology include 65% success factors, 25% of the challenges and 10% of the failing factors. Therefore to ensure that a successful information system could be developed a project manager should use Agile methodology.

Developing a proper work breakdown structure will help the project manager in evaluating every single aspect related to the project. It is necessary that all the activities should be bifurcated in a proper way and allocation of the resource should be done in a way with the effect of which quality could be applied to the project (Mosavi, 2014).

Developing a Gantt chart will help in providing a graphical presentation of all the bifurcated activities in a proper way. It is necessary that a proper time should be allocated to every single activity so that a proper Gantt chart could be developed. This Gantt chart will help the project team in managing the work according to the time allocated and will help in completing every single task within the required deadlines.

Understanding roles and responsibilities

Understanding roles and responsibilities is another aspect which is required to be taken into consideration by the project manager and the team (O'Sullivan, & Dooley, 2009). It is necessary that a project manager should allocate the work according to the skills and abilities of every single individual working on the project. Roles and responsibilities should be allocated in a proper way which will help the team members in managing the work and will help them in processing the work according to the project requirement (Miller, 2008).

It is required that all the project team members should understand the criticality of the work and should have the knowledge of providing a relevant set of support for each other. This will help in maintaining the internal decorum of the project and will help in completing the project according to its requirements (Hazzan, & Dubinsky, 2009).

Conclusion

At the end, it could be concluded that project management is the aspect which includes a combination of work processes so as to manage a single task. Teamwork is one of the most important aspects attached with project management. It is important that all the ethical aspects related to the project must be undertaken by the project manager. This will help in processing the project in a smooth way. According to PMBOK, it is required that all set of ethical aspects should be undertaken by the project manager, this will provide a proper set of support to the project manager and will help in managing the project requirements. The project initiated should be properly planned and assurance should be made that the quality will be provided to the same. Quality management will help the project manager in obtaining all the set objectives and will help in processing the project in a smooth way. It is also important that the project initiated should help the society and the economy of the country.

References

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Iland, A. (2013). Time Management: Getting More Things Done in Less Time. 

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Lock, D., (2013). Project management. Farnham: Gower Publishing.  

Loureiro, G. and Curran, R. (2007). Complex systems concurrent engineering. London: Springer.

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Mosavi, A. (2014). Exploring the roles of portfolio steering committees in project portfolio governance. International Journal Of Project Management, 32(3), 388-399.

O'Sullivan, D. and Dooley, L. (2009). Applying innovation. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

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