Chapter 11 • IT Project Management 415Project Initiation
The first phase of a project life cycle is the project initiation
phase in which the project is formally authorized and a deter-
mination is made as to whether the project should actually
proceed or not. Although how this phase is conducted varies
a lot across organizations, a key deliverable for this phase is a
project charterthat states in some detail the project’s specific
objectives, its intended scope, any underlying assumptions
and known constraints, and the estimated benefits based on
the feasibility analysis step of the IT project. A broad state-
ment of scope for a large ERP package implementation proj-
ect would include the specific ERP package modules to be
purchased (e.g., finance/accounting, materials management)
as well as the number of divisions and geographic locations
within the enterprise to be included in the proposed project.
The scoping of a project involves setting boundaries
for the project’s size and the range of business functions or
processes that will be involved. A high-level diagram is
used to capture the major actors (entities) that provide
inputs or receive outputs from the proposed system. (For
examples, see the context diagram and the Use Case dia-
gram descriptions in Chapter 8).
As described in Chapter 9, three types of feasibility
analyses are typically conducted for systems projects as part
of the Definition phase of a systems life cycle: economic
feasibility, operational feasibility, and technical feasibility.
Some of the technology feasibilityquestions to consider are
the expected maturity level of the technologies to be used
and the ease with which the needed technical expertise can
be acquired (bought) or transferred to sufficient numbers of
internal IS specialists. A common pitfall here is that the
potential for major “technical shortfalls” is not adequately
taken into account. To do so may require IS managers with
strong relationships with the vendors of the IT products to
be utilized.
Theeconomic feasibilityinvestigation usually involves
a formal cost-benefit analysis based on the overall objectives
and scope of the project as well as an estimate of the project
budget. For projects with benefits that are easily measured,
an ROI will be easy to calculate. However, for projects that
involve a business innovation, such as building a new organi-
zational capability, it is much more difficult to quantify the
potential benefits. For these types of strategic application
projects, a technique such as rank-ordering the alternatives
can be used to overcome total reliance on ROI measures that
could be very difficult to calculate (see Figure 11.5).
Several other types of feasibility concerns can also be
studied in order to better understand the best way to man-
age a systems project and its interdependencies, including
operational feasibilityissues such as schedule feasibility,
legal and contractual feasibility, and political feasibility.
Schedule feasibility takes into account the potential impact
of externally imposed deadlines, such as the effective date
of a new federal regulation or a seasonal date of importance
for competing in a given industry. Legal and contractual
feasibility concerns might need to be investigated to under-
stand the issues related to partnering with one or more IT
vendors for delivering the product solution. Political feasi-
bility involves an assessment of support for the proposed
system on behalf of key organizational stakeholder groups,
which may not have been captured as part of an operational
feasibility study. For example, a systems innovation with
major potential impacts for the way an organization con-
ducts its business could require special capabilities that
organizational members do not yet possess, or the innova-
tion could be perceived as a major competitive threat to one
organizational group but not another.Keeping Project Sponsors Engaged- Reach agreement with the sponsor about their role, including the preparation of the business
case, the development of the project charter, and help with gaining buy-in from business man-
agers at key project milestones - Prior to the project kickoff, reach agreement on a problem escalation process—including the spon-
sor’s preferences for when and how project management issues are brought to his/her attention - Learn how the sponsor will communicate the status of the project to other business managers
(including the company’s top management) and what metrics need to be tracked - Schedule regular meetings with the sponsor to ensure that the project still reflects current busi-
ness priorities - Capture an early agreement on who will participate in the post-project review
[Based on Russell, 2007; Brewer and Dittman, 2010]