418 Part III • Acquiring Information Systems
methodology, so they have difficulty recreating their ratio-
nales. Good training in how to estimate project steps and
organizational checklists of items to include in estimates
can help the amateur estimator quickly improve.
Even for the experienced project manager, cost esti-
mations can be complicated by many types of unknowns,
including the lack of precedents, unpredictable technical
problems, and shifting business requirements. Projects that
use standard and mature IT components are the most likely
to have published estimates available from consultants or
other third-party vendors and are generally the easiest to
estimate. Both budget padding and lowballing are appar-
ently widely used, but both of these techniques can also
cause dysfunctional consequences (see the box entitled
“Highballing Versus Lowballing Project Costs”).
Staffing
Project staffing involves identifying the IT skill mix for
specialists assigned to the project, selecting personnel who
collectively have the skills needed and assigning them to
the project, preparing team members for the specific proj-
ect work, and providing incentives for them to achieve the
project goals.
In project work, the human resources are a critical
production factor. As part of the project planning, the project
manager should be able to estimate the skill type, proficiency
level, quantity, and time frame for personnel to execute each
project phase and critical task. Some human resources need
to be dedicated to the project full-time, whereas others (e.g.,
a database administrator) will likely be shared with other
project teams. Still others (e.g., users who help test a system)
might not be formal team members but will be relied on for
their expertise at critical points in the project.
Wherever possible, individual employees with the
best qualifications for the project work should be selected.
However, in an organizational setting this is not always
possible, due to the size and talent of the specialist pool
internal to the organization. Because of the diverse set of
specialist skills that might be needed across projects, it is
not uncommon for at least a portion of the team members to
undergo specialized training in anticipation of a project.
Some IS organizations use a skill centers approach in which
IS specialists belong to a center of excellencemanaged by
a coach who is responsible for developing talent and select-
ing personnel for project assignments based not only on the
project’s needs for specific skill sets but also on individual
development needs (Clark et al., 1997). In addition, person-
nel from a PMO may be involved to help plan communica-
tions with key stakeholders and other business employees,
as well as to ensure that the most current documents are
available to all employees who need access to them.
For systems projects, it is also not uncommon to hire
outside contractors for project work for either quality or
workload reasons. This is especially desirable if a distinct
IT specialty is required for a single project, but it does not
make economic sense to develop and maintain these spe-
cialized resources in-house. It also might be impractical to
use internal resources if a project requires a significant
number of additional personnel for just a short period of
time. The downside in these situations is that the company
can become highly dependent on a talent base that is tem-
porary. In the late 1990s, many companies began to focus
on decreasing dependence on outside contractors by devel-
oping their own IT specialist talent. One way to do this is
to build in a requirement for “knowledge transfer” to inter-
nal employees from the outside consultants or contractors
as part of the external vendor contract.
Another key aspect of systems project team staffing
is the selection of business personnel for the project team.
Business personnel with enough authority and credibility
to work with both business leaders and other businessHighballing Versus Lowballing Project Costs
Budget padding is a common approach. Often there is no useful precedent to serve as a guide for a
budget projection; past authorizations can be misleading or only partially applicable. Further, sometimes
project budgets receive across-the-board cuts, favoring those who have submitted a padded budget in
the first place. Budget padding is therefore sometimes the best defensive measure to ensure that ade-
quate resources will be provided to get a job done.
Lowballing project costs can be conscious or unconscious. Sometimes lower estimates are pro-
vided in order to gain initial project approval. Other times the technical glitches that can arise are
underestimated. Sometimes ignorance of an environmental event invalidates what was thought to
be a well-informed estimate.
[Based on Roman, 1986; Frame, 1994]