430 Part III • Acquiring Information Systems
Review Questions
1.Describe the difference between project management and
program management.
2.What is a PMO and why have many organizations imple-
mented one?
3.What managers are involved in managing an IT portfolio,
and why?
4.What information is typically included in an initial IT project
request? In a project charter?
5.What types of skills have been identified as important for
successful IT project managers?
6.What are the business manager roles of project sponsor and
project champion, and why are they important?
7.What is a work breakdown analysis and why is this concept
important?
8.Why is timeboxing becoming a common IT project manage-
ment technique?9.Contrast the strengths of bottom-up and top-down
approaches to project budgeting.
10.What are some key issues related to IT project staffing that
need to be well managed?
11.Describe the key uses of CPM and Gantt charts.
12.Describe one technique used to manage IT project risks.
13.Describe one technique associated with effectively imple-
menting business change (change management).
14.Compare and contrast the Lewin/Schein model with the
Kotter framework. What is the same and what is different?
15.Why is the management of large complex system projects an
important IT capability?
16.What is a virtual team, and why do IT managers need new
approaches for managing such a team?Discussion Questions
1.If a person has been certified by the PMI but has never been
on an IT project team, would you even consider hiring that
person to manage an IT project? Justify your answer.
2.Several approaches for time and budget estimations are pro-
vided in this chapter. Why are these types of project esti-
mates difficult to “get right,” and what techniques can be
used to improve them?
3.Select an IT project that you are familiar with and comment
on whether there was a formal project sponsor and champi-
on, which business managers played these roles, and whether
or not you think their roles positively affected the project
outcomes.
4.Use the Web to identify at least two software products used
to support project managers in general. Briefly contrast their
features and costs.
5.Select any project that you have participated in. Describe
how well the project budget and schedule were controlled,
and evaluate why you think this outcome occurred.6.A project monitoring technique called a traffic approach
(i.e., red, yellow, and green lights) is mentioned in the chap-
ter. Comment on what you see as the pros and cons of this
approach.
7.A large number of U.S.-based mergers over the past two
decades have failed to achieve the forecasted business
benefits of the merger. Develop an argument for why poor
IT project management could contribute to this type of
failure.
8.Not all organizations conduct a formal post-project review.
Provide an argument for why you think organizations should
include such a step as part of their project closing.
9.Identify a recent news report about the IT mega-project un-
derway for the NHS in the United Kingdom. Summarize the
issue discussed. Then comment on whether the report seems
to support the ideas in Figure 11.13 or not.
10.Describe which one of the training topics in Figure 11.15
would be most helpful to you, and why.charts, and project management software are typically
used to help execute and control project team activities.
Managing IT project risks involves identifying and classi-
fying potential risks, assessing the potential consequences,
developing responses for risk minimization, and ongoing
risk monitoring. Successfully managing business change
as part of an IT project requires change-management activ-
ities throughout the project, as well as timely responses to
unanticipated situations. Capturing the lessons learned
from each project, as part of a project closing phase, can
help project managers learn from the successes and mis-
takes of other projects in the same organization.
The successful management of complex software
projects is an important IT capability that often requires
outside consulting help. Today’s IT project teams are also
likely to be “virtual” teams, as some team members are
working at different company centers, perhaps in different
countries, or are employees of an IT vendor. As the out-
sourcing of application projects by firms in developed
countries to those in less developed countries increases, IT
project managers that have repeatedly delivered quality IT
solutions, on-time and within-budget, using project teams
of IT and business workers in different locations and time
zones, will be especially highly valued.