Assignment 1

PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN IT (INFO 3501)

Section- 1
Madam Masita Abdul Rahman

Md Rubaiyat Bhuiyan
0712855
 1. In one paragraph of not less than 50 words, summarize the three-
sphere model of systems management in your own words.

The three sphere model of systems management:

The business section requires a knowledgeable person to understand the long

term objective of a system management and its goals. It also requires the ability
to internally control variables within an organization and maximize the never
ending limitation in resources. A system which is not developed to business or
market objectives is ultimately doomed to fail. For maintaining a business a few of
the skills are the requirements such as marketing, advertising, management,
measurement, good in political talk. The organization section requires to
incorporate both the Business and the technology sphere into account, it needs to
take into consideration about what has to be taken into account in order to
incorporate the respective stakeholder. How will the project affect the
stakeholders, how will the project affect those who are already running something
similar to the one being done in the project? What will happen to the system after
it is completed, how are the users going to use it and if it needs training who is
going to train the users, and so on. As for technology, a project manager needs to
know how each and every tool and technology work, thus requiring the need to
know the strengths, benefits, limitations and costs. This also applies to human
resources and the time line. Often technical limitations will reduce the scope of
project needs, so it needs to be incorporated in order to move forward.

2. Search the internet and scan information technology industry

magazines or websites to find ONE successful IT project. Describe
the project. List TWO each of the business, technology and
organizational issues that you think can be addressed for the
project.

Successful IT Project of Large Scale Data Center Implementation

The client is a leading US investment bank with over 50,000 employees worldwide
with an ever increasing global presence.
The project was to implement an offsite data center solution that can cater for
expanding IT infrastructure demands over the next 5 years, while decoupling IT
infrastructure functions from day-to-day business demands.
The issues that can be addressed for the project are:
Business- The budget production and cost tracking all expenditure throughout
project implementation. Also Production of tender documentation for IT systems
has to be done in interest of the stakeholders.
Technology- Implementation of site surveys and interviews with local IT staff to
produce all IT requirements for data centre equipment will be a hassle because of
the social skill needed to conduct all these mentioned. And production of detailed
plans of data center to cater for all equipment including telecommunications,
network, WAN, third part vendors etc has to be cross checked with the old
systems and softwares because they might have compatibility issues.
Organization - Production of a project plan including all steps and designs
necessary to successfully complete the IT infrastructure fit out has to be checked.
And production of task list and schedule for installation and relocation of all IT
equipment into new data center along with the effected personals has to be
checked and if needed future training has to be provided which might lead to
incur additional expenses.

3. Which of the issues that you have defined above do you think is the
MOST important to the project and why?

The budget production and cost tracking all expenditure throughout project
implementation is the most important to the project, this is due to the fact that no
matter how much a project team or the top management is motivated and
excited, it will not move an inch with the budget and the continuous flow of
money to the project. So a confirmed budget has to be there along with a backup
in case of emergency, in addition to that a proper cost tracking system has to be
maintained in order to check that the budget is being used properly.

4. Search the internet and scan information technology industry

magazines or websites to find an IT project that failed or have
problems due to any ONE of business, technology or organizational
issues. Describe the project. Describe the issue that made the
project failed.

A failed business strategy involving a large IT blunder contributed to the collapse

of Scotland’s largest customer-owned lender, the Dunfermline Building Society.
The widened its revenue sources by attempting to establish a software business
selling mortgage-processing systems to other banks, basically the idea was
develop a mortgage IT system that could then be sold to other financial
institutions. And the best part is that they outsourced the system development to
some third part vendor and created a Liaison with the IT Department of
Dunfermline Building Society.
The IT Projects main failure issue was mostly related to technology. They selected
a software vendor’s unproven product for a mission critical application, which was
not only for their use but also for selling to other financial institution. Paying
insufficient attention to substantial project risks on how the hardware
specification and the software compatibility issues. Also they relyed on the
promise of customization to backfill functionality gaps in the off-the-shelf
software.

5. Think of a real or an imaginary organization that you are

interested in. Draw a graphical illustration of each of the different
organizational structures (i.e functional, project, matrix) for the
organization that you have selected.

Functional Organizational Structure

Project Organizational Structure

Matrix Organizational Structure

6. Discuss the importance of top management commitment for

successful project management. Provide examples to illustrate the
importance based on an already implemented project that you are
 aware of, or based on an imaginary/proposed project to be done in
future.

Without top management commitment many projects fail. Some projects have
senior managers who acts as a key driving force for a project. As projects are part
of a large organizational environment, it has to be taken into account that many
factors affect a project which might be out of the project manager's control, so
this makes the top management commitment crucial to the project. In a way the
project manager need to have good liaison in the top management.
For example a project has started on the refurbishing of an office starting from
furnitures to all the equipment. The project manager needs adequate resources,
and if the project managers have top management commitment, they will have
adequate resources and will be able to focus on completing their specific projects.
Under certain circumstances, a projects needs can be unique which need to be
fulfilled in a timely manner, such as in order to retain the key personal who is in
charge of planning department, may be with the top managements approval a
special pay can be offered I order to keep that person.
Most Projects cuts across functional areas, such as during the refurbishment the
wiring of the office has to be changed and the schematics are with maintenance
department, the top managements can deal with the political issues of the
maintenance functional manager and encourage to co-operate.

Also top managements are seniors with lots of experience, sometimes the project
managers are new and often inexperienced, so may be the seniors can take time
to pass on advice critical to the project such as past experience, as it is always
better to learn from others mistakes. This will allow the project managers to learn
about leadership skills and also to manage things properly.
References

http://www.gantthead.com/article.cfm?ID=187449
http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=2630
http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=2040&tag=rbxccnbzd1
http://www.eire.co.jp/SUC/index.html
http://www.bia.ca/articles/TheTopProjectManagementChallenges.htm
http://www.ca.com/us/success-stories.aspx