This paper considers the most important aspects for an effective and efficient implementation of an Information Technology (IT) project. In the search for a good implementation of a project, it is necessary to perform multidisciplinary tasks as well as to consider non-technological issues such as management skills and human aspects. This paper presents a list of simple recommendations which summarize the main abilities and skills to put into practice in IT implementations. These considerations are divided into five groups but by size reasons in this paper are summarized in two: people & project psychology and organization & planning. Both of them are used to calculate adjustment factors in the Function Point counting method using dynamic models.
Effective and efficient project development in time, cost and benefits are difficult to obtain in Information Technology (IT) projects. Throughout its history, the development of software has been marked by cost overruns, late deliveries, customers discontent and poor reliability. Management software projects are different from management hardware projects. Software projects are a “brain product”. A company’s requirements include processes, administration, product development, usability and many other activities that have to be supported by the software.
There are many papers which address complicated tools for controlling projects and extending methodologies when the real problems of the projects are found more in the field of human and management proficiency. This paper presents five aspects which assure that a project is both well-executed and does not produce deviations : people, organization and style of management, plan and risk management, psychology and business considerations (every aspect has a dynamic diagram and an adjustment factor). By size reasons in this paper is summarized in two: people & project psychology and organization & planning.
To support this research we draw on the experience gained in thirty large projects in different sectors (the sector is a critical variable): Telecom (five projects), industry (six projects), process industry (five projects), distribution industry (five projects), food industry (four projects), aerospace industry (two projects), insurance (two projects) and public sector (one project). 2 The project management field of knowledge
There are interesting documents reviewing the main references in project
management research. James Themis gives an introduction of different methods of
code estimation and speaks about the estimation techniques in the present and gives
future considerations [Themis, unknown]. The software Engineering Institute gives
information about the different curricular topics of software project management and
a list of the main references [
Several studies and theories can be found which focus on the area of code
estimation. Basically these are studies that try to have an approach to the theory of
determining cost variables and estimate efforts. The main methods are: lines of Code
(LOC), CoCoMo (Constructive Cost Model) by Larry Boehm in 1981 and 1988,
Function Points and Feature Points by Jones Albrecht in 1979, Revised Intermediate
CoCoMo (REVIC), Effort Prediction Objects Model (F-PROM) by
There are different studies and theories regarding the best methodologies,
standards and approaches for dealing with project management. The most recognised
guide and standard is provided by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the
Project Management Body of Knowledge. Other examples of professional project
management associations that develop standards are: UK Association for Project
Management and Standards Association of Australia. In addition, there are dozens of
books that give a complete and up to date view of software project management
techniques, among them: Information Project Management by Gary R.
People are the most important variable for the success of a project. It is good to
keep track of the competences existing and needed in an organization with a tool of
competence management. It is necessary to match the characteristic of the job with
the characteristic of the people [
Software development involves more scheduled creativity than most other business areas. Allowing people to be creative and innovative is important. Without innovation however, you never obtain a sustainable competitive advantage; you can only photocopy old functional requirements with new technology.
Everyone working on the project has to take charge of their own job according to their experience. For example, people with four years of experience should be ready to design, solve problems and lead a small team. People who need a detailed course of action and continuous help from others in order to carry out their activities, do not have enough capabilities to be part of a team project. Trust and commitment (“push”) are two of the most important characteristics of the member of a team.
There are many studies in psychology (individual and group) about how we can characterize people. Utilizing this information helps us to accurately select who we want to incorporate into our project in terms of: intellectual capabilities, honesty, degree of commitment and ability to work in a group. The project team works as a whole, but at a higher level every project leader must consider: “common sense” (a mix of experience and maturity) and commercial abilities.
A project needs different kinds of people and there are a variety of aspects to consider: functional expertise, management expertise and technical expertise.
Technological architect and functional architect
Project director System administrator
Team and team leader.
Job director
Task force and person responsible for quality.
Pool of programming
It is important to consider motivation when you are going to hire a person for a project. To understand motivation you have to analyze two things: Is his motivation in line with the necessities of the project? (Intrinsic motivation); How can I improve the motivation of this person in my project? (Extrinsic motivation).
At the beginning of the project, the different teams have to understand some facts
of IT design characteristics, for example:
1. A customized implementation project management is not the same as a
packaged solution project management (i.e. ERP´s).
2. Customized developments should only be carried out when the businesses’
requirements are very different and there are no solutions in the market to
meet those needs [
Internal Logical Files Project size
Delivery
Term Efficiency Input
External Interface Files
External Inputs
External
Outputs Data Functions Rework
FP unadjusted (initial effort) PENDING FP
Transactional Functions
End FP
External
Inquiries
FINISHED FP
PTeimndeing Parallelization Number of Phases Grade
Effort
FP / month Hierarchy Factor (span of control) Levels Number
Real LOC Experience LOC /LOC Table / PM Table LOC/FP
Language Factor
LOC / FP
Maturity / FP Actual Maturity
Initial Maturity
Another important part of the project leader’s job is to explain that a preconfigured solution allows, through the software configuration, millions of possible business solutions some of which are extremely different from others.
Depending on the area, combining different packaged solutions is not a problem (for example: SAP in ERP with Siebel in CRM, etc). Such as in the car industry operation, the future will be packaged solutions but with freedom to combine (this solutions incorporate pre-configured interfaces with other software).
It is necessary to control and to manage the formal and informal communications
within the project using efficient communication tools [
EFFICIENCY FACTOR
Quality
Number of
Communications FP rework
REWORK
Rework input EFFORT 4. Organization and planning considerations
A project cannot be managed like the department of a company. The project management has to be more agile and autonomous, to work faster and more efficiently than is the case in the usual company structure.
The network organization (with fewer than three levels) is the best way to organize environments that require innovation and flexibility (figure I). An informal organization requires people with sufficient experience and training if you want to work with effectiveness.
You can gain the customers/users trust but you must remember that the real issue is
the business relationship. After every milestone, you must have a formal approval
from the customer including a complete list of the things that the customer does not
feel have been completed with the necessary quality [
Never do the project estimation by thinking about another project and copying the estimations. These kinds of estimations are like a lottery and demonstrate that the manager in charge does not have enough experience. The best way is a zero-base budget; budgeting only the real tasks but considering the whole tasks (you need previous experience).
It is essential that the design and management of a project be simple [
The following are the five principal execution problems in an IT project [
Delay the beginning of the new tasks.
Not considering the differences between things that we plan to do, things that we have resources to do and things that we really need to do. 4. Carefully manage the interrelationships with external parts or departments in the project because they always suffer delays. 5. Consider the difficulty and extra-effort of the last details of the project. A project which advances 95% is never a project at 95%.
When planning a project, it must be kept in mind that it is like a chain and the bottlenecks must be controlled. In all the projects, there are circumstances that provoke bottlenecks. It is a statistical reason that depending on the dimension of the project and the different uncertainness you have, there is a probability of failure. Because of that, you have to count on extra resources in the project: extra time security and extra people.
The other aspect is to count on extra resources. New people are required in the
training period and they are very helpful as a “taskforce” when you detect a risk of
bottlenecks in the chain. It is essential to study and apply the Theory of Constraints
(TOC) in project management [
Another thing which is necessary to avoid is multitasking. It is not true that three tasks at 33% added together are 100%. The reason is clear: the preparation time when passing from one task to another. Furthermore, there is a loss of concentration and quality [Abdel-Hamid, 1983 and 1989].
The modern IT technologies increase the functional requirements and the integration between tools, departments and companies. Projects are increasingly more complex and require management skills and human behavior knowledge if you do not want them to fail. To manage IT projects it is always more difficult to possess good skills than good knowledge. To manage IT projects it is more important to understand human behavior and the functional necessities than to count on a sophisticated estimation tool.
This paper, presents a group of recommendations based on the experience of the authors to insure a well-executed project: people, organization and style of management, plan and risk management, psychology and business considerations. These five aspects are analyzing by dynamic models to define more accurately the value adjustment factors in the function point method. By size reason is only explained two models: to calculate the adjustment factor by logistic reasons (organization & planning) and by human reasons (people & organization). [11] [12]