Project management zarkovic

How is this different?
 In this part of the course we are
concerned with how projects are managed
in industry and business
 Students with an aptitude in IPT are likely
to pursue careers as
• Managers or
• Systems Analysts
 Much of the work carried out by these
professions is project based
 Much of the material in these units are
derived as a result of consultation with
industry

Where in the syllabus does project
management occur ?
 In the preliminary course the unit
“Planning, Design and
Implementation” is where students
meet most of the major concepts
required for project management
 In the HSC course, this material is
covered in the very first unit “Project
Work”

How should project management
be taught?
 Many teachers teach the preliminary
syllabus in a linear fashion
 As a result, material in the unit “Planning,
Design and Implementation” is not
covered until almost the end of the
course, (usually early term 3)
 The CSTA teaching program schedules
the “Planning, Design and
Implementation” material in term 3

What is the difference between the
Year 11 and Year 12 Project
Management Units
 The syllabus describes the Year 11 unit “
Planning, Design and Implementation” as
the “… traditional method of developing
systems”
 The HSC course
• Expands on some of the detail in the
Preliminary unit
• Adds new material on Prototype development
and participant based development.

What is the difference between the
Year 11 and Year 12 Project
Management Units
 Since the Preliminary project unit is, more
or less, a subset of the HSC unit, I have
often wondered whether it would be
worthwhile just teaching the latter
 In the following slides we will examine
each unit in detail and highlight major
differences
 Remember, the steps taken by students in
the management of their projects, reflect
those used by systems analysts and
project managers in the real world

“ Planning, Design and
Implementation” - Preliminary
 This unit describes the following steps
used to create a project. These include:
• Understanding the problem
• Making Decisions
• Designing solutions
• Implementing
• Testing, evaluating and maintaining
• Social & ethical issues
 In the workplace, some of the above steps
overlap, or are revisited if it is required to
do so i.e. a development cycle

Understanding the problem
 Here the purpose of the existing system
along with the nature and extent of the
problems are to be determined
 Students learn about the use of
interviews, observations, time/motion
studies and the use of surveys
 The importance of good survey design
needs to be emphasised

 Students need to be able to create
survey questions that will enable
them to
• Understand the problem better
• Determine an appropriate solution
• Enable data obtained to be processed by
a computer e.g. a database

 Project management involves the
production of a lot of documentation
 The first document produced is the
Requirement Report. This describes
• The needs of the users,
• The data/information used and required,
• The required information technology,
• The information processes that are currently
used and will be required by any new system.

 The next document that is developed is the
Project Plan.
 This includes:
• The Requirement Report
• Gantt Charts – showing the scheduling of the various
project tasks.
• A funding management plan – costing of the new
system, sources of funds, how money is to be spent,
how much is to implement the new system
(development costs), how much money is required to
maintain the system (operating costs) etc
• A communications management plan – the media used
to communicate, guide lines for communication, the
frequency of communication, etc

Making Decisions
 In this stage, the existing system is investigated
more thoroughly and ideally a number of possible
solutions are investigated.
 For each solution there is a feasibility study which
covers:
• Financial feasibility - Cost/benefit analysis should be
carried out.
• Technical feasibility – does the technology exist to
develop a particular solution? Is it readily available?
• Schedule Feasibility – can this solution be implemented
in the given time frame?
• Operational Feasibility – Is the project in line with the
current goals of the organization? Does this project over
reach the capacity of the organization. Does it suit the
organisation’s purpose.

Making Decisions
 More documentation. All of the above is
submitted to management along with a
recommended course of action
 Management approves or disapproves
 If approved – solution design begins
 If disapproved – its back to step one and
the current system is re-investigated

Designing solutions
 The project team has a way forward and
starts to put together a system design
 A number of tools are used in this process
including:
• Top / down design
• Context diagrams
• Data flow diagrams
• System flowcharts
• Decision trees
• Decision tables
• Data dictionaries

Designing solutions
 Both of the textbooks I use, Powers
(Heinemann) and Ware & Grover
(Jacaranda) have good sections on these
tools
 Ware & Grover use a case study approach
to illustrate how these tools are used.
(Actually the case study is used to
demonstrate how all of the steps of the
SDC are used).
 Powers’ book offers students practical
exercises that require students to apply
the design tools to particular situations

Implementing
 Firstly, there is the system conversion method to
think about.
• Parallel – both systems run together
• Direct – immediate change to the new system
• Phased – gradual implementation by introducing only a
small part of the system at a time, working out the
bugs, then implementing another part of the system, etc
• Pilot – trialling the new system in a small part of the
organisation
 Students need to be able to decide on the best
conversion method to use in a particular situation
and be able to justify their choice

Implementation
 Secondly, how will the participants
be trained in the use of the system
 The type of training will depend on
the:
• Existing knowledge of the participants
• The features of the new system

Implementation
 Normally, training boils down to four possible
choices:
• Train the trainer – one person is trained and then trains
everyone else
• Use of Training Specialists – material is supplied to the
specialist, who analyses the information and determines
the best method to use to present the information
• Training manuals & presentations – useful for staff who
already know what they are doing and need clarification
on a few minor issues
• Providers of hardware & software may carry out their
own specialised training
 Students must be able to justify a particular
training choice

Testing, evaluating and maintaining
 Testing is carried out at all of the
above stages
 In this stage, we need to determine
if the output from the system is
meeting all of the requirements
specified in the requirement report

 After the system is well established,
evaluation of the system takes place
 Is the system working as expected?
 Are any modifications required to the
system?
 Minor changes can be implemented on the
existing system
 However, if it is determined that major
changes are required, the system
development cycle is started over again

 Maintenance – is defined as making
minor modifications to a system
 It includes:
• Small deficiencies in the system, e.g. A
change in the layout of a screen
• Installing new hardware, e.g. printer
• Upgrading software packages

Some Social and Ethical Issues
 Human centred vs machine centre
systems
• The former places the needs of the
participants first of all – making the
participants work as effective and
satisfying as possible
• Machine centred – simplify what the
computer does, however this is usually
at the expense of the participants
• What are the OH&S issues to consider?

Some Social and Ethical Issues
 Does the new system have any effect
on the organization?
• Relationships between participants
• Flattened hierarchy
• Less employees required
• Retraining of employees
• Better qualified employees required
• Greater expectations of employees

Project Work – HSC
 This is essentially the same as the
preliminary, with
• A little more detail
• Some new content – but not a lot
• The formalisation of the project
management process

The System Development Cycle
(SDC)
 The process of system development
can be represented as a cyclical
process
 The next slide demonstrates this
idea.
 The following slides details additional
content / detail of importance.

 Understanding
the problem

 Making
Decisions

 Designing
Solutions

 Implementing

 Testing,
evaluating and
Maintaining

Understanding the Problem
 On page 33 of the syllabus you will notice that
• The project plan, and
• Social and ethical design
are described separately. These are a part of
“Understanding the problem”. However, they have been
described separately to stop people from exclusively
associating this new content with Prototyping. This
content can be applied to any version of system
development.
 Notice the expanded communication skills. These
skills go beyond those necessary for just
gathering data and have a more managerial
inclination

 Prototyping is another common form of
system development
 It is often used when the development
team is having difficulty “pinning down”
the exact nature of the problem
 The prototype is like a scaled down
version of the final system with input and
output screens and some limited
processing capability

 The prototype is presented to the
participants for comment and criticism
 Participant feedback is the basis upon
which modifications to the prototype are
made until the problem is understood
 Once the problem is understood, system
development proceeds as before

Making Decisions
 No major changes to the Preliminary
course material
 Notice that Prototyping is included as
a possible solution

Designing Solutions
 Again, the use of prototypes as a method
for creating solutions is mentioned
 Participant development is also introduced
This occurs when people within the organisation
that use an overall information system,
develop their own solutions using guided
processes (like wizards) and application
packages

Designing Solutions
 A good example of this occurs in
schools:
All government schools use the O.A.S.I.S.
software package to manage the
finances of the school.
However, on a faculty level, the finances
are often managed by using a
spreadsheet.
This is a participant based solution.

Implementation
 Note that students need to be aware
of the importance of an
implementation plan
 This plan details
• The preferred conversion method
• How existing data will converted for use
by the new system
• The options for training

 Acceptance Testing – running test data
and real data on the system to look for
errors, shortcomings and unexpected
failures
 If the system passes a checklist of tests
and performance standards, the system
then becomes operational
 As before the system is evaluated and
maintained, until it is determined that a
new system is required and the system
development cycle begins all over again

How does the SDC impact on
students?
 In the classroom, students have to
implement the system development cycle
as a part of their assessment tasks
 Students can implement only a few parts
of the cycle or the whole thing
 This not only includes the development of
some product but also the provision of
some or all of the documentation
described in the system development cycle

students?
 In the preliminary course, the
required documentation for projects
usually includes the:
• Requirement Report, and the
• Feasibility Study

students?
 In the HSC course, students are required to
submit a full set of system development cycle
documents for their major project including a:
• Requirement Report,
• Copies of questionaries, surveys, minutes of meetings,
team goals and duties,
• Feasibility Studies with recommendations,
• Context diagrams, dataflow diagrams, decision trees,
decision tables, data dictionaries, system flowcharts
• An implementation plan, training manual,
• Acceptance test data and standards, feedback sheets,
system audit sheets

students?
 Some of the documents must, by
necessity be “works of fiction”
The feasibility study is one particular area
where this is mostly necessary because
any proposed solution presented to
‘management’ must not only come in
under budget but include benefits for
the organisation or it won’t be
‘approved’ and the project is over!

What you have to do for
assignment 2
 In this assignment I want you to carry out
some of the tasks described in the system
development cycle, viz:
• The requirement report
• The feasibility study
 It is based around the fictitious scenario
where you have to present a one day
workshop to teachers on web design skills

What you have to do for
assignment 2
 Because it is a fictitious scenario:
• Some of the information in the report
will be also be fictitious
• However some can be based on reality
(as you know it)
 The final product that you will submit
will be a written report.

Project management zarkovic

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