Project+Planning

=**SDLC Models, Project Planning, and Risk Management**= Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Topic overview:
In class today we will revisit and expand on last week's discussion of Systems Development Lifecycles (SDLC's). We will look at waterfall, spiral, and agile lifecycle models in greater depth and consider the different situations in which each is, or is not, appropriate.

In the second part of class we will look at techniques for project planning, evaluating a project's Return on Investment (ROI), and managing project risks.

By the end of today's class you should:
 * Be able to explain the core principles behind the waterfall, spiral, and agile SDLC's
 * Understand the primary advantages and disadvantages of each of the SDLC's
 * Be able to select an appropriate SDLC for your organization and project
 * Be able to apply project evaluation and selection techniques to select the highest-value IS projects to pursue
 * Understand basic project risk management concepts and be able to apply those concepts to identify risks and develop plans for managing those risks.

**Preparation for class:** Read chapter B15 from the course textbook [HBP09] (pages 518-531) prior to class. Focus on the sections on risk management and choosing strategic projects.

Prior to class you should also review the readings from Sunday September 27th -- chapter B14 from the course textbook [HBP09] (pages 498-516), which focuses on the core stages of each SDLC, and the first part of Chapter 17 of the textbook (pages 240-247), which focuses on how those stages are used in different SDLC's (waterfall, spiral/iterative, and agile).

**Reference materials:**
Slides:

Student questions:
As usual, in preparation for today's class, you need to provide at least one thoughtful question raised by your reading of the material you have been asked to prepare for class today. These questions should be posted at least 4 hours prior to the beginning of lecture.

[Bob Monroe] Why do so many organizations still use some variation of the waterfall method if it has been shown again and again to be ineffective at delivering high quality projects in time and on budget?

[Bob Monroe] When I sit down to look at the risks that my IS projects face, the odds of success seem shockingly low. How can I manage those risks to increase the likelihood of delivering a successful project on time and within budget?

[Muhanna Al - Rumaihi] The CCB or change control board is responsible for approving or rejecting all change requests. Is the CCB responsible for any other operations in the organazation that have to do with change managment other than accepting or rejecting change to the system based on an impact analysis of the change?

[Fatima Hilal] What is a primarily determinant of good risk management? Dose an effective risk management practice in eliminating risk or just makes an organization a better risk to insure?

[Zeyad Al-Mudhaf] Which of the two forms of problem management is more vital to a company undertaking a new project - risk or change? What are some examples of cases where risk has been more important than change and vice-versa?

{Mathew James] If a project is considered to be risky, and that project is vital for the company, on what basis should the company decide whether to go ahead with the project or drop it and what factors should the company keep in mind while undertaking either of the two choices?

[Mai AL-Naemi] What factors should a company consider while selecting SDLC model? Are these models different in terms of their effectiveness and the resources involved? Which step could be linked to risk management?

[Hatem Salem] It is definitely true that implementing a good management project plan is essential for the success of your project. Moreover, mitigating the risks is another important factor for success. However, how can risk management play a powerful role in mitigating risks from **competitors?** Are their steps to follow in risk management in order to make risk important for competition and thus making mitigating risks a competitive advantage for a business?

[Omar El-Zoheery] As far as Mitigating Risk and Risk Management, do both aspects have to go hand in hand, or is it possible that if risk management strategies are very effective that attempting to reduce the risk becomes costly for no significant value?

[Rifki Bahri] Before introducing CMU in Qatar, there must be risks involved in making the decision of opening a branch campus here. What were the risks and steps taken to mitigate those risks? Looking back, were those steps successful on achieving the results that CMU decision makers hoped for?

[Hala Khashabi] It seems that there are many risks involved when deciding to build a project, so are organizations willing to deal with these risks for the benefits of a project? And do organizations spend extensively in risk management?

[Samira Islam] The actions taken to improve risk management capabilities are time consuming. In terms of immediate action to risks, how do you think organizations should react? What steps should be taken first? Is following the policies of risk managing capabilities always effective?

[Abdulla Ali Al-Kuwari] In Qatar, there are many legacy management systems that have proved to be unchangeable. For example, the approaches toward the change in the medical system or medical reform in government hospitals have proven to be very costly and ineffective. How should the country change its unchangeable legacy systems when they are resisting modification or should it keep it the same way and focus on other manageable fields?

[Hadi Murtada] How can companies measure the risks that are tied to it? Can we say that the higher the risk, the better is the outcome in case the company succeeds.

[Mohammed Al-Thani] How can a successful project management strategy limit the risks of an organization's system?

[Omnia Khalid] : What are the things that the company would start a risky project to achieve? Is there something more important than the risk of losing it all? Especially that a big percentage of companies face failure because of that risk.

[Noora Al-Mannai] In choosing a strategic project for an organization, the book limits the techniques to be: Focus on organizational goals, Categorize projects, Perform a financial analysis. Depending on what factors, these specific techniques were chosen to be "common" in choosing a project for an organization. Can we breakdown the three common techniques we have into several techniques, such as breaking-down "Categorize projects" to problem, opportunity, and directives?

[Eatidal Al-Qatami] When is the best timing to address a project risk?Why? How do you think promoting project leadership skills help improve the risk management capabilities?

[Ramsey Massouh] on what measures are project ideas rejected or approved according to the CBB? and are some factors more important in than other. for example are ROI more important than production efficiency or do these factors vary in importance according to the nature of the business?