Term Paper of Project Management.

TERM PAPER

OF

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

TOPIC:-Study the reasons responsible for India’s dismal performance in

implementation of project management as a science.

SUBMITTED BY:

JAVAID AHMAD GANAIE

ROLL no. 15

Reg. no. 3020070030

Science projects

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At first blush the above definition of projects may not seem a perfect fit for the work that

goes on in a science lab. The outcomes of a research effort often lack a precise definition.

While a project might have a definite start date, a specific end date is rarely specified. Even

when the funding ends on a specific date, it's usually assumed that a renewal will be sought.

Even budgets--which are, regrettably, fixed--often seem fluid.

So how can we bridge this gap between a project's technical definition and a PI's daily

experience? First, by realizing that these difficulties are not limited to science. Indeed, some

degree of ambiguity exists in every project. Yet, in science as in other kinds of projects, there

is value in trying to eliminate as much ambiguity as possible.

Second--and this may be the most important point in relating project management to

science--the specified outcomes, end dates, and budgets are always provisional. Project

management allows--indeed, insists--that the components of a project be constantly revised as

new information arises. Defining, for example, the desired project outcome means deciding

what you hope to accomplish as of now, with the understanding that those definitions will

probably change with time.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

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To study the reasons responsible for implementation of project as

a science.

To analyze the projects and its implementation in India.

To study the various factors responsible for implementation of

project in India.

To examine the international projects and its impact on Indian

projects.

The Four Phases of Project Management Implementation

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1. Initiation Phase

Throughout the initiation phase, project management consultants use pilot projects to build

process momentum, overcome natural resistance to change, and gain first-hand knowledge of

your organisation. The goal of this phase is to successfully mobilise your organisation,

remediate any current at-risk projects, and set the stage for the next two installation phases.

During this phase, the project management methodology is introduced and software training

is conducted; but only for those individuals who will be specifically associated with pilot

project teams. Also, a plan for the project-level installation phase is developed and key tools

are created that will be utilised during the remaining installation phases.

2. Project-Level Installation Phase

The second phase utilises information gathered from pilot projects in the initiation phase to

roll-out structured project planning and control processes for all remaining projects, as well

as to formally establish the Project Management Office. This phase can include the creation

of PMO job descriptions, formal guidelines for project planning/control, a project web site,

and a web-based activity update system - basically the necessary infrastructure to support the

consistent, successful application of project management techniques by the PMO. Project

Management Training is also rolled-out to the entire organisation during the project-level

installation phase. By the conclusion of this phase, the nucleus of a Project Management

Office is in-place, all project team members have been trained, and the project management

consultants are ready to begin transitioning from their role of supporting project team

requirements to supporting the PMO staff.

3. Enterprise-Level Installation Phase

During the enterprise-level installation phase, tools are implemented that are focused on

managing an organisation's entire portfolio of projects. Examples of these tools include;

enterprise performance metrics, a management "dashboard" to gain summary-level visibility

to project status, and project scheduling based on limited resources and project priority

(enterprise resource leveling). The intent of these types of tools is to

(1) provide management with timely and accurate information about the status of the all the

projects being undertaken by the organisation and

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(2) support business decision-making that impacts the successful completion of projects such

as: changes to staffing, funding, project prioritisation, and workload.

During the enterprise-level installation phase, the Project Management Office staff has

already begun to assume some of the day-to-day responsibilities for developing and

maintaining ongoing project plans. In doing so, the PMO staff is able to free-up the project

management consulting firm to focus on the design and implementation of the enterprise-

level tools. By the end of this phase, all responsibility for developing and updating individual

project plans have been transitioned from the Project Management Consultants to the PMO

staff.

4. Maintenance Phase

The final phase marks the important transition of the Project Management Office from the

project management consultants back to the organisation. In addition to supporting the day-

to-day responsibilities for planning and controlling individual projects, the PMO staff will

now become the focal point for providing the enterprise-level information and analysis

required by management.

At this point in the project management implementation process, the organisation has been

well trained, numerous success stories have been created and communicated, virtually all

projects have well-developed project plans, and there is widespread support for investing in a

formal project planning and control process. Also, the Project Management Office

infrastructure is in place, the PMO staff has been trained, and management has necessary

visibility to the key project portfolio level information.

Successful completion of this phase creates long-term continuity by implementing the

necessary policies and incentives to permanently inculcate project management into the

culture of the organisation. Ideally, formal project planning and control processes will

become recognised as a required core competency and an essential function within the

organisation.

Key premises that lead to project success

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The greatest chances for project success are realized when PIs, acting as managers, embrace

the following premises.

Project management is a way of thinking and behaving, rather than just a

way of analyzing and presenting data. Managing a project effectively means

thinking before acting, identifying and dealing with potential problems before

they occur, and constantly monitoring to determine whether your actions are

achieving their desired results. The goal is to internalize project management, to

make it second nature, a way of thinking about the decisions you make in

managing your laboratory.

Attempting to control all aspects of a project assures the greatest chance of

success, but you will never succeed at controlling everything. That's okay.

Project plans represent your current thought, at any given time, about how the

goals of the project will be achieved. Even if anticipated approaches have never

been tried before, it is important to describe what you propose to do, how you

expect the project to unfold, and the results you hope to achieve. The less certain

you are that the plan will work, the more closely you should monitor ongoing

performance to identify deviations from the plan as quickly as possible. If a

planned approach seems not to be working, clear choices should be made about

how to modify existing plans and guide the work in new directions.

People, not numbers and graphs, create successful projects. The major

purpose of project management is to align and motivate people and to support

their decision-making. It is people's creative insights and performance that will

ultimately lead to project success, not a number or a graph. So keep your people

on the same page, but make sure they're happy and have room to breathe.

(1) REASONS FOR FAILURE OF PROJECTS IN INDIA AS A

SCIENCE

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Project Management : Still More Art than Science

The Key to Project Management Success

Change is here to stay. Organizations are changing at a breakneck pace in order to satisfy

their customers and stay competitive. It is in this environment that project managers must

learn to thrive, delivering products and services that meet the needs of the organization and

assist businesses in delivering value to their customers. It is not surprising that project

management has become a profession in its own right. Project managers who can be

successful in this environment are sought after. The question that everyone is asking is,

"What makes a project manager successful?"

Before that question can be answered, a more important question is, "What makes a project

successful?" Some would define a successful project simply as satisfying the client’s

requirements within schedule and budget limitations and without burning out the project

team. But the focus should be on adding value to the business. Therefore, simply meeting

requirements does not define project success. Delivering business value does. So how does a

project manager deliver business value? Project management is art as well as science.

Understanding processes, tools, and techniques (the hard skills, the science of project

management)—and knowing when and how to apply them—is only part of the answer. A

greater piece of the puzzle for successful project delivery is soft skills (the art of project

management)--the timeless principles of working within an organization. Soft skills help to

define the business value, clarify the vision, determine requirements, provide direction, build

teams, resolve issues, and mitigate risk. Without the appropriate soft skills, the likelihood of

project success diminishes.

Know When and How to Use Hard Skills

Project managers must have the appropriate processes, tools, and techniques at their

fingertips to deliver projects. A key resource to many project managers today is the Project

Management Institutes Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), which provides

the manager with generally accepted processes, tools, and techniques of project management.

It groups the processes into nine knowledge areas, detailing what is required by the process

(the inputs), what occurs during the process, and the deliverables of the process (the outputs).

This document merely provides the project manager with a guide; the appropriate

implementation of these processes, tools, and techniques on a Project Management: Still

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More Art Than Science - A paper 2 of 6. given project is another challenge. Understanding

the best way to do this comes with experience.

Of course, there are many other project management practices available in today's market.

For example, the Unified Software Development Process outlines a process that is use-case

driven, architecture-centric, iterative, and incremental. It requires a different approach to

project management in order to be successful while still using some of the PMBOK practices.

The same holds true for Critical Chain Project Management. While this form of managing

projects has a different focus than the Critical Path--the Critical Chain--it does not replace all

of the processes and tools of the PMBOK.It is true that the hard skills associated with these

project management practices can be learned from a textbook and can be further developed

through experience. But if a project manager focuses on these practices and skimps on the

broader soft skills, success will be elusive. Consider the following scenarios: Managing scope

without being able to clearly communicate its meaning can cause unclear deliverables and

requirements and a dissatisfied client. Managing communications without the ability to

develop an open and honest exchange of ideas within the project team can result in issues not

being raised until they reach a critical point.

Developing a project plan without engaging the team appropriately can lead team members to

ignore the plan and create mistrust within the team. Making use of all these processes and

procedures without displaying leadership in delivering the end product or service will result

in failure. Even with a mastery of hard skills and a keen sense of when to use them, a project

will rarely be completely successful without the appropriate application of soft skills.

The Missing Link - Soft Skills

A clear understanding of the soft skills of project management and the ability to apply these

skills effectively throughout the life cycle of a project will enhance the success of a project

exponentially. Few projects fail because the Gantt chart/PERT/CPM are wrong, the

roles/responsibilities are not mapped out in a matrix, or the cost charts were off. More often

they fail because of a project manager’s inability to communicate effectively, work within the

organization’s culture, motivate the project team, manage stakeholder expectations,

understand the business objectives, solve problems effectively, and make clear and

knowledgeable decisions. These are the skills that take time to acquire through experience,

coaching, and mentoring. The following soft skills are crucial for successful project

management:

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Communication - This is, quite simply, the most important soft skill for all Project

Management: Still More Art Than Science - A paper 3 of 6 project managers. They

must have the ability to convey complex ideas easily, clearly articulate what must be

accomplished, keep the team moving toward a common goal, foster an environment

that allows team members to communicate openly and honestly, admit their own

mistakes without loosing respect, negotiate, listen, facilitate the list goes on.

Organizational Effectiveness - Project managers must understand the corporate

culture, the organizational dynamics, and the individuals they are dealing with. With

this understanding, they will be able to obtain resources more effectively, gain

support, and build a stronger foundation for the effort.

Leadership - Project Managers must lead. They frequently do not have direct

authority, yet they do have direct responsibility. They must build authority through

appropriate leadership.

Problem Solving and Decision-Making - Resolving issues or solving problems is a

large portion of what a project manager does every day. Each phase of a project has

its own unique set of problems. Without strong problem-solving skills, the sheer

volume of issues that are a normal part of every project will soon overwhelm the

project manager.

Team Building - Building a team in the business environment is a challenge. Co-

location is not easy and rarely occurs. More frequently a project team is made up of

borrowed resources from other functional areas within the organization and usually

also has vendors and suppliers. Creating a team atmosphere where the team believes

that "we are all in this together" is a critical component to project success.

Flexibility and Creativity - Having a proven framework to guide a project manager

is not enough. The project manager must also adapt to the needs of the project. Since

every project is unique, each may require different components, templates, tools, and

techniques. Using the "project manager toolbox" effectively will assist in delivering a

successful project.

Trustworthiness - The project manager must have the trust of all of the stakeholders

involved in the project. Simply meeting deadlines is just one facet of this; a project

manager must also be able to convey that he can be trusted day-to-day to do what is

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right at the right time to keep the project successful and the client satisfied. The list

above is not all-inclusive. Time management, stress management, customer

relationship management, expectation management, coaching, mentoring, and sound

business judgment are other soft skills that a project manager needs to be successful.

Keep the Big Picture in Mind

Of course, a project manager operates within the context of the enterprise itself, Project

Management: Still More Art Than Science - A paper 4 of 6 and so a full understanding of the

organization and how it works is essential. The figure below represents the “big picture” of

the enterprise, the system in which daily activity takes place. The outer ring represents the

unwritten and written rules by which the organization operates. The middle ring is where the

leadership of the organization puts into practice these rules of operation. The core is where

project management and other capabilities within the organization are developed and

supported.

Figure 1: This picture represents a holistic view of the organization. The project manager

must be able to work at all three levels or rings. The outer ring represents the corporate view

where the organization forms its strategy and determines policies and procedures, the middle

ring represents where the corporate view is put into practice through tactical plans and

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initiatives, and the inner circle is where the actual work gets done: where project management

takes place.

The Outer Ring: Written and Unwritten Rules

When undertaking a project, it is necessary to understand both the business’s corporate

culture (behavior patterns and beliefs) and its organizational dynamics (an interactive system,

especially one involving competing or conflicting forces). A project manager must work

within these unwritten guidelines to be successful. An understanding of culture and

organizational dynamics will dictate whom to work with, how to work with them, and why—

not to mention more superficial but Project Management: Still More Art Than Science - A

paper 5 of 6 still important issues such as appropriate dress and work schedule. It is also clear

that both culture and organizational dynamics change over time. These changes come about

through the restructuring, downsizing, or flattening of the organization itself or by changes in

key players (the sponsor or support staff of the project), all of which could impact a project.

These two portions of the outer ring, corporate culture and organizational dynamics,

influence the business practices within the enterprise.

Understanding business practices, the written guidelines, is the third key element of this outer

ring. Each business unit within an organization may run projects differently. In some cases,

business practices might be nonexistent, the participants expecting magic to deliver

successful projects; in other situations, a clearly defined project management methodology

might already be in place. If a project manager is not prepared to deal with this diversity and

insists on sticking to a given method, no matter how strong the method is, the project could

suffer. If a client, sponsor, user, or project team is expecting some information in a particular

format and receives it in a different, less familiar form, confusion will likely result.

When an organization has no defined business practice around project delivery, the project

manager is not only challenged with managing the project effort, but must also educate the

various stakeholders in their roles and responsibilities of project management. This is a tall

order and can be a roadblock to success. Skillful and constant communication with all

involved is critical. The project manager may use processes, tools, and techniques that they

know are successful—but must remain flexible.

The Inner Ring: Building Relationships with Executives/Sponsors/Business

Units

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One would think that with the many volumes written about project management, executives,

sponsors, and business units involved in a project would understand their roles and

responsibilities. But instead there is often a gap between what is required from these

audiences and what actually occurs. Working within the organization to educate these groups

of people is a key responsibility of the project manager. It is essential to guide the sponsor in

building the relationships necessary for project success and to identify key individuals and

groups within the organization that must be appropriately engaged. Without these

relationships, a project can become mired in political bogs; it can be difficult to have changes

approved and get sign-off on key phases, slowing the progress of a project to a crawl. On the

other hand, strong relationships can help a project move forward. Building these relationships

before the project gets started will ensure appropriate involvement, maintaining these

relationships during the project will ensure successful implementation, and closing out the

project on good terms with all involved will ensure that future efforts will have a greater

likelihood of success. Communication and organizational effectiveness are Project

Management: Still More Art Than Science - A paper 6 of 6 critical skills to apply at this inner

ring, where the support for the project at the organizational level exists.

The Core - Continued Success Requires Continual Renewal

The core of the organization is where project managers actually manage the work that

produces the end product or service for which the project was chartered in the first place.

This is the nuts-and-bolts of project management, where the hard skills come into play. This

is also where you will find the actual management and support of the project itself, including

any training required for team members.

The project manager who believes she has all of the answers is doomed to fail. When

someone believes he has seen it all, he no longer learns and grows as an individual. When

project managers get stuck in this place, they will most assuredly begin to fail. Understanding

the natural laws of growth and development makes for successful project managers. The

continued development of both the art and the science of project management will serve to

strengthen the individual project manager. The organization itself must support the continued

development of individuals within the organization to sustain their ability to provide

themselves with skilled individuals in the art and science of project management.

Business is Complex - Grow With It

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Today's work environment is inherently complex, constantly changing, and focused on

customer satisfaction. This environment is challenging the capabilities of project managers.

Delivering business value on time, within budget, and to the customers' satisfaction is both

science and art. Today's project manager must be able to apply the processes, tools, and

techniques of the trade efficiently and effectively to be successful. However, without

mastering the timeless soft skills to supplement the hard skills, few project managers will

succeed. This combination of art and science, while taking into consideration the broader

organizational context, will lead to successful projects.

SUCCESS AND FAILURE OF IIT PROJECTS IN INDIA

An Analysis of Factors Influencing Success and Failure of IT Project

Abstract : The history of IT projects is a combination of success and failure. In spite of the

improvements in software project management over the last several years, software projects

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still fail. This paper explores the successes and failures of projects and examines the major

reasons for them without reference to actual case studies. The results provide insights into

why some of the IT projects succeed and others fail. This will assist professionals and

managers in preventing the same mistakes from recurring.

KEY TOPICS

1. Project Success,

2. Project Failure,

3. Telecenter, MIS

Introduction

Review of IT project reports in the last decades reveal that more than 30% of them are

cancelled before completion, often due to poor project management performance. If success

of a project is measured by completing the project on time, and also on budget, it will turn out

that more IT projects should be considered as failures than successes. From the IT

management perspective, there is a critical need to assess the reasons for failure of IT

projects. This may be done by analysing failed projects in an objective fashion. This will

bring out some of the critical factors that result in project failures. Conversely, one can look

at successful software projects and see whether the absence of the above factors leads to

project successes. This paper analyses the two projects that have been implemented in C-

DAC, Noida in the past two years. One belongs to the successful category and other the failed

category. Based on this analysis, it is found that proper estimation, meticulous planning,

proper financial model, stakeholders support, and commitment from the project team are the

most critical factors that determine the success or the failure of the IT projects. This paper is

organised as follows: Section 2 describes the project “Setting up of Rural Tele Centres at Lao

PDR” - a Rs. 135 Lakhs project that we have undertaken during the period March – July,

2008, wherein the team was involved in setting up of information kiosks at many locations

across Lao PDR. This project was completed ahead of time and may be considered as a very

successful IT project by any yardstick. Section 3 describes “Implementation of an MIS in

National Physical Laboratory” - a Rs. 24 lakhs project that we have initiated in the year 2005,

which had to be short-closed in September, 2008.

Setting up of Rural Tele Centres at Lao PDR : A Successful Project wo and brings out

the reasons why IT projects succeed or fail.

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Project Preview

The Government of India has planned to assist the Government of LAO PDR in establishing

an "Information Technology Centre with Value Addition" at Vientiane under India and Lao

PDR Bilateral Cooperation in ICT Program. NIC then entered into a Memorandum of

Understanding (MOU) on Information Communication Technology Cooperation with

Government of Lao PDR. As per the MOU, there are 9 Areas of Cooperation to be

implemented by NIC with funding from Ministry of External Affairs. One of them was

establishment of 10 pilots Rural Telecenters (Community Information Centre) in remote and

rural areas along the Mekong River for ICT Penetration in Agriculture, Rural Health and

Rural Development.

Project Execution

C-DAC was requested to extend help regarding setting up of Rural Telecom Centres at Lao

PDR. Once the understanding was made with the NIC, we prepared a Proposal and Road

Map for the project. The Estimations were made by taking into consideration all the risks and

issues. A team of 3 specialists were identified by C-DAC. This team was liaisoned with NIC

& NAST for the smooth execution of the project. They visited LAO PDR along with the NIC

team to formulate the detailed execution plan of the project. The detailed Project Plan was

prepared in consultation with NIC for phase wise implementation. Subsequent to this, we

handed over following to NIC:

Feasibility Study Report.

Techno commercial proposal with detailed phase wise implementation plan. On acceptance

of the same, NIC handed over the complete application software to us in order to enable

familiarize with the product to be established at Lao PDR. We customized this as per the

findings of a GAP Analysis conducted by us. The team familiarized with the application and

made an evaluation set up of the system at our premises. C-DAC integrated this set up to the

software procured for this project. 75% of the total project cost was given in advance against

bank guarantee. This amount enabled us to procure the items. Without this, it would not have

been possible for us to meet the deadlines given in the project

After successful testing of the application a team of hardware, software and network

specialist was sent to Lao PDR to setup the Telecenters. The team was fully committed to

their work and they were able to complete the project before time. The Lao PDR officials and

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sub contractors involved in the process of setting up Telecentre were given complete

information about the requirements well in advance and they were very supportive for project

implementation. The team concentrated at installation phase at Vientiane, which was

completed in two weeks. The detailed training plan was worked out, in consultation with the

Lao PDR officials..

Project Plan was made in such way that parallel activities are also undertaken without time

loss. The team concentrate at installation phase at Vientiane and this was expected to be

completed in 2 weeks. The remaining time was utilized for setting up remaining RTC

locations. The training of identified officials was completed at a later phase, The entire

project was completed one month before the scheduled date of completion.

Implementation of an Management Information System in National Physical

Laboratory – A Failed Project

Project Preview

National Physical Laboratory (NPL), an organ of the Council of Scientific and Industrial

Research (CSIR) is a government funded autonomous institution engaged in research,

calibration, standardization, material development and characterization, scientific research

and technical activities. Design and Develop a comprehensive Management Information

System (MIS) to be implemented at NPL. NPL heads Sixteen Decision Units (DU). Seven

DUs are related to R&D and Nine DUs are related to Scientific and Technical Support

functions. Each DU has a number of activities/ projects/ sub-divisions under it, which are

called Decision Packages (DP). The Central Computer Facility (CCF), acts as a hub for a

campus wide LAN with nearly three hundred nodes. A Web enabled Intranet with basic

features was in place. The LAN provides 10 Mbps connectivity on the desktop across the

Laboratory. A 2 Mbps radio link connects the Laboratory to the Internet. The servers in the

CCF are Linux based. The overall objective of the project was to provide MIS System for the

convenience to the members and greater control to the administration. The MIS comprised of

the following modules.

Purchase and Stores

Administration / Personnel Information System

Finance and Accounts (with suitable interface with the existing IMPACT System of CSIR)

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Standards and Calibration

Planning, Management, and Evaluation of Projects and Support Activities

Laboratory Information and Library Services The project envisaged that J2EE

Technology with “n” Tier Application will be used. The operating system was Linux, with

JBOSS Application Server, PostgreSQL Database, Browser (compatible with Linux)

database and Eclipse IDE.

An Open tender was launched for developing MIS with work flow. We participated in the

tender and got selected as it was L1. The quote for L2 of the same project was more than

double of what was quoted by us. One of the assumptions made while quoting was that we

can implement the project in other CSIR R&D Labs and recover the part of developmental

cost from such implementations later. Also, it was perceived that 2 modules of this project

can be generated by customisation of other existing projects in C-DAC. Both the above

assumptions proved to be wrong subsequently.

Project Execution

The completion of the SRS of the project took more than 6 months to finalise. This was

accepted by NPL and the first instalment of payment was made against this. However, the

project started going terribly wrong after this. The main reason for this was that there were

multiple controlling authorities at the customer site and C-DAC project management was not

strong enough to contain requests from these units subsequent to the finalisation of SRS.

Another problem was that the agreed on SRS contained many vague terms, which was mis-

interpreted later, and there was no conflict resolution mechanism at the top level. The project

costing was abysmally wrong and C-DAC management lost interest from it very soon. The

project went to many cycles of meetings and revival. The project team was positioned at NPL

to enable them directly interact with them and create modules as per directions from the

customer. This too proved to be ineffective. There was no convergence of efforts and in the

absence of strong team management responsible for CDAC, there was no control over the

project time management. Subsequently, the entire team was brought back to C-DAC

wherein the test set up was made and NPL was requested to accept the modules at C-DAC

before it is released for implementation at NPL. This too did not work out, since the

representative of the actual user community was not willing to travel to C-DAC for a detailed

evaluation and certification. Finally, it became very clear that we are going in circles and the

17

project is unlikely to converge to anything successful. It is worth-mentioning that by this

time, two modules (Library Management Module and Calibration and Testing Management)

were set up in NPL and were in operation for more than 4 months with the user giving the

final acceptance. Finally, an external consultant was appointed to evaluate the project and as

per his recommendations, both the parties agreed to short close the project.

Main Reasons for IT Project’s Success or Failure

Three very critical issues occur over and over again in many institutions. These three major

complaints levied against IT are real and serious.

IT projects are not estimated or planned with acceptable accuracy.

Quality and reliability are often unacceptably poor.

It is essential for management to examine the root causes of failures:

Risks associated with inaccurate estimating and schedule planning.

Risks associated with Quality that damage software projects.

These are further described in the following sub-sections :

Cost and Schedule Estimate

Thorough research and preparation is necessary to develop a reasonable budget estimate. A

project needs to be estimated from the bottom-up approach by determining what steps depend

on prior completed steps and then estimating the time required for each step. The bottom-up

schedule needs to be reconciled to the top-down project schedule. Cost should be tracked

continuously through out the project. It may be seen that in the case of the first project,

detailed exercise was conducted to make the appropriate estimation of cost and schedule. In

the case of NPL, the size of the project was wrongly estimated. This led to weak designs,

dramatically higher defect densities, much more rework, and virtually endless testing. In the

end it is inferred that had a realistic schedule and budget estimate been followed, the NLP

project would have been successful without wasting so much of money and human efforts

later.

Project Planning

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Effective planning and monitoring are necessary to help achieve the goal. However, project

managers must remain aware and anticipate change as re-planning is necessary throughout

the project. Planning is necessary to develop reasonable project estimates, enhance the

management of customer and stakeholder expectations, and mitigate project risks, establish

and standardize a scope management process to develop concise project scope statements and

Handle issues consistently. In case of NPL the project kicks off late. The planned resources

were not committed on time. It is illogical to expect that project will complete on time.

Stakeholder involvement

Without user involvement nobody in the business feels committed to a system, and user can

even be hostile to it. If a project is to be successful senior management and users need to be

involved from the start, and continuously throughout the development. This requires time and

effort. Therefore, senior management need to continuously support the project to make it

clear to the staff that it is a priority. In the case of Lap PDR project, we had committed user

from the beginning to end and they still remain a very satisfied customer. On the other hand,

in the case of NPL, the user did not have a face and nobody know their responsibility for the

various modules of the MIS.

Project Team

Required resources are often underestimated and scheduled inaccurately. Casual & less

committed team members are a reason for failed IT Projects. Lack of knowledge and skill of

the project team member is a serious problem with the software development projects.

Attention was paid to this aspect during the initial phase of Lao PDR project and since the

project completion was done in time, there was no issue of trained manpower leaving in

between. On the other hand, in the case of NPL, the delay in project implementation

necessarily meant that manpower turnover became a regular event and replacing them with

the required skill set becoming almost impossible.

Creep of Scope

Scope creep is the dangerous growth in the scale of a system during the life of a project. As

an example for a system which will hold Leave Record of an employee, it is then decided it

will also deal with compensatory off, then these will be regulated by the system, and so on

and so forth. All the functionality will have to be delivered at one time, therefore affecting

time scales, and all will have detailed requirements. This is a management issue closely

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related to change control. Management must be realistic about what they want and when, and

stick to it. So it is not realistic to expect no change in requirements while a system is being

built. However uncontrolled changes play havoc with a system under development and have

caused many project failures. The NPL project is a typical example of this.

QualityControl

Proper Quality Control measures are to be followed during the project execution. The

developers will do a great deal of testing during development, but eventually the users

must run acceptance tests to see if the system meets the business requirements.

However, acceptance testing fails often due to poor requirements, poor or non planned

tests. This is an organisational restructuring requirement and unless the quality

control structures are not in place, we will not be able to ensure that adequate quality

control measures will be taken in all projects. The failure of NPL project can be

attributed to very weak quality control set up from the initial phase, which on the

other hand, forced the management to put in required protection measures in place.

Conclusion

There are myriad ways to fail. There are only a very few ways to succeed. The following

factors made LAO PDR Project a successful:

Meticulous Project Planning

Proper Financial Model

20

Proper estimation of the size

Timely mitigation of risks

Stakeholder Involvement

Committed Project Team The following factors are leading the NPL project to be short-

closed in the middle.

Improper estimation of the size of the project,

Risk not Mitigate in time,

Ineffective Project Plan

The development work in client’s site

Low Budget

Creep of Requirement and ineffective change Management

Improper Man power deployment,

Lack of Stakeholder involvement

Inefficient Quality Testing This experience should be an eye opener for the adaptation of

best practices henceforth for the organisation.

Geoscientific Instrumentation in River Valley Projects

ABSTRACT

Present day development of the engineering projects, especially river valley development,

underground storage chamber and metro rail projects require lot of instrumentation work,

many of hydroelectric projects are located in the Himalayan region. Instruments are required

in different stages of the project, especially during excavation and in the areas of poor to very

21

poor rock mass. Monitoring of slope in hilly areas and for civil engineering purpose is

essential, because of the various regions. Geotechnical instruments are tools for evaluating

performance of the structures during construction as well as later stages. Various types of

instruments are used in dam, tunnel, power house and slope. The main objective of the

instrumentation program is to measure the reaction of the surrounding rock mass to the

excavation process and the installed support system, thereby ensuring the adequacy of the

design of the excavation and support system. This can be achieved by measuring various

parameters. Based on the data, interpretation of different kinds of instruments are done,

further decisions can be made for safety and long life of the structure. This paper describes

purpose & various types of instruments used in river valley projects and how the data

indicates the failure of rock mass. In brief case of Parbati hydroelectric project, for the slope

failure of surface power house and underground power house data of Malana hydroelectric

project are discussed.

CONCLUSIONS

Instrumentation for the river valley projects includes selection, installation, monitoring &

maintenance, data collection, interpretation, analysis and report preparation. Based on

reports further decisions are taken for the stability of various structures. In case of the

surface power house slope of the Parbati hydroelectric project which was finally resulted in

failure indicated by instrument data and surface conditions. Underground power house

22

excavation of Malana – II project is in under progress; available data indicates no

displacement has occurred in the rock mass, also it is important here instruments are

installed without arising any instability in rock mass. It was also observed whenever

required a combination of instruments can also used, when more information is required. It

is always better in case of river valley projects, when the instruments are installed before

arising instability of the structure. This type of approach can provides better result, thus the

science of shallow depth i.e. Geoscientific instrumentation are very important tool for safety

of the civil engineering projects.

(2)Managing of GIS projects in infrastructure development

Good project planning, at the initial stage, is a key to its successful implementation.

Majority of the GIS-based projects are challenging as they need substantial efforts on

23

building the capacity at both ends (user and implementing agencies) for suitably designing

the application, considering the constraints in terms of quality and quantity of spatial

data. The experience of executing projects involving implementation of GIS suggests that

the spiral model of project management is more suited than the waterfall model. Data

format and data interoperability are major concerns of the geomatics community. Project

scheduling, time management and building a buffer to absorb unforeseen reasons for

delays are important components of managing the GIS-based projects. This article

discusses the project management approach for the implementation of GIS, with special

reference to monitoring projects in infrastructure development.

Keywords : Geographic Information System, infrastructure development, project

management and planning. T HE successful implementation of a project depends upon

comprehensive and in-depth planning at the initial stage. The technical strength of the

team members plays an important role in the execution of the project, but good planning

organizes the available human and material resources to achieve the optimum output.

Good planning foresees the constraints and limitations along with the deliverables and

takes them into consideration while organizing and scheduling the activities in the

beginning itself. The implementation of Geographic Information System (GIS) for

monitoring projects on infrastructure development is further complicated by the quality

and timely availability of data and usage of the same, subject to the constraints placed by

the national mapping organizations. This article shares the experience in identification

and addressing the challenges during planning and execution of projects of national

importance. It includes the identification of critical factors and contingency plan. It

high- lights the need to have multiple buffers, built in the project plan at different levels,

to absorb any unforeseen cause for delay during project implementation. This article also

discusses the project management approach for the implementation of GIS with special

reference to the ‘GIS enabled Road Information Management and Monitoring System’

(GRIMMS) project executed by C-DAC The Government of India has launched a national

programme ‘Bharat Nirman’ under the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) for

reduction of poverty in rural India. The ‘Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana’ (PMGSY,

Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Programme), is an important component of Bharat

Nirman, to provide connectivity to unconnected rural habitations of the designated

population size through good all-weather rural roads. The National Rural Road

Development Agency (NRRDA) under the MoRD has established the ‘Online

24

Management, Monitoring and Accounting System’ (OMMAS), a web-based application

(www.omms.nic.in ) to effectively manage various activities under PMGSY and flow of

information at all levels. The OMMAS also provides the necessary transparency on the

current status of implementation of the PMGSY, according to the guidelines laid down

under ‘Right to Information’ (RTI). It en- compasses the current connectivity status of

habitations, rural road plans, works sanctioned, physical and financial progress, unit costs

and quality monitoring. The outputs are generated and visualized in tabular form.

However, prior to the implementation of GRIMMS, the OMMAS lacked spatial interface

for graphical visualization. The main objective of the GRIMMS project was to design,

develop and make operational a spatial database for rural roads and habitations in GIS

environment for effective management of PMGSY and various state-level programmes for

construction, improvement and maintenance of rural roads in Rajasthan and Himachal

Pradesh. The specific objectives of the project were:

To establish a spatial database for core rural road network as well as for roads

under District Rural Road Plan (DRRP).

To link the spatial database with OMMAS and other databases with the States.

To develop and install standalone version (Figure 1) of GIS-based Decision

Support System (DSS) at the respective States.

To develop and install web-based version (Figure 1) of GIS-based DSS at the

headquarters.

To build capacity at respective places for effective use of software and to sustain

the use of GIS along with spatial database, including its periodic update.

GRIMMS has a direct bearing on the following activities of PMGSY:

Identification of connected/unconnected habitations on the map.

Representation of rural roads plans in digital form along with their status.

Linking of maps with OMMAS for planning, budget- ing and monitoring all the

implementation aspects of rural roads.

Preparation of master plans (District Rural Road Plan and Core Network).

Speedy analysis (including ‘what-if’ scenario) and drilling of huge database.

The stakeholders in the GRIMMS project were the following:

(i) User agency

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Institutional: NRRDA.

End users: PWD Rajasthan, PWD Himachal Pradesh and the common man.

(ii) Implementing agency

Experts: C-DAC and NIC.

Data providers: Survey of India (SOI) and data con- version agencies (ADCC,

KNVL, NIIT and WTI).

Frequent changes in requirements from the user agency during implementation.

Extensive plan to foresee internal and external factors leading to delay in project

execution and timely delivery of the quality products.

Project planning

Time, cost and quality are the three primary competing forces (trade-offs) during project

planning, wherein time represents the duration defined to deliver the project; cost defines

the budget/resources allocated for execution of the project, and quality identifies the

desired specifications for acceptance of the deliverables by the end-users . The

relationship among these competing forces can be illustrated with the help of a ‘scope

triangle’ (Figure 2). An important aspect of project planning is to select a suitable model

(waterfall or spiral) for execution of the project. The same is needed to explore the full

potential of exploitation of emerging technologies in the project. It may not be feasible to

freeze the requirements in single iteration. One may need to have multiple iterations before

freezing the final requirements.The waterfall model is good where the requirements are

well understood. The spiral model is useful where there is a need to revise the

requirements in stages. The requirement gathering during System Study (SS) involves the

following tasks.

Acquiring information: This involves the mutual understanding by the implementing

agency as the solution provider and the user agency as the information/data provider for

defining the requirements. This is an involved task and the success of the project primarily

depends upon it. Prior to gathering the requirements, it may involve sharing the inception

report based upon the understanding of the Terms of Reference (TOR) by the

implementation agency and building capacity at the user agency for effectively collecting

the requirements.

Organizing information: The requirements gathered during the initial interaction with the

user agency need to be catalogued in multiple groups before carrying out the gap analysis

26

and feasibility study. It is an iterative process and keeps changing with change in user

requirements.

Analysing information: Finally, the information is ana- lysed based upon availability of

resources (both infrastructure and manpower) keeping in mind the limitations of

technologies and data to produce the desired result. The requirements are compiled in

project documents, including System Requirement Specifications (SRS), Pro- ject

Planning (PP), System Architecture (SA), System Design and Description (SDD) and

System Test Plan (STP) for signing-off by the user agency before implementation. One

may use Computer-Aided System Engi- neering (CASE) tools, including Rational Unified

Process (RUP) encompassing use case diagrams, class diagrams,

Challenges

During the implementation of GRIMMS, the following challenges were encountered:

Limited knowledge on the potential and limitations of GIS with the user agency.

Lack of skills in the application domain (road engineering) with the

implementing agency.

Development of capacity with the user agency to translate the expectations from

implementation of GIS with limited resources and time-frame.

Coordination among the various constituents of the user agency located at

geographically distinct locations under different administrative set-ups.

Components of project planning

Execution of a project is a complex process and to keep track and control over all the

activities is a challenging job. To have better control over the project execution, a Project

Plan (PP) is prepared along with the development of System Requirement Specifications

(SRS). Jenkin has defined the following ways to control the execution of a project:

Break a complex process into a number of simple components.

Provide visibility for obscure or ambiguous tasks.

Provide a single point of reference for everyone.

Enforce scrutiny of the sequence and nature of events.

Provide a baseline against which execution of the project can be compared.

27

Anticipate the likely events and provide pre-planned means of avoiding them

(risks and contingencies). Broadly, the project plan shall address the following

ele- ments: Objectives and scope: Deliverables of the project along with definition

of high-level requirement document and low-level design document. Time frame:

Baselines against which the execution of various components will be compared to

meet the objectives of the project. Resources: Both infrastructure and people

along with budget requirements for timely execution of the project. Approach and

methodology: One out of multiple options for quality delivery along with

technical specification, test plan, etc. IEEE 12207/MIL 498 standards are

normally used to create various levels of documentation. MS Project is used to

define the Gantt chart for PP.

Refrences

Johnson, C. P. et al., Development of a GIS-based decision support system for

Prime Minister’s Rural Roads Programme in India,

Map Asia, 2006. 2. Sajeevan, G. et al., Integrated use of standalone and web GIS

software – A case study. In International Conference on b-GIS@India

‘Empower Organizations through GIS’, Thiruvananthapuram, 6–8 December

2006. 3. Jenkin, N., Creative Commons. A Project Management Primer, San

Francisco, California, 2006. 4. Marble, D. F., An Introduction to the Structured

Design for Geo- graphic Information Systems, John Wiley, New York, 1994.

(3) Project Management Practices: The Criteria for Success or Failure

Abstract:

Often, software managers have to monitor and manage many projects concurrently.

Unfortunately, some projects were completed successfully but some were not completed on

time, over budget or being cancelled. Some of the reasons of this project failure are: lack of

user involvement, lack of planning, incomplete requirements, lack of resources, incorrect cost

estimation, just to name a few. There are many project planning and scheduling techniques to

manage and help to ensure project success. Some of these techniques, however, may not be

suitable for specific types of projects and thus, cause projects to fail. This paper discusses the

28

issues involved in project success and failure, and presents the feedback of 50 undergraduate

students who undertook a team project of the project management course.

INTRODUCTION

A project is a complex, nonroutine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and

performance specifications design to meet customer needs. Project management is a set of

tools, techniques, and knowledge that, when applied, helps to achieve the three main

constraints of scope, cost and time. However, based on literatures, 52.7% of projects were not

able to complete on time and over cost, and 31.1% not fulfilled the scope. The growth in new

knowledge has increased the complexity of projects because projects encompass the latest

advances. Today, many companies focus on project management, as it focuses on achieving

project objectives. It is important as it applies managerial process and has its tools that give

managers a good opportunity to succeed in achieving objectives. A project manager can

reform everything right from a project management perspective but the project can still fail

depending on its success criteria to help to ensure project success. Project managers can use

different techniques and tools that are useful to manage projects efficiently. These include

network activity diagram, bar charts, macro and micro cost estimation approaches and

resource scheduling techniques. The use of these techniques and tools could lead to better

chance of project success. Today, emphasis on an integrated project management process is

the focus of all project effort towards the strategic plan of an organisation, and reinforces

control of both the project management techniques and tools, and the interpersonal skills

necessary to orchestrate successful project completion. The following sections discuss the

project classification, the factors that contributed to project success as well as resulted in

project failure.

Project Classification

Basically, projects can be classified into three resolution types

I. Resolution Type 1 ( project success) : The project is completed on-time, on-budget,

fulfilled all functions and features as specified.

II. Resolution Type 2 (project challenged) : The project is completed and operational

but over-budget, over the time estimate, and offers fewer functions and features than

originally specified.

29

III. Resolution Type 3 (project impaired): The project is cancelled at some point

during the development cycle. Among these three types, the success rate was only

16.2%, while challenged projects accounted for 52.7%, and impaired (cancelled) was

31.1%.

Project Sucess Factors:

According to the 1994 Standish CHAOS Report, there are top 10 factors found in successful

projects. These factors are listed in table below.

Project Success Factors % of Responses

30

User Involvement 15.9%

Executive Management Support 13.9%

Clear Statement of Requirements 13%

Proper Planning 9.6%

Realistic Expectations 8.2%

Smaller Project Milestones 7.7%

Competent Staff 7.2%

Ownership 5.3%

Clear Vision and Objectives 2.9%

Hard-Working, Focused Staff 2.4%

Other 13.9%

The top four factors that contributed to project success are user involvement, executive

management support, clear statement of requirements and proper planning are briefly

discussed below. i. User involvement The absence of user involvement is the major cause

of project failure. Even when delivered on time and on budget, a project can fail if it does

not meet users’ needs. ii. Executive management support This influences the process and

progress of a project and lack of executive input can put a project at a severe

disadvantage.

Clear statement of requirements

This refers to the base level requirements. By creating a minimal, obtainable base level of

requirements and then developing those features, the effect of change will be reduced. As a

result, an added benefit is that project managers are better prepared to articulate the needs and

priorities of the next phase of the project.

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Proper planning

This is one of the keys to a successful project. Creating a project plan is the first thing to do

when undertaking any kind of project. An analysis of the CHAOS report over the last eight

years as shown in Table 2, shows a steady improvement in project success based on the

measures of “on budget, on cost, and to specification”.Failures have also reduced

significantly considering the number of projects that has almost doubled in the eight years of

research. However, almost half of the projects remain “challenged.” According to the

Standish report, these projects are over budget, over time or under specification. Table 2:

CHAOS Report findings is given in the table below.

1994 1996 1998 2000 2002

Succeeded 16% 27% 26% 28& 34%

Challenged 53% 33% 46% 49% 51%

Failed 31% 40% 28% 15% 13%

Issues contributing to project management success

Research shows that when one or more projects were started, some important issues need to

be considered to achieve project success .Some of these issues and the activities involved that

managers must give serious attention to are shown below.

Issues of project management success

Project focus Time, budget and quality.

Focused on achieving these broad goals.

Planning Engage in planning – detailed and systematic.

Planning and replanning.

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Sense of urgency Limited time, money, and other resources.

Regular status checks, meetings, and reminders are essential.

Use a time-tested, proven project life cycle Use standard models to build into project

plans.

Identify the best project life cycle.

Visualised and communicated in vivid detail Avoid vague descriptions.

Focused in the same direction.

Evolve gradually to succeed Involvement of users in cost and time estimation and risk

management. Maintain a controlled evolution. Clear approvals and sign-off by sponsors Clear

approval points. Examine and approve. Fight for time to do things right Do it right the first

time. Demonstration and why it is necessary? Matched by equivalent authority Project

outcomes. Acquire and coordinate resources, request. Project sponsors and stakeholders must

be active participants, not passive customers Most project sponsors and stakeholders

rightfully demand the authority to approve project deliverables, either wholly or in part.

Helping to define deliverables. Keeping the project moving. Acquire the best people Get the

most skilled, experienced and best qualified. Identify the right team members. Actively set

priorities Strategies, establishes criteria. Choose the right leader to prevent multi-project.

Causes of project failure

Projects fail mainly because of unable to plan and estimate correctly, or fail to implement the

tasks according to plan or failure causes by human factor. The following sections explain

these three causes of failure:

Planning and Estimation factor

This factor refers to initial cost and schedule estimates are not revised when more information

becomes available as a project progresses. Also plans are not used correctly or used to guide

the project forward, thus causing the project to fail.

Implementation factor

This is caused by project scope changes, incorrect use of project methodology, major

changes in the requirements and testing, and/or inspections are poorly done.

33

Human factor

Project managers are not trained to acquire the necessary management skills. Also, some

managers are not able to apply and put the theory of project management into practice. Poor

communications are also one of the human factors that cause a project to fail. Among these

three factors, the major cause of project failure is inappropriate use of project planning and

scheduling methodology. The next category of these from the Standish report deals with

projects that proved to be “challenged,” that is they were completed but were over budget,

over time, or did not contain all functions and features originally required.Successful and

challenged projects showed good technical skills of the project managers, while failed

projects showed the project manager had only fair skills. According to the 2002 Standish

Report,three top factors that impacted on not completed projects are lack of user input,

incomplete requirements and specifications, and changing requirements and specifications.

These challenged factors are shown in table in next page.

Project Challenged Factors % of Responses

Lack of User Input 12.8%.

Incomplete Requirements and Changing Requirements and Specifications

11.8%.

34

Lack of Executive Support 7.5%.

Technology Incompetence 7.0%.

Lack of Resources 6.4%.

Unrealistic Expectations 5.9%.

Unclear Objectives 5.3%.

Unrealistic Time Frames 4.3%.

New Technology 3.7%.

Other 23.0%.

According to these results, the major reasons for not able to complete projects are the lack of

input from the users, incomplete requirements and specifications given by the users and

change of the requirements from the users. These causes the project manager could not use

good planning to elicit user requirements. Finally, a list of all the top ten factors found in

“Failed” projects is shown ion table in next page below.

Project Impaired Factors and percentage of Responses

Project Impaired Factors % of Responses

Incomplete Requirements 13.1%.

35

Lack of User Involvement 12.4%.

Lack of Resources 10.6%.

Unrealistic Expectations 9.9%.

Lack of Executive Support 9.3%.

Changing Requirements and Specifications 8.7%.

Lack of Planning 8.1%.

Did not Need It Any Longer 7.5%.

Lack of IT Management 6.2%.

Technology Illiteracy 4.3%.

Other 9.9%

The three major reasons that a project failed are incomplete requirements, lack of user

involvement, and lack of resources. Hence, with the ability to involve the users and to capture

their requirements completely and correctly, the chance of success would increase

dramatically. Also according to the Standish Group report, some of these factors have

changed over recent years. Therefore, further research to be conducted in this area. Doing

case study on some projects is one of the methods that researchers can investigate and

analyse new findings in this area. Hence, conducting a case study on project undertaken by

students can provide some insight to project success and failure.

Refrences:

36

Gray, C. F. and Larson, E. W. Project Management : The managerial process.

McGraw–Hill Educations, Singapore, 2008.

Charvat, J. Project Management Methodologies: Selecting, Implementing, and

Supporting Methodologies and Processes for Project, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Hoboken, New Jersey, 2003.

Clancy, T. The Standish Group Report, Retrieved Feb 20, 2008 from

http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/reports.html, Chaos report, 1995.

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. Project Management

Institute.

Geotechnical Instrumentation, Manual of Progressive Machine Tools Pvt. Ltd,

Jaunpur, U.P., India. Dhawan, A.K.,2007. Emerging Trends in Geotechnical

Investigations, Standard India –Vol.21, No.-2, 12/12, New Delhi, Bureau of Indian

Standards.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Term Paper of Project Management.

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