Managing Information Systems/Technology Projects: A Case Study of Xero, Australia

This report evaluates the present state of Xero's IS/IT technology and its dependency, the effect of the chosen project on the organization's success and society, and the methods and processes for selecting specific IS/IT projects. It also discusses the justification for selecting Agile methods and the tools for the software development process.

Running head: INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
Information Systems/Technology Projects
(Xero, Australia)
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note

1INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
Executive summary
The following report has considered Xero, Australia, as the chosen organisation. This is to
understand the various ways in which information technology projects can be managed. The study
has included the current state of the organisation's technology. It has evaluated their audit
dependency and demonstrated the effects on methodologies selected to execute as the project is
analysed. Then, how the project has been kept aligned with the strategic objectives of Xero is
discussed. Besides, different kinds of problems, limitations, features and scopes are assesses in the
study as any change in range take place.

2INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
Table of Contents
Introduction:..........................................................................................................................................3
1. Analysis of project case and organizational context:........................................................................3
2. Evaluation of present state of Xero’s IS/IT technology and its dependency:....................................4
3. Effect of the chosen project on an organisation’s success and society:............................................5
4. Examining methods and processes for selecting specific IS/IT projects:..........................................6
5. Justification for selecting Agile methods:.........................................................................................7
6. Tools for software development process:..........................................................................................8
7. The way in which strategic goals are aligned to Xero and opportunities for development:...........10
8. Project scope, essential features, limitations and problems in scope changes:...............................12
9. Schedule plan for the project:..........................................................................................................12
10. Methods used by project managers for keeping the project within deadline:...............................14
11. Justifications for preventing project failure:..................................................................................14
Conclusion:..........................................................................................................................................15
References:..........................................................................................................................................16
Appendix:............................................................................................................................................19
Appendix 1: Agile methodology tests.............................................................................................19
Appendix 2: Agile model and methodology....................................................................................20

3INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
Introduction:
Business diversification and a rise in some various business projects, nowadays, due to
globalization have been needed to support people involved in project activities. Hence managing
information Systems or technology projects is highly essential. Accurate and timely data about
project plans, related and progress costs are vital for project managers and assure the project’s
success.
To understand this, Xero, AU at Australia has been chosen as the case study here. The
organization connects all aspects of business and their online accounting software inter-connects
bookkeepers and accountants, banks and high range of companies.
In the following report, the present state of Xero’s IS/IT technology and its dependency is
evaluated. Then its effect on the methodology selected for executing the project is analyzed. Next, it
demonstrates how this project is aligned with the strategic aims of Xero along with project scope,
essential features, limitations and problems regarding scope changes.
1. Analysis of project case and organizational context:
Accurate, timely and relevant information is vital to the decision-making process of the
project and to depend on sufficient information system has put the plan at risk. Hence, knowledge is
a significant resource for Xero’s project managers (Schwalbe, 2015). However, although these
things are known, project managers have failed to provide kinds of information required to assure
project success. Thus deploying a project management information system is an essential method to
point out complex project information necessities.

4INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
As per the size of the project is considered, to implement the project case in the
organizational context, there has been a loss of control found. This is around the systematic analysis
of the data collected. However, the project is located to be late, over budget and of lower quality. For
overcoming this data shortage, the managers made the size of the project organizations under a
corporate organization (Marchewka, 2014). This has led to supplication and wastage of effort, time
and money. After this problem statement, the project objectives have been to identify the needs,
comparing the present situation with what is required to achieve the aim of PMIS set by the upper
level of management. Then the gap must be bridged between the needs and what has been in place
already.
2. Evaluation of present state of Xero’s IS/IT technology and its dependency:
The IT sector of Xero has witnessed a robust customer demand and upgrading of emerging
services and products as primary contributors to positive sentiments. Revenue growth has been
following suit. Moreover, an evolving market of tech labour has been continuing with current
challenges and scopes. As per the employer demand for every tech talent supply of outstripping
routinely is intended to force Xero in rethinking their approaches in various sectors. This includes
talent management, training and recruiting (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017).
With the balancing transformations and incrementalisms, Xero has pursued a rise in
transitions, adding or upgrading piecemeal of technology that is followed by workflow adjustments.
Their boardrooms and CEO around the economy has been aware of the reality that the approach is
not sufficient under the rapid change in customer dynamics and industries. However, this has not
necessarily indicated the chasing the ideas (Nicholas & Steyn, 2017). Instead, this has been denoted
the embracing of organizational mindset and proactively planning the digital future. In this way,

5INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
different complementary trends covering technology business, a dynamic of a workforce and
macroeconomic situations has provided grounding and contexts.
3. Effect of the chosen project on an organisation’s success and society:
Considering collective programming, distinguished members of community or group from
another, management under any organization is constrained by cultural context. Since, it has been
impossible to coordinate activities of people instead of in-depth understanding the expression,
beliefs and values (Laudon & Laudon, 2015). Different cultural dimension model of Xero is popular
to distinguish and analyse between national cultures. Here five significant dimensions are identified
to investigate the separating the success and society.
Power distance This is the extent to which members of Australian society accept
the power in Xero is distinguished unequally.
Individualism and
collectivism
These dimensions denote the issues of degree of interdependence
maintained by society among people focusing on own self.
Avoiding uncertainty This affects the way people have been building their organizations
and institutions.
Long-term orientation The project managers must be holding beliefs and values while
staying in society and execute projects. Various project managers
have been scoring distinctly on these dimensions (Park & Lee,
2014). As Xero is unable to relate those cultural dimensions to
different leadership styles, they have failed to compare those societal
dimensional to project leadership styles.

6INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
Thus it has been complicated to ascertain the study whether the dimensions has been in a
relationship with traits and leadership competencies of project managers.
The effects of selected projects on the Xero’s success and society can be understood through
analyzing the organizational situation through the following SWOT analysis.
Strengths:
 Needed skills in-house
 Proper budget assigned to project
 New technologies or equipment in
projects
 Experience of project teams on same
kinds of projects
Weakness:
 Lack of a reliable estimate of available
costs
 Lack of budget to deliver contingency
funding
 Different parts of a project require to be
outsourced
 Unrealistic schedule of the project
Opportunities:
 The project can be leveraged nationally
and internationally
 Weaknesses of competitors
 Latest trends of industries
 Imminent and new technology
developments
Threats:
 Lack of well-established competition in a
marketplace
 The experiences staffs are hard to replace
 Testing new technologies
 Effects of national and global economic
conditions

7INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
4. Examining methods and processes for selecting specific IS/IT projects:
For the current plan, agile methodology is chosen to empower people and their interactions
earlier with consistent delivery of value to Xero. This kind of project management concentrates on
delivering absolute value against different priorities of business in budget and time allowed. This is
mainly to derive from providing what is higher than risk. The principles of Xero have included
various factors. The project can break the requirements into smaller parts prioritised by groups
regarding significance (Avgerou & Walsham, 2017). Moreover, it has been promoting collaborative
tasks, particularly with customers. This has been reflecting, learning and adjusting at regular
intervals to assure that client’s of Xero is always satisfied and delivers results that bring about
benefits. They have been integrating planning of execution, permitting Xero to provide a mind to
work. This helps their team to response smartly to various changes in requirements.
5. Justification for selecting Agile methods:
The above agile process is perfect for Xero’s project needing a series of iterations and
versions required to e improved and reviewed until the ultimate product is ready for the prime time.
Here, for instance, despite waiting for six months for a deliverable that has been flawed and not
meeting the present perquisites. It has been helping to create drafts for instant feedback (Eason,
2014). From, here one Xero can develop every version till it gets finished. Moreover, there have
been various benefits in using Agile. These are illustrated in Appendix.
For Xero, some of the benefits drawn are as follows. There have been improper approaches
that are needed to be identified quickly. The agile has been emphasized over failing fast by showing
the progress of business every time. Next, the decisions are being made very quickly. The different
collocated business partners have empowered to undertake most effective choices. As their questions
have been arising this has been common to gather people under flexible space for discussing those

8INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
issues. Here there has rarely been any necessity to coordinate meetings taking various days to
schedule. Then there has been a collaboration of results in multiple benefits. Since the business and
technology groups of Xero have been accountable equally, there has been a share in the desire to
gain success (Pearlson, Saunders & Galletta, 2016). Here the technology is well understood from the
challenges felt by the business with present environments and thus the business resources are
understood from different technical problems. The business resources have been recognized with
various technical difficulties to create new applications. As these issues are surfaced, every people in
the group are aware of them, and those solutions have been commonly determined by resources
working on the complexity of various area of application. Moreover, the changes are defined as
inevitable and embraced (Joseph, 2017).
The ultimate product has comprised of most essential elements. The participants of business
in product evolution are active to determine the features that include values. Again, determination of
the perquisites at the beginning of the project has been resulting in functionality that is developed.
Here the scenario has been more appealing for millennial. Further, the production code is of higher
quality. Also, the business has been more satisfied with the results. Technical documentation has
been taking a long time and has been improper (Kavanagh & Johnson, 2017). As the literature has
been limited to user stories and test cases, it has been denoting what has been created and what is
planned. Further, the audit traceability has been better as the sign-offs are particular to different
discrete elements. This is opposite to any original approval of excellent documentation. Moreover,
maintenance of application is simple.
6. Tools for software development process:
The Scrum project management, software development, applications for design collaboration
and tools of prototypes has been useful for agile teams to get to the same page. In Agile software

9INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
development, the developing and designing teams have been required to work together to create
high-quality products. Collaboration with Agile successfully has been leading to efficient outcomes.
This comprises a lesser number of miss-understandings in under project hand-off, smarter product
delivery and minor reworks (Binder, 2016).
However, receiving developers and designers in the similar page has not been
straightforward. Moreover, a successful collaboration between the teams for agile scrum has needed
proper tools. For instance, Atlassian Jira is a useful tool for tracking of issue and projects. It is a
cross-platform agile software development and mechanisms of team collaboration (Tayeh, M., Al-
Jarrah & Tarhini, 2015). This has been helpful for high-performing agile teams to track and plan
projects and issues such that they can provide software on time and regularly. Next, slack is a secure
communication taking place between the agile teams. This team chat application is helpful for Xero
to be aware of issues. The units can chat and then share files, personalise conversations and make
calls. Then there is ProductPlan for road mapping agile products. This is helpful for Xero since it is
easy and creates plans and upgrades that at regular interval having drop and dragging features. This
has indicated that every people at Xero have been upgraded for the following step in their journey
towards the delivery of products. Lastly, Xero has comprised of document management and file
sharing. It is a cloud based sharing, synchronising and hosting service (Hitomi, 2017). Moreover, it
is helpful to collect feedbacks having comments on documents and generate a core workspace for
resources. Besides, it is beneficial to work as a team at the same time with a powerhouse for
collaboration across the organisation.
For the current project at Xero, the qTest can be deployed. This is robust enterprise
management software needed particularly for agile teams. This can be customised depending on the
necessities of a development team and is simple to use. This is because of its smart interface. These

10INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
tools can be assimilated with various tools like JIRA and various other tools for automation. This has
been helpful for software resting procedures for Xero, to get executed flawlessly and arrange
documentation testing (Dawson, Leonard & Rahim, 2015). Their development team has been able to
add perquisites and control test cases and complete those tests to find defects whenever the project
gets set up. One can also import current test cases under the software for running. Here, the best part
of those tools is its real-time reporting. This is helpful for teams to keep track of productivity,
progress and quality of the projects.
7. The way in which strategic goals are aligned to Xero and opportunities for
development:
Strategic objectives for
costs and budgets
They should launch and create new products, rise customer
conversion, become market leader, focus on customer satisfaction,
receive market position, explore new customer segments, rise in
revenues, attract investments, return on assets, dividend of
shareholders, increase diversified revenue streams and amount of
products within portfolio (Hogue et al., 2015).
Strategic goals for
growth and learning
This includes developing internal communications, a rise of online and
updates that are in person, amount of reporting tools, amount of internal
newsletter a week, skills of communication with training programs,
surveying teams and creating momentum. This has also included
communication skills training programs, surveying teams, creating
dynamics, deploy performance review and various reward systems
(Galliers & Leidner, 2014). Next, culture is to be designed and then
aligned across organisations. Next, new locations are opened and move

11INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
towards becoming international. This includes a percentage of sales
locally and at abroad and the number of intended products. Further,
training programs are to be implemented and created and decline
employee turnover. Then the rate of employee utilization is to be
balanced and develop training programs.
Strategic goals for
customers
This help[s in developing customer satisfaction, declining amount of
product returns, rise net promoter scores, percentage of defaults on
predicts, reacting time to complaints, increasing number of attractors
over social media, rise in number of returning customers, developing
service approach for existing and new customers, building strategic
partnerships, developing measurement if effects, time of customer
delivery and rise in number of new customers (Lloyd, 2017).
Strategic goals for
business process
This includes rise in web traffic, number of publications, number of
backlinks, vendor performances, restructuring organization,
implementing software projects, rise through acquisition, rise in value
of projects and control costs, lowering costs of productions, creating
future capacity, declining defects, developing supplier relationships,
rising web traffics, amount of publications, backlinks, vendor
performances, restructuring Xero, deploying software projects, rise in
acquisition, rise in value of project value and controlling growths,
lowering cost of productions, declining defects, improving relationships
of suppliers, increase in team size and finding new volunteers (Cassidy,
2016). Then there has been launching and completing specific projects,
per unit yield, per unit costs, research and development time,

12INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
developing resource allocating and decreasing industrial wastes.
8. Project scope, essential features, limitations and problems in scope changes:
The essential characteristics and scope changes are identified through the following user
stories.
Using the most straightforward
tools
Here, the index cards would be helpful to work with and having
an including a technique of modeling.
Remembering non-functional
requirements
Here the stories can be utilized describing a broad variety of
various types of conditions.
Indicating estimated size This can be done by assigning user story points for every card
having a relative indication of how long it has been taking
programmers to deploy the story.
The acceptance test evaluates different project scopes. Here, encouragement of closer
collaboration between develops and customers, domains and users is to be done. This must entail
that the business perquisites are expressed (Conforto & Amaral, 2016). Next, providing
unambiguous and clear contracts between developers and customers should be refining current tests
and propose the new ones as needed. Further, there is a decline in the chance and severity of new
defects and various regressions.
However, it must be kept in mind that the acceptance tests have been focused unduly over
technical deployments. Thus it runs risks of failing because of minor modifications. This is really
never have any effect on the behavior of the product (Peltier, 2016).

13INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
9. Schedule plan for the project:
This is illustrated through the following Time schedule plan.
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Planning schedule management 5 days Fri 5/12/17 Thu 5/18/17
Defining activities 6 days Fri 5/19/17 Fri 5/26/17 2
Sequencing activities 7 days Mon 5/29/17 Tue 6/6/17 3
Developing the project plan 7 days Wed 6/7/17 Thu 6/15/17 4
Reviewing the software capabilities. 7 days Fri 6/16/17 Mon 6/26/17 5
Estimating activity resources 1 day Tue 6/27/17 Tue 6/27/17 7
Estimating activity durations 20 days Tue 6/27/17 Mon 7/24/17 7
Developing of schedule 5 days Tue 7/25/17 Mon 7/31/17 9
Controlling of schedule 5 days Tue 8/1/17 Mon 8/7/17 11
Figure 1: “Gantt Chart for the estimated project plan for Xero”

14INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
Source: (Created by Author)
10. Methods used by project managers for keeping the project within deadline:
Setting and
acknowledging
milestones
This would show how the clients are expected to make progress. This
also indicates how they see and approve tasks before moving to every
subsequent sign.
Providing regular
upgrades and demos
to various
stakeholders
This is to regular sending reminders to clients for future deadlines.
Planning for potential
conflicts and problems
During controlling projects and deadlines, potential resources and
challenges of technology have been emerging. This must be done.
Creating a realistic
schedule
This must be done from the active date and must be permitted for
slippage in schedule instead of communicating that to the team.
11. Justifications for preventing project failure:
Failures Justifications Methods of prevention
Lack of Top Level Buy-
In
The project can be on track for
delivering superior outcomes before
the estimated date. However, as the
senior management has not been on
board, or not included, there can be
various issues
The senior managers must be
informed regarding all kind of
challenges, successes and
concerns (Liggins II, Hall &
Llinas, 2017).
Unrealistic Having the proper information Here, this has been secure to

15INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
Requirements and
Schedules
upfront, various time-consuming and
complicated problems can be
avoided for down the line
assume the timelines are
incredibly demanding. They
must be asked for more time to
plan stages and assure that
every detail is needed to
progress.
Lack of resources This has been vital to anticipate
shortages of supplies from the client
side for finding as they are unable to
sustain project schedule or
deliverables
They should analyse the lack
of resources affecting the tasks
of critical paths (Piotrowicz &
Cuthbertson, 2014).
Conclusion:
The above-selected project of Xero to manage IT has provided an in-depth analysis. This is
done by considering various aspects of disciplines of project management. The project managers
have needed to balance the competing goals in managing project management. The above study has
shown that the project managers have required to restore the competing goals like cost, time and
scopes. The project management artefacts used is helpful to adjust the constraints. Moreover, the
study has shown the nature and extent of the IT project of Xero, where the closeout is the needed
step for considering support mode of customers. Various project closeouts, turnovers and additional
mechanisms are helpful to create the ongoing life of the project. This must assure that the ends get
in place and as any topic arises again, there is an effective reference point regarding the details of the
plans. Lastly, it must e reminded that the proposed solution could be easy. However, it is

16INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
complicated to implement in real life scenario for yielding the intended performance levels at a time
for the proper place.
References:
Avgerou, C., & Walsham, G. (Eds.). (2017). Information Technology in Context: Studies from the
Perspective of Developing Countries: Studies from the Perspective of Developing Countries.
Routledge.
Binder, J. (2016). Global project management: communication, collaboration and management
across borders. Routledge.
Cassidy, A. (2016). A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. Auerbach
Publications.
Conforto, E. C., & Amaral, D. C. (2016). Agile project management and stage-gate model—A
hybrid framework for technology-based companies. Journal of Engineering and Technology
Management, 40, 1-14.
Dawson, M., Leonard, B., & Rahim, E. (2015). Advances in Technology Project Management:
Review of Open Source Software Integration. In Technology, Innovation, and Enterprise
Transformation (pp. 313-324). IGI Global.
Eason, K. D. (2014). Information technology and organisational change. CRC Press.
Galliers, R. D., & Leidner, D. E. (2014). Strategic information management: challenges and
strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.
Hitomi, K. (2017). Manufacturing Systems Engineering: A Unified Approach to Manufacturing
Technology, Production Management and Industrial Economics. Routledge.

17INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
Hobbs, B., & Petit, Y. (2017). Agile methods on large projects in large organizations. Project
Management Journal, 48(3), 3-19.
Hogue, A., Percival, J., El-Khatib, K., & Hayes, G. (2015). Reflection on Integrative Project-Based
Learning in Business and Information Technology Programs.
Joseph, N. (2017). Conceptualising a multidimensional model of information communication and
technology project complexity. South African Journal of Information Management, 19(1), 1-
14.
Kavanagh, M. J., & Johnson, R. D. (Eds.). (2017). Human resource information systems: Basics,
applications, and future directions. Sage Publications.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2015). Management information systems (Vol. 8). Prentice Hall.
Liggins II, M., Hall, D., & Llinas, J. (Eds.). (2017). Handbook of multisensor data fusion: theory
and practice. CRC press.
Lloyd, I. (2017). Information technology law. Oxford University Press.
Marchewka, J. T. (2014). Information technology project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2017). Project management for engineering, business and technology.
Routledge.
Park, J. G., & Lee, J. (2014). Knowledge sharing in information systems development projects:
Explicating the role of dependence and trust. International Journal of Project
Management, 32(1), 153-165.

18INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
Pearlson, K. E., Saunders, C. S., & Galletta, D. F. (2016). Managing and Using Information Systems,
Binder Ready Version: A Strategic Approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Peltier, T. R. (2016). Information Security Policies, Procedures, and Standards: guidelines for
effective information security management. Auerbach Publications.
Piotrowicz, W., & Cuthbertson, R. (2014). Introduction to the special issue information technology
in retail: Toward omnichannel retailing. International Journal of Electronic
Commerce, 18(4), 5-16.
Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Tayeh, M., Al-Jarrah, I. M., & Tarhini, A. (2015). Accounting vs. market-based measures of firm
performance related to information technology investments. International Review of Social
Sciences and Humanities, 9(1), 129-145.

19INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
Appendix:
Appendix 1: Agile methodology tests
Figure 2: “Steps of Agile Methodology for the current project of Xero”
(Source: Hobbs & Petit, 2017, page no: 3-19).
EvaluationofmethodsandpresentstruProposalsfordevelopingandprocessingDesigningapplicationtogetherwithclConstructionofapplicationsanddEvaluatingandmonitoring

20INFORMATION SYSTEMS/TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS
Appendix 2: Agile model and methodology
Figure 3: “Agile model and methodology”
Source: (Piotrowicz & Cuthbertson, 2014, page no: 5-16)
ScrumCrystalMethodlogyDSDM(DynamicSoftwareDevelopmentMethod)FeatureDrivenDevelopment(FDD)LeansoftwaredevelopmentExtremeprogrammingorXP