IS Project Management: Quality, Risk, and Global Team Management

This report provides a comprehensive overview of IS project management, focusing on the 10 knowledge areas essential for successful project execution. It details the significance of integration, scope, schedule, cost, quality, resource, communications, risk, procurement, and stakeholder management. The report also identifies threats to improving quality in IS projects, such as budget constraints and lack of team flexibility, and presents a detailed project management plan including a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt chart. Furthermore, a project quality management plan and risk management plan are outlined to mitigate potential issues. The report emphasizes the relevance of project quality management in leading global teams, addressing cultural and legal challenges. It concludes by highlighting the importance of effective project planning and cultural awareness for successful IS project completion. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

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IS Project Management

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
10 Knowledge Areas of IS Project Management............................................................................4
Threats related to improving quality in IS projects.........................................................................6
PM Plan...........................................................................................................................................7
WBS:............................................................................................................................................7
Gantt chart....................................................................................................................................8
Project Quality Management Plan...................................................................................................9
Risk Management Plan..................................................................................................................11
Relevance of Project Quality Management in leading Global Teams...........................................12
Cultural and Legal Issues...........................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
IS Project management refers to the procedure of planning, organizing, and defining the duties
and responsibilities for the achievement of specific Information System goals of an organization.
The following report describes the project activities related to the 10 knowledge areas of project
management for the entire IS project lifecycle. In this context, the report also includes a list of
PM activities, and documents such as PM plan, Risk Management, and PM Quality Management
plan. Furthermore, the report also discusses about the cultural awareness and legal issues while
working at the international level.

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10 Knowledge Areas of IS Project Management
Following are the 10 knowledge management areas of IS project where the focus of project
manager is essential for its accomplishing:
1. Integration Management Knowledge Area:
The primary objective of the integration management knowledge area is to carry out and deliver
the project within the time. It is the only project management knowledge area which includes
five activities necessary for creating the project charter, directing and organizing the project tasks
(Turner, and Ledwith, 2018). These processes also help the project manager to build a project
management plan, along with controlling and monitoring the project till its closing.
2. Scope Management Knowledge Area:
This knowledge area aims to define the IS project scope. The Scope management knowledge
area in IS project possesses six activities. These are planning of scope management, collecting
information, determining the scope, designing WBS, confirming, and controlling the scope.
3. Schedule Management Knowledge Area:
The purpose of Schedule Management knowledge area is to finish the project on time with
consistency. It has seven activities among which one belongs to the controlling and monitoring
the process group while the remaining six are related to the planning stage. These are: planning
of schedule management, describing processes, sorting activities, determining activity resources,

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determining activity times, creating the schedule and managing the schedule (Martinelli, and
Milosevic, 2016).
4. Cost Management Knowledge Area:
Cost Management Knowledge Area in IS project aims to carry out the project within the
estimated budget. This knowledge area possesses four activities which are developing cost
management, computing costs, preparing the budget, and managing the costs.
5. Quality Management Knowledge Area:
The purpose of this knowledge area in IS project is to meet out the objectives of project’s
quality. It has three activities which are planning of management process, carrying out the
quality assurance plan, and monitoring the quality process.
6. Resource Management Knowledge Area:
This knowledge is also called as Human Resource Management Knowledge Area, having four
activities which aim to conduct people management of IS project resources. These activities are
recruiting the project team, building a project team and managing that project team.
7. Communications Management Knowledge Area:
In IS project management, a certain amount of internal and external communication is essential
among the team, which is done through communication management processes (Barki et al.,
2010). The activities involved in this area are planning the communications management,
managing communications, and controlling communications.
8. Risk Management Knowledge Area:

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This knowledge area in IS projects aims to minimize the impact of risks on the project once these
are estimated. The activities included in this area are planning the risk management, forecasting
risks, doing qualitative risk analysis, doing quantitative risk analysis, and developing risk
responses.
9. Procurement Management Knowledge Area:
The primary objective of this knowledge area in IS project is to coordinate and manage the
acquisition activities in the project. It has four activities namely, procurement planning,
managing procurements, organizing and controlling of procurement, and procurement closing.
10. Stakeholder Management Knowledge Area:
The purpose of this knowledge area in IS project is to identify and manage the needs and wants
of the stakeholders during the project lifecycle. It contains 4 activities which are recognizing the
stakeholders, managing stakeholders, monitoring their expectations, and controlling stakeholder
management plan.
Threats related to improving quality in IS projects
In IS project, the occurrence of quality related threats are very common. For example, when the
project software is crashed out or generates inaccurate results, the quality becomes poor. The
threats created by low quality projects are higher in the projects which deal with intangibles like
business process transformation software. These threats include:
Budget Constraints:

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In a IS development project, quality results are the ultimate goal. Budgets assist the managers
analyze the quality impact of project by estimating the associated costs. When the budget is
limited, the effectiveness of the project is decreased which hamper the project quality.
Lack of Team Flexibility:
Team flexibility refers to the collective ability of team to work effectively. Flexibility enables the
project team to explore the problems and find new ways to resolve it. If there is no such
flexibility, the quality of the project is hampered.
Requirements and specifications:
When all the requirements and specifications are not met out while developing a IS project, it
becomes more likely that it would generate poor quality outcomes.
Peer review of code:
Ineffective code reviews and pair programming are a big threat to IS project quality. Having
improper design and coding guidelines leads to low quality output.
PM Plan
Project Management Plan refers to the documents which are necessary to execute the project.
These documents define, prepare, and coordinate the different planning activities for the
successful execution (Tarhini et al., 2018). In this IS project development, following activities
are designed till the closure of the project, which is also called Work Breakdown Structure:

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WBS:
The following WBS is prepared to breakdown the project team work into manageable tasks to
simplify the project execution.
Activities Time in days
Take approval from the key stakeholders 2
Identification of need 2
Checking product scope requirements 1
Estimation of costs 1
Gathering resources 3
Coding 3
Designing 3
Implementation, testing and documenting 1
Deployment and maintenance 1
Delivery to the client 1
Gantt chart
A Gantt chart refers to a bar diagram that represents a project schedule (Marchewka, 2014). The
following Gantt chart illustrates the tasks to be performed in the IS development project.

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Project Quality Management Plan
Quality Management is an important part of PM plan, which is used to ensure that all the aspects
related to project quality are met effectively. Since large IS projects are inherently risky and
complex, these are managed by many project managers at different stages of completion
(Freeman et al., 2010). Following is the IS Project Quality Management Plan which is designed
to mitigate the quality related threats:

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The following table illustrates the roles and responsibilities of the IS project team to monitor,
control and ensure the quality management:
Team Responsibility
Project Manager Identifying, reviewing and analyzing IS project
deliverables
Project Coordinator Conducting independent evaluation of quality
issues through quality audits
Project Manager Communicating quality risks to the external
and internal stakeholders
Technical Manager Planning and Implementing technical policies
and define quality standards

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Quality Manager Executing Quality management techniques for
accurate outputs
System Integrator Conducting quality review and setting
reporting standards
Test Team Performing quality testing procedures before
delivering the final product to the client
Risk Management Plan
Since IS project’s is activities are associated with sophisticated technology and high level of
knowledge, the risks on such projects are necessary to be eliminated to develop an effective IS.
Following is the Risk Management Plan for IS project development:
Risk Type Responsible
person
Risk
Mitigation
Strategy
Emergency
Strategy
Risk Impact Risk Rate
Lack of server
ability
Project
manager
Capacity
examination
Establishing
extra disc
space
Increased
cost
Mediu
m
Misunderstandin
g of project
requirements
Project
Coordinator
Analyzing
different
checkpoints
Establishing
open
communicatio
n with the
client
Time
consuming
High
System System Effective Reviewing the Delays or Low

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integration
Complexity
Integrator integration
plan
development
plans
difficulties in
project
completion
Relevance of Project Quality Management in leading Global Teams
Cultural and Legal Issues
The impact of global cultures in the project management process has been a constant target for
the project managers. According to Hofstede, one of the famous scholars of this subject argues
that the internationalization of business does not essentially results in the globalization of culture
and hence, basic management solutions may not be of use in specific cultural contexts (Kerzner,
and Kerzner, 2017). Thus, for making the project management solutions valuable, the project
manage is required to take into account cultural differences that prevail in the human societies.
Other authors also stated that culture acts as a mental programming formed by patterns of feeling
and actions that each individual has.
On the other hand, legal issues are the other aspect considered while managing global team in a
project. These issues include Country-specific regulations, political conditions, environmental
laws, and established standards (Kirsch, 2010). As a result, the project manager and the team are
required to learn about the legal rules, issues, and guidelines of all the countries affecting the
project.
In IS projects, project quality management helps the project manager in providing adequate
standards and managing global teams in the following ways:
Managing Cultural issues:

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 Dealing with power groups and functional barriers
 Eliminating information retention by supporting transparency and open communication
 Overcoming skeptical behavior, fatalism, and lack of severity in the team
 Developing shared vision and objectives throughout the global teams
 Encouraging the participation and buy-in of global operational team members
 Understanding of various races for improved team
Managing Legal issues:
 Understanding the legal conditions of different countries properly
 Planning project activities in accordance to the country-specific laws
 Communicating to the project team members from time to time regarding any changes in
the legal framework of any country where the project activities are highly affected
 Developing the solutions and take actions within the legal framework
 Taking approval from the relevant law before implementing any policy for the project

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Conclusion
On the basis of the above report it can be concluded that in order to complete an IS project, it
becomes necessary to implement the project plan and assign responsibilities effectively. The
different knowledge areas should be considered while designing project activities. Furthermore,
when the project team operates at the global level, the relevant cultural and legal challenges
should be analyzed to make the project a success.

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References
Turner, R. and Ledwith, A. (2018) Project Management in Small to Medium‐Sized Enterprises:
Fitting the Practices to the Needs of the Firm to Deliver Benefit, Journal of Small Business
Management, 56(3), pp.475-493.
Martinelli, R.J. and Milosevic, D.Z. (2016) Project management toolbox: tools and techniques
for the practicing project manager. USA: John Wiley & Sons.
Freeman, R.E., Harrison, J.S., Wicks, A.C., Parmar, B.L. and Colle, S.D. (2010) Stakeholder
Theory: The State of the Art. UK: Cambridge University Press.
Kirsch, L.S. (2010) Portfolios of control modes and IS project management, Information systems
research, 8(3), pp.215-239.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R. (2017) Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling.USA: John Wiley & Sons.
Marchewka, J.T. (2014) Information technology project management. USA: John Wiley & Sons.
Barki, H., Rivard, S. and Talbot, J. (2010) An integrative contingency model of software project
risk management, Journal of management information systems, 17(4), pp.37-69.
Tarhini, A., Yunis, M. and El-Kassar, A.N., (2018) Innovative sustainable methodology for
managing in-house software development in SMEs, Benchmarking: An International
Journal, 25(3), pp.1085-1103.

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