Life Cycle Approach to Managing an AM/FM/GIS Project
This phase is concluded with the delivery of the final product. Many clients will conduct a factory
acceptance test (FAT) prior to the delivery. By performing this test you will be able to identifi and
resolve many major issues prior to the delivery. It should be noted that a formal method of documenting
and prioritizing issues of concern should be adopted in order to manage the overall quality and
acceptability of the system.
Deliver Phase
The Deliver phase provides for the smooth transition of the system from development to production. A
site acceptance test (SAT) is recommended to ensure that the system is acceptable. This phase could
involve the following activities:
- Install both client and server hardware.
- Install baseline software for clients and servers.
- Configure the system (define passwords, partition the disk, and so on).
- Install custom applications.
- Load converted or migrated data.
- Execute the test plan.
- Resolve identified issues.
- Re-execute the test plan.
The system is now operational, but not necessarily in production. At this point the testing team is ready
to execute the test plan. Once again, issues of concern are identified and prioritized in a formal manner.
Many issues identified during this phase could actually be enhancements, meaning that the system works
as designed but does not fimction in the most efficient manner. In these cases, management must be very
careful to limit the number of changes necessary for the system to go into production. The danger is that
you will continue in the development mode and never deploy the system. Evaluate a change by
considering how it will affect the system’s achieving its business case. You carI delay resolving low-impact
issues and plan to resolve high-impact issues prior to deployment.
The deliverable from the Deliver phase is an integrated system that has gone through a series of tests to
assure its acceptability. The system is now ready for production.
Maintain Phase
During the maintenance phase, the team will turn its focus towards deploying the system. In most cases,
the greatest volume of problems will be reported to the team during the deployment period. Many new
users will utilize the products in ways that the designers never imagined, and data issues will arise that
affect the system’s operation. Project Managers must confront performance issues based on hardware
and software constraints.
The development team should use the same life cycle approach to evaluating any changes to the system.
The team should not abandon its discipline because the system is in the maintenance phase. By
following this disciplined approach, you will maintain the same quality that was built into the original
system.
Risk Management
One of the project manager’s major roles is managing risk in its many forms. The first step is to identifi
the risk item and monitor it very closely during the course of a project.
The best method of identifying a risk item is to develop a work breakdown structure (WBS). Each task
in a phase should have a duration, resources, and precedents associated with it. The project manager carI
monitor the progress of the project by monitoring the WBS on a periodic basis. Many excellent project
management tools can be purchased commercially to aid in this effort.
In the WBS, the project manager can identifi high risk areas. Risk can be mitigated by increasing the
scheduled time or taking high-risk items off of the critical path. The key is to monitor the risk items on a
regular basis. The following are several recommended means of monitoring a project:
- Conduct monthly (as a minimum) project meetings to discuss schedules and project issues.
- Conduct peer reviews at the end of the Define and Design phases to ensure that the proper
technical approach is being taken. This will also aid in keeping the proposed solution in line
with the business requirements.
- Conduct executive review board meetings on a quarterly basis with project sponsors. During
this meeting, bring to their attention issues that need executive support. The project sponsors
also appreciate being informed of the progress that the project team is making.
- Conduct a series of unit tests, factory acceptance tests, and site acceptance tests based on the
design specification and test plan. During these test phases, you can monitor the volume of
problems reported and make adjustments to project resources based on the results. This
approach will help assure that a high-quality product that meets the end users’ business needs
will be met.
Once the risk has been identified, a project manager should prepare a plan for mitigating it. This could
mean assigning additional resources, changing the schedule, changing the technical approach, or bringing
in outside resources. The key is to identify the risk formulate a plan or options for managing it, and
monitor the situation so that you will have time to react should the risk become a reality.
Why Projects fail
John Gioia wrote sn article for PMNehvork (November 1996) proposing twelve reasons why projects
fail. His reasons are the following:
- Understanding program complexity.
- Lack of access and internal communication.
- Not integrating the key elements (managing pieces of the project in a vacuum).
- No measurable controls.
- Requirement creep (better known as “scope creep”).
- Ineffective implementation strategy.
- A software tool to manage the project is not the only answer.
- Vendor and customer have different expectations.
- No shared “win-win” attitude.
- No formal education (project managers are not trained on the process).
- Lack of leadership, commitment and sponsorship.
- Not viewed as a start-up business (project must be viewed as autonomous).
Mr. Gioia indicates that many of these reasons for project failure are so obvious that people discount
them as possible risks. He notes, however, that these problems plague many projects and are worthy of
consideration. If you take care of the basics, your opportunity for success will be much greater.
Conclusion
The life cycle approach to a project, combined with competent project management and adequate
resources, will help to ensure a successfid project. This disciplined approach will result in a high-quality
product that will be developed on schedule and within the budget. Such an approach will also aid in
identi~ing and managing risks, ultimately increasing the probability of a successful project.
References
Gioia, John. “Twelve Reasons Why Programs Fail,” PMNetwork, November 1996.
Intergraph’s Solution Engineering Methodology.
