Sem 2, AY2022/2023

Yang Lu
§ Discuss project management strategies and practices at organizational level
and project level

§ Discuss change management challenges, pitfalls, strategies and tactics.

1
§ Tips:
§ If possible, always try to arrange an on-site visit, and in-person interview
§ Offline binding works the best!
§ If possible, take a picture with the interviewee, with company logo included in the
background
§ Freeze the moment!
§ If you want, you can send over your drafted interview questions and I will help
polish and edit
§ In addition to the digital transformation journey, a key set of questions you should not
omit:
§ Industry trend and relevant tech trend!
§ Check whether audio recording is allowed

2
§ Inventories all of the organization’s
information systems projects and
assets
§ To improve return on portfolio,
balance risk and return from
systems investments

3
§ A weighted table analysis is used
to evaluate alternative system
projects, especially when many
criteria exist
§ Weighted multicriteria analysis
§ Assigns weights to various features
of system and calculates weighted
total scores.

4
§ Three types of arguments commonly made in
the business case for an IS
§ Faith
§ Arguments based on beliefs about organizational
strategy, competitive advantage, industry forces,
customer perceptions, market share, and so on
§ Fear
§ Arguments based on the notion that if the system is
not implemented, the firm will lose out to the
competition or, worse, go out of business
§ Facts
§ Arguments based on data, quantitative analysis,
and/or indisputable factors

5
§ Cost-benefit analysis

6
§ TOC
§ Direct and indirect cost
§ capital cost vs operational
cost

7
§ Tangible benefits (cost saving)
§ Increased productivity
§ Lower operational costs
§ Reduced workforce
§ Lower computer expenses
§ Lower outside vendor costs
§ Reduced rate of growth in expenses
§ Reduced facility costs
§ etc
§ Intangible benefit
§ Improved asset utilization
§ Improve resource control
§ Improved organizational planning
§ Increased organizational flexibility
§ More timely information
§ Improved customer experience
§ Increased organizational learning
§ Legal requirements attained
§ Enhanced employee goodwill
§ Increased job satisfaction
§ Improved decision making
§ Improved operations
§ Higher client satisfaction
§ Better cooperate image
§ etc
8
§ The Productivity Paradox
§ While it is easy to quantify the costs associated with
developing an information system, it is often difficult to
quantify tangible productivity gains from its use.
§ Measurement problems
§ Effectiveness: the extent to which goals or tasks are
accomplished well
§ Efficiency: the extent to which goals are accomplished
faster, at a lower cost
§ Time lags
§ There may be significant time lags between a company
making an investment and observable impacts on the
bottom line
§ Redistribution
§ New innovations may be used to redistribute the pieces
of pies rather than making the whole pie bigger.
§ Mismanagement
§ System vs. business process

9
§ ERP (Enterprise resource planning
system)
§ Tier I
§ These systems are designed for
enterprises with more than 750 million
in annual revenue.
§ Most enterprises of this size are
complex, either due to complex
operational processes or complexity in
their entity structure and consolidation
needs.
§ Tier I applications address multiple
industries and scalability.
§ e.g., SAP S/4HANA, Oracle ERP Cloud,
the Infor CloudSuites

10
§ ERP Implementation

2018 Panorama consulting solution

11
§ A project is a planned series of related activities for achieving a specific
business objective.
§ IT/IS projects include the development of new systems, enhancement of
existing systems, or upgrade or replacement of the firms’ IT infrastructure.
§ IT/IS project management must deal with 5 major variables:
§ Scope
§ Time
§ Cost
§ Quality
§ Risk
§ Project size, project structure, experience with technology

12
§ ERP Implementation

2021 Panorama consulting solution

13
§ Gantt chart
§ It lists project activities and their
corresponding start and completion
dates.
§ Visually represents the timing and
duration of different tasks in a
development project as well as their
human resource requirements.
§ It shows each task as a horizontal bar
whose length is proportional to the time
required to complete it.

14
§ PERT charts
§ Program Evaluation and Review
Technique
§ Graphically depicts project tasks
and their interrelationships
§ A methodology developed by the U.S.
Navy during the 1950s to manage the
Polaris submarine missile program.

15
§ Agile approach

16
§ “The people side of technology project”
§ A systematic approach to dealing with change, both from the perspective of
an organization and on the individual level.
§ Business transformation through activities of communication, training, and process
change.
§ Change agent
§ one role of systems analyst
§ Redefines the configurations, interactions, job activities, and power relationships of
organizational groups
§ Could be
§ External agent
§ Internal agent

17
§ NUS – New CHRS (Cloud HR System). 07.2019

18
§ Sources of resistance
§ Organizational level
§ e.g.,
§ Structural inertia
§ As organisations grow, it suffers bureaucratic bottlenecks and inflexibility which may
metamorphose into the problem of resistance to change – dinosaur dynamics
§ Threat to the established power relationship
§ Treat to established resource allocation

19
§ Sources of resistance
§ Individual level
§ e.g., habit, fear of the unknown, security/privacy threat, economic factors
§ Models of adoption of innovation
§ Demand-driven:
§ If the benefits are higher than costs, then adopt
§ Performance expectancy
§ Effort expectancy
§ Social influence
§ Facilitating condition
§ Supply-driven:
§ Resistance to innovation is due to knowledge barriers. Removing knowledge barriers
helps to diffuse innovation
§ Organizational learning, skills development

20
§ Typical pitfalls in change
management
§ Underestimating the magnitude of
change
§ Structural and culture change
§ Poor leadership and lack of change
commitment
§ “Nice to have” but not a critical success
factor (CSF)
§ change management steps not embedded
in project plan

21
§ Define clear expectations and roles
§ include key managers and critical project personnel
§ Needs to be sustained after “go-live”

§ Start early, continued as long as needed

§ Constant communication of project benefits

§ Integrate change activities into project plan

§ Clear visibility of milestones and measurements

§ Budget resource specifically for change activities

§ Change manager staffed by senior leaders
§ Acquire people with change management skills on board early

22
§ Top management support
§ Senior level/middle level managers

§ User involvement
§ e.g., effective communication, town hall meetings

§ Training
§ e.g., workshops, user documentation

§ Support and feedback channel

§ e.g., helpdesk

§ Peer support
§ e.g., ambassadors

§ External consultant

23
24
25
§ Change management in ERP
implementation

2021 Panorama consulting solution

26
§ Week 6
§ L6 IT/AI Risks and Security

27