Project Management Notes

Active listening includes:

- Mirroring Repeating what the other person just said to confirm the fact that you have
listened to what they were saying
- Paraphrasing Rephrasing what the other person said into your own words so that you
remember the content and show the other that you are listening
- Summarising Excluding extra detail, getting to the skeleton part of what the other said
- Clarifying questions Asking questions to clarify some excluded details in what the other
said, asking for more details
Active listening includes mirroring aka. Repeating what the other just said, paraphrasing aka.
Rephrasing what someone just said in your own words, summarising, clarifying questions aka.
clarifying for more details, motivational responses aka. please continue speaking comments.
Conflict resolution
Conflict resolution is conflict prevention or resolving conflict when one arises. The team leader takes
charge of what the conflict could lead to or possibly be. Tackle the problem not the person.
Brainstorming for more contribution from group. Group problem solving.
Negotiation skills
Confirmwhat you want before going. Predict what happens beforehand. Think of all problems that
could occur. Make an appointment. Confident and assertive.
Interview techniques
Dress for the job. Appropriate. Not over-dressing. Prepare. Hand shaking.
Better dressed than interviewed. Prepare questions beforehand. Know what person you want for
the job.
Team building
Forming Getting together. Storming Work out original conflicts. Norming Getting rid of conflicts
and work. Performing Performing best as a group.

the consequences for groups that fail to function as a team, including:
financial loss
employment loss
missed opportunities

Project management tools
Tools to assist group in ensuring the project is successful.
Gantt charts Time
scheduling of tasks Sub section of gantt chart for personal time frames?
journals and diaries
funding management plan Outline to client where every bit of money is goinh
communication management plan Methods and time of communication with client
and workers. Agreement of method.
Understanding the Problem

New? Or just making changes? Why are the changes necessary? What changes are
necessary? How? Who? Skills, knowledge and preferences. What is the data and what is
coming out?

Requirements prototype
A working model of an information system, built in order to understand the requirements of
the system. Can be screen generations or report generators. E.g Dreamweaver, Word and
Access.

Planning

Feasibility studies To report benefits, costs and risks of the project.

choosing the appropriate development approaches
traditional
outsourcing
prototyping
customisation
participant development
agile methods
iterative

the requirements report that:
details the time frame
details the subprojects and the time frame for them Buttons, shopping cart. Projects
within the project.
identifies participants
identifies relevant information technology
identifies data/information
identifies the needs of users

Designing

clarifying with users the benefits of the new information system To prevent
developing a system that is unwanted.
designing the information system for ease of maintenance Need to know who is
maintaining it and what the persons skill set is.
clarifying each of the relevant information processes within the system So that we
know what it needs to do and how it is going to do it.
detailing the role of the participants, the data and the information technology used in the
system For clarification what we need and have to develop the system.
refining existing prototypes + develop a solution to a problem from a prototype +
understanding the problem
tools used in designing, including:
context diagrams
data flow diagrams
decision trees
decision tables
data dictionaries
storyboards linear, composite, hieratical, non-linear
participant development, when people within the information system develop the solution
participant designed solutions
tools for participant development such as guided processes in application packages
Pros: Will always meet users needs and there is no need for long
docuementation
Cons: Pressure
use a guided process in an application to create all or part of a solution
- E.g When installing; a Wizard
use system design tools to:
better understand the system DFD and Context
assist in explaining the operation of the new system
document the new system


Implementing

Reasons for customisation:
- Ease of use
- Time efficiency
- Safety + protection

Implementation plan
Participant training - How much training is required? How much is charged for
training? Who needs to be trained? What are their orginal skills?
Even new systems need methods of conversion. No system ---> Existence of system
System testing How the system will be discussed

Operational Manual
Different from Maintenance manual because M.M specifies
time/regularity/date/specifications

Testing, Evaluating and Maintaining

Volume Data
- Shopping sites, ATMs, Flight sites
Simulated Data
- ATMS
Live Data
- Uploading onto Youtube
- Testing application

trialling and using the operation manual If it is easy to follow. Specific.

reviewing the effect on users of the information system, participants and people within
the environment
- Affects reputation
- Are the changes seen as positive or negative

Social and Ethical issues in Project Management
- Power and control
- Privacy
- Appropriate information use
- Changing nature of work
- Machine-centred systems simplify what computers do at the expense of participants.