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INFO6007
Project Management in IT
Lecture 2
IT Project Methods and
Requirements Gathering
Strategies
Semester 2, 2024
Dr Ifeanyi Egwutuoha
Source:
Schwalbe, K, Information Technology Project Management (9th Edition). Cengage Learning, 2019
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Recapture From Lecture 1
An overview of PM in IT:
§ Attributes of a Project
§ Why Project or Project Management?
§ IT Project Management
§ IT Project Manager
§ PMBOK Knowledge Areas
§ Project Life Cycle
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Announcement
§ Form a group 5 members during tutorial class
§ Sign in Canvas
§ Share your contact with your group members
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Learning Objectives
§ Discuss Project Management Methodologies
§ Understand project goal, objectives, deliverables, and scope
§ Describe and understand the processes of project scope
management
§ Discuss methods of investigating and collecting requirements to
meet stakeholder needs and expectations
§ Discuss the process for creating a work breakdown structure
§ Discuss and understand the importance and method of validating
and controlling project scope
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Project Management Methodologies
§ A methodology is a system of practices, techniques, procedures
and rules used by those who work in a discipline.

§ Popular PM Methodologies:
- Waterfall Project Management
- Agile Project Management
- PRINCE2

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Waterfall Project Management
§ Traditional, or “waterfall” project
management handles things
sequentially, from the concept and
planning phase through to
development and quality
assurance and finally project
completion and maintenance.
§ Waterfall methodology is most
often applied to large software
development projects as thorough
planning and predictability are
supreme to the project process
and success.
Source: (Katcherovski, 2012). (Baker, n.d.)
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Agile Project Management
§ Agile project management focuses on adaptability to changing
situations and constant, regular feedback – whether it’s from
the client or from other members of the team.
§ This is ideal when clients or management need to be in on the
production process, resulting in changing requirements and
drastic shifts in team assignments.
§ Agile project management is usually ideal for smaller software
projects and/or those with accelerated development schedules.
Source: Katcherovski, 2012
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Agile Project Management … continue
§ Agile means being able to move quickly and easily, but some
people feel that project management, as they have seen it used,
does not allow people to work quickly or easily.
§ Early software development projects often used a waterfall
approach. As technology and businesses became more complex,
the approach was often difficult to use because requirements
were unknown or continuously changing.
§ Agile today means using a method based on iterative and
incremental development, in which requirements and solutions
evolve through collaboration.
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Agile Project Management … continue
§ Agile Scope Management
– Scope is not well understood, but needs to be controlled
§ Agile Time Management
– Schedule must be flexible due to changes
§ Agile Cost Management
– Costs are more difficult to estimate
§ Agile Risk Management
– Higher risk aspects of project are completed first
§ Agile Quality Management
– Quality assessed after each iteration
Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World, 7th Edition - Chapter 11, ©2016. Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
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Scrum
§ An iterative project management methodology that thrives in
situations where requirements constantly shift (Icasas, 2014).
§ Scrum is part of the Agile movement.
§ The Scrum approach to agile software development marks a
dramatic departure from waterfall management.
§ Scrum and other agile methods were inspired by shortcomings
of waterfall method.
§ Scrum emphasizes collaboration, functioning software, team self
management, and the flexibility to adapt to emerging business
realities.
Source: http://scrummethodology.com/
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PRINCE2
§ PRINCE2 is a government-endorsed project management
methodology, released and supported by the UK government
in 1996.
§ It is a very process-oriented methodology, dividing projects into
multiple stages, each with their own plans and processes to
follow (Katcherovski, 2012).
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Critical Thinking Exercise 1: Managerial Perspectives
§ Q1: Which Project Management Method should you choose?
- With short time schedule

§ Q2: Which Project Management Method should you choose?
- With unclear user requirements
Difference between Agile and Waterfall:
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TycLR0TqFA

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Project Goal, Objectives, Deliverable, and Scope
§ Project Goal: Long-term
§ Objectives: Short-term and practical
§ A deliverable is a product produced as part of a project, such
as hardware or software, planning documents, or meeting
minutes
§ Scope refers to all the work involved in creating the products of
the project and the processes used to create them.
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6 main processes in Project Scope Management:
§ Planning scope management involves determining how the project’s scope
and requirements will be managed.
§ Collecting requirements involves defining and documenting the features
and functions of the products as well as the processes used for creating them.
§ Defining scope involves reviewing the scope management plan, project
charter, requirements documents, and organizational process assets to create
a scope statement, adding more information as requirements are developed
and change requests are approved.
§ Creating the WBS involves subdividing the major project deliverables into
smaller, more manageable components.
§ Validating scope involves formalizing acceptance of the project
deliverables. Key project stakeholders, such as the customer and sponsor for
the project, inspect and then formally accept the deliverables during this
process. If the deliverables are not acceptable, the customer or sponsor
usually requests changes.
§ Controlling scope involves controlling changes to project scope throughout
the life of the project—a challenge on many IT projects. Scope changes
often influence the team’s ability to meet project time and cost goals, so
project managers must carefully weigh the costs and benefits of scope
changes.
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Project Scope
Management
Overview
Source: PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition. Project Management Institute, Inc. (2017). Copyright and all rights reserved.
Material from this publication has been reproduced with permission of PMI.
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Project Scope Management Processes:
(1) Plan Scope Management
§ Plan Scope
Management is the
process of creating a
scope management
plan that documents
how the project scope
will be defined,
validated, and
controlled
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Scope Management Plan Contents
§ How to prepare a detailed project scope statement
§ How to create a WBS
§ How to maintain and approve the WBS
§ How to obtain formal acceptance of the completed project
deliverables
§ How to control requests for changes to the project scope
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Project Scope Management Processes:
(2) Collect Requirements
§ Collect Requirements is
the process of
determining,
documenting, and
managing stakeholder
needs and requirements
to meet project
objectives.
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Requirements Management Plan
§ The PMBOK describes requirements as “conditions or
capabilities that must be met by the project or present in the
product, service, or result to satisfy an agreement or other
formally imposed specification”
§ The requirements management plan documents how project
requirements will be analyzed, documented, and managed
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Collect Requirements
§ For some IT projects, it is helpful to divide requirements
development into categories called elicitation, analysis,
specification, and validation
§ It is important to use an iterative approach to defining
requirements since they are often unclear early in a project
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Relative Cost to Correct a Software Requirement Defect
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Methods for Collecting Requirements
§ Interviewing
§ Focus groups and facilitated workshops
§ Using group creativity and decision-making techniques
§ Questionnaires/surveys
§ Observation
§ Prototyping
§ Benchmarking, or generating ideas by comparing specific project
practices or product characteristics to those of other projects or
products inside or outside the performing organization, can also
be used to collect requirements
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Requirements Traceability Matrix
§ A requirements traceability matrix (RTM) is a table that lists
requirements, various attributes of each requirement, and the
status of the requirements to ensure that all requirements are
addressed
§ Sample entry in an RTM
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Project Scope Management Processes
(3) Define Scope
§ Define Scope is the
process of developing a
detailed description of
the project and product.
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Define
Scope
Input:
Project
Charter
Output:
Scope
Statement
Source: A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Fifth Edition
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Sample Project Charter (partial)
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Sample Project Charter …cont’d
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Scope Statement
§ Project scope statements should include at least a product
scope description, product user acceptance criteria, and
detailed information on all project deliverables.
§ As time progresses, the scope of a project should become more
clear and specific
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Project Scope Management Processes:
(4) Create WBS
§ Create WBS is the
process of subdividing
project deliverables and
project work into smaller,
more manageable
components.
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Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
§ A WBS is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved
in a project that defines the total scope of the project
§ WBS is a foundation document that provides the basis for
planning and managing project schedules, costs, resources, and
changes
§ Decomposition is subdividing project deliverables into smaller
pieces
§ A work package is a task at the lowest level of the WBS
§ The scope baseline includes the approved project scope
statement and its associated WBS and WBS dictionary
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WBS Organized by Product
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WBS Organized by Phase
Level 0
Level 1
Level 2
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WBS Organized in Tabular Form
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Intranet WBS and Gantt Chart in Microsoft Project
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Intranet Gantt Chart Organized by Project
Management Process Groups
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Detailed WBS for Executing Section (Process)
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Approaches to Developing WBSs
§ Using guidelines: Some organizations, like the Department of
Defense (DOD), provide guidelines for preparing WBSs
§ The analogy approach: Review WBSs of similar projects and
tailor to your project
§ The top-down approach: Start with the largest items of the
project and break them down
§ The bottom-up approach: Start with the specific tasks and roll
them up
§ Mind-mapping approach: Mind mapping is a technique that
uses branches radiating out from a core idea to structure
thoughts and ideas
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Mind-Mapping Approach for Creating a WBS
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The WBS Dictionary
§ Many WBS tasks are vague and must be explained more so
people know what to do and can estimate how long it will take
and what it will cost to do the work
§ A WBS dictionary is a document that describes detailed
information about each WBS item
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WBS Dictionary
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Things to Remember for Creating a WBS
§ A unit of work should appear at only one place in the WBS.
§ The work content of a WBS item is the sum of the WBS items
below it
§ A WBS item is the responsibility of only one individual, even
though many people may be working on it
§ The WBS must be consistent with the way in which work is
actually going to be performed; it should serve the project team
first, and other purposes only if practical
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Things to Remember for Creating a WBS (cont’d)
§ Project team members should be involved in developing the
WBS to ensure consistency and buy-in
§ Each WBS item must be documented in a WBS dictionary to
ensure accurate understanding of the scope of work included
and not included in that item
§ The WBS must be a flexible tool to accommodate inevitable
changes while properly maintaining control of the work content
in the project according to the scope statement
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Project Scope Management Processes:
(5) Validate Scope
§ Validate Scope is
the process of
formalizing
acceptance of the
completed project
deliverables.
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Validating Scope
§ It is very difficult to create a good scope statement and WBS for a
project
§ It is even more difficult to verify project scope and minimize scope
changes
§ Scope validation involves formal acceptance of the completed
project deliverables
§ Acceptance is often achieved by a customer inspection and then
sign-off on key deliverables
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Scope Management Issues
§ Many countries have had difficulties controlling the scope of
large projects, especially those that involve advanced
technologies and many different users
§ For example, the state government of Victoria, Australia, has
a Web site for its public transportation smart card at
https://www.ptv.vic.gov.au/
§ There were many problems in developing and implementing the
smart card
§ How about Opal Card? Or any other projects?
§ Did you experience any issues on user requirements?
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Project Scope Management Processes:
(6) Control Scope
§ Control Scope is the
process of
monitoring the status
of the project and
product scope and
managing changes
to the scope
baseline.
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Controlling Scope
§ Scope control involves controlling changes to the project scope
§ Goals of scope control are to
– control the factors that cause scope changes
– assure changes are processed according to procedures developed as
part of integrated change control, and
– manage changes when they occur
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Lecture Summary
§ Project scope management includes the processes required to
ensure that the project addresses all the mandatory work, to
complete the project successfully
§ Scope Management processes include
– Plan scope management
– Collect requirements
– Define scope
– Create WBS
– Validate scope
– Control scope
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Reference
§ Recommended textbook: Schwalbe, K, Information Technology
Project Management (9th Edition). Cengage Learning, 2019