IT projects management is a process of scheduling, organizing and defining various responsibilities for achievement of IT goals of an organization, while civil engineering is consider as a discipline of professional engineering which deals with the plan, formation and protection of natural and physical construction environment that include works like bridges, dams, roads and buildings. The present report will discuss about the similarities and differences of civil engineering and describe the waterfall approach in project management. Moreover, the report is going to discuss about the methodology of waterfall approach and also explain different techniques and tools which are not suitable to manage IT projects. Further, study will explain the evolution of agile approach to manage IT projects and also analyse the critically and suitability of agile approach to manage IT projects (Abrahamsson.et.al, 2010).
The major similarities among the IT projects and civil engineering projects are that they both are considered to be proper collection of required equipments and tools to be used for designing IT projects and civil engineering projects. IT projects could be used in various businesses of civil engineering for improving the effectiveness of construction projects and for achieving desired goals in a proper timeframe.
There are a lot of difference among characteristic and nature of IT projects and civil engineering. The civil engineering mainly works to build various construction projects like buildings, homes, roads etc. while IT projects are mainly works for new and innovative technology for achievement of business goals in a proper way. IT projects mainly works with different type of hardware and software programs. But the project of civil engineering mainly focuses on physical involvement in the development projects. IT projects have wide information management system and different type of flexibility operations and activities. IT projects use different mechanism for designing and planning of the projects of company (Adenowo and Adenowo, 2013). Whereas, the project of civil engineering mainly creates the special design for columns, roof, slab, beams, roads and load calculation foundation of construction work.
The waterfall approach is a sequential method of software development. The waterfall approach is considered as the most efficient approach of project management in civil engineering. This approach helps the organization to maintain the level of project in construction industry. This approach stated that the civil projects required huge capitals or money as they are essentially required in this type of construction projects. This approach provides sequence to the organization in relation to project maintenance and development (Gartner, 2010).
According to this approach, the project follows a well-managed development of projects from one stage to another stage. The levels of waterfall approach of project development helps the organization to have a proper plan for project management and pursued it in an effective way. This method helps to collect different information and requirements which are essential to manage the project.
A common waterfall project follows a specific plan in which the model is used to specify the time frame. It will be used to decide the architect of the project and maintenance. Then according to the model the construction will start in a proper manner. This approach also helps the construction project as it specifies the needs and requirements and also it solves architecting problems that appears in construction project (Gartner, 2010). In the present time, waterfall approach is mainly used along the software projects and it consists of various stages and each stage provides measures and controlled outputs for the project. Moreover, waterfall approach provide different specifications of needs and requirements and it also helps to validate all the stages in a succeeding way to determine that the project fulfil needs and requirements of the project. It is a linear model, so it is very easy to implement the model in construction projects and for achieving the target in a proper time frame.
The traditional sequential methodologies for project management are based on waterfall model. In the waterfall model, the product life cycle is divided into several phases and the completion of one phase will trigger the execution of the next phase. Thus the progress follows in the form of a waterfall.
Figure 1: Waterfall Model
The important feature of waterfall methodologies is that all the requirement analysis and the designing is done prior to the development. Some of the well known methodologies based on waterfall model are PRINCE2 and PMI PMP. PRINCE2 was developed by the government of United Kingdom for the management of projects in public sector. PMI PMP is more popular and is used internationally.
The main feature of waterfall is that all the phases are pre-planned and defined in a sequence. This model is the easiest to implement; however any change in the requirement of the customers will lead to change in task sequence and as a result would lead to several changes which could be complex to manage for the project management team (Gartner, 2010).
The major reasons due to which the method is not appropriate for managing the IT projects are as follows:
1. Complex projects do not follow the sequential flow and as a result the changes could be difficult to manage.
2. The customers are often confused about the requirements and freezing the requirement could take long time. Since the next phase is dependent on the requirement phase, hence it could lead to overall delay in the project
3. The designers designing the solution often fail to foresee the issues related to a design and hence needs to make changes later. Due to the changes, the project management team has to go back a phase or two which could lead to increase in the budget of the projects (Gartner, 2010).
4. Currently there are models like Scrum and Agile which are flexible and adaptive and as a result are more appropriate then waterfall to manage the IT projects.
The tools that are being used by project managers for normally managing the projects within Invercargill Company could be through a variety of IT projects that company has been contracted for each year for meeting their fiscal aspirations. These are as follows:
The main purpose in relation to work breakdown structure is to carry out the planning process by project managers for breaking down their key tasks into more manageable and smaller units of work. Under this process cost breakdown structure can be laid down in order to list various items that can be classified and its expenditure for the project, so that a more detail estimate in relation to cost or expenditure can be carried out (workbreakdownstructure.com, 2014). This tool is used for carrying out allocation and delegation of responsibility for accomplishing various tasks that can be controlled through a greater accountability. Work breakdown structure also helps in improving the resource planning and efficiency of how the resources are consumed. For example: In this regard accurate forecasts in relation to project staffing can be undertaken for appropriate saving of cost.
It is seen to be a time chart proposed in the period of 1917 by Henry Gantt. A Gantt chart is seen to be a horizontal bar chart prepared for carrying out appropriate project scheduling. Under this tool each activity is seen to be a task that is depicted as a block over time. In this respect actual performance can be recorded in a real time and is efficient for carrying out comparison of planned deadlines in order to complete a project. Gantt chart can be used within Invercargill business for planning time scale of a project and for estimating the resources required (Gantt.com, 2012). Even it helps in undertaking appropriate planning, coordinating and tracking specific task in relation to a project. The examples of a Gantt chart that can be used by a project manager of Invercargill organization for carrying out their project operations are as follows;
Figure 2: Example of a Gantt chart
Critical path analysis (CPA) In a case where projects are lengthy and complex under that circumstances Gantt chart are seen to be a poor time management tool. It is particularly seen in the large projects that are of higher interdependency between various tasks. For example: In some case a project activity cannot be started until the first activities are not finished. Thus, under such a circumstances Gantt chart are seen to be less desirable as they do not display interdependencies. In such a situation critical path analysis is seen to display more logical sequence and timing of each activity. They have been communicating interdependency and is seen to be more of effective time management tool for carrying out a complex projects (MindTools, 1996). Even this tool is seen to be a good visual communication and planning tool for carrying out effective management of time. Further, also displays clear interdependent relationships that exist between various activities or tasks to be accomplished. The example of a critical path analysis is as follows;
Figure 3: Example of a critical path analysis
Since, 15 years Agile is seen to be a buzzword that is humming around the corporate world. Thus, it is not surprising that methods of agile are more and more popular for managing various IT projects. It is because using this aspect business is able to undertake their activities in a must faster and effective manner for increasing pace of change, especially in the way how projects are managed for the introduction of new projects or improved ways for carrying out the working. In relation to IT projects agile methods are originally seen to be better managing of software development. Even agile methods in IT projects are seen to be a method that breaks down the complete project into a series of steps that is known as sprints, increased testing of operations and undergoes daily meetings or scrums for reviewing the progress of a project (Abrahamsson.et.al, 2010). It also helps in laying down a close collaboration among team members and with those commissioning the work is also seen to an important aspect with respect to agile project management (Cervone, 2011). The most popular agile process and process being used within the IT projects are as follows:
Figure 4: Most popular agile tools and processes
“Agile is seen to be a method that breaks down a project into various steps that are known as sprints, rapidly test the work and undergoes daily meetings for carrying out the review progress”
Even large IT organizations such as Google, Microsoft and IBM have been adopting agile aspects in their different IT projects development. Even it has been considered by them that agile are best suited for IT projects all because of higher degree of cooperation and quick reworking that is involved in projects methodology. It has also been laid down by vice president of IBM that agile used within IT projects helps in undergoing appropriate product development and customer support. Further, it carried out right processes, tools and disciplines within the IT projects of larger enterprise by undergoing effective incorporation of agile.
Basically, agile approach is used to indicate group of different practices and values for delivering software. It is mainly used for planning, making decisions and to show the learning and development process of an individual. The agile approach is mainly considered as an interactive project management which is an iterative procedure that mainly concentrates on consumer value, communication and interaction of team to accomplish a common tasks, goals and adaptation of existing reality of business rather than pursuing a prescriptive plan (Dingsøyr,.et.al, 2010).
Agile approach mainly facilitates various work sessions along with IT and business to obtain shared understanding of various problems, planning and solution. The agile process mainly evaluated to introduce basic value of software procedures and also to introduce basic values among peoples; it describes the interaction and communication of individuals over different tools and processes. The agile approach is responding the modifications and changes over the following plan to manage IT projects.
Moreover, the agile approach mainly introduces the thought or idea of simplicity for IT projects.In order to do this, agile approach mainly highlights the facts that are use to monitor and control the project team along with firmly integrated unit. This includes various developers, project managers and consumers. In IT projects, the agile team follows the techniques and tools of open communication which permits the team members to describe their opinions and views and obtain feedback quickly and openly (Dingsøyr,.et.al, 2010). So, the evaluation of agile approach is helpful for the management of IT projects and is very essential as it provides developed software services to the organization to achieve goals and objectives of the projects in an efficient way. It also helps to encourage and facilitates proper practices and tools in the development process of IT projects.
The contemporary agile methodology being proposed for Invercargill business would be Scrum. This is a method that is seen to be agile, iterative, incremental and developing method that have been assuming changes and chaos that exist in the entire life cycle of a project and attempt in solving various issues (Cervone, 2011). Even scrum is designed for adding energy, better focus, effective clarity and helps in building transparency in the project teams for appropriate development in the IT projects. It has been seen that scrum generally lay down their focus towards entire business for building successful products. The process of scrum can be implemented at beginning of the project or in the middle in development of IT projects that are seen to be in trouble.
Figure 5: Scrum structure for IT projects
The primary artifact that can be seen in relation to Scrum development is specially seen to be the product itself. It has been seen that model of scrum expects team for bringing the product or system to a potentially shippable state at the end of each scrum print. Another aspect that can be seen in relation to scrum is that product backlog artifact (Cervone, 2011). It is seen to be complete list of functionality that is required to be added within the product. Under this case product owner will be prioritizing the backlog and project team will always be working on most valuable feature first.
Further, in case of scrum project management first day of a sprint and while carrying out the planning of meeting lays down appropriate creation of sprint backlog. In this regard it could be said that sprint backlog is the list of task that are required to be performed by a team for delivering the functionality they have committed to be delivered at the time of sprint. The additional artifact that can be drawn out of scrum agile methodology is seen to be sprint burn down chart (VersionOne, 2016). It indicates about the remaining amount of work that is required to be completed in relation to sprint or a release and is effective tool in scrum development of IT projects. This also lays down that whether scrum is on schedule and all the planned work in relation to IT projects will be completed as per the desired time.
Invercargill business is considering Scrum to be suitable for agile methodology to be applied within the organization IT projects. This aspect is considered to be suitable as scrum model have been suggesting the progress of projects through a series of sprints. By keeping it with an agile methodology, the sprints are time boxed not more than for a month and most commonly it is done for the period of 2 weeks. The scrum methodology is seen to be appropriate for the IT projects as it helps in planning the meetings at the beginning of the sprint. Here, team members are also able to build appropriate spring backlog in relation to various tasks that are required to be performed during the sprint (Abrahamsson.et.al, 2010). While undergoing an agile scrum sprint for the IT projects the scrum team will be making a small set of features concerning idea to be coded and for testing functionality of the projects.The adoption of this method is going to allow every tem member to attend daily scrum meeting and it will also be including Scrum Master and product owner. Even these meeting schedules are not carried out for more than 15 minutes. In that period time members of the team carry out their discussion process with respect to projects working at a prior day, will be working on that day and identifying any barriers in relation to the progress of the project.
Further, it could be said that Invercargill business carrying out their IT project is going to make use of scrum model for daily synchronization of working of their team members as they carry out discussion in relation to the work of the sprint (AgileAlliance, 2015). At the finishing point of sprint, team use to carry out a sprint review under which team demonstrated new functionality in relation to PO or any other stakeholder who seems to provide feedback that have got the potential of laying down influence over the next sprint. The feedback loop that can be seen with respect to scrum software development is going to change freshly delivered functionality. However, it may also lay down revising or adding of items with respect to the product backlog.
The above report has been concluded that the major similarities among the IT projects and civil engineering projects are that they both are considered to be proper collection of required equipments and tools to be used for designing IT projects and civil engineering projects. The report has been also explored that the waterfall approach is a sequential method of software development. The waterfall approach is considered as the most efficient approach of project management in civil engineering. It has been also identified that the important feature of waterfall methodologies is that all the requirement analysis and the designing is done prior to the development. Report also explored that agile approach mainly facilitates various work sessions along with IT and business to obtain shared understanding of various problems, planning and solution. Furthermore, the contemporary agile methodology being proposed for Invercargill business would be Scrum.
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