Hardware Replacement Project
Betty Gladney
IT 205
June 20 2010
DeCendre Pinckney
A project is a planned series of related activities for achieving a specific business objective. Project management refers to the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to achieve specific targets within specific budget and time constraints. Project management activities include planning the work, assessing risk estimating resources required to accomplish the work, organizing the work, acquiring human and materials resources, assigning tasks, directing activities, controlling project execution, reporting progress, and analyzing the results. As in other areas of business, project management for information systems must deal with five major variables: scope, time, cost, quality, and risk.
Scope defines what work is or is not included in a project. For example, the scope of a project for new order processing system might include new modules for imputing orders and transmitting them to production and accounting but not any changes to related accounts receivables, manufacturing, distribution, or inventory control systems. Project management defines all the work required to complete a project successfully, and should ensure that the scope of a project not expand beyond what was originally intended.
Time is the amount of time required to complete the project. Projected management typically established the amount of time required to complete major components of a project. Each of these components is further broken down into activities and tasks. Project management tries to determine the time required to complete each task and establish a schedule for completing work.
Cost is based on the time to complete a project multiplied by the daily cost of human resources required to complete the project. Information systems project costs also include the cost of hardware, software, and work space. Project management develops a budget for the project and...