Part A: The business case
The business context of an IS project
Key takeaways
- Every worthwhile IS project traces back to a genuine business-strategy need; a project with no traceable link is an early warning sign that it may not deliver real business value.
- IS projects include new system development, system enhancement, system migration or replacement, infrastructure projects, and compliance or regulatory projects driven by a legal or standards requirement.
- A project is a temporary endeavour creating a unique result, a programme is a group of related projects managed together for benefits none could deliver alone, and a portfolio is the organisation's full collection of projects and programmes.
- A Programme and Project Support Office (PPSO, sometimes called a PMO) supplies standard tools, templates, methodology guidance and reporting support, so project managers can focus on delivery.
- PRINCE2 rests on seven principles: continued business justification, learn from experience, defined roles and responsibilities, manage by stages, manage by exception, focus on products, and tailor to suit the project environment.
No IS project exists for its own sake, every one is undertaken to serve a real business need. This opening chapter places project management in that business context before the rest of the paper develops the discipline's own techniques in full.
Types of information systems projects
- New system development: building an entirely new capability
- System enhancement: adding capability to an existing system
- System migration/replacement: moving to a new platform or technology
- Infrastructure projects: networks, hardware, cloud migration
- Compliance/regulatory projects: driven by a legal or standards requirement rather than a commercial opportunity
Strategy and IS projects
Every worthwhile IS project traces back to a genuine business-strategy need (CISSE's own paper on IS strategy and governance covers this alignment in depth); a project selected without that traceable link is a strong early warning sign, however technically well executed it later turns out to be, that it may not deliver real business value.
Content and format of a business case
A business case is the formal document justifying a project before it is approved, briefly introduced here and developed in full detail in the next chapter, its structure, the investment appraisal behind it, and how it is presented and tracked once a project is under way.
The framework of a project
The project support office
A Programme and Project Support Office (PPSO), sometimes called a Project Management Office (PMO), provides standardised tools, templates, methodology guidance and reporting support across an organisation's projects, freeing individual project managers to focus on delivery rather than reinventing process and governance from scratch on every project.
Lifecycles in outline
A development lifecycle is the structured sequence of phases a project moves through from initiation to closure, introduced briefly here and covered in full, alongside the specific approaches to systems development that implement it, in the chapter on the project management process.
Principles of PRINCE2
PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is a widely used, process-based project management methodology, referenced throughout this paper as the standard this Intermediate-level treatment of project management is built around. Its seven guiding principles:
- Continued business justification: a project must remain justified throughout its life, not only at approval
- Learn from experience: lessons are sought, recorded and applied continuously
- Defined roles and responsibilities: everyone involved knows their role and its accountability
- Manage by stages: the project is planned, monitored and controlled stage by stage, not as one single block
- Manage by exception: each management level is given defined tolerances and only escalates when a tolerance is exceeded
- Focus on products: the project defines and plans around its products (the Product Breakdown Structure), not just its activities
- Tailor to suit the project environment: the method is adapted to the project's own scale, complexity and risk, not applied rigidly regardless of fit
Exam tip
The seven PRINCE2 principles recur across this paper (planning, monitoring, quality and risk chapters all reference PRINCE2's own treatment); learn them here precisely, since later chapters assume familiarity with them rather than re-explaining them each time.
Self-check
(a) Distinguish a project, a programme and a portfolio. (3 marks)
(b) State three types of information systems projects. (3 marks)
(c) Explain the role of a Programme and Project Support Office (PPSO). (2 marks)
(d) State four of PRINCE2's seven guiding principles. (4 marks)
Show worked answer
(a) A project is a temporary endeavour with a defined start and end, creating a unique product, service or result. A programme is a group of related projects managed together to achieve benefits none could deliver alone. A portfolio is the full collection of an organisation's projects and programmes, managed to achieve strategic objectives.
(b) Any three of: new system development; system enhancement; system migration/replacement; infrastructure projects; compliance/regulatory projects.
(c) A PPSO provides standardised tools, templates, methodology guidance and reporting support across an organisation's projects, freeing individual project managers to focus on delivery rather than reinventing process and governance from scratch.
(d) Any four of: continued business justification; learn from experience; defined roles and responsibilities; manage by stages; manage by exception; focus on products; tailor to suit the project environment.