Muhammad Izdihar Bin Mohamad Shuhaimi AIS310: CHAPTER 2

AC1205C

Introduction
1. A system view of project management:
- Project must operate in a broad organizational environment.
- Project managers need to consider project within the greater organizational context.
- Project managers need to take a holistic view of a project and understand how it relates to the
larger organizations.
- So, system thinking describes the holistic view of carrying out project within context of the
organizations.
2. System Approach
- Definition: to describes a holistic and analytical approach to solving complex problems that
includes using a system philosophy, a system analysis and system management.
System philosophy: an overall model for thinking about thing as system.
System: sets of interacting components working within an environment to fill
some purpose.
System analysis: a problem solving approach that requires defining the scope of the
system, dividing it into components, and then identifying and evaluating its problem,
opportunities, constraints, and needs.
System approach: address the business, technological and organizational issues
associates with creating, maintaining, and making changes to system.

- Why top manager and project manager follow SP, SA, SM: *for successful project management.
1. SP (to understand how project relate to the whole organizations.)
2. SA (to address need with a problem-solving approach.)
3. SM(to identify key business, technology, and organizational issues related to each
project in order to identify and satisfy key stakeholder and do what is best for the entire
organizations.)
3. Three- Sphere Model for System Management
- It can have a huge impact on selecting and managing project successfully.
- It consists of business, organizational and technology.
- E.g, it must refer to opening cases
in chapter2 at page 44:

Opening cases
Tom Walter want develop plan to start
requiring all student to least laptops at
their collage for the next year.
Constraint: He doesnt have response or agreements from each faculty for her project
to least laptop to each student.
4. Organizational Culture
- Definition: a set of shared assumption, values, and behavior that characterized the functioning
of organizations.
- It also to note that the same organizations can have different subcultures.
- Ten characteristic organizational culture(Robbins & Judge):
1. Member identity: The degree to which employee identify with organizations as a whole
rather than with their type of job.
2. Group emphasis: The degree to which work activities are organized around group rather
than individual.
3. People focus: The degree to which management decision take into account the effect
outcomes of people within the organizations.
4. Unit integrations: The degree to which units within organization are encouraged to
coordinate with each other.
5. Control: The degree to which rules, policies, and direct supervisions are used to oversee
and control employee behavior.
6. Risk tolerance: The degree to which employees are encouraged to be aggressive, innovative,
and risk seeking.
7. Reward criteria: The degree to which reward, such as promotions and salary increase, are
allocated according to employee performance rather than seniority, favoritism, or other
performance factor.
8. Conflict tolerance: The degree to which employee are encouraged to air conflict and
criticism openly.
9. Means-end orientations: The degree to which management focuses on outcomes rather
than on technique and processed used to achieve results.
10. Open system focus: the degree to which the organization monitors and respond to changes
in the external environment.
- So, project work is most successful in an organization culture where employees identify more
with organization, where work more with organization, where work activities emphasize
rewards, high conflict tolerance, an open-system focus, and a balanced focus on people, control,
and means orientation.
5. Project Life Cycle
- Definition: is a collection of project phases.
- In general, it defines as what work will be performed in each phases, what deliverables will
produced and when, who is involved in each phases, and how management will control and
approved work produced in each phases.
- 1
st
phases: Resources needs are usually lowest and the level of uncertainty is highest.
Project stakeholders have the greatest opportunity to influences the final
characteristic of the project product and service.
- Middle phases: the certainty of completing project improves as a project continues, more
information is known about the project requirement and objectives, and more resources are
usually needed than during the initial or final phases.
- Final phases: focuses on ensuring that project requirement were met and that the project
sponsor approves completion and close out.
- The tradional project management is often called the concept, development, implementation,
and close out phase.
o Concept & development = focus on planning and are often referred project feasibility.
o Implementation & close out = focus on delivering the actual work and are often
reoffered as project acquisition.
- Refer to text book pg58 (it have example that related to opening cases)


1. Manager will develop some type of business case, rough cost estimate and overview
of the work involved is created.
2. Project team created more detailed project management plan, a more accurate cost
estimate and more through WBS.
3. A project team created a definitive or accurate cost estimates, delivers the required
work, and provides performance report to stakeholders.
4. All the work is completed and there should be some short customer acceptances of
the entire project. The project team should document its experience on the project
in lesson learned report.