Project management involves planning, scheduling, monitoring, controlling, and reporting on information system development projects. It was first used for large-scale projects like the transcontinental railroad in the 1860s and further developed during World Wars I and II. Successful project management requires completing projects on time, within budget, and delivering high-quality products that meet user requirements. The key aspects of project management are planning, scheduling, monitoring, and reporting. Planning involves identifying tasks, durations, costs, and dependencies. Scheduling uses this information to create timelines like Gantt charts and PERT charts. Monitoring tracks progress and addresses issues. Reporting communicates status to stakeholders. Risk management also identifies, analyzes, and monitors risks to minimize their impact

1. Shelly and Rosenblatt (2012) define project management as the process of planning, scheduling,
monitoring and controlling, and reporting on information system development. Most people
think that project management is a relatively modern invention but according to Microsoft (n.d.)
the first large project to utilize project management techniques was the transcontinental railroad
beginning in the 1860’s. The sheer number of laborers and the logistics of providing raw and
finished materials where they were needed required an organized management model. Project
management was further developed during World War I and II to make the work more efficient
rather than having men working longer and harder and to create organizational structure to save
money and time (Microsoft, n.d.).
A successful project must be completed on time, within budget and delivers a quality product
that satisfies user requirements (Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2012). There are four main parts to project
management:
• Planning: identifying all tasks and completion times and costs of each
• Scheduling: the creation of timetables through the use of charts, that show the tasks, their
dependencies and critical tasks
• Monitoring: monitoring progress, evaluating the results and taking corrective action to
keep the project on track
• Reporting: regular reports to management, users and the project team (Shelly &
Rosenblatt, 2012).
The first place to start is work breakdown structure, identifying all the tasks of the project, the
task patterns and the critical paths (Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2012). Part of this phase is determining
the task durations, dependencies, or task patterns, of the tasks are dependent, successor or
predecessor and start and stop dates and using that information to create a graphical timeline
called a Gantt Chart and a PERT Chart, program evaluation review technique (Shelly &
Rosenblatt, 2012). The project manager uses a formula to determine the duration of each task by
estimating the best-case time (B), the probable-case time (P), and the worst-case time (W),
assigned a weight to each estimate, a common approach is B = 1, P = 4, and W = 1. Shelly and
Rosenblatt (2012) state the task duration would be calculated by:
(B+4P+W)
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The Gantt Chart is created by listing all the project tasks, the duration and the and the
predecessor tasks. This is a display of the work breakdown structure (Shelly & Rosenblatt,
2012). A PERT Chart is similar but it contains more information: task name, task ID, duration,
start date and stop date. Project management software such as Microsoft Project or Open
Workbench use that information to create the charts (Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2012). The charts
allow the project manager to track and control where a project or task is, whether it’s on track or
in danger of falling behind. The project manager would regularly report to management, users
and the project team the status of the project, if it’s on time and whether it’s within budget
(Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2012).

2. Project managers use computer software to perform risk analysis. Shelly and Rosenblatt (2012)
define risk management as the process of identifying, analyzing, anticipating and monitoring
risks to minimize their impact on the project. The steps in risk management are identifying the
risks, analyzing the risks through a qualitative risk analysis to determining the probability and
impact of the risk and quantitative risk analysis to determine the cost, scope and quality of the
risk, and developing a risk management plan to minimize and control any risks which occur
(Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2012).
References
Microsoft. (n.d.). A Quick History of Project Management. Retrieved from
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/a-quick-history-of-project-management-
HA010351563.aspx
Shelly, G.B & Rosenblatt, H.J. (2012). System Analysis and Design (9th ed.). Boston, MA:
Course Technology, Cengage Learning.