Development of web-based content and services

The delivery of e-business services via a web interface may initially appear straightforward. Everyone has heard apocryphal tales such as a 12-year-old relation creating a web site to sell used cars. Indeed, the creation of static web content is straightforward as we will see. In this example, simple HTML code is used for layout

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Testing the e-business systems

Testing has two main objectives: first, to check for non-conformance with the business and user requirements, and, second, to identify bugs or errors. In other words, it checks that the site does what users need and is reliable. Testing is an iterative process that occurs through­out development. As non-conformances are fixed by the development

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Changeover in e-business systems

Migration or changeover from a previous information system to a new system is particularly important for mission-critical e-business systems where errors in management of changeover will result in a negative customer experience or disruption to the supply chain. In this section we look at significant issues involved in managing this transition from pre­vious systems

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Content management and maintenance of e-business systems

Sell-side e-commerce sites are continuously under development, even when they become live. The sites need to be dynamic to deal with errors reported by customers and in response to innovations by competitors. Additionally the content, such as information about different events or new product launches and price promotions, will need to be updated if

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Measuring and improving performance of e-business systems

We review measuring the effectiveness of e-commerce system in detail since it is a key part of managing an e-commerce initiative. Often a large investment will have been made in the site and senior managers will want to ensure that the investment is delivering its objectives. They will also want to find and rectify

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Learning from Amazon’s culture of metrics

1. Context Why a case study on Amazon? Surely everyone knows about who Amazon are and what they do? Yes, well, that may be true, but this case goes beyond the surface to review some of the ‘insider secrets’ of Amazon’s success. Like eBay, Amazon.com was born in 1995. The name reflected the vision

What Is a Project?

The accomplishment of important tasks and goals in organizations today is being achieved increasingly through the use of projects. As a result, a new kind of organization is emerging to deal with the accelerating growth in the number of multiple, simultane­ously ongoing, and often interrelated projects in organizations. This project oriented organization, often called

Project Management vs. general Management

As is shown in Table 1-1, project management differs from general management largely because projects differ from what we have referred to as “nonprojects.” The naturally high level of conflict present in projects means that the project manager (PM) must have special skills in conflict resolution. The fact that projects are unique means that

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What Is Managed? The Three goals of a Project

The performance of a project, commonly called its “efficiency,” is assessed on the basis of three criteria, variously known as the “triple constraints,” the “iron triangle,” the “golden constraints,” and so on. Is the project on time or early? Is the project on or under budget? Does the project deliver the scope to the

The life cycles of Projects

All organisms have a life cycle. They are born, grow, wane, and die. This is true for all living things, for stars and planets, for the products we buy and sell, for our organizations, and for our projects as well. A project’s life cycle measures project completion as a func­tion of either time (schedule)

Selecting Projects To Meet organizational objectives

As noted earlier, a major trend occurring in organizations is the use of project management to implement the organization’s strategic objectives, especially organizational change. Organizations spend about $100 billion a year on creating competitive strategies (Morgan et al., 2007, p. 1), yet 90 percent of them (thousands) fail due to poor execution of these

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The Project Portfolio Process

The Project Portfolio Process (PPP) attempts to link the organization’s projects directly to the goals and strategy of the organization. This occurs not only in the project’s initia­tion and planning phases, but also throughout the life cycle of the projects as they are managed and eventually brought to completion. This topic is compared to

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The Project Manager’s Roles

In the previous chapter it was noted that the primary roles of the PM were to manage trade-offs and manage risks. In addition to managing trade-offs and risks, the PM also has several other important roles including serving as a facilitator, communicator, virtual project manager, and convener and chair of meetings. 1. Facilitator First,

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The Project Manager’s Responsibilities to the Project

The PM has three overriding responsibilities to the project. First is the acquisition of resources and personnel. Second is dealing with the obstacles that arise during the course of the project. Third is exercising the leadership needed to bring the project to a success­ful conclusion primarily by managing the trade-offs necessary to do so

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Selection of a Project Manager

A note to senior management: It is rarely a good idea to select a project manager from a list of engineers (or other technical specialists) who can be spared from their current jobs at the moment. Unfortunately, in many firms this appears to be the primary criterion for choice. We do not argue that

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Project Management as a Profession

It should be obvious to the reader that project management is a demanding job. Planning and controlling the complexities of a project’s activities, schedule, and budget would be difficult even if the project had the highest claim on the parent organization’s knowledge and resources, and if the PM had full authority to take any

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Fitting Projects into the Parent Organization

Earlier in this chapter we referred several times to problems caused by the way projects are organized and fit in as a part of the parent organization. It is now time to deal with this subject. Project organization is also discussed in Chapter 2: Organizational Influences and Project Life Cycle of PMBOK. It would

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The Project Team

We have mentioned the project team several times in the foregoing sections. Effective team members have some characteristics in common. Only the first of these is usually taken into account. They must be technically competent. This is so obvious that it is often the only criterion applied. While the functional departments will always remain

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From the Project charter to the Project Plan

Before considering how to plan, we should decide why we are planning and what infor­mation the plan should contain. The project planning process begins with the develop­ment of a project charter—a high-level description of the project. While the elements of the project charter vary from organization to organization, they should always include a statement

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The Project Planning Process – overview

A great deal has been written about planning. Some of the literature focuses on the stra­tegic aspect of planning—(e.g., Webster, Reif, and Bracker, 1989) choosing and planning projects that contribute to the organization’s goals (cf., the introduction to Section 1.5). Another body of writing is directed at the techniques of how to plan rather

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