In the past decade, project management has been undergoing a major transformation
as it is applied to information system design. When you consider that traditional
project management methodology originated from the body of knowledge of an
entirely different domain (engineering, mainly of the industrial and civil kind), it is not
surprising that project management in the information systems arena has evolved.
Many of the methods for developing systems originated in computer science which
itself emerged from constructs used in engineering and mathematics. In the early days
of computing this sufficed, however today, developing systems is much more than just
engineering the most technically correct or “best” system. In some cases, what we as
users may want is not the “best” system. Frequently, what we really want is the most
practical system that is focused on and addresses our particular needs.
When we consider traditional project management and software development
approaches, several disadvantages are immediately evident. For one, the huge effort
required during the planning phase of a traditional project is often so all-encompassing
that half (or more) of the resources for the project are expended before any development
work even beings. Furthermore, requirements definitions are often so labor intensive
and protracted that the requirements for the project have changed before development
even begins.