Information Systems Project Management
- David Avison - ESSEC Business School, Cergy-Pontoise, France
- Gholamreza Torkzadeh - University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA
There are a number of books out there on project management. What is different and specific about this book?
- There is a balance between socio-cultural and technical aspects and there is a balance between qualitative and quantitative aspects – project management is seen as both an art and a science.
- It provides an information systems orientation for project management: neither information technology oriented on the one side nor production and operations oriented on the other, but of application to both within an organizational-wide view.
- It stresses information systems as a whole, not just software development – no project is successful if only software aspects are considered.
- It gives a truly international view of the domain – examples and experiences from different parts of the world add richness as well as context to the material. Globalization has ensured that most projects take on an international dimension.
- The book provides a coherent explanation of the concerns of the project manager as the project develops through the project life cycle – it does not follow a 'kitchen sink approach'.
- Each chapter has the following consistent structure: introduction and outline, an exhibit, the main text with examples, chapter summary, exercises, discussion questions, interview with project manager and appendix – this structure provides coherence and consistency.
- The exhibit, interview and appendix contain real-world examples, experiences, case studies, discussion material, software descriptions and professional codes – these provide material for class discussion and group work.
- The material has been used on our courses in the United States, Europe and Australia, given to practitioners as well as students (both undergraduate and postgraduate) – it has been well tested as part of our own project managemenThe material in this text has been proven successful through repeated use in courses in the United States, Europe, and Australia, by practitioners as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Intended Audience
This core text is designed for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses such as Management Information Systems, Computer Information Systems, Information Systems, and Decision and Information Systems in the departments of information systems, information technology, and business.
This book provides a good support for project management courses. It focuses on IS projects which makes it more specific. I would recommend to use it in PM courses with focus on IS, but not in specialized Information Systems Development courses. Information related to IS development methodologies and exercises using MS Project are rather limited. Nonetheless, the book is a good source for further reading.
I found this to book to be a highly essential guide that aligns with the course that i am delivering. I will be putting title forward to be a core text
not enough backgroud on project management tools (MS Project or Oracle's Primavera)
Methodology in this book is treated as systems development methodology, instead of project management methodology, which makes the focus too narrow for an IS/IT course. Agile is only given a cursory couple of pages, and some of the other sections are patchy.
I think it is a good and thorough book, especially since it covers and exemplifies the use of a modern project management tool and talks about risks in an IS project. However, it is also a bit too much for our new beginners.
We might take it under new consideration in the future, since we have a special course on project management. I will give the book to the teacher in question.