Relevance Of Systems Thinking In Project, Program, And Portfolio Management

Reading samples

Learning outcome of the unit

Learning from your weekly study, experience, this and prior unit readings and assignments

Supporting documentation including any prior learning

Mandatory Readings

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to SEBoK’

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to Systems Engineering’;

·         SEBoK:Part 7: Systems Engineering Implementation Examples

·         Kerzner (2013) Chapters 2.1; 2.6 – 2.8; 2.21;

·         AS/NZS 15288:2015 Introduction;

Optional Readings

AS ISO 21504:2016 Project, programme and portfolio management—Guidance on portfolio management;

What is a system?

– What is systems thinking?

– What is a project, a program, and a portfolio?

– Does systems thinking have any advantages for project management, or program management, or portfolio management?

– Does systems thinking have any disadvantages for PPPM?

– Is there anything that will explain these reflections using the Project-based Work Flow?

The system can be described as the process which contains different functional modules (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017).  A project is the process aimed to deliver the certain outcome. On the other hand  a program is collection of many diverse projects. Portfolio is the collection of  projects  or programs.

System thinking has certain advantage for the development of the project. System thinking defines the inter relation between functionality of the different modules of the project. System thinking will help the project manager to manage the development of the project along with the delivery of the right outcome  (Laudon& Laudon, 2016).  It has been seen most of the cases the project manager are not interested to adopt the implementation of the system thinking tools and the system thinking engineering in the development of the project. In case of the management of the complex project, the absence of the system thinking and system engineering tool the project outcome may fail to deliver the desired result.

Reading samples

Learning outcome of the unit

Learning from your weekly study, experience, this and prior unit readings and assignments

Supporting documentation including any prior learning

Mandatory Readings

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to SEBoK’

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to Systems Engineering’;

·         SEBoK:Part 7: Systems Engineering Implementation Examples

·         Kerzner (2013) Chapters 2.1; 2.6 – 2.8; 2.21;

·         AS/NZS 15288:2015 Introduction;

Optional Readings

AS ISO 21504:2016 Project, programme and portfolio management—Guidance on portfolio management;

What are tools and techniques?

– What are the systems thinking tools?

– What are the systems thinking techniques?

– How do they aid project managers?

– How do they inhibit project managers?

– Is there anything that will explain these reflections better by using the Project-based Work Flow?

There are different system thinking and system engineering tools and techniques available for the development of the system. Some of these techniques are using of current reality tree, brainstorming methods for solving of the problems. These tools and techniques help the project team members along with the project manager to take the required decision for the development of the project  (Harrison & Lock,2017). The system thinking techniques will help the project managers to develop the decision making framework. Making of the proper decision making framework will help the to mitigate certain issues and challenges in the development of the project. Apart from that the proper risk management plan can also be implemented from the decision making framework. The project managers can manage the risks and the associated tasks with the help of the decision framework. It can be helpful for the project managers to manage the entire development of the complex project.

Reading samples

Learning outcome of the unit

Learning from your weekly study, experience, this and prior unit readings and assignments

Supporting documentation including any prior learning

Mandatory Readings

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to SEBoK’

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to Systems Engineering’;

·         SEBoK:Part 7: Systems Engineering Implementation Examples

·         Kerzner (2013) Chapters 2.1; 2.6 – 2.8; 2.21;

·         AS/NZS 15288:2015 Introduction;

Optional Readings

AS ISO 21504:2016 Project, programme and portfolio management—Guidance on portfolio management;

– What is systems engineering?

– Why would an organization use systems engineering?

– Who in an organization would use systems engineering?

– What is the relevance to project management?

– What is the relevance to portfolio management?

– What is the relevance to the project cases?

– Is there anything that will explain these reflections using the Project-based Work Flow?

System engineering is the technique to synchronize the relation between the project baseline and the product baseline. Through the use of the product baseline the scope creep of the project can be managed. While development of the project two units are involved for the implementation of the whole planning  (Hornstein, 2015). The merging of the work between the business unit and technical unit is important and this can be achieved through application of the system engineering. The system engineering is used by the organizations so that the implementation of the functionality of the product can be achieved through the technical unit and the business unit can  deliver the project in right time. The system engineering technique can be adopted by the project manager in the development of the project.  Adaptation of the system engineering is relevant in the situation of the project cases as it helps to manage the functionality of both business units and technical units. Portfolio is the collection of the programs and the projects. Maintaining the portfolio helps to increase the accountability  of the projects and the outcome of the different projects can be viewed with the help of portfolio.

Reading samples

Learning outcome of the unit

Learning from your weekly study, experience, this and prior unit readings and assignments

Supporting documentation including any prior learning

Mandatory Readings

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to SEBoK’

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to Systems Engineering’;

·         SEBoK:Part 7: Systems Engineering Implementation Examples

·         Kerzner (2013) Chapters 2.1; 2.6 – 2.8; 2.21;

·         AS/NZS 15288:2015 Introduction;

Optional Readings

AS ISO 21504:2016 Project, programme and portfolio management—Guidance on portfolio management;

– How could you apply a systems approach to a project?

– How can a systems approach help a PM to identify problems or opportunities?

– How can a systems approach help a PM to solve problems or exploit opportunities?

– How can PM’s or other people across an organization make better decisions?

System approach helps to manage both problem resolution and the value of the management of the stakeholder. The application of the system approach can be done through three different aspects- focus on value, focus on purpose and focus on system  (Walker, 2015). The  system approach helps to implement the systemic intervention in the development of the project. In this case the application of the engineered solutions are applied. The agreement between the stakeholders and developers are made on each cycle. The continuation of the cycle helps to resolve the  wicked problems present in the complex project.  The solving of the  problems of the stakeholders will help the project manager to mitigate the risks and deliver the outcome of the project in a right way. The main objective of the iterative cycles are to deliver the both the goals regarding  the product  quality and the  stakeholder value. The distinction can be made regarding the strategic implementation of the enterprise engineering system in long term basis. Managing the value of the stakeholders also includes the taking the opinion of the stakeholder during the development of the project.

Reading samples

Learning outcome of the unit

Learning from your weekly study, experience, this and prior unit readings and assignments

Supporting documentation including any prior learning

Mandatory Readings

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to SEBoK’

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to Systems Engineering’;

·         SEBoK:Part 7: Systems Engineering Implementation Examples

·         Kerzner (2013) Chapters 2.1; 2.6 – 2.8; 2.21;

·         AS/NZS 15288:2015 Introduction;

Optional Readings

AS ISO 21504:2016 Project, programme and portfolio management—Guidance on portfolio management;

– Why are PMIS’s important?

– How do help project managers and other key decision makers solve problems?

– What would you base selection of a PMIS on?

– What are PMIS software vendors trying to say and promote?

PMIS is known as the project management information system. Project management information system holds the information regarding the development of the project such as the requirements for the development of the system, analysis and the information regarding the stakeholders in the project and the tools and techniques regarding the compilation of the project. In this case, managing all the information is necessary for the development of the project and PMIS helps to manage these information  (Stark, 2015). These information is helpful for the project manger to understand the development situation and thus make the decision framework for the development of the project. There are different ways for the managing of the PMIS in the development of the project. However, the selection of the PMIS is based on the type of the project. The main objective of the PMIS system vendors are trying to merge the functionality of the different modules in the system. Generally the nature of the PMIS software is multi application software.

Reading samples

Learning outcome of the unit

Learning from your weekly study, experience, this and prior unit readings and assignments

Supporting documentation including any prior learning

Mandatory Readings

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to SEBoK’

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to Systems Engineering’;

·         SEBoK:Part 7: Systems Engineering Implementation Examples

·         Kerzner (2013) Chapters 2.1; 2.6 – 2.8; 2.21;

·         AS/NZS 15288:2015 Introduction;

Optional Readings

AS ISO 21504:2016 Project, programme and portfolio management—Guidance on portfolio management;

– At this stage in the course you should be able toself-direct your reflections against this week’s topic and learning outcomes…. But here are some for you:

•                      What is the problem or inhibitors to project realization?

•                      What do the application systems need to do?

Some of challenges in the project realization is present. One of the problem in the project realization is the collaboration between the different departments of the organization during  the development of the project, lack of accountability, lack of clarity and the lack of proper IT resources.

There are certain ways for the mitigation of these problems and the challenges regarding the IT realization. In order to improve the collaboration between the different department of the organization during the development of the project, the flow of the communication between the different department can be taken care of  (Marchewka, 2014). Apart from the in the requirement gathering phase the analysis of the required resources are needed to be done and prioritize in a certain way so that the management of the IT resources can be done in a successful way. Apart from that the development of the flexible IT solution is needed to be implemented in the organization.

Reading samples

Learning outcome of the unit

Learning from your weekly study, experience, this and prior unit readings and assignments

Supporting documentation including any prior learning

Mandatory Readings

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to SEBoK’

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to Systems Engineering’;

·         SEBoK:Part 7: Systems Engineering Implementation Examples

·         Kerzner (2013) Chapters 2.1; 2.6 – 2.8; 2.21;

·         AS/NZS 15288:2015 Introduction;

Optional Readings

AS ISO 21504:2016 Project, programme and portfolio management—Guidance on portfolio management;

What is the life cycle of the project?

–   Pre-initiation, Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring & Controlling, Closing, Post-closing?

– Does the life cycle change when the project is one between an operator and a project-based organisation?

–   Does it change with the type of project?

–   Does it change if your organisation supports PPPM?

•                      What is the purpose of the life cycle?

–   To the project management system?

–   To the project work system?

–   To the sponsoring organisation?

–   To any other stakeholders?

–   To programs and portfolios?

•                      What are the advantages and disadvantages of MANUAL PPPM app’ systems?

–   Speed of record making?

–   Accuracy of record taking?

–   Ability to recall?

–   Ability to share?

•                      With other people within the project?

•                      With other people at the program level?

•                      With other people at the profile level?

•                      With electronic systems?

The development of the project follows the stages in the life cycle of the development of the project. The following of the project life cycle ensures the delivery of the project is meeting all the requirements of the project. There are five stages of the project life cycle- initialization, planning and designing , execution, control and monitoring, closing of the project. The initialization of the project needs the gathering of the requirements, the planning phase is concerned with the planning of the execution of the project. The monitoring and control phase is concerned about the evaluation of the performance of the project. The project closes with the closing of the project. The project life cycle may change when the project is between the operator and the project based organization. However, the type of the project doest not change in this case. The main purpose of the project life cycle is to deliver the final projects with all the requirements. From the project management perspective the objective of the project manager is to deliver the project within the deadline  (Fleming & Koppelman, 2016). The stakeholders will expect that the project will fulfill all the requirements mentioned earlier. The main disadvantage of managing the portfolio in manual process is that there is  chance of error in the manual process. However, this problem can be overcome using electronic record keeping or electronic project  or portfolio management.

Reading samples

Learning outcome of the unit

Learning from your weekly study, experience, this and prior unit readings and assignments

Supporting documentation including any prior learning

Mandatory Readings

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to SEBoK’

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to Systems Engineering’;

·         SEBoK:Part 7: Systems Engineering Implementation Examples

·         Kerzner (2013) Chapters 2.1; 2.6 – 2.8; 2.21;

·         AS/NZS 15288:2015 Introduction;

Optional Readings

AS ISO 21504:2016 Project, programme and portfolio management—Guidance on portfolio management;

–  What would you reflect on?

–  What are some of the questions that are related to this topic?

–  What does this topic have to do with PM application systems?

•                      What is monitoring performance?

–  Performance of what?

•                      How does performance monitoring feed into change management?

– Does the way you manage change, change with different types of change?

•                      How do you measure the success of change?

–  What happens if there is no change?

•                      Why are we only worried with the change to the project? Why not to the program or portfolio?

•                      Do you need to monitor performance in real time or is a delay acceptable?

–  If so then how much delay/lag is acceptable?

The project management and the significance of the  system thinking tools  and the project life cycle has been described in this discussion.  It can be said from the above discussion that system thinking and maintaining the life cycle  for the development of the project is important for the development of the project. The evaluation of the performance of the project is done by the project control and the monitoring. The monitoring of the performance can bring the change in the development of the project  (Schnetler,Clarke & Rodrigues,2018). In case the proper monitoring of the performance of the project will help the project development team to receive the feedback. On the basis of the feedback certain modification and improvisation of the project can be done. This will eventually help to increase the quality of the outcome of the project. The changes those are concerned by the project development team are the sudden changes in the development of the project. In some cases this situation is also defined as the scope creep in the project. The scope creep in the project can degrade the quality of the project along with the delay in the delivery of the project.

Reading samples

Learning outcome of the unit

Learning from your weekly study, experience, this and prior unit readings and assignments

Supporting documentation including any prior learning

Mandatory Readings

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to SEBoK’

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to Systems Engineering’;

·         SEBoK:Part 7: Systems Engineering Implementation Examples

·         Kerzner (2013) Chapters 2.1; 2.6 – 2.8; 2.21;

·         AS/NZS 15288:2015 Introduction;

Optional Readings

AS ISO 21504:2016 Project, programme and portfolio management—Guidance on portfolio management;

•                      What is the difference between the words

–  “identify” (week 8th topic), and

–  “propose” (week 9th topic)?

•                      What does appropriate mean?

–  What would appropriate be for BP Texas City or Deepwater Horizon?

–  What would appropriate be for a CQU group assignment?

–  What would appropriate be for infrastructure and resources PPPM’s?

•                      What do you need to know to execute a project?

–  PMBOK (Execution + Monitor and Control)

•                      Will adoption of any of these make a difference to what is proposed?

–  Program Management Standard

–  Portfolio Management Standard

–  Systems Engineering

–  INCOSE, SEBoK; AS/NZS 15288

•                      If a project is distributed, virtual, international does this make a difference?

The identification involves pointing out the issues or the opportunities in the development of the project. On the other hand proposing some steps in the development of the project defines proposing some of the steps to resolve the identified problems. The appropriate steps and the decision framework is needed to be taken in case of the different complex project management. In case of the BP Deep Water Horizon case the absence of the proper project management and risk management plan led to the failure of the project. In this case the managing of the complexity of the project could be done in a proper way. The flow of the communication between the engineers and the project management team could have been improved so that the situation regarding the site can be notified by the project mangers. The adaptation of the monitoring and control of the project can enhance the project quality. Apart from that maintaining the standard portfolio and system engineering standards can be beneficial for the project to deliver the right and standard outcome. In this case it can be said that implementation of the quick response along with the proper risk and stakeholder management can be beneficial for the project to deliver the right outcome.

Reading samples

Learning outcome of the unit

Learning from your weekly study, experience, this and prior unit readings and assignments

Supporting documentation including any prior learning

Mandatory Readings

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to SEBoK’

·         SEBoK: ‘Introduction to Systems Engineering’;

·         SEBoK:Part 7: Systems Engineering Implementation Examples

·         Kerzner (2013) Chapters 2.1; 2.6 – 2.8; 2.21;

·         AS/NZS 15288:2015 Introduction;

Optional Readings

AS ISO 21504:2016 Project, programme and portfolio management—Guidance on portfolio management;

– What will you reflect about over the two weeks for this topic?

The discussion is regarding the implementation of the system analysis and system engineering in the project development system. It can be said from the discussion that the implementation of the system engineering and the system thinking  tools are useful for the complex projects to deliver the right outcome.  However, it has been seen that in most of the cases the project managers are not interested to adopt the system thinking and system engineering tools in the development of the complex project  (Kerzner, 2018). Another aspect of successful compilation of the complex project is  following all the stages of the life cycle of the project management. There are five stages of the management of the project  (Badewi, 2016).. It is the responsibility of the project manager to observe all the stages of the project management life cycle and deliver the right outcome within deadline.  Apart from that proper management of the risks and the stakeholders are also important for the compilation of the project  (Redmond & Alshawi,2017). In this context the gathering of the requirement is important for the management of the project. The application of the different project management methodologies along with the project management standards will also helpful for serving the quality service of the projects.