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Technology
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English (U.S.)
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How Project Management Practices can Help Reduce Politics and

Essay Instructions:

This module addresses the conditions under which systems development becomes confused with a range of other organizational problems, where the results can be less-than-optimal combinations of social and technical systems. To begin with, it will be useful to review the general topic of "organizational politics" and the conditions under which political games are played in organizations.
Power and Politics http://toolkit(dot)smallbiz(dot)nsw(dot)gov(dot)au/chapter/8/41
Egeland, B. (2011). The influence of organizational culture and politics on the project. Project Management Tips. Retrieved from http://pmtips(dot)net/influence-organizational-culture-politics-project/
Krisgsman, M. (2008, November 6). Gartner: Office politics kill IT projects. ZNet. Retrieved from http://www(dot)zdnet(dot)com/blog/projectfailures/gartner-office-politics-kills-it-projects/1126
Carried to extremes, organizational politics, combined with other factors, can result in what are sometimes called "death march projects." Here are some sources describing this phenomenon.
Yourdon, E. (2004). What is a death march project and why do they happen? InformIT. Retrieved from http://www(dot)informit(dot)com/articles/article.aspx?p=169512&seqNum=3
Yourdon, E. (2010, March 16). Death march projects in today’s hard times. Retrieved from http://www(dot)boston-spin(dot)org/slides/boston_spin_slides_2010_03.pdf
The PPR Wiki has a discussion on this book http://c2(dot)com/cgi/wiki?DeathMarch with a good many stories and examples.
You might also want to check out the PPR Wiki on Extreme Programming In Enemy Territory http://c2(dot)com/cgi/wiki?ExtremeProgrammingInEnemyTerritory for further discussion troubled development and how to survive it.
Case Assignment
Read the assigned readings, supplemented if you wish with material from the optional readings and perhaps the supplementary background as well, and even other outside reading you might find by yourself to be useful. Look at this video on best practices in Project management.
http://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=00rzg3y6hJc
Then write a short paper discussing how project management practices can help reduce politics and "death march projects."
Your paper should be short (5-6 pages, not including cover sheet and references) and to the point. It is to be structured as a point/counterpoint argument, in the following manner.
You are expected to:
•Begin this paper by stating your position on this question clearly and concisely
•Citing appropriate sources, present the reasons why you take this position. Be sure to make the most effective case you can.
•Then present the best evidence you can, again citing appropriate sources, against your position -- that is, establish what counterarguments can be made to your original position.
•Finally, review your original position in light of the counterarguments, showing how they are inadequate to rebut your original statement.
By the end of your paper, you should be able to unequivocally reaffirm your original position.
Assignment Expectations
Your assignment will be evaluated based on the Rubric.
You will be particularly assessed on:
•Your ability to see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly.
•Your informed commentary and analysis -- simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper.
•Your ability to apply the professional language and terminology of systems design and analysis correctly and in context; you are expected to be familiar with this language and use it appropriately.

Essay Sample Content Preview:

How project management practices can help reduce politics and "Death March projects"
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Introduction
The political and cultural environment of an organization may have great impact on the development of any project in that organization. The project manager must therefore be aware of and seek to understand these political and cultural elements. This does not mean that the project manager to be involved in or to care much about the office politics, but to have a clear understanding of what is going on in the management. For a project to be completed and deployed successfully, the project manager must know the boundaries to cross and ones not to, who is for the project and who is not in it as well as who to see in case a problem arises. Lack of clear understanding of the office politics may lead to death March projects. Death March projects are projects whose resources like budget, time, and staff is much less than expected. Since the politics of the office are inevitable, the project manager should come up with the best project management practices that will help serve the project and give it the best possibility of succeeding. The project management practices would help reduce politics and death March projects, or could fail. This paper seeks to explicate on how project management practices can help reduce politics and death March projects.
Project management is a very crucial part of the system development. Project management is what pushes a project along the path of either success of failure (Jones, 2004). A project manager should be one with the right combination of knowledge, skills, experience and confidence. They should be able to put into practice the theory of project management (Attarzadeh & Ow, 2008). Running a project from the beginning until completion requires some of the best practices. All that is required is much practice. The project manager can use some of the best management practices that would help reduce politics and death March projects. The following are some of the project management practices that can help reduce politics and death March projects.
Decipher the political landscape
According to Krisgsman (2008), as long as people are involved in a given office, politics will always be there and the level of politics may differ from one organization to another but, politics in an organization is a hidden killer. There will always be issues that arise that will cause politics in the organization. If a project manager is to succeed in any project by reducing politics and death March projects, he/ she must be ready to decipher the political landscape. This means that he/she must study and understand the political environment of the organization.
Understanding and interpreting the political environment means that the project manager can be able to tell how much the project can be affected by the politics of that organization. When the politics of an organization are well understood, the impact they have on the success of a certain project can be reduced. Not understanding the politics of an organization can affect the management of a certain project greatly. Sometimes it would mean befriending your manager’s enemies in the office to rece...
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