Introduction The changing business environment, of global operations,
mergers, decen- tralization, increased competition, pressure on budgets
etc., has contributed to a positive change in the workplace. As this
change continues, we must keep up to date and follow good standards,
principles and practices. To help, we present the 'Paradigm of Project
Management', which is based on a simple practical approach to managing
projects. The method is flexible and may be applied to any project,
although in this book we concentrate on the devel- opment of systems.
However, it also illustrates that the formation and management of
project teams are changing in line with technology. As Dr Tom Peters
says: 'Stability and predictability are gone forever . . . '. For
example, project teams may work from home (telework), using email and
groupware along 'electronic highways'. Therefore, instead of going
through a pyramid of people to reach an executive, one can use the
Internet, an intranet or an extranet and go direct. Another change is
represented by the transient teams and Get -it -Done working approaches.
An example of how a global project was managed is one in which
Malaysia's International Shipping Corporation (MISC) implemented
MISC*Net, a networking project to link online all of its shipping
agents worldwide to its HQ in Malaysia. Project management was a key
component in the solution prior to awarding the contract. IBM and MISC
worked on the International Project Management System.