Information Systems Project Management

View IS project management as an art as well as a science. . . .

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.

David Avison is Distinguished Professor of Information Systems at ESSEC Business School, near Paris, France after being Professor at the School of Management at Southampton University for nine years. He has also held posts at Brunel and Aston Universities in England, and the University of Technology Sydney and University of New South Wales in Australia, and elsewhere. He is President-elect of the Association of Information Systems (AIS). He is joint editor of Blackwell Science′s Information Systems Journal now in its eighteenth volume, rated as a ′core′ international journal. So far, twenty-five books are to his credit including the fourth edition of the well-used text Information Systems Development: Methodologies, Techniques and Tools (jointly authored with Guy Fitzgerald).  He has published a large number of research papers in learned journals, edited texts and conference papers. He was Chair of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) 8.2 group on the impact of IS/IT on organisations and society and is now vice chair of IFIP technical committee 8. He was past President of the UK Academy for Information Systems and also chair of the UK Heads and Professors of IS and is presently member of the IS Senior Scholars Forum. He was joint programme chair of the International Conference in Information Systems (ICIS) in Las Vegas (previously also research programme stream chair at ICIS Atlanta), joint programme chair of IFIP TC8 conference at Santiago Chile, programme chair of the IFIPWG8.2 conference in Amsterdam, panels chair for the European Conference in Information Systems at Copenhagen and publicity chair for the entity-relationship conference in Paris and chair of several other UK and European conferences. He will be joint program chair of the IFIP TC8 conference in Milan, Italy in 2008. He also acts as consultant and has most recently worked with a leading manufacturer developing their IT/IS strategy. He researches in the area of information systems development and more generally on information systems in their natural organizational setting, in particular using action research, though he has also used a number of other qualitative research approaches.