Managing Projects

Project Management is the second most important consideration in an IT organization after running the day to day operations. Project management is quite a developed technique in other industries and the same can be applied for IT projects. One particularity stands out though, that in IT, all deliverables are mainly intangible. For this reason, scope management is of primary importance in order to properly manage an IT project, which includes full documentation in the many phases the project goes through: scope preparation, technical and functional design, blue printing, definition of business process, and later on, cut-over preparation, testing, training and managing change within the project. Projects also have several dimensions: scope, time, cost and quality, and it is these factors that the Project Manager needs to handle in order for the project not to run amok. Scope and time management techniques should be used in conjunction with regular monitoring and control procedures, including regular evaluation of risks. Again fundamental to the monitoring and control are the use of standardized tools which help in such an endeavor: computer-based tools for project tracking, an issue registry, a request registry, and the use of a project checklist which clearly delineates all major deliverables of the project. Essential for the learning organization is the knowledge management aspect of a project, which ensures that issues encountered during the project are properly documented and stored in a Document Management System that allows for easy search and retrieval. Lastly, the most difficult aspect to be managed in a project is people, and this is where communication management and people change management come into play. This is both a science and an art that is developed and refined from experience, and we give some guidelines and examples of how they can be addressed.