By Joe Feliu in conjunction with the Enterprise Computing
Institute
Although projects occur throughout all organizations in the
IT group, the most urgent need is to have a documented project management
process that is followed for application development projects. Business
literature is replete with case studies of projects gone wrong, and careers
sidetracked. If your organization exhibits any of the following symptoms, make
an effective project management process a high priority:
- Approved
initiatives out-of-sync with business needs - Key
business enabling projects not implemented - Requirements
and costs are not well defined/understood - Project
surprises (dependencies, unknown commitments, etc.) - Staff
make strategic decisions, not management - Slipped
due dates and project cost overruns - Duplicate
or unclear project roles and responsibilities - Project
processes and procedures defined but “gathering dust” - Project
resources over-committed - New
project initiative generation process is a mystery - Frequent
emergencies – reactive mode is standard operating procedure - Extensive
rework late in development process - Overlapping
or duplicative projects
The challenge is to implement a process that fits the
organizational culture, which will give early warning of impending problems so
that timely and appropriate action can be taken. The basis for the process is a
Project Methodology, most often expressed in terms of a Systems Development
Life Cycle. Such a methodology works equally well for infrastructure and
applications development efforts. With this methodology in place, project success rests on the adequacy of the Project Control
process used by the Project Manager. The following are the key elements of an
effective Project Control Process. Look for these features in your process,
particularly the rigor of the change control sub-process.
Project Control Process
A rigorous Project Management Process is a necessity. Here’s are its benefits:
- Provides
a common language for cross functional communication - Integrates
actions of all stakeholders - Identifies
problems early so that corrective action can be taken - Minimizes
rework - Provides
a framework against which to assess project changes
First steps
If there is not an effective project management discipline
within your organization (e.g., projects are started and not completed, or
time/cost estimates are regularly missed) take the following steps:
- Search
through your senior staff to identify a resource with expertise in
project management (use external resources if necessary) - Have
this individual document a project management process, with components
similar to those provided in the previous example, tailored to the
culture and development processes in your group - Quickly
institute project phase reviews (tied to your Systems Development Life
Cycle) to ensure that projects do not get far off track while you are
implementing the more formal project management process - Consider
creating a “competency center” of a small number of experienced project
managers who can be allocated to projects as they arise
Example
Figure A shows a sample of a high level project plan for the
technical aspects of the implementation of a major system. Each task in this
plan would be expanded into numerous subtasks of typically several days in
duration. Further, this project plan will be a subset of a broader plan that
includes the complementary business-related activities involved in the successful
implementation of any information system.
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Figure A |
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