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A Guide To Managing IT Projects

February 1, 2008 from Raven's Brain: Project Management

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Bas over at Project Shrink, the Blog recently posted a link mash - Project Shrink Links 23-01-2008 - that references a great post by John Halamka, author of the excellent blog Life as a Healthcare CIO. Some great thoughts are outlined in the post Managing IT Projects, including Halamka's personal guide to project management. This is a solid list of steps to successful execution of IT projects that Halamka implemented and uses in the real world. Here's an excerpt from the intro:
I'm often asked how we manage IT projects. Do we have an Enterprise Project Management Office? A tracking Gantt chart for every project?

The answer is that we do not use a one size fits all approach to project management, we use a suite of tools and common principles that we apply as appropriate depending on the scope, risk, and complexity of the project.

Here's my guide to project management

1. Every project starts with a charter. A project charter clarifies the purpose and urgency of the project which is important for change management. The key leaders, stakeholders, milestones, and risks are clearly stated.
 
Read more here: http://geekdoctor.blogspot.com/2008/01/managing-it-projects.html
You'll need to read the complete article for the rest of the guide and it's worth mentioning that John Halamka was nice enough to include links to important project documents like the Project Charter and Issue Tracking Log, as well as links to a few related posts.
 
I really enjoyed the post and reading how other folks are succeeding in project management. Here is one brief clip that really stood out for me:
Over the past decade we've had a few projects that were over budget or overtime. In every case, it was because one of the above steps was not followed. By using these general principles, project risk is minimized and all stakeholders are likely to have a better project experience.
Pretty good proof that having processes and tools in place to handle every phase of a project (inception to completion, or cradle to crave if you prefer) is important, but sticking to the guidelines and following all required steps for a given project is even more critical. Of course, more insights and pm goodness abounds.
 
When you visit the post be sure to review the comments. John Sambrook asks a very interesting question, by way of analogy no less:
Could you blog or comment about how you and your staff manage the uncertainty inherent in your IT projects?

Let me explain by way of a small analogy.

My car has four shock absorbers on it. They were designed into the car because the manufacturer wanted me to have a smooth ride, and yet also knew that I would not always drive on roads that were perfectly smooth.

I think we have a similar situation in projects. We want our customers and staff members to have a "smooth ride" and yet we know that the road to a completed project is not always perfectly smooth.

We can try to take actions to ensure that the road we follow in executing a project will be a smooth one, but project plans are forecasts and forecasts are often wrong.

I'd welcome the benefit of your experience on this. In particular, are there "shock absorbers" in your project management processes, and if so, can you describe them for us? 
and the response from author John Halamka is informative and insightful. Do check it out!

posted by Raven Young at Raven's Brain under Project Management
Technorati tags: Project Management, Software Project Management, IT Projects, Project Management Tips, Project Management Blog


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