1. ITC493 - Information Technology Project Management
2. Question 1. What are your overall responsibilities as an IT
project manager?
3. My overall responsibilities are pretty much controlling the
project from beginning to end. From meeting with the stakeholders
to defining the scope of the project, to getting a handle on what
resources from within the client business we have at our disposal,
to assigning tasks to the different people at our disposal.
Basically it is driving the project bus, making sure we hit all the
stops, keep moving on time and on budget, getting the most from the
passengers on board and arriving at the pre determined
destination.
4. What day to day tasks does an IT project manager carry out?
Question 2.
5. The day to day tasks can vary according to the project at
hand, but generally speaking once the project gets the go- ahead
the day will normally begin with a morning meeting with as many
team members as possible to discuss progress, report on issues, and
to confirm tasks completed. Things change, and things certainly
dont always go to plan despite everyones best intentions so it is
at the daily meetings where red flags can be raised to communicate
to the team when things have gone off track or are about to. As
well as the various meetings, email is an important tool which is
used to communicate the day to day of the project. Communication is
probably the lynchpin to the project. Communicating what is
actually required to the team from the project sponsor and
stakeholders and communicating progress or the lack of it within
the team as the project develops
6. What project management tools have you used in the past
week? Question 3.
7. Pretty much I use Microsofts Project exclusively. I would
probably consider email and an iPhone to be project management
tools as well to be honest.
8. What framework (methodology) do you generally use and why?
Question 4.
9. The framework used would best be described as PMBOK I
suppose. It is the one I have trained in and used routinely. I am
aware of other methodologies including Prince for example, but once
you get your head around PMBOK it is a very logical way of
structuring how things should be done.
10. Does choice of framework (methodology) have an impact on
project success? Question 5.
11. I think that generally speaking the PMBOK is pretty much
the way to go with generalised IT projects. I havent used the
prince methodology so I cant say if it would lead to a better
success rate, but obviously we arent going to use more appropriate
for software development when undertaking a server upgrade.
12. What is the difference between a good (successful) IT
project manager and an average IT project manager? Question 6.
13. Obviously completing the scoped project on time and on
budget more often than not would help. Sometimes though a project
can be completed for a host of reasons and the ability to see that
project cancellation is the best or only option is something which
needs foresight and bravery. The ability to make that difficult
decision and not continue on blindly hoping would separate good
project managers from average ones.