Project management - the skill every IT professional should have?
A lot is expected of IT professionals. If it runs on a PC (or server) you're expected to understand it, deploy it and support it. As we all know, that's not the case - technology is getting more complex, not simpler, so there's always more to learn. But the most important IT skill today has little to do with technology - it's the ability to plan and manage IT projects.
19 July 2006
The need for strong project management when rolling out technology initiatives isn't something new, but its importance has become more and more recognised over recent years. This is mainly due to the cost of failure of large IT projects - and the exposure that some of these, especially public-sector projects, have received in the press.
Initially, many IT projects, both large and small, were left to chance. Responsibility would typically fall to the IT department. IT teams would either have technical skills - or, for new products - be able to acquire those skills via training. But project management skills were often seen as 'common sense' and something that didn't require special training - or, in the cases where project management was identified as a need, an external consultant might be appointed. Either of these scenarios puts projects at risk. The first, because - however much common sense the IT team might have - projects would not be approached in a structured, proven way. The second, because however good the skills of the external consultant might be, it is highly unlikely that he or she would have a strong enough grasp of the technology and the business to be able to work fully in the context of the business need or understand the full benefits and pitfalls of the technology.
It's clear then, that the best approach is for IT teams to adapt project management skills - and, thankfully, this is an approach which is becoming the accepted norm.
For IT professionals, and for organisations, this makes a lot of sense. Project management skills - more than any other - are likely to be needed alongside technology skills. Although one tends to associate structured project management with larger projects, all but the smallest projects would benefit from the same approach. For this reason, while it's tempting to have just one person in charge of project management, it makes far more sense for the whole team to have those skills.
There are many strong benefits to this. Most obviously, it provides resilience should the appointed project manager fall ill, go on holiday or get run over by a bus. It also allows more than one project to be managed concurrently, with a greater degree of confidence. But perhaps the key benefits are, because the project manager doesn't work in isolation, it enables all team members to fully understand how projects are being run - and contribute in exactly the way that is expected of them - rather than just receiving dictates that they don't understand or buy into. This transforms an 'IT team with a project manager' to a 'project-management focused IT team'; one that is far more capable of meeting the needs of the business - delivering projects on time and within budget.
The best news is that there is an approach to project management which is specifically for IT teams: PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments). PRINCE has been around since 1989, having been originally developed by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA). It is now an accepted standard for IT project management in the UK (although it can also be used just as well for non-IT projects). The adoption of PRINCE2 is widespread and growing rapidly - with a strong reputation for helping organisations to avoid nightmare projects, keeping things nicely on track.
PRINCE2 project plans are focused on delivering results - not just a checklist approach for planning when activities are done. It ensures that projects are driven by the business case and also provides a common language for people working across a project to communicate more effectively.
PRINCE2 encompasses planning projects (regardless of when the planning is done), directing projects, initiating projects, controlling project stages, managing project delivery, managing boundaries of project stages and project closure.
Gaining PRINCE2 skills isn't too difficult. At e-academy, we run PRINCE2 overview, foundation and practitioner courses, enable people to start with little or no awareness of PRINCE2 and project management - and progress to a fully skilled, and accredited, project manager. For more information, please e-mail us at training@e-academy.ltd.uk or call us on 0845 650 6500.
