IT Project Management

The “Control Procurements” process in the PMBOK® Guide (Project Management Institute, 2017, pp. 492 – 501) focuses on the responsibilities of the procuring organization. But what if you are the “procur-ee” (my term)? What are your responsibilities to the client organization or the prime contractor in the procurement monitoring and control process? I was in…

When I thought about it afterwards, I could have written a book. In the time it took me to research, compile, write, and produce two years of quarterly status reports, I could have written a full-fledged business book. Our firm had a project that was flailing (and failing). We had gone through several Project Managers,…

As Project Managers we need to be constantly asking ourselves if we are monitoring stakeholder engagement well. Are stakeholders actively participating? Is our management of their involvement effective? Are they helping to progress the project as expected? In previous articles, I described several distinctive processes for engaging stakeholders on the project. These included: establishing a…

Do we adequately train Project Managers to engage stakeholders to carry out their responsibilities on the project? Do we help to equip them with the essential skills they need to effectively monitor stakeholder engagement? Or do we expect Project Managers to learn this through trial and error during project execution and hope for the best?…

She was deliberative, thoughtful in her decision-making. He was brash and impetuous. She had a measured irreverence. He not so much. She sought advice. He was autocratic. She was influential. He was domineering. She was her organization’s advocate and cheerleader. He showed little interest or aptitude for the mission of the organization. She knew her…

Rob Kalin, founder of Etsy, is quoted as saying, “The last 10% it takes to launch something takes as much energy as the first 90%.” I found a similar sentiment in an article by entrepreneur Faisal Hoque, “There’s an old Chinese saying that when you’ve made it 90% down the path, you’re halfway to your…

Throughout much of my IT career, it was an unwritten assumption that if we brought the project in on time and within budget, and obtained client sign-off, our clients were satisfied. But were they? I wonder just how many Project Managers even think about client satisfaction when they are in the throes of project delivery.…

I have often spoken and written of my positive experience as Project Manager of a project in Hawaii. Little compares to the joy and sadness I felt as we completed the project and began the closing process. Joy because we had successfully delivered a new system that would serve the client organization’s customers for years…

I started writing this series of articles 52 weeks ago. I asked the following questions: Why does IT have such a mediocre (read “dismal”) project delivery track record, especially given that we’re so skilled at technology and process? How can we improve our success rates? Are we focusing on the people aspects of our project…

As I reviewed published materials on the state of the IT industry’s ability to deliver projects successfully, it struck me that project success and failure have different meanings to different people. Two of the more recent studies that I reviewed were from the Project Management Institute and the Standish Group. (For more information from these…