Project Management In IT Industry
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Project Management in IT Industry

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Managing an IT project is not an easy job and today it is just like a juggling chunk of Jell-O. Information technology is especially slippery because it's always moving, changing, adapting and challenging business. Generally all projects are constrained by three factors: time, cost and scope and for any project to be successful, these three constraints must be in symmetry. If any constraint is out of equilibrium, the project increases its chances to head for disaster. In case of IT industry, all projects move through five phases in the project management lifecycle, i.e. initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. Each phase contains processes that move the project from idea to implementation.

However, in most of the cases IT projects frequently fail. According to the Standish Group, which tracks IT project success rates, only 29 percent of IT projects conducted in 2004 were completed successfully. The numbers are discouraging for a various reasons. A surprising statistic reveals the majority of IT projects, despite being planned, still end up not meeting outlined project goals throughout their planned course, both in terms of keeping with time and budgeting available money.

IT projects fail because due to a lack of sufficient planning. An IT organization must think the resources it needs to devote to a project, the skills required, the people who need to be involved, and practically judge the time it will take to implement the project deliverables. Nevertheless, with modern-day emphasis being on getting more bangs for the cash, IT has to manage projects more effectively. The constant growing challenge has led many IT firms from all across the world to turn to Project Management as a way to boost IT efficiency, cut costs, and improve on project delivery in terms of time and budget.

Looking at the present picture of global IT industry, the ratio of IT projects has increased dramatically. In addition to this, with the constant increase of IT projects the call for IT Project Managers have also boomed. The IT project manager is the person who is responsible for the management of all activity necessary for the delivery of IT project so that it meets the expectations and satisfaction of the customer, within an agreed time frame and within budget constraints.

Though information technology training for IT project managers can help them upgrade their technical knowledge, but may not know how company’s technology fits into the bigger picture from a business perspective. The success of a project often rests on the understanding of related people and management issues, rather than technical issues. That’s where project management training becomes important.

Project management training addressing different areas of IT project management i.e. software, systems integration, communications and human resources can help project managers gain the experience, techniques and tools to manage each stage of project. By extending project management concepts into the IT arena, the IT professionals can gain an understanding of the strategies essential to handle IT projects of any size.

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