IT Project Management

1. The concept of an IT project

• What is an IT project?
• Types of IT projects.

2. Preparatory phase: project initiation

• Understanding the challenges and objectives:
  • the project business case;
  • the concept of results: outcomes and impacts;
  • assessing project viability;
• Defining the scope:
  • requirements gathering and expression techniques;
  • levels of detail when expressing requirements;
  • priorities and exclusions;
  • change management.
• Mapping stakeholders:
  • sponsors and customers;
  • end users;
  • suppliers.
• Defining the project management approach:
  • linear and sequential approaches: waterfall, V-model and others;
  • agile approaches: Scrum, DSDM, SAFe and others;
  • hybrid approaches.
• Defining the project management organisational structure:
  • identifying and allocating roles and responsibilities;
  • required skills and abilities;
  • leadership and project management.
• Developing the project procedures manual:
  • risk management and quality management;
  • communication and documentation;
  • monitoring and control.
• Planning the project using a traditional linear approach:
  • activity planning techniques: PBS and WBS;
  • identifying dependencies;
  • estimation techniques;
  • resource management;
  • activity representation techniques: Gantt, PERT and others;
  • critical path analysis.
• Planning the project using an agile approach:
  • execution times;
  • the incremental delivery plan;
  • the Kanban method;
• Planning the project using a hybrid approach:
  • combining linear and agile approaches where necessary.

3. Intermediate phase: project execution

• Delegating:
  • delegation of tasks;
  • delegation of authority: management by exception;
• Monitoring, controlling and reporting:
  • performance criteria to monitor throughout the project;
  • project management milestones: Go/No-Go;
  • principles of effective reporting;
  • the most common techniques: S-curves, earned value management and burndown charts;
  • independent checks;
  • project auditability.

4. Final phase: project closure

• Planned activities.
• Premature closure.