In Project Management for IT Professionals, you'll learn...
- To more accurately define each project
- How to evaluate risks, costs and benefits inherent in every project
- How to manage the project seamlessly from initial concept to final evaluation
- How to approach every IT project with the confidence that you can get it done
- And much more!
You may already understand the principles of successful project management. But what about the unique challenges you, as an IT professional, face with every IT-related project you handle? Complex and expensive technology that literally keeps your organization running requires specialized skills to keep projects from getting off track and running up expenses and frustrations. This workshop was designed to address the specialized needs of IT project managers, and is presented by noted IT pros—so you know you’re getting practical, usable and IT-specific project management know-how.
WORKSHOP AGENDA
Click on a session title to view details
Essentials of effective IT project management+
- What makes managing IT projects different from managing other types of projects
- What makes a project a project … and something beyond “regular work”
- 4 phases of IT project management
- How to use your power and influence as a technical project manager
- IT-specific hurdles that block successful project completion
- Setting the proper scope of any IT project you undertake
- How to make sure you’re empowered with both the responsibility and the resources for your project
- Understanding key roles in your project team and how they relate to the project process
- Feasibility: Is this project doable? 3 measures to consider
- What your IT project’s payback is … and how to figure it
Plan and launch your IT project right the first time+
- Beginning with a clear vision of your successful project
- How to set concrete and achievable IT project objectives
- 6 ways to push beyond the concept and into the active planning stages
- Methodologies that work for IT project planning
- Constraints: What can or might hold you back
- What to consider when creating a project budget you can work with
- 5 factors that can derail your IT project budget
- Determining whether your IT project costs are absolute or marginal
- IT-appropriate project management software and what to look for
- Multi-tasking: How to set priorities within a single project and among multiple projects
- Using Gantt and PERT charts in your planning and decision making
- Units of work: How to list and order an IT project’s many activities
- How to build and maintain project schedules and deadlines
- Top reasons why IT deadlines are missed and what to do about them
- Proving and validating the plan you’ve created
- Your plan’s physical form: How to structure and write it
Gauging risks and using the information for better decisions+
- Top risk factors and how to avoid them
- Possible or probable? Which risks are most likely to occur?
- No risk, no gain: How to manage the risks you take
- How to spread your risk across multiple projects
- Is upper management for or against your project? … and what to do in either case
- How to rid non-IT senior managers of their common IT project fears
- Measuring risk by looking at both direct and indirect costs
- 7 project potholes on your road to success
Succeed through strong and supportive project leadership+
- How to distinguish between project leadership and project management
- 4 leadership styles and when to use each option
- How to build the project team that matches your challenge
- Developing team member commitment to your project vision, goals and objectives
- How to match team member strengths with responsibilities
- Creating performance standards and consequences for failure
- How to encourage your team to work as one
- Leading your way through project breakdowns and change
- Conflict resolution is key to IT project progress
- 12 ways to communicate like a leader
- How to avoid 3 major pitfalls in project management
- Becoming a better project manager in 8 steps
How to supervise, track, monitor and control project progress+
- 7 key questions to ask when evaluating your project’s progress
- Developing early-warning systems that evaluate project progress
- The most useful monitoring tools for IT project management
- How to use the Critical Path Method in your project tracking
- Databases and their usefulness to project supervisors
- The 3 best ways to get your struggling project back up to speed
- Monitoring simultaneous projects with greater ease and efficiency
- How to know if your tracking is off track
- Expenditures: Watching where the money goes
- 5 elements to consider in your tracking data
- When and how to make the best use of milestones
- Schedule slippage: How to stop the slide
- 7 ways to improve project team accountability
Project reports … when and what others need to know about your progress+
- Considering the critical audiences interested in your IT project
- How to translate and make your findings useful to those outside the IT sphere
- Establishing strong reporting procedures among your team members
- Matching the report form to the project at hand
- How to keep senior management informed when issues and problems arise
- Delivering the results in a meaningful way
- How to manage those outside demands for changes in project objectives, outcomes, specs and deliverables
- The write stuff … how to make your project reports more readable
- How to overcome the biggest drawbacks to project report meetings
Stuff happens … you’d better have contingency plans+
- Building a bulletproof back-up plan for any IT project
- How to hold on to your support, even when the project’s changing
- Why micro-management is not the way to save your project
- Modeling your way toward stronger solutions
- 7 common triggers for back-up plan activation
- Don’t change a thing … without measuring projected outcomes
- When to scale back a faltering project to cut your costs
- Considering the consultant’s or outside vendor’s role as a project-rescue resource
- Pitfalls to avoid with new technology or new methodology and cost estimates
- Change management—one key to your success
- Two risk types to consider in your contingency plans
- 6 steps to better risk management
- Special leadership responsibilities and rescue plans
How to manage the completion and close of your IT project+
- Setting project controls as completion nears and pressure grows
- Accurately measuring your project’s outcome
- 3 ways to know—beyond doubt—that your IT project has succeeded in its mission
- Capturing full value: Using this project’s lessons to make your next project even better
- When a project fails—the importance of finding out why
- How to figure your project’s legitimate ROI
- 15 “to-do’s” to make sure your project is fully completed
- How to structure post-project reviews for maximum benefit
- Final report: What should go in yours
- 20 questions to ask about your own project management performance
- Closure—and the need to mark the end for team members
- A guide to Internet and other project management resources
