What is IT project management?

IT project management is guided by the IT PMO and IT project managers. These managers take the responsibilities of conceptualising, organising, budgeting, assigning and carrying out tasks designed to help accomplish their company’s specific IT goals. Within this mandate are a number of key responsibilities. These include the following:

Before any of the associated tasks or deliverables can be addressed, the IT PMO or project manager must first create a strategy for the project, including budget, scope, tools, resources and timeline.

IT project managers don’t work in a vacuum; they rely on IT teams to ensure successful project completion. The IT project manager will need to assemble the right specialists, subject matter experts, and auxiliary personnel capable of meeting the needs of the IT initiative.

It is the responsibility of the IT project manager to assign tasks to team members, provide clear direction related to scope and objectives, work with team members to establish realistic schedules and deadlines, and help facilitate collaboration between internal and external team members where necessary.

While the IT project manager will likely not be the one delivering on specific tasks within the project, it is their responsibility to ensure that the tasks are being completed effectively. This includes identifying and eliminating obstructions, analysing risk, mitigating issues, collecting reports, providing training and more.

IT project managers need to set clear, realistic budgets for their projects. This includes creating informed estimates about expenses and adjusting plans when needed to ensure budgetary adherence.

Managing multiple team members with various objectives, IT project managers are responsible for setting and communicating schedules and managing timelines throughout the life of the project.

Although the project manager takes the majority of the responsibility in leading the project, they are likely not the only ones invested in the project. IT project managers must also act as the liaison between their teams and other leaders, decision makers, sponsors and stakeholders. The project manager is responsible for sending out status reports to show progress and call out issues.

Documenting the progress of the project, as well as identifying any unexpected issues and other lessons learnt can help ensure that future projects have a greater likelihood of achieving their objectives. IT project managers should keep a detailed record of any hurdles, challenges, shortcuts or other insights they have gained throughout the project.

Incorporating the goals and other details identified in the previous phase, the planning stage is where the IT project manager creates a roadmap for their teams to follow through the course of the project. The planning stage involves identifying objectives, establishing deliverables, assigning responsibilities and tasks, creating a project outline, determining important success metrics, scheduling progress reports, establishing communication channels and criteria, choosing methodologies and ensuring team access to necessary resources and tools.

The execution phase is likely the longest-duration stage, and is where the majority of the work on the project occurs. The execution stage begins with a kick-off meeting with all team members and relevant stakeholders. The meeting should introduce individuals, roles, responsibilities, scope and the overall project plan. It should also establish how communication and reporting will be handled, which tools will be used and what immediate next steps need to occur to get everything started.

Although separate from the previous stage, monitoring actually occurs concurrently with execution, allowing the IT project manager to constantly review and assess project direction. When issues arise or problems become apparent, ongoing monitoring allows project managers to make course corrections to keep the project on track in terms of scope, budgets, deadlines or objectives. This phase may include managing resources, identifying and mitigating risks, updating budgets and schedules, modifying plans, holding meetings, collecting reports and more. At the conclusion of this and the execution stage, all project deliverables should be complete.

Once the project has been completed and deliverables are in the hands of the customer or client, then the final steps are to review the overall success of the project, and planning to improve similar projects in the future. This includes identifying and discussing learnt insights, taking inventory of deliverables, organising documents and making them accessible, relaying project success to relevant stakeholders and recognising the contributions of team members.

IT project management is not a single, simple solution to IT success; it’s a range of different strategies designed to meet the specific organisational and departmental objectives. The following are tips and best practices for IT project management:

Before taking any other official steps, assess the project to determine whether it’s goals are in line with organisational goals and strategy. Likewise, weigh the potential benefits against possible risk, and determine whether the project is an effective use of available resources.

IT projects demand detailed documentation. Before executing on the project, determine what documents you need, and create a central location where these electronic documents can be stored and accessed by authorised stakeholders and team members.

When team members work in isolation, projects quickly lose direction. Err on the side of caution and establish daily meetings to help keep everyone on course and fully coordinated. Over communicating may be the single most effective approach to identifying and resolving project blockers before they can cause damage.

A Gantt chart is a widely used tool for establishing tasks, responsibilities and deadlines along the project path. Using a Gantt chart can help provide team members and stakeholders with a clear overview of the current status of the project, and exactly what needs to happen to continue to move the project forwards within established timelines.

Modern digital workflows are capable of incorporating advanced automation technologies to ensure that the right steps are being followed and that projects aren’t being slowed down by manual processes. Automated workflows can drastically streamline and simplify tasks, such as filling out forms, requesting approvals, taking actions etc.

Effective IT project management tools and software will make it easier to communicate directly with relevant team members, monitor project progress in real time and access relevant documents and other resources in a single location.

At the conclusion of the project, take the time to review what aspects were effective, what challenges were encountered, what unexpected occurrences or variables may need to be planned for in the future, and any additional insights that may impact how the team approaches similar projects in the future.